Sweet and Sour Pork

The past few weeks have been spent busy perfecting some Christmas recipes for cakes and cookies and other preparations for our Christmas parties. I had hardly any time left to spend experimenting new dishes for dinner.

My father loves sweet and sour pork and sometime ago, I had promised to cook that for him. So I guess, this long weekend was as good a time as any to make good on that promise.

I had noticed that NTUC Fairprice sells cubed pork sold in trays and neatly labeled as sweet and sour pork. And so for convenience, I decided to get this and since it was already all cut to size, I only had to trim off some fatty bits. (NTUC Fairprice has, in recent years, proven themselves to be widely-stocked with a wide-range of fresh produce. With a large branch located nearby, it has been a pretty useful place to run to for any item left out from the family’s weekly market trip.)

The pork cubes were prepared and left to marinate for 5 hours. Each bite yielded tender meat and most importantly, no ‘porky’ smell. We found the dish a little too sweet for our liking and so I have reflected a reduced amount of sugar in the reproduced recipe below. Other than that, the family gave it a thumbs up and every single morsel was polished off.

This recipe is a keeper!



Sweet and Sour Pork


Ingredients

500 gm lean pork (shoulder part), cut into cube-sized
1 green bell pepper, cut into small pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into small pieces
3 wedges of honey pineapple, cut into small pieces
1 medium onion, cut into small pieces
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Some cornflour

Marinate:
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1½ tsp of Hua Diao Jiu (花雕酒)
1 large egg

Sauce:
12 tbsp of tomato sauce
3 tbsp of sugar (reduced amount)
8 tbsp water
2 tsp of white vinegar
Pinch of salt


Method

1. Season pork cubes with light soy sauce and Hua Diao Jiu. Add in egg and combine well. Keep in the refrigerator and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour.

2. Add all sauce ingredients in a separate bowl. Stir to mix well and set aside.

3. When ready to cook, coat marinated pork cubes with cornflour. Make sure all sides of pork cubes are well covered with thick flour.

4. Heat wok with oil over high heat or use deep-fryer. Deep-fry pork for 5 min, or until crisp and golden brown. Remove from wok and drain on kitchen towel.

5. Clean wok. Heat wok with 1 teaspoon of oil, stir-fry chopped garlic till fragrant. Add bell peppers and pineapples, stir-fry for 3 min.

6. Return fried pork cubes to the wok and pour in sauce mixture. Stir-fry to combine well. Fry all ingredients briefly over high heat for 1 min and dish onto serving plate.


Reference : My Wok Life

Book Review : Fame

Most people tend to view Christian literature as well…boring, dry and functions best as a sleep-inducing tool. Reading has always a favourite hobby of mine, as far back as I can remember, and I enjoy books of various genres. The one thing that I had always wondered is why there is an absence of books written for a widely secular audience but yet loaded with Christian values and presented in a manner that paints Christianity in a positive and appealing light. It would be a perfect way of sharing Christ and His values in a most non-threatening manner.

Over the years, I had concluded that it is probably a case of sensibility – dollars and cents just do not marry seemingly lofty heavenly morals. It would be hard to create a riveting storyline with God lurking between the lines, most people would have turned away. Thus, most Christian authors of secular fiction books will just mention God in their foreword or acknowledgment page.

Imagine my delight when I found Karen Kingsbury’s series of books. If you have not read any of her books, you would have missed out on powerful stories beautifully crafted to illustrate God’s blessings and ways in the lives of ordinary families and people. It is totally refreshing to see how ordinary people struggle with and live out kingdom values. Her stories touch on themes of love, loss, death, forgiveness, fame, acceptance, loyalty, trust, etc. Kingsbury effectively portrays Christianity not as a religion but for what it is – real relationship with God.

God comes through so strongly through her books that as I followed the story, I found myself tearing at times and stopping now and then to pray for myself or my family. You know it is a good Christian book when you feel motivated to do something for God. But you know it is a fantastic Christian book when you are compelled to immediately stop reading to respond to the message God is bringing you through the book. And only after you have responded then you are able to pick the book up to continue reading.

God bless Kingsbury for being a literary agent of God’s message to the world. She is also involved in various ministries ministering to different groups!

Verdict : 10/10. I love all her books!

Curry Puff

One lazy afternoon, Hubby made a request for some homemade curry puffs and that started the hunt for a recipe easy enough for me to follow.

We preferred our curry puffs with a thin crust and so I used dough rolled out to about a 0.3cm thickness. Instead of the measly filling most commercially-available curry puffs offer, I determined that each bite of my curry puff be bursting with flavourful potatoes and pieces of chicken and thus, a generous dollop of filling went into each curry puff.

Everyone agreed that the pastry was fantastic but the filling was not salty enough and that was when I realized I had forgotten to add the salt! Nevertheless, my dear supportive family and neighbours finished off all 23 curry puffs that night.

And you know what, my neighbour liked them so much that she requested me to teach her how to make them! K, that affirmation of yours made my day :)



Curry Puff


Ingredients

Filling:
1 big onion, chopped into small pieces
3 big potatoes, cut into cubes
350-400 gm chicken fillet, cut into cubes
10 tbsp of curry powder
4 hard boiled eggs, cut into eighths
some salt to taste

Pastry:
500 gm of plain flour
¾ cup of plain water
¾ cup of oil or 170 gm salted butter, melted
some salt to taste


Method

1. Boil cubed potatoes until cooked and soft. Remove from water and set aside.

2. Add flour, water and oil and knead together for 5-10 min. Let dough sit for 30 min.

3. Stir fry onions in some oil till soft.

4. Add chicken pieces and fry. Then add potatoes and fry.

5. Add curry powder and salt to above ingredients. Continue to fry till fragrant.

6. Add water until it almost covers the ingredients and fry till almost dry.

7. Roll dough to a thickness of about 0.5cm and place it over a curry puff mould. Put the fillings in the middle and clamp the mould shut to seal the edges. Remove excess dough from the edge of the mould. If you do not have a curry puff mould, you may cut the dough into circles and crimp the sides with your fingers.

8. Heat oil in wok and deep fry till golden brown.

9. Cool and serve.

Reference : Moms4Moms Forum

Nonya Kaya

One day, out of the blue, my mother and I talked about how people make kaya. It seemed simple enough with only a few types of ingredients needed. I felt it would be an exciting and useful new recipe to try since our families enjoy kaya as a breakfast spread.

The amount of sugar that I have used is reduced as we prefer it to be less sweet but if you prefer yours a little sweeter, do add another ¼ - ½ cup more sugar.

You may also use more pandan leaves if you like kaya of a deeper green colour, I used 12 more pieces to arrive at the colour in my picture. Alternatively, you can also pound or blend a portion of the pandan leaves and strain it for pandan juice which can then be added to the mixture before cooking.

One important point to note is that if you are going to cook it over the stove, ensure that the pot is not warm nor hot when you place the ingredients in it to mix. If the pot is hot, the eggs would cook immediately and you will end up with pandan-and-coconut-milk-flavoured scrambled eggs.

This is the first time I am using this recipe and one thing I learnt was to add a little more sugar water while blending so that the kaya remains moist enough for easy spreading even after storing in the refrigerator. I removed most of the water and I found it fragrant though a little thick.

Hubby loves it so I will definitely be making it again and maybe…just maybe, my family will bid goodbye to store-bought ones.



Nonya Kaya


Ingredients

1 cup coconut milk
1 cup eggs
1 cup sugar
10-15 pieces of pandan leaves, washed and wiped dry

(This recipe makes roughly about 1½ cups of kaya)


Method

1. Wash, dry and tie up bundles of about 5 pandan leaves in each bundle.

2. Measure out eggs, then beat lightly till egg yolk and whites are mixed.

3. Put all ingredients into pot. Turn heat on at small and cook for about 1 hour, stirring continuously. The kaya mixture may look like a lumpy or curd-like substance.

4. Turn off heat and let mixture cool for a while. Remove all pandan leaves then put into a blender. There may be quite a bit of water (this is just sugar water) and if so, drain out some of this water. Blend lightly till smooth. Add more sugar water if kaya is too thick while blending.

5. Pour into jars and let cool before storing in refrigerator.

Reference : If she can do it, so can you

Lemon Cheesecake

It has been a long while since I last made a cheesecake and to coincide with Hubby’s home-coming from a business trip, I tried out this recipe. I had previously made a non-bake version so this time, I wanted to try one that requires some baking time in the oven.

That first time, I made the cheesecake by hand-mixing as I had not gotten an electric mixer at that time. Perhaps I did not mix it sufficiently then as the cheesecake turned out slightly heavy. This time, the mixing process was a breeze with my electric mixer. Oh, the joys of modern appliances! However, lest I got too trigger-happy, I was warned not to over-mix for cheesecakes.

Too much air added to the mixture can lead to deep cracks in the top of the finished cake as the air bubbles expand during baking. Another reason for cracks, I learned, is a sudden and rapid change in temperature if the cake is baked at too high a heat or when the cake is cooled too quickly.

Even with this bit of information in mind, I think I must have over-mixed. Towards the end of the baking period, a small crack started to develop across one section of the cake top and when the cake was done, a deep crack was deeply etched on the cake’s surface. Thankfully though, with the help of some artfully-positioned fruits, it still looked presentable enough for tonight’s dessert.

Oh by the way, the recipe is good, the cheesecake was yummilicious :)



Lemon Cheesecake

Ingredients

200 gm digestive biscuits
100 gm butter
4 eggs
175 gm castor sugar
500 gm cream cheese
200gm sour cream
Rind of one lemon, finely grated
Juice of ½ lemon


Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 160oC.

2. Line base of a 20-cm diameter baking pan with baking paper.

3. Melt butter in a medium-sized pot.

4. Place biscuits in a bag and crush with a rolling pin.

5. Add crushed biscuits to melted butter and mix well. Press the mixture onto base of baking pan. Put the crust in the fridge as the filling is prepared.

6. Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is creamy.

7. In a separate bowl, mix together cream cheese and sour cream with a wooden spoon until there are no lumps. Do not over-mix. Stir in the lemon juice and grated lemon rind. Combine with the cheese and egg mixture.

8. Remove crust from the fridge and pour in the combined mixture.

9. Bake in oven for 40-45 min.

10. Turn off heat and allow to cool in oven with door ajar. Refrigerate for at least a few hours before serving.

11. Either leave it plain or decorate the top with fruits.


Blueberry Topping

Ingredients

2 tbs sugar
¼ cup cold water
2 tsp cornflour
1 tbs lemon juice
200 gm blueberries


Method

1. Put sugar, water, cornflour and lemon juice in a small pot.

2. Heat, stir until thickened.

3. Add half the blueberries and continue to cook until soft. Allow to cool.

4. Arrange the remaining blueberries on top of the cake and spread the topping over. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Reference : The Sunday Times, Lifestyle Section

Toot toot time

Many mothers confess that after the huge investment of time and effort on their firstborn, the same cannot be said of the attention given to their subsequent offspring. I admit that I am guilty of it too.

On the other hand, because of the experience gained in teaching Big Buddy, I have also discovered that I am more effective in guiding my younger one and bolder in leading him to explore areas and concepts that are traditionally reserved for older children. Do not get me wrong, this is not a case of kiasu-ism at work. I do not push my kids unnecessarily and certainly never beyond their interest and capability.

After recognizing both upper and lower case letters of the alphabet and numbers 1-10, Little Buddy breezed through writing them and has mastered writing them from memory. Over a span of 7 months, since I started Little Buddy on written work, he is now able to write his English name, read some English and Chinese words, draw expressively and converse intelligently with a wide vocabulary. He handles writing and drawing instruments well with a firm and confident grip and turns book pages without creasing them.

On life skills, he has been able to use the toilet, remove and wear his trousers and briefs and flush the toilet without help. He can self-feed if he so desires and is able to communicate his needs and wants more than adequately to people around him. He displays a self-confidence way past his 3 years, pooh-poohs babyish games and often prefers older play mates who play more interesting and rowdy games.

He has a strong character with definite likes and dislikes which he does not hesitate to let known. He is strong-willed with firm opinions that are difficult to sway.

Much of Little Buddy’s development has been self-driven as he constantly shows interest in what his brother does, often emulating him in speech and actions too. His progress too has been helped by an exceptional memory, he remembers very well things that were said, taught or done just once.

As I grow along with Little Buddy, I have been pleasantly surprised and secretly proud of his achievements. While he is strong in character and not easy to teach and guide, I rejoice at his well-rounded mental, physical and character development.

Floating Lotus

Over the past two months, I had been in the kitchen occasionally, baking brownies as gifts for friends and cooking some simple dishes. However, it has been quite a long while since I last whipped up something new and my fingers are starting to itch again.

The thought of making something Thai is tempting but nothing too exotic as I am but an amateur in the kitchen still. This recipe seems simple enough and the ingredients called for are easily available.

It tastes a little like Bubur Cha Cha and it brought back nostalgic memories of the time I made that sweet dessert in Home Economics class during my secondary school days. In those days, my class usually treated these lessons with little seriousness, indulging instead in much chatter and laughter as skills like cooking and sewing were the least on our young minds then.

Little did I know then, that I would one day willingly step into the kitchen to cook for my family with such positive anticipation and joy…



Floating Lotus


Ingredients

½ cup thai pumpkin
½ cup taro (yam)
1 cup sticky rice flour
½ cup coconut milk (use only the cream if using fresh)
¾ tsp salt
2 cups pandan-infused water
1/3 cup white sugar


Method

1. Steam the pumpkin and taro until soft, between 10-15 min.

2. Mash the pumpkin, then mix equal parts pumpkin and sticky rice flour together until a uniform paste. Do the same to the taro (separately).

3. Roll into small ¼ ″ – ½ ″ balls and set aside.

4. Boil the balls in hot water until they float. Remove with a slotted spoon and put into a bath of room temperature water.

5. Boil the coconut milk with the water, sugar and salt. Add the balls and serve.

Reference : Real Thai Recipes