lunars hors d'oeuvre (part two)

Our goal was to make 48 Lunars which is the amount required for the foodie contest.  At the end, we made over 50 of these lunars for the guests.  We went back and forth on how to present the lunars.  Matt wanted them in little glass plates and I (the cheap one) wanted to be more practical steered him away from it.  Have to say, it took a lot of "let's think about it" and "we'll see" in order to delay his urge in buying the plates.  Doesn't make sense to pay $50 worth of little plate and not know what to do with it at the end.  We placed the lunars in bamboo steamers!  This was Matt's idea and I loved it.  Perfect way to steam the lunars and serve them at the same time!  Anyhow, prepping and assembling the hors d'oeuvre took a long time.  In fact, it took up majority of the time.  Both Matt and I didn't have a break since 9 am until 10 pm -- that was when we sat down for the very first time and relaxed how exhausted we were.  Transporting them in the car was the fun part.  Everything was fine but I think I swing one of the bag and the lunars were a bit shifted to a side.  I gently moved them back in place once we got there.

      And... we won 3rd place people choice award!  Although we didn't get any prizes, hearing the compliments about our lunar made us very proud and happy!  Matt already have a dish in mind for 2012 holiday foodie contest!  And I think I'll make deserts.. I already have something in mind too!



lunars hor d'oeuvres (part one)

:: Pork Belly ::

Purchased the meat at Buds Meat. 

Brine for 12 hours. Slow roasted the 5lbs pork belly in the oven at 250 degrees for 3 hours and at 275 degrees at 1 hour. 
Olive oil.  Salt.  Pepper. Balsamic vinegar.

:: Dough ::

Flours. Salt. Sugar. Milk Powder. Yeast. Water. 

Let the dough raised over night at room temperature.  

:: Cookie Cutter ::

Our secret for perfectly rounded buns. 

:: Buns Assembly Line ::

Baking sheet light oil. Plastic wrap to retain moister so dough won't dry out.

 :: Sake Infused Green Onion ::

Finely cut green onions soaked in Sake for an hour.

:: Cilantro ::

Picking the prefect leaf. 

:: Mangoes ::

Half a dozen of mangoes cut into little squares.  Some were sweet and others were not that great. 

:: Cubes of Mangoes ::

Labor of love.  This was our contestants for the holiday foodie contest party that took place on Saturday night.  The guests had a choice of either making hor d'oeuvres (total of 48) or desserts (total of 24).  Creative is endless and Matt and I had a ton of fun doing this.  Although were we sick of eating pork belly during our first trial...

   There were a lot of prepping to do and it took up about 80% of the time.  Matt brine the pork belly overnight and we made the dough.. actually, he finished making the dough because I gave up on it.  The flour shifter didn't shift the flour well so the dough wasn't coming out as smooth as the first trial.  My virgoness kick in and I wanted to start over the next day which is the day of the holiday party.  Matt was determine and assured me that it was a good dough.  And he was right!  The next morning, he placed the pork belly in the oven for 4 hours, slowly roasting it. I started rolling out the dough, very thinly and used a cookie cutter to cut the dough out.  That way, the hor d'oeuvres will have the same shape with even consistency.  While chopping up the green onions, Matt had a great idea of soaking it with Sake.  It gave the green onions a little punch and tasted yummy, too! We purchased a bunch of cilantro and started going through it for the right leaf - not to small or overly big.  The mangoes was a lot of work.  Took me about 30 minutes to cut it up.  We purchased 6 mangoes but really only need about 2.


...To be continued...
:: Part Two - Assembling the Lunars and how we got the name ::