Bite On It!

I was having this strip of pork belly with me which I have intended to cook something else but ended up abandoning the idea after I can’t find the recipe. Then I have to go to KL on a short notice so I have to cook it before I forget all about it!

Then I remembered about this fried sugared pork which is quite appetising on rice. The other reason was, it was so easy to prepare! So, if you have some pork belly and not sure what to do with it, try this.

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Ingredients

• 200-300g Pork belly (with layers of fats in between)
• 1 Chili padi - sliced/chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic - chopped
• 1tbsp Brown Sugar
• Dark soy sauce
• Salt to taste

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil (little will do as the pork fats will have oil) and lightly fry the sliced pork belly till golden brown on low heat.
2. Spread the cooked pork belly to the side of the wok (picture above), put in chopped chili and garlic and saute till fragrant. Add a little oil if needed.
3. Mix the pork belly and the sauteed garlic and chili, stir for a while, add in dark soy sauce, stir till all well mixed.
4. Add in brown sugar and some salt and continue to stir till sugar begin to caramelize. Served with white rice.

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A few years ago, I don’t ever remember seeing this roots being sold in our markets. However, gobo has make its way into our markets recently after the cheaper version was being imported from China. Gobo is one of Japanese food and it was said to have plenty of nutrients. And if you have notice, the Chinese herbalists have been using this particular root as a type of herbal called niúpángzi.

I did not know about this particular root until about 2 or 3 years back when my mom introduced it to me. I find the taste is very clear and fragrant. Great news to all breastfeeding mommies, I’ve just found out gobo is a type of food that helps with lactation!

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Ingredients

• 1 stick Gobo roots - sliced slanted
• 300-400g Spare ribs
• 2.5L Water
• 10pcs Red dates
• Wolfberries (a small handful)
• Salt to taste

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Raw Gobo

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Methods

1. Boil water in a large pot. When boiled, add in spare ribs.
2. Boil the spare ribs for about 5 minutes, add in the sliced gobo and red dates.
3. Boil soup for 1.5 - 2 hours on low heat.
4. Add in the Wolfberries when about to switch off the gas.

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During one of our trip to KL, we went to eat at this very old je-char stall which has just moved to a new shop unit in Queens Park. This used to be my dad’s favourite haunt many years ago and when I was younger we used to dine there on many occasions.

However, we did not order this particular dish until that day. PiggyBeng was hooked after that! So, I decided to look for the recipe. I searched for quite a while but couldn’t find any until I saw a link to Babe in the City’s site. And I was so happy to see she has the recipe!

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As I only have half the amount of ingredients required (just nice for 2 person share), I twisted them a little. If you want her version, click here. My verdict on the dish, nice and fragrant and not too sweet. The meat was tender but I should simmer longer so it will be softer. The fats were still intact and cooking longer may give it a melt-in-the-mouth feel.

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Ingredients

• 300g Pork belly with skin intact - recommended to get those with more layers of fats
• 3/4 cup Shao Xing Hua Dioa (Chinese cooking wine)
• Water - enough to cover the pork
• Dark soy sauce - enough to rub on the pork
• 1 Star anise
• Brown sugar to taste (I used 1 tbsp) or Rock sugar
• Corn flour - mixed with a little water to thicken the sauce

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Method

1. Blanch the meat in hot water to get rid of the scums, then wash with tap water to clean it further. Dry the meat with paper towels before rubbing with just enough dark soy sauce to coat the meat thoroughly and let it marinade for 10 minutes. In a non-stick pan, add in some oil and sear the meat on all sides except the skin quickly. Watch the heat as the dark soy sauce will caramalised.
2. Let the meat cool down a bit before slicing them into smaller pieces (you can tie the cut meat together with a thick thread so it can maintain some form). Place meat in a pot, pour in the wine (1/2 cup) and add in enough water till it covers the meat pieces. Throw in the star anise and boil/simmer in low heat till soft.
3. In a small bowl, mix a bit of oyster sauce (1.5 tbsp) and sugar and continue to boil/simmer until the meat is really tender (around 1.5 hours) then add the remaining 1/4 up wine before stirring in the cornflour mix (I did this as I want to have the fragrant smell of the wine).
4. Stir in corn flour+water to slightly thicken up the gravy. Serve hot with plain rice or some plain mantou.

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* Some paragraphs are borrowed and edited from Babe’s site.

Last Sunday we did not go any where to shop except to Tesco for groceries shopping. So I have quite a bit of time and since I still have a block of Golden Churn in my fridge, I decided to bake some cupcakes. Initially I have wanted to bake the Nutella cupcakes but I changed my mind when I saw a Blueberries muffins recipe on the recipe leaflet that came with my Blue Key Self Raising Flour.

Then, half way through, Darrius woke up from his nap and was rather cranky. He refused to play on his own or with PiggyBeng so I brought him into the dining room and let him sit there watching me. He was making lots of noise and insisted he wants to play with this and that.

Lousy me, get so distracted and I ended up not putting the eggs into the batter! And that was not all. I even mixed them on the wrong sequence and ended up just dump in everything and mix! And guess what? The muffins turned out lovely!

So, here sharing with you my eggless Accidental - Cranberries Muffins!

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Ingredients

• 300g (2 3/4 cups) Self Raising flour - sifted
• 150g Castor sugar
• 15g (2tbsp) Milk powder
• 30g (5tbsp) Honey
• 120g (1/2 cup) Butter/margerine
• 50g Cranberries - chopped to smaller pieces
• 165g (3/4 cup) Water
• 3g (1/2 tsp) Vanilla Essence

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Method

1. Mix sugar, milk powder, margerine, flour and honey together till well mixed.
2. Add in water and vanilla and mix till all blend in.
3. Add in cranberries and put into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 mins at 180 degree celcius.
4. Removed from oven and let it cool on rack

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I bought a lot of ‘Yuen-Choy’ (Spinach) for Darrius’s porridge. Sometimes the bundle can be really huge so I will take half to cook for ourselves. Normally I will just do a simple stir-fry with chopped garlic but there are times when the fancy struck, I will try to come out with something new.

Many years back, when I was still working in Singapore, I often patronise this Chinese restaurant called Crystal Jade. They have this dish ‘3 Eggs with Spinach’ cooked using chicken broth which is really yummy. I tried to dish this out and the result was not that bad after all….

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Ingredients

• 1 bundle Yuen-choy (Spinach)
• 1tsp Chopped garlic
• 1 Chicken egg (beaten)
• 1 Century egg (cut into smaller sections)
• 1 Salted duck egg (cut into small pieces)
• 1/2 cup Chicken broth
• Salt to taste

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with 1 tbsp of oil, saute the chopped garlic till fragrant. Add in the spinach (with the stems de-skined) and stir for a minute or two before covering for 2 minutes.
2. When the spinach is soften, pour in the chicken broth and let it boil on slow-medium fire for another 2-3 minutes with cover on.
3. Add in the cut century egg and salted egg (only the yolk), stir for a while till the salted egg yolk turned slightly creamy colour. Beat the chicken egg and pour in slowly while stirring to disintegrate. Served hot.

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