Steamed bean curd (tofu) with minced meat

 

When come to bean curd / tofu, I only a make them a few ways. My all time favourite is this simple ingredients tossed together. You can of course make it meatless.

Steamed bean curd (tofu) with minced meat

300gm white bean curd, cubed

1 purple onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

white pepper, to taste

soy sauce, to taste

toasted sesame seeds

spring onion, to garnish

150-200gm minced pork, Optional

Method
1)  In a steamer, put cubed  bean curd on heat proof serving dish. Steamed for about 10 mins.

2) Meanwhile, In a pan, heat some vegetable oil, sauté sliced onion until golden brown, add in the garlic and continue to sauté a little. Remove from heat and season with soy sauce and white pepper to taste. Pour this seasoned oil over the steamed bean curd. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds spring onions. serve immediately.

3) If serving with minced meat, just sauté and season mince meat. set it aside and just sprinkle over bean curd.

A little bit of everything

Links Recipes /adaptation

Cauliflower acar (spicy pickle) http://kitchenat19.blogspot.hu/2010/08/spicy-pickled-vegetables-acar.html

Tzatziki http://kitchenat19.blogspot.hu/2013/03/tzatziki.html

Mediterranean Millet Salad http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-couscous-salad-with-cucumber-red-onion-herbs-recipes-from-the-kitchn-190535?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=managed


Stuffed sweet pepper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXwtO4fptL4

Hungarian Stuffed Pepper { Töltött Paprika }

Considering this is my first attempt at the Hungarian classic stuffed pepper, I'm happy with the results. As usual, to cook this is simpler than I imagined. I did not follow an exact recipe but followed this helpful video.

++ Additions of celery roots.

Appetiser : Meatballs wrapped in Phyllo pastry

When you can't get wonton wrappers, the next best thing (at least for me) is phyllo pastry. Basically this is my take on the Chinese Wonton

Meatballs wrapped in Phyllo Pastry
makes about 20-25 balls

Ingredients
500gms of ground meat *usually pork but you can half with chicken
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
1 spring onions,finely chopped
1 stick carrot, finely chopped

1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sugar
a pinch of salt
squeeze of anchovy paste
dash of fish sauce

white pepper , to taste

20-25 squares of phyllo pastry
cooking oil, to brush

Preparation
1) Heat oven at 200°c / Gas 5
2) In a bowl, place the ground meat, and mix togther all the seasoning and vegetables. Let it sit for 30 mins.
3) After 30 mins. take out the phyllo pastry from fridge (already cut squares). Brush each pastry with some oil, fill with about 1.5 tsp of seasoned meat. wrapped it up until all meat is finish. Place on baking tray.
4) Bake for 10 mins. and then turn the baking dish around and bake for another 8-10 mins. until meat is fully done and pastry golden brown.
5) Serve hot.

Quick Pork & Noodle soup

A rather quick noodle soup for when the days you want something really simple.

Quick Pork & Noodle soup
4 pax

Ingredients

Soup base
1 inch ginger, bashed
1 stalk spring onion, bashed
1 garlic, bashed
a little oil
Root vegetable (I used parsley root, celery root)
1.5 litre water
salt, to taste

Noodle
4 pkts x 60g pho instant noddle
2 sachets seasoning from instant noodle

Protein
200g Pork liver, sliced thinly
200g Minced pork, seasoned and form into meat balls

Garnish
toasted sesame
spring onion , chopped

Method
1) In a soup pot, saute bashed garlic, ginger and spring with a little oil for a few minutes. Peel and chop up root vegetable in small pieces for faster cooking. Add water to the soup pot and the root veg., Let it boil and simmer til root veg. is soften.

2) Prep. protein. When soup base is ready, throw in the meat balls to cook. When it is cook, start putting in the noodles. and liver. Be careful not to overcook the liver.

3) Serve immediately  sprinkle with toasted sesame and spring onion.

Jamie Oliver Roasted Pork Belly {燒肉}

The last time and also the first time I roasted Chinese-style pork belly was in 2007! although nothing wrong with the recipe and the taste, I failed in achieving the crackling skin. So, when this week the pork belly goes on sale, I thought why not try a different recipe and see how it goes. 

The verdict : I did it, I  achieved the crispy crackling! Also, seasoning with just salt and pepper were the perfect way to eat this. I'll definitely be using this recipe again!

Jamie Oliver Roasted Pork Belly
adapted from http://julesfood.blogspot.hu/2010/08/jamie-olivers-crispy-skin-pork-belly.html
for 2-3 pax

Ingredients
600gm pork belly
Sea / kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

Method
1) Pre-heat oven 220°c / Gas 7
2) Clean pork belly and pat dry with kitchen towel.
3) Start by scoring pork rind, in a criss cross manner, 1cm apart. *Do not score to deep, just until the fat not meat*
4) Rub salt all over the scored skin well. Get rid of excess salt.
5) Season the underside of the meat with salt and ground pepper.
6) Place pork belly, skin side up on baking dish. Bake in the oven for 1/2 hour until the skin of the pork has started to puff up and you can see it turning into crackling.
7) After 1/2 hour, remove pork belly from oven and reduce temperature to 180°c/Gas 4. Put pork belly back into oven and cook for another 1/2 hour. *At this point, you may add onion, garlic, any vegetables and herbs to roast* 
8) After the second 1/2 hour, remove pork belly again, baste the drippings on pork belly and put it back in the oven to cook for final 15-20 mins. or until meat falling apart.
9) Let it rest before serving.

Over baked sesame meat balls

Oh, baking meat balls is so easy! Just pre-heat oven at 204°c/400°F/Gas mark 6 for at least 20 mins. before putting your meat balls in. Bake for 20-25 mins. and it is ready! No oil splatters or greasy kitchen to clean ;)

Ingredients
500 ground pork, or your choice of ground meat , you can also mix 2 types of meat
garlic granule, to taste
1/2 tsp cumin,
1 tsp ground paprika
salt & pepper , to taste
1 egg
1 day-old bread
bread crumbs & sesame seed, for coating

Method :-
1) Soak stale bread in milk/stock/water for few minutes. Squeeze out the excess liquid after few minutes and tear into pieces
2) Put ground meat in mixing bowl, add cumin, garlic granule, ground paprika, salt, pepper, torn bread and crack in the egg. Use your hand to mix the ingredients until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.

3) While meat is resting, start to heat oven at 204°c/400°F/Gas mark 6 for 20  mins.
4) Shape meat mixture into balls, coat with bread crumbs+sesame seeds. Place on well-greased baking dish. Bake first for 10 mins. After 10 mins. take out from oven , flip over the meat balls and bake for another 10-15 mins., until meat is fully cooked.

Easy homemade "barbecued" Pork {Cantonese Char Siu}

If you are familiar with Cantonese cuisine, than Char Siu is no stranger to you. To those who has no idea what it is , you can read it here here
I have found a way to imitate that barbecued taste with just 2 ingredients.

Ingredients :-
Smoked ham
Sour cherry jam (50% fruit content), to taste

Method :-
1) First soak the smoked ham in cold water for about 4 hours to get rid of some of the saltiness.
2) Once ham has been soaked, dry it with kitchen towel and slice into preferred thickness. Set aside.
3) Heat a sauce pan with a few table spoons of sour cherry jam. Let it simmer until intense red colour.
4) Place ham pieces all over the sauce pan to absorb the jam flavour, flip it a few times to let it completely infuse in the sauce. When the ham has picked up the colour of the jam, it is ready.
5) You can serve with rice, cucumber and some of remaining gravy. Or simply eat it with plain bread :)

 

Pearl Barley Risotto

Hungarian style Pearl Barley Risotto 
serves 4 pax

Ingredients
150gm pearl barley
150gm smoked sausage
oil, if needed
1 Onion, finely chopped
ground smoked paprika, to taste
ground cumin, to taste

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato puree
2 fresh tomatoes, peeled sliced or chopped finely
splash of white wine
1 hungarian pepper , sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
300gm chicken stock

salt & pepper, to taste
sugar, to adjust the acidity if needed
parley, finely chopped, to sprinkle

Method
1) Heat sauce pan with little oil, and fry smoked sausage to render out some fat. Remove smoked sausage from sauce pan and set aside
2) Use this fat (remove excess if desire) to sauté onion until translucent. Put in the pearl barley and cook it for a bit. Remove sauce pan from heat and sprinkle to taste ground smoked paprika, ground cumin & chopped garic. Stir it and add a little bit of the chicken stock before putting back sauce pan to the heat. Let it boil.
3) Next add in chopped tomatoes,  tomato puree and splash of white wine. Cook off the alchohol.
4) Then pour in the rest of the chicken stock, followed by carrot, Hungarian pepper & bay leaf. Cook for 25 mins. but stir on and off to avoid sticking.
5) After 25 mins. stir in the parsley and smoked paprika, check for seasoning, remove from heat. It is ready to serve

cocoa and smoked paprika rubbed pork burger

Love the deep smoky flavour... feels like eating dessert on a burger bun!

Just follow recipe here ; although I've substituted chilli powder for smoked paprika

Homemade Chinese Pork Jerky (Bak kwa) 肉乾

Wow! Homemade Pork jerky needs only 6 ingredients!
If you cook Asian food at home, my guess is you'd already have 5 of the 6 ingredients in your pantry.

The ingredients are :-
1.Ground pork 2.Light soy sauce 3.Dark soy sauce 4. Fish sauce 5. Cooking wine (I used white wine) 6.Sugar


For the exact recipe check at Little corner of Mine


Ingredients:
450gm minced meat, with some fats
1-1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking wine
1/2 cup sugar


Method:
Pre-heat oven at 125°c.

Put minced meat in a big bowl. Add in the seasoning. Use Chopsticks and stir in one direction until minced meat becomes gluey.

Put some gluey minced meat on a *parchment paper. Cover with a big cling wrap (I think plastic sheet is better) and use a roller to roll the minced meat to 2mm thick. (*Do not use aluminum foil as it will stick!)

Put the parchment paper with minced meat, on a baking tray.

Bake in preheated oven at 125°c for 20 minutes. **After that, increase the temperature to 180°c and bake for about 20-30 minutes. Keep a close watch, as it burns easily at this stage.

Cooled and cut into pieces.

Jerky all stripped and ready to be devour! You may also make a sandwich with these meat garnish with cucumber

Baked sausage on a bed of sauerkraut

The magazine where I saw an appetising photo of Káposztaágyon sült kolbász (meaning as per title) didn't accompany a recipe with it. So, I literally just put

a bed of sauerkraut (rinsed and drained water) on a lightly oiled baking dish,
season to taste
sugar, salt, freshly milled black pepper and
a few bay leaves,
top with Hungarian sausage.

Bake it at 140°c (gas mark 1) for 30 mins. turning the sausage once. You may add a little water if it is dry.

The juice from the sausage will soak in the sauerkraut giving it a wonderful flavour!

Roasted Pork Belly (Chinese style)

The recipe is adapted from Lily's Wai Sek Hong. where the pork should be prepared and marinated overnight, which I didn't have time for. To add to my anxiety was the absence of five spice powder , not available at the stores near me. But am not giving up! So, I home-made the 5-spice powder ( DIY recipe) ;) or rather my version of 2-spice powder as I have omitted szechuan peppercorn, fennel seeds, star anise ..hehe

Verdict : Wow! am sure proud of the result despite the skin being a bit rubbery. I think if I have adhered to Lily's recipe 100% the the rubbery skin would not have occured.

Roasted Pork Belly (Chinese style)
adapted from Lily's Wai Sek Hong


Ingredients
600gm Pork belly
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp five spice powder (just used pinch of clove and cinnamon powder)
1 tsp black pepper

Preparation
1) Preheat oven at gas mark 4 (about 180 degrees celcius)
2) Score the skin of pork belly to get a nice crackling effect
3) Dry fry salt, garlic powder, five spice powder and black pepper for few minutes. Add in sugar into mixture.
4) Rub dry ingredients onto meat and marinade overnight or at least 2 hours (i did it in 30 mins :p
5) Place meat on rack of roasting tray with skin side facing up.
6) Roast for about 40 mins.

Note:-
the crackling effect wasn't to my satisfaction, rectify by dry-frying only the skin in a non-stick pan until achieved the desired effect.

Serving :-
Steaming hot rice with chili dipping sauce

Simple one pot dish

Watching RickStein's food heroes on BBC has been such a pleasure. He talks about food with such passion. Further, his recipes are straight forward, often so simple its all about letting the natural flavour shine through. This is something I learnt from one of the episodes, I didn't even need to take down the recipe, it's so easy, its in my mind! Err....ok, I did checked on-line to be sure I didnt leave out any important ingredients :DFirst brown the mutton / lamb / pork (spare ribs). Grease a pot with butter, cover the bottom of the pot begining with a layer of potatoes (cut round), followed by slices of onions, next put the browned meat, a stig of thyme, carots, repeat again with slices of onions, seasoning. Finished off with potatoes at the top, again with seasoning. Bake at low heat (gas mark 2) about 1-1 1/2 hours (for pork), 2-3 hours for mutton/lamb.

Simple English HOT POT