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 Spicy Taucu Sauce Steam Fish

Making sauces at home is easy. You control what you put in, adapt to your own preferences and no additives and preservatives. You know what you are eating. It's not only healthier, but actually it's more delicious too. 

I usually don't make too much at a time, each time, I'll make sauces that can use up to 3~5 times only. 

Ingredients :

2 pcs fresh Red Chilli

3~4 cloves of Garlic

4~5 pcs of shallots

2 tbsp of bean paste (taucu)

2 tsp of brown sugar

Some water

1 pcs of talapia fish

Step :

1) chilli, garlic and shallot- Fry to fragrance. 

2) Add in bean paste and brown sugar. Add some water to simmer.

3) The sauce is ready when it thicken. The longer you simmer is the better. Do not add too much water at a time. You should add water bit by bit so the sauce will not dry up.

4) Cleaning fish - descale and remove all the organs. Do not break the gut (black colour thing) as it will make the fish bitter. 

5) Steam fish for 15 mins. Check fish if fish is cook by using chopstick to poke the thickest part. If it goes it directly, easily, it means it's cooked. 

Remove some of the fish sauce that caused by the steaming process. You may keep it to cook vegetables .

6) Pour some sauce over the fish and let it steam for a while about 5mins.

Photo helper

Mix and cook all together.

Once you see that the sauce have get thicker, it's ready. Transfer to a jar to cool down before storing in fridge. Leave it in fridge for at least 1 week so that the taste and aroma become stronger.

Korea Fresh Ginseng Chicken Soup

Happened to came across The air-flown Korea Fresh Ginseng, brought in by Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp into Tastefully KL last weekend. 

As most of you may know,  ginseng have been traditional taken to aid many health condition and often taken for general health. it's taken to improve thinking ability (good for work n studies), anti-inflammation and improve immunology system and many others. 

As I have been working hard lately and find myself get easily tired and poor focus. I decided to make some tonic and herbal to drink. Mom says, ones get younger by consuming tonic. 

The Ginseng that I came across at Tastefully is small and slim but the aroma n flavour is powerful. The leaves and stem is also edible. 

Since we got this good stuff, I have make into a Ginseng Chicken Soup, double boil for 8 hours to consume. 

Ingredients :

1 pc x Korea Fresh Ginseng

1 Whole Chicken leg n Thigh

2 pcs x Jujube

Pitch of salt

Step :

1) Boil water - you will need it to pour into the double boil electric boiler.

2) Clean chicken and de-skin. Remove any fats. 

3) Boil the chicken in another pot and let it boil over 15 - 20 mins or until completely cooked. 

4) Wash ginseng thoroughly and de-seed jujube. 

5) Place chicken,  ginseng and jujube into the ceramic pot, pour in hot water, cover it and put into the double boiler. 

6) I turn under high heat until the water is very hot then switch to auto to let it simmer for 8 hours. 

The soup is clear and golden in colour. 

Double boil

Cover with a ceramic lid. 

Double boil,  is a Chinese cooking technique that is commonly used to cook soup and herbal. It uses a ceramic jar put inside the larger pot filled with hot water. The soup is cooked from heat generated from the steam. It cook over long hours,  6 - 8 hours, to finish. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_steaming

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.

Nam-Yu Pandan Chickie

The initial idea of buying the pandan is for making red bean tong sui. However, I have changed my idea to Pandan Leaves Chicken when I'm staring at it. My mind is flooded with the Thai style ones but I didn't have the ingredients at home.

So, I thought of having this combination of nam-yu and pandan if the flavour will blend in well.

Marination
200g chicken breast or thigh - cut into small cube
1 cube of red fermented beancurb (nam-yu / 南乳)
1 tsp of fish sauce
Half tsp light soy sauce
A pitch of chopped garlic
A pitch of chopped onion

Marinate for at least half an hour. Take note on the saltiness as nam-yu and soy sauce is both very salty. Adjust your own level of saltiness. My recommendation is to add in a little of soy sauce so the flavour will be more layered rather than just for the saltiness.

Coat the marinated chicken with corn flour.

Wrap the chicken with pandan leaves. You may coat the leaves and chicken with some oil (optional).

Ensure you wash the pandan leaves thoroughly as there alot dirt.

Pre-Heat Airfryer for 5 mins @ 180°C

Put in chicken. Cook for 15 mins @ 180°C. 

Enjoy the pandan aroma while you can seat back and enjoy the TV. Cooking with Airfryer makes life easier for busy (lazy) people.

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.

Curry Asparagus with Chicken Bits

This dish look very simple but needs a bit of preparation work. I have prep the curry chicken in advance as you will need to soak the chicken in the curry sauce so that the chicken will be full of the curry flavour. When you cook the curry sauce, you may make it more salty as later on you do not need to add anymore seasoning when you cook it with asparagus.

Ingredient A

3 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp paprika powder

1 tsp ginger powder

1 pc cinnamon 

2 pc bay leaf

Ingredient B

500ml water

1 small whole piece chicken breast fillet.

Ingredient C
Asparagus, cut interval on every 2 inch

Mix all Ingredient A into the boiling water. Mix well. Add in the chicken. Cook till chicken cooked thoroughly and until the juice left about half under medium-small heat.

Once ready, let it cool down and transfer the chicken and juices into a zipper bag or aluminum foil. Wrap it nicely to avoid food contamination. Keep in fridge/freezer at least 6 hours or overnight.

Final Cooking:

Slice and cut chicken into tiny bits.

Heat up frying pan and put in a little of oil. Add in the chicken and keep on searing it. When you see the chicken start to get to dry up, add in Shallot and Garlic. Keep on sear until become very dry and fragrance.

Add in Asparagus.

Ready to serve.

'Not too Curry' Red Snapper

Cooking fish is always not my forte. So, I gonna cook it in an easy way out. Ha ha ha.

I'm frying it this time as the fish is not too fresh and I hate the fishy-smell. Definitely it's not steam quality. This recipe is fishy-smell proof.

Ingredients:
1 pc of red snapper (about 300g)
2.5 tbsp of Curry powder
1.5 tsp of Paprika powder
1 tsp of Turmeric powder
Pinch of Pepper
Pinch of Chilli flake (adjust for spiciness)
Pinch of salt
A little of fish sauce
10 pcs of curry leafs

Mix everything altogether with a little of water into spice paste.


Cooking

1. Coat the spices paste all over the fish.
2. Marinate for half an hour.
3. Preheat Airfryer for 5mins@180°C
4. Airfry fish for 30mins@190°C
5. Put in the curry leaf during the last 10 mins.

Note: check if fish is cooked using a chopstick through the thickest part. If it doesn't go through smoothly, then Airfry longer.

Ready to eat.

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.