Chinese BBQ Pork

To continue the Chinese BBQ hit, I’ve decided to make some BBQ pork (Char Siu)!!!! As I mentioned in the Roast Pork Belly post, I love my fatty char siu!!! hahaha... So when I went and bought the pork neck in preparation for this char siu night, I asked for a fatty piece!!! Hehehe...

Ingredients:

1kg pork neck

5 tbsp char siu sauce (you can get it from Chinese grocery shop, and it comes in a jar)

3 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp Chinese wine

honey

1) Cut the pork neck into strips, and give it a good wash and pat dry with paper towel. Marinate it with the char siu sauce, soy sauce and chinese wine. Cover with glad wrap and leave it in the fridge overnight.

2) Preheat the oven to 200C, and roast the pork neck for 50 minutes with all the sauce in the pan and cover it with foil.

3) Remove the foil and turn the temperature down to 150C and brush it with the sauce in pan every 5-10 minutes for half an hour. In the last 15 minute coat the meat with honey to get that sweet sticky taste. Cool and rest the meat before cutting it into pieces.

You have to be careful after you coat the meat with honey, as it tends to burn easily!!! I usually dilute the honey with tiny little bit of water, so it can be brushed on more easily... Just a little hint and tip for you!

I reckon mine turned out not sweet enough, next time I might add a little bit more honey in. But hubby already had his thumb up, saying that it’s better than the store bought one! I reckon he’s just saying it just in case I don’t make it for him next time!!! hahahaha...

I served mine with some rice and vege, and drizzled the remaining sauce in the pan on top!!!! 1kg of pork neck does sound alot... don't worry, we didn't have it all in one go, we made 2 dinners and 2 lunches out of it! =P

Fried Sticky Rice

There is one dish that I always wanted to try making, but never got around to it is the fried sticky rice! I have put it off for so long because I’ve heard alot of ‘tricks’ are needed to make it successful! And some people say that if you do it the preper way (ie. fry the sticky rice from raw to cooked, not cheating it by steaming it soft first!) it takes ageessss and lots of arm muscles! Ummmmm....

Finally I took up the challenge!

Ingredients:

2 cups sticky rice

2 Chinese sausage, sliced

2 dried scallop

12 dried shrimp

12 dried mushroom

2 eggs, whisked

4 tsp water

chopped shallots

2 cups water

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1) Soak the sticky rice overnight. In a separate bowl soak the mushroom and dried scallop till soft. Then diced them up.

2) Add a little oil to a non-stick pan and pour in the eggs to make omelette. Cool, then roll it up and slice into threads.

3) Fry the Chinese sausage, shredded dried scallop, and the diced mushroom together. Reserve.

4) Drain the sticky rice. Add a little oil in pan, and fry the sticky rice until it’s coated with oil. Slowly add in the water a little at a time. Continue to stir until sticky rice softens. Add in soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar and stir to coat the rice evenly. Add in the ingredients from step 3 and lastly the egg threads.

Well... it didn’t turn out to be as hard as I imagined, and it didn’t take long for the rice to soften either! I think it only took me 10 minutes! Don’t know why, perhaps because I soaked the rice overnight?!?!? I also found that the rice is lacking in flavour, maybe a little bit more soy sauce will do the trick!

Now I still have a big bag of sticky rice left in the cupboard... so I might give this another go, and whatelse can I make using sticky rice?!!?! Any suggestion??

Salmon in Puff Pastry

Time to clear some old food in the freezer!!! Packets of half used puff pastry and shortcrust pastry tends to get neglected in my freezer all the time! And once they get forgotten for a long time, they tend to go dry and start cracking! And this is exactly what’s happening to my puff pastry in my freezer! Oopsss.. But I guess they’re still good to eat, but just not in one piece!

One night I bought two pieces of salmon home, and all of a sudden I remembered the long forgotten puff pastry in the freezer, so I made use of the poor thing, and made them into something simple but fantastic! Simply season the salmon with salt and peeper and some lemon juice, then wrap it with the puff pastry. Then brush the top with some egg yolk wash, in they go into the oven for 15-20 minutes at 180C or until they turn golden!

Yummy... and full of omega-3! The good fish oil!

Chicken Japanese Curry

Winter is not even here yet, why is the weather so cold already!??!?! Does it mean that the winter is gonna be freezing cold?!?!

Winter is the time to have some hearty comfort meals, and one of the easiest thing to make is the Japanese Curry! One day when hubby and I were doing the weekly grocery shopping, we were walking down the aisle of an Asian grocery store... Hubby goes “Can we have Japanese curry?” just like a little kid asking his parents whether they can get buy some lollies when walking down the supermarket aisle! Haha...

The most common Japanese curry comes in cubes, and you can get either mild or hot. But I can tell you, even the hot one is not hot at all! Japanese curry tends to have a sweet flavour, unlike the Thai or Indian curry which leans towards the spicy side with lots of herbs.

This simple dinner involves only dicing up the chinese pieces (you can use beef if you prefer), carrots, potatoes and onion. Then saute the vege till they are slightly brown, then add the chicken pieces and stir for another 3-4 minutes. Add the curry cubes and water according to instructions and let it simmer for a little while. Then spoon over your rice, and it’s done! Easy!

I usually add less water than the instruction suggests because I like my sauce to go thicker, which is just my personal preference!

Plum Melba Tart

After discovering the awesome tart base when I made the Lemon Meringue Tart at the beginning of the year, then I always wanted to revisit this tart base recipe!!! I reckon tart is only good for a large group of people because of the amount of butter you use in the base you instantly know that it's a fatty treat!!! Plus the tart tin I've got is pretty big, and it's only good when you have a dinner party. Although I do have a small 10cm one, but the effort of making a tart base, then making the filling is a bit too much for a 10cm tart! =P

So this 9 people dinner party during Easter is perfect for a dessert tart! For the tart base, refer to Lemon Meringue Tart...

Ingredients:

4 ripe plums, peeled, halved, stones removed

200ml thin cream

1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped

2 eggs, plus 1 extra yolk

1/4cup caster sugar

125g raspberries

2tbs flaked almonds

1) Preheat the oven to 190C, bake the tart base with pastry weight for 10min, then remove the weights and bake for a further 5min until pale golden and dry. Remove from oven.

2) Reduce oven heat to 170C. Heat the cream and vanilla pod and seeds in a saucepan over medium heat until just below boiling point. Gently whisk the eggs, extra yolk and sugar together in a bowl, then whisk the warm cream into the egg mixture, discarding the vanilla pod.

3) Place the plum halves, cut-side down in the tart case. Scatter with half the raspberries, then pour over the cream mixture. Bake in the oven for 35-40min until the custard is set. Cool slightly, then dust with icing sugar and serve scattered with the almonds and remaining raspberries.

This recipe was from a recent purchase of 'More Please'... it was some great recipes in there and fantastic photography!!!! I have a habit of tagging the book with tabs when I get a new one!!! And now this book has heaps of tags hanging off the side of the book waiting for me to adventure through!!!

Chinese Roast Pork

I'm still trying to catch up on my posts... and yes... I'm still on Easter!

This year I'm having a relatively quiet easter in Sydney, which is very unusual, even my mum found it weird!!! A couple of weeks before Easter, my mum asked me whether she needs to take care Mochi for us during the Easter break and I said 'no'... and she was shocked and questioned again... 'No?!?!?!?' Usually when we have a long weekend, we'd either go away for a short interstate or drive away trip or have house parties at different people's places. But this year nothing was really organised besides a dinner party and a small breakfast gathering both at my place.

For the 9 people dinner party, I actually made quite a few things, but only managed to take photo of the Roast Pork and the dessert! I've made smoked salmon arancini (this is actually the third time I've made this, but I still not managed to take one single photo of it!!!! arrrgghhhhh....), carrot dip + avocado dip with pita bread, lemongrass chicken skewer, and the chinese roast pork! And thanks to Carol for preparing a salad for me!

Personally I don't really like the Chinese roast pork you get from the shop, because I found them too salty!!!! But one day I came across this recipe (here is the English translation of the recipe!!)that seems so easy to make, so I thought I'd give it a go, since hubby loves the Chinese Roast Pork!

After the first bite... I went... 'Wowwwww'.... the skin was soooo crispy, and the meat was still slightly warm and not too salty - you can just taste a hint of the salt which I like!!!! The meat was soft and tender, and you couldn't really taste the oily fat in the meat, I guess it was all drained out from the boiling and roasting process! It tasted awesome!! I was so effortless, just preparation work is needed the night before! I'll definitely make this again!!!

=)

Whoopie Pie

Easter?!?!?! It seems so far away, although we had a 5 days long weekend but I'm actually ready for my next long weekend already! This whoopie pie was done a long time ago, back during easter time, when it's the time for guilt-free chocolate indulgence! Well... an excuse to dose up on sugar to be more exact!

Personally I don't really like easter eggs... I found them a bit boring, and the cream eggs are too sweet, so I had to find substitute so I could boost up my sugar level just like everyone else! I made rocky road last year for easter, so I have to find something different to make this year! Whoopie pie was the first thing that came to my mind! I first saw that on other people's blog, and it seems like this is the new sugar trend after cake pop!

Makes 12

Ingredients:

For the cake,

125g butter, at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1.25 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butter milk

For the marshmallow filling:

125g marshmallows

2 tsp water

1) Preheat oven to 280C. Cream together the butter and brown sugar using an electric mixer and add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until light and creamy. In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, salt, flour and cocoa. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk, and combining well after each addition. Finally stir in the chocolate chips.

2) Place a dollops of batter onto baking paper, making sure that there are enough space for it to spread. Bake until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched - about 12 min. Remove from oven and cool completely before filling.

3) Pair up cakes that are similar in sizes. In a microwave proof bowl, melt marshmallows and water on high heat for 20 second burst (needs a total of 40 sec). The filling will be soft and spreadable. Don't sandwich them together straight away, otherwise it will slide off. Wait for 5-10 min before placing a top on.

I only used up half of the marshmallow filling, because I don't like mine too sweet! So if you're like me, feel free to halve your marshmallow filling ingredients!

This recipe is from the Not Quite Nigella website which is one of my absolute favourite food blogs!!