Braised Pork On Rice Lu Rou Fan (Braised Pork Rice Bowl)

滷肉饭

Ingredients (serves 4)

600g pork belly (with skin)

1 tablespoon sake (optional)

55g small onions (sliced thinly to make fried shallots)

3 small onions (diced)

2 garlic cloves (diced)

2 eggs (or a few quail eggs) - optional

1 tablespoon brown sugar (or rock sugar)

400ml water

Seasoning

2 tablespoon dark soy sauce

2  tablespoon light soy sauce

1 teaspoon five spice powder

Dashes of white pepper

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

Optional (to thicken the sauce during simmering)

A few pieces of pork skin

A few slices of ginger

A few sprigs of spring onion

1 tablespoon sake

1. Blanch pork belly in a wok/pot of boiling water. Once cooled sufficiently, cut into strips of 1cm.

2. Clean the pork skin and pluck off hair. Boil the pork skin with the spring onions, ginger slices and sake. Then simmer for 15minutes. Remove from liquid and let it cool down. Once cooled, use blender to grind the pork skin into smaller pieces.

3. Hard boil the eggs (or quail eggs, if using). Once cooled, de-shell and cut eggs into half. 

4. Put sufficient oil in wok and fry shallots under low heat until golden and crispy. Remove remaining oil from the wok. Set aside the crispy shallots.

5. Heat up wok to high/smoking. Add the pork and stir fry until the liquid from the pork has evaporated. Add sake over the pork and continue to stir fry until the alcohol has evaporated and pork edges are golden brown. Turn the heat down to medium.

6. Add diced onions and stir fry until translucent and fragrant. Add the diced garlic cloves and stir fry until fragrant.

7. Add sugar to the pork and stir fry for 1 minute.

8. Add dark and light soy sauce to the pork from the side of the wok, then stir fry to mix. 

9. Add water to the pork, followed by five spice powder, white pepper, cinnamon stick, star anise and fried shallot crisps. Stir to mix thoroughly. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 45minutes or until pork is tender. Skim off the oil/pork fat that is released during simmering. Stir ocassionally to precent sticking. Add the pork skin (from step 2) and stir to mix in thoroughly. Simmer for another 15minutes and stir ocassionally to prevent sticking.

10. Wash the leafy greens and blanches them. 

11. Serve the pork with rice, vegetables and eggs.

Ikameshi (Squid Stuffed with Glutinous Rice)

 乌贼饭

Ikameshi is a dish we tried in one of our trips to Japan. So, when we caught a lot of squids from our offshore fishing trip recently, I tried to cook ikameshi. This is my adaptation of stuffed squid (sotong) recipes from Cookism, Cooking with Dog and Cooking With Mama Betsy

Ingredients

6 medium squids (sotong) around 600g

100g Japanese glutinous rice, Mochigome (substitute: Japanese short grain rice)

500ml water

2 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon sake (substitute: shao xing wine)

satay sticks (cut into two) or toothpicks

Method

1. Rinse the glutinous rice until the water runs clear. Soak the rice for at least 2 hours and drain.

2. Clean and remove the insides of the squids using a spoon. Dab the squids dry. Cut up the squid heads (beak and eyes removed) into small pieces and set aside.

3. Fill each squid belly with glutinous rice and the pieces of squid head until 60% full. Gently shake the squid so that the rice can fill the bottom of the squid. Then use satay stick or toothpick to close up the squid.

4. Prepare the braising liquid: put water, soy sauce, sugar and sake into a pot. Add the squids and bring to boil over medium heat. Once boiling, skim off the foam and scum. Then, lower the heat to low-medium and cover with an otoshibuta (drop lid) to limit evaporation. Boil for 40minutes. At the 20th minute mark, flip the squids. After 30minutes, remove the squids from the pot. Boil the sauce to reduce it.

5. Once the squids have cooled down a little, slice the squids to bite size. Drizzle with the sauce and serve warm.

Choux Cream Puff

泡芙

Very time consuming to make these cream puffs. But effort is worth it because they are absolutely delicious.

A. Cookie Top#

Ingredients:

37g bread flour

30g unsalted butter (room temperature)

37g sugar

Method:

1. Mix butter with sugar using spatula until combined. Then add in flour and mix thoroughly until a dough is formed.

2. Transfer to parchment paper, cover with another piece of parchment paper and roll to 2mm thick. Alternatively, put the dough in a plastic bag and roll to 2mm thick. Chill in fridge. 

3. Use cookie cutter (diameter of the pastry puff) to cut out cookie top. If too soft to lift up, put in the freezer for a few mins. 

B. Choux Cream*

Ingredients:

2 egg yolk 

50g sugar

pinch of salt

12g cake flour

12g corn flour

240ml fresh milk

180g whipped cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

30g butter 

Method:

1. Lightly beat egg yolks, then add sugar and whisk to combine.  Then add salt and whisk until pale. 

2. Add cake and corn flour and whisk until light yellow in colour.

3. Heat up milk to 80 deg cel, pour into the egg mixture in two batches. Whisk thoroughly to combine. 

4. Sieve the mixture into a small pot and simmer. Stir using the same whisk continuously and ensure that the mixture comes to a boil with bubbles breaking the surface. Let the mixture boil for 1 to 2 minutes on low heat whilst whisking continously. 

5. Stir in butter until it has melted and incorporated.

6. Remove from heat and cool the cream by putting the pot over a container filled with ice/ice pack. Cover the surface of cream with cling wrap and chill in fridge for at least 2 hours. After 2 hours, add vanilla extract and contreau liquor, and whisk/beat to loosen the cream until it is smooth.

7. Whisk whipped cream until soft peak. Add whipped cream to step 6 and use spatula to fold. No need to combine completely.

8. Transfer the cream to piping bag and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour.

C. Choux Pastry

Ingredients:

130ml water

50g unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

70g plain flour (sieved)

2 eggs, 65g with shell (lightly beaten)

Method:

1. Put water, salt and butter into a small copper pot with long handle, and boil over low heat to melt the butter. Once butter has melted, increase stove heat to medium and bring to a boil. Once boiled, remove from heat and immediately add flour all at once. Use a silicon spatula to mix quickly into a dough until there is no flour left. 

2. Put the pot back on the stove over medium heat, flip and press the dough until a thin film forms on bottom of pot. Note: puff will not rise well if dough is not heated enough.

3. Transfer the dough to a new mixing bowl. Spread out the dough to help it cool down faster.

4. Once dough is 40 to 60 deg celcius, add in the eggs in 3 batches and mix thoroughly after each addition. Observe the consistency of the batter after each addition of egg. The batter is perfect consistency when a V smooth shape is formed when the spatula is lifted from the batter and the batter is thin and flows down slowly. If more egg is required to achieve the desired consistency, mix in the leftover egg whites (from making the choux cream) little by little.

5. Transfer the batter to piping bag.

6. Preheat oven to 200 deg celcius and line baking pan with parchment paper.

7. Cut piping bag tip (1cm across) and pipe the batter on the baking pan. Put cookie top on each batter. Do not open oven during baking or the puff will collapse. 

- Bake at 210 deg cel (no fan), then 180 deg cel (no fan) when the puff has peaked

- Bake at 180 deg cel for 15min, 130 deg cel for 15 min (Chef Pastissier Masayoshi Ishikawa)

- Bake at 200 deg cel for 15min, 170 deg cel for 10 min

- Bake at 190 or 200 deg for 20min (Nino's home)

after baking, leave the puffs in oven for 10min to turn crispy.

Transfer to wire rack to cool. Note: choux pastry is properly baked when you can see a little protusion at the bottom of each puff.

8. Use the tip of a chopstick to make a little hole on the side of each puff, then pipe cream into the cream puffs and refrigerate until ready to serve.

* Other fillings:

a. Oreo cream cheese filling:

Ingredients:

300g cream cheese (room temp)

35g sugar

170g whipped cream

1/4 cup oreo crumbs

Method:

1. Mix sugar with cream cheese until creamy and smooth.

2. Whisk the whipped cream until medium peak.

3. Add the whipped cream into the cheese mixture and whisk until well combined and smooth.

4. Fold oreo crumbs into the cream and transfer to piping bag.

b. Earl Grey filling: 

Add 2 teabag to step 3 when making the choux cream.

c. Taro cream filling:

400g taro (steamed 20 min and mashed)

90g sugar

10g vanilla

489g whipped cream

# Earl Grey Cookie Top

2g tea leaves

25g sugar

30g butter

40 cake flour

Fried Prawn Balls

炸虾球

Ingredients

1kg large prawns

120g plain flour

8g potato flour (生粉)

8g wheat flour (澄面粉)

4g baking powder

Pinch of salt 

140g water

70g cooking oil

Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Wash, clean and de-vein prawns. 

2. Sieve plain flour, corn flour, wheat flour and baking power. Mix in salt.

3. Slowly pour in oil, stir in one direction and mix well. Add in water and mix with a pair of chopsticks. The batter should be thick. 

4. Heat up wok with sufficient oil. When the oil in wok is heated to 180degreee celcius, add all the prawns to the batter, gently coat the prawns with the batter, then lower the prawns into the hot oil. Fry until light golden brown in colour.

Serve hot!

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 (3g) 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) or jackfruit

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 Bolognese

 意大利面

This recipe serves 4

Ingredients

300g spaghetti noodles

350g minced beef (you can mix in minced pork. Recommended quantity is 25% of total minced beef, e.g. for 200g minced beef, add in 50g minced pork)

1 bottle of tomato sauce (Barilla brand)

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

1 medium size large onion

1 tablespoon mixed herbs (oregano, basil, thyme)

1 tablespoon butter (to make the sauce creamy)

10g tomato paste

50g red wine 

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 and red wine. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of mixed herbs and stir to mix. Add the beef to the tomato sauce, mix in and simmer for 15 minutes. Finally (optional step), 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, can use big prawns -deshelled)

100g plain flour

12g corn flour

12g wheat starch

160g ice cold water

12g cooking oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

3g baking powder

Method

1. Sieve plain flour, corn flour, wheat starch 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 fish slices and 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 slices 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 (within skin)

40g large onion

250ml water

150ml milk

100ml heavy cream (optional)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optional - for creamier soup)

Dashes of freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Cut pumpkin into thin strips (cooks faster)

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 or until pumpkin is mushy. Let it cool down a bit.

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

Add milk (don't add all at once, adjust according to your preferred soup consistency) and salt, and stir over low heat to mix in. Add butter (if using) and stir until butter has melted.

Turn off the heat, stir in heavy cream.

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!

Roasted Bone Marrow

 烤牛骨髓

Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue found inside a bone. It is loaded with good saturated fats, minerals and proteins like collagen. Once cooked, the bone marrow can be eaten straight out of the bone, spread on bread like butter (it is also known as "butter of the gods"). 

Recipe credit: Sous Vide Everything

Ingredients

3-4 beef bone marrows

Herb mix (grated/miced garlic, herbs e.g. rosemary, parsley, olive oil) - 1 garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/4 tsp herbs for two bone marrows.

Baguette

Method

1. Remove excess meat and fat, if any, from the bones. This step is optional.

2. Place the bones in salted water overnight in the fridge. This step bleaches and removes the blood and impurities from the marrow. 

2. On day 2, drain the bone marrows and dab dry with kitchen towel. Place them on a pan (lined with parchment paper). Drizzle herb mix over the bones and roast in oven @ 180 deg celcius. It is done when garlic is golden brown, and the marrow is slightly pulled away from the bones. Remove from oven,  sprinkle with a bit of sea salt flakes and let it cool down.

3. Meanwhile, slice and toast a few pieces of baguette until nice and crispy. Scoop out the marrow and spread it on toasted baguette. Enjoy!