Recipes Pork-and-Kale Soup with Sizzling Puffed Rice Be the first to rate & review! “I love food that makes noise,” says Edward Lee, chef and owner of Louisville, Kentucky’s 610 Magnolia and the Wine Studio. When F&W challenged the Top Chef Season 9 contestant to make a fast dish with pork, kale and white wine, he created a deeply flavorful soup, then added crumbled rice cakes that crackle as they hit the broth. The dish is based on one he likes from a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese spot in Manhattan’s Chinatown. “They make a big deal out of adding the rice, so you can celebrate the sizzling sound,” Lee says. Slideshow: Delicious Pork Soups and Stews By Edward Lee Edward Lee F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurants: 610 Magnolia, MilkWood (Louisville, KY) Experience: Chez es Saada (New York City) What’s a dish that defines you as a chef? My fried chicken and waffles. It’s a Southern dish, but we cook it in a very Asian way. The chicken is poached first in a vinegar and soy sauce blend. Then it’s cooled, dredged in buttermilk and flour and deep-fried. Who taught you how to cook? My grandmother taught me how to appreciate food and that food was more than just sustenance. She made very old-school Korean dishes, fermented chile paste and kimchi from scratch, pickles and marinated vegetables. Even as a toddler, I always wanted to spend time in the kitchen watching her. What was the first dish you ever cooked by yourself? Both my parents worked and were rarely home for dinner, so my grandmother cooked, but only Korean food. I was craving American food, so I’d steal food magazines from the Laundromat and save my lunch money to go food shopping. The first magazine recipe I really remember making was a steak dinner with roasted potatoes and a rosemary rub. I was probably 11 or 12. What’s your favorite cookbook of all time? Marco Pierre White’s White Heat. It was the first cookbook to show the life of a chef outside of the food, and outside of what the public persona of a chef was back then, which was a classic French image of being very precise and a student of the arts. For my book (Smoke and Pickles), I really wanted to show who I am and what I do. I wanted to show everything, the flaws and the perfection. Is there a type of cooking that you wish you were better at? For me there’s a mystery around Jewish cooking. I grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. I’d love to make an incredible knish one day. What’s your favorite value ingredient? A bag of pork rinds. I like to grind them up and use them anywhere you’d use bread crumbs: mac and cheese, shepherd’s pie, inside sandwiches or burgers. What’s your current food obsession? I am working with bhut jolokia peppers, the spiciest in the world. They’re grown in a little town in India, but people in America have started to grow them here. Where did you go on your last trip? I just got back from Vietnam. The street food is so cheap but also so diverse and so incredibly flavorful. I had a fish I’d never seen before, kind of like a lightly pickled herring in thin rice paper, with Thai basil, lettuce, very thin slices of pineapple and freshly grated coconut. The pineapple there is so different, incredibly musky, and the coconut is so fresh and has this sweetness to it. You can’t re-create that here, and that’s one of the reasons you travel. What’s your favorite store-bought ingredient? Red Boat fish sauce, which is really starting to take off. It takes just a few drops and it adds an entire new level of flavor. It’s as simple as adding a few drops to boiled ramen. What’s your dream restaurant project? I want to open a karaoke bar that only serves fried chicken. I have no talent for karaoke, but I do have an affinity for it. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on June 6, 2017 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © Johnny Miller Total Time: 45 mins Yield: 6 to 8 Ingredients 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 small onion, thinly sliced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 cup dry white wine, preferably Pinot Blanc 1 pound kale, stemmed and coarsely chopped 2 quarts chicken stock 3 tablespoons soy sauce 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil 1 sweet potato, peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise with a vegetable peeler 1 1/2 pounds trimmed boneless pork shoulder, cut into thin strips 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 teaspoons sugar 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 2 puffed rice cakes, crumbled Directions Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook over moderate heat until lightly browned, 4 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Simmer until reduced by half, 5 minutes. Add the kale and stock and bring to a boil. Cover partially and simmer over low heat until the kale is almost tender, 10 minutes. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of the soy sauce with the sesame oil and sweet potato. Simmer uncovered until the potato is tender, 10 minutes longer. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, toss the pork with the lemon juice, sugar and the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Let stand for 10 minutes. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet. Add the pork and cook over high heat until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add the pork to the soup. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet until shimmering. Add the crumbled rice cakes and cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls, spoon the sizzling rice on top and serve right away. Suggested Pairing Aromatic, full-bodied Alsace white, such as a Pinot Blanc. Rate it Print