Crispy Roast Pork

Crispy Roast Pork

I prepared this roasted pork for CNY thid year. Eventually I wanted to buy it from the BBQ restaurant nearby my house but they are not openopen during CNY.  So I decided to make one for the family dinner .

Here's what I use:

• Pork Belly with skin (size approx 12" x 6")
• Marinating ingredients :
- Rose wine (玫瑰酒) 1-2 tbsp
- salt, pepper, smoke paprika powder,  5 spice powder- half tsp each, mix in bowl and rub some on meat. I didn't use up all the seasoning.
- 1.1/2 cube of fermented tofu (南乳)
• I use Himalayan pink rock salt.

Here's the how:

1) Rub marinating ingredients on the side of the meat. The marinating ingredients quantity can be adjusted to your liking. Poke hole in meat. I uses a meat tenderizer nails to poke the meat. This will help to make the meat tender.

2) Place the skin facing up and wrap the pork in aluminum foil, but expose the skin to air. 

3) Cover pork and marinate in fridge overnight. I have marinate for 10-12 hours.
Remove from fridge when ready to roast.

4) Pat dry the skin and add a little salt on skin. Criss-cross cut on skin. Cutting depth reach the lard, no need cut too deep. Do not cut till the meat. I tried poking the skin but I don't think it reach the lard.

5) Cover skin with a layer of salt.

6) Pre-heat oven at 200°c for 5 mins.

My roasting split into 3 time as below here .

7) Roast at medium-low (130-150°c) without fan on both up and bottom heat. Plus minus around 1 hour. You will see the meat is still white in colour and look undercook. Discard some of the juice (or oil) away.

8) Turn heat up to high heat (about 220°c) without fan on both up and bottom heat. Roast for 15-20 mins. You should be able to smell the aromatic. Watch out not to over cook.

9) Remove the salt on top. Turn on the fan and only keep the upper heat on. Move pork to the upper tray to keep the skin near to the heat. Watch during this duration not to burn the skin. Should be ready by 5-8 mins.

Note:
1) You can reduce the salt as the fermented tofu is salty too.
2) the °c of the heat and roasting timing should be adjusted accordingly to your oven.
3) fan will make the meat dry up.
4) do not entirely remove all the oil and juice from the meat as the meat will soak them back and keep meat moisture.

I didn't take photo for this As I'm too busy cooking. Hope you like it. 

This photo shows the 2nd time of roasting.

Homemade Plum Sauce Pork

The first thing that comes to my mind is 'Plum Sauce Chicken' when I found the 'fresh' dried plum while making market visit at Lulu Hypermarket, Capsquare.

Homemade Plum Sauce is definitely taste better than those in bottled. I'm replacing chicken with pork in this recipe (I didn't buy chicken lor).

(A)
Small thumb size Ginger ~ sliced thin.
3 cloves of Garlic ~ finely chopped
1 small Onion ~ finely chopped
1 stalk of Lemongrass ~ finely chopped
70g of Dried Plum - deseed
1 tsp of oyster sauce
2 tbsp of Honey
A pinch of 5 spices powder

(B)
200g pork - cut into cube size about 3cm
Salt & pepper
A pinch of soda powder (this will soften the meat)
2 tsp of sesame oil

Marinate the pork with all the ingredient (B) for half an hour.

Turn on Airfryer, preheat at 180°C for 5 mins. Put in pork into Airfryer and cook for 20 mins under 180°C or until you see the pork becomes brown.

Now, let's go to the sauce part.

If you have a blender, you can blend in everything together.

Saute Ginger, Onion, Garlic and Lemongrass until, fragrance.

Add in oyster sauce, dried plum, 5 spice powder and water. Bring to boil. Turn to medium-low heat and let it boil for half hour. Add in honey, adjust taste and sweetness.

This should make about 1 bowl. Once the sauce is ready, spare some for this dish and move the balance to a jar for future use. Keep in fridge.

Fold in the pork and mix well.

Ready to serve.

Vietnamese Coconut Braised Pork

The first time that I tasted this dish is at Pho Vietz, a upraising Vietnamese restaurant in KL. This dish left my palate with a very strong impression. The sweetness, light but yet powerful taste lingers in my tongue for a very long while. According to the Chef, this dish, called 'Thit-Heo-Kho' is a Vietnamese new year dish.

No, I didn't get this recipe from Pho Viet chef, although I dyingly wanted to. I got this recipe from another page online (here). I have modify the recipe to my liking. I did not marinate the pork and did not put in palm sugar as I think the coconut juice is sweet enough by it's own.

Ingredients

(A)
2-3 slice of Ginger
1 tbsp of finely chopped onion
half tbsp of finely chopped garlic
1 cinnamon stick
2 Anise Star
1 tsp of oyster sauce
About 200g Pork Belly/ Lean Meat

(B)
350~500ml of coconut water
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tsp of dark soy sauce (for colour)
1 tsp of fish sauce

I brought Tropicana Coconut Water as I didn't get the fresh ones.

Saute Ingredient A until fragrance. Add in the pork and continue saute until you see the skin is browned.

Add in Ingredient B

Bring to boil and braise under low heat for at least 1 hour.

Ready to serve.

Salted Egg Prawn 咸蛋超仁

I'm so happy that my colleague from Perak have brought us some ham dan (salted egg). The egg is huge and the saltiness is just right with a very strong flavour. It is so nice. My colleague told me she brought it from directly from the ham dan maker. So it's really 'fresh'.

I'm not really a ham dan fans, so I seldom cook dishes with ham dan. When I received the eggs, the first dish that came to my mind is Ham Dan Prawn.

This time, I happened to be at NSK Rawang Jaya for roadshow. I'm happy to see this outlet have so many varieties of fresh food, vegetables and seafood. To be frank, this my first time going to NSK. 

Now, let's get back to the recipe. Here's what you need.

500g large prawns

3 large salted egg york

2 tbsp Butter

20 pcs of Curry leaves
Chopped onion

(B)

Chinese Rice Wine

Salt

Sugar

(C)

Corn flour

Oatmeal 

Steps:

Deshell, dehead and devein all the prawns. Wash the prawns thoroughly with water to remove any debris.

Pour in Chinese rice wine,  alot of salt and sugar to the prawns. No need add water. Let it seat aside for 10~15 mins. This step is important if the prawns is less fresh and have a stinky smell. If your prawns is super fresh, you may skip this step.

Steam ham dan york for 10 mins or less. The egg is ready when the colour turned. Smash the egg york into mushy-mashy.

Wash off the salt and sugar. Drain it dry. Coat the prawns with corn flour and oatmeal.

Heat up pan with 4 - 5 tbsp oil.

Fry prawns and oatmeal.

Once the prawns turned red and curled, quickly dish up and set aside.

Now, let's make the sauce.

Heat up pan and put in the butter. Becareful not to burn the butter. Add in onion and keep on stirring. You will see foam rise up.

Add in the mashy-mushy egg york into the butter foam. Mix the egg york well and add in curry leaves.

Add in prawns and coat sauce evenly.

Dish up and ready to serve.

Simple n Easy Braised Pork with Chilli

Good food can be simple and easy to cook. You also don't need canggih (sophisticated) equipment to make a perfect dish.

This recipe is based on the concept of minimization.

Here what you need :

150g pork, cut into strip

Half piece of red chilli, remove seed (adjust quantity for spiciness) 

5 pcs of Ginger, thin cut

2 clove of garlic, smashed 

1 medium size shallot

1 tsp of oyster sauce

2 tbsp of soy sauce (adjust quantity for saltiness) 

Cooking

Pan-fry Ginger, Shallots and Garlic (in sequence) . Fry till fragrance.

Add in soy sauce, oyster sauce and water. Then followed by chilli.

Braise for 1 hour to soften meat. If the meat is not soft and tender enough, braise longer.

Matches plain porridge or rice well.

Sweet Basil Black Chicken

Adapted from the famous Taiwanese dishes, 3 cup Chicken. The original recipe needs the ratio of 1 : 1 : 1 of Sesame oil, Chinese rice wine and soy sauce. I couldn't copy the taste like how I tasted in Taiwan, so I adjust the taste to taste good.

Ingredients
150g chicken breast fillet, cut into cube
1 small piece of Ginger, cut into thin
2 shallots, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, chopped

2 tbsp Cooking Oil (I used Grapeseed oil)
1 tbsp Sesame oil
2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce (老抽), add into a small bowl of water.
2 tbsp Chinese Rice Wine
Sweet Basil leafs

Cooking

Heat up the oil (cooking oil + sesame oil)

Pan-fry ginger, onion and garlic (in this sequence). Fry until fragrance.

Add in chicken cube

Pan-fry chicken until brownish.

Add in the bowl of soy sauce and Chinese Rice Wine. Let it boil until dry up abit.

Add in sweet basil.

Ready to serve.