All Entries in the "Pork" Category
Boiled Pork and Cabbage Dumplings
The main Chinese New Year dish made in the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors is Boiled Pork and Cabbage Dumplings. Dumpling or jiaozi is a traditional dish eaten during Chinese New Year’s Eve and some other festivals. Family members gather together to make dumplings as wrapping dumplings is quite time consuming. Such activity also brings the family closer.
Dumplings can be boiled or pan fried. Boiling is a healthier choice of cooking.
Dumplings can be freeze on the baking sheet. Once they’re completely frozen, place them in a ziplock bag for future consumption.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces napa cabbage leaves, roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1/4 cup minced Chinese chives or green onions
- 2/3 pound ground pork
- 1/8 teaspoons ground pepper
- 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 package refrigerated round dumpling wrapper (50 pieces)
Source: adapted from Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen
Prep time: 40 minutes; Cook time: 20 minutes; Yield 50 dumplings
Chris O’Brennan, Helena, Sdyney, Frances and Chris made these dumplings.
Vietnamese Cuisine: Spring Rolls (Cha Gio)
We were very excited when Minoo told us that she had invited one of South Arm Community Kitchen’s pioneer member, Doris to demonstrate some Vietnamese dishes. Doris is a third generation Chinese Vietnamese here. It is such a privilege to be able to invite her to demonstrate in the kitchen as she is a very busy hair dresser now.
The spring roll is deep fried until the skin is crispy. This is a great appetizer or finger food for holiday entertaining.
Of course, the spring roll has to go with the Fish Sauce dipping sauce. The sourness of the dipping sauce cuts back the heaviness of the meat.
Ingredients for Spring Roll:
- 2 pounds ground pork
- 5 pieces black fungus, reconstituted in some water, finely chopped
- 2 bunches of mung bean vermicelli, soak in some water to soften and cut into smaller strands.
- 1 pound taro root
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 egg (optional)
- 1 package spring roll rice paper wrap (Asian boy brand recommended)
- salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients for Fish Sauce for dipping:
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons hot water
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (or 3/4 tablespoon vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon garlic chili sauce (optional)
Pork Jowl Stirfry with Green Bean
I have a piece of the pork jowl left in my freezer. I decided to use it to stirfry with green beans for the vege dish for dinner. Ben’s requirement for dinner is a meat dish. a vegetable dish and a soup.
This is a very simple stirfry dish. You can use other meat like chicken to substitute the pork jowl.
Ingredient:
- a slice of pork jowl, about 5 to 6 oz, thinly sliced
- a tablespoon light soy sauce
- a tablespoon oyster sauce
- a tablespoon rice wine
- a teaspoon sugar
- a drizzle of sesame oil
- a sprinkle of ground white pepper
- a teaspoon corn starch
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- salt to taste
- a bunch of green beans, trimmed both ends and sliced at an angle
Instructions:
- Marinate the pork jowl with the soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, sugar and white pepper for at least 30 minutes
- Add cornstarch to the meat and blend well just before frying
- Heat a frying pan with a tablespoon of oil
- Saute garlic until fragrant
- Stir fry the marinated pork jowl for a few minutes or until almost cooked
- Add the green beans and stir fry to combine
- Add a few tablespoons of water and cover to simmer for another 5 minutes or until the green beans are tender.
- Add a pinch of salt to taste
- Serve with steamed rice
Pork Jowl (Pork Cheek) Char Siu
Pork Jowl is the cheek cut off the face of a pig, hence it is also called Pork Cheek. It is rich with plentiful amounts of fat with a few layers of meat. It is expensive because each head only yields a small amount of pork cheek. I saw the butcher trimmed off the pork jowl on the spot. I bought the following pork cheek at a butcher at $8.80 per pound.
I marinated the pork jowl overnight with a lemon grass sauce which I bought from the butcher place too. The Lemon Grass Sauce is good with chicken or pork. I used it to marinate pork chop or boneless chicken leg which I pan fried them. Nanzaro loves the pan fry boneless chicken leg marinated in lemon grass sauce.
Since the pork jowl is very thin, it’s takes very little time to pan fry them in medium heat. You can use an indoor grill to grill them too.
Although the pork cheek is fatty, it has a springy texture. The lightly charred and caramelized part is the best. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Claypot Rice with Minced Pork and Salted Egg Yolk
My family likes claypot rice. We always order claypot rice when we are in a Chinese restaurant or dim sum place like the following:
This is my take of Claypot Rice with Minced Pork and Salted Egg Yolk. We had this in Hot Pot One and we found that the salted egg yolk’s taste and texture complements the minced pork very well. It’s something different from the regular combination of minced pork with salted fish.
Ingredients
- 2 – 2 1/2 cups long grain rice (I meant measuring cup for rice)
- 3/4 to 1 lb minced pork
- 2 salted egg yolk, cut into half
- bak choy
Marinate for pork:
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- drizzle of sesame oil
Sauce for rice:
- 2 tablespoons of hot water
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 drops of sesame oil
Island Pork Tenderloin
The South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors celebrated the month of June with a theme of salad. There are 5 salad recipes in this meeting. In view of the number of salad we had, Charlene decided to cut short this original recipe of Island Pork Tenderloin Salad to just the tenderloin part only.
Sdyney and Lorna partnered up to make this dish.
This Island Pork Tenderloin is adapted from Gourmet. It’s a main course and it serves 6 to 8. Charlene loves this recipe and whenever there is a sales for tenderloin, she will make this Island Pork Tenderloin. You can store the cooked tenderloin in the fridge for up to 5 days and it’s good with sandwiches or wraps.
Ingredients
- 2 pork tenderloin (2 1/4 to 2 1/2 pounds total)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Spice Rub:
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Glaze:
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon Tabasco
P/S: the Dijon mustard is not supposed to be in the photo above.
Italian Wedding Soup
While the meatballs are in the oven, Sydney is busy preparing the vegetables for the Italian Wedding Soup. The term ‘wedding soup’ is originated from the Italian language, minestra maritata which literally means ‘married soup’. It is referred to the green vegetables and meats which go well together.
Joyce was jokingly saying that it’s great to work with Sydney again on this recipe as both of them were working on the Pavlova Roll with Passionfruit Cream with great success at the previous cooking meet. However, she continued to say that she does not need another wedding as she enjoys her single and free life now.
The Italian Wedding Soup is very flavourful and is rich with lots of vegetables, especially the escarole which has a very mild hint of bitterness in it. With the addition of pasta in this soup, it is very filling too and can be a meal by itself. It is also great to serve the soup with some bread sticks which I will blog later.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium carrot, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- pinch of nutmeg
- 8 cups low-sodium chicken or beef stock (we used a combination of both)
- 1 medium can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup small pasta, such as ditalini, orzo, or stars
- 1 12 oz. bag of spinach, or 1 bunch kale, chard, or escarole (broad leaved endive), chopped
- additional parmesan for serving
