did a 7pax homecooked dinner for my OPS buddies on 23.8.2017-

1. chicken rice, 白斩鸡, chili, ginger sauce, tauyou
2. steamed salted fish minced pork 咸鱼饼
3. char siew 叉烧
4. steamed taujeon lime sauce song fish head 松鱼头(zai shun style sauce)
5. 东坡肉(zai shun) – my furst attempt
6. egg bittergourd with salted egg (zai shun)

FM said i did not invite her for long time (actually invited her, she eaten & forgot la…haha!). & so i did! ^^

i prepared 6 dishes for 7pax- 🙂

made 400g char siu 叉烧 using my recent new method, 25mins in 250degC oven

bought 400g fresh indonesia pork belly from sheng shion at S$15.90/kg.

marinated for 5 to 6hrs.

char siu 叉烧 colour a bit anaemic, but taste was excellent! very flavourful!

first time i attempted dongporou 东坡肉.

bascially trying to replicate the dongporou 东坡肉 at zai shun where WT bought 4pax lunch recently on 17.8.2017. 🙂

i found & followed one web recipe here.

tying the string for 9 cuts of belly pork kind of tedious.

i layered the claypot first with cabbage (my own improvisation), then spring onions, then sliced ginger. i had some leftover pig skin (from char siu 叉烧) i inserted to help hold up the pork belly pieces.

then i added 2tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1tbsp brown sugar, 4tbsp shaoxing wine, and 1/2 cup water. added the belly pork, skin down.

then cooked low fire for 1.5hrs. added water as required, and turned over belly pork at 1hr.

then took out belly pork & placed in a small holder & steamed for 1.5hrs, so in total 3hrs.

so dongporou 东坡肉 was quite good standard. the gelatinous parts were excellent. flavour was pretty ok…

i think can have more wine taste, so i am going to increase to 6tbsp shaoxing wine. the pigskin & cabbage were excellent – collateral goodness, haha! ^^

FM rated it second after the egg bittergourd with salted egg. some lean parts still not tender enough after 3hrs lor…

not quite sure why need to cut the pork (& having to tie pork to hold it together) in the first place? to let the sauce & the steam reach the individual pieces?

i think i will instead experiment using low temperature braising to render the whole 400g pork belly tender, then open steaming to add moisture & further tenderise the pork, then cut into small pieces (currently the steam could not reach the lean parts of the pork in the small holder)…so i intend to experiment/improvise..

steamed salted fish minced pork 咸鱼饼  the usual, an excellent dish.

if i may say, any times better than what i had at meng meng roast duck 阿明帝皇鸭 with my RI bros recently on 24.7.2017.

this taujeong lime sauce style of preparation for song fish head 松鱼头 was my own new creation.

basically i was trying to replicate the excellent dish of taujeon sharks cartilage at zai shun where WT bought 4pax lunch recently on 17.8.2017.

i had some leftover pig fat in teh freezer so i made some larpok crispy lard as topping for the song fish head 松鱼头. very easy to make & very nice too!

i chose  song fish head 松鱼头 because it has the most gelatinous texture, if it is possible to approximate the texture of gelatinous sharks cartilage. quite different i guess, haha!

fish head was nice, WT said maybe it was a bit sour. for myself i ok with this level of sourness. WT thought it was equally good c/w blackbean sauce song fish head 松鱼头. for WM & I, we both prefer the black bean sauce.

so black bean sauce song fish head 松鱼头 is what i will do the next time for this group. 🙂

egg bittergourd with salted egg was also my attempt to replicate the famous dish at zai shun. 

i would think it was pretty good.

FM picked this as her no 1 dish. LCH commented the bittergourd had zero bitter taste (which FM didn’t mind). i agreed. for me also i think some bitter taste would be better. basically i cleaned, soaked in water for 1 day in the fridge, changed water many times. will do less next time.

i felt the salted egg flavours did not come out enough though. maybe the salted egg i used wasn’t a very good one. i did not add any fish sauce because of the salted egg, but after tasting, i added some oyster sauce. maybe i will add more oyster sauce next time.

& i had my usual chicken rice, now consistently good.

with the whole paraphernalia of chicken rice chili, ginger sauce & tauyou.

very smooth chicken & sweet with the chili, ginger sauce & tauyou.

& the very fragrant chicken rice. i cooked 3 cups rice for 7pax as WT & I shared 1 bowl, more or less & some may eat less than a bowl. anyhow rice not enough for LCH…lol! ^^

FM made angkukueh – 6 each of tau sha & peanuts.

i loved the tau sha, not too sweet. peanuts not my preference.

WT brought mangoes & WM brought 2 melons. LCH brought daifuku mochi from chataraise. KS brought a reisling. we did not drink.

& i had some mini cornetto.

a very fun dinner.

i started late today as i went jogging with my RI bro, after drannk 100plus, coffee & chatted; & only back 12pm today.

usually i finish cooking by 6pm & relax & wait for my friends to arrive. today i basically prepare the dishes w/o stopping till 7pm… anyway these are close friends & they are very comfortable entertaining themselves while i cook. i was just good ie all done when the last friend arrived, and just perfect timing to start the steam fish (13mins) & fry the egg bittergourd dish.

c.h.e.f andy