~ Sandakan Seafood Bah Kut Teh ~

I know it has been a long time ago since I last updated this blog of mine. But what to do? I don't have time. First time involved in working life, some more it is a work that may take up 24 hours of your day. Sleep sometimes also becomes an issue. But nevertheless, I am still surviving hehehe.

Anyway, CNY it is now. I took leave from 3rd-9th February. And just for your information, I was oncall on the 2nd February, meaning I spent my CNY eve in the hospital, leaving hospital on 3rd February somewhere around 8am. I didn't fly back this CNY, call me stupid or whatever. I know it is my 7th consecutive year not celebrating CNY at home. But ... ...

Ok, back to the blog today. I am gonna tell you about food again. I know people are working, and yeah I am still on leave. So after helping some friend to post some mails today, I went to have brunch. Yes yes yes, by myself. Pity me? Nah, just accept it, enjoy life dude, especially when you still can. And one more thing, there is no water for 1+ week already, (despite the heavy rain that had even flood Sandakan!!!) because pipe burst!

I went to a shop somewhere on the way to Tanah Merah/Batu Sapi --- Nam Chai Restaurant Bah Kut Teh, in Bandar Nam Tung. Some colleagues told me it is famous. Finally I have the time to ... ... EAT it!!!

Yeah, they have also the typical pork ones. But since I am at the far East of the land below the wind, of course, I'd try their famous seafood version. And guess what, I am quite content. It comes with a little spicy taste (yes, I chose that) You my have a version of non-spicy one too. A small bowl with 6 prawns and some 4-5 slices of fish and some iceberg salad. Hmm, RM10 for that small bowl. And I chose a dried BeeHoon (RM1.50) which I enjoyed it, finally some real GonLow that taste better. A cup of herbal tea, which seems so tasteless (RM1.50). Ok, I admit, I need heavy taste.

RM10 per bowl

The shop opens 8am-2pm, then again 6pm till somewhere about 8.30pm (claims the LaoBanNiang) lah. So the next time I visit, I'm gonna try their porky version :P

Till the next time, byebye!

Fermented Bean Curd Pork and Baked Potato

Have to do Krok (Objective test in Russian language). So want to do something simple. And not forgetting the left over unused Sour Cream from the Pork Knuckles dinner, this is what I have for dinner tonight :)

Ingredients :
200g Pork
1 tablespoon Olive oil
Potato

Marinated pork in the tray, ready to be oven

Marination for pork :
100g ginger (Pounded and just squeeze the ginger juice on the pork)
2 tablespoons of Light Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon of red wine
1/2 teaspoon of salt

3 teaspoons of chilli powder
A dash of pepper
2 cubes of fermented bean curd
* Leave overnight *

Methods :

1. Preheat oven to 220°C.
2. Arrange the pork in a tray with foil.
3. Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil on the meat.
4. Clean and fork the potato.
5. Bake the pork (30-40 minutes) and potato (takes about an hour or till its done).
P/S : Change the temperature to 250°C for the potato when the meat is done.

Don't throw away the oil "produced" :D

Sauce :
100g Sour Cream
3 teaspoons sugar
Some cilantro (chopped)
* Mix everything together*

My Version of Pork Knuckles

I haven't tried an actual German Pork Knuckles, yet, or what the original name is known as the Schweinshaxe. But I saw this amazingly beautiful pork knuckles in the shopping centre, with so little amount of fats (yeah, just my type!) and I simply just couldn't resist buying it.

Schweinshaxe, I don't even know how to pronounce it. But, darn! I like the "complexity" of this dish name. I wanted to do this dish initially. However, as usual, when you need something, that thing is always not available, I couldn't get all the neccessary raw ingredient. Hence, I changed it into my self-modified version of Pork Knuckles for the small pot-luck birthday dinner for our dear friend, Ah Chai.

From Left : Christopher, TengRong, Birthday Boy---Ah Chai

But this took my half-a-day away. I didn't expect it to be so time-consuming, because never would I expect myself to be pulling out the hair of those knuckles for 1.5hours early in the Sunday (Luckily it's Sunday) morning :(
Ingredients :
2kg Pork Knuckles
2 Carrots
Garlics
1 big Onion
2 large Potatoes
100g Ginger
1 Granny Smith Apple
100g Sour Cream
0.333L beer

Marinade :
Five-spiced Powder
Pepper
Salt

Methods :
1. Prepare the ingredients just as in picture .
2. Clean the pork knuckles, dry it and marinade it with the ingredients listed above for an hour or more (preferably overnight). Make sure you marinade all of the parts and outer layer too.
3. Heat pan and fry the skin of the pork knuckles till slightly crisp. Set aside.
4. Using the remaining heated oil, fry the garlic, ginger and onion.
5. Add in the carrots.
6. Then potatoes.
7. Add some water (sufficient to cover the knuckles) and allow it to boil. Then shift to a large pot.
8. Add the fried Pork Knuckles into the pot. Then the apple. (Add water if not enough)
9. Season with about 4 teaspoons of salt and 4 tablespoon of sugar. Pepper if you want.
10. When the water halves, add half of the beer into it. And continue to cook till the meat is tender. (About 2-3 hours)
11. When the meat is tender, take out the knuckles (as clean as it can be) and place them in a tray, pour in the remaining half can of beer, and bake in oven at 220-250°C till the skin is crisp again (Mine was about 40-60 minutes).

Sauce :
Strain the thickened gravy in the pot, where you will get a cleaner lighter sauce in a smaller pot. On the stove, add about 100g of sour cream, 1-2 tablespoon of sugar. And continue stirring till it boils. Then, it's done.

Strained, before cooking with sour cream

The sauce done :)

This summer I will be visiting Munich, Germany. I am definitely going to try out the authentic Schweinshaxe in Hofbräuhaus which I have long heard of ... ...

Stew Pork With Shitake Mushroom

Have too much of Shitake mushroom, and don't know what to do with it in less than two months? This is what I have come out with. But of course if you don't have, Shitake mushroom, you can get it almost anywhere. For people in Simferopol, you can get them in the central market, some stalls selling "limited" Asian ingredients or in Metro occasionally.

Ingredients :
800g of Pork (In big pieces , preferably...and with some fats??)
10 small (5 if big) Shitake Mushroom (Soaked in hot water till soften)
5 cloves of Garlic (chopped)
100g of Ginger (Sliced)

Marinate pork for an hour or two with :
2 teaspoons Five Spice Powder
3 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
A dash of pepper
1 tablespoon Sesame Oil

Additional Seasoning :
a) 2 tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
b) 3 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
c) 1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
d) 4 or 5 tablespoons Sugar
e) A pinch of Pepper
f) 1-1.5 teaspoons Salt

Method :
1. Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil in pan.
2. Sauté garlic , then add ginger.
3. Add sliced Shitake mushroom, continue to sauté (Pic D).
4. Add pork.
5. Add (a-c) then add (d).
6. Add hot water just like in picture F.
7. Transfer into a pot and add hot water to simmer with low fire until meat is tender (Pic G).
8. Stir once in a while and also add water if it dries up before meat is tender.
9. When meat is tender, add (e & f). Then, allow the water to thicken a bit into gravy-like.
10. Serve with rice and fresh sliced cucumber

P/S : Ah Bear (the super chef) said hor, that after I finish cooking and cleaning up, right, there is still trace of fragrance left in the kitchen. Not trying to show off...but I can't keep to be happy hehehe

Super Thickened gravy-like (Because I forgot to check on it :P)
I actually prefer it with a little bit more sauce

Steam Pao & BahKua

Today is Chinese New Year's Eve, so tonight I am having Tuan Yuan Fan ( 团圆饭 @ Reunion Dinner ). As we are all foreign students away from our home land, almost all of us have a reunion dinner with our group members, or close friends.

Our group is of course not excluded from this "tradition". So as usual, almost each of us prepared a dish for the night. And this time I chose to make Pao ( 包 ) to match with WeiMin & SyihYing's Kou Rou( 扣肉 ). Thus we have Kou Rou Bao ( 扣肉包 ). For those who don't know what I am talking about, or need a recipe of homemade Kou Rou, kindly click here.

Before & After : Yeast

Prepare papers while waiting for the first rising of the dough.

Before & After : Dough first rising

Before & After : Pao second rising

After steaming

Oh my! Oh my! How can we not have BahKua ( 肉干 ) in CNY!!! Erm, well, I don't have it for 5 years in a row at least. But this year, I won't want to miss it.

Marinated minced pork

So after all I will have time while waiting for the dough to rise. I prepared my ingredients for my homemade BahKua based on LilyWai's recipe. Well, I did modify the recipe, as usual. As I don't have all the ingredients. I substituted the rose wine with my own wine (the wine bought from airport --- DOM), the white pepper to black. I omitted the fish sauce, kamcho powder, red colouring and of course the MSG. The smell was similar, however the taste lacks the saltiness And then only did I noticed that the recipe doesn't consist any bit of salt except soy sauce.

Before & After

The minced pork is to be spreaded to as thin a sheet as possible. And it is spreaded widely. However, after baking, it shrunk so much, about 50%. See the difference from the pictures above? So now I think I knew why BahKua is sold so expensively in Malaysia. Hehe

So here I have my very own BahKua, I am still very satisfied with the taste :)

Hmm, wanna know how the reunion dinner was??? Sure, next post will be about it :)