Chik's Crib

23 February 2025

Charcoal Series: Pulled Pork Recipe

Smoking February 23, 2025 0

Smoke ring (pink) along the circumference of the meat

My desire to buy a Weber Barbecue Grill was met with general befuddlement. There was some skepticism that I would use it. My dad told me that it's tedious to cook with charcoals and to clean up (he was not wrong). My mom said that charcoal-grilled food wasn’t healthy and that'll probably put me off using it (she was not wrong). My wife pointed out that every time that I was invited to a barbecue, I complained my way through the entire ordeal, from the heat of the outdoors, to the fumes of the burning charcoal to the waiting-about until the food was ready (she was not wrong).

But yet, I’ve decided to try anyway.

I’d been dreaming of low slow roasts. I want huge cuts of meat smoking over a fire. Succulent beef ribs and porchetta dribbling fats down over hot charcoal. I wanted fork-tender pork shoulders and roasted chestnuts over a fire during Christmas. Call me a romantic, but I wanted to live a little.

Under the 'plus' column for this sort of grilling, there’s no need to stand under the hot sun or over the burning charcoals for prolonged periods of time. In fact, there’s very little you need to do. American-style BBQ is a leisurely, hands-off type of cooking. For this recipe, I started up the grill in the morning and then went out for lunch. I returned at the four-hour mark to check on the meat, then left for a run while the meat continued cooking until about the eight-hour mark. I kept an eye on the thermometer and occasionally adjusted the air vents, but all in all, I probably spent only a few minutes standing over the grill over the entirety of the cook. I loved it. This sort of cooking is the perfect excuse to lounge around the house all day, with a cold drink in-hand, where you can read a book or to catch up on a drama.

For long hours of smoking, the Snake Method is the best way (demonstrated here by American Test Kitchen). Charcoal briquettes are lined up in a 2x2 formation along the perimeter of the grill, and one end is lit with 10 pieces of hot charcoal. In a snake made of 112 briquettes (56 briquettes at the top row and 56 at the bottom row), the briquettes slowly burn through over 7-8 hours at about 275F, and you shouldn’t need to have to mess around with charcoal anymore for the entire duration of the cook. It’s pretty ingenious.

I also enjoyed watching videos from Mad Scientist BBQ and The Dawgfatha's BBQ; the videos were full of information on basic charcoal setups and troubleshooting during smoking. You'll likewise be good to go after a few videos' worth of instructions (pick any one, they're all pretty good.)

It can be daunting to first get started. It’s a new way to cook, where heat isn’t available on demand with a flick of a switch. You’ll need specialised equipment: aside from a Weber grill, I also bought a chimney starter, a large roll of butcher paper, an ice box for resting meat (a cheap one without wheels would do. After a few cookouts, there would be a residual meat/smoke scent, and you won't be using it for other uses), disposable aluminum trays (to use as drip trays), tens of kilos of charcoal briquettes (do not use other types of charcoal for low and slow barbecue!) and a large bag of hickory wood chunks (for that lovely, lovely smoke). I also think a remote thermometer (mine came with 4 probes) is essential - it’s $40 that you spend to save $4000 in meats that you would have otherwise ruined over the course of the thermometer’s lifespan.

From here, the sky's the limit.

Smoked Pulled Pork
New to the BBQ game? Pork shoulder is a nice inexpensive cut to get start with.

Instructions from Seared, the Ultimate Guide to Barbecuing Meat by Genevieve Taylor

Rub from The Chunky Chef

INGREDIENTS
3kg Pork Shoulder

55g (1/4 cup) light brown sugar

2 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper (if available)

STEPS

1. Combine the dry rub in a small bowl, and then rub it over the pork shoulder. Place the pork shoulder on a rack over a baking tray, then refrigerate uncovered for 24-48 hours.

Smoking:

2. Set up the burning charcoal: Place 10 charcoal briquettes in a chimney starter, and using a fire starter, light up the charcoal briquettes. They'll start to burn and ash over in about 20 minutes.

3. Set up the Snake: Set up your grill by laying down charcoal briquettes counter-clockwise in a 2x2x28 formation (as shown in the photo above). You want 56 briquettes on the bottom row, and 56 again on the top row. Lay 3-4 wood chunks on top of the briquettes, where over the course of cooking, they'll burn and infuse your meat with smoke.

4. When the 10 burning briquettes are ready (ashed over), pour them out over the rightward end of the Snake (from where you first started building the Snake counter-clockwise). From here, the fire will slowly spread and burn through the rows of briquettes over the next 7-8 hours. Keep both the air vents at the top and bottom of the grill open all the way.

5. Place a disposable aluminum tray in the middle of the charcoal, and add about 1.5L of boiling water into the tray. This steam helps the meat cook gently, and the tray serves to catch the drippings from the pork shoulder. The drippings form a smoke-infused gravy by the end, to be poured over the pork. So handle the tray with a soot-free pair of hands.

6. Place the metal grill over the charcoal, and put the meat (fat side up) over the tray of water. Insert a meat thermometer probe into the thickest part of the meat, if using. Place another meat thermometer probe on the grill surface next to the meat to measure the grill temperature. Shut the lid (positioning the top air vent on the opposite side of the burning charcoals to ensure the smoke flows over the meat as it exits the air vent), and walk away. Resist the urge to open the lid for the next 4-5 hours, until the pork reaches 160-165 F (70-75 C).* The temperature to aim for it around 260-280 F (130-140C), though sometimes it take a couple hours to reach there, especially right after I had put a huge hunk of meat from the fridge into the grill. Do not fret! Depending on the ambient temperature and the amount of the meat you're cooking, you may have to adjust the air vents a little to keep the temperature around that range. After each adjustment in the air vents, allow 15-30 minutes leeway for the grill temperature to reflect your adjustments before making further adjustments.

7. At the 160-165 F (70-75 C) mark, remove the pork, and carefully remove the tray of drippings. Wrap the pork tightly in butcher paper (or aluminium foil), and reinsert the thermometer probe (if using) by sticking it through the butcher paper into the meat. Return the pork to the grill and cook until the internal temperature reaches 203F / 95C, about another 3-4 hours away. Given the Snake would have burnt about midway, you would need to rotate the lid position to ensure the lid's air vents remain opposite of the burning charcoals).

8. Once the internal temperature of the pork reached 203F / 95C, remove the pork from the grill and let it rest in an ice box for an hour. If the gravy drippings in the aluminium foil is too watery, you can transfer to a saucepan and cook over the stove until it comes to a desired consistency, and keep it warm until ready to serve.

9. When ready to serve, use two forks to pull the pork apart. Mix the shredded pork into the warm gravy. Bask in the glory of your first successful smoke.

*Around the meat's temperature range of 150-170F, you may run into a phenomenon known as the 'stall': it's when the meat is cooking water off, and this water loss is cooling the meat down. It's nothing to freak out apart. When you see the thermometer probe in your meat stall around this range or perhaps even reduce in temperature, check the thermometer probe sitting on the grill. If the grill temperature is falling together with the meat temperature, you need to check on your charcoal: it's likely no longer burning and you need fresh charcoal. But if the grill temperature is still around 260-280F, then it's reassuring - the fall in temperature on the meat probe is just the stall.

14 February 2025

Pull-Apart Garlic Bread Knots Recipe

Recipe February 14, 2025 0

I like watching videos of other people embarking on ambitious projects, but it isn’t always the energy that I can spare for my hobbies. Once in a blue moon, I get inspired to create a 4-part chocolate entremet to serve after dinner, but more often, I want something that is effortlessly doable. Life isn’t an ASMR video, and we have lives - and daily tasks! - to compete for our attention.

I stepped away from baking for a year or so, and baking’s one of those activities where the longer you stay away from, the more ennui there is to resume. This recipe contained the magic words that pulled me out of my baking funk: you can use store-bought pizza dough. And it looked pretty fun.

If any store-bought dough is okay, then an easy focaccia recipe, one that I've done several times, should be fine too. And with the promise of making something familiar, it was easier to get started again. Where is my baking equipment? (Check the bottom of the cabinets). Are my flour still okay? (They aren’t. But beneath the two half-opened bags of flour that is now developing weevils and should have been tossed back in 2023, there’s a new unopened bag). We changed ovens a few months ago; why are there so many buttons on this new gizmo and where’s the bake function? (I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.)

At the time when most sane people were turning into bed, I cleaned out my cupboards. I threw away the two bags of opened flour, alongside a half-opened pack of instant yeast that had also turned bad. I found a new pack of instant yeast (new being a relative term given it was still past the Use By Date by a couple of months, but the yeast bubbled merrily when added to tepid water and a tablespoon of sugar.) How fortunate. How lucky.

I mixed the flour, yeast, salt and water together, and left them to proof overnight. The next day was the fun part: cutting up the dough and tying them into knots, then baking them off in a mixture of melted butter, minced garlic and Parmesan cheese.

It was easy as promise, and delicious. It is garlic bread, baked in a fun way. You don’t need exact proportions for this recipe. There’s no way to ruin Parmesan cheese, garlic and melted butter.

Pull-Apart Garlic Bread Knots
Original Recipe by J. Kenji López-Alt

INGREDIENTS

1-2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
Olive oil, enough to drizzle over the circumference of a skillet about 5-6 times, plus more for finishing
1 head of garlic, minced
A large pinch of salt
Chopped parsley, plus more for garnish
1 focaccia dough recipe, proofed overnight. Alternatively, any store-bought pizza dough would do (roughly about 450g)
Parmesan cheese (grated), plus more for garnish

STEPS

Garlic-Butter Recipe

1. In a 10.25” cast iron skillet set over low heat, combine butter and olive oil until the butter has melted. (You can also use a saucepan or a regular skillet, but I choose a cast iron, since I want to use it later to bake the bread.)

2. Add the minced garlic and salt, and then remove the saucepan from heat. Stir to combine, letting the minced garlic cook in the mixture for about 1-2 minutes until golden, then pour out the butter-garlic mixture from the skillet to a small bowl to prevent burning. Set aside. Add the chopped parsley if using.

Focaccia Dough Recipe

3. Turn out the proofed dough onto an oiled surface, and lightly oil the surface of the dough. Divide the dough into halves, then halve each portion twice more, then again into thirds, until you have about 24 pieces.

4. Stretch out each small piece of dough into a rope, and then tie a simple knot. Use a bit more olive oil to oil the dough if needed to help with the knot-tying. Toss each piece of dough knot into the cooled butter mixture.

5. Return the dough and butter mixture to the cast-iron skillet (or to a cake pan if that's what you're using.) Stir the mixture around to thoroughly coat each dough knot with the butter/oil, then cover and let the dough rise further in the skillet until about roughly doubled in size, about 2 hours at room temperature.

6. Preheat the oven to 220C. Top the bread generously with grated parmesan, and then bake for about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Drizzle the bread with more olive oil, and top with more grated parmesan and parsley (to taste). Let cool slightly then serve.

24 December 2024

Yogyakarta - A Holiday with Sun-Phobic Friends

Yogyakarta December 24, 2024 0

Sun rise, Mt Merapi

Does a holiday include waking up at 3am every day?

Well it does when you're in Yogyakarta. By a quirk, dawn starts at 5 in the morning and night falls by 5 in the evening. To catch the sunrises, we set off at 4 o'clock every morning. The outdoor sites are most beautiful at sunrise, but more importantly, in Southeast Asia, the weather warms up rapidly after sunrise. Yogyakarta after 8am becomes oppressively, intolerably hot. When all is said and done, your day has to start early for the sights to be enjoyable.

We did so at Mount Merapi and were rewarded with some of the best sights that Yogyakarta has to offer. Under the cover of complete darkness, we reached our destination and took a jeep through the woods to the base of the volcano. The early morning air was frigid; and, as the first light of the day lit up the distant horizon, it felt like an adventure.

In a moving car, my phone picture looks like a low-res image from a video game. I assured you, it's real life!

The scent of sulfur wasn’t prominent, but we could definitely smell ash. And what I initially thought to be clouds gathering near its peak was actually smoke rising from the volcano.

Mt Merapi is an active volcano: its last eruption was just a couple of months ago! We toured the bat-filled bunker at the foot of the mountain, the last-line shelter for adventurers for a volcanic eruption. It didn’t always work: the last time it was used, the doors were closed too late and the noxious gas had already seeped into the chambers and eventually killed the hikers inside.

The remnants of the old village from the last eruption is now a museum commemorating the dead, alongside displays of melted glassware and clocks and the skeletons of farm animals.

We visited Prambanan Temple in sunset. Though the last entrance is at 5pm, it appears that people are allowed to stay inside until the sun has set. It's a collection of Hindu temples from the 9th-century. Most of the buildings have fallen due to earthquakes, Mt Merapi eruptions and neglect, but reconstruction efforts have restored some of the structures that we now see.

On another morning, we headed northwest this time, up to Punthuk Setumbu and to the nearby Boroburdur Temple. Punthuk Setumbu’s a scenic outlook for sunrise over the mountain ranges. With our usual early morning start, it involved a 10-15 minutes climb in the dead of night up some really steep steps. But it’s actually much easier to climb up the steps before the sun is out, because it wasn't hot or crowded.

We were done with the sun rise by 6am, and Borobudur Temple only opens at 830am. We had some time to explore what is colloquially known as “that chicken church” (it was meant to resemble a dove). It’s not actually a church either, but at that point, you just gotta go with the flow. The building’s a bit campy, but if you climb all the way up to the crown of the dove, the view is pretty solid.

Finally, we arrived at Borobudur Temple. With its bell-shaped monuments, this Buddhist temple is perhaps the most recognisable image of Yogyakarta. It’s the only attraction that you cannot just walk in to. It's by appointment only, and you first need to buy tickets with fixed time slots online before coming.

I was looking forward to Bukit Panguk Kediwung, but it was cloudy on the day that we went (d'oh!). The view was meant to show the sun above the horizon with layers of clouds beneath you. The morning that we went just wasn’t the right day for it: the early morning fog was so dense, we could barely see the road even as we drove up the mountain. We stayed for a bit (the fog-filled background made portrait shots quite lovely), but eventually we cut our losses and went to Timang Beach at the recommendations of our driver.

We swopped our Toyota for an ATV in a nearby village, and drove through the unpaved roads. There were open skies, small plots of rice padi fields, and a winding path through trees. And then, the ocean.

This beach is a secluded area that was previously only known to the village fishermen for lobster-catching, though eventually it had been developed by the local lobster restaurant as a tourist site. There is a man-powered gondola to bring visitors across the waters to the large rock, which is quite an experience.

Because we were already in the area, we headed off to Seribu Batu Songgo Langit. There’s a rather steep climb to the windmill overlooking the fields. And then a quick stroll through Becici Peak.

Yogyakarta is a university town. If there's one thing university students know, it's their coffee. Coffee culture here is perhaps the most developed that I’ve seen, and we learnt after the fact that Yogyakarta is a pioneer of coffee slow bars. I would come back for their coffee roasteries.

Walking into Hayati Coffee Roster is a singular experience. There are a couple of dozens different lines of coffee beans, and after a few quick questions on the tasting profiles that we were after, I was directed to a few choices. I tried them all, and what’dya know; I really liked everything the barista recommended.

We were also invited to a coffee tasting that another barista was doing over by the countertop. He brewed coffee with three different techniques. The first, their standard recipe. The second: the grounds were bloomed with water at 50-60C then completed at 92C. The third was brewed like the first, but the coffee dripped out over a frozen steel ball (a la "extract chilling", a concept popularised by Australian Barista Champion Hugh Kelly to cool down and capture the aromatic volatile compounds that would otherwise evaporate away.) The third method imparted the most sweetness in the brew, though for the uninitiated like myself, I would have trouble telling the difference had I not been tasting them side by side.

We love it here. I bought over four kilos of beans for my own home espresso set-up, while my friend got seven kilos. After we cleared up some of the questions they had (No, we're not in the import/export business. My friend's family are huge coffee drinkers, and me? Well I guess I'm just a hoarder), the barista passed us samples of other beans to sample at home, and recommended us to check out Space Coffee Roaster in the area. And so we did.

There’s an emphasis on filter coffee here, and what we thought to be a merchandise table turned out to be a sampling table. When I went to the counter to purchase a cup of coffee, the barista asked me if I’ve tried their beans before. When I replied no, he directed me to the sampling table to try their beans first, so I know that I’ll be buying a drink that I enjoy. I think the world paused for a second while I picked my jaw off the ground.

We headed over to the sampling table, where a second barista was ready to explain their beans and flavour notes. One in particular was sweet, with prominent notes of apples, while another tasted floral. It blurred the lines between coffee and tea. Would it surprise anyone to learn that we also left this roastery clutching bags of beans? I couldn’t resist the apple-flavoured beans, while my friend located a line of coffee that comprises of the elusive Typica beans.

Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee, is also produced in the area, which you can pay a visit to one of the roasteries in the area if you're interested. We went to one at the urging of our driver, and one of my friend bought a cup.

It's a controversial product: so controversial, that harvesting the coffee beans from the civet cats' faeces for roasting and brewing is the least objectionable part of it. Civet cats graze on coffee beans as part of their diet, and passes the beans out in their stools. The partial fermentation through the digestive tracts, alongside the other components of their natural diet, allegedly improves the tasting notes of the coffee beans. As the demand for kopi luwak becomes larger, making it one of the most expensive beans on the market, the once-wild civet cats are caught, kept in small cages and force-fed coffee beans to increase production. It's not hyperbole, the farm that we were brought to displayed two civet cats in their tiny cages as proof of authenticity of their products.

Was the cup of coffee nice? Yes, the sip that I had was smooth. But there are so, so many good cups of coffee being produced without animal cruelty. It's not an industry that we would recommend supporting.

On a much more tasteful note, we had the most comfortable and wondrous stay at Hotel Tentrem. We didn’t stay in their presidential suite like Obama did, but their services and the facilities were faultless. The gym bathrooms have a huge heated jacuzzi and a chilled jacuzzi.

Because we’re usually out of the hotel by 4 every morning, we missed out on the hotel breakfast. But the front counter had - wait for it - packed hot breakfasts for us to bring along as we left the hotel in the mornings. They're simply incredible.

We also had a wonderful version of Rawon in our hotel lounge. It's a hearty bowl of beef stew flavoured with the buah keluak nut. The nut carries a flavour profile that can be a little polarising, but I thoroughly enjoyed it while in Malacca. Wherever you find a bowl, I would also recommend trying.

We found a few outstanding restaurant gems. We had a terrific lunch at Warung Bu Ageng, a no-frill restaurant. The portions were small, and that meant that we could sample many dishes. The meal was overall inexpensive. Their version of Pecel, vegetables with peanut sauce, was the best that I’ve had. They were crisp and addictive. Lele Njingkrung (fried whole smoked catfish) looked a little intimidating, but it was flavourful and the bones were edible. The head was particularly crunchy. The marinated stews - Lidah Masak Semur (beef tongue stew) and Bacem Kambing (Marinated lamb stew) - were wonderfully seasoned and quite tender, as was the Eyem Penggeng (roast chicken).

When you're done with the meal here, head on down the street to the House of Chocolate Monggo & Gelato for their incredibly rich iced chocolate.

Another winner was Sate Klatak Joss, where our driver recommended for us to go after our trip to Prambanan Temple. We had our best meal here.

It's another no-frill restaurant, and you know their main clientele are locals when our driver had to do our ordering for us, because they couldn’t make heads or tails of our English or our rudimentary Bahasa. I walked around the restaurant for a bit, enamoured by the rustic charm of the restaurant, and the kitchen staff waved me in for a closer look as they were preparing food. They specialises in goat dishes, and for those who are wary of goat, our food was perfectly cured and seasoned, and were not gamey in the least.

Tongsheng (left) and a sharing portion of Tengkleng (right)

Tongsheng is a small dish of goat stew, and their version was intensely rich and flavourful. Served plainly onto a small shallow white plate, it didn’t look like much, but trust me, it was one of the best stew that I’ve tasted. A stew doesn’t get any more spectacular than this.

Sate Klatak was small hunks of tender goat meat skewered on a metal stick and grilled over charcoal, which we eat by dipping the meat into a light gravy - it’s a little like lontong curry, tasting slightly sweet, and minimally spicy. The singed meat, paired with the sauce, was another highlight of the meal. The dishes were spectacular from first bite to the last. We didn’t talk much during the dinner, because we learnt in our childhood not to talk with our mouths full. And with food that good, I was trying to keep my mouth full at all times.

Taman Sari

So how did I feel about our Yogyakarta trip? Would I really recommend waking up at 3am? That's a big ask. On our last day, our flight was at 9am and waking up at 6am felt like a luxury. But I also have no words for how hot the day gets around these parts. I can't explain why 8am in Yogyakarta feels like noontime elsewhere. The sun was already ungodly hot by the time Borobodur Temple opened up at 830am. We explored the grounds until just over 10am, and we were done for the day. I couldn’t imagine coming by any later; it simply weren't be enjoyable. And as we were walking around Prambanan Temple, my friends remarked that we were just looking around for the “Keluar” sign. The heat made touring the area challenging, and respite only came in the early morning or in dusk. Waking up early is the lesser of two evils.

It took us a while to find a winning formula, to split up the day in the morning and to reconvene after in the evening. We avoided the worst of the midday sun by visiting the local attractions in town: the coffee roasters scattered across towns, Keraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat (the Royal Palace), the Taman Sari and the Vredeburg Museum. The palace itself was plainly built, while the Taman Sari, a bathing complex and royal gardens built to entertain visitors, was more elaborately designed. The attractions can be seen within half a day; though it may be better to space them out across your trip to while some time away until the sun sets, and maybe fit in a different coffee roaster in your schedule every day.

Vredeburg Museum

In a plus point for Yogyakarta over Bali, it is quieter, with a lot less crowd at each attraction. The absence of a crowd of people jostling for photography is pleasant. Traffic is also smooth with little congestion and you can get to where you want to go in decent time. We enjoyed our time here, with a careful mix of indoors and outdoors attraction.