Braised Pork (Tau Ew Bak)

One of the most popular dish in our household is this Penang Hokkien braised pork dish which is popularly know as Tau Ew Bak. Hubby and the kids just love this dish and they can eat every week if I will actually cook it! This is my go to dish when I'm out of ideas of what to cook. It's easy and the gravy is great for soaking up your rice.

I've done the gravy really wet and also thick and dry. Somehow it is still better with more gravy so I can add some hard boiled eggs to add on as additional fillers.

Ingredients

• 1 kg          Pork belly (best with those that has a few layers of fats and with skin intact)
• 10 cloves Garlic - slightly mashed
• 1tsp          Peppercorns - crushed
• 2               Star anise
• 2tbsp        Black soy sauce (thick caramel)
• ½ tbsp       Salt
• 1tbsp        Light soy sauce to taste (optional)
• 2 cups      Water (can add more)
• 6 no.         Half boiled eggs
• Oil for frying

Methods

1. Cut pork belly into 1" cubes. 
2. Heat up wok or cast iron pot with 2 to 3 tbsp oil. 
3. Saute the garlic, star anise and peppercorns for about 2 minutes till fragrant.
4. Toss in the pork cubes and stir till all sides are seared through. 
5. Add in all black sauce and stir till all pork cubes are covered. Let cook for 2 minutes.
6. Pour in water (enough to cover the pork), stir and cover for 15 minutes.
7. Add in salt and light soy sauce, stir and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes stir every 10 minutes.
8. Add in hard boiled eggs and simmer for further 10 minutes.

Lotus Roots with Peanuts Soup

Lotus roots with peanuts soup is one of my all time favorite! If the price of fresh lotus roots in Melbourne is not cut throat expensive, I would boil this soup every other day. Recently, it is priced at $16/kg so it is kind of steep but I was craving for it so bought a small section to satisfy my cravings.

I have previously posted this recipe before but have since have revised it for better tasting. The use of mix of boiler chicken and pork bones to get the base stock in which will give a superior taste to the soup.

Ingredients

• 2L             Chicken and pork bones stock (boiled in pressure cooker for 45 mins)
• 200g         Lotus roots (sliced about 5-7mm thick)
• 10             Red dates (de-seeded)
• ½ slice      Salted preserved vege (tai-tao-choy) 
• 150g         Raw peanuts (pre-boiled in another sauce pan and skin removed)
• 2 slices     Dried cuttlefish
• 1 pc          Honey date

Methods

Heat up the soup stock in a medium stock pot and put in all the ingredients and boil for 1 hour.

This soup is naturally sweet so there's no need to add any salt or seasoning.  

Deep Fried Chicken Skin

 I hardly do deep frying in the kitchen as it often smoke up the entire house and it actually stink if I can't  ventilate it especially during cold weather. If it is not too cold and windy, I'll try to do it at the alfresco area with my portable stove. Only problem is, the portable stove is quite hard to adjust and when I needed smaller fire. Life is always in dilemma! 

From my adventure with the chicken essence earlier, I've collected some of the chicken skin and decided to use them to make these hard to resist crunchy snacks... Its so sinful but so good!

Ingredients

• 200g     Chicken skin
• 6 tbsp   Plain flour
• 3 tbsp    Rice flour
• 1 tsp      Salt
• Oil for deep frying
• Water

Methods

1. Clean and dry the chicken skin with paper towel. Cut to desired size.
2. In a flat plate mix flours and salt and mix to combined. Prepare a bowl of water and heat up oil in a small pan or pot, covering at least half the pan or pot.
3. Bring a piece of the skin and press into flour mix, shake away the excess.
4. In a quick motion, dip the floured skin into water and toss it back into the flour mix and cover with flour, press gently to make sure skin is coated with flour. 
5. Test oil with a chopstick and if you see bubbles rising mean the oil is hot enough and is ready.
6. Toss in the coated skin and fry till golden for about 2 or 3 minutes turning after a min. When it starting to brown, lift it up for a few second and toss it back into the oil and fry a another min. Lift up and drain on a strainer.
7. Serve warm.

Double Boiled Chicken Essence

This prolonged covid-19 lockdown here in Melbourne is wearing many of us down. Besides the ever challenging remote learning for all the kids, parents are feeling so burnt out. Normally I get a few hours of sanity when the all the kids are in school but now with them home 24/7 there's no break at all. I need to prepare at least 2 meals a day and I am almost running out of ideas of what to cook! All these stress are building up and I felt so tired just thinking of what to cook the next day!

Things might not change for another few weeks so I totally need to nourish my body... and mind. They said chicken soup is good for the soul! Finally made this double boiled chicken essence to repair my body. It's not as complicated as it sounds but the result is very rewarding. It is so fragrant and so full of chicken flavors. 

What utensils you'll need to prepare this classic tonic: 

• 1 small rice bowl
• 1 big soup bowl
• 1 plate big enough to cover the soup bowl
• 1 claypot or stock pot to put in the soup bowl
• 1 pestle

Ingredients

• 1 Free range or farm run chicken between 1.2kg to 1.4kg

Methods

1. Wash and clean up the chicken.
2. Chop chicken into about 12 to 14 parts. Remove as much skin and fats as possible.
3. Using the pestle, pound the chicken pieces to break up the flesh and bones.
4. Invert the small rice bowl and place it inside the soup bowl.
5. Arranged the pounded chicken pieces around the small rice bowl. Once done, cover with the plate.
6. Place the big soup bowl with the chicken into the claypot or stockpot. Fill water till at least half of the big soup bowl and cover.
7. Boil the water on high heat till boiling and switch to small/medium fire to boil for at least 3 hours.
8. After 3 hours, switch off fire and remove the big bowl carefully.
9. Remove the plate and using a thong, pick up all the chicken pieces.
10. Carefully pick up the small rice bowl and the chicken essence with flow out.
11. Strain into a bowl and serves hot. This will yield approximately 1 rice bowl of essence.

Air Fried Chicken 65 - Dried version

I've not heard of Chicken 65 until I moved to Melbourne. Probably I did not dine enough in Indian restaurants when I was in Malaysia hence a little behind on their offerings. I fell in love with it on my first try at this little Malaysian Indian restaurant named Indian Delight and has been ordering it each time i dine there. I went to try others too but some are just way too spicy!

The other day I bought 1.2 kg of chicken wings and was wondering what can I cook with them? So, I went through all the saved recipes from FB and found a sharing by this lady in Malaysia and decided to try as she made it look so easy. Just add everything and marinate overnight! However, she deep fried her chicken and that was the last thing I want to do. And my good friend, Black Knight the air fryer came to my rescue! No used oil to discard and minimal mess in the kitchen... I tweaked the recipe a bit to suit our taste buds (need to be kids friendly so its less spicy) and to suit air frying method.

Ingredients

• 1.2kg          Chicken wings
• 2 tbsp         Garlic & ginger paste
• 1.5 tbsp      Coriander powder
• 1 tsp           Turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp         Chili powder (put more if you want more spicy
• ¾ tsp          Salt
• ¼ tsp          White pepper
• 4 tbsp         Greek yogurt/plain yogurt
• 2 sprigs      Curry leaf (chopped)
• 6 tbsp         Corn flour
• 3 tbsp         Rice flour

Methods

1. Clean the chicken wings and pat dry with kitchen towels. Cut into 2 sections.
2. Mix ginger garlic paste, coriander powder, turmeric powder, chili powder, salt and white pepper in a bowl. Pour the mixture into chicken together with yogurt and mix till well combined. Cover and leave it to marinate for 4 hours or over night for best results.
3. Prepare corn flour and rice flour on a dinner plate and mix them well. Sprinkle the chopped curry leaf over and mix the chicken before coating the chicken with the flour and place into the basket of the air fryer. If you are deep frying, you halved the flour and mix into the chicken.
4. Before you air fry, brush or spray some oil over the coated chicken wings.
5. Air fry at 180C for 15 to 18 minutes and turn mid way. Remember to brush with oil after you flipped over as the flour will not cook properly without oil. Please adjust your air frying timing as sizes of the chicken may required more or less frying time.
6. Drain on wire rack (if you put on kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil it will turn the crispiness of the skin soggy).
7. Squeeze some lime juice over the chicken prior to serving.

Braised Lemonade Pork Belly

As most of us are locked down at home, there's only so much we can do. Eat, sleep and repeat. It is bad for our health really! To de-stress, I will normally cook or bake else I'll turn into couch potato! Luckily I'm not into any TVB or K-drama...

One night, a friend was following this live cooking show on FB and asked me to check it out. It was Maria Cordero, a popular HK celebrity cooking live from her kitchen. The dish she cooked that night was this rather easy to follow pork belly dish using 7-Up. Pretty interesting and best part is, it is so easy as she literally just dump everything in and boil! No mess and no oily kitchen!

Kids love it knowing they get some soft drinks in their food! Yes, it uses 7-Up or any lemonade to tenderize the meat. It has a sweet savoury taste and kind of appetizing. As I do not have the required fresh chili, I substitute with some dried chilies which worked out better as I get a little kick of spiciness in the gravy. Kids practically flooded their rice with the gravy!

Ingredients

1 kg         Pork belly (cut into big cubes about 1.5")
4 pcs       Shallot (cut into big slices)
2 pcs       Garlic (cut into big slices)
1 - 2         Bay leaf
1 pc         Cinnamon stick
2 pcs        Star anise
1 pc          Fresh chilie (use 2 dried chilies if you prefer a tinge of spiciness)
350 ml      Lemonade (7-Up/Sprite)
2 tbsp       Dark soy sauce (dark caramel)
2 tbsp       Light soy sauce
1 pc          Rock sugar (can omit if you prefer less sweet)
1 tbsp       Vinegar (or rice vinegar)
1 tsp         Salt
½tsp         Black pepper

Methods

1. Place all the dry ingredients into a deep pot (best if you have a cast iron casserole pot).
2. Rinse the pork with some water added with 2tbsp of vinegar to get rid of smell.
3. Drain and arrange pork cubes on top of dry ingredients.
4. Pour in the lemonade. Add a bit more if you prefer to have more gravy.
5. Put in the sauces, rock sugar, vinegar and seasoning. 
6. Switch on medium fire and let it come to a boil. Stir every few minutes.
7. Cover and let it simmer for 45 minutes on small fire till pork pieces are tender.

Orange Burnt Basque Cheesecake

I've cut down on cheesecakes ever since I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance over 20 years ago. I used to love American cheesecakes and Japanese cheesecakes but have to stop consuming when these cheeses got me a troubled tummy during my uni days. It got better over time but I'll still eat with caution.

Last year, the Basque Burnt Cheesecake was all the range as it went viral in many FB baking and cooking groups. It was definitely one of the easiest cheesecake or cake to bake! Just add all the ingredients and in to the oven and after 40 mins you'll have a lovely cake. I've been baking this cheesecake for so many times I've lost count! My kids simply love it and since its so easy... why not?

I've tried infusing it with lemon once and it turned out lovely. Probably the acidity of the lemon juice helps to eliminate or reduced the greasiness of the cheese and you don't feel bloated after eating. I have some really sour oranges which no one wants to eat so I decided to try using them to bake this burnt cheesecake and surprisingly the aroma from the oranges was fantastic. Kids really enjoyed it and the cake was gone in a flash.

Ingredients

250gm  Cream Cheese
75gm    Castor Sugar
3           Eggs
250ml   Whipping Cream

3tbsp    Freshly squeezed orange juice
20gm    Plain Flour

1tsp      Orange zest

Whipped Cream

100ml    Whipping cream

25gm     Castor sugar

Methods

1. Line a 6" round baking pan with non stick baking paper.
2. Pre-heat oven to 200C. You may want to check your oven as some may need to set to 220C.
3. Cut the cream cheese into big cubes and beat with a mixer for 1 minute to break them up. Add in the sugar and beat till pale and creamy for a few minutes
4. Add in eggs one at a time.
5. Sift in flour and beat slightly in the mixer.
6. Using a sieve, filter the batter into the prepared pan. Press down the trapped flour in the sieve.
7. Mix in the orange zest.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes using fan-forced function.
9. Bake a further 10 minutes using top/top and bottom heat to get the burnt effect.
10. Cool on wire rack for 10-15 minutes and remove from pan and continue to cool on wire rack.
11. Chill in the fridge for a few hours before decorate with whipped cream.
12. To make the whipped cream, pour the whipping cream in a mixing bowl and whip for 1 minute and slowly pour in castor sugar and whip till stiff peak.Spread onto chilled cake and decorate with preferred fruits or macaroons.