Sweet and sour spare ribs

I have been remiss in posting but I certainly have not been remiss in cooking! I have to admit though our visits to the Chinese takeaway has been quite frequent since the little one started school. I'm definitely not cut out to be a yummy mummy of which there seem to be lots of, who waltz up to the school gates looking fresh and full of energy on the dot at 3pm. Anyway, back to food, inspired somewhat by the chinese takeaways, I decided to give the sweet and sour pork ribs a go. My concern was that the meat could be tough but try I must. The recipe I tried turned out to be really nice, the sauce was fragrant and I really like having the sesame seeds sprinkled on. The meat? Not tough but I think I will cook it just a tad longer next time...just need it slightly more tender!

 

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Kiam chye th'ng (salted vegetable soup)

This is our family's traditional CNY soup which we have throughout the first few days of CNY ! ! Adding whatever left over dishes along the way. When a friend gave me some roasted pork it was an opportunity to make this soup, with the roast pork added to salted mustard green, duck legs, Chinese mushrooms.

And since the same friend didn't manage to get home for CNY this year, I thought it appropriate to make this soup and invite her round for a CNY dinner! Gong xi fa cai take 2!!

 

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Pork floss (bak huu)

I was speaking to my sis this morning and she mentioned bak huu and I thought it's been a long time since I had any and since I had a pork fillet in the fridge.....why not? I did happen to have a recipe for it, just never tried it so no surfing the net required and it only required 3 ingredients...pork, light soya and rock sugar! So easy, boil everything in the slow cooker till the meat starts to colaspe, shred then fry in the pan till dry. hmmm, need to run to the supermarket to buy bread now as I have nothing to eat it with!

 

Bacon wrapped asparagus rolls

To be honest, I don't know what this called, I so happened to catch it on TV, some chef was making it and I thought it a good idea and tried to replicate it. Turns out, the rolls can be quickly made up and then stick the whole lot in the oven and let it do the cooking, my favourite kind of cooking after a busy day at work. Served with potato and carrot mash..yumm! Next time though I might make a little more effort and make gravy.

 

Bee hoon soup

Bee Hoon soup is one of my go to comfort food when I'm feeling a little under the weather. My version is super simple with just 3 main ingredients, bee hoon, choi sum and pork mince... ala the ones you get at the hawker stall referred to in my family as "cook bowl by bowl" or rather we say it in Hokkien "jit uah jit uah chu" ..hahaha, still it's a little taste of home to perk me up when I'm feeling down.

 

Meatloaf with crunchy cheesy topping

Meatloaf is one of those easy dinner recipes where you just need to scrunch everything into the loaf tin and leave it to bake. This one has a special topping made from crispy pancetta mixed with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. The topping needless to say was yummy but the loaf itself was quite plain. I have another meatloaf recipe that tasted better so next time I'll use the topping from this one on it.

 

Sweet and sour pork ribs

Finally, I managed to find the time to make this dish. Chopping the ribs into bite size and frying them in batter does take some time but once that is done, the sauce just takes moments. While cooking, I had my kitchen door open to dispel the greasy smell you get when deep frying as a result the smell of the finished dish floated out of my kitchen to a group of my neighbours who happen to standing outside chatting and I heard comments about what a lovely smell, just reminds me of my neighbours when I was a child commenting on lovely smells from my grandmother's cooking.

 

Pork ribs in Vietnamese pho

Hmmm, this is sort of a hybrid dish of the Bak Kut Teh and the Vietnamese Beef Pho. I had some leftover pork ribs but no Bak Kut Teh seasoning, I had some Vietnamese pho paste but no beef, so it was a no brainier, mix the two together and fingers crossed that it will taste right. Next, ransacked the larder, found some mushrooms, ransacked the fridge and found some lamb lettuce, in they go into the pot. Turns put, it's not too bad really, I had it with koay teow for lunch and then rice for dinner, works best with rice and some chilli padi, of course!

 

Penang Loh Bak

Loh Bak is pork rolls wrapped in bean curd skin (tao puih). Although found in most food courts, when I think of Loh Bak, what comes to mind is always the long stretch of temporary stalls set up next to the chinese opera theater (which by the way is also temporary). These stalls normally carry the same combination of food, the rice porridge stall, the 'sik koh thng' stall, the mua chi stall and of course the stall that sells Loh Bak (normally served tapas style with fried bean curd, prawn fritters, century egg and a few other things). I have wanted to make these for a long time, a lonely packet of bean curd skin sat in my larder will bear testament to how long! Finally the incentive came via an invitation to a potluck at a fellow Penangite's house. I'm happy to report that everyone thought they tasted yummy and none but 2 morsels out of the 10 rolls I made was leftover.

Pork ribs soup

This is an adaptation of the nourishing chicken soup that my friend taught me to make during my confinement so it does not have a proper name and therefore I shall call it pork ribs soup akin to calling a spade a spade. I used pork ribs in place of chicken and the result is tender meat falling off the bone. Dunked in soya sauce with cili padi (because it is not for confinement) and eaten with plain boiled rice, leaves a warm feeling in the tummy, perfect for a cold winter's day!

O Bak (Soya Sauce Pork)

This is my comfort food, this is a dish cooked by my late grandmother. It is a shame that I never got any recipes from her before she passed away as she was a wonderful cook. It took me a while to perfect the taste of this dish but I think I have it right this time. This is a very simple dish of fried potato slices, pork and onions cooked in dark soya sauce. Serve it with steamed rice and I revert to being a small little girl in pigtails having lunch before afternoon school.

Char Siew Fun (Rice)

I had some left over pork fillet and decided to make some char siew and ended up with char siew rice for dinner! I used the rice recipe for chicken rice as well as the chilli sauce. And finally to round it all up, a simple cabbage soup.

The all important chilli sauce and cabbage soup

Bak Kut Teh

A friend said to me it's the smell that counts and I agree 100% so you really need a smell-o-blog for this one. I used a ready-made soup mix to make this dish as buying the required herbs is too much of a challenge for me! The soup mix (imported from Malaysia, where else?) came in a large tea-bag like bag which only needed to be boiled in water, add the desired ingredients, in my case, pork ribs and tau pok (deep fried tofu). After 1 1/2 hours of simmering, serve with steamed rice with cut bird's eyes chillies (cili padi laa) in light soya sauce....Blisssssssssss.........

p/s if in Penang, check out the stall in Padang Brown!