Bak Chang 2009

Forgive my silence for quite a while... lots have been happening at home & I just didn't have the time to blog. It's that time of the year we celebrate the Rice Dumpling Festival again!

Here are some snap shots of our family's preparation in wrapping them:

Glutinous rice is marinated with Dark Soya Sauce, Chicken Stock Cube, Pepper, Light Soya Sauce, a bit of 5 spices too. You will need to fry them after marinating for awhile.

Our spread of prepared fillings : Sliced garlic fried, Har Mai fried, Beans precooked/boiled, Chestnuts & Mushrooms cooked together with seasoning too.

Ooooh, here's the whole Wok of Bak! (a.k.a. Pork ~ belly with skin). This is also marinated with Dark Soya Sauce, Light Soya Sauce, loads of 5 spices too

Here's everything including the Salted Egg York (uncooked)

All wrapped up & ready to be boiled for 3 hours or so.

Taa-Dah! Our yummy home cooked & prepared Bak Chang!

Pizza

My very 1st attempt in making pizza dough myself!

My pizza dough making "work in progress" ;)

My toppings : Delmonte's Pizza Sauce, Chopped Fresh Tomatoes, Ham, Button Mushrooms, Shredded Zuchinni & Cheddar Cheese.

My kids enjoyed their Pizza very much (^_^)

Belated Mother's Day treat

This was the spread specially prepared for my parents in conjunction with Mother's Day.

Here we have the ever family favourite (from bottom left clockwise)

• Chicken Curry Devil,
• French Beans Omellete,
• Steamed Taufu with Vegetarian Oyster Sauce & garnished with fried shallots, garlic & Har Mai,
• Stir Fried Baby Pak Choy with Kei Zhi, and lastly
• Button Mushrooms with Sliced Pork
• Herbal Ginseng Chicken soup

Chocolate Cheesecake for Dessert! Recipe taken from Flavours Magazine Nov-Dec '08 issue pg. 20~ Curtis Stone (Take Home Chef)'s recipe

CUPCAKES! ~ Chocolate ... Happy Mother's Day!

All things CHOCOLATE, my dearest son's FAVOURITE! I also wanted to try out this new recipe book I bought at MPH for RM19.90 only called "Makan: Cupcakes, Muffins & Scones" by Azza Pawanchik.

This recipe is called Chocolate Cupcakes (pg. 23). Here is the recipe:-

Ingredients

2 CUPS ~ Boiling Water

1 1/2 CUPS ~ Unsweeten Cocoa Powder

2 3/4 CUPS ~ All Purpose Flour

2 Tsp ~ Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp ~ Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp ~ Salt

1 CUP ~ Butter at Room Tempreture

2 CUPS ~ Sugar

4 Eggs

1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract / Essense

Method

1. Preheat Oven at 180'C / 350'F. Pour boiling water over cocoa powder & mix thoroughly until smooth. Let cool.

2.Combine the Flour, Salt, Baking Soda, and Baking Powder together in seperate bowl.

3. Cream together the Sugar, Butter, and beat until light & fluffy. Beat in the eggs (one at a time) and then add the Vanilla Essense. Add the Flour and Cocoa Mixture alternatively in a dry-wet-dry method, beginning and ending with the dry.

4. Place in cupcake papers and bake for 18-22 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 CUP ~ Butter at room tempreture

8oz (250g) Philadelphia Cream Cheese at room tempreture

2 - 3 CUPS of Powdered Sugar (better known as Icing Sugar)

1 Tsp ~ Vanilla Extract / Essense

Method

1. With an electric mixer, mix the Butter & Cream Cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides & bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

2. Add the Vanilla Essense and mix. Slowly add the Powdered/Icing Sugar. Keep adding until desired sweetness.

3. Spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cupcake. (Note : I didn't have a piping bag so I just spread mine witha knife & sprinkled sugar hearts over it as deco)

Pork Chops - Western #2

Pork Chops - Western #2!! My MIL's special request...she wasn't able to be home in time to cook dinner today & asked me to backup. So this is what I whipped up for 8 pax for dinner.

Pork Chops ~ marinated in Light Soya Sauce, L&P Sauce, Siew Heng Jao (Cooking Rice Wine), Master Food's Honey Mustard. Oven grilled @ 220'C for 20mins (but in a pan instead of plain grill). So I had lots of pork juices to make my sauce. But I again forgot to pound the meat a bit to soften it up. :p Boo-boo #2 with my Pork Chops!

Roasted vegetables ~ Combo of Indonesian Potatoes, Red Onions, Traffic Light Capsicums sprinkled with salt, pepper, a dash of wedges seasoning salts & dry chopped Basil. Roasted in oven for 20mins or so @ 180'C.

Roasted Butternut Pumpkin ~ Drizzled in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Salt & Black Pepper. Popped in oven also for 15-20mins @ 180'C.

Complimentary dishes ~ Fried Chicken Nuggets (love the Tempura Veggie Chicken Nuggets - seem to be sweeter & tastier), Grilled Marmite Chicken Wings, Cucumber Slices, 3 types of Mushroom cooked in Terriyaki Sauce + Siew Heng Jao + Light Soya Sauce.

Mushroom Onion Sauce ~ Cooked with Gravox Instant Chicken Sauce, added the pork chops' juices with fresh Brown Buttom Mushrooms & Onion slices.

My lovely spread of Pork Chops dinner :)

Pork Chops - Western #1

Had my lovely friend EM over for lunch about 3 weeks ago. I decided to prepare Pork Chops western style lunch for the both of us.

Pork Chops ~ marinated overnight with L&P Sauce, Master Food's Honey Mustard Sauce, a dash of Dark Soya Sauce, and chopped garlic. I tried pan-grilling it. Did a slight boo-boo by adding the balance of the marinade to it :p ... made it burnt faster on the grilling pan! Sort of panicked a bit, but managed to salvage it - Hahaha!

Portebello Mushrooms ~ Grilled in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, chopped Bacon - Tomatoes, and sprinkled with cheese.

Baby Asparagus ~ Pan fried in Butter & Garlic

Tomato Salsa Fusion ~ Pan fried Chopped tomatoes, garlic, onions in tomato ketchup and 1 Tbsp Basic Rempah. Surprisingly delicious!

Hong Bak

I've finally succeeded in cooking Hong Bak! It's my 2nd attempt ;p This dish is a typical Hokkien dish loved by my hubby & family of inlaws. Everyone will surely have a 2nd bowl of rice whenever there's this dish.

My 1st attempt was not successful as 1) it didn't look dark enough 2) taste wise also not salty nor fragrant enough.

My MIL doesn't use any special ingredients yet it tastes so good. It only contains the usual stuff like light & dark soya sauce, dash of Shiao Hsing Wine & a dash of Sesame Oil (I think). I never really observed her when she cooked this dish.. always missed the marinating part (I suspect she wanted to keep it her secret too ~ hehehe!)

This 2nd attempt was well prepared. Not only did I do my research over several recipes on Hong Bak, I also marinaded the pork belly pieces overnight.

Honestly, the secret to successful Hong Bak really is the chemistry of all the basic seasoning & trial and error! I will share with you my concoction of seasoning which I think was also luck :p

Serves 5 nicely
Ingredients

600g Pork Belly with Skin ~ cut to bite size

4 pieces of Tau Kwa (firm / prefried Tau Hu)

4 cloves of whole roasted garlic

Seasoning

5 Tbsp Light Soya Sauce

3 - 5 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce

1 Tsp Brown Sugar ~ can add more while cooking if it's too salty

1 Tbsp Fish Sauce

2 Tbsp Vegetarian Oyster Sauce

Method

1. Wash & cut pork belly into bite sizes. Repeat the same with the Tau Kwa.

2. Marinade the pork belly with the seasoning overnight.

3. Remove from fridge & left at room tempreture for 15-20mins.

4. Heat pot with a little bit of oil. Stir-fry the 4 cloves of roast garlic (with skin ~ just remove 1 or 2 layers & rinse before cooking them) until fragrant abit. Add the pork belly pieces & keep stirring.

5. Then add the remaining marinade sauce into the pot & bring to slow boil. This is to braise the meat. Do not add alot of water! If you're worried the pork might stick to the pot, add 2 or 3 Tbsp of water is enough.

6. Keep it at slow fire with the pot covered & keep stirring occasionally. Taste the sauce. If it's not salty enough.. add light soya sauce. If it's too salty, add a bit of sugar. If it's too dry, add 2 - 3 Tbsp of water at a time.

7. It will take approximately 40 minutes to cook properly and also absorb the sauce into the pork pieces. Add the Tau Kwa towards the end.

Serve with white rice.