Gyoza AKA 锅贴

Ingredients

1 packet of gyoza wrappers

250g of minced pork

1/3 cup of chopped napa cabbage

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

1 teaspoon of grated ginger 

2 tablespoons of chopped spring onions

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1 teaspoon of sugar

2 tablespoons of soya sauce

Pinch of salt

Preparation

Cook the napa cabbage in a pot of boiling water. 

Drain and remove excess water by squeezing the cooked cabbage with hands or paper towel.

Combine all the ingredients together and mix well. 

Place a spoonful of the filling in the middle of a gyoza wrapper and put water along the edge to seal up the wrapper, forming a semi-circle. 

Gather the sides of the wrapper or do so using a gyoza maker(dumpling mould).

Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and fry the gyoza until the bottom part turns brown and crispy over medium high heat. 

Turn heat down to low and add in 60ml of water. 

Steam cook the gyoza with lid covered. 

Remove lid when water has greatly reduced(approximately 10ml left).

Continue cooking until all water has evaporated. 

Serve with dipping sauce(black vinegar with shredded ginger).

Hainanese Pork Chop AKA 海南猪肉扒

Hainanese, one of the Chinese dialect groups, they are rather well-known for being in the food trade. The early Hainanese immigrants in Singapore mostly work as waiters and servants in the local hotels, restaurants, bakeries and bars. Many of them also became coffee shop owners, stall holders and chefs.

Today, Hainanese cuisine is one of the most sought after cuisines in Singapore. Hainanese Chicken Rice, Hainanese Curry Rice and Hainanese Pork Chop are just some of the popular and classic dishes. (I was told that the traditional Hainanese Pork Chop is not served with tomato sauce.)

Ingredients (Adapted from a magazine cutting - by Chef Zhang Tian)
200g of pork loin
1 egg
1 tomato (diced)
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
50g of sliced onion
20g of frozen green peas
120ml
3 tablespoons of ketchup
1/2 teaspoon of dark caramel soya sauce (optional)
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
Cornstarch

Preparation
Pound pork loins with meat tenderizer. Flatten to about 1/2 inch in thickness.
Rub meat with salt and pepper.
Coat the meat with cornflour and shake off the excess.
Dip into beaten egg.
Coat well with breadcrumbs.
Deep fry till it turns golden brown.
Set aside.
Stir fry garlic and onion till slightly brown.
Add caramel soya sauce, water and ketchup.
Bring to a boil before tossing in the tomatoes and green peas.
Leave to simmer.
Thicken sauce with cornflour if necessary.
Add salt/pepper to taste.
Pour sauce over the pork chops.
Serve immediately.

Gold Bags

The coincidence of Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day falling on the same day this year in the year of the Tiger has been the talk of the town. God knows how many times this can actually happen. But don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Valentine's day is about spending the day with the one you love. Just so it happens, this year for a change, you get to spend the day with the ONES you love. Extended families and all. The more the merrier? =P

Hearty breakfast in conjunction with Valentine's Day.

And of course not forgetting the Chinese festival, the auspicious New Year dish I am sharing on my food blog this year is Gold Bags. The name of the dish is pretty self-explanatory. Gold bags are in fact just deep fried dumplings. (similar to Deep Fried Wantons) Nonetheless, these morsels symbolize good luck, wealth and good fortune.

The preparation is just like packaging luck inside the dumpling, which is later eaten. Ways of cooking include steaming, boiling and shallow fried. Dumplings are eaten traditionally in northern China.

Ingredients
1 packet of wanton skin
300g of minced pork
5 water chestnuts (peeled and finely diced)
10 prawns (finely diced)
1/2 stalk of spring onion (finely chopped)
1 egg (beaten)
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of cornflour
Chive/Spring onion

Preparation
Mix pork, water chestnuts, prawns, finely chopped spring onions and egg together in a bowl.
Season with soya sauce, sesame oil, pepper and cornflour.
Set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Place small portions on the wanton skins to wrap.
Secure the wantons by tying them with stalk of chive/spring onion.
Deep fry the wrapped wantons over medium high heat.
Remove from heat when the wantons turn golden brown.

Serve hot.

Last but not least, wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day &
a Happy Lunar New Year! Huat ah!!

Spicy Minced Pork

I just realised I haven't done much updating on my food blog. My last post was like more than 1/2 a month ago. BUT, there's Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year Eve, New Year and a fun-filled wedding. Funny and cute couple. Even the groom's daddy is humorous. Though I only had a brief conversation with him, but it was enlightening.

Ahem. As I was saying with so many events, I can hardly make time to blog. Haiz. I have to admit I'm getting a bit lazy on updating my blog nowadays as well.

I shall list updating my food blog more often as one of my many New Year's Resolutions for 2010. ^^

Hope I am not too late in wishing everyone all the best and a great year in 2010! Lastly, sharing the recipe for Spicy Minced Meat as follows:

Ingredients
150g of minced pork
100g of long beans (chopped)
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of sambal chili
Dash of black pepper

Preparation
Stir fry sambal chili till fragrant before adding in the minced meat.
Continue to stir fry till meat half-cooked.
Add in the soya sauce, sugar, oyster sauce and black pepper.
Stir well and add in the chopped long beans.
Remove from heat when the long beans are cooked.
Garnish with chopped chili before serving. (optional)

Steamed Spare Ribs AKA 蒸排骨

Ingredients
300g of spare ribs
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of oil
1 teaspoon of cornflour
2 teaspoons of chili bean sauce
Spring onions

Preparation
Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly.
Steam the dish for 15-20 minutes over medium high heat or till cooked.
Garnish with spring onions.
Serve hot.

Black Vinegar Trotter AKA 猪脚醋

This recipe is passed to me by my Mommy who cooked this for my confinement. Black Vinegar Trotter is believed to be one of the recipes that helps to expel wind from the body effectively. This is very important for Mommies who had just given birth. The old folks believe that if the new Mommy is not being nurtured back to the pink of health during her confinement, she will suffer from many illnesses as she ages.

Anyway, the elderly in both my husband's and my family love Black Vinegar Trotter. Therefore I decided to give this recipe a try for the first time. It was only then did I realize that preparing this dish can be so time consuming and back-breaking. I must have spent at least 2 hours in the kitchen, cleaning the trotter, removing the hairs and cooking the dish.

But overall, I guess it's worth the hassle. The elders are happy. Other than enjoying the dish itself, they commented that eating the Black Vinegar Trotter aids in the relief of their rheumatism. And most of all, my Dad complimented me! He said the taste of the Black Vinegar Trotter that I cooked is very similar to Mommy's. "有妈妈的味道。好吃。" *beaming*

I shall pass on this recipe to my daughter when she grows up. Hope she loves cooking too. ^^

Ingredients
1kg of pork trotter
A bottle of black vinegar (750ml)
500g of old ginger (skinned and cut into large chunks)
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of sesame oil

Preparation
Boil a pot of water and add in the trotter.
Remove from heat when it is cooked.
Clean the trotter thoroughly under running tap water and pluck out the hairs.
Set aside and drain.
Pour the bottle of vinegar into a large pot.
Fill up the empty bottle with tap water and add into the pot with vinegar.
Add in brown sugar and leave to boil.
Squash the ginger and pan fry till fragrant.
Add in sesame oil to enhance the fragrance.
When the ginger starts to brown, pour everything into the pot of vinegar.
Toss in the cleaned trotter into the boiling vinegar 10-15 minutes later.
Cook for another 30 minutes before turning the heat off.
Reheat before serving.

*If you intend to keep and consume the Black Vinegar Trotter for a week or more, separate the pork from the vinegar as the vinegar will dissolve the meat over a period of time if kept together.*

Steamed Salted Fish with Minced Meat AKA咸鱼蒸肉饼

Ingredients
250g of minced pork
70g of salted fish (separated into 50g and 20g)
1 tablespoon of cornflour
Salt
Cooked oil

Preparation
Add a pinch of salt to the minced meat.
Mash up the 50g of salted fish and mix together with the meat and cornflour.
Set the mixture in a shallow dish and drizzle some oil on top.
Steam over medium low heat for 10 minutes or more.
Pan-fry the 20g of salted fish till golden brown.
Place on top of the steamed dish.
Serve hot.

Kway Chap AKA Braised Pig Innards

As the saying goes, Chinese eats everything with four legs except tables and chairs. Not only do we eat all sorts of animals, even their entrails are not spared.

This dish is flat rice noodles served with salted veggies, tau pok(fried beancurd), pig skin and braised egg etc but consists mainly of pig innards. People find this dish either heavenly or ... plain disgusting.

My husband love this dish to bits. Even without the rice noodles, he will get himself a bowl of plain rice to go with it. His eyes will lit up when he sees this dish on the dinning table. Reason being, I cook it only once in a blue moon as it is high in cholesterol and uric acid.

Crucial part of preparing this recipe is the cleaning and washing of the innards. When not done properly, the stench can make anyone throw up even last week's dinner. Wash the innards carefully and inside out if you must. For large intestines, trim away the dirt-covered lining. As for sweet intestines, if you are not keen in the powder/cream inside, shove a piece of garlic from one end of the intestine to the other end. Repeat for 2-3 times and everything inside the sweet intestines will be cleared. To reduce the stench, soak the innards in a can of Coke for 1/2 an hour or more.

Ingredients
150g of lean pork (blanched)
200g of large intestine
200g of sweet intestine
200g of pre-cooked pig maws
1 hard boiled egg
1whole clove of garlic
1 teaspoon of cloves
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce
Salt/ Soya sauce

Preparation
In a deep pot, add in 500ml of water followed by dark soya sauce, garlic, cloves, black peppercorns, star anise and cinnamon stick.
Bring water to a boil before adding in meat and the rest of the innards.
Cook for 30 minutes.
Add in the hard boiled egg and make sure that it is submerged.
Add salt/soya sauce to taste.
Simmer for another 15 minutes. (cook longer if you prefer the innards to be softer and less chewy)
Take everything out from the sauce and cut into bite-size pieces.
Arrange on a plate and pour the sauce over the braised meat and innards.
Serve immediately with chili.

Tonkatsu AKA Deep Fried Pork Cutlet

Tonkatsu has Japanized over the years more so than other yōshoku and is today usually served with rice, miso soup and tsukemono in the style of washoku (traditional Japanese food)

Tonkatsu is most commonly eaten with a type of thick Japanese Worcestershire sauce called tonkatsu sauce (tonkatsu sōsu) (トンカツソース), often simply known as sōsu ("sauce"), and often with a bit of spicy yellow karashi (Japanese mustard) and perhaps a slice of lemon. Some people like to use soy sauce instead. In Nagoya and surrounding areas, miso katsu—tonkatsu eaten with a miso-based sauce—is a specialty.

Prices for a tonkatsu vary from 198 yen for a pre-cooked tonkatsu from a supermarket to over 5,000 yen in an expensive restaurant. The finest tonkatsu is said[citation needed] to be made from kuro buta (black pig) from Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan. - Wiki

Ingredients
2 pork loins
1 egg (beaten)
Plain flour
Breadcrumbs
Salt
Pepper
BBQ sauce

Preparation
Pound pork loins with meat tenderizer. Flatten to about 1/2 inch in thickness.
Rub meat with salt and pepper.
Coat the meat with cornflour and shake off the excess.
Dip into beaten egg.
Coat well with breadcrumbs.
Deep fry till it turns golden brown.
Serve with BBQ sauce.

Ngoh Hiang or Five-spice Meat Roll AKA 五香

Ngoh Hiang is also known as five spice. But over here, it simply refers to the meat roll instead of the five different spices - Cinnamon, Cloves, Cummin, Star Anise and Fennel Seeds.

And neither is it a composition of various meats and vegetables and other ingredients that is commonly found in hawker centres, also known as Ngo Hiang. Apparantly, Ngo Hiang is a Hokkien dish as stated in Wikipedia.

The recipe that I am sharing here is a Nonya dish. Ever seen the local drama - The Little Nonya? There is mention of Ngoh Hiang in one of the episodes. And it is from this show that I learnt that Ngoh Hiang needs to be steamed before deep frying. =P

Ingredients
200g of minced pork
150g of water chestnut (finely diced)
4 pieces of beancurd skin (cut into 20cm x 25cm)
2 tablespoons of soya sauce
1 tablespoon of five-spice powder
Dash of pepper
1/2 stalk of spring onion (finely chopped)
1 egg
Cornstarch

Preparation
Add water chestnut, soya sauce, five-spice powder, pepper, spring onion and egg to minced meat.
Mix well.
Leave in fridge to marinate for an hour.
Wrap marinated mixture with beancurd skin into rolls.
Seal edge with cornstarch.
Steam for 10 minutes.
Deep fry till golden brown.

* Alternatively, you can cut up the rolls before deep frying.

Steamed Pork with Shrimp Paste AKA 咸虾酱蒸猪肉

Ingredients  
100g of pork (sliced thinly)
1 teaspoon of shrimp paste
1 small red chili (chopped)

Preparation
Mix the shrimp paste to the pork and drizzle a little bit of oil to it.
Leave to marinate for 15 minutes or less.
Sprinkle chopped chili on top of the dish before steaming it over medium low heat for 20 minutes or till it's cooked.
Ready to serve.

Deep Fried Wantons AKA 炸云吞

Ingredients
1 packet of wanton skin
300g of minced pork
5 water chestnuts (peeled and finely diced)
10 prawns (finely diced)
1/2 stalk of spring onion (finely chopped)
1 egg (beaten)
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of cornflour

Preparation
Mix pork, water chestnuts, prawns, spring onions and egg together in a bowl.
Season with soya sauce, sesame oil, pepper and cornflour.
Set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Wrap the marinated ingredients using the wanton skin.
Deep fry the wrapped wantons over medium high heat.
Remove from heat when the wantons turns golden brown.

Serve hot with mayonnaise or any other preferred dipping sauce. (optional)

Sweet & Sour Pork AKA 咕噜肉

You can simplified the preparation of this recipe a little by opting out the onion and capsicum. It may not turn out just as colorful. But if you find it too plain, just sprinkle some white sesame seeds over the dish before serving.

For those who are cooking with the vegetables, you just have to make sure not to overcook them.

Ingredients
250g of pork (pounded and cut into bite-size pieces)
1/2 a capsicum (cut into chunks)
1/2 a large onion (cut into chunks)
3 tablespoons of ketchup
2 teaspoons of sugar
Cornflour
Cornstarch

Marinade for the pork
2 tablespoons of soya sauce
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1/2 cap of shaoxing wine

Preparation
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together.
Add in the pork and toss thoroughly.
Set aside in the fridge and leave it to marinate for at least an hour.
Coat the marinated pork with cornflour before deep frying it over medium heat.
Remove from oil and set aside to drain when the pork turns golden brown.
In another pan, add sugar and ketchup to 150ml of water.
Bring to a boil and add in the capsicum.
Cook for 5 minutes under medium high heat before adding in the onions.
Drizzle cornstarch to thicken the sauce.
Remove from heat and toss in the pork.
Make sure every piece is well coated with the sauce.
Serve hot.