Sloppy Chic

When I came back from my trip, I was really craving for a hot pot of bak kut teh as a result of something + chips everyday through out most of my trip in New Zealand.

With the blazing hot weather, it makes people even lazy to go out for food. So while I was in Tesco, I bought some ingredients and decided to attempt cooking bak kut teh for the first time!

Ingredients (for 2 pax)
i. A pack of pre-packed bak teh ( eg A1 bak kut teh)
ii. A pack of Enoki mushrooms
iii. Fu chuk ( you will have to cut into smaller pcs and light fry them)
iv. 2 bulbs of garlic, just wash clean and keep it as a whole
v. 6 pcs of spare ribs
vi: Seasoning: Dark soy sauce

To cook:

1. Bring a pot of about 2.5L water to boil. Don’t have to worry about too much water as it will slowly reduce and thicken as you cook.
2. With another pot, dump the spare ribs into water to blanch it to remove the blood and smell. Remove the ribs from water and set aside.
3. When the first pot of water has boiled, put it the bak kut teh pack together with the garlic bulbs. And add some dark soy sauce now. Let it boil for 10 mins then turn to medium fire and continue to let it boil for another 10 mins.
4. Now, move the blanched ribs into the soup and cook with medium fire for at least 40 mins.
5. In the mean time, you can fry the fu-chuk, heat the wok with little bit of oil and fry for only ONE second. It gets burnt VERY fast!
6. Check your bak kut teh and add salt/more dark soy sauce according to your taste.
7. When you are ready to eat, put in enoki mushroom to cook for about 3 mins and then fu chuk just for a quick soak. Once it is done, you will notice that the soup has thicken up and become saltier and tastier.
8. Serve hot with white rice, and garlic chili in dark soy sauce

Considering this is my first attempt, it tasted really good! Almost as good as Teluk Pulai bak kut teh!

I have had a few cooking attempts lately, and including rosti Will show next!

If you are a fan of garlic toast, perhaps you can try this recipe at home yourself. It’s delicious and cheap to make too!

Ingredients: Baguette, melted butter, and finely chopped garlic.

Melt a small block of butter in a pan or you can steam it, then minced the garlic until fine.

Before spreading it onto the baguette, add the garlic into the butter, add in some pepper and LITTLE bit of salt and mix well.

Now, you can spread onto the baguette.

Heat the oven/toaster first, and toast them at about 120°c for 3-4 minutes until they are crisp.

While waiting, you can move on to prepare the breakfast set.

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I can’t believe that CNY is coming in just about a week’s time, and I have not even prepared anything!

And and…..not to mention I have to give angpows this year! So, boys and girls, want some angpow?

Being quite pre-occupied with work, I think I am just too exhausted to even go for food hunt or shopping. And I have a big money saving plan for 2011 (hopefully) One can wish right?

Here I will share an easy recipe for Pork Chops in Onion Sauce.

It is important that you store pork/chicken fillets in your fridge and they will just come in handy when you run out of food to cook.

The ingredients used are all you can find in your kitchen.

Clean the pork chops, and cut them into smaller slices if you need. Now, to soften the meat a little, lightly pat the chops with the back of your knife to break the veins.

For marination, it is better if you do it 2 hours earlier or longer.For about 5-6 pcs of small pork chops, you will need:

- Chop 2 red onions, 4 pcs of garlic finely and spread them evenly on top of bottom and top of the meat.
- About 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, dash of pepper, some salt, sesame oil, red wine or chinese cooking wine, and some fresh lemon juice.

Mix everything well and leave it aside or in the fridge.

Now, moving to the sauce, slice 1.5 – 2 big onions for use later.

When you are ready to cook, heat up a non-stick pan with a little bit of oil. And, pour some corn flour on a dry plate to dip the pork chops into the flour before frying.

I prefer to use non-stick pan to avoid the mess and excessive oil.  Flip the chops from time to time to not over-burn.

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On days when I am feeling hardworking and inspired, I cook! And right now, I am having some post 1/4-life crisis, so I took 2 days off to recompose myself.  Unfortunately, still not so feeling recomposed.

Crisis aside, after so long, I felt inspired again after reading this recipe on eatingpleasure.blogspot.com. I tell you, she is great at inspiring people!

My version of: Award-Winning Sweet & Sour Meat Balls.

Why award winning you may ask? It’s my first time cooking this, so I definitely deserve a medal as self-award right?

The presentation is not lip-smackingly good because I was starving!

Ok, to create this dish:

You need about 200g of minced meat for 2 pax, it can be pork, beef or chicken.

I bought a ready-packed mince meat from Tesco at about RM4.80.

For more springy and sweetness, I added prawn meat. For cruch,  minced about 3 shallots depending on the size, and some corn flour. I used wheat flour here because I ran out of it.

For marination, I added about 2 spoons of red wine, sesame oil, light soy sauce, and pepper, and a little pinch of salt.

The best part about DIY is, you can almost add anything you like! You can even have minced carrot or sengkuang in your meatballs. Leave it alone for about 20-30 mins.

After that, I rolled the minced meat into balls of 8.

It is advisable not to make a TOO big ball because it will be hard to pan-fry it.

Now, heat up some oil in the pan and place the meatballs slowly onto the pan with your hand so the shapes maintained.

Use only medium heat.

And, step back! The oil may be sparkling all over out of the pan and you definitely will not want to be scalded.

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