Pork Rolls with Bechamel Sauce

I'm sure you guys have seen this around and for this dish, you're right , its not entirely my original idea. In fact there's a few version of it available online. Pork rolls also known as Flamenquines in Spanish; a delicious tapa. I've been searching for the origin but there's not much info available but it  was said to have relation to the term "flamenco", which means any colourful dish to the native of Andalusia.

You must be wondering why am i serving it with a bechamel sauce instead of salsa, like how the Spanish would. I actually got the idea from a recipe i came across on Flamenquines. In the recipe, we're suppose to dip the rolled pork into the bechamel sauce and then coat it with breadcrumbs and deep fry it. Since i know that i don't have that skill to dip in anything creamy and coat it with breadcrumbs, i opted to serve it as a dipping sauce instead.

Ingredients

PORK ROLLS
* 10 slices of pork loin sukiyaki
* 10 slices smoked black pepper ham
* 10 strips of cheese
* Some minced garlic
* Some minced parsley
* 1 egg, beaten
* Flour to coat
* Breadcrumbs

Method:
1) Place a slice of ham on top of the pork loin and add a strip of cheese on the ham and roll. Secure with a toothpick if needed.
2) Coat the rolled pork with flour and dip it into the beaten egg mixture and coat it with the breadcrumbs mixture; add the minced garlic and parsley into the breadcrumbs.
3) Heat the wok with oil and deep fry until golden.
4) Remove and drain it on a paper towel.
5) Cut about 1/2 inch across and serve.

Note:
I ran out of flour therefore i substituted it with chickpea flour. I add bout 3 tablespoon of chickpea flour and some water to make it into a paste and coat the rolled pork. Instead of breadcrumbs,i added the minced garlic and parsley into some chickpea flour and with the coated rolled pork , i coated it with the garlic-parsley mixture before deep-frying it.

Result, well i think its a little too hard, especially the chickpea coating, i'll definitely use breadcrumbs instead the next time around..  Also, instead of mixing the garlic and parsley together , i think it would be better to spread it on the pork loin instead. Oh well , another round of experiment for me! :)


BECHAMEL SAUCE
* 2 1/2 tbsp butter
* 2 tbsp flour
* 2 cups low- fat milk
* 1/8 tsp nutmeg powder
* Salt to taste
* Pepper to taste

Method:
1) Melt the butter in a sauce pan.
2) Add flour and keep stirring with your whisk.
3) Add the heated milk and stir further.
4) Keep stirring while you season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
5) If its too thick to your liking, add more milk until it reaches the consistency you like.

Note:
For those that wanna skip the warming up the milk step, like i did, due to sheer laziness :) . All you need to do with the cold milk from the fridge is to add a tablespoon or two of milk at a time into your butter-flour mixture until you finished up the milk and keep stirring with your whisk and you'll get a smooth and somewhat thick sauce.

You can add more nutmeg powder and ground pepper to give the sauce more flavour.

The classic French version of this sauce, they uses white onion that is studded with cloves ( take the cloves and stick it into the onion),instead of adding ground nutmeg . The onion-cloves combination give the sauce a unique flavour.

Sushi

To be honest, i've been procrastinating on sushi making for almost a week now and i thought since i'm rather free today , then this should be the day where this little novice chef embark upon a new challenge - sushi.

I love sushi and i was a lil unsure of how it would turn out. i did some research and read a lil about sushi and everythin i need to know to come out with a decent looking and tasting sushi. I really had fun learning, from the various types of sushi and its name to the process of making each different type of sushi.

Over here, i've a few varieties of sushi. I'll start off from the far left, my very own version of Nigirizushi. Usually the toppings for Nigiri are typically raw fish such as tuna, salmon or other type of seafood. I've made 3 different toppings. The first one i topped with pan-fried marinated pork fillets, the second one i had a filament sticks (crabstick) and the third one i had cucumber and carrot on, all are bound to the rice with a thin strip of nori.

Next, starting from my far left, i have the California maki. Usually its done the Uramaki style but i made it the other way round where i have the nori outside ( Mazi zushi ). In the center, i have the sesame coated Uramaki with crabstick, cucumber and carrot. On my right, that's my crabstick + mayo Gunkanmaki . And the last one at the bottom , that would be another creation of mine with the combination of cucumber, carrot and pan-fried marinated pork fillet.

I wanted to experiment more and have more varieties but since it was my first attempt, i prepared just enough to experiment on it. For a first timer, i was definitely pleased with the end result. There will definitely be another sushi post in the future where i'll be featuring tamago and hopefully the original/typical nigirizushi.

Meat Patties with Side Dishes

Today i'm in the mood to see a lot of colours on my plate therefore i came up with this dish which i've no special name for it therefore i'm naming it as what the title suggest until i've further inspiration on naming it :). I've limited ingredients sitting around the fridge and i didn't feel like heading out to get new ingredients so i gotta depend on my creativity to whip up a one plate meal for myself.

Instead of making meatballs from the left-over minced meat i have in the fridge, i decided i should turn it into meat patties with some side dishes as my main course. As the main dish, i made meat patties, and as for the side dishes, i've got some cherry tomatoes, blanched brocolli, carrots and baked sweet potato wedges


INGREDIENTS

Meat Patties
*egg ( lightly beaten )
*breadcrumbs
*finely chopped garlic
*chopped onions
*coarse black pepper
*salt
*parsley
*grated parmesan cheese
*cayenne pepper powder
*minced meat (pork)

Method:
1) Put all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.
2) Use egg ring ( equipment to make egg banjo) to shape the mixture into patties.
3) Heat up a non stick with some olive oil and pan-fry it.

4) Let it sit on the kitchen towel to drain any excessive oil.

5) Ready to be served with the side dishes.

Note:
If the meat mixture is too wet, add in more breadcrumbs until you get the consistency you're looking for.

Refrigeration will help the patties to hold together during pan-frying.

The egg ring is to ensure patties are in equal size and thickness.

Khai Yat Sai - Omelette

It is also spelled as Kai Yat Sai, its a square stuffed eggs; a type of Thai Omelette. This simple egg dish is one of my best friend's fav!

You can basically stuff your eggs with any type of filling you want. Be as creative as you want. You can even decorate your omelette with strips of tomato sauce if you like.

Ingredients:

Filling
* finely chopped onions
* finely chopped garlic
* chopped tomatoes
* prawns ( shelled and deveined)
* mince meat ( i used lean pork)
* finely chopped carrot ( i substituted with long beans)
* freshly ground black pepper
* sugar to taste
* tomato sauce
* dark soy sauce ( a drop or two)
* chopped coriander

Method :
1) Season the mince meat with sugar, black pepper and fish sauce
2) Season the prawns with pepper and fish sauce
3) Saute the garlic and onions
4) Add in the the minced meat , long beans and prawns
5) Next, add in the chopped fresh tomatoes and stir
6) Add water/chicken broth, let it simmer before adding tomato sauce and dark soy sauce
7) Lastly , add in the chopped coriander. Sugar to taste
8) Set aside

Omelette
* eggs
* fish sauce

Method:
1) Break the eggs in a bowl, add a few dashes of fish sauce and whisk it
2) Glaze the non-stick pan with butter or oil
3) Pour just enough of egg into the pan to form a thin sheet
4) Once the mixture has cooked, spoon the filling and place it in the center of the egg and fold the sides so that it looks like a square
5) Switch off the gas
6) Use an average size of plate to cover the squared omelette and turn your non-stick pan up side down.
7) There you have it, your Khai Yat Sai is ready to be served.

For those that dont quite fancy the distinctive taste of ketchup, you can add in a lil chilli sauce or some chopped bird eye's chilli or dried chilli to give it the "heat". Freshly ground black pepper would be just as good. I gotta admit i'm not so much of a ketchup fan but when it comes to this dish, i simply love it!

Glass-Noodles Salad

Glass noodles also known as Cellophane noodles, Chinese Vermicelli or Bean Thread Noodles are a type of transparent Asian noodles made from starch. This is one of my fav type of noodle and I'd pick it anytime as compared to other Asian/chinese noodles.  

What i have over here is what you called Yam Woon Sen - the Thai Glass noodles with Prawns. Again whatever dish/recipes you see over here isnt the auntentic ones, rather the altered version of whatever my fav dishes are.

Ingredients:

Glass noodles
* soak in water for about 10 mins or until soft dependin on brands and blanch it

Prawns 
* marinade with salt & pepper
* simmer in soft brown sugar+ water until the prawns turn pink
* dish out and keep the extra gravy aside to be used as part of the dressing

Mince meat (pork)
* marinade with salt, black pepper and fish sauce
* saute the mince with finely chopped onions until it loses its pink colour
* break the mince into small morsels.

Vegetables /Greens
* slices of tomatoes
* chopped cilantro
* chopped mint leaves
* slices of onions
* chopped bird eye's chilli
* finely shredded carrot

Dressing
* lime juice
* fish sauce
* brown sugar
Note: i mixed the 3 items together and transfer it into a sauce pan n double boil it until the sugar has dissolves and added the gravy from simmering the prawns. 

Methods: 
1) Put the blanched glass noodles in a large bowl
2) Put in the the list of greens
3) Toss in the cooked prawns and the minced meat
4) Pour over noodles and mix thoroughly

For those that prefer a spicier and tangy note to this dish, add in more bird eye's chilli and adjust the taste of the dressing to your liking.

 

Reunion Dinner Feast

Usually for the Chinese, reunion dinner means steamboat but as for my family, steamboat isnt really our thing or rather we dont own a steamboat pot so havin a steamboat's rather impossible. Back then when my grandpa and grandma ( my dad's side) was still alive, we'd travel bout 100km+/- for reunion dinner and since they are no longer with us, we dont have steamboat anymore.

Since a few years back, i've been the in-house chef to prepare food for the family prior the reunion dinner. I would say this year's dinner was the most grand i've prepared.

A week before the dinner, i actually asked my family members for opinions, ideas, suggestions on what to prepare or what they would like to have for reunion.

Bro being his sarcastic self answered duck and crab. Its not impossible to prepare those but the bro actually requested Peking Duck and since i've no experience with using duck to prepare a meal, i googled for recipes and so on and i saw a youtube like clip that showed the whole process of preparing Peking Duck and it takes bout 8 hours before you can start  feedin on it! Upon knowin that, bro decided it was too much hassle and requested that to check if we can get supply of crabs at our local seafood supplier. Dont know wht made him changed his mind, he decided that he didnt want anymore crabs.

At the end of the day, i'm still left with no suggestions. Then i thought i should do somethin really different this time. Somethin ive not done. Then I've no idea what came over me when i was plannin on the menu for the reunion, i came up with 6 dishes!

The 1st dish: Braised Sea-Cucumber & Mushrooms.

Ingredients:

Sea- cucumber
* young ginger
* spring onion
* Shao Hsing Hua Tiau 
* cut into big slanting pieces

Note: stir fry all ingredients to prepare the sea-cucumber

Mushrooms
* medium-sized dried mushrooms,washed
* water
* oyster sauce
* light soy sauce
* sugar
* sesame oil

Note: simmer until mushrooms are soft and keep the remaining stock for later use

Ingredients for stir-frying & gravy :
* oil
* garlic
* young ginger
* Shao Hsing Hua Tiau
* oyster sauce
* light soy sauce
* thick soy sauce
* sugar
* salt
* chicken stock granules
* pepper
* sesame oil
* mushroom stock ( from simmering of the mushrooms)

The 2nd dish: Deep-Fried Crispy Seafood Tofu

Ingredients:

* japanese egg tofu
* soft beancurd
* salted egg yolks
* fish paste
* prawn paste
* spring onion
* chopped red chilli
* cornflour
* plain flour
* salt
* chicken stock granules
* pepper

Note: combine all ingredients and steam it in a tray until cook, remove, cut into strips or cubes then dust the steamed tofu with the combination of tapioca flour + rice flour and deep fry.

The 3rd dish: Sichuan Chili Prawns

Ingredients:

Marinade
* Shao Hsing Hua Tiau
* sesame oil
* finely minced garlic
* sugar

Note: marinade the prawns (deveined & shelled) for a few hours

Sauce
* sesame oil 
* salt
* sugar
* chili sauce
* tomato sauce
* corn flourNote: stir-fry the prawns and add in the sauce

The 4th dish : Sweet Pork

Ingredients:

* pork ribs
* brown sugar
* red shallots
* fish sauce
* sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
* white pepper
* coriander leaves
* warm water

Note : dissolve brown sugar and water in a non-stick, add ribs and shallots, followed by fish sauce, sweet soy sauce, pepper and water and simmer it.

 The 5th dish : Stuffed Calamari

Ingredients:

Dipping Sauce
* lime juice
* fish sauce
* brown sugar
* chopped red chili

Stuffing
* fish paste (used dory fillet)
* prawn paste 
* finely chopped garlic
* fish sauce
* chopped coriander
* lime juice
* brown sugar

Note : prepare the stuffin and fill up the calamari about 3/4 full and secure with a toothpick. Rice flour to coat before pan-fryin.

The 6th dish : Steamed Seabass with Garlic & Lime

Ingredients:

* seabass
* chicken broth
* bird's eye chillies (finely sliced)
* lime juice
* fish sauce
* sugar

Note: You can prepare the gravy and the fish separately or you can steam everythin together.

Separately: Steam the fish with a few tablespoons on the chicken broth and simmer the remaining of chicken broth with the rest of the ingredients and when the fish is done, just pour the gravy over the fish.

Everythin together: Simmer the chicken broth and the rest of the ingredients together and when its done, pour it over the fish and steam the fish until its soft and tender.

So there you have it, my rather elaborated reunion dinner with the family. I gotta say i enjoyed every single bit the work involved in preparin it for my family! Wht's more satisfactory was that all the dishes was wiped out! The faces of my family members piggin out on the food was priceless.

Meat Balls with Dip

I've left over mince which i bought earlier and i didnt want it to be sittin in my fridge for an extra day. I'd wanted to turn it into a meat patty but too bad i dont have any burger buns at home to go with so i decided to make meat balls with it. 

You can use any type of mince but bear in mind that different type of poultry will require different seasoning ingredients to make it tastier. I had minced lean pork seasoned with black pepper, light soy sauce, fish sauce, cayenne powder, cornflour and salt. Marinate it for a few hours. 

Shape the bowl of mince into balls and coat it with cornflour then dip it in the egg batter and finally breadcrumbs. You can shape the mince into balls batch by batch. When you've put the first batch for fryin, you can prepare the second batch n so forth till you finish the bowl of mince.

As for the dip, pound the garlic and shallots together and stir-fry it with butter and after that add in water, chili sauce, tomato puree, hot chili sauce and plum sauce. Sugar and salt to taste. Keep stirring the dip over a lower fire until it thickens. When its ready dish out.

Steamed Char Siew Pau

Pau's one of my granny's favourite besides Loh Mai Kai. Since granny has been hinting for quite a while now that she wants some home made pau, i finally made some pau for her today.

This is my first time tryin my hands one pau making. I was lucky to have bought the char siew today at the market. Its all bout timing. If i were late for another 5mins, my char siew would have been other's char siew for the day. I wasnt sure of how much i should buy, so i told the butcher i want 1kg of it. Since he has a lil less than a kg on his tray, i told him i'll take the amount that he has.

I used only char siew as the filling. For those who are into making everythin from scratch, you can even roast your own char siew to be used as the pau's filling. You can add some green peas and chives or scallions to the filling. 

You'll need seasoning such as water, sesame oil, oyster sauce, sugar, dark soy sauce, cornflour, peanut butter,pepper and chinese cooking wine for the filling. 

First you'll need to mix all the seasoning together on a non-stick pan and stir on a low heat until the sauce thickens before adding the finely chopped char siew and for those who wants the green peas and chives/scallions, you can also add it in when you add it in chopped char siew.

As for the dough, i bought the pau flour from Blue Key (500gm,shifted) and added some other ingredients such as instant yeast (1/2 tsp), castor sugar (100gm), water (240ml), shortening (3tbsp) and  single- action baking powder (2tbsp) since i dont have double- action baking powder at home.

First, you'll need to knead the flour mixture into a smooth and elastic dough. Once u're done, cover it with a we cloth until the dough double its bulk.

After that, shift baking powder on the dough and knead well. Cover the dough and allow to rest for 15mins or so. Divide the dough into small balls, approximately 18, depending on the size of the portion. Fill up each small dough with about a tablespoon of filling and fold it.

Before putting it on a steamer, make sure that the water is boiling. Once the water is boiling, put the rack of pau on it and steam for approximately 10-15mins.

Though the result isnt exactly what i was hoping for but i'm glad it didnt turn out to be a disaster! After steaming the pau, there's brown dots all over the pau. Not sure why not. Mom said it might be the yeast , but since i used the instant yeast , there's no need to mix it with water. Perhaps i can mix it and dissolve it in the water first before addin it to the flour mixture. The brown dots made my pau looks like its wholemeal pau! I'll definitely give it a few more try until i achieve like the ones available at the dim sum place, so white and fluffy!

Edited :

I found out why there were brownish spots on the pau skin. Its due to the lack of the very well kneading of dough after adding the baking powder! Lesson learnt, next time around, a well kneadin is needed for the brownish spots to disappear!

China Arrowheads

Arrowheads (Ngaku) also known as Chinese potato or swamp potato since it grows in the water is a seasonal vegetable  as it is only available during the CNY celebration.

Its been weeks since i've seen people flockin around the arrowheads' baskets in the market or the hypermarket. I suppose the sight of those people standin around and pickin the best ngaku from the basket got the better of me and soon i was one of them! When i was there, perhaps i was early, i was the only one standin there and takin my own sweet time pickin the best available ngaku of the bunch. 

Before this, I've tasted ngaku but i've no idea how it looks like until i did some research on it. i've tried ngaku crisps, the crisps are addictive, crunchy and tasty; once you start munching on it , its hard to stop!

I've not personally made the crisps before, so i thought why not get some back home and see wht else i can do with it besides fryin it. 

I bought a packet of it, roughly bout 600gm or so. Wanted to get more but told myself i can go back and get more if i need them. The uncleaned version of it was rather dirty, so when i got home, i cleaned off the dirt and left it aside until im ready to use it. I divided the ngaku into two portions. One for the crips and the other for stir-fryin. I heard that ngaku was originally stir-fried with pork during CNY celebration. 

The ngaku crisps are really easy to make. All you need to do is to peel the skin of the ngaku and slice it. You can either use a shredder to do so or the traditional way where u slice each and every one of it.

For me, i sliced bout 3/4 of it using a shredder and the rest i do it the traditional way for i dont have defying fingers and also i dont plan to injured my thumb again, after twice cutting myself on the same spot by a shredder!

After slicing it, i pat dry it with kitchen towel to absorb the excessive water to prevent the "fightin" session between the oil and the water. Spluttering of oil can get pretty dangerous and you might just get hit in the eye area! 

Heat oil in the wok or non-stick pan like in my case and when its hot enough, drop the sliced ngaku and when it turns brown scoop it up and drain in absorbent paper.

For those of you who like it a lil salty, you can add fine salt over chips. Shake to mix it evenly and you can store it in an air-tight container or glass bottle.

Once i was done with the crisps, i cut the rest of it into 1/8 instead of 1/4 which is rather a big chunk. I've no idea on what to stir fry it with, i didnt want it to be with soy sauce again so i thought why not add in some curry powder to it. The only available curry powder at home was the meat curry powder so i've no choice but to use that. 

For this dish, i used curry leaves, minced garlic, sliced onions, marinated minced pork (soy sauce & pepper), chicken broth, sweet soy sauce, curry powder and lastly the arrowheads.

First stir-fry the garlic then add the onions then the curry leaves, minced pork and leave it in a while and add it curry powder and continue stirring it. Add in a lil chicken broth and let it simmer for a while and add in sweet soy sauce and stir fry a lil while more and the dried curry ngaku's ready to be served.

 

Pai Kut Ong

This dish has got the same name as my previous entry but its not spareribs. Usually people will cook this with spareribs but instead of spareribs i opted for some lean meat. It makes cookin easier and also less the saturated fats!

I chose to slice the meat to a moderate thickness and in the form of a rectangular shape instead of a squarish shape. The thickness of the slices should be moderate and not too thinly sliced.

Before frying the sliced meat, i marinated it with rice wine, light soy sauce, black pepper, sugar and cornflour since i dont have any bakin soda available at home. Leave it to marinate for a few hours. Dip the sliced meat into beaten eggs before fryin it. I used only the yolk instead of the whole egg. Repeat the same process for the rest of the slices.

Once i was done fryin the meat, i fried some sesame seeds in a non-stick pan. Fryin the sesame seeds will give it a more distinctive and aromatic taste when you bite into it. Fry till its golden brown and set it aside. 

For the gravy, i used tomato ketchup, maggie seasoning (no more Worcestershire sauce left), sugar and water. Cornflour can be added to help thicken the sauce but i omitted this for i was preparing the sauce under a very low fire and stirring it occasionally till it thickens. Before serving it, toss it some sesame seeds and add the fried sliced meat and coat it thoroughly. You can sprinkle some sesame and a twig or two of coriander leaves and you're good to go!

Spareribs

Am not sure if this it the right name for it , Bah Kut Sooi (sweet, sour & spicy spare-ribs). In my household , we call it Pai Kut Ong. There's so many names for a particular dish but i suppose what sets them apart are the ingredients used. So, the reason why i name this as Bah Kut Sooi cuz of the plum sauce i've included in this dish.  

When i was stir-fryin the paste ive grounded, i was afraid that it might be too spicy for my family's liking but it turn out to be jst nice for mom and granny but definitely lack the spicyness for both my bro and me. 

Grind and combine garlic, dried chillies, preserved bean paste ( tau cheong) and fry till its fragant before adding the spare-ribs. After that add water and let it simmer over very low-heat till meat is all tender before adding the seasoning - sour plum sauce, tomato sauce, sugar ( its always brown sugar in my case) & light soy sauce. Adjust the seasoning ingredients to your liking and let it simmer until the gravy turns thick and if you like u can garnish a lil with parsley or coriander. For those whole love your food to be on a more spicy note, add more dried chillies when you grind and a lil extra preserved bean paste for that extra oomph to the taste and more plum sauce if you'd like it more sourish of course not forgettin the sugar for the finishin touch.. 

Potstickers

I injured my thumb while i was preparing this but that didnt stop me from completing my mission.

To be honest, I wasnt totally happy to see the end result though, some how i felt that i could do better in terms of appearance wise and also the filling. The filling suppose to be spicy minced meat but it wasnt that spicy, but its ok cuz then my mom can really enjoy it for she's not a big fan of spicy stuff. 

This also known as gyoza but my family members find it hard to pronounce or even remember so i told them its like our version of "wan tan".

For this, i first stir-fried the fillin first before i fill it up. Mayb next time i could jst wrap the raw ingredients in the gyoza and pan-fry it. Previously i deep-fried my gyoza and this is how it looks like. 

This deep-fried version i have over here is rather too "brown", for those who intend to deep-fry it, its best to keep an eye on it n not divert you attention to some other stuff like me! I actually left my gyoza floatin in my freakin hot pan while i was mincing the garlic away, bad idea to kill two birds with one stone when you're cookin! of course if u're a real pro then perhaps one can juggle wth it.

Anyway, since the pan-fried gyoza isnt up to my expectation, im plannin to finish up my gyoza pastry skin tomorrow with a new fillin inside. Mayb i can fill it up wth sweet potatoes.. i jst love sweet potatoes!

Thai Affair

I personally love thai food but the person who sparked my interest to try my hands on thai cuisine is my dad. He's a big fan of thai cuisine so i learnt up a few dishes but now im gonna blog bout a whole different range of what i used to prepare for my dad.

The 3-flavoured seabass was inspired by my bestie's mom. In general i love this as well! i've tasted the authentic thai version as well as the Malay version of this dish but i never got around tryin it out at home until my bestie's mom asked if i know how to prepare this dish. If i've the recipe to it, it'll definitely gimme a better idea on the combination of ingredients but what surprised me was my bestie's mom  actually kept a newpaper cutting with this particular recipe on! which is so cool cuz not only can i learn but also fine tune a lil on the taste as well. I actually tried it out at home before preparing it for my bestie's family and the outcome i got made my day. From then on, i just love preparin this dish. Its so easy and so yummy at the same time. Of course for those who love a more spicy note to this dish , cili padi's ( bird's eye chili pepper) the answer to it.

Mango kerabu is also another of my favourite thai dish. This one is solely on experimental basis. I've no idea on what they (thai restaurants) use as their dressing. So i did some readin and research on thai cuisine and majority of the dishes have nampla (fish sauce) as one of the ingredients in the list besides lime, cilantro and bird's eye chili. That gave me an idea on how i should do my dressing. For the dressing, i used nampla, brown sugar and lime juice. The amount of both the nampla and lime juice are the key to fine tune the taste of the dressing. Sugar would act like a neutraliser when the taste gets too overwhelming. For this dish, i stir-fried (on the non-stick pan) the pounded dried shrimps and a lil shredded cuttle-fish to be sprinkled on the dish when its done  together with some bird's eye chili pepper and sliced fresh shallots.

The dish would be superb if the mango its on the sour note and do avoid from gettin the powderish texture of mangoes, that will so destroy the whole combination. And when u're done arranging the shredded mangoes on the plate and sprinkled it wth the stir-fried pounded dried shrimps & cuttle fish, bird's eye chili and fresh shallots then you can pour the dressing over it n voila! Of course its good to mix it up before u actually eat it to get a more balanced combination of all the ingredients.

I call this dish the Thai Spicy Minced Pork. For those who ran outta ideas on what else they can do with minced pork, they can try this out. This dish isnt as spicy as the others. It might be on a mild note for those who are not a big fan of spicy food. I myself, at times i wonder if my taste buds are all dead! Sometimes my taste buds get too extreme with me. The ingredients you need for this dish are  :-

1) onion, garlic, red fresh chillies, tomato, shrimp paste (place it in the food processor & process until roughly chopped.

2) sesame oil to stir-fry the blended ingredients

3) minced lean pork and seasoning [fish sauce, lime juice & sugar ( i used brown sugar)]

4) add coriander and fresh shallots before serving 

Egg Tofu with Hoisin Minced Pork

Omg!~ its been ages since i blog on this site! Not that i forgot that ive got this blog but i kinda lost my password and after discovering my password i can start posting food-related entry here!

This has become one of my fav dish! I was clueless on how people get their tofu to look nice but after discovering the "secret" i cant help it but to experiment on those egg tofu i bought. It came in a pack of 3 tubes, but since ive got a rather big eater bro, i gotta cook all of it and there's no such thing as leavin a tube of two before for the next cookin session. 

So i begin the preparation by cuttin the tofu into cubes of approximately 2cms width or so and lightly coat each and every one of it wth cornflour. Then when the non stick pan's hot enough i pour a the oil and when its ready , i lowered those delicate tofu into the pan n gently turnin each one of it until they turned golden brown and dish it out onto the paper towel i have on the plate to sieve any excess oil.

Next, its time to prepare the gravy. A lil hoisin sauce, carrot, shiitake mushrooms, onions, garlic, mince meat (marinated wth pepper, soy sauce, rice wine & dark soy sauce) are all that i needed to make the gravy.