Spiced Pork Loin with Apples

Started cooking again ever since I came to USA in May. The last post was like 3 years ago! The combination of a change in environment, having too much time on hand and having a oven makes me feel happy all the time. I don't come up with recipes but I do adjust them according to preference and ingredients available in the refrigerator.

Ingredients (for 2)

1lb Pork Loin
1 Apple (Chopped)

For Marinating

1 tsp Canola/Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1 bulb Garlic (Minced)
1 tsp Parsley Flakes
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Cumin

For Cooking

1 tsp Canola/Olive Oil
3 tbsp Dry White Wine
1/2 bulb Onion
1 cup Chicken Broth

Steps

1. Mix ingredients for marinating together and spread them evenly on the pork loin.
Leave the meat in the refrigerator for 2 hours or more.

2. Preheat the oven to 425.

3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Pour 1 tsp of olive oil onto it and sear both sides of the pork loin for 2-3 minutes each.

4. Add chicken broth and white wine to the skillet and let it bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

5. Transfer the pork loins onto a chopping board and cut into strips.

6. Add chopped apples and onions to the chicken broth and wine mixture. Saute till apple turns slightly brown.

7. Serve with spinach salad and spaghetti.


Recipe modified from myrecipe.com

Tau Yu Bak (Braised Pork in Soya Sauce)

I hyperventilated when I saw the fats. Since young, my mum removed all visible skin from any type of meat at every meal so I practically grew up not eating chicken skin, kong ba bao etc etc.

When  I made this and I saw the frightening jelly-like skin, I got so turned off but the sauce is not bad lah. Of course I removed the skin before eating.

This when served hot with rice, is amazing. The sauce is like.. undescribable. I think every family cooks this dish differently but noone in my family made this before so I don't have a secret recipe or whatever.

Well, I like the saltiness of the sauce to overpower the sweetness.

Ain't a healthy dish but..... I kinda like it. The best thing is, it goes so well with rice.

Some people add potatoes to the dish. But I thought the amt. of carbs is mega overpowering already.

Ingredients

1. 500g pork belly
2. 4 eggs
3. 10 dried chinese mushrooms
4. 1 block of firm tau kwa
5. 4 stripes of tau pok
6. 2 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
7. 3-4 tbsp dark soya sauce
8. 1 litre of water
9. 2 star anise
10. 1 cinnamon stick
11. 5 cloves 
12. 1 garlic bulb (skin unremoved but slightly bruised)
13. 1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
14. 1 tbsp white peppercorn

Directions

1. Mix dark soy sauce and kecap manis together. 
2. In a pot or wok, brown pork belly and sauce on each side. 
3. Add water, star anise, cinammon stick, cloves, garlic, 5 spice powder, peppercorn and mushroom. When it boils, lower fire and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Cook eggs till they are hard boiled in another pot. Peel egg shell.
5. After 30 minutes, add tau kwa, tau pok and peeled eggs. Simmer for another 30 minutes. 
6. Taste and adjust accordingly. 
7. Serve hot. 

Sweet and Sour Pork

I love sweet sour pork. It's one of my must order when I buy cai fan. I love the combination of all the colours!

I made this the other time but I wanted to try out Rasamalaysia's sauce.

It's yummy but the batter is still a little weird. As in it's not what we would find at the usual zi char stall. I  think it would taste better with more sauce though. 

Anyone has another recipe for this?

Ingredients

1. 200-300g pork tenderloin
2. 1/2 of a green bell pepper
3. 1/2 of a red bell pepper
4. 1 pc pineapple ring (cut into small pieces)
5. 1 clove garlic (minced)
6. 2 stalks scallion (only the white part, chopped diagonally)
7. Oil (for frying)

Marinate

1. 1 tsp light soy sauce
2. 1/2 tsp corn flour
3. 1 tsp hua tiao jiu

Batter

1. 1/2 cup water
2. 4 tbsp plain flour
3. 2 tbsp corn starch
4. 1/2 tsp baking soda
5. 1/2 of an egg
6. 1 tsp cooking oil
7. Pinch of salt

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1. 1 1/2 tbsp tomato ketchup
2. 1 tsp plum sauce
3. 1/4 tsp rice vinegar
4. 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
5. 1 tsp oyster sauce
6. 1 tsp corn starch
7. 1 tsp sugar
8. 2 tbsp water

Directions

1. Mix ingredients for sauce and leave aside.
2. Cut pork tenderloin into bite sized pieces and marinate for half an hour.
3. Mix dry ingredients for batter then add in egg, water and oil to form a thick batter.
4. After pork is well-marinated, transfer them into batter and ensure that they are well coated.
5. Add cooking oil for deep frying into wok and wait till it heats up.
6. Deep fry tenderloin till it's golden brown.
7. Remove pork and drain oil using paper towels.
8. Heat up wok, add cooking oil and add in chopped garlic and stir fry till they are light brown.
9. Then add bell peppers and pineapple pieces. Stir fry till there is a peppery aroma.
10. Add in sweet sour sauce, pork, scallions and fry.

Tenderloin with red pepper

Ingredients

1. 200-300g tenderloin
2. Red bell pepper (half)
3. 1/2 tsp of Crushed black pepper
4. 2 Dashes of grounded white pepper 
5. 1 tsp corn flour
6. 3 cloves of Garlic (minced)
7. 1 tsp corn starch
8. 1 tsp hua tiao jiu
9. 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
10. 5 tbsp water
11. 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. Chop the tenderloin into pieces and marinate with rice wine, corn flour and white pepper. Leave for 30 minutes.
2. Heat up 1tbsp of cooking oil and add in garlic. Stir fry till garlic turns light brown.
3. Add in tenderloin and stir fry till half cooked.
4. Add bell pepper and continue stirfrying until there is a peppery aroma. 
5. Add in water, hua tiao jiu, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Mix well or you can premix the sauce before hand.
6. Sprinkle black pepper on top of the dish.
7. Serve hot.

Cashew Chicken

This is one of the first few dishes that I made when I started cooking and I think it remains one of my favourite 'cuz of the addition of cashew nuts.



Well, the only difference is that I added more water as the previous one was pretty dry.
I love nuts in most of my food!

Recipe can be found here.

Fried Eggs with Chai Poh

After making carrot cake, I still had a lot of preserved turnip left so I had to think of ways to use them up instead of leaving it forgotten in my fridge.


My grandmother cooks this type of eggs in a really frightening way. No chai poh, A LOT of light soy sauce, A LOT of pepper and when I say A LOT, it's really A LOT.

Maybe like 5 tbsp of soy sauce?

Oh well, pardon the chao ta bits on the eggs and this is how I make my chaipoh eggs.

Ingredients

1. 3 eggs
2. 2 tbsp of chai poh

Directions

1. Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl
2. Put chai poh in and mix.
3. Fry!

Fried carrot cake

My grandma is a huge fan of carrot cake. She either eats this or chee cheong fan. Her heart wavers among these two but I think she just likes her food really sweet.

I went fairprice and saw pre-packed radish for stirfrying and i thought it would be a good idea to try something I thought I would never cook.


Ingredients

1. 480g carrot cake (for stir-frying)
2. 2 tbsp oil
3. 1 tbsp sweet sauce
4. 1-2 tsp fish sauce (depending on how salty you want it to be)
5. 1 tbsp chopped garlic
6. dash of White pepper
7. 2 eggs, beaten
8. 1 tbsp chai poh (preserved turnip)
9. 2 stalk spring onion (chopped)

Directions

1. Chop carrot cake into pieces 
2. Heat oil in wok and fry carrot cake till slightly light brown
3. Add chopped garlic and chai poh 
4. Add pepper and fish sauce and continue stir frying
5. Pour eggs over carrot cake and wait till it sets and turn over
6. Drizzle sweet sauce over carrot cake and mix evenly
7. Serve with chopped spring onions

Sambal Shrimps with French Beans

Don't be mistaken. I know I just cooked french beans yesterday but but but, I think sambal shrimps will go well with that, thus the repetition.

Ingredients

1. 400g Shrimp with tail-on
2. 2 tbsp light soy sauce
3. Dash of pepper
4. 1 tbsp oil
5. 2 1/2 tbsp woh hup sambal shrimp
6. 200g french beans
7. 5 tbsp water
8. 1 tbsp baking soda
9. 1 egg white
10. 1 tsp corn starch
11. 1 tbsp chopped garlic

Directions

1. Submerge shrimps in water, add baking soda to water and massage shrimps gently. Soak for 30 minutes and run shrimps under running water.
2. Drain water and pat shrimps dry. Add egg white, starch and massage. Marinate for half a day or overnight.
3. Add 1 tbsp light soy sauce and a dash of pepper to the shrimps and marinate for 10 minutes.
4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok. Add chopped garlic, fry till light brown.
5. Add  2 1/2 woh hup sambal shrimp. Stir fry till fragrant.
6. Add french beans, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 5 tbsp water and stir well. Cover and cook for 2 minutes.
7. Add shrimps and stir fry till done. 

recipe from the woh hup jar (tweeked)

Garlic French Beans

I had french beans at my bf's place the other day. His mum makes wicked food. As in they're really wickedly delicious. Every meal's like a different adventure.

I made this dish but it didn't really taste like hers but well, considering how lousy I am... this should do!

Ingredients

1. 1 tbsp olive oil
2. 1.5 tbsp garlic (minced)
3. 250g French beans, chopped into 1.5inch pcs
4. 2.5 tbsp dried shrimps(soaked in warm water and minced)
5. 1/4 cup water

Directions

1. Heat up the wok, add olive oil and fry garlic and minced dried shrimps
2. When garlic turns light brown, add french beans and stir fry for 1 minute.
3. Add water and continue frying till french beans are cooked. (approx 5-8 minutes)

Cheese Scrambled Eggs

This is how I like my scrambled eggs to be like. Wet, cheesy and super eggy.

It isn't the 'right' way to cook this but it's how I made mine.

Ingredients

1. 1 tsp of oil
2. 2 eggs
3. 1 piece of Chedder cheese
4. Parsley and chilli flakes
5. Dash of pepper

Directions

1. Heat up oil in pan
2. Break the eggs and start stirring. Take pan away from heat occasionally but continue stirring.
3. Add a piece of cheese and a dash of pepper. Keep stirring.
4. Serve on plate and garnish with parsley and chilli flakes.

I love egg with cheese but as I've mentioned, my mum hates it and claimed that it makes her want to gag. 

Black Pepper Bacon wrapped Asparagus

Chanced upon many sites that raved on the combination of bacon and asparagus but all gave me recipe for roasting.

I decided to try deep frying since I don't have an oven and it tasted surprisingly nice so I started wrapping all my left over bacon strips from the previous Twister recipe. 

This kinda reminds me of Tori Q.

Ingredients

1. 5 strips of bacon
2. 5 thin asparagus (cut into halves)
3. 1 tbsp Black Pepper Sauce (I use Woh Hup's)
4. 2 tbsp Teriyaki Sauce
5. 1 tbsp water

Directions

1. Chop asparagus into halves
2. Wrap each strip of bacon around 2 stalks of asparagus and fasten using a toothpick
3. Deep fry till bacon turns brownish, drain oil on paper towels and place on serving plate.
4. Mix black pepper sauce, teriyaki sauce and water together. Bring to a boil and coat onto bacon.

** you can choose not to put any sauce. The bacon is salty!

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Recipe from noobcook (tweeked)
Ingredients

1. 250g Portobello Mushroom
2. 250g White Button Mushroom
3. 800ml of vegetable/mushroom stock
4. 1 tbsp plain flour
5. 1/2 onion, chopped into small pieces
6. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped into small pieces
7. 50ml white wine
8. 150ml thickened cream
9. Small slice of butter (just enough to fry the onions and garlic)
10. Parsley (to garnish)
11. Salt and black pepper (optional)

Directions

1. Heat up butter and add in onions and garlic. Fry till onions turn soft.
2. Add 1 tbsp of plain flour and fry for one minute.
3. Add stock.
4. Add in all the mushrooms and bring them to a boil.
5. Simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Remove some mushrooms and chop them into small pieces.
7. Wait till the soup cools and process them in a blender.
8. Pour the soup back into the saucepan and stir in wine and cream.
9. Add in salt and pepper to taste.
10. Garnish with parsley and a swirls of cream.

I'll probably not add any white wine the next round. 

Chicken Balls

Ingredients

1. 200g minced chicken
2. 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
3. 1/2 tbsp corn starch
4. 1/2 tsp hua tiao jiu
5. 1 tsp sesame oil
6. Dash of white pepper
7. 1/3 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Marinade chicken with the above ingredients for 30minutes and roll the minced mixture into balls.
2. Boil them.

White Fungus Soup

Bought a premix spice bag from Fairprice and I wanted something easy to cook so I made this soup. I cheated and didn't add any chicken with bones inside so I added a chicken stock cube.
I made my own chicken balls but you can get the ready made ones.

Ingredients

1. 10g white fungus (soak in hot water)
2. 1 canned button mushrooms
3. 200g chicken balls 
4. Premix spice bag
5. 1 tbsp wolfberries
6. 1 cube chicken stock
7. 1.5l of water
8. 1 tbsp DOM liquor.

Directions
Add all the ingredients except for Dom into pot and simmer for 1 hour. Stir in DOM after that.

Emperor Shiitake Mushroom

Followed a recipe on noobcook on butter shiitake mushroom. It looked so easy I thought I should try it out.

Ingredients

1. 50g butter
2. 2tsp dried parsley
3. 1/4 onions
4. 1 tbsp chopped garlic
5. 150g shitake mushrooms (sliced)
6. 50g button mushrooms (sliced)
7. 1 tsp light soy sauce
8. Black pepper (grated)

Directions

1. Melt butter in pan/wok.
2. Add herbs, onion and garlic and fry till garlic turns light brown.
3. Add mushroom and light soy sauce and continue frying.
4. Sprinkle black pepper and serve.

I added some tofu for gran since she likes tofu so much.

Sweet and Sour Pork

This is one of my must-order dish whenever I order caifan. I liked it so much I wanted to eat all of 'em up.

Got the recipe from rasamalaysia.

Ingredients

1. 200-300g pork tenderloin
2. 1/2 of a green bell pepper
3. 1/2 of a red bell pepper
4. 1 pc pineapple ring (cut into small pieces)
5. 1 clove garlic (chopped)
6. Premix sweet sour sauce

Marinate

1. 1 tsp light soy sauce
2. 1/2 tsp corn flour
3. 1/2 tsp hua tiao jiu

Batter

1. 1/2 cup water
2. 2 oz plain flour
3. 1 oz corn starch
4. 1/2 tsp baking soda
5. 1/2 of an egg
6. 1 tsp cooking oil
7. salt

Directions

1. Cut pork tenderloin into bite sized pieces and marinate for 15-20minutes.
2. Strain dry ingredients for batter then add in egg, water and cooking oil to form a thick batter.
3. When pork is well marinated, transfer them into batter and ensure that they are well coated.
4. Add cooking oil for deep frying into skillet.
5. Dish pork out and drain on paper towels.
6. Heat up wok, add cooking oil and add in chopped garlic and stir dry till they are light brown.
7. Then add bell peppers and pineapple pieces. Stir fry till there is a peppery aroma.
8. Add in sweet sour sauce, pork and fry.

Rasamalaysia provided a recipe for the sauce but I didn't use that. Shall try this again some other time.

Pancakes with blueberries (chaota)

Ouch. The horrors. Why does my pancakes looked so burnt here?
Anyway, they might be a lil burnt but they sure taste better than they looked. I followed the recipe from fortheloveofcooking.
Ingredients

1. 1 cup of plain flour
2. 1 tbsp sugar
3. 1/2 tsp baking powder
4. 1/2 tsp salt
5. 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
6. 1 cup of milk
7. 1 egg
8. 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients together. 

Then pour in the others and mix till you get a thick batter.

Separate the mixture equally(depending on how many pancakes you want)

Once the bubbles appear on top of the pancake, flip.

Serve with maple syrup and blueberries or any other fruits.

Scrambled Eggs

I had some left over cream in the fridge after making tiramisu the other day so I made some scrambled eggs.

I've always liked my scrambled eggs with cheese but mum said that it's so cheesy that it makes her wanna puke. 

Sigh. People don't know how to appreciate cheese. This version ain't cheesy at all and it has a creamy consistency.

Ingredients (serves 1)

1. 2 eggs
2. 1/4 tbsp thickened cream (i used thickened cream because I want to finish using the leftovers. You can always substitute it with other types)
3. Dried parsley and chilli flakes
4. Butter
5. Grated black pepper
6. Salt (optional)

Directions

1. Add butter to the saucepan and break the eggs into it. 
2. Turn on the heat and keep whisking the eggs.
3. As it thickens, take the saucepan away from the heat and continue stirring to prevent it from being too dry.
4. Put the pan back to the heat and continue stirring.
5. Keep on taking it away and putting it back while stirring till you get your desired scrambled eggs.
6. Once you get your desired consistency, add in cream and add salt and pepper.
7. Garnish with chilli flakes and parsley.

I like to garnish all my eggs with parsley but you don't have to do that!

Hollandaise Sauce

I had always wanted to try eggs benedict but I didn't have the chance. I bought some lemon yesterday and decided that today is the day I'm gonna have eggs with lemon juice?

I mean, who the hell mixes their eggs together with lemon juice?

I toasted a slice of bread and poached an egg to go with it. My egg still seemed like a phail.

The sauce had a strong lemon flavour to it. It's super nice though I still find something missing. My search goes on.

Recipe from fortheloveofcooking (I tweeked a little)


Ingredients

1. 2 egg yolks
2. 1 tbsp of water*
3. 1/8 cup of lemon juice
4. 1 cube of butter (melted)
5. A pinch of black pepper
6. Parsley to garnish

Directions

1. Whisk egg yolks and lemon juice together.
2. Place bowl containing the mixture ontop of a saucepan with simmering water. Continue whisking to prevent the eggs from being scrambled.
3. Add in melted butter and continue whisking.
4. When the sauce is thick, remove from heat and add pepper and salt. 

*Add in water if the sauce is too thick. (adjust to personal liking)

Blueberry Yogurt Parfait

I wanted something to munch on and seeing the pretty glasses that I bought on the table, I decided to make this. It's fuss-free yet filling. Perfect for breakfast.

Ingredients

1. Non-fat plain yogurt with no added sugar
2. Blueberries
3. Cornflakes

Layer em and serve immediately.

You can substitute the plain yogurt with any other types of flavoured yogurt if you want something sweet.