Stewed pork ribs with chestnuts

I cooked this super simple yet delicious dish last Saturday and just had to share it with you! 

I adapted the recipe from my friend, Pauline's blog and all I can say is that I'll be cooking it more often since it's so convenient (great for me, the pregnant woman!) and so nutritious. 

This can be a 1-dish meal but since I had some nai bai in my fridge that day, I just cooked it as another dish. :)

Stewed pork ribs with chestnuts

 

Ingredients:

• 500g pork ribs (original recipe calls for pork belly but I don't like that so I substituted with ribs and they turned out wonderful!)
• 300g chestnuts (I bought them in a pack at the vegetable stall at the wet market)
• 1 bulb garlic 
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rock sugar (optional)

Method:

1. Boil the chestnuts (with their shells already removed) in water for about 3 min. The skin should come off quite easily when you peel them when the chestnuts are still warm.
2. Wash the bulb of garlic, individual cloves separated, skin intact, and lightly crush them.
3. Blanch pork ribs.
4. Add some oil to the wok and stir fry the garlic till fragrant.
5. Add the pork ribs and fry for 2-3min before adding in the chestnuts.
6. Finally, add the light and dark soy sauce and mix well.
7. Transfer the ingredients to a slow cooker.
8. Add enough hot water to just barely cover the ingredients in the slow cooker.
9. Once you see the water bubbling in the slow cooker, turn it to autoshift and let it stew for about 2 hours.
10. Add rock sugar 15 min before serving if desired.

Alicia loved this dish too! :)


For tot's consumption:


Using a spoon, cut the chestnut into smaller, bite-size pieces to prevent choking.
Pork ribs should also be prepared in bite-sized pieces so that it's easier to chew (and swallow) and look out for any small pieces of bones (just in case).

Japanese Hamburger

I've been wanting to make Japanese Hamburger for a long long time and I finally went to Meidi-ya to pick up the hamburger sauce which is well, the sauce that goes with this dish.

Japanese hamburgers are served (usually) with rice alongside other dishes rather than between buns (the way we usually consume burgers). :)

We had ours with brown rice porridge :)

Japanese Hamburger

Source of recipe (I modified it slightly)

Ingredients:

• 200g minced beef
• 100g minced pork
• 1 egg
• 1 cup white breadcrumbs
• 3-4 tbsp milk
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced finely
• 3/4 tsp salt
• a few dashes ground black pepper

Sauce:

• Hamburger sauce - estimate amt enough for 4 patties

Method:

1. Saute onion in some oil till translucent. Let cool.
2. Moisten the breadcrumbs with milk.
3. Combine the beef, pork, egg, moistened breadcrumbs, salt, black pepper and sauted onions. Mix well - your hand is the best tool for this task.
4. Divide into four portions and shape them into patties, slapping each with your palms till the surface is smooth.
5. Indent the middle of each pattie with your thumb - this ensures that the middle gets cooked evenly.
6. Heat a large frying pan with some oil on high heat. Brown the patties then turn them over to the other side.
7. Put a tight-fitting lid on the pan and steam-cook the hamburgers on low heat for 10min, until the middle of the pattie bounces back when u press it. Remove from pan to serving plate.
8. Pour out excess oil from the pan and heat the hamburger sauce.
9. Dish hamburger sauce on each pattie.
10. Garnish with steamed vegetables and serve.

 Alicia's portion (not too much sauce for hers):

ok, she didn't eat that much of the hamburger, and before I knew it, hubby ate it all up. Fortunately, I made her favourite fried minced pork with egg, which she ate happily too. :)

Here's my little gal eating and watching Sesame Street on okto. Haha....

Stir-fried minced pork with egg

I thought this would be an appropriate photo to start my blog entry! My little darling couldn't wait for me to get the spoon and the rest of the food and started nibbling off the plate like a little kitten. haha... 

I actually cook this once a week at least for our lunch on weekdays because both Alicia and I love this very simple but yummy dish which goes wonderfully well with a bowl of porridge.

My mum used to cook this when I was a teenager and before going to work she'd cook this dish and porridge for me to heat up when I get back from school in the afternoon. It's a really simple homecooked dish which was only brought back to the dinner table in the period when I was recovering from the recent bout of gastric flu. I was on a porridge diet and I wanted to cook something simple, light and nutritious to go with the porridge - something that Alicia could eat as well. Recently I've been cooking lunch for hubby on days he doesn't need to work and when he tried this dish, he loved it as well! :P

Stir-fried minced pork with egg (serves 2 adults and 1 tot)

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons minced pork
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 bunch scallion, cut into 2" segments
• a few cloves of garlic, sliced (you can mince it but I usually slice it in case Alicia doesn't like to eat it)

Marinate pork with:

• 1-2 tablespoons oyster sauce (go with less if your dark soy sauce is on the salty side)
• 1-2 teaspoons dark soy sauce 
• a couple of dashes of ground black pepper
• a dash of sesame oil (add this only after you have mixed the pork well with the rest of the seasoning otherwise the pork will not be able to absorb the sauces as well)

Method:

1. After marinating the pork (as above), add the eggs and mix well.
2. Heat some oil in the wok. Fry the garlic and scallions till fragrant then add in the pork-egg mixture.
3. Fry till the mixture is cooked - if you like the dish to be on the darker side (like me), you can add more dark soy sauce at this stage if you didn't add enough earlier. Of course, if it's already salty, then hold off the dark soy sauce. You'd have to do the taste test yourself. :)

Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶)

I remember hubby and I braving heavy rain to eat bak kut teh at havelock road when I was heavily pregnant because I had cravings. lol. 

Well, I always feel that it's best to eat bak kut teh on a rainy day - it always enriches the whole experience of eating it (sheer bliss!) and it certainly can be said to be one of the perfect comfort foods on those occasions.

Unfortunately, when I cooked bak kut teh that day, it was sweltering hot despite the many prayers for rain that day. Lol.

This is the bak kut teh spice that I love!

There are two major types of bak kut teh - the light-coloured peppery one and the dark brown sweet version. From a television programme I watched when I was pregnant (something about searching the source of particular dishes), I discovered that the peppery one which I'm so in love with is the Teochew version and the sweet one is Hokkien.

I always knew I'm Teochew through and through, :P

Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶)

Ingredients:

• 600-800g pork ribs (小排骨) - actually 600g is enough for 2 people but I was afraid it won't be enough so I cooked 800g that day
• 1.5L water
• 10 cloves garlic (with their skins) - rinse
• 3 thin slices of dang gui, rinse
• a few drips of dark soy sauce
• 1 packet bak kut teh spice (as seen above)

Method:

1. Blanch pork ribs.
2. Add all the ingredients to a pot and bring the water to a boil.
3. Simmer for almost an hour or less, depending on your preference (the longer you cook, the more peppery it becomes).
4. Serve (with cut chilli padi and dark soy sauce - optional).

Minced pork fried rice

Cooked this for Saturday's dinner... these days I try as much as possible to cook dishes that Alicia will eat as well so that I don't need to make extra effort to cook something else for her.

This is a simple dish that's sooo yummy! Try it!

Minced pork fried rice

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup of rice grains (the cup I used to measure the rice came together with the rice cooker, hence it's not your usual cup)
• about 3 handfuls of minced pork (about $3)
• 2 handfuls dried Japanese whitebait
• 6 cloves shallots (sliced thinly)
• 4 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 handfuls frozen mixed vegetables
• scallions (for garnishing - optional)
• Oil
• Oyster sauce

Marinate minced pork with:

• hua diao jiu
• 2-3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• sesame oil
• ground white pepper

Method:

1. Cook rice as per usual. You may prefer to use overnight rice.
2. Rinse the Japanese whitebait and leave to dry on kitchen towel.
3. Heat some oil in a wok (be more generous than usual with the oil as we will need to pour this oil over the rice eventually).
4. Add whitebait to the wok and fry till golden brown. Strain and set aside.
5. Add the garlic and fry till light brown. Strain and set aside.
6. Add the shallots and fry till golden brown. Strain and set aside.
7. Dish out the extremely fragrant oil and set aside for later use, leaving a little behind to fry the minced pork.
8. Add the minced pork and fry quickly to prevent lumps.
9. When the pork is almost cooked, add the mixed veggies.
10. Add the cooked rice and mix well.
11. Add oyster sauce to taste.
12. Dish and top with the whitebait, garlic and shallots (and scallions).
13. Drizzle the fragrant oil made earlier over the rice.
14. Serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• If particular about seasoning, remove toddler's portion before adding the oyster sauce.
• Drizzle the fragrant oil over the rice and serve the crispy whitebait separately (skip the garlic and shallots if your toddler isn't fond of them.

Bak chor nng (minced pork with egg)

This has to be my favourite dish since I was a child! It goes way back to the time I was a young child and my grandma would prepare this for our lunch to go with our Teochew porridge. When I was in primary school, I even helped to prepare this by mincing the pork with the cleaver (yes, I was entrusted with the cleaver!), beat the eggs.... all except flavour it since I knew nuts about it then.

Years down the road, this dish hasn't been forgotten by my family and I was reminded to cook it for Alicia only lately when she had it at my mum's and showed her fondness for it as well. I'm pleased not because she shares my tastes but her acceptance of this dish means that she gets the goodness of both egg and minced pork! I've been having problems getting her to eat egg for a long while and this is the only egg dish thus far that she's ok with!

See the little holes I poked in the centre?

They're to check if it's done!

HOT!

Bak chor nng (minced pork with egg)

Makes 1-2 toddler servings (depending on how much your child can eat!)

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons minced pork
• about 1 tablespoon water

Marinate minced pork with:

• 1-2teaspoons oyster sauce
• a couple of drops of dark soy sauce
• a dash of ground black pepper
• a couple of drops of hua diao jiu
• a dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Add about 1 tablespoon of water to the minced pork. Using your fingertips, run through the mixture to ensure that there are no lumps and no tendons etc.
2. Marinate the minced pork with the seasoning. Set aside for awhile.
3. Crack the egg into the small bowl containing the minced pork and mix well.
4. Steam for 20min.
5. Serve with porridge (ideally) but it's ok with rice too!

Braised pork ribs in hoisin sauce

A tasty dish that goes really well with a bowl of rice, or porridge. Yum! Need I say more?


Braised pork ribs in hoisin sauce

Ingredients:

• about 1/2kg pork ribs
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• cornflour
• water

Seasoning for marinating pork ribs:

• about 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• about 1.5 tablespoon oyster sauce
• sesame oil
• sugar
• ginger juice
• hua diao jiu

Method:

1. Wash the pork ribs clean and remove any visible fats.
2. Marinate the pork ribs with the seasoning for at least 3 hours. As usual, I do this the night before.
3. Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic till fragrant.
4. Add the pork ribs and fry for awhile till the surface of the pork is slightly browned.
5. Add water (enough to cover the pork ribs) and bring the water to a boil.
6. Turn down the heat and simmer for 45min or until pork ribs are cooked.
7. Thicken the gravy with cornflour solution.
8. Serve hot.

Tau Yu Bak (Dark Soy Sauce Pork)

Tau Yu Bak's one of my favourite dishes (and my hubby's too) and the first time I had it was when my mother-in-law cooked it. It's really scrumptious, especially when served hot with a bowl of rice. Instead of waiting around for my mother-in-law to cook it, I decided that I should learn to cook it myself so that I can satisfy my own craving when it strikes. I don't quite like the idea of requesting someone else to specially cook something for me (I don't like to trouble others) so I figured the best way is to learn how to cook all my favourite dishes (and I try to learn how to cook my hubby's favourites too!) :D


Tau Yu Bak

Ingredients:

• $4 pork (I used 腿肉 as it was recommended by the butcher for cooking this dish)
• 2 star anise
• 1-2 dashes of ground cinnamon
• 4-5 dashes of cracked black peppercorns (use whole ones if you don't like to bite into them)
• 5 cloves garlic
• quail eggs (number up to you)
• 5 big mushrooms
• tau pok (again, amt depends on personal preference) - cut into strips
• 4 tablespoons raw brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• enough water to cover the ingredients

Seasoning (for the pork):

• 1/2tsp salt
• 2 dashes ground white pepper
• 1 tsp cornflour
• hua diao jiu
• a dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Marinate pork with seasoning overnight.
2. Cut the tau pok into strips.
3. Clean the mushrooms and cut into smaller pieces if they are very big (like the ones I bought). If they are small, just clean them and set aside.
4. Boil the quail eggs, remove the shell and set aside.
5. Heat wok and caramelise the brown sugar.
6. Add in the pork.
7. Add in the rest of the ingredients and enough water to cover all of the ingredients.
8. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour.
9. Serve hot with rice.