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.

'Ken Tiao Pan'

I always tell myself that I must learn how to cook and prepare dishes that I like to eat. Why? Morbid as you might say about me, I'm worried that some day there is no chance of eating the 'famous assam laksa at Jalan XXX', famous this and yummy that at XYZ restaurant. Hence, I made a simple goal to myself - to learn to prepare dishes that I like to eat ^^. So far, I've learnt a couple of dishes and this time, in the spirit of Chinese New Year, I thought of learning to make one of my favourite recipes - pan mee.

'Ken Tiao Pan' is similar as pan mee, the only difference is the shape. Instead of rolling through the noodle maker machine, it is torn by hand. I learnt this recipe from my Mother-in-law and thought of giving it a go for our dinner tonight : )

First, I prepared the dough. As this was my attempt at kneading a dough, I was quite scared of ruining my dough. But TheLoyalFan told me not to worry as it is just a matter of balancing out the ingredients. Hehehe, not only TheLoyalFan is my food tester, he's kinda my advisor too!
The ingredients were simple - plain flour, eggs, salt and water. After kneading the dough and getting the right texture, the dough was completed and it was covered with a damp cloth and rested for half and hour.

Then I made the condiments a.k.a. 'liew' (hehehehe). I debone some drumsticks and for this, I learnt from a Youtube video uploaded by an American Chinese. Once the drumsticks were chopped into smaller pieces, I fried it in a pan together with some sliced mushrooms and mook yee. Then added some water to make gravy and season it to be slightly saltier than normal tasting. I also made an ikan bilis soup by frying ikan bilis and poured fish stock to boil together. Thereafter, I've added in lettuce since there is no 'pucuk manis' in Manchester.

This noodle can be eaten either the dried version or the soup version.

The outcome? Both versions were really good. Although I had a panic attack while kneading the dough, I think this dish can be prepared by anyone who loves pan mee. I tried to make the sauce abit thicker... but made a mistake by putting the flour directly into the sauce. The correct way is to dilute the flour in water then pour into the dish. LOL!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Perfect food for a cosy reunion dinner. Completely satisfying...YUM!'

I'm glad that this was accomplished - one favourite dish done and many more to go. Woohoo!!!

That's all for now. Wishing you a wondeful Chinese New Year and enjoy those sunny days, cookies and all goodies that are only available during the Lunar New Year. Till then, je vous souhaite une bonne journée. Au revoir! (I wish you a good day ahead. Goodbye!)

Can we cook like Heston Blumenthal?

One of Heston's episodes that we watched a couple of days ago was about beef and we tried to cook our pork chop the same way like he did for his steak... hehehe, well, it's all about experimenting and we thought of trying this method : )

For the conventional method, it takes 3 to 4 minutes to 'sear' one side of a steak and then turn the other way. But Heston cooked differently - instead of leaving the meat to 'sit' on the pan for that amount of time, his was slow and easy, turning the sides at every 15 to 20 seconds. Hence, to start off with our experiment, pour in the oil and make sure the oil is super hot, like 190c (he has a thermometer to check it... but I, just agak agak only : P). Then I seasoned my pork chops with salt and the searing began. With a pair of chopsticks on my right hand and a frying spatula on my left, I turned the pork chops based on the timing until it is cooked completely. Then I season some pepper and pour in a glass of port & a knob of butter into the pan and let it boil for a short while and remove the pan from the heat. Let the meat rest for about 5 minutes and it is ready to serve.

The pork chops turned out to be really nice! It was juicy and it is slightly brown on the skin. However, I should have poured in more port as mentioned in the recipe though... the sauce was really sweet and it complimented with our veggies and mash : )

TheLoyalFan says: 'The wine sauce goes very well with the pork...'

So, back to the question... Can we cook like Heston? Can... but it would be nice to have a thermometer though... hehehe.

Aglio Olio

This is one of our favourite dishes that we have ever made and it is always a delight for us! (Plus, it gives us another way to use our dried chillis)

First, cincang the garlic and dried chillis. Today I have the privilege to 'officiate' the Chopper and I must say, it chops everything really, really fine! Way better than my usual knife. (Thanks, SZ!)
If you are not in the mood of cincang-ing the dried chillis, I'm sure there's chilli flakes available from the supermarket (or Domino's Pizza...hehe). Heat up the oil in the pan, and be alittle generous with the oil as it will help your toss later.
Once the oil is hot, put in the chillis and garlic. Let them sizzle in the hot oil for about 30 seconds or until it is golden brown. Remove the pan from direct heat and pour in the drained spaghetti. Give it a good toss with some utensils and it is done!

We also made some omelettes to compliment our spaghetti too! Since Gong Xi Gong Xi is just around the corner, we've added some lap cheong in it...yum yum yums! The capsicums? Hehehe, we like to eat them raw and so happen we have some extras in our fridge : )

TheLoyalFan says: 'Simple and satisfying *rubs tummy*'

And I second that too!

I am looking forward to next week because... it is Chinese New Year! I can't wait to try out new recipes... yay!!!

Have a wonderful Chinese New Year and please remember us when you eat all those CNY goodies such as  Lou Sang, Pineapple Tarts, Kuih Kapits and many many more!

Minestrone Soup

I have always wanted to cook up this dish as it is always sold either in tinned version or at fancy restaurants. After looking at the recipe a couple of days back, I thought of giving it a go!

First, prepare vegetable stock in a pot and pour tinned chopped tomatoes and bring to boil. Then, put in spaghetti that has been broken into shorter lengths and let it simmer for a while. Lastly, pour in frozen mixed vegetables, pesto and season it with salt, sugar and pepper - DONE!
Basically, this dish is like a super simple equation:

Minestrone Soup = (Stock + chopped Tomatoes) + Veggies + Spaghetti

*felt abit like a mad scientist... hence, the urge of writing this equation : P*

Garnish the soup with a bit of grated cheese and it is ready to serve.

There were some modifications done for this dish. Well, it was partly my fault because I was having so much fun with the 'agak agak' measurements; I accidentally prepared too much water for the soup and had to add more veggies and spaghetti. Then I didn't have vegetable stock so I used chicken stock instead. According to the recipe, pesto was supposed to add onto the soup as a garnish but I ended up boiling together.
The outcome of the dinner? Well, an ultra contented pair which had 3 servings each and a bowl saved up for my lunch tomorrow... yummy!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Warms your body and makes you all fonzi & fuzzy... and sleepy too (snuggles under the duvet)'

Alrightie folks, I think I need to go to the toilet now : S

Have a great week ahead guys!

Let's have a cuppa!

Lovely isn't? Well, it's not coffee or tea though... it's Lo Hon Kuo - Herbal Tea! I really miss my leong sui so I've decided to make a pot of this wholesome goodness.

Ahhh... warms up a cold weekend for me already : )

Have a great weekend everyone!

Till then, keep nomming!