Sweet and Sour Pork

Have you ever been to any Asian Fusion restaurant? When you look at their menu, some items tend to be overpriced and usually they are also found in Chinese Restaurant for a cheaper cost. Such as a simple pineapple chicken dish worth $18 in a fusion restaurant compared to $7-8 in Asian restaurants. You can get a sweet and sour dish even cheaper if you can make the sauce yourself. My friends loved so much the homemade sweet and sour sauce for the fish fillet dish that I wanted to make the sauce again with another meat. We were impressed how accurate the taste matches the one made in restaurants. This batter step was an experimental step by simply coating the pork with cornstarch after dipping it into eggs. I didn't find any big difference from dipping the meat into a viscous batter, other than extra crispiness.

Serves 4

Preparation Time : 10 mins

Cooking Time : 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

4 pork chops, cut into rectangles

2-3 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup cornstarch

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 small onion, chopped

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/2 cup vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup pineapple juice or water

1/4 cup ketchup

2 tbsp cornstarch

Procedure

1. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Dip pork in egg and let it drip back. Coat with cornstarch.

2. In a skillet, pour enough oil to cover the bottom. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Fry pork until golden brown, about 2 mins per side. Set aside and drain oil.

3. Add onion and green pepper cook until soft in the same skillet. Bring back pork chops to skillet.

4. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, orange juice, pineapple juice and ketchup in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 mins.  Mix cornstarch with a few tbsp of the liquid to make a slurry.

5. Pour slurry to the saucepan and stir until thick.

6. Pour sauce to skillet and stir to coat. Serve with rice.

Pan Fried Marinated Spareribs

I have to admit that the past few weeks, I have been posting quite a few Asian dishes, each with its unique way to prepare and to cook Asian food. Here is another Chinese cooking preparation, marinade meat with soy sauce and rice wine.

Serves 4
Preparation + Marinating Time : 6 hours
Cooking Time : 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 lbs pork spareribs, washed
3 green onions, chopped
4 slices ginger, julienned
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup rice wine
2 tbsp ketchup

Procedure

1. In large bowl, combine all ingredients except for the ketchup. Cover and marinade for 6 hours.

2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Pan fried spareribs until all browned.

3. Add in the marinade sauce and ketchup. Cook until all the sauce is absorbed about 20 mins. Serve.

Wat Dan Har Fan - Rice with Shrimp Egg Sauce

This dish was made 2 weeks ago and I was struggling to find the correct English name for this dish, but I knew the Chinese name for it. It is sometimes hard to find the right terminology. My Taiwanese friend called it "Asian Risotto" and a few food bloggers called it "Jade Rice". I can't figure out why these names should be valid as it doesn't have the texture of a risotto and "jade" might be just a fancy name for such a great dish. Finally, a recent post from Soup Belly made a version of our dish and the name "Egg Sauce" seems to be the most appropriate. My version contains shrimps, tomatoes with wine reduction.

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking Time : 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb shrimp, deveined, mix with a dash of rice wine
1/2 small onion, diced
2 garlic, minced
1 small ginger, fine julienned
1 large tomato, skinned and cubed
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup rice wine or white wine
1 tsp cornstarch

Procedure

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook onion until transparent. Add in garlic and ginger until fragrant.

2. Add tomatoes and wine. Boil and simmer for 15 mins.

3. Add in shrimp and cook for 3-5 mins until it starts turning orange. Season with salt.

4. Make slurry with cornstarch and 1 tbsp water then pour it onto skillet.

5. Turn heat to medium. Once boil, turn off and stir in egg until cooked, about 30 seconds.

6. Pour sauce over rice. Serve.

Cooking Technique : Skinning Tomatoes

For newbies, here is an interesting way to remove the skin of a tomato.

First, start boiling water over medium heat and gently drop the tomato.

In less than a minute, the skin starts to detach. Remove with a slotted spoon and remove skin by hand.

Walnut Pie

My Taiwanese friend bought lots of walnuts last week. We never use walnuts as a dessert in the past. As far as I know, walnuts does not have too much taste to it and a fair amount of sugar is usually added to compensate for its taste. That's my opinion, I might be wrong. However, it does have lots of nutritious value. The walnut pie recipe is adapted from American Food.

Preparation Time : 15 mins

Baking Time : 45 mins

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 pie dough

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups walnut kernels

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. In mixing bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Pour in melted butter and stir until combined. Mix in brown and white sugar, milk, flour, salt, and vanilla. Add in walnuts.

3. Prepare pie dough and roll up onto a 9'' plate. Pour in the filling.

4. Bake for 10 mins then reduce heat to 350F. Bake for another 35 to 40 mins until crust is browned and filling is set.

Ham and Cheese Spirals

Here is an interesting finger food dish when organizing large parties. As most finger foods, it usually requires a few ingredients to make it. It has been a while I haven't use puff pastry as it is an easy ingredient to use especially for appetizers. With puff pastry, I made Crispy Mozzarella Sticks and Cheese Twists in May 2009. Last week, I made a simple cheese and ham combination rolled in puff pastry adapted from Kraft's website.

Makes about 24
Preparation Time : 15 mins
Baking Time : 12-14 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 egg
1 tbsp water
1 Puff Pastry sheet
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp cayenne pepper
170g smoked ham

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Make egg wash by beating egg and water.

3. Roll puff pastry into 14x10 inch on a lightly floured surface, cut half lengthwise. Brush both pastry halves with egg wash.

4. In a small bowl, combine parmesan and cayenne pepper. Sprinkle 3 tbsp of the cheese mix evenly over one pastry piece. Cover with ham slices.

5. Place the remaining pastry sheet over ham, egg-side down. Roll gently with a rolling pin to seal. Brush again with egg wash.

6. Roll up tightly, starting with the long side. Cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices.

7. Place on parchment paper. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 12-14 mins or until golden brown. Serve.

Spicy Lobster

Last week, lobsters were on special and it is not very often you get them at a cheap price. So, my Korean friend made an easy-to-make spicy lobster dish. Adjust the level of spiciness to your liking. The procedure for cooking lobster can be found in the lobster with pasta recipe.

Serves 2-3
Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking Time : about 10 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lobster
2 shallots, cut into thirds
1 red chili pepper, sliced
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced
1 tbsp red pepper paste
1 tbsp honey
salt and pepper
black sesame seeds for garnish

Procedure

1. Cook lobster in a large pot filled with water over high heat. Cook until it changes colour, about 8 mins per pound. Remove meat from lobster shells.

2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Stir fry shallots, red chili pepper, jalapeno pepper until fragrant, about 1 min.

3. Add lobster meat and stir in red pepper paste and honey until coated. Season with salt and pepper. Serve and sprinkle with black sesame seeds.

Cheesy Broccoflower Scrambled Eggs

This is the second brunch, we have organized up to now and sadly, we were only 3 on a Sunday morning. The funniest thing is both my friends, David and Mon decided to make scrambled eggs, but Mon wanted to make so badly her special scrambled eggs. So, at the end, she was the one making the scrambled eggs.

Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 5 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup broccoli
1/2 cup cauliflower
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper

Procedure

1. Cook broccoli and cauliflower in a boiling pot of salted water until soft, about 5 mins.

2. Meanwhile, beat eggs with milk.

3. In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Cook onion until transparent. Add broccoli and cauliflower.

4. Pour egg mix into the skillet and cook for about 1 min. Add mozzarella cheese and cook until melted. Season and serve.

Artichoke Risotto with Pesto

Those of you who tasted risotto know how simple is to make one and any flavour can be put on it. So, I showed my good friend Tony how to make one. In the past, I wrote two risotto recipes : Blue Cheese Risotto with Prosciutto and Cremini Mushroom Risotto. This time, I wanted to try artichokes since it is an ingredient I never used before and it seems it goes well with pesto. Unfortunately, fresh basil is unavailable this season so I went for store-bought pesto.

Serves 6
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 30 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

6-7 cups vegetable stock
1 canned artichokes, quartered
1 large onion, cubed
3 garlic, minced
2 cups Arborio rice
3/4 cup white wine (to taste)
170g pesto
lemon juice to taste (optional)
parmesan (optional)

Procedure

1. Bring broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan.

2. In a large skillet, heat oil and melt butter over medium-high heat. Cook onions until transparent, about 5 mins. Add artichokes and cook until golden brown, about 3-4 mins. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 min.

3. Add rice to skillet. Leave for 3-4 mins until almost translucent.

4. Add white wine and a ladle of broth. Let the rice adsorbed most of the liquid before adding more liquid, stir constantly.

5. Continue in this manner until it gives a creamy consistency but still retains a bite. If stock runs out, add water. For a richer taste, add butter when it becomes creamy.

6. Remove from heat. Stir in pesto and lemon juice. Add parmesan before serving.

Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet

This is another fish dish that my Taiwanese friend made on the same night as the Red Cooked Tilapia. In Chinese cuisine, in order to make a sweet and sour dish, generally the main ingredient is deep fried and then coated with the sweet and sour sauce. In most time, a batter is made for deep frying but he didn't made any fancy batter for the fish, simply an egg-flour dip.

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 fish fillets such as white seabass, cod, halibut, cut into 1'' pieces
2-3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup flour
3 bell peppers (red, green, orange), diced
1 large onion, sliced

Sweet and Sour Sauce
1/2 cup vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup pineapple juice or water
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp cornstarch

Procedure

1. Season fish with salt and pepper. Dip fish in egg and let drip back into bowl. Coat with flour.

2. In a skillet, pour enough oil to cover the bottom. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Fry fish until golden brown about 2 mins per side. Transfer fish on paper towel and keep warm. Remove oil from skillet.

3. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook bell peppers and onions until soft, about 5 mins. Remove from heat.

4. To make the sauce, combine vinegar, sugar, salt, orange juice, pineapple juice and ketchup in the same skillet. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 mins. Mix cornstarch with a few tbsp of the liquid to make a slurry. Pour slurry to the skillet and stir until thick.

5. Bring back fish, bell peppers and onions to skillet and coat well with sweet and sour sauce. Serve with white rice.

Red Cooked Tilapia

The holidays are the best time where you can meet friends and family you haven't seen for months... One of my good friend Tony came to Montreal for the holidays and invited him to join one of the cooking sessions.

The first dish was cooked by my Taiwanese friend Chris known as Hong Shao Yu meaning Red Cooked Fish. This is one of the oldest and familiar method known in Chinese cuisine. This is done by slowly braising the meat in soy sauce. This is the first time that we use a whole fish for the cooking session.

Serves 2-4
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 whole tilapia, scaled and cleaned
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sake
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vinegar
3 green onions, cut into thirds
3 large slices of ginger
2 tofu blocks, sliced
2 tbsp ketchup

Procedure

1. Pour enough oil to cover the bottom of the wok. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Fry fish on both sides, about 1-2 mins each until slightly brown. Remove fish and drain oil.

2. In the same wok, add soy sauce, sake, sugar, vinegar, green onions, ginger, tofu and ketchup. Stir and add 1 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 mins. Bring back fish to wok, cover and simmer for 10 mins.

3. Serve the fish along with a bowl of rice.

Hong Kong Egg Tarts - Dan Tat

Happy New Year! I wish you all the best in fulfilling your new year resolution. May the biggest slice of happiness fill your heart and home. I am looking forward to all the food adventures awaiting in 2010.

Ever wonder about the dessert on the header page of this blog. This is my favorite childhood dessert. Each time we go to a bakery in Chinatown, this is always the first dessert that I choose. Now that I know how to make a pie dough, I have my family version of making egg tarts.

I usually make egg tarts only in very special occasion. My friends can basically taste it once every year. They often bug me to make it, but I always say "when the time comes, I will make it". Now, this is the time of the year where my family and friends come to Montreal and celebrate Christmas and New Year. The first batch was made during the family reunion and I baked about 3 dozen egg tarts. At the end of the day, they were all gone and they all loved it. I wanted to save some for my collective cooking buddies since some of their birthday occurs during the holidays. So today, I made a second batch of egg tarts. Hopefully, they won't be all gone tomorrow.

Makes about 24 egg tarts
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Baking Time : 15-20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Pie dough or puff pastry
1 cup white sugar
1 3/4 cup water
9 large eggs
1 cup canned evaporated milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure

1. Prepare 24 3-inch tart moulds. Shape pie dough by pressing it onto the moulds. Make sure that it goes higher than the edges.

2. Preheat oven to 450F.

3. In a small saucepan, mix water and white sugar over medium-high heat. Stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar water, evaporated milk and vanilla extract until uniform.

5. Fill tart shells to 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown and filling is lightly puffed up.