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.

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.

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.

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.

The Guild-Free Citrus Sweet & Sour Pork

It's always enjoyable to explore new taste into old recipe. Today, I have adapt Sweet & Sour Pork (咕噜肉 ) by infusing Lemon into the recipe.

The other day, I have also made a different variation of Sweet & Sour Pork using Lychee as part of the ingredients. The combination of Lychee and ketchup matches well but the proportion have to be careful so that the ketchup and vinegar does not over mask the Lychee taste. As I am short of Lychee today, I used Lemon in the recipe.

You may have order Sweet & Sour Pork in any Chinese restaurant and you should have know that the pork must be deep-fried crispy, which is not easy to copy at home as it will be messy and uses a lot of oil.

I do not like to do deep-fry at home for many reasons - it's not healthy, it contain alot of calories (and very fattening) and oil is expensive! Lolz. Hence, I have been exploring with my Airfryer to achieve the deep-fry result like how you see it in the Chinese restaurant or Tai-Chow.

This recipe make a small portion of Sweet & Sour Pork with Lemon.

Suitable for 2 - 3 pax.

Ingredients :

For Pork Marination :

200g pork (lean meat - slice into thin pieces)

1 tbsp Chinese Rice Wine

pinch of Salt

a dash of fish sauce

1 Egg (beaten and pour in some to the Marination, just need to wet the pork)

Mix well and leave it a side for 30 mins.

For Coating :

4-5 tbsp of multi-purpose flour

2 tbsp of corn flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of Paprika

0.5 tsp of ground rosemary

0.5 tsp of groud black pepper

0.5 tsp of salt

Mix well

For Sauce :

1.5 tbsp of ketchup

1 tbsp of plum sauce

1 tsp of hoisin sauce

1 Whole Lemon (cut and extract half of the lemon for juice, and the other half to slice)

2 bowl of water (water to adjust according to the taste)

Mix well

Sauce thickening :

1 tbsp of corn flour

half bowl of water
You will only use 2-3 tbsp only.

To finishing :

3 tsp of Brown Sugar (sweetness to adjust accordingly)

Cooking

Pork Marination & Coating

Lemon Sweet & Sour Sauce

Pre-heat AirFryer for 5 mins@200°C.

Put in the pork into the AirFryer for 15 mins@180°C.

Coat the pork with the some oil. Alternative, you may spray oil on the pork. Just ensure the pork is well coated with oil. Turn on AirFryer for another 15 mins.

Now, heat up your frying pan and pour in the sauce. Quickly add in water to dilute the sauce. 

When it bubble, add in 2 - 3 tbsp of the Sauce thickening. Mix well and watch the sauce to thicken.

Note : If you do not like it to be too sourish, you can reduce the sauces amount including lemon juice and do not cook the lemon any longer.

Transfer the ready pork into the Sauce and add in 3 tsp of brown sugar. 

Adjust sweetness to your liking.

Tara! It's ready.

Hope you like it.

The 'No-Time' Easy Cook Chicken

This is an extremely easy and yet 'impressive' menu to prepare. Impress your mother-in-law, friends, colleagues with this menu, it's suitable for many occasions whether it's a party or potluck.

Basically all you need is a good oyster sauce, soy sauce and any other-kind-of-sauce for flavour.

For oyster sauce, I use Lee-Kum-Kei premium oyster sauce (and yes, more expensive) cause I find the flavour is much better compared to the normal one.

Ingredients that you need :

(A) For Marination

• Whole chicken leg
• Oyster Sauce
• Soy Sauce
• Brown Sugar

Marinate all these together, overnight.

(B) Cooking

• Chopped onion into tiny bits
• Oyster sauce (again) or replace with other sauce such as BBQ/ Pepper/ Cajun/ Hoisin.
• Chinese Rice Wine
• A little of Fish Sauce. 
• A little of Sesame Oil
• Baking Paper (to wrap the chicken)

Marinate the chicken with the Marination Sauce for overnight or at least 4 hours.

I usually will pre-prep all my meat in the standard sauce (Oyster sauce, soy sauce & brown sugar) as it's versatile and it can easily match to many recipe.

Cut the baking paper into square shape. 

Here, you can split the chicken and pack 1 piece of chicken into 1 baking paper.

Now, coat the chicken with the chopped onion, sauces and a little of Chinese Rice Wine, fish sauce and sesame oil.To impress your guests further, you can put in different sauce into each pack to create assorted flavoured Paper Wrapped Chicken. Today, I have used 'Original' (which is oyster sauce) and BBQ. 

Wrap up each chicken and ensure there's no loose end as we want the juices to be trap in the wrap.

Pre-heat Airfryer for 5 mins@200°C.

Put in the Paper Wrapped chicken into the AirFryer for 40 mins@180°C

This is how it look when it's done. 

Use a stewer to poke into the bone, it's cook if there's no bloody juice flow out.

Wrapping in baking paper will capture the juice.

Viola! Now, bring it to your guests.

Isn't it easy? If you don't have a airfryer, you may use an oven also. 

As you can see, I only cook 2 small piece of chicken, just nice for my husband and my dinner. It's time effective and suitable for small family. 

Braised Pork Belly

Braise, required a combination of two steps - searing and stewing. Searing helps to make the meat texture to be more 'spongy' and give a nice colour. Stewing helps to soften the meat and enhance the flavour. The longer you braise, the more intense is the flavour.

This version of the braised pork is modified from my mom's recipe. The original version, which is my mom's version, is very simple. It uses a lot of garlic and soy sauce. Then, tint with some dark soya sauce to colour. Simple and delicious.

Now, let me share with you on the ingredients:

• Pork belly
• Garlic & Onion
• 5 spices powder
• Sage powder 
• Anise star (1~2 biji)
• Clove (3~4 biji)
• Pepper 
• 2 tbsp Chinese rice wine 
• 1-2 tbsp Light soy sauce (生抽)
• 2-3 tbsp Dark soy sauce ( 老抽）
• A dash of Tea leaves
• A dash of fish sauce
• Salt to adjust saltiness

Here's the cooking part:

1. Heat up clay pot.
2. Add in some oil. I use grapeseed oil, about 2~3 tbsp.
3. Put in Onion first, then garlic. Fry until fragrance.
4. Pour in pork belly and continue searing until caramelized. Sear under high heat.
5. Put in 5 spice powder, sage powder and pepper and lightly pan-fry.
6. Add in water immediately to avoid the spices be burned.
7. Add in water bit by bit. Bring to boil.
8. Add in dash of soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, anise star and cloves.
9. Stew for 1 hour. Add in tea leaves and stew for another 1 hour.

During stewing, check regularly on the heat and moisture level. Watch out not to dry up the base.

As i use claypot, hence, it 2 hours to achieve the 'melt in the mouth' texture. I have added tea leaves into this recipe as I find it help to reduce the greasiness. 

As for the spices, you can adjust the taste to your like and preferences. I find sage flavour matches the taste very pleasantly. My recommendation is 1:1 for 5 spices powder and sage.

Hope you like it.

Fry onion and garlic until fragrance

Then, add in the pork and sear till brown

Braise with low heat

Ready and grab a bowl of rice