Simple salmon stir fry recipe

Fish is a vital source of omega-3 fatty acids and it's low in fat as well as high in protein. Hence, I ensure my family have fish at least once a week. Given that I'm not a fish person, salmon is probably the only fish I like as other fish species tend to taste fishy most of the time. Tasmanian Atlantic salmon is the kind of salmon I use to get. It's rich in essential vitamins and minerals as well as omega-3 fatty acids. Besides that, I found that it has the best texture among the salmon species. 

I created this recipe while I was trying to reproduce the seared Atlantic salmon from MissChu. Well, it didn't turn out like MissChu's but I kind of like my version more. It's the simplest salmon stir fry recipe I have cooked. It has the right balance of flavor and the lemon simply brings out the flavor in the salmon! If you're a busy bee and would like a quick healty meal at home, this is the recipe for you. 

Recipe: 

(2 servings)

400g fresh Tasmanian Atlantic salmon (skin off)

1 big onion

1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons oil (I used rice bran oil)

Marinade:

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

1 teaspoon light soy sauce

A pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1. Cut salmon into bite-size dices. 

2. Marinate diced salmon with the marinade for about 30mins. 

3. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add in onion and stir fry until the onion is soft.

4. Add in salmon together with the marinade. Stir fry until the salmon is almost cooked. 

5. Squeeze the juice of the lemon onto the salmon. Gently toss the salmon. 

6. Remove frying pan from the heat once the salmon is cooked. Do not overcook the salmon. 

7. Serve with rice while it's warm. 

Lin Chee Kang (lotus seed dessert) recipe

One thing I like about Chinese desserts is that they're very easy to make. Often, they're full of goodness too. Lin Chee Kang (aka lotus seed dessert) is a good example. 

The best Lin Chee Kang I had in Malaysia was from a dessert stall at Wai Sek Kai, SS2 in Petaling Jaya (PJ). Not sure if this stall still exists as it was almost a decade ago since my last visit. 

I haven't tried any Lin Chee Kang in Melbourne although there are a number of Asian dessert stalls. Hence, I can't say which is the best. Well, given that it's so easy to make, I decided to make it at home instead ;) There's no problem in getting all the required ingredients in Melbourne. They should be easily available from an Asian grocer. Below is my version of Lin Chee Kang. It's so simple and yet delicious. 

Recipe: 

1 big White fungus/snow ear fungus

Red dates*

Dried longan*

Lotus seeds*

Goji berries*

Lily Bulbs*

Rock sugar

2 litres Water

*About a handful each

1. Soak white fungus/snow ear fungus with water until soft. Wash and rinse with water. 

2. Wash and rinse red dates, dried longan, lotus seeds, goji berries and lily bulbs with water. 

3. Bring the 2 litres of water to boil in a pot. 

4. Add in all the ingredients except rock sugar and bring it to boil. 

4. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 1-2 hours.

5. Add in rock sugar according to the sweetness of your liking. Cook until the rock sugar is fully melted.

6. Serve while it's warm. 

Baked Chinese egg cake (ji dan gao) 烤鸡蛋糕 recipe

Chinese egg cake, also known as Ji Dan Gao in Mandarin is a kind of sponge cake with only 4 ingredients (probably this is the only recipe that I could remember). As the flavour comes from the eggs, using good quality free range eggs is quite important.

The following recipe which I got from Bake for Happy kids with minor modification is for baking instead of steaming. I'm not sure if it will yield the same result if it was steamed. Maybe someone can try and let me know :P

Recipe: 

(original recipe asked for a 5-6 inch round cake tin, but I used a 8 inch round cake tin which resulted in a shorter cake)

3 egg yolks

1 egg

50g corn oil

65g self raising cake flour (mix 65g cake flour with 1/2 tsp baking powder if you don't have self raising flour)

3 egg whites

50g icing sugar

1. Beat egg yolks and egg in a mixing bowl with a hand whisk.

2. Add in corn oil and stir to combine.

3. Sift in self raising cake flour and mix well. Leave the egg yolk mixture aside.

4. Beat the egg whites in another mixing bowl.

5. Gradually add in the sugar when the egg whites start to thicken. Beat until firm peak stage.

6. Loosen the egg yolk mixture by slowly stirring the mixture from the bottom of the mixing bowl using a whisk.

7. Add the egg white mixture onto the egg yolk mixture in 3 batches. Mix until they are almost combined on each addition. Lastly, scrape down and fold until everything is evenly combined.

8. Line cake pan with parchment paper. Pour batter onto the cake pan and spread the batter evenly. Lightly bang the cake pan on the table top a few times to release the air bubbles.

9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160c for about 30mins or until the inserted skewer comes out clean.

10. Remove the cake from the tin and let it cool on a wire rack.

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. 

Bak Kwa 肉干 recipe

I have still not gotten over Christmas & New Year and now Chinese New Year is around the corner! How time flies!? Well, it's time to get busy again. I bet a number of you who celebrate Chinese New Year might be busy cleaning, shopping, baking cookies as well as making yummy food such as Bak Kwa. 

Bak Kwa also known as "rou gan" in Chinese is a type of BBQ dried meat. It is easily available from some of the popular chains like Bee Cheng Hiang in Malaysia and Singapore. However, it's not commonly sold in Melbourne as compared to Malaysia. Although a few shops over here do sell Bak Kwa but I somehow never had the desire to try them. 

Well, when food is not easily available, you just create your own! So I made my own Bak Kwa. It's quite easy to make bak kwa at home. There are a lot of recipes on the Internet and I found that most of them are quite similar with slight difference in the portion of the seasoning. Hence, I just picked a recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover and adjusted the seasoning based on my own preference. The only tricky part for me is to evenly spread the minced meat on the baking tray. To me it's hard to make the layer thin, so my bak kwa ended up slightly on the thick side. Having said that, they are still yummy!

Recipe: 

500g Minced pork

100g sugar

1 teaspoon dark caramel sauce

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine

1/2 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1/8 teaspoon five spice powder

Salt to taste

A few dashes of white pepper

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until the mixture is gluey. The gluey texture is important, otherwise the meat won't stick together. Store the meat in the fridge for several hours or overnight. 

2. Spread the marinated minced pork thinly and evenly on the baking tray. Some suggested to use a roller over a layer of cling wrap but I found that it's quite hard to apply the same pressure on the roller when spreading the meat across the baking tray. It ended up thinner on one side and thicker on the other. Besides that, the gluey meat tend to stick to the cling wrap when the cling wrap was being removed which was quite annoying. In the end, I literally used a metal spoon to touch up the surface. 

3. Bake in pre-heated oven at 160C for about 15mins. Remove the meat from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 220c.

4. When the meat on the baking tray is slightly cooled, cut them into your preferred size by using a scissors/knife/pizza cutter. Arrange the pieces back on the baking tray. 

5. Bake at grill mode (top heat only) at 220c for about 7mins or until it's brown.

6. Flip and grill on the other side for 5-7 mins at 220c. The timing and temperature setting vary depending on your oven. The rule of thumb is to bake/grill until the meat is brown (and with burnt bits if that's to your liking).

7. Remove it from the oven, let it cool and serve! (I find that the bak kwa tasted better on the following day after baking.)

Note: Adjust the oven temperature and timing accordingly as each oven is different. You might also be using different oven modes such as conventional, fan-forced or grill. Hence, the timing would be slightly different.   

Chee cheong fun sweet sauce recipe

Ready made chee cheong fun or rice rolls can easily be found at any Asian supermarkets in Melbourne. It's so convenient that one just need to steam or heat up the rolls before serving. Besides that, most of them are quite good with nice texture and the right thickness. Some of them even come with filling inside the rolls. However, these chee cheong fun don't come with any sauce. Hence, it's up to you to create your own sauce. 

There are various types of chee cheong fun and sauces available in Malaysia. Basically, there are the Hong Kong style light soya sauce chee cheong fun, the Penang style shrimp paste chee cheong fun and the general sweet sauce chee cheong fun that one could find in KL. 

I couldn't get the right sauce for my chee cheong fun until someone kindly shared this lovely sweet sauce recipe on a forum. It tastes just like those in KL! Ever since then, I could always enjoy a perfect plate of sweet sauce chee cheong fun at home. 

By the way, I like to top my chee cheong fun with some yong tau foo (stuffed vegetables/tofu) and various fishballs. Don't be surprised that yong tau foo can be found in Melbourne too. I often get the frozen yong tau foo from Hometown Asian supermarket. Sometimes I think that we're spoilt living in Melbourne as Malaysian food and groceries are easily available. 

Recipe:

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons sesame sauce

1 teaspoon thick black caramel sauce

1 teaspoon soya sauce

2/3 tablespoon peanut butter

Sugar - according to your required sweetness

3 tablepoons hot water

1. Mix all the ingredients above in a bowl and stir well.

2. Microwave it for 1.5 minutes. 

3. Remove from the microwave and stir until everything is combined. 

4. Add additional water if needed to your desired thickness.

Creamy butter prawn 奶油虾 recipe

Seafood is becoming a popular choice for a Christmas dish nowadays. It is lighter compared with meat and requires less time to cook. Therefore, Queen Victoria Market is always swamped with people stocking up fresh seafood just before Christmas. I also stocked up some large green banana prawns and fish although I had no idea what I was going to do with them. 

In the end, I decided to use half of the prawns for cooking creamy butter prawns. The recipe is very much the same as my creamy butter chicken recipe with a slight modification in preparing the prawns. The result was excellent. The fresh prawn meat worked perfectly with the creamy butter sauce and I like the prawn version more than the chicken version as it is lighter. 

Recipe:

(3-4 servings)

Fried prawns:

16 prawns

A pinch of salt

1 egg

3/4 teaspoon light soya sauce

A few dashes of pepper

Some corn flour (coating for the prawns)

Oil (sufficient to fry the prawns)

1. Clean and butterfly the prawns.

2. Add a pinch of salt to the prawns and mix well.

3. Beat egg in a bowl. Add in light soya sauce and pepper. Mix well. 

4. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Dip each prawn in the egg mixture and coat with corn flour before adding to the frying pan. 

5. Fry the prawns until they're cooked and the coating turn brown. Do not overcook the prawns. Remove them from the heat and leave them aside.

Creamy butter sauce:

6 cloves garlic

1 small piece of ginger

Handful of curry leaves

5 bird eye chillies

50g butter

1 cup* evaporated milk

1/4 cup* water

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons shaoxing cooking wine

Salt

* 1 cup = 236ml

1. Mince garlic and ginger. Cut the chillies into slices.

2. Melt the butter in the frying pan or wok. Add the minced garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 30 secs.

3. Add curry leaves, follow by chillies and continue to stir fry until you can smell the aroma of the curry leaves.

4. Stir in evaporated milk and water. Add oyster sauce, shaoxing cooking wine and salt to taste.

5. Cook until the sauce is thicken. Turn off the heat and add in the prawns. Toss the prawns so that each pieces is coated with the sauce.

6. Serve while it's hot.

Easy pork patty recipe

Christmas season is a great time for family reunion. I'm glad that my family was able to spend time with me in Melbourne this time. I'm even happier that I could enjoy some of my mum's home cooked meals at home ;) Thus, I took this opportunity to note down some of the easy recipes such as this easy pork patty recipe.

This is a Chinese version of pork patty but I reckon it would go well with fresh salads and buns in addition to rice. Feel free to modify the amount of seasoning according to your taste buds.

Recipe:

(3-4 servings)

500g pork mince

A handful of chopped spring onions

1 egg yolk

Oil ( sufficient to pan-fry the patty)

Marinade:

1 teaspoon corn flour

1 1/3 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon light soya sauce

A few dashes of white pepper

1 tablespoon shaoxing wine

1/2 teaspoon five spice powder

3/4 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Combine pork mince, spring onions, egg yolk and the marinade in a bowl and mix well.

2. Take a small scoop of the pork mixture, roll into a ball and gently flatten it into a round patty. Transform all the pork mixture into patties by repeating this step.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan. Pan fry the pork patties until they're cooked and turn brown.

4. Serve while it's hot.

Suggestion: Serve the pork patties with Kewpie mayonnaise.

Easy green curry recipe

Green curry is my favorite Thai curry among the various Thai curries. Green curry is a popular dish that can be found in any Thai restaurant in Melbourne. However, most of the time the spiciness has been significantly toned down to suit the local taste buds. 

It's easy to make your own green curry at home by using the ready made green curry paste. However, I found that most of the ready made green curry pastes sold in the supermarket weren't great until I was introduced to Marion's Kitchen Thai green curry! It is full of flavour and I reckon it is as good as you could get from an authentic Thai restaurant. 

Marion's Kitchen is a collection of Asian ingredient kits based on the traditional recipes created by Marion Grasby who is a Thai-Australian cook and was one of the favourites in MasterChef Australia, Season 2. These products can be found in major supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworths. 

Marion's Kitchen Thai green curry kit comes with an easy step-by-step guide as well as the ingredients such as the green curry paste, coconut milk, dried herbs/spices, fish sauce and bamboo shoots. Each sachet is numbered and labelled which is very handy. What you need to do is to add in the meat, seafood and vegetables based on your preference. 

Recipe: 

(4 servings)

1 Marion's Kitchen Thai green curry kit

1-2 tablespoons oil

1 cup water

500g Sliced chicken and prawn cutlets (you can use any meat and or seafood)

A handful of green beans (you can use any vegetables that go well with green curry)

1 sliced carrot

1. Heat oil over medium heat and stir fry the green curry paste for about a minute or until you can smell the aroma.

2. Pour in the coconut milk and water.

3. Add in dried herbs and chillies, follow by fish sauce. Cook until the curry starts to simmer. 

4. Add chicken and cook until tender.*

5. Drain the liquid from the bamboo shoots. Add in bamboo shoots, prawn cutlets, green beans and carrot. Simmer for about 5 minutes and until the prawns and the vegetables are cooked. 

6. Serve while it's hot. 

* It depends on what texture you like for the meat you use. Feel free to modify the timing as you like. You can add the meat together with the bamboo shoots and vegetables as per the instruction on the box. To me, I prefer my chicken to be tender soft and the prawns to be just cooked :)

Steamed silken tofu with dried shrimps recipe

Tofu aka bean curd is a common ingredient in Asian cuisine. There are many types of tofu but I particularly like silken tofu mainly because of its texture which is soft and smooth. Besides that, it is light in flavour too if you're not into soy milk.

Tofu can easily be turned into a quick dish. It just needs to be steamed and topped with some meat and sauce. In this simple recipe, dried shrimps are used as the toppings.

Recipe:

1 block silken tofu

4 cloves garlic

2 shallots

A handful of dried shrimps - soak dried shrimps in water for 10 mins, rinse twice and finely chop.

A bunch of chopped spring onions and corianders

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 tablespoon light soya sauce*

1 tablespoon oyster sauce*

Drizzles of sesame oil

*adjust the soya sauce and oyster sauce accordingly as dried shrimps are naturally salty.

1. Steam silken tofu in a steamer until cooked.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan. Stir fry garlic and shallots, follow by dried shrimps until they are lightly brown.

3. Add in spring onions and corianders, light soya sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Mix well.

4. Pour dried shrimps and sauce onto the steamed silken tofu and serve while it's hot.

Homemade char siew or BBQ pork recipe

Char siew aka BBQ pork can easily be found at any chicken rice and wonton noodles stalls in Malaysia. There are even some restaurants specialising in making char siew as their signature dish. However, over in Melbourne, I can hardly find char siew from the Malaysian restaurants. Here, char siew appears to be more commonly found in Hong Kong and Chinese restaurants.

Anyway, I decided to make my own char siew by asking the recipe from my mother in law. Apparently my hubby's late grandma made the best char siew. I was a little bit disappointed to find that the recipe doesn't come with the exact portion of each ingredient except that the rose wine (Mui Kuai Lou) is a must. Looks like the secret recipe didn't pass down precisely to the next generation. Oh well, that means I have to follow my instincts and taste buds, again! Because of that, I actually modified the recipe by adding honey as my instinct was calling for honey. Haha, just like Pooh bear!

By the way, rose wine can be found in a well stocked Asian supermarket in Melbourne. I bought mine from Hometown Asian supermarket on Elizabeth St.

Well, the result turned out quite nice although I'm sure it can't beat grandma's! If you like to follow the recipe below, feel free to modify the portion of each ingredients according to your liking, you could even omit the honey. If you ever find the secret combination, don't forget to share with me ;)

Recipe:

500g pork rasher/pork belly strips without the skin
1 tablespoon oil
Oil to brush the pork

Marinade:

1 1/2 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon dark caramel sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 2/3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon rose wine (Mui Kuai Lou)*

* Mandatory ingredient

1. Marinate pork rasher/pork belly with the marinade in a zip lock bag. Store in the fridge overnight.

2. Scrape off the marinade from the pork rasher strips and keep it for later use. Brush each pork rasher strip with oil.

3. Line the pork rasher strips on an elevated rack on a tray.

4. Grill in a pre heated oven at 200c for 8-10mins. Flip to the other side and grill for another 3-5mins. Note that the cooking time depends on how thick the meat is, so you need to adjust accordingly. Over grill would result in dry and hard meat.

5. Cut the char siew or BBQ pork into slices when it's cooled.

6. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add in the marinade and simmer until the sauce is thickened.

7. Pour the sauce over the char siew or BBQ pork and serve.

Suggestions: char siew goes well with rice or you could use it for wonton noodles/egg noodles. It would be just as nice if you have it with a bowl of green salad!