Braised Pork Hock

Ben and the boys like fatty pork. Me, not so much.

Ben made the above Braised Pork Hock in a pressure cooker.

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of cinnamon bark
• 2 pieces of star anise
• 1 teaspoon of white pepper corn
• 1/2 teaspoon of cloves
• 1 bulb garlic with skin on
• 4 slices ginger
• 10g of rock sugar
• 1 piece of bay leaf
• 2 cups of Chinese white rice wine
• 1/2 cup light soy sauce
• 1 cup dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 pork hocks, hair removed

Source: this recipe is from spicenpans.com

Taiwanese Braised Pork Belly

Ben made this Taiwanese Braised Pork Belly for dinner.

Everyone at home loves it. It is saucy and the pork belly has the right amount of fat and lean meat which gives it the great texture.

Ingredients

• 1 pound pork belly, cut into small strips
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil, optional
• 4 to 5 medium shallots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 pieces of dried shiitake mushroom, re-hydrated (reserved soaking liquid), diced
• 1 teaspoon five spice powder
• a few dashes of ground white pepper
• 1/2 cup of white rice wine (Chinese cooking wine)
• 1/3 cup light soy sauce
• 1/3 cup dark soy sauce
• 15g rock sugar
• 1 can (395ml) chicken stock
• 300ml mushroom soaking water
• 4 hard boil eggs – as complement
• blanched green vegetable – as complement

This recipe is adapted from spicenpans.com

Serves: 5 to 6

Steamed Egg with Minced Pork

This is another home cooked comfort dish.

The above Steamed Egg with Minced Pork has a softer texture than just steamed minced pork.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1/4 to 1/3 pound of minced pork, seasoned with a little salt, white pepper, soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil
• chopped green onion

Pork Lettuce Wrap

For the main dish, Michelle prepared a Pork Lettuce Wrap for the Chinese New Year celebration at the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors.

You can use ground turkey or chicken for this recipe.

Michelle served the meat mixture, lettuce cups, cashew and cilantro separately.  The diners will help themselves with the assembly of the lettuce wrap by spooning the meat and vegetable mixture into the lettuce cup and garnish with cilantro and chopped cashews if desired.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1 cup finely chopped button mushrooms
• 1/2 cup water chestnuts, finely chopped
•  1 lb ground pork or chicken or turkey
• 8 to 10 iceberg lettuce leaves, washed and edges trimmed
• handful of cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped cashews

Source: this recipe is adapted from Epicurious.com

Pork Skin in Laksa Broth, with Rau Thom in Moderation

I know. This is not exactly the healthiest of breakfast.

When I was young and growing up in Malaysia, I used to always walk to the open air wet market near my house to buy breakfast. There are a lot of choices but there is one thing I like to buy most of the time is the curry with pork skin. I like it so much that in my last trip back to Malaysia a few years ago, the first place I headed to for breakfast is exactly that.

For some reason, back home in Vancouver, I completely forgot about it.

The reason was because I did not come across pork skins until now. So with the help of Suanne, I made the pork skin in laksa broth above. Maybe the proper word to describe this is not made, but rather assembled.

For those of you who love laksa and pork skin, this will be something you will like a lot. I am sure. The pork skin does a great job in absorbing and holding the laksa making it bursting with flavour.

There are not many places where you can buy pork skins like these above. Or at least I have not paid much attention to it until recently.

What really excites me is that it is really cheap. It is just $2.99 a pound. Not knowing how much is a pound, I told the shop that I wanted $5.00 and they ended up giving me $7.00 worth of it. That makes it well over 2 pounds. Actually it is not really what it is weigh because it also holds some clear jhup which I figure makes up the bulk of the weight.

The owner of the shop told me that not many places will “bow” (translated as explode in English), these pork skin but they do make it themselves. I am wondering if any of you knows of other places who also “bow” pork skins in Vancouver.

With this important ingredient, I am all set to …

Marinated Baked Pork Chops

For the main course, Marian prepared a Marinated Baked Pork Chops for the seniors. It is tricky to make a tender pork chop as it usually ends up tough and dry.

This Marinated Baked Pork Chops are moist and quite tender as there is no complain from the seniors.

Ingredients

• 6 pork chops, trimmed
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup

Source: unknown via Marian

Serves 6

Taiwanese Meatball (Ba Wan)

A Taiwanese friend of mine called me up before this South Arm Community Kitchen about the street food that she misses a lot that will be demonstrated by Vicky. It was a surprise call as I had invited her to join the community kitchen a long time ago but I did not hear from her since.

It was the above street food that excited my friend from Taiwan. It is the Taiwanese Meatball or known as Ba Wan in Hokkien.

I had seen this many times in a Taiwanese food show when we had Shaw TV. I missed that show since we switched to Telus. I have never come across this street food here yet. Does anyone know if we can find this Taiwanese Meatball here?

Ingredients

For the skins:

• 1 cup rice flour
• 400g yam flour
• 6 1/5 cup cold water

For the filling:

• 400g ground pork
• 1 cup (about 8) dried shiitake mushroom, reconstituted
• 1 cup (170g) dried bamboo shoot
• 2 tablespoons dried shrimps
• 1 tablespoon fried onion
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced

Marinates for pork:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Seasonings:

• 1 tablespoon cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon five spice powder

For the sauce:

• 2 tablespoons rice flour
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon miso
• 2 tablespoons ketchup

Tools required:

• Steam baskets
• Small bowls

Source: Vicky

Yield 15 meatballs

Vietnamese Caramelized Pork

Note: This is a milestone post … post #2000! Glad we made it this far. 🙂

This recipe is from Bonnie, Ben’s colleague, who gave us her recipe after we visited Mui Ngo Gai.

It did not turned out as the Mui Ngo Gai version but taste wise, it’s good. Sweet and salty at the same time with a strong black pepper taste. Even Arkenzen and Nanzaro loves this.

Ingredients

• pork belly, cut into small slices (approx 2 lbs, I used pork butt or in Cantonese ‘Char Siew Yoke’)
• sugar (approx 2-3 tbsp)
• fish sauce (approx 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons)
• freshly cracked black pepper, about 2 teaspoons
• 1 teaspoon crushed chili, optional

Source: Bonnie Leong

Serves 4 to 6

[CRA 2010 Signature Dish] Barbeque Spare Ribs 燒排骨 from Dollar Meat Store

It had been a long while since Suanne and I were in Chinatown. The last time was when we attended the Chinese Laundry Kids event in Foo’s Ho Ho. That event vetted my interest in the storied past of Chinatown.

Suanne and I used to visit Chinatown when we first came to Canada. We actually went all the way there on weekends to buy groceries and have dim sum. No longer. It is sad to say that every year, there are lesser and lesser reasons for us to visit Vancouver’s Chinatown.

Well, this time we visited Chinatown just to check out the award winning Chinese BBQ item.

This Dollar Meat Store had been an institution in Chinatown for well over 30 years now. I guess in its early days, this must have been a premier location for Chinese BBQ.

Despite the gunky-ness of many stores in Chinatown, Dollar Meat is surprisingly bright and clean. Even the butchers wears caps.

Dollar meats are famous for their Chinese cured sausages and pressed ducks. If you look hard enough they do have exotic meat for sale too.

I am not into eating pressed ducks but Suanne’s dad loves pressed ducks. One easy way to please him is to bring him a thigh and you will be in his good books for days.

Chinese Restaurant Award 2010 ♦ SILVER in the CHINESE BARBEQUE Category ♦ Barbeque Spare Ribs 燒排骨

It is their Barbeque Spare Ribs that won the silver award in the CRA’s Chinese Barbeque category.

We just bought a bit to go. The above is just …

Boiled Pork and Cabbage Dumplings

The main Chinese New Year dish made in the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors is Boiled Pork and Cabbage Dumplings. Dumpling or jiaozi is a traditional dish eaten during Chinese New Year’s Eve and some other festivals. Family members gather together to make dumplings as wrapping dumplings is quite time consuming. Such activity also brings the family closer.

Dumplings can be boiled or pan fried. Boiling is a healthier choice of cooking.

Dumplings can be freeze on the baking sheet. Once they’re completely frozen, place them in a ziplock bag for future consumption.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces napa cabbage leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup minced Chinese chives or green onions
• 2/3 pound ground pork
• 1/8 teaspoons ground pepper
• 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water

• 1 package refrigerated round dumpling wrapper (50 pieces)

Source: adapted from Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen

Prep time: 40 minutes;  Cook time: 20 minutes;  Yield 50 dumplings

Chris O’Brennan, Helena, Sdyney, Frances and Chris made these dumplings.