Sweet Sour Pork With Pickled Cucumber

Sweet Sour Pork with Pickled Cucumber is a very refreshing dish. It has a sweetish sourish gravy that coats the fried  crispy pork. I used minced pork, shaped them into tiny rolls, coat them with potato starch and deep fried in hot oil. Make a savoury sauce of sweet Thai chilli sauce and tomato sauce and add in the fried pork , gives it a toss so that the pork is coated with the savoury sauce. It is an easy to prepare  dish and it is one of our favourite dish. Before the Covid pandemic, this is dish we will always order from the restaurant. Spare ribs can be used to replace minced pork. Of course, tomato and pickled cucumber and red onions are added to the dish too.

Add in tomato, pickled cucumber and onions to the gravy last. 

when oil is hot, put in the pork roll and fried till golden brown.

Seasoned the minced pork with black pepper and light soy sauce, shaped into tiny rolls, then coat with potato starch

before putting them into hot oil

Ingredients

(A)150 gm minced pork

1 tsp light soy sauce 

1/8 tsp of ground black pepper

(B)Sweet Sour Sauce ingredients 

2 tbsp Sweet Thai chilli sauce

2tbsp tomato sauce

1 tsp of chopped garlic

1tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup water or more

salt to taste

1pickled mini cucumber - diced

1 large tomato - diced

1 small red onions - diced 

Method

1. Seasoned the minced pork with black pepper and light soy sauce, shaped into tiny rolls, then coat with potato starch

before putting them into hot oil. Fried till mini pork rolls turned golden brown and cooked. Dish up and drained off excess oil.

2. In a frying pan, add 1/2 tbsp oil ,saute chopped garlic till fragrant. Add in all the sweet Thai chilli sauce and tomato sauce , a few seconds later add in water and boil till gravy simmers, add in pickled cucumber, tomato and onion. Add salt to taste. Once the gravy boils, add in the crispy fried pork rolls and keep stirring till all the pork rolls are coated with the sweet sour sauce. Off heat and dish up. Serve hot with rice.

Enjoy!

Kuih Bingka Ubi / Baked Cassava Cake

Hubby and I had a sudden craving for Nyonya Kuih - Kuih Bingka Ubi especially which we have not eaten since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic. Saw some very nice Cassava in Jaya Grocer and I knew I had to buy some back to make this Kuih Bingka Ubi.  I used Sonia's recipe but I tweaked the recipe a bit by adding cassava starch from the squeezed out water of the grated Cassava and used brown sugar instead of caster sugar. The grating was the hardest , the rest was easy ,just measure out the ingredients and mix them together till well combined. Cut some Banana leaves from the garden and lay them in baking tins. It gives the Kuih the extra fragrant. Turned out great. A keeper for sure. Need to reduce sugar by 20gms. It tasted exactly like those sold by famous nyonya stalls in town. Craving fixed for now.

the texture is soft with a slight bounce

a 500gm of grated cassava can  make 2 baking tins- size 7.5 inches by 3 inches

lined the base and side of tin with banana leaves before pouring in the cassava mixture

add in the cassava starch- residue from the liquid squeezed out from the grated cassava

use a muslin cloth to squeeze out water from the grated cassava

Kuih Bingka Ubi / Baked Cassava Cake -  recipe from Sonia

 

Ingredients:

 

500 gm grated cassava after grated and squeeze out juice (if not the kuih will be bitter)

1/2 egg

1 tbsp of  cassava starch ( residue of the cassava juice that was squeezed out earlier )

1/8 tsp salt

125 gm thick coconut milk

75 gm water

100  gm brown sugar - 70gm if you want it less sweet

20 gm salted butter

a tiny drop of yellow food coloring * optional

salted butter for greasing pan

Method: 

1.Wash cassava, cut the hard head and tail, then cut into few segments. Use a knife to make a slit on the cassava segment, then peel off the skin.

2. Use a grater to grate the cassava till finely.Then use a muslin cloth bag to squeeze out the juices( dont need too dry, it is ok when leave it with some juices) the rest of the juice ,leave it to settle down in the bowl. Later can use the residue starch .

3. Add all the ingredients in a bowl, just use a bare hand to mix the batter till combined.

4. Pour the batter into a greased pan lined with banana leaves.

 

5. Bake at preheated oven at 200c (middle rack ) for 60 mins or till golden brown.

6. Remove baked cassava cake from oven, brush on a layer of butter to enhance the flavours.

 

 7. Cut into slices when it has cooled down completely with a plastic knife.

Enjoy!

Pillow Shaped Bak Chang Bamboo Leaf Pork Dumpling

This is my 2nd attempt at making Bak Chang /Bamboo Leaf Pork Dumpling and this time I tried a different style of wrapping. Instead of wrapping a cone shaped dumpling, I wrapped them to shape like a pillow. After watching many times on YouTube, on how to wrap a pillow shape dumpling, I managed to get it done and feeling super happy , and I find it easier wrapping them into pillow shape. The fillings are the same as the Hokkien Bak Chang. I improved on the taste by adding more salt to the glutinous rice and adding a bit more of the five spice powder to the meat. They turned out tastier and delicious. So proud of myself and I find making Bak Chang very addictive. And I have reduced pressure cook time to 30mins . I have some to friends . It is a blessing to give and share with friends.

my hubby loves it, he says it is 95 percent very near to those he bought, in term of taste and those that I made are less oily which he prefers

very happy with the well wrapped pillow shaped

need 4 pieces of bamboo leaves for pillow shaped dumpling

so proud that I managed to wrap it neatly

wrapping the dumpling is addictive

I won't get tired of wrapping them, it is the art of wrapping that I am getting addicted now

I can make 12 big ones with a kg of glutinous rice

Click here for the recipe

Click here for the method of wrapping

Homemade Vanilla Peach Ice Cream

The weather is so hot and humid that I have been churning out more ice creams from my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. This time it is Vanilla Peach Ice Cream.  Ingredients used are Heavy cream, milk, sugar and peaches and vanilla extract . It is so delicious even though I used canned Peach for it. I preferred homemade as I can control the amount of  sugar and the flavours too.  Without an ice cream maker you can still churn out the custard with the food processor. No worry on this issue. Just that with an ice cream maker , it makes things easier. Manually done , a little bit more work as you have to set it a while and take out to whisk in the food processor or a hand whisk to break the ice particles in the custard for a softer and smooth texture. With an ice cream maker , straight from the chilled custard  to ice cream and you can serve straight from the ice cream maker or further set in the freezer for an hour before serving. This ice cream is perfect when you have guest over for dinner as an after dinner dessert.

I normally like to add fresh flowers from my garden as deco when serving to friends

creamy texture and full of peach taste with a hint of vanilla

ice cream maker makes making ice cream so much easier

chilled the custard before adding to the ice cream maker

Vanilla Peach Ice Cream

 

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup  milk

3/4 cup sugar ( I reduce to 1/2 cup sugar )

1 can of peach

1 tbsp of vanilla extract 

1 tbsp of lemon juice

Combine the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla extract  in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring , to dissolve the sugar. Place the pan in the ice bath and stir occasionally until it cools to room temperature. Transfer to a contianer , covrr and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled about 3 hours.

About an hour before you churn the ice cream, add in the chopped and blended peaches mixture, stir in the lemon juice. Freeze in ice maker according to the manufacture's instruction. Transfer to a container and freeze until firm about 2 hours.

 

Bak Chang/ Bamboo Leaf Pork Dumpling

I can't believe I made Bak Chang from scratch. My first attempt and it turned out not too bad. The glutinous rice dumplings didn't explode in the pressure cooker nor drop out of their bamboo leavee wrapping. I would say though they were not pretty looking but they look quite legit. My kids kind words  "practice makes perfect". Anyway it was fun making them though it was quite hard folding the first few that I made but after a while I  managed to fold them without the glutinous rice dropping out from their wrapping  and though they were far from perfection, I am happy of my achievement. A lot of hard work but worth it!

It was slightly overbooked, the glutinous rice was a bit too soft, need to reduce the cooking time. 

the fillings consist of mung beans, chestnut, pork belly , shiitake mushrooms and salted egg yolk 

after a few tries, I managed to wrap the dumpling to pyramid shape, still need improvement 

if using pressure cooker, cooking time is 30mins

Recipe for the dumpling click here

Method of wrapping click here