Steamed Tofu With Braised Minced Meat Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:

1 box of Tofu (cut into squares and steamed for 3 minutes. Drain the liquid)

150g minced pork

8 dried mushrooms (cubed)

2 cloves garlic (minced finely)

2 tbsp thick dark soy sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp cooking oil

500ml or more water

Methods:

1. Heat the cooking oil in a non stick wok. Saute the garlic.

2. Add the minced pork into the wok. Cook for a minute. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook for a minute.

3. Drizzle the soy sauces and cook for a minute. Pour in the water and let it cook.

4. Turn the heat down and braise for Aries least an hour. The sauce should be greatly reduced.

5. Arrange the Tofu pieces on the plate. Ladle the minced meat sauce onto the Tofu.

May add some starch water to thicken the sauce. 

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Braised Pork With Dried Mushrooms and Carrots

Ingredients:

500g pork (五花肉) - cut into strips
20 small or medium size dried mushrooms (soak with water until soften)
2 carrots (peeled and chopped into big pieces)
4 cloves of garlic (whole)
3 tbsp thick dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp rock sugar
1 tbsp cooking wine
1 tbsp cooking oil
500ml or more water
Sea salt


Methods:

1. Heat the cooking oil in a non stick wok.

2. Sauté the garlic until lightly browned.

3. Add the pork and stir fry.

4. Add the thick dark soy sauce and continue to stir fry for few minutes.

5. Add the cooking wine and oyster sauce and stir fry.

6. Add the water and carrots. Cook for 10 minutes.

7. Turn the heat down and simmer for an hour.

8. Add the rock sugar. By now, the sauce should have reduced by half. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt and stir well.

May cook with clay pot for better results.

Braised Mushroom With Fatt Choy

Soaking the mushrooms.

I was walking around when I saw packets of dried mushrooms outside the Chinese herbs shop. Immediately this dish popped out. There are some small dried mushrooms lying at home. Well, they are for the minced meat. I would prefer big and plump dried mushrooms for braising.

For most of the cantonese families, it is common to have braised mushrooms at home.

Ingredients:

20 dried mushrooms (soaked with hot water)
Fatt choy (soak with water for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside)
2 cloves garlic (lightly crushed)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp cooking oil
Pinch of salt

Methods:

1. Wash the dried mushrooms and soak in hot water for at least 30 minutes. Remove the stems and squeeze the water out of the mushrooms. Keep the water for soaking mushrooms.

2. Heat the oil and sauté the garlic.

3. Add the mushrooms and sauté.

4. Add the water (from soaking mushrooms) just enough to cover the mushrooms.

5. Add the oyster sauce and stir well. Cook for 5 minutes.

6. Turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes. Add more water if getting too dry.

7. Add the fatt choy and simmer for another 10 minutes. By now the sauce would have thicken so there is no need to thicken with corn flour.

8. Add a pinch of salt if the sauce is bland. Turn off the heat. Place the braised mushrooms on top of the stir fried spinach.

Stir fried Chinese spinach:
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 bag of Chinese Spinach
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp cooking oil

1. Heat the oil in the wok and toss in the garlic. Sauté.

2. Add the spinach and stir fry quickly.

3. Sprinkle salt and stir well. Turn off the heat and place the spinach on the plate.

Braised Pork Belly (Tau Yew Bak)

Always use good quality of thick dark soya sauce so that it can bring out the flavorful of braised meat. I like to braise meat using claypot and let the meat simmer with low heat until it become tender. Well, this is a sinful yet comfort food for my family. Especially my son, he loves 卤肉 and 卤猪脚... By the way, I think 五花肉 is tender and less fatty than 三辰肉.

In this recipe, I used 三辰肉 because couldn't find 五花肉 in the supermarket.

Ingredients:

500g pork belly 五花肉 or 三辰肉 (no need to slice)
4 cloves garlic (slightly bruised)
4 hard boil eggs
1 firm tofu

4 tbsp of thick dark soya sauce
1 tsp of oyster sauce
1 bowl Water
2 tbsp cooking oil
Salt

Methods:

1. Heat the oil using a non stick pan.

2. Sauté 1 clove of garlic till fragrance and remove the garlic. Leave the oil on the pan.

3. Pan fry the pork belly. Add 1 tbsp of thick dark sauce on top of the meat. Cook for a minute.

4. Flip to another side and drizzle 1 tbsp of thick dark sauce. Pan fry the meat till slight browned (about 3 minutes). Remove the meat and set aside to cool.

5. Once the meat has cooled down, slice the meat into bite sizes.

6. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a clay pot. Sauté the remaining garlic.

7. Add the pork belly and stir fry.

8. Drizzle the remaining thick dark sauce and stir fry.

9. Add the water and oyster sauce. Let it simmer for 30 minutes. You can add more water as desired.

10. Add the tofu to simmer for 10 minutes. Flip to another side and simmer for another 10 minutes.

11. Add the eggs and continue to simmer. Turn the eggs after 10 minutes to ensure the eggs are evenly browned.

12. Before turning off the fire, add a pinch of salt (if the sauce is not salty).

Braised Chicken Wings With Bitter Gourd

Either you love or hate bitter gourd! I used to hate bitter gourd when I was young. Only the recent years, I start to enjoy and actually love this bitter melon, especially cook with Tau Cheo or salted fermented black beans. I used claypot to braise and the whole dish was so flavorsome. I only use half of the bitter gourd for this dish and the other half, I made bitter gourd omelet.

Ingredients:

8 mid joint wings
1/2 bitter gourd (cut into chunks)
1 clove of garlic (finely minced)
6 slices ginger
1 tbsp Taucheo (chopped finely)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp cooking oil
Salt
Water

Optional:

1 tsp fermented black beans

Marinate the wings:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
A dash of pepper

Methods:

1. Soak the cut bitter gourd with salt and water for at least 30 minutes. Or rub the bitter gourd with 1 tsp of salt for 30 seconds and rinse off the salt. Drain and set aside.

2. Marinate the wings for at least 30 minutes.

3. Heat the oil in the claypot. Sauté the ginger and garlic.

4. Toss the wings and pan fry the wings for 2 minutes.

5. Add the bean paste and toss in the bitter gourd.

6. Add some water and let it boil. Add the oyster sauce.

7. Turn the heat down and let it simmer until the bitter gourd soften and wings are cooked.

8. Taste the sauce. If not salty enough, add either bean paste or oyster sauce. If the sauce is too salty, add more water.