Tau Yu Bak 【豆油肉】

I gotta insist that one pronounce the name of this dish in Hokkian (Minnan), light soy sauce is called "Tau Yu" and meat in Hokkian is called "Bak" thus the name of this dish, Tau Yu bak means meat braised in light soy sauce! It is a very typical Hokkian/Minnan dish and the recipe is often heritage and passed down from mother to daughter, so you can now guess where I got mine from!

The preparation is a little similar to its close cousin  "Hong Shao Rou/红烧肉", but Tau Yu Bak has thinner gravy and is almost always prepared with fried tofu cutlets and hard boiled eggs.

My dad's favourite way to enjoy this dish is to drizzle the gravy over steamed rice and mixed before digging in. I did the same for my son A and he had a big bowl of it!

这款炖肉要用闽南语来说，酱油闽南语里叫“豆油”，Tau Yu Bak (豆油肉）就是酱油肉的意思。有点类似卤肉，但没有卤肉那么浓郁，汤汁也更稀一些。我爸很喜欢用豆油肉的汤汁拌饭吃，前两天我也这么拌了给俊宝吃，他很喜欢哦！

【闽南粕丸】Hokkien Pok Nyee （Minnan Style Meatballs）

小时候过年的前几天家里的大人们都会忙着制作各种不同的美食，古早味的年菜耗时又耗工，所以大家都忙得不亦乐乎。这款闽南肉丸子是其中一款我家祭祖必定有的菜，所以制作过程还历历在目。

我还记得，外婆和长辈们在大大的木砧板上把猪腿肉切细丁，然后用两把大刀，双手握紧均匀地把肉剁成肉末。因为制作的量比较大，剁肉的过程时间很长，需要好几个大人轮流着剁。剁肉的同时其他人会在边上忙着剥蒜剥红葱头，然后加入肉里一起剁碎。

剁好的肉末调好味之后，大人们就会把手洗干净，沾湿手后开始抛打肉丸，之所以说是抛打而不是搓肉丸，是因为这个肉丸子是取一小勺的肉末在手掌上左右手相互抛打而成的，这样抛打出来的丸子结实，有嚼劲，味道更好。

炸好的丸子直接就是一道很好吃的年菜，剩下的可以加上其他蔬菜烹制成各式美食，是一个很好配搭的食材。

When I was young, Chinese New Year preparation is a very lengthy and tedious process. The elderly in the family will have to start weeks ahead to make ingredients for cooking for the reunion dinner.

Bak Nyee/Meatball is one of the tedious ones, it requires mincing pork butt with a butcher knife on a huge chopping board slowly before adding other ingredients. A few people will have to work together to take turns to make sure the pork was well minced. When one works on mincing the meat, others will chip in to peel garlics and shallots, which will later be added to the pork to be minced together.

The minced pork will then be seasoned with spices and salt, together with some crushed soda crackers (for crunchiness). The seasoned meat will be made into small balls and being thrown with force between two palms, just like how you would with playing throwing of balls. Doing this for around 10 times will result in a very round and solid meatball, which is chewy in texture.

The meatball is a very good dish on its own after frying, the leftover could be make into different kind of dishes too.

Minced Meat Steamed Egg【肉末蒸雞蛋】

This steamed egg with minced meat was my maternal grand mother's recipe. I loved mixing it with steam white rice before eating.

My son A also loves to eat rice with this steamed egg, he could finished one whole bowl of rice whenever I make this!