Perfect Char Siu

I've made 'Char Siu' so so many times but this time was the best I've ever made. All by sheer luck and a great piece of pork belly from the butcher. Ask for a half fat half lean piece from the butcher. Only three ingredients needed:-

1.5 kg of pork belly
1 bottle of Char Siu sauce
4 tbsp of thick dark soy sauce
3 tbsp of sugar

Marinade overnight. Preheat oven (fan grill) to 180C. Constantly baste meat with the marinade and turn over the meat till all sides gets caramelised. Leave to cool before cutting into bite size pieces. Enjoy!!

Supreme Pork Chop

This is a recipe I've gotten from 'Hawkers' Fair Simplified' that I've bought from Malaysia. I have to say this dish is very very nice indeed, well deserved title.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredient:

600gm pork chops (I've used pork Scotch with marbles of fats on it)

Marinade:

1 tbsp oyster sauce (I substituted with 1 tbsp of chicken granules)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sesame oil

1 egg

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp custard powder

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

200 ml water

200 gm corn flour, add in prior to deep frying

Sauce:

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tbsp chilli sauce

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp light soya sauce

3 tbsp water

Method:

Cut pork chop into 1 cm thick and pound with the back of knife till tender. Add in marinade, mix well and season for 30 minutes. Pour away excess marinade and add in corn flour prior to deep frying. Look at the golden hue on the meat after frying, it was just so nice to be eaten just like this.

Leave 1 tbsp of oil in wok, pour in sauce and cook till thick. Add in fried pork chops and mix well. Dish and drain.

My two cents worth, this original recipe sauce was a tad too sour for my liking, so i added in more sugar and i liked the subtle fragrance of the curry powder so i upped that too and the salt. Make the sauce to your liking and enjoy. Caution: it causes you to eat more rice!

I'm back!!

OK I've been away from blogging for many months now, due to some personal reasons. But I'm back now! I've been a SAHM now for 4 months and I'm thoroughly enjoying it! I'm enjoying my little girl who's growing up so quickly, I'm enjoying cooking more now that I don't have to rush like a madwomen everyday and most importantly I'm happy to care for the family!

So being a SAHM influences my cooking in what way? We use to have a lot of takeaways while i was working Full Time and that's no good for everyone especially the child. Now i try to do the Hong Kong TVB series standard of 'sam sung, yat tung' literally means three dishes and one soup! That's crazy by many people's standard even mine, so when i occasionally manages it, I'm thrilled to bits!

This was one of those days yay! Soup was eel with black beans, steamed chicken cubes with ginger and 'lap cheong', teriyaki salmon and stir fried lettuce. I'm very into soups lately cause for some strange reasons the little one loves it to bits. So I'll be jotting down recipes for soups mainly just so when i run out of ideas, I could always come back here to see what I've made before.

Conger Eel with Black Beans Soup:

1 huge piece of eel, mine was almost 1kg.

1 rice bowl of organic black beans

a handful of red dates

few slices of ginger, depending on how hot the ginger is (Kiwi ginger is super hot!)

2 litres of water (it should reduce to half when its done)

Put all ingredients into a big pot and bring it to boil on high heat, then turn it down to a simmering point and leave for another 3 hours. Salt to taste at end.

Supposedly, or I've been told by my mum black beans are great for blood nourishing effect. I love it anyway!