Crispy Japanese Pork Katsu

 

Ingredients: 

• 10 pieces of pork loin (Ba tao)
• 2 cups of panko / breadcrumbs 
• 1-2 beaten egg 
• 1 cup of corn flour  

Marination: 

• 1 tbsp mirin 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce 
• 1 tbsp cooking wine /Sake
• 1 tbsp corn flour 
• 1 tsp light soya sauce 
• A dash of pepper 

Method: 

1) Rinse and pat dry Pork loin with kitchen towel. Use a mallet or back of a chopper to hit hard on Pork loin on both sides so as to tenderize it. Marinate Pork loin with marination above (at least 4 hours for better taste). 

2) Prepare 3 plates, 1 with corn flour, 1 with beaten egg and last plate with panko/breadcrumbs. First, coat pork loin all over with corn flour. Then dip in beaten egg and lastly coat with panko/ breadcrumbs. Press the panko into pork loin to ensure it coats well. 

3) Deep fry pork at high heat. To test the oil, dip chopsticks into oil and once you can see many bubbles around chopsticks, the oil is ready. Fry 1/2 pieces of pork loin at one time. Try not to crowd the pot so as to ensure even frying. Remove once pork turns golden brown. Serve it as a whole or sliced into pieces. 

Kong Ba Bao (扣肉包)

 Ingredients: 

• 600-700g pork belly
• 6 cloves of garlic 
• 4 cloves of small red onion 
• 1 big cinnamon stick 
• 2 star anise 
• 3-4 white part of spring onion 
• 2 stalks of coriander (separate coriander leaves from coriander roots) 
• 2 slices of ginger (2cm thickness) 
• 2 tbsps of Light Soy sauce
• 3/4 cups of dark soya sauce (da Hua brand) 
• 2 tbsp of dark soya sauce (guang xiang tai brand) 
• 2 tsp of five spice powder 
• 1 tbsp of sesame oil 
• 2 tbsp of oil 
• 1 tbsp of mini rock sugar (adjust to ur preferred sweetness)
• 500ml of  water
• 10 plain Kong Ba buns (I used store-bought buns and steam before serve)

Steps:

1. Blanch the pork belly by boiling in a pot for about 8mins. Remove and rinse clean. When pork belly cools down, sliced into about half inch thick. 
2. Marinate sliced pork belly with light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, five spice powder and sesame oil. Make sure pork belly slices are well coated with seasoning. Leave it for 4 hours or overnight. 
3. Heat up a wok and add oil to sautéed the onions and garlic. Add in marinated pork belly by slices and lay flat in the wok. Let it panfry for few mins, to get it caramelized. 
4. Add 500ml of water to remaining marinate and add into pork belly. Also add in mini rock sugar. Bring it to a boil. 
5. Add in the coriander roots, spring onion, ginger, star anise and cinnamon stick. Once boiling, lower down the fire and let it simmer cook for an hour till pork is soft and tender. (At this step, I like to use a thermal pot. Once it boils, transfer to inner pot, continue to simmer for 30mins and transfer to outer pot to let it continue to cook for 6hours.) 
6. Once the pork belly is done, off heat. Steamed bao for 8mins and serve hot together with pork belly and lettuce. Enjoy! 😊

See Yau Gai aka Soy Sauce Chicken

 

Ingredients: 

Chicken (1 sakura chicken/ 4-6 chicken big thighs)  

4-5 hard boiled eggs (deshelled) 

1 Japanese cucumber (sliced) 

1 tomato (sliced) 

Sauce: 

- 1 cup of light soya sauce (I used guang xiang tai) 

-  4 tbsps of dark soya sauce 

- 1 tbsp of oyster sauce 

- 1 tbsp of rock sugar 

- 5 cups of water 

- 10 cloves of garlic, skin on (wash and rinse well) 

- 4 slices of ginger 

- 8 rose buds 

- 3 stalks of spring onion

- 3 stalks of coriander roots (optional) 

Method: 

1. In a big pot, combine the condiments for the sauce and bring it to a boil for 10mins. 
2. When the sauce is ready, slowly lower chicken into pot by holding onto the neck and ladle sauce and carefully pour over chicken. After several times, gently place chicken into pot and ensure chicken is submerged in sauce during cooking. Bring to a simmer and continue to cook at medium-low fire for 25 minutes, slightly cover. Intermittently scoop sauce over chicken to ensure that chicken is well covered with braising sauce. 
3. After 25 mins, bring the heat up to a boil, off heat and cover for 5-10mins. 
4. Remove chicken and allow it to cool a bit before cutting to serve.  
5. Prepare some corn flour slurry. Mix 1 tbsp of corn flour with 2 tbsps of water. Transfer some braising sauce into small saucepan, thicken with corn starch slurry and drizzle over chopped chicken. 

Note: 

For the remaining braising sauce, I will use a sieve to remove any garlic and remaining ingredients. This can be kept in chiller to use for the next few day after to braise away. It serves as a base to your master sauce. If you do not intend to cook next few days after, you can transfer the sauce into a freezer-proof container and use within a to braise another time. 

Enjoy the yummy chicken! 😋😋😋 

Easy Hot plate Tofu (铁板豆腐)

My kids loves this Zi char dish Hotplate Tofu and I decided to replicate this dish at home! Using the new Happycall pan, which can be detached and split into 2 pans, making this dish so easy for me as I don’t need to buy another hotplate and can serve this dish right in the pan! 😂

Ingredients: 

• 2 tubes of egg tofu 
• 150-200g of minced pork 
• 8-10 pieces of prawns (deshelled and deveined) 
• Half a carrot (sliced) 
• Half packet of shimeiji mushrooms 
• A small head of broccoli, cut into florets and blanched (optional) 
• 2 big eggs, beaten and set aside 
• 1 tbsp of minced ginger 
• 1 tbsp of minced garlic 
• Chopped Spring onions for garnish 
• Prepare corn flour slurry by mixing 1 tbsp of corn flour with 2 tbsps of water. 
• Prepare sauce for minced pork: 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of light soya sauce, 1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine, 1/2 tsp of sugar and 1.5tbsps of water (mix well) 

Method: 

1. Marinate minced pork with 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tbsp of light soya sauce, 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil and a dash of pepper. Mixed well. Add a tbsp of corn flour to minced pork and mix well. Set aside for 15mins. 
2. Removed packaging from egg tofu and sliced egg tofu into 6-7 pieces. To prevent splattering during deep fry/panfrying, gently lay egg tofu on a piece of kitchen towel on a plate and cover with another piece of kitchen towel for about 5mins. This is to absorb the water from the tofu. 
3. In the meantime, prepare the other vegetables and ingredients and set aside. 
4. Heat oil in wok/pan, gently remove egg tofu from kitchen towel and panfry/deep fry till brown. Set aside. 
5. Leave a tbsp of oil in wok. Add minced ginger and garlic sauté for till fragrant. Add minced pork and use spatula to break pork up quickly. Stirfry till pork is no longer pink. Add shimeji mushrooms and sliced carrots. Stirfry for half minute. Add prawns and prepared sauce and bring to a simmer. Adjust taste accordingly. Thicken mixture with prepared corn flour slurry. 
6. Heat up a hotplate with some cooking oil. I used one side of the new Happycall frying pan which is detachable. Once pan smoking hot, pour beaten eggs onto hot plate. When the egg is set, Lay egg tofu, blanched broccoli and scoop the minced pork mixture on top of eggs. Let it sizzle for a while and set hot. Garnish with spring onions. 

Easy BBQ Stingray

 

Enjoy BBQ Stingray at home using oven! 

Ingredients: 

• 500-600g Stingray (Get fishmonger to cut stingray into smaller pieces and slice half in the Centre. This will enable stingray to cook faster and more evenly). 
• 2 packets of store bought chili (bought from wet market) 
• 2 big yellow onion 🧅 (sliced) 
• 3 stalks of lemongrass (smashed and sliced diagonally into 2 inches) 
• 1 big piece of banana leaves (rinse and use a wet damp to clean well) 
• 6 pieces of limes 
• 2 tbsps of salt 

Method:  

1. Rinse stingray with water. Add salt and squeeze 3-4 limes over stingray. Rubbed all over stingray to remove smell and scums. Wash and rinse well. Pat dry and set aside. 
2. Lay aluminum foil of baking tray. Lay banana leave on top. Arrange some slices onions and lemongrass on top of banana leaves. Coat one side of stingray generously with chili, then place on onions and lemongrass. Then coat the other side of stingray generously with chili also and top with the rest of the sliced onions and lemongrass. 
3. Slowly wrap stingray into a parcel with banana leaves. I tucked the end of the bananas leaves and use some toothpicks to secure the parcel. 
4. Bake stingray parcel in preheated oven of 190degrees, for around 45mins. Used a satay stick or chopsticks to check for doneness. Remove parcel from oven and slowly open it. Squeeze limes juice over and serve hot.

Below is the photo of the store-bought sambal chili I used: 

Chicken Chop with Butter rice

 

Chicken Chop 🐔

1. I used 4 chicken legs, freshly bought from wet market. Get the stall to debone the chicken legs or you can debone the chicken on your own. You can buy boneless chicken legs from supermarkets too. Used a knife to make cuts on chicken legs to even out the thickness so that it will cook more evenly. 
2. Rinsed and pat dry chicken legs. Season with sea salt and pepper. Leave it to marinate un-refrigerated for about 15mins. 
3. Heat up your non stick pan to high heat. Make sure it's hot enough before cooking chicken. Placed chicken legs into the pan, skin downwards. No oil is needed as there will be oil from the skin during pan-frying. Leave the chicken legs for 5 mins, till the skin turns slightly brown and flipped to the other side. 
4. Cook about 3 to 5 mins, before doing the second flip back to the skin downwards. After this second flip, lower to medium-high heat. Let the chicken skin sizzle for another 3 to 5 mins to golden brown and crispy. Check for fines of chicken by using a knife or fork to pork through. Remover chicken and set aside on plate. 

Chicken Chop sauce: 

1. Melt one tbsp unsalted butter in pan. Add 1 tbsp minced onion, sauté for a min, add 1tsp minced garlic and sauté till fragrant. Add 2tbsps of flour, stir and it'll clump together. Then add about 1.5 cups of chicken stock and stir till it’s smooth. 
2. Season with salt n black pepper and bring to a simmer. To darkened the colour of sauce, I added few drops of black soya sauce. You can add some dry herbs to enhance the taste (optional). Let it simmer for few mins and thicken. Mix 1 tbsp plain/ all purpose flour with some water and thickened the sauce if you like the sauce to be thicker. Drizzle sauce on chicken chop and serve the hot. 

Butter Rice🍚  (lazy mum’s method using rice cooker)

- Washed 2 cups of rice and put water as normal. I used Japanese Pearl rice today but you can also use the normal jasmine rice. Add about 2 tbsps of unsalted butter (cut into cubes and placed randomly on top of washed rice, a tbsp of salt, and cracked some black pepper. Also added about 1-2 tbsps of garlic powder. 

- I added some minced carrot and fresh corn together with the rice and press cook. Halfway cooking, give the rice a stir so that the butter n other ingredients can be mixed properly.

Crispy Fried Shallots

 

Method: 

1. Peel small red onions and set aside in a bowl. To prevent it from stinging your eyes, soak peeled red onions in water and leave in chiller for about 30mins. 
2. Drain water from onions in colander. Slice thinly and set aside. Sprinkle a little salt and mix well before frying. 
3. Heat wok with oil at high heat. Make sure there's enough oil to cover onions. Once oil is hot, add sliced shallots into wok and stir quickly to make sure it's evenly distributed. Lower heat slightly and stir occasionally to let onions fry evenly. Once onions starts to brown, lower heat further to prevent it from burning. Once shallots turns light brown, you can off heat to allow remaining heat to cook shallots. Let it continue to brown till crisp and remove immediately by using a sieve to sieve through the oil. 
4. Place fried shallots on kitchen towel on a big plate to spread out shallots and allow it to cool quickly. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and mix well. I place under a fan so that it cools faster. Store fried shallots in airtight container. If you make more, you can keep in the chiller for a few months. 

Sesame Chicken 🐔

 

Ingredients:

• 4 Big chicken drumsticks (chop them into small pieces)
• 2 tbsps of julienned ginger 
• 4 slices of ginger 
• 3 tbsps of sesame oil
• 2 tbsps of dark soya sauce 
• 2 premium light soya sauce 
• 3 tbsps of oyster sauce 
• Handful of spring onions cut them 3-4cm 
• 1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine (Hua diao wine) 
• 6 tbsps of water 
• 1 claypot (optional) 

Method:

1. Marinate chopped chicken pieces with 1 tbsp of sesame oil, 1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine, 3 tbsps of oyster sauce and 2 tbsps of light soya sauce. Set aside for 30mins to an hour. 
2. Heat up claypot in medium fire with sesame oil. 
3. Once pot heated up (estimate about 2mins), add in julienned ginger, sauté it till fragrant. Remove and set aside once ginger turns Golden brown and crisp. 
4. Add sliced ginger and sauté till fragrant. Add marinated chicken into claypot and give a good toss. Flip chicken pieces and fry for a good few mins till chicken is no longer pink on the outside. 
5. Add dark soya sauce, give a good toss again & cover for 4mins. 
6. Add water, toss again and cover let it simmer till it’s cooked. You may add more water if you like more gravy to go with your rice. 
7. Taste and adjust accordingly, if need be, add more light soya sauce or dark soya sauce. Drizzle a tbsp of Chinese cooking wine along the sides of the claypot, toss and garnish with spring onions. Off heat, topped with crispy shredded ginger and serve hot. 

Note: You can use chicken wings instead of big drumsticks and it’ll cook faster. Do adjust the seasonings accordingly to your taste. 

Rice with Oyster sauce chicken Drumlets, Broccoli and potato patty

 

Oyster sauce chicken Drumlets 🍗

Ingredients :

• 4 pieces of chicken Drumlets (you can use chicken midwings too) 
• 2 tablespoons of Oyster Sauce
• 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce 
• 1 tablespoon of shaoxing wine 
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of honey
• 1/2 tablespoon of ginger juice 
• A dash of white pepper 

Method :

Rinse Drumlets and Pat dry. 

Mix all seasoning and pour into chicken and marinate them well. Cover with cling wrap and marinate overnight.

Preheat airfry at 180°c for 5 minutes. Airfry at 180°c for 15-18 minutes turning intermittently after 6 minutes to ensure even colour. Remove and pack into bentos. 

Assembly of bento: 

• Place Japanese rice into bento. 
• Place drumlets, potato patty and lastly blanched vegetables. 

口水鸡 🐔 aka “Salivate Chicken”

 

Ingredients: 

• 1 packet of skin-on boneless chicken legs from Benja Chicken 
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 2 stalks of Spring onion
• 2 stalks of coriander (separate stem with roots from leaves)
• 1 thumb-size Ginger
• 6 cloves of garlic with skin (smashed)
• 1 Cucumber (sliced and soak in ice water for few mins. Drained and set aside.)
• Roasted sesame seeds
• Roasted peanuts (optional)

Spicy sauce (mixed together): 

• 1 tbsp Lao Gan MA spicy chili oil (store-bought)
• 1 tbsp Mala liquid seasoning (Knorr’s brand) 
• 1.5 tbsp Zheng Jiang old vinegar
• 1 tbsp Sesame oil
• 2.5 tbsps Soya sauce
• 3 tbsps Minced garlic
• 2 tbsp Chicken Broth (from poaching chicken) 

Method: 

1. Rinsed the chicken legs by rubbing some salt all over. Rinse off the salt completely. Bring half pot of water to a boil with garlic, ginger, spring onion, coriander roots with stem and Shaoxing wine. Make sure there is enough water to cover the chicken. Bring it to a boil and add chicken legs. Simmer for around 10minutes. Off heat and cover pot with lid. Let the chicken immerse in water for 20 minutes.
2. After 20minutes, remove chicken and soak in iced water. Turn over several times or until the chicken is completely cooled down. Cut chicken into pieces when it is completely cooled down. (A must to soak in iced water). Plate chicken and cucumbers on plate. 
3. Prepare the spicy sauce. Do adjust accordingly to your taste. Pour the chili over the chicken and ganish with coriander leaves, roasted sesame seeds and peanuts. Ready to serve!

This is a cold dish that can be prepared beforehand and chill in fridge. Pour sauce over chicken when ready to serve. 

Tofu Salad with refreshing Honey Yuzu Dressing

 

Ingredients: 

• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• Quarter-head broccoli (sliced into florets) 
• butternut squash cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 generous pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 250 grams semi-firm tofu
• 150 grams romaine lettuce chopped

For the Honey Yuzu Dressing

• 2 tablespoons Pokka Yuzu Honey refreshing drink
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar/ apple cider
• 1 tablespoon honey

Instructions

• Place tomatoes, broccoli and butternut squash on a baking sheet. Add salt, garlic powder and olive oil and massage the vegetables with your hands. Roast vegetables  in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes (I started with pumpkin first and added tomatoes and broccoli at last 10mins). Alternatively you can airfry vegetables at 190 degrees, which works fine too. 
• While the vegetables cook, slightly brown the tofu in a frying pan over medium heat, about 3-5 minutes. 
• Make the salad dressing by mixing yuzu juice, vinegar and honey in a bowl.
• Once the roast vegetables are done, place all the vegetables and tofu on a plate and drizzle with the dressing to enjoy.