Mum's Experiments: Char Siu Baby Pork Ribs

Yet another one of Mum's recipes: Char Siu Baby Kurobuta Pork Ribs!

Mum managed to get some baby Kurobuta pork ribs from the market when they were testing the market. She marinated the pork with Char Siu sauce and a little Red Yeast for added sweetness. We used the ever-versatile Turbo Cooker to roast! YUMS!



When it came out hot from the Turbo, I was the privileged one to taste-test it first! It was so tender!! It was really juicy and had just the right "bite" to it! Unfortunately, the marinade was slightly overwhelming, and I couldn't taste the juices of the meat. I suggested that instead of a heavier marinade, a simple salt-pepper-garlic seasoning would be just sufficient. (:



My biggest gripe was that there is just too little meat to relish! Aww..! :P

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Mum's Recipes: Red Yeast Chicken

One of our usual home food: Chicken in Red Yeast Gravy (红糟)! My favourite part is the knuckle (pictured in the centre!) Another great accompaniment to rice!

Recipe from Mum:

Ingredients:
Sesame Oil
Cooking Oil
Light Soy Sauce
Ginger Juice
8-10 cloves Garlic
2 - 3 Tbsp Fermented Red Yeast Paste
Red Wine/Cooking Sherry
Salt to Taste

Method:

1. Season chicken meat with sesame oil, a dash of light soy sauce and ginger juice. Keep in the fridge for a few hours.

2. Add 1 part cooking oil and 1 part sesame oil to wok, crush 8 to 10 whole cloves of garlic (lightly smash, do not chop).

3. Fry Red Yeast Paste over slow fire until fragrant (around 3 minutes).

4. Add chicken and stir-fry.

5. Add Red Wine/Cooking Sherry and a little water if it gets too sticky.

6. Simmer over slow fire until chicken is cooked.

7. Add salt to taste.

Note: It's a good idea to taste the Red Yeast Paste before adding salt because some brands of paste can be extremely salty. We bought ours here from:

Foo Chow Fishball Noodles
33/35 Sultan Gate
Kampong Glam Conservation Area

p.s. I love their Foo Chow Fishballs and Wanton (燕皮) too!

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Dong Dae Mun Korean Street Snacks

Dong Dae Mun is a kiosk chain selling Korean Street Snacks like Jumbo Sausages, Korean Rice Cakes, Meat Balls on Skewers, Grilled Chicken and Beef Skewers with Hot Sauce and Crispy Chicken Skewers. Here's what we tried from the kiosk at Junction 8's basement.

(Left to Right) Meat Balls, Crispy Chicken, Pork and Chicken Skewers

The food's quite novel, but you must eat it immediately! It turned hard and unappetising after we brought it home. The Jumbo Sausages were so tempting, but a voice reminded me of an equally jumbo amount of sodium. :(

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Cooking Guide for Nintendo DS

Oh this isn't an advertisement (although I admit I am an NDS and Wii fan), but I came across this quirky software for the Nintendo DS that looks really interesting. PS: watch out for the "Hainanese Chicken Rice" recipe!! :D

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Mum's Experiments: Crispy Seafood Noodle (Sheng Mian)

I love Crispy Hong Kong Noodle with Gravy (Sheng Mian 生面)! The crispy bits are the best, but the noodles with the gravy are tasty! The noodle is crowned with a treasure trove of goodies: Sotong, Prawns, Mushrooms, Sliced Pork and Veggies! Delicious!!

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Fun with Origami: Yaki-Nori Style!

I know it's not polite to play with your food, but sometimes it's ok to have... just a little fun. (:

Fold a Bento Box with Yaki-Nori and add rice in!




Or even the popular Traditional Crane!!



Do you think even this is possible? ;)

...Try it yourself!

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Mum's Experiments: Crispy Noodle Pancake

Yet another of Mum's Experiments: Crispy Noodle Pancake! It had loads of hidden goodies inside: Mushrooms, Sliced Pork, Bean Sprouts and Wood Ear Fungus! They are smacked inside a huge cake of crispy noodles fried until brown!

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Mum's Experiments: Sweet Vinegar Chicken with Dates

Another yummy experiment by Mum after watching the cooking programme! It had red dates and mushrooms (the ones that look like potato wedges!) too.

It is sweet with just a hint of tangy sour from the vinegar. Goes really well with rice or porridge.

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DIY: Surf 'n Turf Kushiyaki

I love all things grilled, especially flame-grilled or charcoal-grilled meats and carbs. Kushiyaki is the Japanese rendition of our Singaporean Satay, which is charcoal-grilled meats and other food on skewers or bamboo sticks.

At Japanese restaurants you can sometimes get awesome cuts and grades of meat. My favourites are the beef karubi and tongue (gyu tan). Every kushiyaki chef also takes pride in his "Tare" (タレ) marinade. For premium marbled beef, just a sprinkle of sea salt is sufficient! The only thing we can't emulate at home is the charcoal grill so we had to use a hot pan instead.

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Mum's Steamed Herbal Chicken Wings

Mum also tried making some Herbal Chicken Wings for dinner. It had Dang Gui (Chinese Angelica Root) and Gou Qi Zi (Wolfberries). This was really fragrant, and all the essence of the chicken seeped into the herbal soup, making the stock golden in colour!

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Mum's Experiments: Crispy Fried Chicken

Remember my 50-50 Fried Chicken experiment a couple months ago? Mum decided to try out her own Crispy Fried Chicken after watching a demonstration on TV.

The trick was to coat the chicken meat in lightly salted water overnight (in the fridge), although other recipes say in milk and lemon juice. Mum used Sweet Potato flour for the batter.

Woah! It was really good! The chicken was so juicy, it squirted out in a bite! The batter, though a little bland, was really crispy. A little too crunchy, but it became much better after adding a little water into the batter. HAHA, take that, KFC!!! >:P

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Home-Cooked: Unagi Don

While at Isetan @ Scotts, we also picked up one serving of Unagi! This is already grilled and packed, ready to eat. Just pop it in the toaster or microwave oven to heat it up. When choosing Unagi, look out for the fatter, meatier ones.

This sure is comfort food! It comes with a packet of "herbal pepper spice" and Unagi sauce. Just add a drop of that sauce and mix it with the rice. I also drizzled some roasted Nori on top. This went really well with some hot "home-made" Miso Soup using just a dash of Less Salt Miso Paste! After eating the Unagi Don, down it with a cup of hot Miso Soup and your stomach feels so warm and fuzzy! (:



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MarketWatch: Isetan Umaimono Fair

I recently went to Isetan Umaimono Fair @ Scotts, and found some interesting goodies! There were refreshing Fruit Juices (do try the peach and grape!), succulent Mentaiko, delicious Udon and Soba, crispy and chewy Ijima Shoten (Fried Squid) and yummy Sardine Ball soup!

This is Multi-coloured Kelp, which I made into a chilled salad with Wakame.



The Udon and Soba is really good! They have a Wakame version of the Udon too! (It is green in colour because they added Wakame powder)

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Uncle's Birthday: Satsuma Shochu Dining and Bar

August is a festive month of Birthdays! Singapore, Mum and Uncle! We had a birthday at Satsuma Shochu Dining and Bar at Gallery Hotel. Sorry for the lack of photos; the lighting was very dim and it was hard to take decent shots.


This is the Tuna Salad, the tuna is lightly seared on the outside, so it's still raw inside. As much as I love Japanese foods, I'm still not used to raw fish and sashimi. :X But this was quite nice and the dressing was very appetising.

Their Sumiyaki items are also quite good; I simply love charcoal-grilled food! This one is Shittake Mushroom Stuffed with Chicken. We also tried Ox Tongue, Chicken Yakitori, Oyster Rolls, Foie Gras, Silver Cod and Enoki Mushroom wrapped with Bacon.



Other dishes include Hiyashi Momotaro, Sashimi Moraiwase, Cheese Mentaiko Tofu, Mentai (Spicy Cod Roe) Spaghetti, Dried Fugu (Puffer Fish) and Shishamo Ten. The Mentai Spaghetti was, albeit on the salty side, unique and delicious. The Cheese Mentaiko Tofu was an interesting combination which blew me away with its incredible smoothness! The Shishamo Ten was very crispy and full of eggs, too bad they had only 1 serving left so I could only have 1 fish. :( This was my first time eating Fugu! Not bad; tasted chewy and savoury like Bak Kwa! :P



And of course, for dessert, we had Birthday Cake! Cousin Jamie made Carrot Cake that night, while we also had this Tiramisu Cake from Sweet Secrets the day before! (:

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