Mongolian Style Pork Slices

I got this recipe from Kylie Kwong after watching one of her show-ups on Saturday Cooks (Astro's AFC channel). It is a quick dish meant for busy office-goers nowadays. Kylie used minced beef while I opted for pork slices instead. Feel free to add in shredded carrots and chopped capsicums. I wanted to add them too but I could not get them last minute (so much for last minute shoppers, hah!)

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)
450g Sliced Pork
1/2 Chinese Cabbage Leafs (about 15 petals, finely chopped)
1/2 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp Chinese Shao Xing Cooking Wine
2 tbsp Crushed Black Pepper Corn
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
3 bunches Spring Onion (cleaned and finely chopped)
2 tbsp Sea Salt
1 tbsp Soy Bean Paste
2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
2 slices Ginger (finely chopped)

Marinate:
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp Chinese Shao Xing Cooking Wine
1/2 tbsp White Pepper Powder
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce

Method:
Slice the pork, marinade with ingredients above and leave aside for about 5-10 minutes. Mix 2 tbsp salt with the chopped Chinese cabbage leafs (this is not going to be cooked, eaten raw) Heat oil in a wok, stir in ginger and garlic and fry til aromatic. Stir-fry the sliced pork for about 2 minutes or until they start to turn white (from raw red colour). Quickly stir in soy bean paste and cooking wine, followed by the black pepper corn, continue to stir fry for another 3-5 minutes. Stir in the sesame oil just before turning off the heat. Done. mix well with the raw Chinese cabbage leafs before serving.

Note: For spicy food lovers, substitute oyster sauce with Hoisin sauce and add in a couple of finely chopped Thai small chilies when stir-frying.

Curry Fish My Style

Having just started on my industrial training, I am so used to arriving at home after work and just laze around.I must admit that despite the fact that I know I should spend just a little time to update somethings on my blog, I just could not help it. I think this is what people call 'office-goers' laziness'... Nevertheless, with Chinese's Dong Zhi just passed and Christmas just around the corner, I finally decided to clear up old my 'old debts' with my blog posts. That said, this curry fish was made a few days after I came back from Sydney, sorry it took such a long time to get posted here... lol



Ingredients: (serves 3-4)
1 Fresh Whole Fish (about 400-500g)
3 slices Ginger (finely chopped)
1 Large Red Onion (finely sliced)
1 stalk Lemon Grass (finely chopped)
3 pc Khaffir Lime Leafs (finely chopped)
2 tbsp Curry Powder (could use 3tbsp for a stronger curry taste)
1 tbsp Chili Powder
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 a can of Evaporated Milk Creamer (could subsitute with plain yoghurt)
Pepper and Salt to taste

Method:
Clean and rinse the fish toroughly, half the fish, make a couple of deep scores on both sides of the fish and give them a good rub of salt, leave aside for about 15 minutes to marinate. Heat oil in a wok, stir in the slice red onion, lemon grass and ginger, continue to stir fry until aromatic. Add in the curry and chili powder while there is still oil in the wok, stir fry until fragrant. Pour in half the proportion of the evaporated creamer and braise for about 3 minutes. Put in the fish at this point, mix well and cover wok with lid, bring to boil over high heat. Remove the wok lid, check whether the fish's eyes has poked out. If no, add some water, cover with lid and simmer again for another 5 minutes or so. If yes, add in the remainder of the evaporated milk, followed by the khaffir lime leafs. Stir and mix well, make sure the gravy is nice and thick (the evaporated milk added at the end should help to achieve this, if not, stir in some corn flour solution). Turn off the heat when the gravy boils again, done. Serve hot or warm.

Thai Stir Fried Tofu with Basil and Soy Sauce

Having return to Malaysia for more than a week, I had been eating here and there and almost in a non-stop pace. However so, I have been thinking of, or should I say I really missed the Thai cuisine back in Sydney. One of the most common and easy dish that one will find in Thai cuisine would be no other than stir-frys with basil. This would be even evident in thoe vegetarian Thai cuisines, those in Sydney that is. Hence, I did not hesitate to make this dish to satisfy my tastebuds and ofcourse, my stomach. I have to say that it has much to improve to compete with those from those Thai restaurants that I have tasted before in Sydney. Nevertheless, the aromatic smell of Basil is just astonishing, not sure about other people, but if you asked me, I would say anything (or most of the food) goes well with Basil, so sorry to those who dislike this herb, you are just missing out, BIG time!

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)
4pc Dry Tofu (thickly sliced, about 9 to 10pc per tofu)
2 Fresh Tomato (sliced into 8pc each)
4 bunches Fresh Basil Leafs
1 Large Red Onion (coarsely sliced)
2 tbsp Soy Bean Paste
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
Pinch of Salt, Sugar and Pepper to taste
2 slices Ginger (finely chopped)
3pc Thai Small Chili (seeds removed and finely chopped)
3 tbsp Vegetable Oil

Method: Rub a pinch of salt thoroughly over sliced tofu and lightly fry in hot vegetable oil (you can seperately parboil the tofu in hot oil seperately for a more crunchy texture later). Stir in ginger and onion and continue to stir fry gently, so as not to spoil the tofu accidently. Add in the basil leafs at this point, stir fry until the leafs have all absorbed some oil and start to turn dark green. Add all the seasonings and the chili. Stir fry for another 5 minutes over high heat. Stir in sliced tomato at last and stir fry for another 2 minutes. Done, serve hot.

Heaven's Dragon Balls

During the last few days staying over Jon's place in Sydney, I managed to squeeze out some time out of my busy vacation trips schedule to make this dish. I had the idea for this dish since some time ago, and really wanted to get my hands on it to get it done, but obviously I did not manage to do so until the very last minute... I was inspired to make this dish after seeing some friends who often buy canned lychee to make desserts, and I've always wondered how the sweetness and the saltiness of the meat who blend together, well this is my first trial on it, it not bad I reckon, if I were to make it again, I would give it another twist, which I think it would taste even better! Well, let's go into the preparation of the ingredients...

Ingredients: (makes about 20, depends on how many lychees are there in the can)
1pc Fish Fillet (I used Bassa, about 250g-300g)
300g Minced Pork
1 no. Canned Lychee
1 Egg (white and yolk separated)
2pc Italian Oiled Anchovies
4 stems Chives (finely chopped)
2 tbsp Dried Chili Flakes
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Black Pepper Powder
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
3 slices Ginger (finely chopped)
2 tbsp Corn Flour

Method:

This time I included a lot of pictures just in case methodological description is not enough, like people say, a picture tells a thousand words. First of all rinse and drain water from the minced pork and bassa fillet. Use a knife or spoon to crush both meat and mix well.

Do everything on a cutting board, makes things easier, I used knife throughout the whole process, add in the sesame oil, chopped ginger, corn flour, Italian oiled anchovies, one egg's white, light soy sauce and pepper and mix well with the two meat.

The Italian oiled anchovies should be salty enough, hence I did not add any salt into the mixture, if you fancy more salty food, feel free to add 1 tbsp or 2, make sure to add a bit of sugar to sweeten it at the same time, or it will be dead salty.

Once the meat is well seasoned, leave it to rest for about 15 minutes, then start beating the meat vigorously with a cutting knife, this has to be repeated continuously for at least 10 minutes, or until all the meat is well mixed (i.e. you cannot see the difference of fish and pork, and the mixed meat is tender and has some elasticity in it, hard huh?)



Do not forget to add in the chopped chives as well, this will add another layer of flavour to the meat later on when the dish is done.

This is how the meat looks like after all the mixing and beating, no doubt it is a bit like making the ingredients for Yong Tofu. Anyway, I guarantee you this dish is different, try it!

Ok, now it comes to the excited part, filling up those lychees! Remove all the lychee meat from the juice in the tin can, tap dry with kitchen towel. If you want, you can mix all those lychee meat with 1 tbsp of corn flour, that will ensure they are all well dried up. Keep the egg yolk for the last...

Use a teaspoon and carefully scoop in the mixed meat, make sure not to tear off the lychee meat as they are really soft and 'brittle'. After filling up those lychee round and firmly, brush with plain water, making sure they are all filled in tact and will not drop out easily...

Last thing, cook'em! Steam them for only 10 minutes, at most 15 minutes, no more than that! Remove from steamer, leave to cool. Use 1/4 cup of lychee juice from the can earlier, bring to boil in a saucepan, beat yolk and pour over the boiling juice through a sieve, turn of heat after about 1 minute. Pour juice over steamed 'dragon balls', sprinkle with dried chili flakes. Done, serve hot or warm.

*Note: The amount of meat given above is more than enough for the amount of lychee meat from one can of lychee, you can halve the proportion of the meat if you desire. If you prefer to use fresh lychee meat (due to its freshness), simply substitute the lychee juice with sugared water (remember, reduce consumption of sugar!). For those who are adventurous, try this, steam the dragon balls for 5 minutes then roast for another 8-10 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. I think this will method will have an even better final result! Enjoy!

Back Again! Golden White Jade

FINALLY! I reckon it has been really some time since my last post, all thanks to my overwhelming laziness and busy schedule recently. Now now, let me explain a bit, the last few weeks in Sydney had been spent by participating in trips to various places in New South Wales, not forgetting dining out at all those fabulous restaurants all around Sydney! It has been a truly fulfilling experience, especially to my own stomach I reckon!!! XD If by any chance that those who are reading this blog are interested in what I did in those trips, checkout my facebook photo albums, I made an effort to post some pictures, but sadly to say not each of it, hopefully you will find those place interesting and make an effort to visit them as well! I highly recommend the sand boarding activity at Port Stephens and seafood gastronomic experience new Hornsby River!

Well, let's not forget what I am use to posting, this recipe is one of the dish that I made when Connie asked me to cook one night's dinner, in a way a farewell dinner for Carrie's leaving as well. I really have to apologize to Connie as I promised her that I would post the recipe of this dish the very next following day, but obviously I did not do so... Ashamed Hence Connie, sorry for that, and let us check out that recipe I promised you, what you called it again? Golden White Jade was it? laughing

Ingredients: (serves 3)
500g Fresh Soft Tofu (sliced into rectangle pieces)
1 no. Canned Mango Slices
10g Crushed Peanuts (lightly toasted)
2 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
1 1/2 tbsp Corn Flour
1 tbsp Hot Paprika Powder
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Sugar (not a must)
Salt and Pepper to taste
5 tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
2 slices Ginger (finely chopped)

Method:

I wonder did everyone like the essay-like approach I tried out in the last two posts, but I think I am beginning to like that style as it makes things less formal and hence I will continue to use it and improvise as things go...

Mix 2 tbsp cinnamon powder with 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour in a bowl, stir in hot paprika powder and some pepper as well, mix well. Lightly coat each piece of tofu with the powder mixture, leave aside. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan, lightly fry the tofu pieces in hot oil until they start to turn yellow or gold-ish colour. Remove from on oil and leave on kitchen towel to rest. Drain but keep the mango juice from the canned mango. Mix the juices with the remaining powder mixture from earlier, leave aside. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok or pan, stir in chopped garlic and ginger and fry till aromatic. Stir in mango slices (cut into smaller pieces if desired) and fry for 1 minute before adding in the fried tofu, continue to stir-fry gently for another 2 minutes or so. Add in the sauce mixture and mix well, add at most 1/2 cup of water if the ingredients are too dry (the sauce should be thick enough to just coat the ingredients, not too watery), turn to high heat and bring to boil. Add the remaining seasoning to own suit own taste. Turn off heat, stir in toasted peanuts and mix well. Done, serve hot or warm before the sauce dries off, which is quite fast...

House Warming Potluck... Savoury Cups

I think everyone has this fascination with Pot Luck since the last time we had one when Lee Shean, Kum Tak and I moved into our new place. Fortunately, this time around nearing the end of the year, we had another one to celebrate Livee and Fui Kiat moving into their new place, it's really quite a nice place I think, but frankly speaking, Pot Lucks are seriously more about the food! HaHaHa! We actually had a lot of dish that night, thanks to people who cooked and Fui Kiat who took away some orders from one of the Chinese restaurants around. Well, I wish I had the pictures that we took that night, but they are all with Livee and Fui Kiat, hence as much as I want to post about that night's event, I could only talk about the dish I made, as those are the only pictures I have...



So let's turn to the dish I made, this time around I made Pi-Tee, if I remembered the name correctly, this dish is actually available at the Chicken Rice Shop back in Malaysia, my aunt made it once as well, but obviously I made some serious amount of changes to it, HaHa. The ingredients used for this dish is also frequently used for San Choy Bao (Lettuce Wrap) as well, so feel free to use Iceberg Lettuce if you don't feel like making those cups, but they're not any hard anyway...

Ingredients: (makes..A LOT)
2 pack Wanton Wraps (about 120pc)
500g Minced Pork
450g Fresh Bean Sprouts (finely chopped)
1 bunch Chives (finely chopped)
2 Red Carrots (finely sliced/shredded)
1kg Button Mushroom (rinsed and diced)
5pc Thai Small Chili
3pc Lump Sugar
3 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Sea Salt (add more to suit own taste)
5 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
2 tbsp Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Black Pepper Powder
3 slices Ginger (finely chopped)
4 tbsp Vegetable Oil
4 pc Khaffir Lime Leafs (finely chopped)
100g Skinned Peanuts (crushed and toasted)

Method:
I've always tried to make the 'methods' section more formal so that is easily readable, but recently I like to give the informal 'paragraphing' method a try....To make the cups, simply fit the wanton wraps into a muffin tray, u can use two wraps to make a cup if you wish to, then you will get 60 cups, or if you really want to make a lot of it, just one wrap for each muffin hole will do.

Just fit one wrap into each hole on the muffin tray, there is actually a special mould that would make the cups a lot nicer, but obviously I do not have it here, so I used what I had... Bake each tray in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. This baking time might vary with different ovens, adjust accordingly...

These baked cups are made of two wanton wraps each, it would be a lot small and cuter if only one wrap was used, but I like them this way...

As for the ingredients, it is just a matter of frying them altogether, but the procedure is important, make sure those fast-cooked ingredients are stirred in towards the end, so that they do not loose the texture... Start of by heating the oil in a wok, stir fry the chopped garlic and ginger until fragrant, add in pork mince and followed by black pepper powder, stir fry until all turns meat-white and thoroughly cooked. Add diced mushroom at this point, followed by brown sugar, stir fry for 3 minutes. Add in chopped chives and chili, mix well, add light and dark soy sauce, salt and lump sugar, there should be quite a lot of sauce in the wok by now, add some water if there isn't. Cover with lid, braise over low heat until boiling point. Remove lid, stir in carrots, leave to cook for 2 minutes before adding chopped bean sprouts, braise for another 2 minutes and repeat the same with the chopped Khaffir lime leafs for 1 minute. Done. Stir in crushed peanuts at the end before serving. Done. Serve ingredients on baked cups prepared earlier.

Close up of the savoury cups

The Flower Cups Arrangement

Double Cooked Chicken... Derrick's Farewell Gift

Derrick's farewell party was celebrated by a series of homemade dishes rather than a generous dining out at some restaurant. Partly due to the fact that other housemates of his still have a few papers to sit for during this exam period. Well, another reason I think, is probably because his housemates do not want to celebrate his leaving as he was leaving too early, you should stay longer in Sydney Derrick! HaHaHa. Just joking, do not take it too serious!

As per Derrick's request for something more generous and/or luxurious for his departing dinner, I agreed to make this poultry dish, while he took care of the other dishes, partly as a sign of gratitude to his housemates. Nevertheless, this one dish was worth the effort of all the other dishes, it took me a whole day preparing it, well I think it was partly due to the fact that it was my first time making it as well, I only came out with the idea of making this dish 2 days ago. Luckily it turned out as expected, or it would have ruined the party!

Sticking back to the making of this dish, let's first look at the ingredients needed, this dish serves about 4 to 5 person:

1 big Roasting Chicken (about 1.5kg)

100g Glutinous Rice (soaked overnight pre-use)

25g Sliced Chinese Shitake Mushroom (soaked with sugared water pre-use)

50g Chestnuts (rinsed and toasted pre-use)

10g Chinese Red Dates (soaked re-use)

1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

1 tbsp Sea Salt

1 tbsp Black Pepper Powder

2 tbsp Vegetable Oil

Water

3 pc Lump Sugar

Marinate

5 tbsp Sea Salt

2 tbsp Five Spice Powder

2 tbsp Black Pepper Powder

3 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

Now, in terms of preparing the dish, rinse the chicken thoroughly, especially the inside of the chicken, pat dry with kitchen towel, apply sea salt thoroughly to the entire chicken, giving it a good massage at the same time. Leave aside for 15 minutes. Mix five spice powder, black pepper powder, light and dark soy sauce in a bowl, apply mixture thoroughly onto chicken, with the remaining sauce being poured into the chicken from the backside. Leave aside for 1 to 2 hours or more. I did mine for 3 hours.

Heat vegetable oil in a wok, add sliced mushroom and stir fry for 1 minute, add some brown sugar and salt to brown. Stir in Chinese red dates and chestnuts, mix well. Add in the glutinous rice soaked earlier, stir fry and mix well for 3 minutes. Add in all the remaining seasonings (except for the lump sugars), add water to half the level of the ingredients. Mix well and cover with lid, braise for 3 minutes. Remove lid and continue to stir fry for another 2 minutes, add some water if necessary...

Scoop all the stir-fried ingredients into the chicken, throw in the lump sugars before hand, use a spoon to make sure all the ingredients are packed tightly. Seal the opening behind the chicken with toothpicks. Done. Move chicken to a steamer, steam continuously for at least 1 hour over high heat. Add water to steamer when necessary.

After an hour, remove chicken from steamer and place it on a roasting pan, pour all the remaining sauces onto chicken. Roast in pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, with the chicken turned sides at 15 minutes interval. Done. Serve hot or warm.