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

Steamed Drunken Chicken Wings with Asparagus & Wolfberries

Steamed Drunken Chicken Wings with Asparagus & Wolfberries, originally uploaded by AuRoRiN & MoOoK.

something quick and easy. result of yet another daily 'invention test'.
fragrance from the wine, ginger, chicken oil and shallot oil is always nice on a cold day.
soup will be a nice blend of veg & chicken taste to it.

ingredients:

• 5-6 chicken wings
• 7-8 stalks of asparagus (skinned, chopped to halves)
• ginger finely shredded
• wolfberries (handful, soaked washed, cleaned)
• fragrant oil (shallots oil)
• pepper
• chinese cooking wine
• salt
• fish sauce/ soy sauce (couple of teaspoon, to taste, optional)

 recipe:

• marinate chicken by rubbing in salt, pepper, fragrant oil (i actually also added just some fish sauce for the 'smell') for about 15-20 min
• put steamer to boil at high heat
• place chopped asparagus at bottom of plate/tray
• add approx enough wine to level of asparagus
• add part of ginger and all of wolfberries to wine
• place wings on top of asparagus, add rest of ginger and wolfberries on top of wings
• steam at high heat for 20 minutes (make sure chicken is fully thawed before steaming. how to know if its cooked? the bones wld have turned white and the bloody parts turned dark)
• drizzle fish sauce/soy sauce (optional) should soup require more 'taste'

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.
  

Those Blardy Prawns

i love seafood. especially crustacean & shellfish.
perhaps it stemmed from a family that limited such indulges to festive/ red letter days (cos they are pricey) & largely cos my dad ain't one of their biggest fans.

i love my prawns whole, ie head & shell. in fact, i tend to ingest them whole too (save for the pointy bits in the head and the tough bits in the tail). i guess that provides some form of calcium intake and may even save some moolah on buying calcium pills.

this is a version that is adapted from the familiar ketchup prawns that most mums would whip up. what's different is that it's a whole lot more prawny, pastey and spicy, just the way i like it. sure to give u a cholesterol kick too but hey once in a while...should be ok lah.

ingredients

• half kg prawns (i used banana prawns...any medium sized proawns will do)
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• garlic (finely chopped)
• ginger (finely chopped. ratio of ginger to garlic = 1:2)
• ground pepper
• ketchup/tomato paste
• chilli sauce (optional)
  
• chopped chilli
• chopped spring onion (as garnish)
  
• 2-3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• sugar (to taste)
• fish sauce/salt (to taste)
• 5 tbsp chinese cooking wine
  

recipe

• trim off legs, eyes and feelers of prawns. when you snip off the front part of the head, you'll cut into the head. that's good cos you'd want the prawnliness to be extracted from those exposed heads
• brown garlic, ginger and reduce tomatotes in same pot at mid heat
  
• add in prawns, stir and let cook till 60% cooked
• add pepper, ketchup/tomato paste, chilli sauce, soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce
• once prawns are alomost cooked, turn heat down and add cooking wine
• close lid and let simmer till prawns are all cooked and gravy is reduced
• add garnish & serve
  

Nutty Banana Cake

The problem with bananas is that they really dun last very long once you get them from the market. so wat to do with ripe bananas other than making milkshakes out of them? make banana cake lor. the real challenge for me is that i can't use the mixer in the night when kiddo is zzzz (that's when i got time to try all these funny stuff. can't risk the kiddo breaking her sleep n The Wife giving me killer looks) and the oven's bit wonky (am suspecting that it doesn't hit the desired temperature very well, hence always have to leave longer than the prescribed time).

tried my 1st banana cake recipe in my earlier post which turned out more dense and moist. in fact it didnt quite bake uniformly so i'd ended up with really crusty outer layer n moisty core. this recipe is better. the cake turned out drier, still dense, uniformly baked and more fragrant (probably cos of the nuts). i adapted this from a recipe found online.....

ingredients

• 2 large bananas, ripe (approx. 400 g)
• 300 g self-raising flour (i didn't have it so i mixed 1 cup plain flour+1 tsp cream of tartar+1/2 tsp bicarb soda. 300g is about 2 times of the mixture)
  
• 150 g soft butter (i used salted)
  
• 150 g soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs (at room temperature)
• 60-80 g nuts (not peanuts though...i had pecan, almond, macadamia. they were lightly salted)
  
• 2 teaspoons fruit juice (original recipe called for lemon, i used apple. i figured that if u want some zest u shld go for citrus juice. i've also read somewhere that u can add fanta orange)
  
• 1-2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil (for keeping the cake moist)

recipe

• soften the butter. best way to do this is to leave the butter out of fridge at room temperature approx an hour or so before use. break up the butter with a fork will help
• preheat oven at 180°C
• grease the loaf tin and line it with greaseproof paper. just make sure it 'sticks' to the tin so that it looks flat on the sides when peeled off for cutting
• mash bananas until mushy
• chop the nuts finely. the original recipe suggested sultanas as an alternative if you have a nut allergy
• mix the butter and brown sugar into a mixing bowl and blend together with a fork. mix the two ingredients thoroughly and at the same time incorporate as much air into the mixture as possible. mixing in a figure '8' manner will help to get air into the cake mix. always mix in this manner
  
• stir in the bananas and chopped nuts/sultanas and mix thoroughly
• add 1 egg and sift in half of the flour and mix thoroughly
  
• add the remaining flour, egg and fruit juice then mix thoroughly
  
• add the olive/vegetable oil and mix thoroughly
• pour the mixture into the loaf tin, level it and bake for 45 minutes
• after 45 mins, test whether its cooked by poking it thrugh with a testing stick. if it comes out clean it's cooked. i actually went on for another 30 minutes, testing every other 5 mins (as i said my oven is wonky)
• when done, take the cake out of the tin and place it on a wire rack. this is crucial as it will stop the cake from sweating and getting damp on the inside
  

the good thing about this is that it didn't need a beater/mixer....so no bawling kiddo n no visibly upset Wife....but i'd to half it and go to bed (it was pretty late after i'm done) so it looked really crumbly (see above) when u cut it warm. but you can see the cross section better in the following picture when i took some out for afternoon snack the following day. :)

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)
  

Steamed Baramundi (Asian Seabass)

not quite my simpler way of serving up 'light' steamed fish but i was craving for something more flavourful....besides the baramundi had been in the freezer for a while (ok its still fresh and edible...i'm still ok after eating it). adapted from a recipe for 西湖醋魚 but fused it with HK style steamed fish. serves 4.

ingredients (a) - fish

• 1 whole medium baramundi (asian seabass)
• 4-5 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 4-5 tbsp stones ginger wine
• sesame seed oil
  
• 2-3 tsp salt
• 4-5 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced. save mushroom stock
  
• sliced chilli
• 2-3 stalks of spring onions (use only the stems, half them and lay out on steamer tray under the fish)
  

ingredients (b) - gravy

• 4 tbsp blended fresh ginger
• 3-4 tsp blended garlic
  
• corn flour (to add to water and used for thickening gravy)
  
• dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
  
• black vinegar (to taste)
  
• sugar / salt (to taste)
  
• chicken/pork oil
• 2-3 stalks of spring onions (greens)

recipe (a) - fish

• gut and clean fish. my steamer isn't big enough for the whole fish to go in so i decided to fillet it and cut it into 4 portions
• lay out spring onion stems onto tray
• marinate fish with ginger wine, chinese cooking wine and salt. set aside for approx 10 min
• lay fish into steaming tray (on top of spring onion), add sliced mushrooms and chilli to tray
• add in some mushroom stock
  
• bring water to boil at high heat and put in fish
• steam fish for 15-20 minutes
• when cooked, remove fish but reduce heat to low (you need to put the fish back in later)
• remove the fillets (w/o the sauce that resulted from steaming) onto a serving plate and put them back into steamer to keep warm

recipe (b) - gravy

• put sauce (with mushroom and spring onion from the steam tray) into a small pot and it'd be the base for gravy
• add blended garlic, chicken stock, chicken oil, dark soy sauce, vinegar, salt/ sugar
• bring to slow boil and add corn flour solution to thicken gravy
• to serve, spread blended ginger and sliced spring onion onto fish and pour gravy over it

if the fish is fresh, it should not have too much of a freshwater fishiness. besides the chicken oil, ginger & vinegar is suppose to work towards flavouring the dish. :)

Hainanese Chicken Rice

when i was little, i'd get a chicken drumstick on my birthday, even when my folks fell on hard times (i remember when i was about 8.....my mom sat me down with a single plate of chicken rice with drumstick in a coffeeshop. she'd to pay $2.50 compared to just $1.50 for a normal serving of chicken rice then. when i asked if she'd want some, she insisted that it's all for me).

years later i'd a brief stint helping out at my uncle's chicken rice stall in jurong west. not that i was cooking/chopping up chicken, i was simply packing up food, sending out/retrieving plates to/from tables and packing lil balloons of chilli sauce. my uncle never talked about how he went about preparing his chicken (cos there was simply too many competitors in the very same market he was operating from) but i got to hear what people like about their chicken rice and got acquainted with the smell throughout the cooking (i think it's an important experiential lesson as the smell changes throughout the preparation process). unfortunately, he had to wind up his business due to a stroke a few years later. it was only many years on, with much prodding did he tell me how 'white' chicken is done (admittedly i was quite disappointed cos i was actually more keen on knowing how he did his bestselling roasted chicken instead).

avery turned 1 today and while she may be too young to have a drumstick all to herself, i'm glad to serve up something familiar (dadi & mami can have the drumsticks!). of cos i do not have with me the big vats you can find in stalls but i do have a medium 'pong-pong' tall steamer which wld have to do for the occasion. i did get the chicken and chilli sauce right in this modified version of his recipe but the rice is somewhat lacking in fragrance. it's easy to do but tedious.....so here goes......serves 4.

(a) chicken

ingredients

• 1 whole medium size chicken (cleaned of all the blood clots under the spine at the back of the chicken...yah u have to use ur fingers to dig them out)
• pieces of ginger
• cloves of garlic
• 2-3 pandan leaves
• salt (to taste)
  
• pepper (to taste)
  
• 2-3 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 2-3 tbsp sesame seed oil
• coriander (as garnish)
• cucumber and tomato slices (optional)
  

recipe

• make cuts into 3-4 pieces of ginger (ginger size abt 5 cm each) / smash them
• break 1 whole garlic into separate cloves and smash them (leave skin on)
  
• split pandan leaves into halves and tie them into a knot
  
• rub salt & pepper on the insides of the chicken (abt 2-3 tbsp salt)
• stuff garlic, ginger and pandan leaves into chicken
• rub outer skin of chicken with sesame seed oil then salt (abt 2-3 tbsp salt)
• set aside for at least half an hour
• prepare steamer and bring water to boil at medium-high heat (do not change the heat during the steaming process)
• before putting chicken into steamer drizzle chinese cooking wine onto & into chicken
  
• when water is boiling, place chicken into steamer
• steam each side of chicken for about 15 minutes (yah u gotta flip the fella over)
  
• to see if it's cooked use a test stick and poke thrugh the thigh area (cos thickest there). if blood water oozes out then let it steam for a few more minutes
  
• once cooked, remove and cut/chopped & serve. else keep warm in steamer while u prepare other stuff
  
• DO NOT DISCARD the oily juice from the container
• serve with chopped coriander, cucumber and tomato slices
  

(b) chicken soup (this is for steaming the rice and also to serve as side)

ingredients

• chicken bones/frames
• chicken fat/skin
• soya beans (half cup approx)
  
• 3-4 pieces of ginger (cut/smashed)
  
• 1 garlic (no need o smash the cloves. keep skin on)
  
• 2-3 pandan leaves (tear into haves and knot)
  
• (to taste) chinese cooking wine
• coriander (as garnish)
  

recipe

• soak soya beans overnight
• boil everything at medium heat
• sieve out the chicken oil and set aside
• keep it at low heat after the leaves turn yellow

(c) rice (serves 4. approx 2.5 cups)

ingredients

• 2 tbsp blended ginger
  
• 4 tbsp blended garlic
• rice
• chicken soup
• 2-3 pandan leaves
• chicken oil (from chicken soup)
• oily juice from chicken
  
• cooking oil
• salt (to taste)
  
• chinese cooking wine (approx 3-4 tbsp)

recipes

• fry blended garlic and ginger till light brown in chicken+cooking oil
• add in uncooked rice and salt. there must be enough oil to coat all the rice. stir till fragrant but not burnt
• remove from stove and add chicken soup (same as the amount of water for cooking that amount of rice)
• add few tbsp of oily juice
  
• add chinese cooking wine and knotted pandan
• steam in rice cooker

(d) condiments: chilli sauce + sping onion sauce

ingredients - chilli sauce

• blended chilli (no seeds) - 5 parts
  
• blended ginger - 2 parts
  
• blended garlic - 4 parts
  
• blended spring onion (to taste)
  
• chicken oil
  
• salt (to taste)
  
• sugar (to taste)
  
• 1 finely chopped tomato
• lime (optional)

recipe - chilli sauce

• use chicken oil to fry tomato, garlic and ginger (do not brown)
• add blended chilli and stir
• add blended sping onion and stir
• reduce mixture to a thick sauce keeping it at low boil
• add in lime juice, sugar, salt to taste
• you can then set aside the extras and bottle it up for later use

ingredients - sping onion sauce

• blended ginger - 2 parts
  
• blended garlic - 2-3 parts
  
• blended spring onion - 5 parts
  
• chicken oil
  
• salt (to taste)
  
• sugar (to taste)
  

recipe - sping onion sauce

• use chicken oil to fry garlic and ginger (do not brown)
• add blended sping onion and stir
• reduce mixture to a thick sauce keeping it at low boil
• add in sugar, salt to taste
• you can then set aside the extras and bottle it up for later use

as you can see it's the longest recipe i'd written for the blog........

Honey Mustard Baked Chicken

This is a very simple dish cos all i did was to marinate and baked it the next day.
havent been really posting/ writing much cos i've been kindda 'addicted to ebay' (as The Wife puts it quite bluntly). i'm saving my thoughts on dat for another post so here's the recipe.....

ingredients

• 1 x chicken (quartered / chunkily chopped)
• 3 tbsp mustard powder
• 4-5 tsp salt
  
• pepper (to taste)
• honey (to taste)
  
• szechuan / chilli powder (to taste)
• 2 tsp rosemary
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• olive oil
  
• potato halves (optional)
  

recipe

• marinate chicken with everything above (except the potatoes) & leave overnite
• rub salt, pepper over potatoes & drizzle with olive oil
  
• preheat oven at 180'C and bake chicken & potatoes for 20 mins

& that's that. :)
kindda tasted fusiony but goes well with plain rice too.

Braised (Ginger) Chicken with Mushrooms

This is something that i adapted from my MIL & Wife. Her side of the family adores ginger, period. i ain't brought up eating gingerly stuff so you cld say it's somewhat an acquired taste. of cos there was also the 'compulsory' eating period when pretty much every meal had ginger in it when The Wife was doing her confinement after the birth of Avery (or vinegarish cos of the pig trotters cooked in black vinegar). For this evening, i decided to give it a shot, with a moderated portion of ginger & ginger wine......essentially i'd blended it with a 'chicken in oyster sauce' recipe....so it tasted somewhat in between...sweet, gingery, salty. serves 2-3.

ingredients

• half chicken, chopped
  
• ginger, chopped
• garlic, chopped
• cooking oil
• sesame oil
• water
  
• dark soy sauce
• oyster sauce
• Stone's Original Green Ginger Wine (absolutely necessary, check here for what else you can do with the wine)
  
• sugar (to taste)
• fermented beancurd 豆腐乳 (to taste, optional)
• corn flour
• button mushrooms, quartered / whole dried shitake mushrooms
  
• spring onion (chopped, for garnish)

recipe

• marinate chicken in soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and set aside for at least 30 minutes
• soak dried shitake mushrooms if you are using them for this dish
  
• brown ginger and garlic
• add chicken and beancurd to the ginger and garlic and fry at medium heat till it turns whitish and u get the aroma from the ginger-beancurd
  
• add water (enough to form lots of gravy but not have the chicken pieces swim in soup), shitake mushrooms (optional), then cover and let simmer at medium heat till it's about 50% cooked
  
• add more dark soy sauce and oyster sauce to taste, if necessary
  
• add 5 tbsp of ginger wine, cover and let simmer till chicken is somewhat cooked (approx 5 minutes)
  
• turn to low heat, add more ginger wine and sugar to taste, let simmer for another 5-8 minutes
• when u are happy with the taste, add in the corn flour to thicken the gravy and stir in the mushrooms. DO NOT overcook the mushrooms so that they retain some degree of crunchiness
• when it's ready to serve, add in chopped spring onion
  

蒸雞蛋糕

My 3rd attempt at making this.
New recipe, and I did it in a proper steamer. Those with the 'pong pong' lid.

A lil sidetrack before the recipe....Been hinting to The Wife about getting a steamer so that i can carry on experimenting and getting this right. So she gave in and we headed down to Richmond to look for one. we found it at a shop called BaoBao Kitchenware. cost us $47 (28 cm wide, 3 tiered) but we got a traffic fine for $117 (for not understanding that it's clearway and we can't park beyond 4.30pm even tho we'd bought a ticket that shld've lasted us till 4.50pm. 4 mths here and we're still paying an average of 1 fine/mth to learn the aussie traffic rules) so that effectively made it the most expensive kitchenware we've ever bought. The Wife had the honour of using it for her steamed glutinous rice first. It was not until a month later that I'd gotten down to use it for the cake.

Adapted this from Fenying's Blog but i find it a tad bit too sweet. I still haven't quite gotten it to be fluffy. maybe it's due to the normal cake flour & raw sugar i'd used + me not quite sure i've gotten the 'folding in the flour' technique right.

ingredients:

• 3 egg (must let them thaw till room temperature before use, else they dun beat that well)
  
• 230 g sugar (i think you can reduce this to 200g)
• 230g Hong Kong flour (can't find it here. HK flour is a highly bleached flour that's used to make pau. i used cake flour so i figured thats why it ain't fluffy and was instead a bit crumbly)
• 75g 7-up (i used Fanta orange. I read somewhere that in my grandma's day, they used fanta orange. i suspect there aint any difference to the taste/ colour...hmmm maybe just a bit more yellowish.)
  

recipe:

• beat eggs at high speed till fluffy (it shld be about twice the volume you started off with. the colour will change from yolkish to creamy in the final fluffy state)
• add in sugar gradually and continue beating till well- blended. Remove processor
• sift and fold in the flour into the mix in 3 portions. each time ensure that you dun see flour lumps before you add in the next portion. the mixture turned out to be very sticky at this point
  
• add in the 7-up/fanta orange and mix well. this will give the mixture a smoother consistency. however i am not sure if when you shld stop mixing and if the fizziness has anything to do with the fluffiness of the cake
• pour mixture into a 20cm wide baking pan / steaming basket (i think you can go for muffin trays and make mini versions which will probably look better)
  
• sprinkle a handful of sugar such that it forms a cross on the surface of mixture. this will allow it to crack when it rises (發!) it worked for mine but cos my pan was tall, the mixture didn't 發 significantly to make a nice bloom. apparently you can use also create the lines using a spatula dipped in oil (i cant rem where i read this from)
  
• steam at high heat for half an hour
• DO NOT OPEN the lid immediately. keep the lid on for about another 10 minutes so that it won't collapse.

i'm happy that this turned out much better than the previous attempts, at least it cooked through and had not collapsed.

The Wife still cldn't understand why i persist on making this (ok, she's not a fan of this in the 1st place) but my take is that if you can't find it, try to learn how to make it. Think i'd probably be eating the cake all by myself.

Pan-fried Rockling Medallions with Ginger

ok there's nothing spectacular about this. cos if you have really fresh fish, you cld probably eat it on it on its own. my in laws r in town and the MIL bought a slab of rockling thinking that she'd want it steamed. well, i didn't catch the drift (ie dun suggest something contrary :p) and i suggested a pan fried dish instead. The Wife immediately gave the 'precautionary' look which again i missed. The Wife n her folks like stuff cooked in lots of ginger so here goes......

ingredients:

• rockling fillet cut into medallions (approx 1 finger thick)
  
• sliced ginger
• cooking oil
  
• salt
  
• pepper
• szechuan pepper
• parsley for garnish (I only had dried ones)
  
• lemon (optional..i wish i had some)

recipe:

• rub salt, pepper and szechuan powder onto medallions. set aside for min 5 minutes
  
• heat pan (medium heat) and fry the ginger until slightly brown (you dun want it to be too brown cos it has to stay in the pan with the fish still). set ginger aside (i just left it on side of the non stick pan)
  
• add in medallions and fry on pan, turning every 30 sec for about 4 minutes. rockling is firm and will hold its shape well.
• remove medallions and continue to fry the ginger till brown / some of you may like it crispy
• serve ginger on top of medallions and garnish with parsley
• serve with dash of lemon juice if you have

i dun think my MIL quite like it cooked this way but she did say it's pretty ok. oh well......

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. :)#

Assorted Luncheon Meat & Cheese Buns Redux

Again no bread left last nite...actually it's really an excuse to brush up on the previous attempt.
so The Wife and I had another go at it. This time i made minor changes to the preparation:

1. added slightly more yeast about 5 g more, resulting in more 'puffiness' (?, maybe just my eyes playing tricks)
   
2. had bigger pieces of spam (cos we love spam)
   
3. coiled thinner strips of dough round the spam, resulting in better bread to spam ratio and interesting bread texture when eaten (hmmm better described as eating a coil of bread rather than a whole bun)
   
4. did raisins and cinnamon 'bunlets' along with the cheese and spam ones
5. added speckle of dried parsley and szechuan powder on spam rolls' dough for better aesthetics before baking
6. did double brush of egg evenly across whole of dough surface before baking, resulting in nicer browning

Ok time for supper!

Penne with Monkfish in Tomato Cream Sauce

Had leftover monkfish from over 2 weeks back sitting in the freezer. Did grill a batch then but I found the flesh rather bland and texture firm. the grilling dried the fish so i thought i'd probably cook it in sauce this time round and see how it'd go. Surprisingly it does go down better cos the sauce lent its taste to the fish. The Wife didnt quite like it cos it's rather boney (i'd used 3 tail pieces, the bones were too firmly stuck in the flesh to be picked out), luckliy there're spam in the tomato sauce to keep her happy. Serves 2.

ingredients:

• 3 x approx 15 cm long monkfish tail fillets (pick out bones if u can)
• penne
• 2 tomatoes, diced
  
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
• 2 chilli, finely cut
  
• ham / bacon / spam bits
• tomato paste / pasta sauce
  
• dried parsley
• salt
  
• pepper
• 3-4 tbsp cream
  
• olive oil
  

recipe:

• cut monkfish into approx 1 inch pieces, rub on some pepper and salt
  
• heat pan with olive oil and sear the fish quickly
  
• when cooked (flesh slightly browned), remove fish
• cook penne simultaneously
• with left over oil/sauce in pan, add garlic, tomato, tomato paste, chilli, pepper, bacon/spam, simmer to make a sauce. if it's dry, add about 1/3 cup water.
• reduce sauce to half, simmer gently, stir in cream and reduce sauce further
• toss fish into sauce and allow it to sit in there for about a minute to coat and soak up some flavour (i forgot about this step...so my fish is still rather bland and whitish :0)
• pour sauce with fish onto penne
• dash dried parsley ont pasta and serve

Assorted Luncheon Meat & Cheese Buns

We ran out of bread, so i figured it'd be the best excuse to hit the oven again.

This time, my tastebuds are lingering for some good old luncheon meat buns (no luncheon meat here, only spam but just as good. The Wife absolutely loves spam!). I remember that luncheon meat buns were (together with sugared ring/satay stick donuts, pandan chiffon & marble cakes) the mainstay of confectioneries in my younger days but they got replaced with sausages over time. these days, in fanciful bread boutiques a simple sausage bun will most likely set you back almost $2. before we left, we actually chanced upon a stall in serangoon central food market (not chomp chomp, it's the one diagonally oppposite) which sells 5 mini soft chewy-doughy luncheon meat buns for $2.50, incidentally the boss calls them burger buns). so for those of you going for a cheap bite of nostalgia, you might wanna check that out.

i made some 20 buns (16 spam, 4 cheese). following recipe adapted from Jia Lei Confectionery's website.

ingredients:

• plain flour (original recipe called for bread flour. essentially bread flour has more gluten so it's what makes your bread more chewy. i find that plain/all purpose flour works just fine) - 500g
• butter - 30 g
  
• yeast (i used those instant yeast. abt 3 tsp) - 12.5 g
• water - 230 g
• sugar (i used raw sugar) - 90 g
• milk powder (The Wife let me use Avery's milk powder. about 3 baby tin scoops) - 15 g
• 2 eggs (1 to mix, 1 for brush)
  
• salt - 1/2 tsp
• spam, cut to fingers
• hard (cheddar) cheese, cut to small slabs
  

recipe:

• whisk egg and yeast together
• mix in remaining ingredients to form a dough and knead for about 8-10 mins (make sure that dough is not too wet / dry. dough when kneaded should feel 'chewy and bouncy'and not stick to your hands
• brush bowl with some oil and leave dough in bowl for proving
  
• cover with a damp cloth and leave aside to prove for 20 min
• after 1st proving, divide the dough into small portions, approx palm size ball (ok i have small hands). you shld bear in mind that the dough will continue to rise after shaping and will spring furter in the oven
• for spam buns: roll out and coil dough around each spam fingers
• for cheese buns: roll out, put in cheese slabs and pinch to close like making a 'bao'
• line baking tray with grease paper and sprinkle some flour on it before laying buns on pan. leave ample space between the buns for it to spring in the oven
  
• brush with 1 beaten egg
• leave aside to prove for 1 hour
• preheat oven at 200°C
  
• bake for 12 mins at 200°C. i realised that such dough relies on the high sugar content and high heat to provide rapid spring. so the dough will 'grow' very fast in the oven. since its my 1st time at baking such dough, i had underestimated the rate of spring in the oven, thus most of the buns had more 'bread' than filling.
• remove from the oven and set to cool. original recipe suggested brushing surface with melted butter before serving, but i thought they looked good enough as they are
  

the buns were surprising easy to make. The Wife and kiddo liked it and we'd enough for me to dunk into milo for supper later.

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. :)

Baked Rockling with Ginger & Onion

my folks left on sunday after spending a week here.

they'd seen some highlights of the city, gone on day tours on The Great Ocean Rd+ Phillip Island (Penguin Parade), The Tesselaar Tulip Festival and most importantly spent precious moments with Avery. i wonder if they'd enjoyed their visit but i reckon it's the family moments that they'd all been looking forward to.

my mom was particularly remindful of getting fish for Avery & The Wife (for it's believed that fish improves lactation. me on the other hand, simply prefers white meat over red). possibly cos cod and salmon are expensive back home, she (& my MIL too) tend to have this idea that these are best for babies. not that they aint but there are certainly more choices here and some more inexpensive than others. so before my mom left, our freezer was stocked with rockling, monkfish and salmon (for the baby). a pity that they didnt get to try the former 2 cos they dun come by easily back home.

i'd never tried rockling but heard it's got very firm texture n holds its shape well when cooking. i didn't wanna fry/grill so i looked up some recipes for baking it with whatever ingredients i had in the kitchen. adapted the following recipe that's originally for flake. serves 2-3 pax.

ingredients:

• 2-3 1" thick rockling fillets
• salt n pepper to taste
• 3-4 tbsp of finely chopped ginger
• half finely chopped onion
• 1tbsp oil/olive oil
• 200ml fresh milk
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• szechuan powder (dash)
  
• chopped/dried parsley for garnish
  

recipe:

• marinate fillets with salt, pepper for about 10 minutes in casserole dish
• mix in chopped onion, ginger and olive oil
• mix flour into milk and pour gently over fillets
• you may wanna scoop some of the chopped chopped onions n ginger onto the fillets
• add dash of szechuan powder on fillet for colour
• preheat oven at 180'C
• bake for about 25-30 minutes
• milk will curddle when baked, serve with parsley as garnish

The Wife who usually don't fancy milk in her cooking (other than curry) didn't quite mind the milk curd sauce cos it was sweet and gingerly. The Wife also whipped up my MIL's glutinous rice dish with ikan bilis/peanut belachan paste today...yummy....