Cookbook Club – The Immigrant Cookbook

For February’s Cookbook Club, we used The Immigrant Cookbook by Leyla Moushabeck. It was a fun way to try recipes of immigrant chefs from a diversity of countries. To experience our whole trip around the world in a meal, visit my Cookbook Club site. For now – my dish!

Fly’s Head didn’t sound like an appetizing dish (and the recipe didn’t explain the origin of the name), but then I saw the ingredients – pork, chives, fermented black bean, garlic, chilies, mirin – and I was sold.

I massaged a cornstarch slurry, vegetable oil, and salt into ground pork and refrigerated for half an hour.

I browned the pork over high heat for a few minutes until almost cooked through.

I added rice wine, mirin, hon dashi, and soy sauce, and simmered until the liquid reduced by half.

I added chives, garlic, chilies, sesame oil, and fermented black beans, and cooked just until the chives got tender.

I served it over rice, though I ended up having to dump about half the liquid as there was so much of it.

I liked the heavy use of chives, but thought this dish was a bit on the sweet side – it used a whole cup of mirin! I think it could have used a bit more salt to complement the sweetness. Next time I would at least double the amount of fermented black beans, and maybe use another chili or two.