Pork trotter vinegar is one of my favorite old school Chinese dishes, and can’t believe it took me a whole year after lock down to start cooking it. I mean, you don’t have to be a lady in confinement to have an excuse to enjoy it, right?
It’s so simple to make as well. All you need are – pork trotter, black vinegar (get the premixed one), sesame oil, and ginger. That is all, and with pressure cooker, making this is super fast too.
pork trotter vinegar, classic Chinese dish
Ingredients:
Pork trotter – 3/4 KG
Generous amount of ginger (2-3 inches or more), sliced
Premixed black vinegar (ask for those from Penang, I use this “two lion”, or “Swee On Woh” brand), 1 bottle (600 ml)
3-4 tablespoon sesame oil
2 cups of water
Eggs (optional)
Dried chili (optional, if you want it slightly spicier)
Cilantro (optional)
I used the entire bottle of this pre-mixed black vinegar
Instructions:
Heat up sesame oil and saute ginger slices till fragrant
Add in pork trotter and saute for a minute or two
Add black vinegar, entire bottle
Cook in high pressure for 30 mins, or low heat for 3 hours if you don’t have a pressure cooker
Top off with some chopped cilantro for colors
The result was excellent and as good as any I’ve tried, the fat and skin so tender. I take zero credit for how well this turns out as the key ingredient was the excellent black vinegar itself. Try it!
P/S: if you don’t have a pressure cooker, simmer in low heat for up to 3 hours.
To be frank, I never did grow up with pork belly with salted fish dish, I supposed it was a dish that wasn’t particularly popular up north in Penang where I grew up, that or my family was not privy to the greatness of this combination during that time.
My first time having this was at Lucky Loke restaurant over a decade ago and been a fan ever since.
pork belly with salted fish
A few days ago, I finally recreated this dish in the kitchen, and it turned out to be pretty simple and rather delicious as well!
Here goes the recipe –
Ingredients:
Pork belly 300 gram, remove skin, marinate with equal portion (2 tablespoon) of cooking caramel, rice wine, and oyster sauce
3-4 bulbs shallots, cut in quarters
2 inch ginger, thin sliced
6 dried cili, fresh cili (optional)
3-4 clove of garlic
spring onion for garnish
2 table spoon salted fish, cut in small chunks
3-4 tablespoon cooking oil
it’s a stirring and frying affair
Cooking Instructions:
heat up pan, fry garlic and salted fish
add dried cili & shallots, fry till fragrant
add pork, medium heat, cook 5-10 mins depending on thickness
add fresh cili & spring onion last min
Result was fantastic and require no additional seasoning, now I just need to get me a small claypot to complete the look & feel properly instead of using a frying pan and serving bowl.
I haven’t had any Korean food this Corona lockdown period, so naturally it calls for a home made affair to satisfy the cravings. Since there’s no easy way to install an exhaust fan in the dining room to simulate that Korean BBQ experience, I thought kimchi jiggae (kimchi soup) should make a decent replacement, which it did!
So without further ado, here’s my homemade kimchi soup recipe, if you decide to DIY at home too.
Ingredients:
1000 ml soup stock – i used leftover pork bone soup
3-4 bulb garlic
1 inch ginger, sliced
2-300 gram pork belly
1-2 tube Japanese tofu
2 eggs
3-4 tablespoon Gochujang (Korean red chili paste)
200 gram kimchi
spring onion & cilantro
Instructions:
heat up soup stock and add garlic and ginger
add pork and boil till pork is soft on low heat (depends on thickness, 20-40 mins)
add gochujang & kimchi, boil for another 10 mins
add spring onion, egg & tofu for the last 3 mins
serve with cilantro on top
Simple, wholesome, and great for rainy day, you can have this soup as is or with a bowl of steamed rice.
This is my version of bacon French toast, one that led me to buy a loaf of bread after not having any for more than two months since the start of MCO (movement controlled operation) thanks to Covid-19 pandemic (this description may come helpful years later).
There are many French toasts recipes, this one is mine.
Ingredients:
2 pieces of bread
1 egg
2 tablespoon of butter
2-3 pieces of bacon
1 piece of cheese
Instructions:
put the egg in a bowl, beat & mix with butter
pan fry bacon
when you have enough oil released from bacon, fry bread after dipping in egg+butter
Pork chop has always one of my simple guilty pleasures, a slab of loin with a layer of fat can deliver a rather satisfying meal perhaps second only to steak in its simplicity and taste, but at 1/5 the cost (if you count only the cost of meat).
The tricky part about pork though is that if you don’t get it “just right”, it’s easy to have an overcooked piece of dry meat that takes 1/2 hour just to chew, or worse, under cooked and be friends with your toilet for the next day or two. Beef is a lot more forgiving in that regards.
Sous vide to the rescue then! Ever since I bought myself a little sous vide stick (the cheapest version of Anova), I’ve been using it for pork chop exploit quite a few times, I want to share with you my recipe today.
Ingredients:
250 gram pork chop, preferably with a layer of fat
2 tablespoon of fermented tofu for marinate
asparagus + garlic (or any side dish you wish to have)
2 tablespoon butter/cooking oil
Instructions:
marinate pork chop with fermented tofu (preferably overnight), seal in vacuum bag
sous vide pork chop at 60 Celsius for 2 hours
remove from water bath, heat up frying pan till smoking hot, pan sear for 1 minute each side, remove and let rest for 4-5 minutes
fry asparagus with butter & garlic while pork is resting, serve as side
enjoy!
If you want someone else to be doing the job, I think ANTE probably has the best pork chop in town.
