Sweet & Sour Pork Belly Stirfry

Sweet & Sour Pork Belly Stirfry, originally uploaded by AuRoRiN & MoOoK.

i hate deep frying cos that usually meant that i've got a mess to clean up after. so here's an adapted version of the sweet sour pork. not too bad so says the wife.

ingredients:

• rindless pork belly, washed, scalded and cut to thin slices
• chopped garlic
• chopped onion
• frozen mixed veg
• fish sauce/ soy sauce
• ketchup
• oyster sauce
• pepper
• corn flour (usually 1 tbsp is enough, mix with half bowl of cool water)
• chinese cooking wine
• fragrant oil (shallots oil)
• sugar (optional)
• water

recipe:

•  marinate pork belly pieces with fish sauce/ soy sauce, fragrant oil, chinese cooking wine, garlic and pepper. set aside for 30 min
• then quickly stir fry pork at high heat till pork is cooked. set aside pork slices but leave gravy in wok/pan
• stir fry the veg and onion (sweat the onion)
• add 3 part ketchup to 1 part oyster sauce, add some water (not too much cos you want a gravy not soup), stir well (add sugar if need be)
• when gravy is to taste, add corn flour solution and stir till gravy thickens
• pour gravy over pork slices and serve

Stirfry Pork Belly Slices with Vegemite

there'd been this jar of vegemite sitting around in the kitchen for a while now (courtesy of eric & snow). might have passed the expiry date but i reckon that it's ok if i'd used it as condiment. had tried deep fried chicken with vegemite sauce before back in sg many moons back. vegemite exudes a fragrant, bittery, saltish taste in that dish so i figured it'd be strong enough for pork too. i've added honey to give a sweet tinge to the dish.


ingredients

• 500 g of pork belly, cut to bite size
• spring onions, 3 stalks, separate stems and leaves
• ginger, 3 cm portion, sliced
• garlic, 4-5 cloves, chopped
• ground black pepper
• dash of 5 spice powder
• 2 tsp salt (moderation)
• 5-6 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• cooking oil
• dark soy sauce (3 tbsp)
• 2 tsp of vegemite (i suppose marmite will do too)
• honey (4-5 tbsp)
• warm water
• chopped chilli (optional)

recipe

• marinate pork belly with cooking wine for >30 min
• drain of liquid (keep for use later) and rub in salt and pepper
• brown garlic, ginger and pork in cooking oil
• add soy sauce, 5 spice powder and stir fry, making sure pork belly is evening coated
• add 1 cup of warm water, stems of spring onion and let simmer for 20-30 min at mid heat. stir occasionally and let it reduce (but not too dry)
• once pork belly skin is sufficiently tender and sauce reduced, add liquid (from marinate), vegimite and honey. stir occasionally so as to not let the honey burn in the pot. let gravy reduce further if need be (low-mid heat at approx 5 min)
• when satisfied with tenderness of pork, stir in spring onion leaves and chilli and serve

东坡肉redux

Had meant to make roast pork belly but was too lazy to go get lime & try out my sis's father-in-law's recipe. besides the slab had too much bones so i decided to remake the 东坡肉 with some changes to the previous recipe.

bigger chunk of pork
longer frying time
more even caramalising
more dark soy sauce
more salt
more wine
more frequent topup of water but essentially same ingredients (1 less chilli) n same cooking time.
& a whole sinful chunk to yourself! muahahahahaha. boil some noodles and vegs & that's lunch!

东坡肉

We're having a couple of friends over for dinner and i'd prepare a menu of stirfry celery+carrot, grilled chicken wings, braised pork belly and stirfry prawns. it's been a while since i'd to cook for >2 adults but it's always fun cos i'd then have an excuse to experiment.

This is not the usual braised pork belly. It's adapted from a recipe for 东坡肉 which is sweet and melts in the mouth. personally i think i shld have just forgo the chilli altogether but i did get the texture right. i'd also added a pinch of salt to make it work for the eggs i'd added for the braising process (cos for some strange reason, ppl tend to associate eggs as part of the braised repertoire). took about 2 hrs to whip this up but i think its well worth it.

ingredients

• 500-600 g pork belly, cut into thick chunks
  
• approx 5 cm thick piece of ginger, sliced
• 5-6 x spring onions (stems only)
  
• 1 x cinnamon stick
• 2 x star anise
• 2 x cloves
• 2 x cardommon pods (break open)
• 2-3 chilli (optional)
• 4-5 hardboiled eggs (optional, cos to be honest they go better in the salty version of braised pork), gently prick the egg whites (like some 9-12 holes/egg, not too deep)
  
• ground pepper
• 1-2 tbsp rock sugar
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 2-4 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2-4 tbsp cooking wine
  
• cooking oil
• warm water

recipe:

• scald cut pork with boiling water and pat dry. make sue belly pieces have fat & skin on them
  
• ready pot with oil heated at medium
• lightly brown the pork, turning occasionally to get an even browning. this helps to seal the pork's flavour before putting it through the braise
  
• once browned, remove from pot and set aside. pork should only be about 60-70% cooked
• pour out excess oil, leaving just some in pot. wait for pot to cool a lil before leaving it on at low heat
• add in the rock sugar, stir and let it melt into a syrup, make sure it does not brown and carbonise
• stir in the pork and make sure they are evenly coated with the syrup. set aside and let cool
• using the same pot, stir fry the ginger, spring onion, spices
• add the remaining ingredients, soy sauce, water and wine to the spices and bring to boil
• stir in the pork pieces and let simmer at low-medium heat
• set aside some space in the pot for the eggs and introduce them into the pot after the pork pieces are uniformly 'stained'
• let pot simmer at low heat for at least 50 minutes. i'd them simmer for 90 minutes and the pork and its skin was definitely very tender by now. make sure to turn the eggs and pork around once in a while to ensure even 'staining'
  
• once u like the texture of the meat, turn off hob and serve.
  

The Mundane Fare

i realised that how mundane things have become on some days.

i stay home pretty much these days and live out some pretty mundane times. on such days, they end up with dinners that look pretty much like this. simple mundane fare to end a simple mundane day. just The Wife and the kiddo at the dinner table with me.

in my younger days, i'd often rile at my mum for cooking the 'same ol same ol' day in day out, and i'd point out eagerly the inspirational glossy pages of recipe books she'd stashed away in the cupboard. hoping that she'd try something different for dinner. on occasions when she did, the evenings were more colourful and certainly everyone else had a few extra lines to say. of cos, it's back to the mundane the following day and takeaways were always helpful in breaking the monotoneity.

over the years, i've grown to understand the mundane that surrounded my mum's life. i'd concluded that a lot of sacrifice had to go into one's life in exchange for the mundane. had my mum not been a housewife, i'd be eating takeaways most of my formative days and be deprived of mundane, yet wholesome meals that i'd been 'so sick of' in my youth. it's definitely another set of mental challenge to stay home and take care of the house (strangely with the both of us at home and caring for just 1 kid, time really flies). i'm still nudging my mum to try out new stuff every now and then though i guess old habits die hard.

hence i'm dedicating this post to dishes that i'd skipped over previously - the un-interesting daily fare that sit on the dining table on most days of the weeks - the blanks that i'd otherwise not address in my blog.

Stirfry Asparagus with Carrots & Mushrooms

ingredients

• 10 asparagus, peeled and chopped
• 1 x large carrot, peeled and cut to strips
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 5-6 large button mushrooms, quartered
• cooking oil
• 1/2 tsp chicken stock powder (optional)
  
• fish sauce (to taste)
• chinese cooking wine (to taste)
  

recipe

• brown garlic lightly and add in the carrots. fry till the oil is slighty orange-y
• add in asparagus and some water. cover and let simmer
• when a sauce is seen in the frying pan/pot. add chicken stock and fish sauce. stirfry and simmer till asparagus is 80% cooked
• add in mushrooms, stirfry with dash of cooking wine
• let simmer till mushroom is cooked (not shrunk, so as to retain a degress of crunchiness) then remove and serve

Stirfry Pork Slices with Onion & Ginger

ingredients

• thinly sliced pork loin
• ginger slices
• 1 onion quartered
• chopped chilli (to taste)
• spring onion (cut to strips for garnish)
• chopped garlic
• dark soy sauce
• pepper
  
• fish sauce/ light soy sauce (to taste)
  
• cooking oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp chinese cooking wine

recipe

• brown garlic, ginger and onions till fragrant
  
• on mid-hi heat, add in pork slices and stirfry quickly (till about 70% cooked)
  
• add dark soy sauce, fish/soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil (you can actually choose to marinate the pork with these prior to cooking)
• when slices are about cooked, add wine, fry quickly, turn to low heat and let simmer for <1min
• add in chilli and spring onion, stir fry quickly and serve (for more spiciness, chilli can be added after the sauces are in)
  

回鍋肉

How many ways can you cook pork belly? When you need to serve it fast and dun wanna spend hours braising or roasting it.....i think this would do just fine.

ingredients:

• 300-400g pork belly
• cooking oil
  
• diced garlic
• 1 x cubed green pepper
• 1 chopped red chilli (optional)
  
• 3 tbsp of sweet dark soy sauce
• 4 tbsp of cooking wine
• sugar to taste
• salt to taste
  
• 2-3 tbsp spicy black bean sauce
  

recipe:

• slice pork belly to 1 finger thickness
  
• scald sliced pork belly pieces with boiling water
• heat up oil and brown garlic, then add pork to wok
• fry till pork is about 80% cooked, set aside (i just moved it to the side of wok)
  
• add 2 tbsp of wine, black bean paste, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt to wok and fry with remaining oil n garlic in wok to form a thick gravy (keep at mid heat)
  
• then stir in the pepper and pork until all pieces are cooked and coated with gravy (that's why it' called 回鍋肉)
  
• add in remaining 2 tbsp of wine and chilli, quickly stir fry to evaporate the alcohol off the last dash of wine (add salt/sugar if required) and serve

the taste shld be sweet & salty. goes well with plain rice and shld make a nice n quick lunch. :)#

Roast Pork Rice

The Wife is a roast pork-roast duck fan, while i'm more of a char-siew-roast duck person.
in fact, it was she who had dug out this recipe from a very notable Uncle Phil's blog and did most of the preparations for this dish (i only chopped the garlic and watched the oven).

My mom had previously used 500g of the slab for braising when she was here 2 weeks back and we thought we'd better consume the other half sitting in the freezer. besides, since my 80 yr old grandma was also here, it'd be too unhealthy to suggest cooking this. we made some adaptations to Uncle Phil's recipe and this serves 2 hungweeee adults.


ingredients:

• 500 g boneless pork loin
• 1/5 cup shaoxing wine (original recipe called for sherry, since we didnt have it we used the shaoxing wine + sugar. i'd also read somewhere that you can use apple juice.)
• 1 tbsp sugar (see above, this was probably the reason why the skin turned out caramalised ie look abit 'chaota' rather than the familiar golden orangey hue)
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1/5 cup light soy sauce
• 5-spice powder (we got those bottled ones from woolies)
  
• salt
• pepper
• 1-2 piece of preserved bean curd (豆腐乳)
  
• 1/4 cup oil
• wasabi/mustard paste
  

recipe

preparation:

• score pork skin at regular interval (dun cut too deep) and rub salt, pepper, 豆腐乳 and five spice powder all over the pork. go easy with the salt if you dun want it to be to salty
  
• mix other ingredients in a bowl/cup. this is the marinate
  
• put the pork into a ziplock bag and pour in the marinate
• marinate overnite in the fridge

roasting:

• preheat oven at 250'C
• rub in oil and salt on skin to ensure crisp crackling skin in the roast
  
• place the pork on a baking dish lined with aluminium foil with skin facing the heating element in the oven
• sprinkle some water into the baking dish
• roast for 45 minutes at 250'C, or until the skin begins to crackle and bubble
• reduce the heat to 180'C and continue to roast for another 45 minutes (you will need to approx increase the roasting time proportionately if you have a bigger slab of meat)
  
• pierce the meat with a skewer. if there should be some juice oozing out but it should not be bloody)
  
• once done, remove from oven but do not cover the pork or the skin will soften
• set aside for at least 10 minute before cutting/serving
• use wasabi/mustard as dip
  

we actually used the leftover gravy and marinated some chicken wings for grilling too. turned out ok if you like 5-spice powder. :)