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

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.

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)

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!

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.

Potato Salad

Potato Salad
Here's part II of potato feast.
Easy dish!

Ingredients

1. 2 potatoes
2. 2 eggs
3. 1/4 cup mayo
4. 1 tsp garlic and herb spread
5. Parsley flakes
6. 1/4 tsp salt and pinch of pepper
7. Corinander/ Parsley

Instructions

1. Boil potatoes and eggs in different pots till soft and hard respectively.
2. Peel the skin off the potatoes and chop them into small pieces
3. Soak the eggs(shelled) in cold water for 5 minutes
4. Deshell the eggs and cut them into small pieces. 
5. Mix mayo, garlic and herb spread and sprinkle some salt and pepper on it to taste.
6. Mix the potatoes, eggs and the sauce in step 5 evenly
7. Garnish with parsley flakes and coriander or parsley.
8. Refrigerate.

Ps. Adjust the amt of salt depending on how salty you like it to be and you can add a little vinegar if you like the salad to be a tad sour.

Tada! Done!

Roasted Potatoes (cheat)

Roasted potatoes (cheat)

All right, I cheated!!! I've no oven so I microwaved them instead!

Today is potatoes day. I have left over potatoes from idk how many weeks ago after making abc soup and granny was complaining about the humongous amount of left over stuffs so I've to make something with 'em else I'll die from the nagging.

Ingredients
(serves 1)

1. 1 potato (cut into small pieces)
2. Garlic and herb spread
3. Butter
4. Parsley flakes
5. Chilli flakes
6. Pinch of pepper
7. Pinch of Salt (optional)

Instructions

1. Cut the potato into small pieces and place them on a plate.
2. Marinate the pieces of potato with garlic and herb spread, salt, parsley and chilli flakes
3. Sprinkle some pepper onto the potatoes
4. Place thin slice of butter in between the potatoes
5. Microwave on high for 5 minutes
6. Serve after letting it cool.

Braised Brocolli with Scallops

Braised Brocolli with scallops

Ingredients

1. 3 cups water
2. 100g broccoli flowers
3. 5 shitake mushrooms
4. 50g carrot, sliced thinly
5. 100g white scallops
6. 1 spring onion stalk
7. cornflour solution (1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water)

Sauce:

1 cup of chicken broth

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp rice wine

Directions

1. Blanch broccoli, mushrooms and carrots in water for 5 minutes and arrange on a plate.
2. Heat saucepan. Add in pre-prepared sauce, spring onion stalk and bring to a boil.
3. Add scallop into saucepan till it’s cooked. Arrange scallops on the plates. Discard spring onion.
4. Thicken mixture with cornflour solution. Pour over vegetables. Serve hot.

Cashew Chicken

Cashew Chicken Recipe (腰果鸡丁)

Never dared to eat green pepper as I thought that it would taste pretty disgusting but I actually liked it.   Recipe via rasamalaysia

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 boneless & skinless chicken breast, about 10 oz. (cut into small cubes)
2. 1/2 cup cashew nuts
3. 1 small green bell pepper, about 4 oz. (cut into small square pieces)
4. 5 slices ginger (mum likes thin strips)
5. 1/4 onion (cut into small square pieces)

MARINATE:

1. 1 teaspoon baking soda
2. 1 teaspoon corn starch
3. 1/2 teaspoon rice wine

SAUCE:

1. 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
2. 3/4 teaspoon soy sauce
3. 3 tablespoons water
4. 3 dashes white pepper powder
5. 1/2 teaspoon sugar
6. 1/2 teaspoon rice wine
7. 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil 
8. Salt to taste

METHOD:

1. Marinate the chicken meat with the baking soda for 15-20 minutes and then rinse the chicken thoroughly. (Please make sure that the chicken is properly rinsed clean of the baking soda.)
2. Pat the chicken meat dry with paper towels and then marinate with the rest of the ingredients for 15 minutes.
3. Mix the sauce together and set aside.
4. Heat up a wok with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and stir-fry the chicken meat until the color turns white or half-cooked. Dish out and set aside.
5. Add another 1 tablespoon of cooking oil into the wok and add in the ginger slices, bell peppers and onions.
6. Stir-fry until you smell the peppery aroma from the green peppers and add the chicken meat back in.
7. Add in the cashew nuts and do a few quick stirs.
8. Add in the sauce and stir continuously until the chicken meat is cooked and well coated with the sauce. Add salt to taste, dish out and serve the Cashew Chicken hot with steamed white rice.

First attempt

My first attempt in whipping up 3 dishes and a soup.
Am mad tired after that but I am bored of my granny's steamboat style way of cooking. She cooks that every single day since 2 years ago. 

The tofu looks quite disappointing here but mum thought that the soup and the tofu tasted the best of all the dishes.
I liked the cashew chicken though.



Braised brocolli with scallops

Cashew Chicken

Steamed tofu

Old Cucumber Soup