Airfry roasted pork belly (siu yuk) 烧肉 recipe

Roasted pork belly in Chinese style (aka siu yuk) is one of the food I’d love to make with my new Philips Airfryer. In fact, it was probably one of the reasons I bought an airfryer. Roasted pork belly is my all time favourite. Who doesn’t like the crackling skin? However, making them in an oven is quite messy which requires a lot of cleaning later on. I was hoping there would be less cleaning with an airfryer and taste as good if not better. 

The airfryer worked really well. The crackling pork belly was not only crispy on the skin but surprisingly juicy on the meat. So that’s a tick. However, I got to admit that it left a lot of oil and food residue in my airfryer after cooking. Besides that, due to the high fat content in the pork belly, the airfryer released a lot of smoke too when airfrying. Luckily, my airfryer was placed near the cooking hood. The ventilation fan was turned on all the time during the cooking. Otherwise, my house would smell like a BBQ pit. Overall, I think it’s still easier to clean an airfryer than an oven. Hence, I’d use it to make my yummy siu yuk again! 

Recipe:

1kg Pork belly

Vinegar (to brush on the skin) 

Coarse sea salt (enough to fully cover the skin)

Aluminium foil

Marinade: 

1 tablespoon shao xing cooking wine

1/4 teaspoon White pepper

1/2 tablespoon five spice powder

1 teaspoon salt

Note: The amount of marinade is estimated only. Adjust accordingly. 

1. Wash the pork belly with water and pat dry it with towel papers. 

2. Rub the shao xing cooking wine evenly on the meat of the pork belly only (strictly NOT on the skin). 

3. Repeat step #2 with white pepper, five spice powder and lastly salt. 

4. Place the pork belly skin side up on a plate and store it in the fridge overnight without any cover. This is a process to dry up the skin to achieve the cracking skin later on. 

5. Remove the pork belly from the fridge. Prick all over the surface of the pork belly skin with a sharp object (skewer/knife). Try to make as many small holes as possible but avoid pricking too deep into the meat. 

6. Lay the pork belly skin side up on a large sheet of aluminium foil (sufficient to wrap the pork belly). Wrap the pork belly tightly with the aluminium foil around the sides with only the skin exposed. The sides of the aluminium foil should be slightly higher than the pork belly so that it can hold the coarse sea salt in the next step. 

7. Lightly brush the skin with vinegar. Cover the pork belly fully with coarse sea salt until you can't see the skin. 

8. Place it in the basket of the airfryer. Airfry for about 25-30mins in a pre-heated airfryer at 180c.

9. Remove the pork belly from the airfryer. Gently remove the aluminium foil and scrap off the layer of coarse sea salt. 

10. Increase the airfryer temperature to 200c. Return the pork belly into the airfryer. Airfry at 200c for another 10-15mins or until the skin is crackling. 

11. Cut the pork belly and serve. 

Note: Adjust the cooking time accordingly as the size and thickness of the pork belly is different. 

Refer to the following video for the steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr6xswgiIyA

Rice dumpling (Zong zi / Bak zhang) 粽子 recipe

I did it! Haha. Yes, I successfully made rice dumplings or zong zi for the first time. Yay! 

Well, I really really love eating rice dumplings especially those made by my mum. Whenever I visit Malaysia, my mum would prepare these yummy rice dumplings for me regardless the time of the year. So I eat it for breakfast and tea break everyday until the stock is finished. As the dragon boat festival (that's when Chinese people eat rice dumplings or zong zi) is around the corner, I decided to make my own rice dumplings by following my mum's recipe simply because I can't find any nice rice dumplings around Melbourne! Yup, they actually sell them here (that's how multicultural Melbourne is) around this time but they aren't nice at all. Not to mention, they're expensive considering that there aren't much ingredients in the dumplings sold here!

There's no problem in getting all the ingredients I need to make the rice dumplings in Melbourne. In fact, you can get everything in an Asian grocer like Hometown Asian supermarket. However, the locally made fresh salted egg is really expensive and the quality is not as good as those you get in Malaysia. Somehow, the salted egg yolks from the fresh salted eggs aren't as solid and are a bit runny. Besides that, I'm not into cooked-salted-eggs from China. Luckily, there's this locally made frozen salted egg yolks (yup, egg yolks only. They removed the egg white and packed all the egg yolks in a box) available in the frozen department of Hometown Asian supermarket. It's not cheap (10 frozen egg yolks for AUD15), but at least it guarantees that I get these solid salted egg yolks for making my dumplings. So if you have time, do make your own salted eggs at home!

We're lucky to have fresh chestnut from the local produce. So I used fresh chestnuts instead of dried chestnuts. It's also worthwhile to mention that the bamboo leaves usually come with strings. However, the string snapped every time I tied the dumplings. Thank goodness I've a roll of cooking rope in my pantry for tying the dumplings. Hence, make sure you have some ropes around for backup if you decide to use the bamboo strings. Other than that, I must admit that it's a bit hard to wrap the dumplings at the beginning especially if the dumpling is big. However, after a few wraps, you'll get the hang of it when you gain more confidence. 

Overall, making rice dumplings is very time consuming. From my perspective, the time spent for preparation and wrapping the dumplings isn't too extensive. However, boiling the dumplings on the stove for 2-3 hours is really a long process. I came across some discussions in a forum where people shared their experience in using a pressure cooker for cooking rice dumplings. Apparently, the cooking time was reduced to only 15mins!! Well, I haven't tried that as I don't have a pressure cooker at the moment. I reckon it's worth trying if you have one. 

Recipe: 

(make about 26 rice dumplings)

500g pork belly (without skin)

8 dried mushrooms (I used big dried mushrooms)

1kg glutinous rice

120g dried shrimps 

1 garlic (about 10 cloves)

20 shallots (can be more to give more flavor)

26 chestnuts

13 salted egg yolks 

60 bamboo leaves (2 leaves for each dumpling and extra for backup)

Bamboo strings/cooking rope (enough to tie all the dumplings)

3 tablespoons oil

Seasoning for glutinous rice:

1 tablespoon salt

Marinade for pork belly:

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons five spice powder

1 tablespoon dark (caramel) soya sauce

3 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 teaspoon Shao xing cooking wine

1 tablespoon light soya sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Preparing the ingredients:

1. Cut pork belly into 2-3cm pieces, marinade and keep it overnight in the fridge. 

2. Soak bamboo leaves and strings in water overnight. Make sure that the water covers all the leaves. Clean each leave on the next day using a clean sponge and water. Drain the water and set the leaves aside. 

3. Soak dried mushrooms overnight and cut into thick slices. 

4. Soak glutinous rice for about 3 hours. Rinse and mix in salt. 

5. Cook fresh chestnuts in boiling water for 8mins and remove the shells. 

6. Soak dried shrimps for 15mins, rinse and pat dry with towel paper. 

7. Chop garlic and shallots. 

8. Cut salted egg yolks into half.

9. Heat oil in a frying pan, fry garlic and shallots until fragrant. 

10. Add in pork belly and the marinade. Briefly stir fry until the pork is half cooked. 

11. Remove the pork from the frying pan. 

12. Pour the remaining stir-fried garlic and shallots as well as the sauce onto the glutinous rice. Mix well. 

13. In the same frying pan, fry the dried shrimps until they're lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from the frying pan and set aside. 

14. Repeat step #13 with the mushrooms. 

Wrapping the rice dumplings: 

1. Stack 2 bamboo leaves with the smooth side facing up and form a cone shape. 

2. Add 1 tablespoon of glutinous rice, followed by 1 piece of pork belly, a slice of mushroom, a chestnut, 1 teaspoon of dried shrimps and 1 halved egg yolk. Cover it with another tablespoon of glutinous rice or more so that the cone is almost filled. 

3. Now, fold down the leaf to cover the brim of the cone and hold it into a triangular shape. You'd need to hold it tight. 

4. Fold the remaining leaves around the pouch by following the triangular shape. 

5. Tie the dumpling tightly with a string. It's important that the dumplings are nicely packed and tied to avoid any leakage when cooking them later.

6. Repeat step #1 to #5 until all the ingredients are used up. 

Cooking the rice dumplings:

1. Fill a large pot with 1/2 - 2/3 of water and add in some salt. Bring the water to boil. 

2. Gently place the rice dumplings into the boiling water. Make sure all the dumplings are submerged in the water. (Use more than a pot or cook the dumplings in batches if your pot is not big enough to cook all the dumplings.)

3. Boil the rice dumplings with the lid covered for about 2-3 hours. As water evaporates while boiling, add some boiling water into the pot whenever the water level goes down.

4. Remove a rice dumpling from the pot after 2.5 hours to check if it's been cooked to the right texture. 

5. Remove all the rice dumplings from the pot once they're cooked and place them in a colander/big strainer if not hanging them somewhere to drain the water. 

6. Serve when it's slightly cooled. I find that rice dumplings taste better after it's cooled. Somehow, it tastes even better on the next day onwards. 

Airfry grilled chicken thighs recipe

Airfryer is my great kitchen buddy nowadays. And it works really well on meat! I've been making some quick and easy grilled chicken for dinner when I'm busy. What you really need is to prepare the meat and leave the rest of the job with the Airfryer. How easy?!

Well, so I thought I'd share this easy and yummy grilled chicken thighs recipe. The chicken thighs were cooked in just 12 mins at 180c in my Philips Airfryer. My oven would probably take about 18-20mins to get the same browning effect. 

Other than the shorter cooking time, the meat was cooked to perfection too. The chicken thighs were nicely brown and the meat was tender as well as juicy!

Recipe: 

2 skinless chicken thighs 

1-2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

3 sprigs of fresh parsley

A generous sprinkle of garlic powder (all over the chicken thighs)

sprinkle of chilli flakes (adjust according to your liking)

1/2 lemon 

salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse the chicken thighs with water and pat dry them with towel paper. 

2. Remove the rosemary leaves from the sprigs and discard the sprigs. 

3. Chop or mince the fresh parsley. 

4. Marinate the chicken thighs with parsley, rosemary leaves, garlic powder, chilli flakes, lemon juice, salt and pepper for at least an hour or longer for better flavour. I marinated the chicken overnight in the fridge. 

5. Grill for about 12 mins or until brown in a pre-heated airfryer at 180c. Adjust the timing accordingly as the size or thickness of the chicken thighs used are different.

6. Serve while it's warm.    

Airfried sweet potato recipe

I finally bought a Philips Airfryer XL! Looks like I'll need a bigger kitchen if I'm to get any more new appliances from now on as this new gadget is taking up a lot of space.

What's the first food you cooked with your airfryer? Mine was sweet potato fries! Strange choice? Well, I fell in love with sweet potato fries ever since I ordered it from Roll'd - a Vietnamese food chain in my office building. I would usually order a side sweet potato fries to accompany my lunch meal. Therefore, I want to create a healthier version of sweet potato fries that I could eat it everyday! :)

The verdict? I must say that the airfryer is a fantastic invention. The freshly cut sweet potato was turned into crunchy fries in just 12 mins with little to no oil! Of course, the healthier airfried version differs from the normal deep fried version but it's close. It's crispy on the skin but without the oil taste that you get from deep-frying in oil. I think it is a very good alternative to enjoy a healthier version of "fried" food. 

Besides that, I love the cleaning part too. You just need to wash the basket and the pan. Both parts are dish washer safe. So far, the interior of the appliance had no food residues after my cooking. Hence, I merely wiped it using a damped cloth.

Recipe:

1 big sweet potato 

1/2 tablespoon oil (I used rice bran oil)

1. Cut sweet potato into strips. 

2. Put the sweet potato strips in a ziplock bag. Add in oil, ziplock it and shake so that each strip is coated with oil.

3. Place the sweet potato fries onto the basket of the airfryer. Airfry for about 12 mins in a pre-heated airfryer at 180c.