Chinese Crispy Roast Pork (Siu Yook)

If you still remember a while ago, my fellow foodie, Jo, got us the meat poking device which is supposedly used to make this dish. Our first try was with a recipe from a Chinese cookbook from some shop. It took us 3 days of seasoning and vinegar rub, then followed by scouring with the device and finally baking on both sides. It should have been obvious to us then cos it didn't turn out as well as we would have liked. First and foremost, after 3 days in the fridge (sounds a little gross now that I think about it), it is just impossibly non-pokeable. So our crispy pork turned out crispy in some parts & flat in the other areas. The crispy part did not stay light crispy for long as well. Eversince then, this dish has been so elusive to me.

I tried the same method another time with one day chilling and it didn't work either. If you know what siu yuk is all about, it has to be so tasty that the pork fat and meat just blend together as you bite into it and the skin, oh myyyy is the highlight, should be crispy, crackling yet light. If you can hear the lond crackling in your head as you bite, then that is tough crackling not light crackling. I would say this is easily the best best way of eating pork belly. The best of course can be found in Hong Kong normally. I have not been able to find a match in Kuching, except maybe Mr. Ho's Fine Food.

And then, last week, lightning struck. I thought of trying out a new method (poke first, seasoned, chilled overnight to dry and poke again to be safe and roast), so I ordered my pork belly and tonight, my dear readers, is SUCCESS! I was ecstatic about 3 hours ago & still am. My crispy pork turns out almost perfect (pardon the less than modest attitude). But seriously, if Hong Kong is 10, mine is 8.5-9 because there is one little section twice the size of a 50cent coin which didn't puff up well. Other that that, all is crispy light and tasty. And it was still crispy after it came out of the oven for 45 min later for dinner. Will check again tonight. If it's still light crispy then I will award myself with the 9. To Greg it was perfect because I gave him the perfect section. Our friend, Chiang Hon came over to pick up a cake and he tried it, loved it, took a picture of it. Mind you, he claims that he normally does not eat fatty pork.

I remember Terri did a crispy pork post too. I double checked my method with hers and picked up one very important tip. Chuck it in the oven and let it bake for almost one hour & I did just that, closed my eyes and prayed for the best. And it worked.

So here it is, Nee's Crispy Pork:

1.2 to 1.5 kg of pork belly

1) Order one nice slab of pork belly. It's a little difficult to buy slabs off the rack in the market. I ordered mine from Butcher's Deli, Stutong. They are pricey but they know what I was talking about and gave me a good piece with even layers of fat and meat. This is important because if the belly has too much meat or fat, the result in term of taste and roasting will not be good.

2) Clean it well. Wipe it dry and start poking and scouring the skin layer. Really POKE! Imagine your worst enemy while you are at it. I pressed the skin with that poking device, a fork and a carving fork till tiny holes can be seen all over. Scour it too. My maid helped half way through. Don't underpoke!


3) Turn it over to the meat side. Scour the meat lightly. Season with 1 tbsp of salt, 1 teasp of black pepper and 1 teasp of five spice powder. Bring the seasoning up to the top skin layer as well. Pat skin dry with some kitchen towel and apply 1 tbsp of white vineger and rub all over the skin layer.


4) Place on a baking dish. Keep it in chiller overnight, uncover to dry the skin and let the seasoning seep in.


5) Turn up oven to highest, my oven is 250 deg cel, non fan. Place the rack on the higher part of the oven, nearer to heat. Chuck the meat with the baking dish into the oven and roast for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min if your meat is bigger or till the meat looks dry and puffy. Check at half an hour to let out smoke (i was worry about setting fire in my oven) and turn the baking dish around for more even baking. Cool slightly before cutting. Serve with pickled chillis and soya (Greg thought this wasn't necessary at all. He ate it just like that).


For that little part that does not puff well, my theory is:
1) the area is slightly underpoked or
2) not dry enough or
3) that section was slightly concave so the wetness actually flowed and contained in that area during baking and hence making it slightly underpuffed.

To the experts out there, please advice! Anyone? A Terri, Ganache? I saved that little section by pan frying the skin side down. Well, it turned out crispy as well, albeit a little different kind of crispy, more like frying crispy, not puffing crispy. Better than wasting it rite?!

Crispy Nam Yue Pork

A few months ago I remember making this dish with Pork Ribs after reading Terri's. Maybe I didn't do it properly or it could be because I used ribs instead. Greg didn't seem to be that keen on it even though he acknowledged that it was a good dish. I decided to persevere as I don't like him not liking my cooking without any solid good reasons. For those of you who envy him for having a wife who cooks, please remember he gets whipped for not being able to give proper food reviews after eating. It's a bit like giving a book report.

And the reward that he gets is that he ends up eating dishes that are cooked to his liking. This version of crispy nam yue pork is definitely his favourite dish for now. I cooked this last week and my sweet hubby thinks that it is good enough to open a fast food chain restaurant. So there you go. This is seriously good.

Serve 3-4

500-600gm of belly pork meat

2 pieces of nam yue beancurd

1 tbsp of nam yue beancurd sauce

1 1/2 tbsp of sugar

1 tbsp of sesame oil

1/2 tsp of pepper

1/2 tsp of V tsin/ ajinomoto

sweet potato flour

oil for frying

1) Slice the belly pork into 6cm strips. Slice through to discard the skin of each strip. Please retain the fats. Poke the meat with a fork randomly.

2) Mash the nam yue beancurd. Stir with sauce, sugar, sesame oil and the seasoning. Mix well. Season the pork strips with mixture and leave overnight or at least 2 hours. The wonderful thing is that I can do a double recipe and freeze them at this stage. It really helps when I need an extra dish for those lazy or busy days.

3) Coat with sweet potato flour. Please allow me to say this. Sweet potato (sometimes known as snow flour), not potato flour, is really good. It not only lasts after frying but it creates a breadcrumb like texture for the meat and hence the bite and crunchiness.

4) Fry with fresh oil till golden brown.

Sesame Spare Ribs

This is one of the recipes for spare ribs that I've always loved and have made it dozens of times eversince my uni days. But even so, I have never sat down to think about the ingredients & the measurements as I've always been doing it by instinct. So since I did this dish last week, I thought I'd better jot it down ASAP before I forget all about it. What a wonderful motivation writing a blog is!


I am really not sure whether it is my Kim Ma (Granduncle's wife) or my Yi Po (Grandaunt) who started making this dish. But it could be from Yi Po to Kim Ma since Yi Po is the cook of the family. My feeling is that this dish is similar to Kingdu Spare Ribs without the sauces.


Serve 3-4
700- 800gm of spare ribs, pork*
1 tbsp of light soya
1 tbsp of cooking wine
1/2 tbsp of sesame oil
1 teasp of salt
1 tbsp of sugar
4 tbsp of self raising flour
1 tbsp of rice flour
Oil for deep frying


* I was thinking about beef ribs. I think it may do as well.


1) Get your butcher to chop the spare ribs into even pieces. Clean and season with seasoning overnight or 3 hours in the fridge. Drip dry before deep frying. Coat with flour and deep fry till golden brown and crispy. Dish out and set aside to let oil drip off.



Sauce:
1 1/2 tbsp of chilli sauce, i use maggi
3 tbsp of tomato sauce, maggi too
2 tbsp of sesame oil
1- 2 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of light soya
2 tbsp of roasted sesame seed


2) Stir and mix sauces together till sugar melts in deep bowl. Add the warm spare ribs.When I did it last week, my sauce was not quite enough to cover the entire ribs. So here, I upped the sauce recipes by about half. Please adjust seasoning to your taste.


3) Cover the bowl with a plate on top and shake the spare ribs till they are evenly coated with the sauces. Sprinkle sesame seeds to the coated spare ribs. Serve with rice.

Stew Meat with Beancurd and Eggs

This is a perfect go-with-the-rice dish, IF you are under 30 and don't mind drowning yourself with cholesterol and fats. But with all things fatty, it is YUMMY! And fat is really flavourful. Also I think it's a good party dish because it can be prepared way ahead and looks really presentable.

800gm to 1kg of belly pork, get a nice square piece with distinctive layers

2 tbsp of dark soya

2 tbsp of light soya

1 tbsp of five spice powder (optional)

1 tbsp of cooking wine

1teasp of salt and pepper

3-4 cups of cooking oil

1) Season pork with dark soya, light soya, cooking wine, salt and pepper, preferably overnight. Heat up oil to deep fry the pork to brown on both sides. Dish out and drain.

2-3 pieces of star anise

1-2 pieces of cinnamon stick

2 pieces of ginger, thumb size, pounded lightly

1 piece of galangal, approx 1 1/2 bigger than thumb size, pounded lightly

1 whole clove of garlic, leave it whole

3 pieces of shallots, skin off and pounded lightly

3 tbsp of coarse sugar

3 tbsp of atap sugar (palm sugar, i think)

4-6 tbsp of oil

1/2 cup of dark soya

6 cups of water

3-4 pieces of beancurd

3-4 no of eggs

1) Heat up oil in a deep pot. Add cinnamon and star anise and fry till fragrant. Add sugar and stir fry till sugar melts. Add atap sugar and stir fry till the atap sugar melts and goes bubbly.

2) Add garlic, ginger, galangal and shallots and continue to stir fry till fragrant. Add the whole piece of belly meat. Add the remaining seasoning from (1). Add water and soya and bring to a boil.

3) Turn fire to low and continue to simmer till meat goes soft. Turn the meat occasionally to colour all sides. Taste for more seasoning.

The best is to do the above a day before serving and leave it in the pot to continue seasoning.

4) Boil eggs and rid the shells. Take meat out to cool slightly before cutting to ensure easier cutting. Add eggs and beancurds to sauce and continue boiling to thicken the sauce. Turn eggs and beancurds to colour all side.

5) Cut meat, eggs and beancurd and arrange them nicely on a plate. Dish out sauce onto the platter. Serve.

Roast Pork ~ Foochow Style

My mum-in-law cooked this dish well. And Greg always think that his mum's version is the best. Hmpphhh.... Anyway, this is roasting pork in the Foochow way and it is usually home cooked. Another dish that is cooked with our famous U'ang Chow.

500-600 gm of 3 layered meat strip, get those with distinct layers

1 heaped tbsp of U'ang chow

3 tbsp of light soya sauce

2 tbsp of sugar

1 teasp of salt and pepper

1) Clean and wash the pork strip. Keep the strip at a width of 1 inch or so. Poke the top layer of meat at the skin part rigorously with a sharp knife. Rub salt and pepper.

2) Seasoned with U'ang Chow, sugar and light soya. Leave overnight in refridgerator to season or at least 3 hours.

3) Preheat the oven at fan mode and bake at 170 deg cel. Roast the top side for 15 min and extra 15 min each on both side. Turn oven to grill mode at 200 deg cel and grill the meat for 5-10 min to sear the meat. You can do all these on a rack over a shallow pan of water to prevent smoking your oven and whole kitchen.

4) Cut the meat into thin pieces and serve with good quality dark soya sauce mixed with chilli padis and a few dash of maggi seasoning.

Sweet Spicy Spare Ribs Indonesian Style

Both of us just love Pondok Laguna to death the first time we step our foot there for Alex's birthday. It a place with a wonderful atmosphere & it serves Indonesian food. We cannot comment on the authenticity as that was the first time we had a full spread of Indonesian meal. Prior to that, we only had Indonesian style curry and rendang cooked by Mum's friend, Aunty Ratna.

I seriously think that Indonesians are very good cooks and their dishes are always very strong in flavour. Even their cookies and cakes are generally very rich and tasty. If ever there is a chance, I would love to go there and learn how to cook and bake Indonesian style.

Most Indonesian dishes are spicy with a nice tinge of sweetness. This recipe is originally for chicken but pork is very sweet, so I usually do this with spare ribs. This is a very good dish to cook for a dinner get together. Ingredients are generally simple and it packs a punch especially with rice.

1kg or so or spare ribs, cut to finger lengths
1/3 cup of vegie oil
2 heaped tbsp of lemongrass*
1 stalk of fresh lemon grass
1 heaped tbsp of chilli paste, Indian paste or add water to grind chilli powder
1 tbsp of garlic
2 tbsp of red onion
2 tbsp of sweet bean paste (tau pang jang)
1 tbsp of ketumbar powder (coriander powder)*
2 heaped tbsp of asam + 2 cups of water
3-5 tbsp of sugar

1)Season spare ribs with a little salt and pepper.

2)Heat up wok with 1/2 of the oil and stir fry chilli paste. Paste usually suck up oil quite fast and stick to the wok. Dont worry about the burnt effect. Adding a little of remaining oil and keep on stir frying till oil start appearing on the side of chilli paste.

3) Add garlic, onion and remaining oil. Stir fry till fragrant. Add 2 tbsp of lemon grass, bean paste and ketumbar powder. Continue stir frying till ingredients are well mixed and paste like.

4) Add spare ribs/meat. Continue stir frying. Add strained asam water to cover up to at least half of the meat. Mixture will look very watery and redish as chilli oil float upwards. Simmer, lid closed, in small fire for at least an hour or till meat is very soft but still attached to bone. Stir occasionally to prevent bottom from burning.

5) Finally add sugar to taste. Open the lid and turn the fire up and let the juice boil till thick and half of its original amount.

Serve 5-6 with rice.

* I normally lightly pan fry the ketumbar seeds without oil and grind my own ketumbar powder with a blender/grinder. Lemongrass, if bought, usually comes in a bunch and I would only use a few. Instead of wasting it, I normally get the maid to cut them up, pound and blend them to fine pieces. Keeping ingredients such as this in fridge is very handy and avoid wastages.

Ngo Hiang Rolls ~ 5 Fragrant Rolls

Ngo Hiang Rolls, (Wu Xiang in Mandarin) meaning five frangrants, are very typical Teochew celebration dish. It is seen during Chinese New Year and most Teochews would do this for big occassions. I guess it is a little like Sua Mien for the Foochows. Nowadays, Ngo Hiang can be found everywhere at wet markets, chinese hawkers selling kuihs, and also roast meat and chicken rice stalls.

However, Ngo Hiang used to taste especially fresh with fish/prawns, with pork and mushrooms, and sweet with the water chestnuts/mengkuang. The traditional ones from a long time ago used to have a special fragrant as you bite into it. It used to have something like a motherly taste there. Somehow that taste had gone missing in the ones today. In the world of fast pace and quick money, I guess food has gone a little bland.

I learnt this from Aunty Yeo who is a Teochew. And yesterday, i bit into my own Ngo Hiang and found that long lost taste again. Sweeeet, baby! And it's really not difficult to make as well.

You'll need 500 to 600gm of minced pork. Normally I like to choose my own piece and ask to butcher to mince for me.

300gm of prawns, shelled/ mackarel fish, flesh only, smashed with chopper and lightly chopped.

150 gm of water chestnuts or mengkuang (Di Kua in mandarin), cut to small cubes and squeeze out excessive water.

5 no of big mushrooms, cut to small cubes.
2 stalks of spring onions, chopped.
1 tsp of 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp of salt
3 heaped tablesp of plain flour
1 no of egg lightly beaten
1 big pc of bean curd sheet

1) Clean and prepare all ingredients separately. Mix them together in a big bowl. Add eggs and all the powdered ingredients. Stir rigorously till glutten develop. Slap against a clean metal plate a couple of times. Set aside.

2) Prepared bean curd sheet by wiping them with a piece of clean wet cloth as some bean curd sheets are salty. Cut the big piece lengthwise into 20cm wide sheets.

3) Spoon meat mixture onto the smaller sheets about 2 cm from the edges. Roughly roll into a swiss roll log of two rounds without sealing the sides. Cut the sheet. Set the roll aside. Continue on till all the meat is used up. You should be able to get about 10 rolls or so.

4) Return to roll no 1. By now the meat would have wet the beancurd sheet. Unroll slightly and reroll into a firm round sausage folding in the two sides. Do that with the rest.

5) Place in a steamer lined with aluminium foil or banana leaves and steam on med-hi fire for 10 minutes.

6) Typically, Teochew would eat theirs deep fried after steaming, cut to thin slices and dip with chilli sauce. You can eat it as it is after steaming or store in refridgerator for future use. You can also cut and put on top of noodles/maggi mee or eat with rice.

Twice Cooked Pork (Hui Wor Rou)

Why Twice Cooked? The meat is first boiled, sliced, then stir fried. It is therefore cooked twice. Hence, Hui Wor means Back to the Pot. This dish is a signature Szechuan dish which is very nice especially with rice. Greg's verdict: "Excellent!"

400 to 450 gm of pork meat with some fats (san cham/pork belly or pork hind leg meat)

1/2 litre of water

4 slices of ginger

1 stalk of spring onion

1 tbsp of Hua Tiew Shaoxing wine

1) Boil the water, ginger, spring onion and wine mixture and add pork meat (entire piece). Boil for approximately 15 minutes to almost cooked (can still see a little portion of red). It's very important to control the boiling as the meat will be cooked again later. Overcooking will cause the meat to be too chewy and stringy.

2) Slice the half cooked meat into thin slices. Set aside.

2 no of big red chillis or 1/2 red capsicum/bellpepper, sliced

2 no of green chillisor 1/2 green capsicum/bellpepper, sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

1 tbsp of minced garlic

2 tbsp of hot broad bean paste (Szechuan tou pang jang)

2 tbsp of sweet bean or sweet soya sauce

1 teasp of sugar

1 tbsp of light soya

1 tbsp of dark soya

3) Heat wok with 1 tbsp of cooking oil/Szechuan pepper oil, add minced garlic and on high fire, add boiled meat pieces. Stir fry for a min or two.

4) Add the hot bean paste. Continue stir frying till the meat is even coated with paste.

5) Add chillis and onions. Finally the sauces. If sauce is too thick, add with 1 tbsp of water.

6) Stir fry till chillis and onions soften. Do not overcook. The whole stir frying should take less than 10 minutes over high heat. Dish and serve.

Sweet Vineger Pork Leg

Asians especially have this thing about confinement after birth. We call it 'Sit Month' which in all Chinese dialects means sitting (or rather not laying down) for one whole month. I still cant figure out why but then again I had not given birth to appreciate the fact which most old people or the older generation insist " it is good for you. you dont do it now, later you will know"

Besides being confined to your house or a room for one whole month, most mothers have to take tonic and super nutritious stuff to help recovery. Never see that with ang mos though(they all go out after 2 days with the baby somemore). Foochow has the Mee Sua with lots of homemade red wine, Hakka has the Ka Ca Ma (Herby chicken mixture with lots of homemade white and red wine which only 'connoisuers' can appreciate) and the Cantonese generally has the Sweet Vineger Pork Leg (Cu Jiao Chu). Really should be blogging about the Foochow mee sua first but heay this one is as nice and Ka Ca Ma is yummy too if you cook it the right way.

Then again i love all confinement foods and therefore if they are any confinement parties given by the new parents, i am always there. But please dont ask me to give birth myself ah and dont ask why.

Cu Jiao Chu for new mothers are slightly more complicated with the preparation of ginger and vineger and sugar brewed a week or two before birth. So that the gingers are well soaked and perserved in earthern jars. On the big day itself and when needed, the cook will cook the pork with the preserved liquid and ginger and mothers will have this almost everyday for the next month or so and giving it away is a way of informing people that your wife has given birth. But who says you cant eat it for dinner.


1 no (about 1.5 to 2kg) of pork leg including hock
1 big slab of ginger
1 clove of garlic
4 pieces of dried chillis
5-6 pieces of sour plums
8-10 Tbsp of sweet vineger
6-8 Tbsp of dark soya
4-6 Tbsp of sugar
Water to cover
1 pot of boiling water
3 Tbsp of cooking oil

1) Clean well and cut pork leg into small pieces. Can ask your butcher for help. Put pork leg pieces in pot of hot boiling water to clean out the blood and rid the smell (esp important for those in Australia, pork there has a smell) for about 5 min or so. Dish out and wash with cold water.

2) Scrap ginger clean and break into smaller pieces. Mash it wil back of chopper knife. Cut off the bottom ends of garlic.

3) Heat pot with oil and stir fry ginger garlic and dry chillis til fragrant. Add pork leg pieces and continue frying til slightly yellowish. Add the others ~ sour plums with a little of the juice, dark soya and sweet vineger and sugar. Finally enough water to cover. Simmer for an hour or so til all meat is tender and you can even eat the ginger if you like it. Add some for sugar, sweet vineger or salt to taste before serving.

Note:
Use bulldog brand SWEET vineger or any others SWEET ones. It must be 'tien ding chu' translated 'Add child vineger' . Cannot substitute will black sour vineger or white vineger.
Do not overcook the dish. Meat will become too lean and chewy while skins fall off.

This modified way of cooking is nice and simple and really really yummy with plain rice. Anyway, the new mothers way is soooo nutritious that you prob get a nose bleed if you cant take the 'heat'.