Josh's Braised Pork Belly

I bought a piece of fatty pork from my local supermarket the other day thinking of making Lily's roasted pork belly (siew bak). And then I came across Josh's braised pork belly and I thought this would be best suited for my wontan mee. He provided step-by-step pictures in his recipe so that was easy to follow.


Braising the fatty pork.


Dish out to cool before slicing.


I added tau kwa (deep-fried hard tofu) in the last hour of braising as well.

Verdict: Very delicious, the pork fat just melted in your mouth and the seasoning was just right, very flavorful. Hence, the tau kwa was also very flavorful. He said you can add hard boiled eggs in it as well.

Note:
You can get his recipe at kitchencapers.net under Asian Red Meat. I would cut down the oil to 3 Tbp. instead of the stated 6 Tbp. next time I make it. Because while making this dish, I kept scooping out the oil on top. :P

Wontan Mee (Wontan Noodle)

Using Josh's braised belly pork recipe, I served my braised fatty pork with wontan mee. Blanched some baby boy choy to serve as side dish and made some shrimp wontans soup. As for the soup, I was using Maggi no MSG ikan bilis (dried anchovies) granules, a little salt, baby boychoy, frozen mixed vegetable and shrimp wontans. Top with chopped scallion and crispy shallots.



Click below for Shrimp Wontan recipe:

My little artist

Evy loves to draw. She has been asking for a pen or pensil since she was 1 year old. Until these days, drawing is still her favorite playtime. Just give her a piece of papar and a pen and she would sit by herself, doing her own thing while talking to herself. :)



"Look here Evy. Mommy wants to take a picture of you."



"Give mommy a smile!"

Gina's Yam Kuih

I made Gina's yam kuih yesterday. You can get the recipe at Kitchencapers under Asian steamed kuih.



After it was pan-fried in the morning.

Verdict: It was a bit dry and hard to me. Thus I pan-fried it in the morning. Definitely tasted better as the oil gave it some moisture. Good with chilli sauce.

Dried Crunchy Bread Strips

Seriously I didn't even know what this is called. But it's dried, it's hard & crunchy and it's made of bread cutting into strips. Therefore, this name is born.

My mom used to make this snack for me and my siblings when we were young and we always enjoyed eating this crispy sweet treat. Thus when I came over to the States, I just have to make it. I remembered my sister and I were trying to make this bread while in the college dorm but we failed miserably because the bread remain soft in the middle. At that time, I had no idea what went wrong and we never make it again (At that time, I was neither a cook nor a baker, merely a 20 year old college girl).

While I was watching Paula Deen on the Food Network this evening making her dressing for All-Stars Thanksgiving dinner, she mentioned she used days old bread to make her own dried bread for the dressing and baked the bread at low temperature to dry the bread. Ding...ding...ding...it's just clicked. I have some bread sitting in the fridge so why not experiment with it right? Ta...da...



The butter & sugar ones.



With Milo added.



When cooled, packed away in a plastic container.

Chilli Oil

Malaysian just love their food spicy and what's best to spice up your food but some chilli oil. :) I made my own chilli oil because it's super duper easy. All you need is 3 ingredients and a clean glass bottle.

Ingredients:

1 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup Crushed red pepper flakes
2 Tbp. Cayenne pepper powder (to turn up the heat)

Method:

In a small saucepan, turned the heat to medium and heat up the oil. When heated, (dropped a little of the crushed red pepper, if it sizzle, it's heated) add the crushed red pepper flakes and cayenne powder, turned off the heat and stirred around. Moved to cool and leave it overnight. The next day, strained the chilli oil in a glass bottle.



As for the remaining strained chilli, you can reserved it for cooking or throw away. I used this to cook my Kung Pao Chicken, fried rice, fried noodle, etc or as a dip. To use as a dip, add some soy sauce and sesame oil to it.

Note:
My secret to delicious ground meat spaghetti, drizzle some chilli oil on your serving and fold to mix. Instant lift to the spaghetti and simply yummy!