Daily Archives: September 18, 2017

Diced Pork with Cabbage – 40th Teban Gardens Community Breakfast on 15Sep2017

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diced pork with cabbage

made diced pork with cabbage for teban gardens community breakfast this morning on 15.9.2017. ^^

this my 40th friday breakfast community meal at teban gardens community service centre.

i first started doing a community meal dish for teban gardens CSC on 8.1.2016.

the centre was started in 2002 after much effort & challenge by our RI friend who is a pastor of pasir panjang hill brethren church (pphbc) which owns & runs the CSC.

diced pork with cabbage

returned from hong kong last evening 14.9.2017.

following on last friday’s dice pork dish, i went to sheng shion & bought 4packets=1.6kg of diced pork, and 1.1kg of cabbage.

1.6kg diced pork for steaming in steam oven for 1.5hrs

had to wake up at 6am because i need to steam pork in steam oven for 1.5hrs so that it was very tender👍

cabbage

other than that preparation was easy.

cabbage

just fried chopped garlic & 1 cut chili padi in oil & add cabbage. added 1 tbsp oyster sauce

i drained some juice from the steamed pork & added to to the cabbage. covered the wok & cooked for 10 mins to cook the cabbage & reduce the stock. 🙂

set aside the cabbage.

diced pork double-cooked

then cooked the diced pork in the wok over high heat.

i added a bit of mala 麻辣 chili oil. just fried for 1-2minutes to char a bit of the pork.

later teban gardens staff told me the residents loved the pork especially the slight chili flavours. the mala 麻辣 chili oil added nice flavours to the dish.

c.h.e.f andy

11pax Homecooked Dinner for WCM & RI Makan Group on 8Sep2017

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8 dishes

our RI friend WCM is in town, visiting from london. he & his wife are now residing in london.

CL, CM & I met him for roast duck dinner at goldmines in bayswater london during our wales trip  in apr-may2017.

when i was in london with my wife & children, 2 of us met for lunch at flat iron covent gardens. WCM invited my family for his legendary paella dinner but we couldn’t make it..

this evening, i organised a homecooked dinner at my place. we have 11pax RI buddies on 8.9.2017. ^^

8 dinner dishes

i made 8 dishes-

  1. claypot chicken rice
  2. claypot tanhoon prawns
  3. char siew
  4. steamed salted fish minced pork
  5. braised ter kar (hock & trotters)
  6. spicy black bean sauce angkorli (sea bream) fish head
  7. taujeon lime sauce (zai shun style) angkorli fillet
  8. cuttlefish kang kong with gimson nonya sauce

CL brought sparkling wine, GCG brought red & white wine, CW brought red & white wine, YF brought excellent grapes, LCM brought cheng chow dessert (i had 4 cups only matched by CL)..doc brought nice XO sauce…

a wonderful evening of camaraderie..just missing DP….🙂

my claypot rice always good & a crowd favourite.

quite easy to make. recipe here!

fried chicken fat, cut ginger, then add salted fish slice & 1tbsp chopped garlic. fry short while & off fire.

wash rice, drain & add to claypot & fry. add cut mushrooms (earlier soften by boiling water). add mushroom water to claypot. i made 3.5cups rice & added 2cups water (usually 1 or 1.2cups to 1 but chicken has marinade and also lots of liquids). let it soak for 2 hrs.

then add marinated whole deboned chicken (2tbsp fish sauce, 2tbsp oyster sauce, 2 tbsp corn flour, 2 tbsp sesame oil, 1/2tbsp dark sauce), cut pork & liver sausages, high fire to boil, then low fire, total about 45mins. stir the chicken pieces & use chopsticks to test chicken is cooked.

voila! fantastic smoky claypot rice aroma! rice not wet. and chicken pieces were so smooth & tender.

char siew

char siew i made an improved recipe after trying the delicious char siew at meng meng roast duck 阿明帝皇鸭.

i just marinate 600g belly pork (cut out skin) for 6hrs.

1tsp each brown suga,hone,light soy sauce,char siew sauce,hoi sin sauce,oysters sauce,five-spice powder,ginger sauce (i lazy just used chopped ginger),fermented beancurd (fu yu)AND 1/2 tsp salt.

then roast in 250deg oven for 25mins.

recipe here!

char siew was tender & tasty.

CCG especially like the charred bits, very unhealthy. lol! ^^

steamed salted fish minced pork LCM favourite, nice comfort food.

everyone liked the dish. very easy to make-here i had 500g minced pork, 2 slices salted fish chopped, 1 heap tbsp corn flour mixed together, topped with lots of sliced ginger. and steamed about 10mins+…

recipe here!

the salted fish aroma was great!

and the minced pork was smooth with cornflour. 🙂

braised whole hock 元蹄 & cut trotters

the braised whole hock 元蹄 & cut trotters i used a lazyman method.

just fry 1-2 cinnamon stick 4 star anise, 3 cloves, 3 bay leaves, 1 whole bulb peeled garlic cloves, and 1 tbsp flat five-spice powder, braise in 1/2 cup (120ml) tai wah braising sauce for 2.5hrs to 3hrs. cover the wok so trotters are steamed while they braised. add water & turn the trotters.

taste for gelatinous skin & still moist tasty lean meat…do not over braise.

braised whole hock 元蹄 & cut trotters

braised whole hock 元蹄 & cut trotters

the whole hock 元蹄 & cut trotters were delicious, very gelatinous & lean meat was moist, not old & dry.

GCM commented that dish very good but pig skin could be softer. the pig skin pieces were the skin from char siew. i still have not found the method, but the standalone pig skin pieces dried up through the course of dinner & slightly toughened, whereas the hock skin was ok.

claypot tanhoon prawns very good, very tasty today.

recipe here!

GCM noticed it was flavoured with “cilantro” (atas word for coriander?), black pepper & sliced belly pork.

i also used chicken fat & lots of chopped garlic & cut ginger pieces.

the key was the intense chicken stock, very very tasty.

so i added the stock to the belly pork, ginger, chopped garlic, coriander & black pepper, brought to boil, added 1 tbsp oyster sauce, added 20 medium prawns (seasoned with fish sauce & white pepper for 1hr), covered & off fire. prawns about 40% – 50% cooked.

when serving, i boiled the stock, added 3 rolls of tanhoon (earlier soften in water for 1hr), tossed, off fire & let the tanhoon infuse the stock taste & the prawns cooked. this way prawns not overcooked, very fresh, bouncy & sweet, and the tanhoon was well infused with stock, so very tasty! 🙂

really beautiful dish…

taujeon lime sauce angkorli fillet

i bought a large angkorli (seabream) from sheng shiong, got them to cut 1/2 with head, and fillet the 1/2fish tail to do 2 flavours for my friends.

taujeon lime sauce angkorli fillet

for the tail fillet, i pound 4 tbsp taujeon, and squeezed 1/2 large lime to give the tangy taste, added 1 tbsp light soy sauce for the flavour & 1 tbsp mirin.

i garnished with slice ginger, chopped spring onions, 2 tbsp garlic & cut chilli padi.

taujeon lime sauce angkorli fillet

this was intended to be zai shun steamed sharks cartilage preparation.

of course no comparison with zai shun, which was very good & consistent.

spicy bean sauce angkorli fish head

for the angkorli fish head, i did the usual spicy black bean sauce i do for my song fish head 松鱼头！

angkorli is sweet & lesser “mud” taste, but song fish head 松鱼头 is i think uniquely suited to this preparation.

spicy bean sauce angkorli fish head

my own preference, and most friends’, were for song fish head 松鱼头.

YF preferred the angkorli fish head. he basically took apart & ate up the entire fish head.

fried cuttlefish kang kong with gimson nonya sauce

i made a cuttlefish kang kong dish using gimson nonya sauce.

this an easy dish to do, quite substantial & save me having to fry to seperate vegetable dishes.

fried cuttlefish kang kong with gimson nonya sauce

i basically used 2 bunches of kang kong, added 1 whole cut cuttlefish.

the usual method – fry cut chili & lots of garlic in oil, add kang kong stems & oyster sauce, then add the leaves & cuttlefish at the same time. add 3tbsp gimson nonya sauce. do not add water. fry couple mins & it’s ready to serve.

cheng chow dessert

LCM brought a nice cheng chow dessert, with lychee & nate de coco. very refreshing dessert, i took 4 bowls haha! not shy la!

crunchy, sweet grapes

& YF brought nice crunchy sweet grapes from cold storage. tasted very good this evening.

of course we had sparkling wine, white & red wine during the course of dinner.

GCG suggested we should go round & sample the different hawker foods in singapore, so he formally name the chat group makan makan, and we actually had a makan tour the following friday on 15.9.2017 organised by KY, only that the initiator last minute could not attend.

we had a good time, company & food this evening. camaraderie come easily for old friends with many connections in school 40 yrs ago.

till the next makan toegther….

c.h.e.f andy

The Best White Beehoon白米粉 on 9Sep2017

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white beehoon白米粉

made the best tasting white beehoon (WBH) from leftover chicken stock i used to make claypot tanhoon prawns last evening..

very tasty WBH indeed & so easy to make just need very tasty intense stock & braise 焖, same as cooking tanhoon prawns, yee meen etc

i made good WBH couple of times previously-

  1.  white beehoon for family dinner on 17.6.2016.
  2. and also a very tasty WBH a 12pax dinner for my OPS buddies on 23.6.2016.

white beehoon白米粉

for this evening though, i made a much more intense stock.

i made sure the prawns & squid were done just right, so that they were plump, juicy, bouncy. brought out the really fresh, sweet taste of the prawns & squid.

white beehoon白米粉

the dish is easy preparation in terms of ingredients & easy steps, so not much effort in preparation.

it is though a bit difficult to adjust the amount of stock, amount of beehoon & the cooking time.

so too much stock, maybe stock not intense enough ie not reduced enough, so bee hoon would be wet. if you try to reduce, then the bee hoon gets overcooked.

too much bee hoon, and the very tasty intense stock is diluted & the overall taste of the dish is diminished.

so it has to be the right amount of intense stock & right amount of bee hoon, then the bee hoon is well infused & very tasty, the bee hoon is moist & not “flooded”, and the bee hoon texture is al dente, not mushy & overcooked.

white beehoon白米粉

for this evening it was quite perfect.

white beehoon白米粉

i had about 300ml intense reduced stock, and 2 rolls of bee hoon soaked in cold water for 1hr.

this time i did not have cabbage, so just a little sliced ginger, cut chili padi & chopped garlic fried in a hot pan, added intense chicken stock & added 1 tbsp oyster sauce.

the prawns & squid were marinated with fish sauce & white pepper for 1hr.

when stock is boiling, i added bee hoon & prawns, tossed a bit, then added squid, tossed a bit more, then off fire. i  covered & let the beehoon infused the stock a bit longer & tossed another time. i tasted the bee hoon & it was perfect, so ready to plate it & serve.

c.h.e.f andy

Ingredients:

  • 2 rolls of bee hoon
  • 15 medium prawns (about 400g)
  • 1 medium squid chequered cut
  • 1 tbsp chopped garlic
  • 1 cm sliced ginger
  • 1 cut chili padi
  • 300ml intense chicken stock

Directions:

  1. soak 2 rolls of bee hoon soaked in cold water for 1hr. have 300ml intense chicken stock ready for use.
  2. fry a little sliced ginger, cut chili padi & chopped garlic fried in a hot pan, add intense chicken stock & add 1 tbsp oyster sauce.
  3. marinate the prawns & squid with fish sauce & white pepper for 1hr or longer.
  4. when stock is boiling, add bee hoon & prawns, toss a bit, then add squid, tosse a bit more, then off fire. cover wokpan & let the beehoon infused the stock a bit longer & toss another time.check the taste the bee hoon & add salt if required). for me i did not need to. the texture, liquid, and taste were just perfect, so ready to plate it & serve..

 

Diced Pork with Potatoes & Onions– 39th Teban Gardens Community Breakfast on 8Sep2017

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diced pork with potatoes & onions

did a diced pork with potatoes & onions for teban gardens community breakfast this morning on 8.9.2017. ^^

this my 39th friday breakfast community meal at teban gardens community service centre.

i first started doing a community meal dish for teban gardens CSC on 8.1.2016.

the centre was started in 2002 after much effort & challenge by our RI friend who is a pastor of pasir panjang hill brethren church (pphbc) which owns & runs the CSC.

diced pork with potatoes & onions 

i bought about 1kg diced pork from sheng shiong.

this are commonly used for sweet & sour pork咕噜肉。

diced pork 

i defrosted, washed clean with salt, then scalded with boiling water to remove scum & clean the pork.

then i left in strainer in fridge to dry.

diced pork 

next morning, i woke up at 6am & steamed the pork for 1hrs 20mins in the steam oven.

diced pork 

pork was very tender after steaming.

i fried the pork in oil (or butter) on high heat for 1 minute, stirring well. this is the 回锅肉double-cooked pork method, to have a tender texture & a nice slight external charring flavours.

i set the pork aside.

potatoes & onions 

next i fried sliced onions to soften & added chopped garlic.

potatoes & onions 

then i added small cubed potatoes.  & added some oysters sauce. also added the juice of the pork from the steamer after straining. & reduced.

important not to overcook the potatoes, so it breaks in the middle but still have the bite & not mushy.

diced pork with potatoes & onions 

the i added back the diced pot & stir-fry for short while, like 30secs.

diced pork with potatoes & onions 

then i transferred the completed dish to the aluminium carrier.

it was a tasty dish. the folks at teban gardens community service centre loved it. but this quantiy was not quite enough as the size at teban gardens have grown substantially, now about 130pax.

i will cook a bit more next round.

c.h.e.f andy