Ko Lo Yuk

咕嚕肉

This is a classic Cantonese dish that goes by many translated names: Go Lo Yok, Koo Lou Yoke, Ko Lo Yok, Koo Lo Yok, Ko Loh Yok, Ku Lou Yuk ...and of course, Sweet and Sour Pork. 

The recipe I am sharing here is my late mother-in-law's. 

Ingredients (serves 4-5 pax)

1kg pork belly slab

Marinade: 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder, dashes of white pepper, 1 egg yolk

Sauce: 

1 capsicum/bell pepper (sliced into wedges)

1 cucumber (cut into small pieces)

1 large onion (sliced into wedges)

1 or 2 fresh tomatoes (boil in a pot of water, drain, peel off the skin, cut the tomatoes into cubes)

1 slice of pineapple (cut into small pieces)

2 tablespoon rice vinegar (or 2 tablespoon fresh lime juice)

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

6 tablespoon ketchup (or tomato sauce)

1 tablespoon chilli sauce

1 tablespoon water

Method

1. Remove skin from pork belly slab, cut pork belly slab into 3cm strips and then cut each strip into bite sized pieces. Add in marinade and set aside for at least 1-2hours.

2. Heat wok with enough oil for deep frying. Use a chopstick to test the oil temperature. When there are bubbles around the chopstick, it is ready.

3. Lightly coat each piece of pork with corn flour and shake off excess flour. Gently place them into the hot oil. Deep fry the pork pieces straightaway in batches on high heat until golden in colour. Place the pork pieces on a wire rack. After each batch of frying, scoop up the crumbs of flour from the oil using a fine-mesh sieve.

4. Next, prepare sauce. Heat a small pot with some oil. Put in large onion and stir fry until edges are brown. Add in capsicum and stir fry for 1 minute. Add fresh tomatoes, followed by the sauce mixture and water. Mix thoroughly and bring to boil. Stir in cucumber and pineapple.

5. Serve the pork pieces and sauces in separately dishes so as to retain the crispiness of the pork pieces.  

Spaghetti Bolognaisse

 意大利面

This recipe serves 4

Ingredients

300g spaghetti noodles

250g minced beef (you can mix in minced pork. Recommended quantity is 25% of total minced beef, e.g. for 200g minced beef, addd in 50g minced pork)

1 bottle of spaghetti sauce (Barilla brand)

2 medium size tomatoes (I like to use fresh tomatoes to make the sauce more flavorful - skip step 2 if you are using only bottled spaghetti sauce.)

1 medium size large onion

1 tablespoon mixed herbs (oregano, basil, thyme)

1 tablespoon butter (to make the sauce creamy)

Method

Cooking the sauce

1. Dice the onion for frying with beef later.

2. Core each tomato (i.e. remove the spot where the stem used to attach to the tomato) and cut a cross on the bottom of each tomato. Boil the tomatoes in a small pot of water for a few minutes until the skin peels away from the tomatoes. Drain the tomatoes and set aside to cool. Once cooled, slice the tomatoes into half and remove the seeds. Then, cut the tomatoes into small pieces and set aside. 

3. Heat 1 - 2 tablespoon of cooking oil in the wok. Add the diced onions and saute under low heat. Stir fry the beef, breaking them up as you cook. Transfer the beef to a plate and set aside.

4. In the same wok used for cooking the beef, add in the tomatoes and stir fry for 1 minute. Then pour in the whole bottle of tomato sauce. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of mixed herbs and stir to mix. Add the beef and mix into the tomato sauce. Finally, add 1 tablespoon of butter to the sauce and give it a good mix. The spaghetti sauce is ready!

Cooking the pasta

5. Bring a pot/wok of water to boil. Add some salt in it and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta. Note: If you are not serving right away, drizzle some olive oil over the pasta so that the pasta will not clump together. 

6.  Scoop the spaghetti sauce over the pasta and serve. Enjoy!

Fish Tempura

 炸鱼片

Ingredients

600g fish (I use grouper)

100g plain flour

12g water chesnut flour (substitute with corn flour if you don't have)

12g wheat starch

160g ice cold water

12g cooking oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

3g baking powder

Method

1. Sieve plain flour, corn flour, water chestnut flour and baking powder. Mix in salt.

2. Slowly pour in water and stir in one direction with a pair of chopsticks. The batter should be thick. Chill the batter in fridge until ready to fry the fish.

3. Slice fish and rinse with salt solution (1 teaspoon salt with 200ml water). Drain the salt solution water and dab the fish slices dry.

4. Heat up wok with sufficient oil. Take out the batter from fridge and gently stir in cooking oil. When the oil in wok is heated to 180 degree celcius, dredge the fish slice through the batter, let the excess batter drip off for a few seconds and lower it into the oil. Repeat this for a few more fish slices. Fry until light golden brown in colour.

5. Serve hot! 

Pumpkin Soup

南瓜浓汤

This is a healthy and nutritious soup which I made for my children after they had their wisdom teeth removed. Pumpkin is naturally sweet, and is a good source of iron, vitamins A, B and C.

Ingredients:

300g pumpkin

40g large onion

300ml water

200ml milk

100ml heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dashes of freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Method:

Cut pumpkin into thin strips.

Chop onion into small pieces.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the wok  and saute onions over medium heat until fragrant and edges are browned. 

Add pumpkin and stir fry until pumpkin is soft.

Add water and bring to a boil.

Lower heat, cover the wok and simmer for 15minutes until pumpkin is mushy. Let it cool down a bit.

Use hand/stick blender to blend the pumpkin to a smooth paste.

Add milk and continue to blend for 1-2minutes.

Transfer the blended pumpkin soup to a small pot. Add butter and stir over low heat until the butter has melted. Turn  off the heat, stir in heavy cream and eason with salt and black pepper.

Ladle the pumpkin soup into bowls, garnish with chopped parsley and serve. Crispy bacon bits and croutons can be added as toppings too.

Steamed Yam Paste (Orh Ni)

 芋泥

I use pork lard for my orh ni to make this dessert more fragrant. Try it! You will love it.

Ingredients

1 yam (1 kg yam can yield around 10 small servings of orh ni)

rock sugar (16% of weight of yam) - crushed to very small pieces

water (16% of weight of yam)

6 to 8 tablespoons pork lard 

200ml coconut milk (packet or freshly squeezed)

200g Pumpkin - optional topping

100g Gingko nuts (de-shelled, de-skined and centre pit removed) - optional topping

Method:

1. Peel the pumpkin and cut into small wedges. Add 30g rock sugar to the pumpkin. Mix them up and set aside for at least half hour. Steam them for 30 minutes or until soft. You can keep the pumpkin as-is or mash them up during serving. Keep the liquid that oozed out from the sugared-pumpkin (for step 4).

2. Prepare the gingko nuts by boiling them with water (around just enough to cover the nuts) and 30g rock sugar until the nuts are soft. Alternatively, coat the gingko nuts with rock sugar one day before, and pouring hot water into the nuts the next day. 

3. Prepare the coconut milk by heating it up (do not boil) with a pinch of salt. Then chill in fridge.

4. Peel the yam and take the weight so as to calculate the quantity required for rock sugar and water. Cut the yam into small pieces and steam for 30 minutes or until soft and mashable. Mash the steamed yam when it is still hot by pressing them through a sieve. Heat wok with pork lard on medium-low heat. Add the mashed yam, remaining rock sugar, and water (including the pumpkin liquid from step 1, if using). Stir using wooden spatula until you get a smooth yam paste. 

5. To serve, scoop the yam paste into a small bowl, add pumpkin (if using) and gingko nuts. Then drizzle coconut milk over. Enjoy!