Braised pork trotters is one of the Chinese New Year dishes enjoyed during this festive season as pigs are auspicious animals in Chinese culture and symbolize strength and good fortune.
This dish is prepared using store-bought boneless pork trotters, tossed with noodles symbolizing longevity equivalent to being in good health and paired with "lucky" vegetables combo.
Our family was never quite into tacos, burrittos, Mexican food and cuisine in general. However, this past year of occasional day-tripping and local travel opened up our travel food world to food trucks, especially taco trucks.
Though we prefer to have home-cooked food (these food storage containers will come in very handy), having to depend on prepared/store-bought food while travelling has become unavoidable. However, eating out past few years has become very expensive. When you are travelling on the road, what is your go-to for food?
For us, it's tacos - definitely not those fancy-schmancy $8 tacos in restaurants but traditional authentic basic no-frills meat tacos topped with onions and cilantro. We are always excited to discover and try great delicious $2-3 tacos on our road trips, and try to keep our meal budget under $15 (for two people).
Semi-homemade: carnitas tacos with pineapple salsa, cilantro
There comes a time to take matters into my own hands with semi-homemade tacos (check this best-selling taco holders) at home, getting some good quality pork carnitas from the store, then putting it together at home.
These easy Peas and Corn Lettuce Wraps and Tuna Chickpea Lettuce Endive Wraps are perfect summer food. Fuss-free preparation to save you from time behind the stove and light, refreshing yet satisfying on warm summer days. These recipes already require minimum effort but what's quicker than 15-minute recipes? Less than 15-minute recipe! By depending on store-bought fillings to load up the lettuce and making a satisfying meal out of it.
The Korean supermarket over here got it all planned out for the busy cooks. Their store-bought package of cooked pork belly even comes with raw garlic, sliced jalapeno and spicy sauce. All I had to do was to prepare lettuce and this delicious Korean Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps is ready.
You can create your own homemade BBQ sauce instead of depending on store-bought BBQ sauce as marinade to make this Pork Tenderloin Protein Bowl. Another alternative to easy homemade "marinade" is a dry-rub seasoning to flavor up oven-roasted pork tenderloin.
This dry-rub is made from bottled spices available in the pantry e.g. garlic powder, ginger powder, ground black pepper, dried oregano. Feel free to use your favorite spices and create your own dry-rub and flavors.
Besides chicken breast meat, pork tenderloin is also lean cut of meat that is an excellent source of protein, Vitamin B and zinc. It might not be as forgiving as other fattier cuts of pork e.g. pork belly; and may have more "chew" to it, rather than "melt-in-your-mouth" in some oven-roast recipes.
Oven-Roasted BBQ Sauce Marinated Pork Tenderloins sliced into medallions paired with freshly steamed vegetables make perfect protein bowls.
When I tasted my own kimchi jjigae for the first time, I thought "what is the difference between this and soon doo bu"? Both taste similar. Kimchi jjigae just belong to a bigger umbrella of jjigae variety - jjigae refers to a savory hearty Korean stew.
Traditionally soon doo bu is a spicy Korean stew cooked in a soup broth made with red pepper
paste and red chili flakes and the main ingredient is soft
tofu. Kimchi jjigae is a soup base made from kimchi, and a base so versatile layered with tofu, vegetables (e.g. napa cabbage, leeks), mushrooms, and seafood or meat.
There is nothing quite like coming home to a simmering pot of spicy stew in the cold winter months. The spice heat, and stew heat will instantly warm you up. Moreover, the kimchi base yields a subtly-sour soup that actually whets your appetite even more.
This Pork Miso Soup 味增猪骨汤 is new to me, as it is my first attempt cooking this soup and tasting it for the first time. So hearty and delicious.
Leaning towards Chinese-style cooking, the soup base is made from pork bones, onions and ginger.
Remember that the miso should not be allowed to boil during cooking. So if you are cooking this soup in advance and serving it later, just re-heat the soup then add the miso to the soup before serving.
What is that pinkish mashed-up stuff?! It might not look good or even appetizing (my fault for not making it look good) but it is an "old-school" "Grandma" style dish that is easy to cook using just a few ingredients (in fact, just two or at most three ingredients) and very flavorful. Most importantly - it is comfort food to many of us who enjoys home-cooked Chinese-style dishes. Call it the taste of home
I consider it Grandma's style dish for two reasons. First, when the other half was eating it, he said this dish is best suited for seniors/the elderly as it is boneless, easy to bite and chew (assuming some in the very old generation may not have strong teeth to bite/chew food) yet very tasty with plain porridge/congee (another dish suitable for the elderly).
Second, I think a lot of us had this while we were younger. I meant,
Grandmas in many families must be cooking this often in their generation
when food ingredients were scarce and not as bountiful as today.
It uses just two
ingredients - ground meat and pickled lettuce (from the can or bottle).
Cooking oil - the fuel to our food. What type of cooking oil(s) are you using? Again, I am referring to "cooking" oil - so let's not talk about extra virgin olive oil typically used for dressing salads, or maybe marinating, sometimes that finishing touch to a completed dish.
To be more specific, what type of oil do you use for sauteeing or stir-frying or even deep-frying?
Butter. Olive oil. Canola Oil. Grapeseed oil. Coconut Oil.
I only came to think about this since I was going to buy a new bottle of cooking oil as the bottle of canola oil ran out in my kitchen.
Back to the dish for today which is German-style brawurst sausages and kale combined in a somewhat Italian-style pasta dish. The salty, sometimes spicy sausage balances well with the slight bitterness in kale. A little fat from the brawurst
sausage was rendered out for cooking in this case. Animal fats (considered bad fats) is not exactly healthy but as I don't often cook with sausages, I will save myself from the fussy squeal.
These are Pork Bratwurst Sausages (without nitrates, without MSG) made fresh, from Sprouts Farmers Market. Once in a while, look out for their 72-hr sale (usually happens Friday, Saturday, Sunday ) in Sprouts Farmers Market - and that is about the only time I buy their sausages (usually $2.99/lb vs $1.99/lb during the sale). Of course, the sausages don't look like what you are seeing in the photos (below) when sold in their stores. That is just what I usually do when I cook them - break them up into smaller bits and pieces and stir-fry them with vegetables such as kale or chard.
Serve as a side with rice, or toss into cooked pasta to make a one-dish meal. You can also fill up a hot-dog bun (a twist from this Chicken and Kale Hot Dog) or create a pita-bread veggie-meat wrap.
Ever since adapting to a mainly vegetable-seafood (and chicken) diet at home (I still eat pork and beef when I dine out), this is the FIRST time I open my kitchen to pork as I had to find alternatives when my nearest Whole Foods Market ran out of chicken backs!
Pork bones to the rescue!
Since it is mainly the marrow and minerals that was to be extracted from the bones, I was also generally more receptive to cooking this pork bone broth soup at home. It's just the bones, not much meat involved. Pig trotters is another option with its bounty of gelatin but once again - I can only do basic prep. work in the kitchen, so that option was out.
To make up for the protein and fiber, a variety of beans was used in this broth. This Four-Beans Pork Bone Broth Soup uses black-eyed beans, northern beans, peruano beans and soy beans (all the dried beans were soaked overnight, then rinsed before using). Also added were ginger and onions, some coarsely ground black pepper for taste.
This can be cooked over the stove-top. But how can I forget, "promoting" the use of a rice-cooker to cook this...^o^
In my cookbook, I call this Braised Fragrant Pork (Pg. 188), also otherwise known as Babi Chin in Nyonya Cuisine. The sweetness from the generous use of shallots with the aroma of star anise and coriander seeds marks this dish - Delicious!. Of course, the sliced red chili ups the notch.
When you set the rice cooker to "Warm", it simmers and cooks at low heat.
I traced the inspiration of this dish from an old family dish I used to have when I was a kid. We used to have Waxed Sausage (腊肠 La Chang in Mandarin; or Lap Cheong, in Hokkien dialect) which is thinly sliced then fried with egg. So I gave a twist to it one day when there was leftover BBQ Pork Slices (肉干, Rou Gan in Mandarin; Bak Kwa in Hokkien dialect) at home.
A delicious meal prepared by 3 guys - Mr. M, Mr. F and Mr. A; and shared among 4 guys (3 of them + hubby) and a gal(me!). Guys from China, typically from Shanghai can do the "wokking", some said. I have witnessed, and tasted many successes to-date. This is one of them.
A typical home-cooked meal - meat, seafood and vegetables - all done simple and delicious. What more could we ask for, other than the next invitation... maybe? ^o^
Stewed Pork Belly with Potato Cubes - 红烧肉. Perfect execution in almost an hour's braising/stewing. Needless to say "only time will tell".
Stir Fry Shrimps with Ginger and Green Onions. The heads are on! So, this dish can't be anything bad on taste (but on cholesterol and impact on health - don't really care as we don't feast like that everyday).
Sauteed Kai Lan with Dried Shrimps. Awesome! I do not like overcooked vegetables and this is definitely NOT. Treat vegetables with TLC and they will turn out the way you want and meant to be.
Are you hungry? The food was completely wiped out and there were just five of us. You do the Maths.
Once again, we would like to thank Mr. M, Mr. F and Mr. A for inviting us to their home, and to such a fabulous lunch.
Tag: stewed pork
I don't cook completely new dishes every time. Sometimes, new dishes and recipes mean improvement of older recipes and dishes, such as this Pepper Pork recipe.
Pepper Pork Chop
Ingredients: Pork loin chops, ground white pepper, ground black pepper, dark soy sauce, brown sugar, some oyster sauce
Directions:
1. Rub the slices of pork with ground white pepper and black pepper
2. Add some dark soya sauce, oyster sauce and some brown sugar. Marinate them (leave them in the fridge, at least one hour)
3. Heat up some oil in a frying pan. On medium heat, pan-fry the marinated pieces for a few minutes(~3mins) one one side, then turn over and pan-fry other side until cooked.
4. Place in aluminium foil, seal it if not served immediately (note: this can keep the pork chops warm and retain the juice and moisture in the pork chops. Further, if you are worried that the pork chops may be undercooked in Step 3, the heat which you seal the pork chops in within can allow a little further cooking in the pork chops). This is not another Foil-Cooking but surely, tin foil gives a good neat trick again!
If you find such pork chops boring, you can try this Apple Pork Chops recipe.
Tag: pork chops, pepper pork chops
30 Sept Update: Some of the readers thought I steamed this in a slow-cooker. No- I did not. This was done via conventionally steaming with the meat mixture wrapped in foil. Sorry for the confusion.
When I have no time, I will dump everything (make sure the ingredients are compatible!) into the slow cooker and let is slowly cook. A beef stew can be prepared just like that. As you all know, the slow cooker is S-L-O-W...so if you have REAaaaaLLY no time to even wait, this is my "no-pride" cooking for you. Mix everything up in "cake" form and steam it.
Does this look like a "steep cliff" to climb ?
*Cooked this while I was in Taiwan
Here I have mushrooms, baby carrots, diced shrimps, sliced green onions and half a pack of soft tofu mixed into ground meat (pork is used here) that has been marinated/seasoned with some salt, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, white pepper and dashes of sesame oil.
Nope - I did not mix and mesh all the tofu into the meat as one big lump (that will be too URRGGgghhh!). Instead, the remaining half of the tofu - I layer it like lasagna with the meat mixture. A layer of pre-marinated meat (already mixed with mushrooms, baby carrots, diced shrimps and sliced green onions) at the bottom; followed by some cubed tofu, then another layer of meat mixture; followed by another layer of cubed tofu. Steam for 10-20mins depending on size of "cake".
This is meat "cake"! My own homemade version of 蒸肉饼 ! Can be classified as another busy-executive cooking :P ....no time lazy to make cooking preparations, no time lazy to cook, no time lazy to wash the plates (notice I use aluminum foil?) and even no time lazy to present this nicely on a plate to take decent photographs…that's me!
I hope I have not made you lose your appetite but it is really quite tasty. ^o^
Tag: steamed meat
Inspired by Little Corner and Cooking Ninja to make this pepper pork dish, just that mine is the deep-fried version. Reason: Deep frying other food the same day and did not want to waste the oil! OOPS!
Deep fried pepper pork, can you find woodstock 
?
You can eat them with rice but I think they are perfect as sandwich fillers :D
Need to learn how to make the famous Macau Pork chop bun 猪扒包 !
P.S Some of you were wondering here if I moved to Taiwan permanently. Sorry I have not made myself clear. Taiwan has always been temporary. I am NOW IN SINGAPORE! But been real busy the past few days and perhaps rest of August and September. Apologies if I have not been able to leave comments at your blog as frequently. I promise...I WILL BE BACK! :P ...as for California, I HOPE I can be back there too! (just not so soon...)
Tag: pork, pepper pork
While Western cuisine calls for 
Since I previously made bolognese from scratch - avoiding the use of bottled pasta sauces when cooking pasta dishes; making Chinese meat-based sauce should not be culinary feat. In my recollection, I made Chinese style meat-based sauce before - remember that Bak Chor (Hokkien for minced/ground pork) Noodles? The dashes of black vinegar was the S-P-A-R-K to the noodle dish. Furthermore, that kind of meat-based topping was a dry version - thus referred to as "topping" rather than "sauce".
Many homes in Asia have a minced meat dish that claims homemade. I recognize and believe there are more than 101 ways of making a homemade minced meat dish - making it unique to your kitchen, to your home. Some, of course, turn out like Bak Chor (loosely fried minced/ground pork in soy-sauce based); whereas some will be in a "cake" form 蒸肉饼- eg. a steamed minced meat "cake".
Dripping essence...
Here in Taiwan, it is very common to see minced pork topped over rice -肉燥饭. It's street food to them, just like minced pork topped over noodles - Bak Chor Mee, is street food to Singapore. I tried making another version of minced pork (this time, a "wetter" version with more sauce/gravy), in an attempt to replicate what I have eaten in Taiwan - their mushroom flavored minced pork topped over rice - 香菇肉燥饭. This style of cooking/ simmering/ braising minced meat includes adding mushrooms. I also added some onions to sweeten up the entire mixture, and for more depth in flavor.
Mushroom-Flavored Minced Meat 香菇肉燥
Ingredients:
Minced/ground pork
2tsp dried shrimps , soaked in water, rinsed away water, then minced finely
fresh shitake mushrooms , clean the caps, and cubed to small bits
1 clove garlic-minced finely
half a big onion - chop to small pieces
salt, pepper to taste
Seasoning: soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar
In a separate bowl, mix 1-2tbsp soy sauce and 1-2tsp oyster sauce, 1tsp sugar in about 3-5 tbsp of warm water, till dissolved
Directions:
1. Heat 1tbsp oil in frying pan and fry the minced pork for a while just to slightly cook them. In this process, some "fats" in the pork will be "released" as oil into the pan and can be used to fry the other ingredients. Dish out the partially cooked pork and set aside. (Note: Do not allow the pork to remain in the pan to be cooked and fried with the other ingredients as there is tendency to over-cook pork and it will become rubbery, chewy and tough)
2. Add garlic, onions, dried shrimps and fry till aromatic. Add in mushrooms, mix well. Add in some water. Turn to low heat and allow the mixture to reach simmer.
3. Once small bubbling begins (begin of simmering), add in the pork, 1/2 portion of the seasonings, add more warm water to partially cover the entire mixture(including pork) and maintain low heat and allow entire mixture to simmer. (Note: Since the pork has been pre-fried initially, the low heat cooking at this stage will slowly cook the pork through yet retaining tenderness in the pork since the pork has not been cooked in the higher heat in the frying stage. The low simmering heat + water will actually cook/braise the pork, not the high heat and hot oil!)
4. When starting to simmer, do a taste -test and adjust seasoning accordingly. You can add more of the remaining seasoning and let it simmer a while longer.
5. Best when served with steamed rice.
The best about this dish is I can cook more and keep the leftovers for further consumption (just need to be steamed or re-heated again) the next day, to ladle over steamed rice.
Well, if you like pork, then this...a uber-porky dish you will like. The natural sweetness in the pork, plus those earthy mushrooms, and sweet onions will complement well with the savory seasonings. It's mild but very tasty and definitely whets your appetite when you allow the steamed rice to soak up the nicely combined flavors in the gravy. You can say the essence of flavors is all in the gravy but the pork, mushrooms and onions bits adds a juicy soft texture to your bite. Perfect homemade dish!
Tips on getting juicy tender minced pork:
1. The technique is almost similar to twice-cooked pork 回锅肉. If there are other ingredients to be cooked with the pork. Fry the pork first to just partial cook them and release the "oils and flavor"
2. These "oils and flavor" will then be absorbed by the other ingredients and these ingredients will be infused with pork flavor
3. For a dish that needs lots of gravy and juicy tender pork bits like the above, add in desired seasoning + water, and allow low simmering heat + steams of water to actually cook/braise the pork. Cooking minced/ground pork over high heat (hot oil) for an extended period will overcook the pork and make it tough (not juicy anymore)
Tag: pork, minced meat, cooking tips
Using potato flour 地瓜粉 will give a more springy (QQ-with dialect connotation) texture of deep-fried coat when compared to the crisp golden coat from cornflour + breadcrumbs (panko) combination. The former still has that crunch to it... just of a lesser degree. I've said, tried and done it in these nori seaweed coated shrimps and repeating this again with pork-tofu mix. Try the steamed version of tofu "pops" if you are opting for super-healthy version. However, "pops" and "steaming" just do not gel together in my head. Fit for a family-style sit-down homemade meal perhaps - this steamed 
Not at all messy. Bite on these mini tofu pops and beware of "juice" spurting out...
Tofu Pops/Deep Fried Tofu Meat Balls
Ingredients:
-1/2 lb or slightly lesser ground pork or chicken
-1 pack of standard size tofu (Note: silken contains more moisture and the resultant "pop" tend to be more "juicy", not dry. You can use medium-soft or firm but the texture is going to be different)
-1 egg white (as binder)
-1 tbsp soy sauce to season/marinade the pork
-1 tbsp rice wine to season/marinade the pork
- dashes of white pepper to season/marinade the pork
- less than 1 tsp sesame oil to season/marinade the pork
- cornflour to thicken the tofu+meat batter/mixture if too hard to shape into little rounds (plays a binder role, too)
- potato flour for coating
Directions:
1. Mash up the tofu and mix with seasoned ground pork. Add in egg white and mix thoroughly
2. When in a consistency easy to be shape, make rounds out of the mixture (similar to making fish balls from fish paste)
3. Dust or roll them over a light coat of potato flour, set aside
4. Prepare hot oil in wok for deep frying
5. Slide those rounds by the side of the wok into the medium-hot oil to be deep fried
6. When starts to change color to light brown, strain out from hot oil and set aside to drain excess oil from paper towels
7. Before serving, you can dash a lil' white pepper over the tofu pops to enhance the flavor. Also, sprinkle some nori strips or flakes.
Warm, moist inside...crisp and chewy outside...
I was trying to think of a better description - the texture of crisp and chewy. Hmmm....it is almost like mochi... daifuku...the chewy portion...springy (go *toint toint*). Why not you think of a warm crispy mochi-coat of something? You are almost there. And the filling is a familiar taste of savory mix of meat and tofu. That is not too difficult to imagine?
Definitely more finger-friendly than steamed tofu. So you gotta try it! Rock-a-pop-pop! Once you pop, you cannot stop!
Other version:
Wandering Chopsticks Popcorn Tofu.
Tag: tofu balls, fried snacks, snacks, party food
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The locals in Hong Kong enjoy flipping and reading the newspapers especially during dim-sum breakfast and (I guess) as long as they are not rushed over giving up their seats. Maybe that is the only time they can slow down and enjoy their food and tea :)
What I look for in a Perfect Char Siew Bao ~ Cantonese barbecue pork buns:
- served steaming warm...you are at the risk of scalding your hunger-searching fingers when you attempt to touch it
- slightly cracked top in each bun
- soft fluffy "pau" dough, almost sponge cake-like texture
- generous char siew fillings w.r.t the dough (in other words, it cannot be too much dough and nothing inside the "pau" )
- warm moist juicy tasty char siew fillings with right proportions of meat vs "pork fats"
- "pau" fillings should not look too dangerously and artificially red
Luk Yu Tea House
24-26 Stanley Street, Hong Kong
Nearest MTR: Central Station
Other Char Siew- and Bun- related recipes but not Char Siew Bun:
Tag: dim sum, yum cha
