I bought some roasted pork feet from Hons. I found that the roasted pork feet in Hons is more meaty than other stores. That’s probably why Hons charges $1.50 for one while the Parker Place charges only $1.

I got $1 discount from the butcher in Hons when I bought 4 pork feet.

The above is about 2 roasted pork feet. I selected the more bony ones to cook porridge while I reserved the more meaty ones for the Asam Gai Choy.

Making porridge is very simple. Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Add about 2 cups of rice (rice measuring cup). I added a large piece of ginger to the porridge for flavouring. I also added a teaspoon of salt and sometimes I will add two teaspoons of oil. But if I’m making porridge with roasted pork feet, I will leave out the oil. Add the roasted pork feet and let it boil until it reduces to the consistency you prefer. It normally takes about 45 minutes to an hour to cook porridge.

You’ll have to stir the porridge from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the pot. Just becareful when you stir at the end of the cooking as the hot porridge will splatter.

I had always wonder how the restaurant make such smooth porridge. Do they cook them for a long time or do they blend the porridge to get a smooth texture?

Serve the porridge with more sliced ginger and chopped green onions. My family like to add some soy sauce for flavour and colour. I like lots of white pepper and maybe a few drops of sesame oil.

We also like to serve salted egg as a side dish when serving porridge. Porridge is comfort food for the Chinese and is always served when someone is not feeling well and has no appetite to eat. What is your comfort food?

Vanessa kicked start the the South Arm Community Kitchen with two of her favourite dishes. The first dish is Pineapple Fried Rice. Many Chinese made fried rice at home. It’s a good way to use left over rice and meat. Nanzaro often asks me to cook extra rice so that he can fry rice for supper or breakfast by himself.

Vanessa kicked it up a notch by using the pineapple shell to plate the Pineapple Fried Rice. This is just like what we get at high end restaurant which comes pricey. Vanessa showed us how to make this from our own kitchen.

We simply love the presentation of this Pineapple Fried Rice.

Ingredients

• 1 whole pineapple, not too ripe.
• 4 cups cooked rice. preferably overnight left over rice
• 4 slices Cooked ham
• 4 eggs
• a bunch of green beans
• Soy Sauce
• Salt to taste

Click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Pineapple Fried Rice"

Minoo demonstrated how to cook Basmati Rice Flavoured with Saffron in the Gilmore Church Park Community Kitchen. I had blogged about saffron here. Saffron is a very aromatic spice which also gives a vibrant yellow to a dish.

People often think that saffron is a very expensive spice. However, Minoo gave us a tip on how to use saffron effectively. When you buy a box of saffron, grind the saffron with two cube sugars using a coffee bean grinder or mortar and pestle. Use the spice sparingly.

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Wash the rice until the water runs clear to get rid of most of the starch. Add the rice into the boiling water to boil for about 10 minutes or until al-dante. Season with 1 or 2 teaspoons of salt. It is ok to season with more salt because the water will be drained off later.

Rinse the al-dante rice under cold running water to stop the cooking.

In a pot, bring 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water and a teaspoon or two of oil to a boil. Return the rice. Use the back of a wooden to spoon to make a few holes in the rice. Cover and let steam on low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.This method of cooking Basmati rice will yield individual grain rice instead of sticky rice. It is the best way of cooking Basmati rice.

Dissolve a pinch of ground saffron in 1/4 cup of boiling water.

Add 1/3 of the rice to the saffron solution and gently mix.Top the saffron permeated rice over the rest of the rice. This way, you will be able to enjoy the rice with saffron fragrant without putting a hole in your wallet.

Arkensen and Nanzaro love the Sticky Rice Roll from the Shanghai Restaurant. For those of you who lives in around the Vancouver area, you might know that T&T also has a station in their food section which sells Sticky Rice Rolls. We love those from the T&T as you get the choice of fillings to choose from.

With the Pork Floss I made earlier, I made this simple Sticky Rice Rolls for my kids for their lunch box for school. This is so simple to make. Of course you may use other ingredients as you like.

Ingredients

• sticky rice
• pork floss
• toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Soak the stick rice for at least 2 hours or overnight before steaming.Sprinkle the rice with water occasionally while steaming until the rice is translucent. This takes about 30 to 40 minutes. Another way to cook it is to microwave it. Dont forget to soak the rice for at least 10 minutes. I find the microwave method works really well and time saving. When I cooked the sticky rice using the microwave, I used chicken stock instead of water to add flavour to the rice. Season the rice with some salt or else it will be very bland.

Fluff the rice and let it cool down before making the roll.

Place a piece of plastic wrap on the working surface. Place enough sticky rice on the plastic wrap. Top the rice with pork floss and toasted sesame seeds. You may add other ingredients as you desired.Bring the plastic wrap up and roll the rice into a cylinder tightly.This sticky rice roll is good for school lunch or picnic. It’s convenient to eat. You may use other ingredients like thinly sliced carrot, omelette, tuna, hot dog,etc for the filling as you preferred.

Minnie’s version of California Roll is decorated with black and red flying fish roe. They look gorgeous and delicious. The fish roe gives added textures to the roll, i.e. it gives a crisp when you bite into it. It also imparts a hint of saltiness from the ocean to the roll.

Ingredients

• refer Korean Sushi

continue reading "Korean California Roll"

Upon request from some of the members of the Caring Place community kitchen, Minnie agreed to show us how to make Korean Sushi, also known as Kimbab. Minnie made two types of sushi, one with seaweed on the outside like Maki Roll in Japanese sushi and another with the rice on the outside like the California Roll.

The difference between Korean Sushi and Japanese Sushi is how the rice is flavoured. The rice for Korean Sushi is flavoured by sesame oil, sugar and salt while the Japanese one is flavoured by vinegar and sugar.

Ingredients

• Cooked rice, seasoned with salt, sugar and sesame oil
• Seaweed
• Bacon
• Eggs
• Crab meat
• Picked radish
• Spinach, blanched and seasoned with salt
• Flying fish roe
• Sesame oil
• Soy sauce
• Salt
• Sugar
• Toasted sesame seed
• Avocado
• Japanese mayonnaise

Click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Korean Sushi"

Julie also made a Hong-Zao Fried Rice to be served with the Twice Cooked Pork Belly and Hong-Zao Stir-fry Pork Belly. She also brought some Hong-Zao made by her friend for sale. It costs $5 for a small tub as it takes a long time to make it. I did not buy it because I’m not sure if my kids will like the distinctive flavour of Hong-Zao.

The Hong-Zao Fried Rice is reddish because of the colour of Hong-Zao.

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked rice
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 lb ground pork
• 2 tablespoons Hong-Zao paste, divided
• 1 tablespoon sweet bean sauce or soy sauce

continue reading "Hong-Zao Fried Rice"

Zoe served her Spicy Chicken Salad with Chicken Rice.  The Chicken Rice is cooked with the chicken broth from cooking the chicken breast in yesterday’s post.

Zoe cooked the rice with a one to one ratio of rice and broth.  She used a few slices of ginger and a pinch of salt to flavour the rice.  She used an electric rice cooker to cook the rice.

While the rice is cooking, Zoe pan-fried some of the shredded chicken from the Spicy Chicken Salad recipe with some grated ginger and two teaspoons of oil.

The shredded chicken is fried until light golden brown.  When the rice is ready, Zoe added the fried shredded chicken into the rice and mix them well.

Zoe, thank you for sharing with us such homey dishes which we can easily make for our family.  I’m sure my kids will love this Chicken Rice.  They are big fans of Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Minnie demonstrated two Korean dishes in the Caring Place Community Kitchen. Minnie has been very active in the two community kitchens she attended and she has been sharing her Korean inheritage in both the kitchens. She is certainly a great addition to the community kitchen.

The first dish Minnie shared with us is a Korean Seafood Rice. She told us that this dish is her specialty. The Seafood Rice is served with blanched soy bean sprouts and seasoned with a home-made sauce.

I noticed that Minnie always brings her Korean pressure rice cooker to cook rice. The pressure rice cooker is not the regular rice cooker which most of us are familiar with. The Korean style pressure rice cooker gelatinize the rice starches more completely than other style cookers, resulting a more glutinous and marginally more nutritious cooked rice. In South Korea Cuckoo is the top-selling brand of rice cooker.

Ingredients

• Oysters, clam, mussels, salmon, fish roe (egg), shrimps, squid, crab meat and any other shell fish
• Soy bean sprouts
• Sesame oil, salt & pepper

Sauce:

• Soy sauce, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, minced garlic, finely chopped onion or green onion, sugar, Korean red pepper powder (optional)

Minnie used the oysters from a tub and not those with the shell on. The tub below costs $7 plus.

continue reading "Korean Seafood Rice"

Allie’s husband, Duke came over from Korea for a two weeks vacation this summer. As he always does, he brought over lots of goodies from Korea. Allie gave us some Korean seaweeds and snacks. Allie, Duke, thanks for the stuff. We always enjoyed getting this from you and learning more about the Korean culture first hand.

Korean seaweed is somewhat different from those Japanese types which are commonly found in the groceries stores here. This one is seasoned and more flavourful with a tinge of salt.

Last week, I made a simple lunch of Korean Sushi for Arkensen and Nanzaro. The boys can eat gobs and gobs of sushi. I cooked some Japanese short grain rice (sushi rice) according to the package instructions. I then seasoned the rice with some seasoned rice vinegar. Simple and fast.

I fried a few very thin omelette and cut them into small pieces. The seaweed came in large piece and I just cut them into two inches squares.

Allie had showed us how to eat with the Korean seaweed a few months ago. You put some rice on the seaweed and top it with the omelette or any other meat like Korean beef, etc and eat it just like that. Yup, you use your hands.