General Tso's BBQ, Red Boat Fish Sauce, and San Francisco Brethren

I was in San Francisco for the AGU meeting the first week of December and had the good fortune to meet a number of Brethren at Phat Matt's. It was a nice time. I took a few pictures, but I had my cheapo back-up camera that doesn't work so well in low light. As it turned out, Ron_L also was in town, so it was really special. Some of these people need no introduction, as you recognize them from their avatar, like Landarc:



Martyleach and R2Egg2Q



Smokejumper,



and Ron_L



For some reason, I took these pictures when we got our food



and I waited for SirPorkaLot to get his food to take a picture, but by the time it showed up, I completely forgot :icon_blush:. I know there were others taking pics there, so I hope someone with a decent camera can fill in the details. What happened the next day is that Bob, Rob and I went to Mission Chinese. There were a number of great dishes, but what I really enjoyed was General Tso's veal breast. For anyone who has eaten Chinese food, you know that one of the most typical dishes to be found now is General Tso's chicken, which is usually a sweet-spicy dish (although I have had it twice in which it was sweet-sour). I think it has replaced completely the sweet-and-sour pork abomination that was probably the most popular American-Chinese dish. I say abomination because in America this dish never has a sour component at all, making it very one-dimensional (although great for kids and a guilty pleasure). Surprisingly, it is quite a different dish if ordered in Europe, where it is actually sweet-and-sour (a thinner, darker, non-fluorescing sauce is used) and the pork is a roast, rather than the fried pieces of pork that you typically find in America -- at least that is my experience. I was told this was probably the most popular "Chinese" dish in Europe, but it was quite different from our version having the same name. In any case, the veal breast at Mission Chinese was a nice variation and I especially liked the crispy outer coating. My thought was that when I got home I would give it a shot with burnt ends, which is what I did last weekend.

I began by seasoning up a couple of pork butts and a chuckie and doing an overnighter. I've wanted to do that for a while anyway.



Next morning, I took off the chuckie (you can forget about the pork for now) and chopped it up to make some faux burnt ends.



I then made a hot-sour sauce that is General-Tso-like:



In short, I mixed the following:

1/4 cup water
1 T soy sauce
1 T Apple cider vinegar (this was homemade, last year's batch and really good)
1 t Hoisin sauce
1 t Sriracha
1 t sesame oil (dark, although it probably doesn't matter)
1 T brown sugar
1 t cornstarch
1 T Red Boat Fish Sauce (thank you Smokejumper)
1 T ground ginger

I made a double batch, as I would need the other half later for a topping. Also, if you are making this, make sure you dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water first, before adding everything else, mix everything up and heat on the stove to thicken. There are lots of variations possible on the ingredients. What is critical is balancing the sweet and the sour. I especially want to put a plug in for the Red Boat Fish Sauce. This normally is not used in this dish, but I find it a great brightening agent.

Since I was doing a bit of experimentation, I mixed one of these batches with a healthy dose of Sweet Baby Rays and doused those cubes that I cut up. I put these on at 300* and made faux burnt ends. When these were finished, I plated them with some broccoli, added some Thai peppers and sesame seeds and the other half of the sauce.



I found General Tso's Burnt Ends to be much better than the chicken he's more famous for.

Later, I tried something a bit different. I again made up some sauce (same recipe as before, but I added some chili paste to the mix.



The sauce had a bit more body to it, but the balance was still very good (I adjust the Sriracha accordingly).



I put these together with some sliced green onions, and yellow pepper to make General Tso's Pulled Pork Sammie:



I must admit that the sauce did not work nearly as well on the pulled pork as it did on the beef, but it was still good.

colonel00 said:

No Nachos?!?! :tsk:

Sammie looks good although I am not so sure how exactly you go about eating that thing.

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I just picked it up and ate it for lunch. It was surprisingly easy. It didn't leak out or anything, and not even very messy. Of course, I was pretty hungry and took big bites. :becky:

With regard to the nachos, I actually thought of that, ... and General Tso's cheeseburger. The problem is that it would have been three different tastes: sweet, hot and salty. It is rare to have three competing tastes and I wanted to keep things as authentic as possible. :roll:

It did get me wondering what exactly General Tso might put on his cheeseburger.


For Marty: I did take those peppers off. I know that they only put those on hoping that we eat one by accident, so they can all have a good laugh.

landarc said:

Very nice recap Gore and some great riffs on that great General Tso's Veal Breast dish we had at Mission Chinese. I like the sauce you worked up.

I also feel horrible when I order Sweet and Sour pork, even more so when the waitress gives me a disapproving glance.

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It's one of those things. I see it on the menu and I just have to order it, bringing back all those childhood memories. After a few bites I tell myself, "Never again."

SmokeJumper said:

Thanks for the brilliant flashbacks to the mini-bash and Mission Chinese. I really dig your Chinese inspired cook. I'd hit a whole platter of those Tso's burnt ends any day.

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Glad you liked it Rob. If I spent more than a few minutes, I would've liked to have sauteed some onions or a leek. There are quite a few places you can go with this.

morgaj1 said:

I will definitely be using this recipe soon. I guess that I will have to order some Red Boat, as it is not available locally. I like fish sauce (umami factor), but have not been pleased with what is available around here. BTW, what do you think General Tso might put on Spam? :becky:

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I think the General would be feeding Spam to the prisoners. I don't think you're allowed to do that these days. :tsk:

We use quite a bit of fish sauce, and the Red Boat tastes like no other.
http://redboatfishsauce.com/

bigabyte said:

That General Tso's looks great! A whole lot better than those other guys.:tsk: Have you washed all that left-coast stuff off of you yet?:heh:

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I broke out the turpentine a couple days ago and I think that got rid of the lingering smell.

Moose said:

It's also nice to put a few faces to avatars, as only a few of us, like you and I actually put our real faces on them.

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Not everyone is as handsome as we are. :becky:

Al Czervik said:

Great post Gore! Both your GT Burnt Ends and PP Sammie look like winners. Not sure my system could handle those Thai peppers without a snowcone for the next day :mad2:

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Next day? I guess you'd be sitting on the snowcone then. :becky: