Satay Beef balls 沙嗲牛肉丸

 Homemade meat balls

This simple savory flavor not only can be made into meat balls, it can easily be made into burger patties too. This quick and easy recipe is not only great to serve with pasta; it can also be awesome kid’s finger food for children party. When made into patties, it is excellent for BBQ too!

Not in favor of beef? You can replace ground beef with any other meat to your preference such as pork or chicken. 

Satay Beef Balls before oven bake

 

Satay Beef Balls

 

 

Baked Hoisin Sauce Chicken Wings 海鲜酱烤鸡翅 - Featured in Group Recipes

Finger licking good?

This is yet another simple recipe kids are sure to love. This recipe also demonstrates a healthy way to prepare kids' favorite chicken meals by oven baking rather than deep frying which can be quite oily. I used chicken wings because they were on special; however you can use drumsticks with this same recipe.

The wings are truly inviting with their caramel skin appearance, aren't they?

Baked Hoisin Sauce Chicken Wings 海鲜酱烤鸡翅 - Featured in Group Recipes 4/12/2010

Tom Yum Baked Snapper冬荫酱焗鲷鱼 – Featured in Group Recipes

"What do I do with the snapper for dinner tonight? "

Taking out the last snapper given by Ellen, I puzzled over it, trying to figure out what other good way to cook it since we just had steamed snapper on Friday. As the fish was still pretty fresh, it kind of a waste to deep frying. Moreover, I was put off by the idea of the cleaning up part after deep frying, what a hassle! L

So, what did I do with the fish? Keep the wok, do away the steamer, let just chuck it into oven and what cuisine for tonight? Let's do Thai J

Tom Yum Baked Snapper冬荫酱焗鲷鱼 (Featured in Group Recipes 21/11/2010)

The appetizingly sourish and savory taste of Tom Yum is always great to go with seafood. It would be even better if I added in some tomatoes, ladies fingers (okra) :-P

Tom Yum Mussels 冬荫青口 - (Featured in Group Recipes)

Mussels again?
Mussels on sale again @ $1.99/kg! By reading this, you can tell what will be in my dinner menu right? J

Mussels are plentiful in NZ that's why they are cheap not only that, they are fresh, I love to play around with different ways of cooking them. We had tried BBQ Mussels, so what other options that I can do with them? I was thinking of something fast and easy less than 30 min and something spicy since my boy does not eat them, let see …….

When I was going thru my kitchen and saw a small piece of Galangal (Kha in Thai, Lengkuas in Malay) and a bunch of mint leaves lying on the kitchen top, an idea flashed in. My landlord is going to redo our backyard landscaping by Friday and my herbs garden will need to be relocated and these galangal plants and mints were the two plants that I had dug out this morning.

Now can you guess what the menu with all these ingredients is? J



Tom Yum Mussels 冬荫青口- Featured in Group Recipes 09/11/2010



Nam Yee baked Pork Chops南乳猪排

When we planned for our move here, I insisted to bring over some of my favorite Malaysian  cook books. Now, I'm so glad we did even though they were so heavy to carry over. These cook books are now my cooking bibles. Not only they gave me ideas what to serve on our dinner table; they too helped me gain popularity among my new circles of friend by introducing unique Malaysian food to them.

My number one choice of these cook books are series of cook books which featured Malaysia Hawkers' dishes. Below is another version of oven baked pork chop which I improvised based on one of these cook books. I followed their Nam Yee (南乳) seasoning but instead of deep fry I used oven baked, which is much healthier and easier.

(Move mouse over the photo to see more photo)

@15/09/2010 dinner

BBQ Pork (蜜汁叉烧)

Other than Roasted Pork Belly (烧肉) which I had covered in my August posting， BBQ Pork (叉烧) also known as Char Siu in Cantonese is another famous Hong Kong style BBQ dish that many like to eat.

At one of our regular lunch sharing gathering with my computing class cooking members, Doris from Hong Kong has taught us the easiest way to make Char Siu which taste like what you can expect in HK BBQ restaurants.

Well, it might not be 100% homemade as we skipped the tedious steps of making Char Siu sauce by using ready-made sauce instead but it produced the same drool-worthy BBQ pork that one hardly resist!
Interested to know more, scroll down and get the recipe, happy trying!.

BBQ Pork (蜜汁叉烧)

Ingredients：

• 500g Pork Scotch Fillets
• 5 -6 big Tbsp Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce
• Honey (for glazing)

Method:

1. Wash meat and pat dry with paper towel and cut pork fillets into strips
2. Marinate evenly with Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce. Initially, the sauce is quite sticky and gluey to spread over fillets. Once being left in the fridge for a while it will get diluted.
3. Marinate for at least 2 hours, best leave overnight to allow the flavors to seep in (I stored them in covered container and left overnight in fridge).
4. Pre-heat oven at 230 degree C.(Mine is not fan oven)
5. Place marinated fillets on baking tray with aluminum foil on the bottom for easier cleaning. Keep marinade aside for basting.
6. Bake for 10 minutes; flipping fillets over basting with marinade and bake at lower heat at 200 degree C for another 20 minutes..
7. For better juicy effect, repeat the flipping and basting at least 2 times.
8. Take out and glaze with honey and change oven mode to grill 180 degree C, return to higher rack to grill for another 5 to 10 minutes or until it is charred but not burnt.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and slice into thin pieces.
10. You can serve this with rice or wanton noodle or even use as filling for char siu bau (pork bun)

成份：

• 500克猪柳片（梅头肉）
  
• 6大汤匙李锦记叉烧酱
• 蜂蜜（上色）

方法

1。洗净切成猪柳片，用李锦记叉烧酱均匀的腌猪肉。最初，酱是很粘。一旦被留在冰箱一段时间它就会稀释。

2。腌至少2个小时，最好腌过夜，让味道渗入（我存放在有盖容器中，并留在冰箱过夜）
3。烤箱预热至230摄氏度（我的是不是风扇烤箱).
4。将腌好的猪柳放置在底部有铝箔的烘烤盘上。保留腌汁来淋猪柳。
5。焗10分钟后; 用夹把叉烧反转淋一点腌汁，焗炉转200度焗20分钟。过程中时不时翻面如果太乾淋一点腌汁。
6。取出再将蜂蜜涂在肉上上色，放回较高层烤箱里改为180摄氏度烧烤5到10分钟或直到它被有烧焦的买相为止。
7。从烤箱取出放凉了几分钟把多余的蜜汁滴一滴，切成薄片。
8。你可以配白饭或云吞面条。

Bak Kua 肉干– Malaysian style Pork Jerky

I love to eat Bak Kua , which literary means dried meat in Hokkien (Chinese Dialect). Bak Kua is well-liked snacks in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, it is also one of the popular gift Chinse like to offer to friends and relatives during Chinese New Year.

Over here, the Taiwanese version beef jerky is easier to get then Malaysia bak kua. I do not like Taiwan version because they are harder and dried not like Malaysia type is tenderer. Only recently, I came across one Malaysia Restaurant in Auckland selling them dearly at $21 for 500g!

When I mentioned this to one of my IT classmate also my cooking members Helen, she said she happened to have a recipe making Malaysian style bak kua from a friend of her. Once I got the recipe from her I was so thrilled to learn that the making process is so easy and simple.

 Below was my first attempt of bak kua making using her recipe. The result was superb not to mention the savings that I had made. I calculated the whole expenses from ingredients to utility for baking, the total bill added up to be only $10 for 500g of bak kua, a 50% savings!(Pardon me, accountant by nature, like to do costing hehehe…..)

If you wish to eat fresh and NO PRESERVATIVE bak kua, print out the recipe and start to bake it!

Bak Kua 肉干  

Ingredient:

• 500g Pork Mince **
• 2 Tbsp Fish sauce
• 2 Tbsp Shaoxing wine / Rose wine
• 1 1 / 2 Tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp Dark soy sauce (soy paste)
• 1/2 cup Sugar  

** You can replace pork with beef or chicken. If lean mince being used prefer to add some cooking oil when marinate.

  
Method:

• Marinate pork mince with above ingredients and mix well by stirring in one direction until the mince becomes gluey. Best to leave overnight in fridge to bring out the flavor or at least 2 hours.

I marinate overnight

• Prepare a piece of aluminum foil, a clean plastic sheet (can cut out from plastic bag) or plastic wrap.
• Placed pork mince in center of aluminum foil, covered with plastic sheet/wrap, first slightly flatten the mince using hand.

• Then use a rolling pin lightly flatten the mince, this is to even out the thickness of meat to enable better grill effect.
• Pre-heat the oven about 150 degrees Celsius, take off the plastic sheet, transfer the meat along with aluminum foil to a baking tray.
• Bake the meat in center of oven for 12 minutes.

• After 12 minutes, take out the tray, there will be gravy, ignore and place it aside, continue with other batch of meat at the same temperature until all cooked first.
• Once finished with last batch of meat, return to the first set of meat, by then the gravy might has been absorbed back. At this time, turn over the dried meat to another side.
• Transfer back the meat to the oven at higher rack. This time change the oven heat mode from bake to grill, and grill for another 8-10 minutes or until it has some charcoal effect.

• Take out the grilled meat and leave it aside to cool down before cutting into small strips.
• Great snacks and can be great to go with sandwiches.
  
    

材料：

1. 猪绞肉 ** 500g
2. 鱼露 2 Tbsp
3. 绍兴酒/花雕酒 1 1/2 Tbsp
4. 酱油 1 1/2 Tbsp
5. 黑酱油（酱油膏） 1 Tbsp
6. 糖半杯
   

** 您可以拿牛肉或鸡肉取代猪肉。如果使用瘦肉腌时添加一些食用油

方法:

1. 首先把所有的调味料和绞肉拌匀，一个方向搅拌上劲，要成起胶状
2. 然后准备一张锡箔纸，还有一个干净的塑胶袋（剪开），也可以用保鲜纸，我个人觉得塑胶袋比保鲜纸好控制。
3. 在锡箔纸中央放上大约一杯的绞肉，盖上塑料袋，先用手慢慢的推开，然后再用擀面杖轻轻擀平，这个步骤是为了让肉干的厚度平均，烤出来的口感才会比较好。
4. 然后烤箱预热大约 150摄氏度，把塑料袋拿开，把锡箔纸搬到一个烤盘上，入烤箱烤12分钟.
5. 12分钟后拿出来，这个时候会有很多肉汁，不必理会，把它放一旁，然后相同温度把其他的肉干全都先烤熟。
6. 等所有的肉干都烤熟之后，第一盘的肉干已经把刚刚流出来的肉汁又都吸收回去了，这个时候，整片肉干翻面，入烤箱 grill 高火档，烤8-10分钟，直至有碳烤的效果，颜色漂亮就好了。 

Oven Baked Salmon 焗三文鱼

What on our dinner table tonight? Oven Baked Salmon!

Salmon is one of our favorite fish dish even when we were back home in Malaysia. However, back then we seldom have the opportunity to buy fresh Salmon at wet market. For us to eat nice salmon we need to patron fancy Japanese Restaurant and we can't seem to afford to do that often.

But ever since we moved here, Salmon seem to be a regular dish, whenever salmon on offer I will grab them. Salmon is full with healthy proteins and omega-3 fatty acids and is really a rich and healthy meal to serve as dinner.

The best way to cook salmon is also the simplest way to cook salmon with just merely sprinkle some seasoning and chuck into oven and baked!

Oven Baked Salmon烤鲑鱼

Baked Salmon Steaks @ 30/08/2010

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 2 Salmon Steaks 
2. Finely crushed garlic 
3. Sand Ginger powder 沙薑粉 or ground ginger 
4. 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 
5. Pepper ( to your taste) 
6. Salt (to your taste) 
7. 1 teaspoon Olive oil 
8. Half lemon – for juice 
9. Herbs for garnishing – Parsley, thyme

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 C degree.  
2. Wash and clean Salmon steaks, pat dry with paper towel.  
3. Season salmon steak on both sides with ingredient 1 to 6. 
4. Place steaks on top of aluminum foil in a baking tray, smear Olive oil on the steak and let the oil greased the foil.  
5. Bake in the center of oven for about 20 minutes. 
6. Test with a skewer, if clean skewer being taking out the fish is cooked.
7. When serve, cut half lemon and zest with some squeezed lemon juice.
8. You may add some herbs on top of steaks such as parsley, as I happen to have parsley in my garden, any herb you like works fine.

What my food critic said on this dish?

Yummy! Yummy! Yummy .............. 3 thumbs up by Ming Ray :-P

Oven Baked Pork Chops 焗猪扒

For dinner at home, I prefer to cook simple, easy meals with least preparation as possible.
Below is an easy meal to prepare, after pop in the oven, set your timer, let it cooks in the oven while you can freshen up yourself before serving.

  Oven Baked Pork Chops recipe

Ingredients:

1. 4 pork chops with/out rind
2. 1 egg (lightly beaten)
3. 1 cup of breadcrumbs
4. 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, or 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 2tbsp soy sauce
5. 1 tablespoon of water
6. ½ teaspoon of garlic powder or finely crushed fresh garlic, or to your taste
7. Pinch of ground ginger.
8. 1tsp Mustard (optional)

Notes:
For variation of flavour, you can opt to replace soy sauce to salt, pepper and  five spice .

Method:

1. 
   
   Wash and clean the pork chop and pat dry with paper towel.
2. If pork chops with rind being used, slit the rind about 1-2cm gap to get a crispy rind when bake.
3. Combine egg, soy sauce, water, ground ginger and garlic powder together in a plate.
4. Dip the pork chops into the egg mixture, marinade the pork chops and leave in the fridge for at least half an hour.
5. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on waxed paper/big plate.
6. Coating the marinated pork chops with breadcrumbs evenly on each side before bake.
7. Arrange coated pork chops on greased baking tray or layer with baking paper.
8. Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes, turn and bake for another 20 minutes or until the chops are tender and no longer pink.

Crispy roasted pork belly (脆皮烧肉)

What's for dinner tonight?

Ming Ray's favourite's Crispy roasted pork belly 脆皮烧肉!

 

Ever since May 2010 when my computing classmate Jenny from Hong Kong, taught me the easy way of home baking crispy roasted pork belly (脆皮烧肉) , we no longer need to patron local Chinese restaurant every week for this dish, great deal of $ has been saved. It has also became one of my signature dish among my Auckland friends.

Combining efforts from online recipes, I managed to improvise a simple yet fool proof recipe to share.

Crispy roasted pork belly (脆皮烧肉)

I'm glad this recipe gets featured in Group recipes homepage for one of their best of week recipes 16/10/2010. http://www.grouprecipes.com/

 

May 2014 updates :

Just noticed that, I had used this recipe for the last 4 years and I must admit it has since be my signature dish serving on my dinner table every now and then especially during festive occations, it serves to be a routine dish.

Hubby has even master the skill in cutting and presentation too, you can tell from this photo:

Ingredient:

Pork Belly 五花腩- about 1 kg
Coarse salt 粗鹽

Seasoning 燒肉醃料

1. Shaoxing wine/Cooking wine 紹興酒 1湯匙 - 1 tbsp 
2. Salt 幼鹽 - 2-2.5tsp
3. Sugar 糖 1/2 tsp
4. Chicken Stock powder 雞粉 - 1/4tsp
5. Sand Ginger powder 沙薑粉 1tsp - optional
6. Five spice powder 五香粉 1/2-1tsp – I put 1 tsp

Preparation Step:

1. Wash the pork belly and remove any hair on the rind/skin, pat dry with paper towel.先将五花腩皮上的污秽物及拔除毛洗净抹干水.
2. Prick/poke the rind as many holes as possible, this is important step to make the rind crispy. I poke holes using the sharp tip of the veggie and fruit peeler. 用猪插在表面刺松皮, 剌多都不怕,因为剌少会影响皮脆。
3. 
   
   
4. Made a few slits on the meat for better absorption of seasoning.把肉开缝以更好地吸收调味。
5. First coat the rind and pork belly meat with cooking wine, then only marinate the meat with above seasoning but not the rind/skin. 腩肉都涂抹上绍兴酒和腌料, 记住腌料只涂抹在肉上，皮是不用腌的.
6. 
   
   
7. Air dry the whole pork belly openly in the fridge with the rind facing upward. Ok to leave in the fridge for days until you wish to bake. Best to leave it for at least 1 day to have good crispy result. 放进冰箱风干,  至少一天。

Baking Step 烘烤步骤

1. Wrap the pork belly with aluminum foil and place in a baking tray, make sure the height of the foil is 1 inch  higher than the pork belly. 用钖纸先包在密五花腩, 留下猪皮部位不用包着.
2. Coat a layer of coarse salt fully covered on the rind, this to make the water at the rind surface to evaporate to achieve crispy skin effect. 包好腩肉后, 在猪皮上倒下约一吋厚粗盐. 用盐焗是因为要令到猪皮表面水份全部蒸发, 达至表皮松脆效果, 所以没有被粗盐覆盖的地方会较韧.

3. Pre-heat the oven at 230 degree celcius for 15 min. 先将焗炉以230度预热15分钟.
4. Bake the pork belly at the center of oven for 50 minutes. 将包好既腩肉放入焗炉内焗50分钟.
5. After 50 minutes, take out the pork belly and get rid of the coaarse salt. 过了50分钟后取出将盐起走,
6. Change the bake mode to grill and reduce the heat to 210 degree celcius and put back pork belly at higher rack of the oven to girll for another 20 minutes or until the rind is crispy. 更改焗式变烤式，减少热至210度摄氏再将烧肉放回焗炉再以210度烤20-25分钟, 烤至猪皮松脆.
7. From my experience the rind will start crackling after 15 minuets at grill mode. 以我的经验，腩肉外皮会在15分钟以后开始脆皮。

8. Take out from oven and let it cool before served. 烧肉稍凉后斩件上碟. 完成