black bean sauce bitter gourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

i did a black bean sauce bittergourd with sliced pork today on 29.1.2016. ^^

this the 3rd time i am doing a dish for the friday breakfast community meal at teban gardens community service centre (CSC).

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.

i was told by A, the deputy executive director, that for the last 2 times, attendance were 88 & 82 respectively. today the crowd looked even more, so maybe it would be near 100.

black bean sauce bitter gourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

black bean sauce bitter gourd is a common teochew (& my cantonese friends said cantonese) dish & a popular dish at zi char stalls, very commonly with pork ribs or fish.

some examples –

1. sliced fish with bitter gourd in black bean sauce at keng eng kee (KEK).
2. pork ribs with bitter gourd at hong kong street (sin rong) at blk 325 clementi ave 5.
3. teck kia fish (leather jacket) with bitter gourd in black bean sauce at ah orh at jalan bukit merah.
4. black bean bitter gourd pork ribs at 香港街珍记 – Hong Kong Street Chun Kee Commonwealth Crescent

the dish can also be done standalone just as a spicy black bean sauce bitter gourd at many teochew muay stalls. i also do that for my homecooked teochew muay makans for friends. 🙂

black bean sauce bittergourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

why i called it “fake kurobuta”?

recently 6 of us RI friends toured hong kong together, a “hong kong eat & hike adventure 10 to 14jan2016”.

one interesting & enjoyable dish was the black beans bittergourd with kurobuta we had at yue bo 鱼宝食馆.

after returning to singapore, i got my friends together to reminiscence/relish the enjoyable food fun moments in singapore, so i recreate the dish. ^^

yue bo 鱼宝食馆’s black beans bittergourd with kurobuta

yue bo 鱼宝食馆 used kurobuta which was unusual. most eating places with pork ribs, sliced pork, fish.

the dish was quite well done. kurobuta was marbled & tasty.

black bean sauce bittergourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

i used a frozen pork collar (S$9.90/kg from sheng shiong) instead of lean pork for the marbling to give amore tasty pork.

pork collar of course has more connective tissues (collagen) & is tougher. so i placed it (in a water bath) in a 90degC oven for 2 hrs to help convert the collagen to flavourful gelatine.

i did all these the night before & kept the pork in the fridge.

black bean sauce bittergourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

next morning, i was up early. i cooked the bitter gourd (which had also been cut, washed & soaked in a salt & sugar brine so it would not be bitter) the usual way.

then i cut the pork collar in very thin slices…by cutting very thin, we severe the connecting tissues & thus tenderise the meat.

it was a very tasty dish & suitable for these community meals – no bones, meat were very tender & tasty, & so was the bitter gourd.

c.h.e.f andy

black bean sauce pork cubes

last week, i started bringing some dishes t0 teban gardens community service centre (CSC). ^^

they do free friday breakfast & a halal monday lunch every week for the residents.

last week i brought some char siew & also miso belly pork. they all liked it as it is always good to add some new dishes & variety.

actually the CSC is very well run & they already have a very good breakfast going.

for this week, i decided on black bean sauce pork cubes. i was away with my RI buddies (6 of us) in hong kong & only back home last evening, so i asked my helper to help me prepare. my friends love the usual spicy version using pork ribs.

for today, i used 2kg pork cubes (boneless) and asked my helper not to add any chilli. i tasted the sauce – still very nice & not spicy.

recipe is simple, just the pork cubes & the lkk (lee kum kee) black bean sauce. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

about 60-70pax came for free friday breakfast

a close friend, my weekly running kaki (mate), and i wanted to see where we can help out a bit.

we had a practice session of cooking & bringing food over for 28pax RI friends at this friend’s residence recently on 3.12.2015.

idea, apart from having fun eat-together ourselves, was:– 🙂

1. when we get together again in the new year 2016, maybe many joining future eat-togethers will be in the mood to make some small donations to a beneficiary charity.
2. some of us who loves cooking (& there are many among us) may offer to cook community meals for some groups of residents…

we did not have to look far as many of our good friends are already doing community meals for groups of residents for many years.

we went to take a look at teban gardens community service centre (CSC), which 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. they have a weekly free friday morning breakfast & another monday halal lunch which cater to between 60 & 80 people. of course the CSC does a host of other important family & community services like tuition centre etc (which 1 of our RI friends may be volunteering) & also projects.

the food is already catered for from the hawker centre next to the CSC, and the centre executive director R is herself a very good cook & we had opportunity to enjoy her excellent fish maw soup on more than one occasions we were invited to pphbc events etc.

R thought that the residents would enjoy having 1 or 2 homecooked dishes added to the meal at times.

+++++++++++

so today on 8.1.2016 i did 2 dishes, a char siew & miso belly pork, packed them in alumium foils & tranported over to teban gardens at 8.40am.

my friend was already there. the food, including fried beehoon & hum chee pen were on the table. the friendly centre staff helped to transfer the char siew & miso belly pork to serving aluminium trays & served the residents as they queued for the food.

char siew

today i made a very tender, moist, tasty char siew. ^^

the key thing with char siew & miso belly pork (well with any food!) is taste & texture.

i had a simple excellent char siew marinade (recipe on my blog). i use pork collar for the more marbled texture & flavourful meat when it is slow braised.

char siew

since i was having the miso belly pork in the oven at 90degC for 6hrs, i added the char siew during the last hour (at 90degC) & left it in the oven in residual low heat.

char siew

the char siew was then roasted in 250degC preheated oven for 20mis, turning & basting just once to coat the sauce.

miso belly pork (skinless) 

& many of the residents especially loved the miso belly pork.

miso belly pork (skinless)

90degC is the optimum temperature to convert connective issues to flavourful gelatine.

miso belly pork

the result of the low temperature (90degC) gentle braise was a very tender belly pork that was not overbraised & still holding the shape & bite.

miso belly pork

& it was so easy to do – just scald to remove scum, marinate, put in a oven dish with tight cover so no liquid loss & drying out.

& 6 hrs later, voila!

miso belly pork

i placed the belly pork in the fridge overnight after it cooled down, so that it is easy to cut cleanly.

the next morning, sliced & wrapped the sliced pork in aluminium foil & placed in 40degC oven for 1/2hr or more, then transport. and it came out nice & slightly warm.

fried beehoon

the fried beehoon looked good.

R was busy serving it & some water to a few residents who were infirm, so i helped out a bit.

about 60 to 70pax came for free friday breakfast

the quite old chappie in red helmet came in battery motorised “scooter”. R was chiding him to be careful! haha! 🙂

centre staff serving the residents

my pastor friend was talking to me about some of the centre staff. quite a few including a young lady, want to be missionary.

centre ED R getting the residents to share monthly birthdays & cake

i think A, R’s assistant want to go cambodia or laos.

there is another lady not present today who bakes a cake every month for the folks. R has the residents celebrate monthly birthdays for those whose birthdays fall on that month. i guess she does that on the first week of each month. 🙂

the cake i took, & it was an excellent cake, not one i can make at the moment. fluffy sponge cake with cherries compote. nice! 🙂

we really enjoyed this opportunity! as i told my other good friend afterwards, felt like everything runs like clockwork we only there to “ka chiao” (disturb or burden). but it was fun all round for the residents & for us! for me! ^^

c.h.e.f andy