Sweet & Sour Pork with Rice

It is time to celebrate! TheLoyalFan's exam has finished and we can celebrate C.N.Y. without any worries or stress. For that reason, we made one of our favourite dishes back home - 'Kou Lou Yoke Fan' or simply Sweet & Sour Pork with rice.

This recipe was made by Mum when she came to the UK for Christmas last year and I thought we shall give it a try... weeee!

The preparation was split into 2 parts - frying the pork and making the sauce. First, marinate the pork that has been cut into cubes with pepper and soya sauce. Then coat the pork in batter. For this, I put equal amount of plain flour and corn flour onto the pork - malas to make the batter in a different plate (LOL!). Once the pork cubes are coated evenly, deep fry them until golden brown.
Next, fry the onions with the same oil used for frying but just 2 or 3 tablespoons will do. Then stir fry the tomatoes and cucumbers (and capsicums if you want) for a short while. Pour in some water and season with tomato ketchup, vinegar and sugar for the sweet & sour taste. And... voila!

We just LURVE sweet & sour pork! I think it is one of my default dishes when I needed to tapao dinner for myself. Ahhh... I miss Brickfields Sin Kee's food. But now that I know how to make it, it will treat my 'missing Malaysian food' illness. hehehe...
However, one thing to note from this dish was the taste of the sauce should be concentrated and fuller so that when it is mixed with pork and rice, you can still taste the sweet & sour effect.

TheLoyalFan says: 'Very crispy pork... I wish there were more...'

The pork was very crispy indeed! We'll be making more supermarket trips this weekend to look for some ingredients to prepare more Chinese dishes for the C.N.Y. period : )

Till then, have a great weekend and keep nomming!

An annual vegetarian treat of goodness & togetherness

Whenever the New Year comes, I am always looking forward to Chinese New Year. My grandmother would cook a dish that she cooks it only once a year and only on one day, the first day of Chinese New Year - her vegetarian dish. According to Chinese tradition, the Chinese people will be a vegetarian for a day because it is believed that this will ensure longevity. As for the Buddhists, a vegetarian dish helps to purify and cleanse out the body as well as it honors a Buddhist tradition that nothing living should be killed on the first day of the New Year. But for me, it reminded me so much of home and my growing up days having vegetarian dish for lunch although when I was a kid, I didn't like it at all.

Last year, the 'duty' has been transferred to my mother to cook this dish as my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I remembered that my grandmother was tutoring my mum and being the usual Kaypo girl, I sat in, helped out and learn from the guru herself : ) This year, being away from home, I decided to try this dish on my own.

I think for the proper vegetarian dish, it has 18 ingredients and each ingredient has a symbolic meaning. But my grandmother's was quite simple and I just like the mushrooms!!! Hehehe. After cooking and having it for dinner, I noted that it was nearly as good as my grandmother's. Only problem was the cabbage - it was quite fibrous and we made a mental note to never, ever buy cabbages in the UK. Not NICE : ( Oh yes, I also O.D.-ed the 'dong fun' too! LOL... so it was like vegetarian noodle dish... but not bad also lah!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Got transported back to a traditional Chinese New Year meal, eaten with chopsticks on a marble table... hehe it was good.'

This Chinese New Year has made me appreciate the people who prepare special meals for this season. I realised that it takes a lot of effort and planning for a meal to be really yummy and special. Well, this is just the beginning for me... and it has just started to get exciting.

Till then, keep nomming!!!


Ingredients: nam yee (red fermented bean curd), cabbage, mook yee, black mushroom, dong fun, foochook.