Pork Chops with Jin Dou sauce

This recipe is adapted from one of those Hawkers' Fair magazines that feature all the glorious food we get from the hawkers stalls.
I cooked this for the first time during last CNY when Mui, Pit and family came for dinner on the third day. I had some very meaty pork ribs chopped about 2-3 inches in length. But too bad, unable to show any pictures because I never did get to take any. The 2 kgs or so of ribs went so fast I know for sure they were good.
This time, I used pork chops.

500g pork chop, cut into 1cm slices and pound with the back of cleaver

Marinate pork with:
1 T oyster sauce
1 t sugar
1 t salt
1 t sesame oil
1 egg
2 T flour
1 T corn flour
3 T water

Leave for 3 hours or so.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce:
50 ml black vinegar
2 T worcestershire sauce
5 T tomato sauce
5 T plum sauce
3 T sugar
1 t 5-spice powder (optional)
100 ml water

Combine all sauce ingredients and bring to boil.
Then lower heat and cook until sauce thickens a little but not too much because it thickens further when cooled. Season and adjust salt, sugar and vinegar to taste.
Remove from heat.

Pan (or deep) fry pork chop pieces in batches until golden brown. Drain.
To serve, add enough sauce to coat the chops and more if your family is like mine that love to eat rice mix with gravy. Any leftover sauce can be kept for about a week in the fridge.

Suggested serving:
1. With white rice
2. With burger buns layer with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber slices. Make fantastic pork chop burgers.

Jo

Steamed chicken served with garlic sauce

If you ever chance upon a young fleshy kampong (village) chicken, the best way to cook the bird would be to steam (not boil) it with a few slivers of ginseng (or dang gui) and season with rock salt.
Cut the chicken lengthwise through its back and press down on the breast to flatten.
Place on a stainless steel steaming plate, rub with rock salt and add the herb.
Steam at high heat for 20 minutes or until juice runs clear when inserting a skewer into the thickest part of thigh.
Chop into 4-6 pieces and serve with the best garlic sauce.

This is our family all-time favourite sauce for steamed chicken.

1 bulb garlic, chopped
1 sprig spring onion, chopped
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (the thick one used for bah kut teh)
1 tablespoon oil

Place garlic, onion and soy sauce in a heatproof dish. Set aside.
In a small saucepan heat the oil to just smoking and pour immediately onto the garlic/soy sauce mixture. It will sizzles. Give it a stir and there you are, the perfect sauce to accompany the steamed chicken.
No spring onions shown in the above picture because I ran out of the green stuff. Didn't realise the recent heavy downpours had totally damaged my garden supply.

For my dipping sauce, I added some chopped birds' eye chili for that buzz...

Jo

Romesco Sauce

A classic sauce from Spain from the Catalonia region according to our internet research. We first tasted this in Bodega in Bangsar, KL (see post - Go Tapas). It was served with grilled asparagus. It is normally serve with grilled veggie, fish or meat. Haven't give it a try yet but think it will go very well with pasta and also as sandwich spread. My sister, Mui took some of the sauce home after dinner and used it the next day as a dip for cucumber, carrots and celery!

Liked the sauce - it has a very subtle taste - sweet at first taste, then comes the nuttiness and finally the slight hint of heat. We first tried a recipe found in the internet but was not very satisfied with the result. Then ppc brought back this foodie magazine (lots of other yummy recipes inside!) and there we found yet another recipe for the sauce and we gave it a try...

'OLIVE'

The recipe given in the magazine

Our home-made sauce

Very please with the published recipe because we followed it closely and it turned out really good!!

Our dinner

Served it with grilled steak and potatoes wedges. We arranged the dish to look just like in the magazine for photo shooting...

Give it a try, it's well worth the effort.

Here is the recipe, our credit to Janine Ratcliffe and the magazine -'Olive'.

Romesco sauce
Serves 4-5

1 red pepper, quartered, seeds and stalk removed
1 red chilli, halved and seeded
1/2 red onion, cut into wedges
1 clove garlic
1 large tomato, quartered and seeded
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon almond, blanched and toasted
1/2 slice white bread, crust removed, cubed and toasted
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
4-5 sirloin steaks

1) Heat oven to 200c. Place pepper, chili and onion in a roasting tray, drizzle with oil, season and cook in oven for15 minutes. Add garlic and tomato, toss and roast for another 10-15 minutes or until softened.
2) Skin the pepper, chilli and tomato (this is not mentioned in the recipe but assumed that has to be done unless one wants to deal with the taste of the skin in the sauce). Put all the roasted veg in a blender with the almonds and bread and whizz to a paste then add vinegar and drizzle the 3 tablespoon of olive oil slowing into the blender as it continue to work the mixture into a creamy consistency. Season to taste.
3) Griddle (char grill) the steaks for 2-3 minutes each side for medium-rare.

Note: Alternatively - pepper and chilli can be roasted whole over the stove fire until blackened then peel and seeded, and tomato (peeled and seeded), garlic and onion can be toss in a hot pan with a little oil and seasoning until nicely caramelised.

Jo