Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siew)

Recently a friend of mine shared an easy yet tasty recipe with me and I'm sure glad I tried it (special thanks to Jenny Seah).  This recipe requires very little ingredients and it's easy and nice even for new cooks to try out!

Ingredients
500g pork shoulder (五花肉)
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp Hua Tiao Wine

• Marinate pork over night with all the other ingredients .
• Preheat Oven at 200 degree.
• Line aluminium foil on tray and place a wire rack on top.
• Place pork on wire rack and and roast it at 200 degree for 45 mins
• Turn meat every 15 minutes and brush surface with remaining marinating sauce and roast till done!

Happy trying!!

Healthy Brown Rice Porridge

I'm feeling low in energy today and Austin had a swelling tongue due to medication reaction and have not been eating well so feeling giddy so I decided to cook something nice and yet nourishing!

While sourcing for cooking ingredients at wet market this morning, I saw fresh Huai Shan (淮山) and decided to get a piece back home.  Then I continue and brought some fresh mushroom, carrot and spinich too!

Now I find that these ingredients are not sufficient...so I decided to add in some other ingredients that can be found in my fridge ha!

Here's the ingredients required:

1 cup Brown Rice
1.5 litre Water
300g Huai Shan (cut cube)
200g Carrot (Dice)
4 Stalks of Spinich (cut very finely)
6 Red Dates (soak 10 mins and cut half)
1 tbsp Wolfberries (soak 10 mins and leave aside)
3 Fresh Mushroom (Dice)
6 Dried Oyster (soak 15 mins)
One handful of Dried Scallops (soak 15 mins)
1 stalk spring onion (dice)
Salt and Pepper to taste

• Boil Brown Rice with Water till boiling.
• Add in Dried Oyster and Scallop and boil for 15 minutes.
• Add in Burdock, Carrot, Red Dates and Spinich and boil for 30 minutes.
• Add in Fresh Mushroom and Wolfberries and boil for another 15 minutes.
• Season with Salt and pepper.
• Sprinkle some Spring Onions on top of porridge and serve hot!

Enjoy!! 

Penang Assam Laksa

Last week I ate a bowl of Assam Laksa at Jurong Point Red Laquer Restaurant.  The laksa there was good.  Sourish and thick enough!  While eating it, I told myself...this will be the next dish I'm cooking when I have the time.  Searching thru the websites and seeking friend's opinion, I finally managed to get all the necessary ingredients from Supermarket and Wet Market and started cooking the "troublesome" laksa today!

Why I said it's troublesome?  There's so much to buy, so many things to wash and cut...but tell you what...end result was good and worth while when you see the bowls are empty!!

I adopted my recipe from RasaMalaysia but modified some ingredients and quantities to suit my hubby and my taste!

Fish Stock Ingredients (Boil together till fish cooked and remove from fire):

1.5 Kg (Mackerel Fish + Kembong Fish) - I mix it as Mackerel fish is tougher and will have more chuck pieces of fish in soup!

2.5 litre Water

Chilli Paste Ingredients (Grind together): 

15 Red Chilli

100g Shallots

200g Onions (slice)

50g Galangal (蓝姜)

1 Stalk Ginger Flower (cut tip finely and put aside as condiments and use the rest for the chilli paste)

1 Stalk Lemon Grass (cut pieces)

Other Ingredients:

150g Belacan (soft type -fresher)

20 pieces Dried Tamarind Peel

200g Assam + 1 rice bowl of water to make Tamarind Juice (remove seeds)

10 Stalks Laksa Leaves (clean and put aside)

2 Stalks Lemon Grass

Seasoning:

1 tbsp Sugar

1 tbsp Fish Sauce

Condiments:

1 Cucumber (slice thinly)

1 Sawarak Pineapple (cut small chuck)

3 Onions (slice thinly)

Lettuces (slice thinly)

Mint Leaves (use only the leaves and cut thinly)

Ginger Flower (the balance from making chilli paste)

Red Chilli (cut and remove seeds)

Prawn Paste (Heh Go)

Of course not forgeting to get some Laksa Noodles!!

Method:

• Remove fish from pot and strain soup and save for later use.
• Remove fish meat from fish and discard the bones and keep fish meat aside.
• Boil fish stock in pot and add in the grinded chilli paste and all other ingredients and simmer stock for 1 hr.
• Soak Laksa Noodles with hot water and strain then keep aside.
• After 1 hour, add the fish meat back to stock and boil for another 1 hour till soup thicken.
• Place a portion of Laksa Noodles into a soup bowl.  Add in all condiments (quantities based on yr likings) on top of noodles and scoop fish soup base into bowl.
• Add a spoonful of shrimp paste before serving.

Hope you enjoy your Penang Assam Laksa as much as I do!