Rasberry Jam and Rosemarry Soy Roasted Pork

Ingredients
1kg pork belly (or pork roast), 230g raspberry jam, 2tbsp dried rosemary, 1 tbsp hot paprika, 1 cup Chinese shao xing cooking rice wine (feel free to use any sweet red wines if you want), 4 cloves garlic (finely chopped), 400g button mushroom (sliced), 8 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 2tbsp freshly cracked sea salt and black pepper each, 2 tbsp corn flour, coriander to garnish, 1tbsp butter, extra 2 tbsp raspberry jam for the sauce.

the freshly-roasted pork sliced on the cutting board, I personally thought it would better if the meat was a bit more raw, or red-ish.

Method
1. Clean and score the pork belly on both faces with a sharp knife, rub it fresh cracked sea salt and black pepper.
2. In a mixing bowl, bring together 200g of raspberry jam, 6 tbsp light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, dried rosemary, hot paprika, sugar and cooking wine, mix well and rub thoroughly onto the meat, coating much of coarse ingredients onto the top skin layer, leave aside to marinade for at least 3 hours (overnight preferably).

3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Wrap the pork with aluminium foil, pour in all the extra marinade sauce as well, seal tightly. Roast over a layer of water in the oven for about 1 hour.
4. After an hour, loosen the seal of the wrap, exposing the skin layer of the pork to direct heat, roast another 20-30 minutes at 220-240 degrees Celsius to get a crisp skin layer. Remove from oven and leave in room temperature to cool.

5. To make the sauce, pour all the sauce from the roasting pan into a heated sauce pan, add in the sliced button mushrooms and bring to boil over medium heat, add the extra raspberry jam and light soy sauce when it starts to boil, make sure everything is well dissolved, add some black pepper powder if desired.
6. Dilute the corn flour with 4tbsp of water, stir in the sauce so that it thickens up, toss in the butter right after turning off the heat. Done, pour sauce over meat to serve.

*Note: feel free to add in fresh rasberry to the sauce, I just couldn't find them from the nearby store the other day.

Tags: pork, raspberry, rosemary, soy sauce, roast, wine, button mushroom

Spicy Leaf-Mustard Cabbage and Peanut Soup

Ingredients
1 large onion(chopped into large 8 pieces), 4 pc dried chili (de-seeded, coarsely chopped), 300g peanuts, 200g leaf-mustard cabbage (known as Mui Choi in Cantonese), 1 tbsp oil, 500g pork bones, water, fresh salt and cracked black pepper corn.

Method
1. Saute the onion, chili and peanuts in a heated pot with the oil, add the bones, saute for another 3-5 minutes, add fresh sea salt and cracked black pepper corn, saute for another 3 minutes.
2.Add water to almost fill the pot, turn to high heat, bring to boil with lid covered. Remove lid after the pot of water boils, add in washed and chopped leaf-mustard cabbage, wait till boil again, turn to medium-low heat, cover with lid and braise for 2 hours or so, the longer the better.
3. Season again with salt and pepper to taste when serving, garnish with chopped coriander.

Tags: peanut, mustard, chili, spicy, soup

Japanese Curry Bread Box

Just before I get to occupied with assignments and forget how I made this, I thought it would be a good idea to publish this one. Unfortunately I do not have much time to do much explanation, so I will just get to the point with the recipe, hopefully everyone is fine with it, and another thing, this is going to be the first of a series of recipes without much write-ups, I only have time to get them published with a little spare time off my assignments, ARCHITORTURE... =(

Ingredients
1 loaf of fresh Cumin herbed bread load (or any bread), 8 pc chicken drumstick, 100-150g prepacked Japanese curry mix (use more if desired), 1 red Spanish onion (diced), 5 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tomatoes (1 diced, another sliced into 8 pieces), 4 pieces large potato (skinned and coarsely chopped), water, 1 tbsp oil, 3 tbsp turmeric powder, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste, coriander for garnishing.

Method
1. Wash the chicken drumsticks thoroughly, lightly score with a sharp knife, rub in with oil, light soy sauce, turmeric powder, salt and pepper, leave aside to marinate for 10-15 minutes.

2. Preheat grill or oven to the hottest temperature, roast the marinated drumsticks for about 20-30 minutes, turning them in between to make sure they are thoroughly roasted.

3. Meanwhile, heat a large pot, melt butter, throw in garlic and diced onion, saute until slightly brown by adding salt and sugar in between. Add in diced tomato and saute for another 3-5 minutes.

4. Add in Japanese curry mix, saute until fragrant and add water to cover half the pot, add salt and pepper, bring to boil, add in chopped potatoes and turn to low-medium heat, simmer with lid covered for about 35-45 minutes (the longer the better).

5. Remove drumsticks from oven or grill, leave aside to cool for about 5 minutes, pour everything in the roasting/ grilling pan into the pot of curry, leave it to simmer for another 10-15 minutes, season with salt, pepper and sugar (Japanese curry should be sweet) to taste. Throw in the remaining tomatoes now as well.

6. While waiting for the curry to be ready, carve a rectilinear hole out of the bread loaf, pack the carved-outs into the bottom of the bread so it doesn't melt away easily later when the curry is poured inside. Used the extras to thicken up the curry (the potatoes should already have done this job anyway).

7. Done, pour the curry and ingredients into the bread box and enjoy peeling the bread off to match the curry's gravy!

Tags: poultry, cumin seed, bread, Japanese, curry, potato, tomato, sweet, chicken

Chick Pea Salad with Buttered Five Spice Dressing

It's week 11! All the assignments are coming in and at times it just feels like my brain is going to blow off! Nevertheless, I chose to procrastinate tonight by updating my blog with a couple of dishes that I tried last few days, or maybe last week...

The idea of cooking chickpea the Malaysian way would easily revoke the idea of those chickpea stalls run by Indian hawkers at night markets, found throughout Malaysia. The strong smell of fresh chick pea, Yum! Yum! With this dish however, I decided to let the taste of chick pea to sit secondary to the taste of the five spice sauce and fresh coriander, I think the taste was not bad, but could be better if the sauce was thicker, hence the improvised recipe provided here...

Ingredients
800g chick pea (preferably fresh ones, otherwise canned ones will do), 500g fresh bean sprouts, a generous bunch of fresh coriander, 2-3 tbsp butter, 3 cloves garlic (finely chopped), 3 tbsp five spice powder, 8 tbsp water, 1 tbsp hot paprika, fresh salt and pepper to taste.

Method
1. Boil a pot of water, add a pinch of salt, add in the chick pea, cook until the water boils again. Remove chick pea from water, mix with 1 tbsp butter while hot, leave to cool.
2. Cook bean sprouts for no more than 3 minutes in the same pot of boiling water, rinse in ice cold water immediately, leave aside.
3. Melt 1tbsp butter in a saucepan, add five spice powder and hot paprika powder, saute over low heat while adding water bit by bit, make sure the sauce is considerably thick, melt the remaining butter in sauce after adding all water.
4. Mix chick pea, bean sprouts and chopped fresh coriander in a salad bowl, add in the buttered five spice sauce, toss well to dress, add salt and pepper to taste. Done.

Tags: salad, chickpea, five spice powder, dressing, bean sprouts, coriander

Rosemary - roasted Pork

This dish was made the same day as the green bean salad the other day, but somehow I thought it would be better for me to keep it until today to post it. Why? Maybe to celebrate the start of the session break? Haha Hooray! the long awaited break is finally here! Give this recipe a try over this break and you (or the dish) can easily become a hit!

Ingredients:
1 large strip of pork belly/ pork roast loin meat (about 1.5 to 2kg depending on the number of mouths you have to feed)
1/4 cup rosemary leaves (could use dried ones as well)
2 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp brow sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Score the pork skin using a sharp knife.
2. Toast the Rosemary and sea salt in a small frying pan over high heat until fragrant. Add in brown sugar at the end, toss well. Blend the mixture using a food processor. (skip this if you prefer a coarse biting texture)
3. Mix lemon juice and oil together, coat over pork skin. Rub the rosemary mixture onto the pork skin.
4. Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 180 degrees Celsius and roast for another 30-60 minutes (depending on the meat's weight, extra 20 minutes per 500g). Done, serve hot with apple sauce.

Apple Sauce
1 Granny Smith green apple, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp Cinnamon powder, 3 tbsp honey, 1/2 cup water, salt and pepper to taste.

Boil water in a sauce pot, braise peeled apple with lid covered until soft. Mash and stir through with cinnamon powder, butter, honey, salt and pepper. Done. (try substituting honey with maple syrup, this would bring out another dimension of the sauce)

Tags: Roast Pork, Rosemary, Apple Sauce

Poached Green Bean Salad

The green beans I used here refers to those medium length ones with smooth skin, and not its sibling which is fairly long with a rougher skin texture. Anyway, it seems like the season for it has arrived, or has it not? I picked up a large bag of it from Sunday market the other day for a mere 2 dollars, and I think it is an unbeatable price, unless they sell it for only 1 dollar...

It's a fairly simple dish, my housemate (who does not cook as well) and his girlfriend wanted to join the crowd for a good meal, hence I came up with the dish so that there would be enough things to feed everyone, and ofcourse, I cunningly asked my housemate to buy a couple of stuff for joining the dinner last minute. Wicked! *Laughs*

This time again I am not going to disclose the exact amount of ingredients used, there's no strict rule to it really, salads are meant to be hassle-free and done as according to own tastes.

Ingredients:
about 500g green beans (sliced diagonally)
2 carrots (finely chopped)
1 large onion (finely sliced)
black and white sesame (lightly toasted)
dried red chilli (soaked in hot water and coarsely chopped)
lime juice
3 garlic gloves (finely chopped)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
dijon mustard
brown sugar, salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Poach the sliced green beans in boiling hot water for about 3-5 minutes. Soak in ice-cold water immediately.
2. Mix green beans, sliced carrot and black and white sesame in a salad bowl.
3. Heat oil in a saucepan, sautee chilli and garlic until fragrant, stir in onions and add sugar to brown them. Turn off heat, stir in a generous amount of lime juice.
4. Pour sauce over mixed ingredients, add salt and pepper to taste, toss well and throw a generous amount of dijon mustard on top before serving. Done

Last note, feel free to add olive oil to taste for a last touch, that should give another olive-y dimension to the dish. Enjoy!

Tags: Green beans, black sesame, white sesame, dijon mustard, lime juice

Dill Roasted Double Meat Strips with Buttered Brocolli Mash

In order to create a sense of sequence running in according to the festivals and special occasions, I really wanted to wait till all my pictures on my mooncake baking last week to come to me before I started to post again on my blog. However, it seems to be taking forever for my to get my hands on all of them. Hence I resorted to start straight away and leave that mooncake post to some other time, yet again, like last time.

Anyway, to start off again, I attempted to make a dish with two leftover meat in the fridge with a newly bought herb - dill seeds. This is the first time I have tried using dill and I really did not imagine how it would have tasted like, or look like, for that matter. The end result? Everyone was satisfied, they commented that the taste of dill was really mild, but its presence (smell) was undeniable, there was this mild flavour oozing out of the meat strips in every bite of it, so mild that as if it didn't exist, but when you get your mind over it, you suddenly realize, hey, that's not right, there is this special taste which is definitely not the taste of meat! That is how it is like, I tried my best to describe it, anyway, give it a try!

Ingredients:

about 300g of stir-fry pork and chicken breast fillet each, 2tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp oyster sauce, 1tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1/2 cup Chinese shao xing cooking wine (or any sweet red wine, consider cherry), 5 garlic cloves, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, sea salt and pepper to taste, about 8 Shitake mushrooms (use more if desired), 3 tbsp dill seeds (lightly roasted), 1 broccoli, 2 tbsp butter.

Method:
1. Marinate the meat fillets and sliced mushroom with 2 tbsp of dill seeds, light and dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, wine, oil, sugar and salt and pepper for at least 15 minutes.
2. Roast 1/2 tbsp dill seeds in saucepan, melt butter together in the pan. On the other hand, steam the broccoli in a steamer until soft, mash the broccoli (or use a food blender for a finer texture) and add in the melted butter, mix well.
3. Roast the marinated ingredients for 40 minutes in a preheated oven at 220 degrees Celsius. Remove in between to turn the ingredients once. Done, remove from oven to cool before serving.
4. Lay meat on top of mashed broccoli, sprinkle with remaining roasted dill seeds.

Tags: Dill, Pork, Chicken Breast Fillet, Meat Strips, Broccoli, Mash, Butter