Braised Red Pork Trotters (红烧猪蹄)

Ingredients:

1 (600 g) Pork trotter, quartered
3 cup water
3 tbsp black vinegar

1 tbsp sesame oil or vegetable oil
1 tbsp (2 clove) chopped garlic
1 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked and drained

4 cup water
2 stalk spring onion, chopped
2 dried chili, soaked and drained
2 dried chinese mushroom, soaked and drained
6 slices (1 knob) fresh ginger
2 star anises
1/2 tsp pepper corn
4 tbsp light soy sauce
10 chunks rock sugar
2 tbsp Shen Yuan Hua Diao wine or any rice wine
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 ½ tsp salt or to taste
1/2 tsp cornstarch

Method:

Clean pork trotter by plucking-off hair and scraping the surface of rind to remove dirt; set-aside.

In a pot, boil 3 cups of water with 3 tbsp vinegar, blanch pork trotter thoroughly for few minutes, drain and set aside.

In a small pan, heat oil over medium high heat.

Add-in garlic, saute till fragrant and start to golden.

Add-in shrimp, saute for another 2 minutes or till aroma; dish out and set aside.

In a pot, bring 4 cup of water to boil.

Add-in the blanched trotter and the remaining ingredients, reduce heat and let simmer covered for at least 2 hours or till trotter is tender (stir occasionally for even cooking).

Stir-in the fragrant garlic-shrimp mixture and continue to simmer till the sauce is thicken (adjust taste accordingly with salt).

Dish out and sprinkle with some chopped spring onion.

Best serve hot with rice or noodles.

Yeast Doughnuts

Ingredients:

1 ½ tsp dry instant yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water

1/2 cup warm milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/6 cup shortening or butter
3 cup all purpose flour
oil for deep-frying

enough fine sugar for coating

Method:

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water, leave for 8 minutes or till foamy.

In a large bowl, combine milk, sugar, salt, egg, shortening and half of flour.

Pour-in yeast solution and stir well for few minutes.

Gradually, add-in the remaining flour till non-sticky dough form.

Knead dough well for about 8-10 minutes till smooth and elastic.

Transfer dough into a greased bowl and set aside at warm corner to rise covered with plastic wrapper till double in size.

Over large floured surface, flatten dough and roll out gently to the thickness of about 1/2 inch.

Cut into doughnut rings with floured doughnut cutter or simply with opening part of glass.

Let doughnut rings sit out to rise covered loosely with cloth till double in size again.

Heat oil over high heat or to 175 °C.

Carefully slide doughnuts into the hot oil by the help of wide spatula and fry doughnut till both sides are golden brown (doughnuts are turn-able once it floated).

Remove from oil and drain well on wire rack or absorbent papers.

Dip warm doughnuts into a bowl of sugar to coat.

Onion Pie (Torta Insalata di Cipolla)

Ingredients:

Base:

230 g puff pastry (pasta sfoglia)

Filling:

25 g butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 kg onion, sliced
2 eggs
1 cup milk and 90 g butter or 1 cup double cream
2 ½ tsp salt or to taste
1 cup Parmesan cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 °C.

Roll out puff pastry together with the provided parchment paper on a lightly grease pie pan ( 28 cm in diameter); keep in refrigerator till use.

In a large saute pan, heat butter and oil over medium high heat.

Add-in onion and saute covered for about 30 minutes or till onion is softened and cooked (stir occasionally to avoid burning).

With another small pot, melt butter with milk over low heat, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Beat-in egg, follow by cheese and salt.

Stir-in cooked onion and spoon the filling into the prepared pie case.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until filling is lightly set or till surface is browned as prefer.

Best serve warm or at room temperature for party.

Tom Yam Steamed Fish

Ingredients:

1 fish (I used gilthead seabream or orata)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped lemongrass
3 shallot/onion, sliced
2 tbsp tom yam paste (any brand of choice)
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tbsp tamarind paste dilute in 1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 tbsp chopped spring onion

Method:

Clean fish, make some gashed on both sides and rub fish well with salt and pepper; set aside to marinade for 30 minutes (optional, it can be steamed directly).

Line base of a heat resistance plate with some onion/shallot slices.

Place fish on top of the prepared plate and line garlic, lemongrass and the remaining shallot on top of the fish; set aside

In a bowl, mix together tom yam paste, lemon juice, tamarind water and salt then pour all over on the prepared fish.

Steam covered over high heat for about 10 minutes or till the fish is just right cooked-thorough.

Dish-up and sprinkle-on chopped spring onion.

Serve hot immediately with rice or bread/buns.

Coffee-Nutella Marbled Hot Milk Cake

Ingredients:

110 g butter
1 cup milk
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp instant or soluble coffee powder (I used soluble orzo)
2 tbsp nutella jam

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Lightly grease a chiffon cake pan ( 6 inches in diameter), dust bottom and side of pan with bread crumbs (or flour) and tapping out excess; set aside.

Add butter to milk and heat to boil, remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk egg and sugar till pale, thick and glossy.

Add-in flours, salt and baking powder, whisk thoroughly.

Pour-in the warm milk and stir to incorporate fully.

Divide batter into 2 portions.

Combine 1 portion with coffee powder and nutella.

Alternate the two batters topping and layering till finish.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven, let cake cool in pan for at least 10 minutes (allow cake to shrink from cake pan).

Run a thin flexible knife or spatula around the pan to loosen the cake, invert cake onto a plate.

Dust with powdered sugar (optional) and serve.

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients:

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder (optional)
1/8 cup lard/vegetable shortening
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup warm water

Method:

In a bowl, combine flours, salt and baking powder.

Cut-in lard and mix with hand till the mixture resembles meal.

Drizzle-in oil and water, mix to form dough.

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough till smooth and elastic with floured hand.

Form dough into a ball and set aside to rest for 1 hour covered with plastic wrapper.

Divide dough into 3 portions.

Over a lightly floured surface, flatten dough balls and roll out each thin to about 18 cm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness with floured rolling pin.

Lightly greased a hot non-stick skillet with oiled paper towel.

Cook tortilla once at a time till bubble, puff and bottom with brown spots.

Flip it over and cook the other side in the same way.

Transfer tortilla to a kitchen towel, stack and cover tortillas as cooked.

Oriental Eggs Fried Rice

Ingredients:

1 bowl cooked rice
2 eggs
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 stalks spring onion, chopped
2 tbsp white rice vinegar
2 tbsp rice wine
2 ½ tsp salt or to taste
5 tbsp oil

Method:

Cook rice 1 day ahead and keep in refrigerator covered to prevent sogginess fried rice.

Heat 5 tbsp oil in a wok or non-stick deep pan over medium heat, scramble eggs till golden yellow.

Add-in carrot and stir-fry for short while or till almost cook-through.

Add-in cooked rice and stir fry for about 1 minute to spread out rice grains.

Pour-in vinegar, wine and seasoning with salt, stir-fry to incorporate.

Sprinkle-on spring onion and continue stir-fry for another short while or till aroma.

Dish-up and best serve hot immediately.