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!