Braised Pork with Dried Whole Chestnut and Tofu

I recently made some chicken glutinous rice and needed to add some dried chestnuts.  Since I was going to soften the chestnuts anyway, I thought I just cooked the whole packet and freeze half for later use.  I just defroze the soften chestnuts in the refrigerator overnight for this dish.  I bought this natural dried whole chestnut and thus the color was brown.  Not good looking but tasted the same and healthier since it was not whiten.

This was like a braised soy sauce pork except I added a handful of dried chili peppers (not the bird eye dried chili) for some kick.  Since my girls were eating this, so not much to create a huge kick, just a little that I didn't much notice but my little Edda said the tofu tasted spicy.  Probably because I didn't soften it in warm water first, I just added some to stir-fry with the oil.  Perhaps that was why it was less spicy.  You can certainly add more if you like it spicier.  You can also omit the dried chestnuts or substitute it with Chinese mushroom.

Ingredients:

2-3 boneless pork chops, cut into small pieces

12 dried whole chestnuts, rinsed and simmered for 1 hour until soften. (do it a day before)

1 block of extra firm tofu, cut into pieces

1 handful of dried chili

4 cloves of garlic

1 piece of ginger, smashed

1 or 2 star anise

Sauce:

LKK premium dark soy sauce, Hua Tiao Chinese cooking wine, Kikkoman soy sauce, 2 tsp. brown sugar, a little salt to taste.

Method:

1.  Heat up a cooking pot, add a little oil.  Stir-fry the ginger and garlic until brown.  Add in the dried chili and star anise.  Stir a little.  Add in the pork, pan-sealed it.  Add the Hua Tiao cooking wine, stir a little.  Add in enough water to cover 3/4 of the meat.  Add in the dark soy sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and a little salt.

2.  Add in the chestnuts, stir to mix well.  Place the cut tofu on top, scoop some of the sauce to coat the tofu.  Cover and let it simmer for 3 hours or until the pork is tender.

3.  After 3 hours, lightly give it a quick stir to mix in the tofu, be careful not to break it.  Serve hot!

Braised Five Layers Pork with Extra Firm Tofu

I made the above to bring to a friend's potluck gathering.  I took a chance and bought the Five Layers Pork to make this.  Honestly, it was the best thing to do as the fat would melt-in-your-mouth and blended so well with the meat and oh so good.  Yes, I know it was sinful but I never buy this for our own family consumption so this was just an indulgent once in a blue moon.  I actually threw away some extra fat while slicing the meat which I kind of regretted because the other party really liked it.  Oops!

I used the extra firm tofu to braise with the sauce and it turned out so well marinated as the flavor of the sauce all went into the tofu.  Since I simmered the tofu in the sauce, it turned soft and oh so flavorful.

The recipe of this braised dish can be found here.  I had made this numerous times and it was all good.  I started to miss this dish already.

Pork with Marinated Bok Choy

I was given some marinated bok choy from our friend who owns a Chinese restaurant.  This marinated bok choy was prepared by the head chef in his restaurant.  I saw this dish prepared by the head chef and it looked really appetizing and I was trying to replicate it.  Typing this post now I just realized I forgot to add red pepper flakes and I shouldn't add water (as the bok choy will release water when cooking).  The head chef version was dry and his pork was sliced really thin and small.  Not sure what was his seasonings though, probably just salt and MSG?

Anyway, this is my version without the MSG.

This was the marinated bok choy that I received.  I used this to cook porridge and it was really good. What do you call this?

Ingredients:

1 boneless pork chop, thinly sliced and marinated with some Chinese wine, salt, white pepper, sugar and cornstarch.

2 big bunches of marinated bok choy, rinsed and cut into small pieces.

2 cm piece of ginger, thinly sliced

4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

Sprinkle of red pepper flakes (I added it here)

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

Dark soy sauce, a touch

Method:

1.  Heat up the wok, when heated, add in some oil.  Add in ginger, stir-fry until fragrant, add in garlic and red pepper flakes, fry until garlic is slightly golden, add in pork and stir-fry until no longer pink.

2.  Add in marinated bok choy and stir-fry well.  Add seasonings to taste.  Serve hot!

Merdeka Open House 2010: Tamarind Stew Pork with Daikon/ Chinese Radish

I have been participating in Merdeka Open House hosted by Babe in the City since the very beginning, so of course I cannot left this year out.  This year theme for Merdeka Open House 2010 is Food From Our Hearts.  A local dish that I love and is lovingly prepared by my loved ones and tell a story about it.  My mom is the cook in the family so of course I had to pick my mom's dish.  The most memorable dishes that I missed from my mom are Acar Hu (Pickle Fish) and this Tamarind Stew with daikon.  I really like her Acar Hu but I never made it before because of the limited fish choices over here.  This Tamarind Stew can be made with chicken which I did a while ago over here or pork which I did for this year open house.

I really have no idea where she learned this dish from or it is a pass it down recipe.  The taste just stick to me because I like the spiciness from the dried chili, the sourness from the tamarind juice, the sweetness from the brown sugar, the softness of the daikon, and the tenderness of the pork, it just blend so well together.  When I came over to the U.S. this was one of the dishes I missed so much that I had to call and ask my mom for her recipe so that I could enjoy this dish here.  I hardly cook this dish though because my hubby and daughters do not like Chinese radish or daikon at all, thus every time I cooked this, I was the only one who ate the daikon.  Well, actually more for me because I do enjoy the daikon very much.

When I was stewing this dish for this post, my husband came home from work and said something smell like shit in the house.  I had no idea why this dish smelled like shit to him because it smelled fragrant to me.  He had the hesitated look on his face.  But guess what, he ended out enjoying this dish, even came back for second and third.  See, never judge a dish when you haven't tasted it!

There is still time to participate in this event if you or your spouse is a Malaysian, just go to visit Babe KL's blog for more details.

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Ingredients:

Some skinless and boneless pork, cut into chunk pieces

1 small daikon/ Chinese white radish, cut like below picture

8 dried red chili peppers, reconstituted in warm water, drained

15 pieces of dried tofu knots, soften in room-temp. water, drained (optional)

4 cloves of garlic, keep whole

2 cm of ginger, smashed

Sauces:

1 cup of tamarind juice

Dark soy sauce to taste (for color)

Soy Sauce to taste

Brown sugar, about 2-3 Tbsp.

1 tsp. salt

This should be how to you cut the daikon.  I don't know how to explain it in words so showing a picture here.

Method:

1.  In a stock pot, heat up with some oil.  Add in ginger and garlic, fry until slightly golden and fragrant.  Add in pork and dried chili and fry to brown the pork on the outside. 

2.  Add in tamarind juice and water to cover the pork.  Mix well and add in the rest of the sauces ingredients.  Add daikon, mix well.  Lastly add in tofu knots, mix well.  

3.  Turn the heat to low and let it simmer covered for 3 hours or until the pork is tender.  Add water along the way if needed.

Pork in Hoisin Sauce

I had this dish in one of the authentic Chinese restaurant in Memphis 10+ years ago.  They prepared it without the carrot, just the pork and fresh scallion and it was simply divine.  I tried to recreate it here and it was not bad too.  Except my girls won't eat the fresh scallion as predicted.  I knew they won't eat it so I added the carrots, well at least they will have a little vegetable in their diet.  Of course I cooked another veggie dish to go with this.  In my house, there will always be a veggie dish, in fact, I prefer more veggie in a meal.  My veggie dish will only be veggie but my meat/seafood dish will be paired with veggie as well. 

Try this easy dish for yourself.  Just a few ingredients with sauce you have at home.  Preparing dinner doesn't have to be difficult and a delicious and healthy meal will be your reward.  I am someone who will prefer Chinese food (no butter, heavy cream, and cheeses) over American food because it scream healthier to me. I guess it still fall on what you order on your plate.  Even in Chinese food, if you order crabs, lobsters, prawns, squids, coconut laden curry or dessert, fried food, beef and pork dishes all the times, you will end out with high cholesterol too.  I know in Chinese culture, when you eat out, you are obligated to order a variety of seafood and expensive items, as it to show your social status or whatever.  But I think we should eat for our health first and indulge only on Chinese New Year or special occasions.  Order healthier food actually cost less on your wallet too.
 

Ingredients:

2-3 boneless pork chops, cut off any visible fat, cut into thin strips and marinate with hoisin sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and cornstarch

3 scallions, shredded

1/2 carrot, julienne (optional)

2 Tbsp. Hoisin Sauce

Salt, just a touch

Sugar, just a touch

Method:

1.  Wash the scallions and shredded it like above picture.  Lay some on the plate and set aside some to place on top of the cooked hoisin pork.

2.  Heat up your wok, when heated, add in some oil.  Add in pork and stir-fry until no longer pink.  Add in carrot and stir-fry well.  Season with hoisin sauce, salt and a little sugar.

3.  Place on top of the bed of scallions.  Decorate with more scallion on top.  Mix well and eat the pork with pieces of fresh scallion.  Serve with rice.

Golden Ingots

 

Sorry for the bad pictures because it was taken at night.  I saw this Golden Ingots at Daily Affairs and decided to give it a try.  It was really an interesting idea and very suitable for Chinese New Year.  The bottom layer was fried beancurd puff (taufu pok) and topped with meat ball of sort. 

I prepared it in the afternoon and took an un-fried version.  The natural lighting made the food looks so good.  Too bad I was just too lazy to fried some just to take the finished products for this post.  I used ground pork and water chestnut for mine with my own seasonings.

The finished products, really looked like golden ingots right?  Actually my beancurd puffs was different from her, mine was the small one and frankly I had no idea how to cut it and flip it over like her.  For mine, I cut it diagonally into half and flip it over and place the meatball on top.

It was really crispy when fried.  But it will turn soft when cold.  So, serve immediately after deep-frying.  It can soak up pretty much oil too, so remember to drain on paper towel before serving.

Bak Kua (Chinese Pork Jerky)

Bak Kua, my all time favorite when I was a kid and now too.  Love to sandwich it in bread and have it as breakfast.  This is also one favorite for Chinese New Year, people give this as gift in Malaysia.  They also served this for people who visits their houses.  When I moved here, bak kua was non-existence.  All I found that was similar to this is American beef jerky which I couldn't stomach.  Then, four years ago, I found a very easy bak kua recipe shared by a fellow blogging friend.  I tried it and loved it and have been making it all these years.

 

This recipe is so easy to make and trust me it is really good.  The above has about 1lb. of ground pork, I thought I might be able to share with my friends until my hubby spotted it.  He never dared to try the bak kua I made all these years (he thinks it was yucky so more for us) and suddenly he came and grabbed a piece to try and kept coming back for more and more.  Needless to say, any food that he set his eyes on, will be gone in no time.  He only left few pieces for my girls and I.

Stir Fried Roasted Pork Belly with Dark Soy Sauce

My mom used to cook this for us with the leftover roasted pork (siew york) when we were little. This is definitely a childhood memory dish for me. I love love roasted pork belly when I was young, I remember whenever we go to the chicken rice stall, I would request for siew york. And then when I was in my teenage years, I started to be more health conscious and hardly ever touch any pork fat and chicken skin anymore. And when I moved to the States, in a small town with hardly any Asian population, there was no roasted pork belly in sight. It was something that you couldn't buy with money. Luckily now I live an hour away from Denver, so roasted pork belly is selling in most authentic Chinese restaurants and easy to come by. We still eat it sparingly as frankly it is not a healthy food choice at all. But it is a childhood dish so once in a very long time is acceptable for me. Recently my hubby bought a big slab of roasted pork from Denver and we had some leftover, so I slice it thinly and made this delicious dish.

Note:
Yeah I don't know why the people don't know how to slice the roasted pork like in M'sia/S'pore. We sliced it so nicely thin and arrange it so nicely for the customer (we can see the roasted skin, layers of fat and meat). But here, they just simply chop it however they want and in disorganized big pieces that I couldn't see all the layers and meat. Now I know, we have to cut it ourselves when order it again.

Ingredients:

Roasted Pork Belly [siew york]
Garlic, about 3 gloves, chopped
Dark soy sauce to taste
A little sugar

Method:

1. In a wok, heat up some oil. When hot, add in the siew york and fry until slightly brown. Add in garlic and fry it together.

2. Add in the dark soy sauce and sugar to taste. Quickly fry to mix well and dish out to serve.

Vietnamese Fried Springrolls (Cha Gio)

We loved Vietnamese fried spring rolls (Cha Gio). I loved the texture and crispiness of fried rice paper, it added a touch of difference from the usual fried Chinese spring rolls or egg rolls. It was quite pricey to order it in a restaurant as it costs about $2 a piece. So, I decided to make it at home. I got to put more ingredients in my filling as usually what we got at a restaurant was filled with minimal ingredients. It was definitely a treat but I hated that my hair smelled of fried oil afterward.




Ingredients:

(A)
Ground Pork
Wood ear fungus, soften
Carrot, shredded
Green onion, chopped
Glass vermicelli, soften in hot water, cut
Fish sauce
Sesame oil
Salt
Black/ white peppers
A touch of sugar

Vietnamese rice paper
Oil for deep-frying


Filling before wrapping.

Method:

1. Mix (A) together in a bowl. Let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

2. Soften the Vietnamese rice paper in warm water, place filling on it and wrap it up spring roll style. Set aside and finish the rest.

3. Heat up oil in a wok. When hot, turn the heat to medium and deep-fry Cha Gio in batches. About three at a time and be careful not to let it touch each other as the skin would break. Deep-fry until golden brown in color, drain on paper towel.

4. Serve with Thai chili sauce, or Vietnamese Nuoc Cham (sweet vinegar sauce).

Note: 

1)  I read that by adding a little sugar in the warm water to soften the rice paper will help the rice paper to brown evenly when deep-frying.

2)  Adding an egg or two in the filling might help the rice paper to remain crispy, the filling has to be dry so that it won't create moisture when fried and soften the rice paper.

Stewed Pork with Nam Yee

Recently I bought a small bottle of Nam Yee (fermented red bean curd) to make chicken biscuit. Besides chicken biscuit, Nam Yee can be used to make fried chicken/ wings, steamed pork ribs, "Chai Er" (a vegetarian dish which I love and would love to try) and stewed pork. Below is my version of stewed pork with Nam Yee and wood ear fungus or black fungus. The picture did not turn out too appetizing but it tasted a lot like the steamed pork ribs dish served in the Dim Sum restaurant.

Ingredients:

2 boneless pork chops, thinly sliced
1 cup of black fungus, soften in hot water, drained
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small piece of ginger, chopped
1 shallot, chopped

Sauce:
1 cube of Nam Yee, smashed
1 Tbsp. of oyster sauce
1 Tbsp. Shao Hsing rice cooking wine
1/2 Tbsp. pure sesame oil
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup warm water

Method:

1. In a small bowl, mix the ingredients for the sauce together, set aside. Take 2 Tbsp. of this sauce to marinate the pork slices.

2. In a saucepan, add in a little oil. Then, garlic, shallot and ginger, stir-fry until fragrant. Add in pork slices and stir until brown on the sides. Add in black fungus, stir to mix well. Add in some water, about 1 cup and the remaining of the sauce. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for an hour. Serve hot.

Steamed Tofu with Minced Meat

My initial plan was to bake some meat balls. Then, I saw a blog post at Babe in the City on this steamed tofu and thought why not since I had some soft tofu. I marinated my minced pork with ShaoHsing rice wine, sesame oil, salt, white pepper, garlic powder, chopped carrots, ginger and scallions and some cornstarch water. Then, I cut out the soft tofu, lay it on a steaming tray and used a melon scoop to scoop a hole in the middle of each tofu. The scooped out tofu I added them into the minced meat mixture (don't want to waste you see) and mixed it well.





After that, I used the melon scoop and a spoon to make meat ball shape balls and placed it on top of each tofu. Lastly I drizzled some soy sauce, ShaoHsing rice wine and sesame oil before putting it to steam at high heat for 15-20 minutes, or until the meat balls are cooked. Serve warm!

This steamed dish was very fragrant with the Shao Hsing rice wine and sesame oil. What best was it was well received by my two girls. Got to make them loved tofu at young age. ;-)

Microwaved Ground Pork

While I was at a ladies gathering, I noticed that my girls loved this pork dish. Lily made this dish with a Chinese preserved vegetable and she told me it was very easy, just used the microwave or put it in the rice cooker 5 minutes before the rice is cooked. This is one familiar home cook dishes in Malaysian households as my mom used to make this dish too, along with the steamed eggs. You can also find it at the place where they sell porridge or economy rice. But for some reason, I just never make it, perhaps finding steaming takes too much time. Anyway, now I learned that it takes 4 minutes in a microwave, I have no reason not to make it anymore. Since I don't have the Chinese preserved vegetable, I substituted it with salted turnips/ "chai por" and used my seasonings since I couldn't remember what Lily told me already (she was busy cooking and spoke so fast that it just went in my right ear and came out my left ear, LOL!). Got to say, it turned out delicious and very flavorful. "Chai Por" is a very good substitute.



Ingredients:

Ground Pork, about 1/2 pound
"Chai Por" (Chinese chopped salted turnips), about 1/4 cup
Chopped garlic, 2 cloves

Seasonings:

Xiao Shin wine, 1 tsp.
Soy sauce, 1 tsp.
Garlic powder, few dashes
White pepper, few dashes
Sesame oil, 1/2 tsp.
Salt, 1/4 tsp.
Sugar, 1/2 tsp.

Method:

1. Mix everything together in a bowl. Let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours, preferable.

2. Transfer it in a microwave safe bowl. Pour a little water on top. Microwave for three minutes. Take it out, cut a cross in the middle and microwave for another minute. Serve warm.

Tofu with Ground/Minced Pork Asian Style

This is one of the common household dishes. Most Malaysian Chinese families should have their own version. I cooked this dish often for my family and I was surprised I haven't posted this recipe before. This is a good one dish meal too but often time I would serve it with another Asian green with or without a chicken herbal soup. I often cook a minimum of two dishes, one make up of protein/seafood and the other of fiber and about 2 soups in a week, one is herbal, and the other one can be of anything.





Ingredients:

1 box of regular Tofu, cut into cubed
Ground/minced pork, about 1/2 lb.
4-5 Chinese dried mushroom, soak in hot water to soften, drained and chopped.
1/2 Carrot, chopped
3 cloves of Garlic, chopped
1/4 cup Frozen green peas

Seasonings:
Oyster sauce
Cooking wine
Dark soy sauce
White pepper
Sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat up wok with oil. When heated, add in ground pork and garlic. Stir-fry until pork is no longer pink. Add in Chinese mushroom, carrot and green peas. Stir-fry for awhile.

2. Add in cubed tofu and seasonings to taste. Add a little water if need to (for sauce). Stir- fry well and dish out to serve hot.

Spicy Eggplant with Ground Pork

This is one of Malaysian favorite dishes. I love eggplant stir-fry with ground pork and in spicy chilies. Yet, my hubby dislike the taste and texture of eggplant, thus I haven't bought an eggplant for ages. However, recently while reading Rita's blog, she mentioned that to soften her eggplant, she just sprinkle it with some olive oil and salt and bake it in the oven. Now, why I haven't thought of that? I used to stir-fry the eggplant in oil to soften it and found it very oily because the eggplant will soak up all the oil. But with the new knowledge, I went to buy an eggplant. I had this dish for two days and it was yummy!





Ingredients:

1 Japanese eggplant, slice thinly and arrange on a aluminum foil lined pan. Then, sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt. Use your hands to mix well and bake in preheated 400'F for 10 minutes. Set aside to let cool.

1/4 lb. Ground pork
1/2 red onion, chopped
Canola oil

Seasonings:
LKK oyster sauce, about 2-3 Tbsp.
Delimas crispy prawns chili, about 2 Tbsp.
A little sugar, about 1 tsp.

Method:

1. In a wok, heat up some oil. When heated, add in red onion. Fry until slightly soften, add in the ground pork. Fry until pork is no longer pink. Add in soften eggplant. Stir-fry well and add in the seasonings.

2. Add a little water (1/4 cup) if needed. Stir well and dish out to serve.

Note: Delimas crispy prawns chili is the same as Tean Gourmet crispy prawns chili.

Ground Pork Patties

I had some ground pork at home and was wondering what to make of it because I just used some to stir-fry tofu the previous night. Was thinking of making deep-fry wontan but my girl was having sore throat so that was a bad idea. Then, probably baked meat balls but was too lazy to make a sauce for it. Then, why not pan-fry some pork patties as this would be easier. So, I started seasoning my meat and let it marinated. Wow, this turned out to be so delicious! It's slightly crispy on the edges, moist inside and so flavorful. It will be suitable as a hamburger patties too. Next time try this Asian fusion pork patties for your Summer grilling party ya. It was really good that I quickly pen down my marinade ingredients. I will give an estimate recipe so that you would know which one to put more or less. I will certainly make this again.



Ingredients:

Ground pork (about 1/2 pound)

Seasonings:
Hoisin sauce ( about 2 Tbsp.)
Dark soy sauce (about 1/2 Tbsp.)
Shao Xing rice cooking wine (about 1/2 Tbsp.)
Freshly crushed peppercorn medley/white pepper/black pepper (about 1/4 tsp.)
Paprika (about 1/4 tsp.)
Garlic powder (about 1/4 tsp.)
Cornstarch (about 1 tsp.)



Method:

1. In a bowl, add in ground pork and the seasonings except cornstarch. Mix well and then add cornstarch, stir and mix well until sticky and gooey. Let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

2. You can either shape the patties by hands and put it in a medium heat hot oil to pan-fry until cooked. Or you can make the patties the cleaner and lazier way like me. I used a spoon to scoop up a sizable ball of ground mixture and put it in the medium heat hot oil and used my wok chuan (spatula) to flatten it. Turn and cook both sides until done. How do you know it's cooked inside? When you press in the middle of the patties, it is supposed to feel hard, any soft feel means the inside is not completely cooked.

3. Dish out and serve. You can also drain it on paper towel if you like. I omitted this step to keep the oil in to keep the patties moist.

Braised Pork in 5-spice Powder and Mantau

I served my Chinese steamed buns/Mantau 饅頭 with braised pork. This is a recipe shared by Josh (Gan55) in 2005. You can read more from my other link here.

Still in the pot waiting for dinner time to arrive. Imagine my mantau soaking up this deliciously thick gravy.

I will share his recipe here with you.



Ingredients:

Pork belly (I just used any part of pork that has some fat in it)
6 Tbsp. oil ( I used 3-4 Tbsp.)
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
Few slices of ginger
Dark soy sauce to cover 1/5 of the pork belly
3 tsp. 5-spice powder
Water to cover the pork

The uncut pieces of pork waiting to be eaten. The fat is totally melt in the mouth and sinful. I guess once in a while is okay to indulge. Some pieces have more meat than fat.

Method:

1. Heat up a pot/pan with the oil in medium heat. Add in brown sugar and stir until sugar caramelized, careful not to burn it. Add in sliced gingers and stir-fry for a little while. Then, add in the pork and seal both sides of the pork.

2. Add in dark soy sauce until it covered 1/5 of the pork pieces. Then, add water to cover the pork. Braise in low heat for an hour. Add in the 5-spice powder and braise for another hour. Check for tenderness, if not braise for another hour.

3. Take out the pork belly/ pork pieces and reduce the sauce by simmering it. Slice the pork belly into pieces and add the reduce thicken sauce on top to serve.

Bakuteh

Some like the Singaporean version of white pepper bakuteh (pork ribs soup), some like the Malaysian version of dark herbal taste bakuteh. As for me, I prefer the Malaysian version and thus I decided to give Tean's Gourmet Bakuteh a try. I bought few packets from mytasteofasia.com as I hardly shop at Denver anymore. Oh yeah, MyTOA is going to close down its' business for the unknowing time being and the last day to take your order is Nov. 26th. So, go grab whatever you want before it's too late (if you haven't done so already!).



This is how the packet looks like. Overall, I still prefer Yew Chian Haw and A1 bak kut teh premix. If you are buying this, don't follow the salt amount indicated in the packet because it will turn out too salty.

Sweet and Sour Pork Meat Balls

I love to make my own meat balls. Is it just not for soup, sometimes I make it to cook dinner like in this case sweet and sour meat balls. Baked meat balls are good as afternoon snack. But for dinner, I wanted to add some vegetables to go with it to make it more balance and colorful.

Making Pork Meat Balls:
1 lb. ground/minced pork
Season with salt, white pepper, sesame oil and Worcestershire sauce.

Method:

Mixed the above together and stir with a spoon until the mixture turned gluey and sticked together. Either use your hands or a melon scoop to create pork balls. Place on alum. foil lined baking sheet and bake in preheated 350'F oven for 15 minutes or until cooked. Set aside to cool.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (or any type of vinegar)
2 Tbsp. tomato ketcup
1/4 tsp. salt

*Mix the above in a bowl, stir well and set aside*

2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 red onion, cut
1/2 carrot, sliced
1/2 zucchini, cut

Method:

1. Heat wok with oil. When heated, add in garlic and zucchini, fry until zucchini is almost half cooked, add in carrot and onion. Fry for a while. Add in pork balls. Stir-fry until pork balls are heated.

2. Add in the sauce mixture. Stir to coat well with the pork balls. Stir for a second and dish out to serve.

Black Pepper Pork

Another one of my easy home cook dishes: Black pepper pork with onion and red bell pepper.

Ingredients:

1 boneless pork chop, sliced thinly
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
1/2 yellow onion, sliced thinly
2 tsp. LKK black pepper sauce
1/2 tsp. black soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sugar
A little water

Method:

1. First, marinate the pork with a little salt, chinese cooking wine, white pepper and cornstarch.

2. Heat up wok with oil. When smoking, add in pork slices, stir-fry until pork is no longer pink. Add in onion and bell pepper. Stir-fry for 2 mins. Add in sauces and sugar and a little water. Stir to blend well and serve hot.

Note:
Of course you can substitute red bell pepper with other colors bell pepper. I like red because it's sweeter.


I am sharing this dish with Culinarty's Original Recipe blog event. Check it out every month on the week of 15th for the round up.

How to Make Ground Meat from Scratch

I decided to make this post so that my daughters will know it is actually very easy to make your own ground meat at home. I figure if I don't show them, they will not know when they grow up. I noticed a lot of people only know how to purchase ground meat at the supermarket and really have no idea how to make it at home. So, if you haven't gotten a clue before, after reading my post, you will know! :D Of course I learned it from my mother when I was little, used to help her made ground meat in her kitchen.


First you will need a sharp Chinese cleaver. And then of course ground meat of your choice, pork, beef, chicken, etc. You will have to cut the meat into small pieces and then use your cleaver to chop on it. Just chop through the meat, flip it and chop again, flip the meat again and chop again until you have worked all your muscles. In the olden days, the butcher used two big cleavers to chop ground meat for his customers. This is really a good hand exercise for anyone who wants to try. Haha...


My ground pork is done after multiple times of flipping the meat and chopping. Now it's ready for seasoning for my pork balls noodle soup later.


Serving up my homemade pork balls with glass noodle (tang hoon) soup!


Who wants to try my pork ball with Thai chili? :P

I cooked my broth with 2 chicken drumsticks, 1 baked chicken cavity, 1/4 cup of yellow beans, shrimp shells that I saved, dried Chinese mushroom stems (I saved this for making broth too), 1 whole large yellow onion and 3 carrots hence my broth turned out very sweet and flavorful.