HONGKONG PORK CHOP BAKED RICE

I saw baked rice from Rita's blog, then it made me wondering how's the taste of cheese, soy sauce and rice in one plate. So, I sourced the recipe, and from all the recipes, I chose this one.

I never eat hongkong pork chop baked rice before, and honestly to think of eating rice with cheese somehow made me lose my appetite. But, I can't judge the taste of food by my imagination only, right. So, this morning after my hubby left for shooting with his friends, I prepared everything needed to make baked rice.
The recipe itself is simple, only the amount of ingredients are alot! But luckily, I have almost all the ingredients :).

As usual, I mixed and matched the ingredients that I don't have. Also, I added carrots and mushrooms. Actually the changes were not too significant.
Suprisingly, this cheesy-chinese-baked-rice is turned so good! No wonder, this dish are very famous in Hongkong *you should try it then you'll know what I meant*.

And the funny thing is happened. When I snapped the photos, there was one photo that I want to show the inside of the baked rice, so I scooped one tablespoon of baked rice. Since I don't want to waste it, so i ate it, and it tasted really good!! Then, after I am done with the photos, I scooped another spoons and another and another....until I realized I ate almost half of the baked rice!! Luckily, I made enough for the rest of the day, so my hubby, for sure, has a chance to taste it ;).

So, are you wondering like me when I saw the pics' of this cheesy baked rice? Then, let's make it... :)

Hongkong Pork Chop Baked Rice

Ingredients:
4 cups cooked rice
8 pieces pork chop (Belzy - pork butt, pork shoulder are all ok)
1 large onion, cut into wedges
1 bell peppers, julienned
2 big carrots, julienned
3 tomatoes, diced
Cheese

Marinade:
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsps fish sauce
2 tbsps corn starch

Sauce:
4 tbsps shaoxing wine
2 tbsps tomato paste (Belzy -- tomato sauce is ok)
3 tbsps sweet Thai chilli sauce
2 tbsps worcestershire sauce
2 tbsps chilli sauce
2 tsps light soy sauce
1 tsp white pepper
2-4 tbsps water
Olive oil

Directions:
For pork:
Marinade the porks for approx. 30 minutes or more.
Pan fry the pork slices until brown on both sides. Set asied for later use.

For sauce:
Stir fry mushrooms until the water comes out. Drain the mushrooms from the water. Set aside.
Heat oil over high heat,stir in onions until soft. Stir in carrots, stir fry until half soft. Stir in mushrooms, bell pepper and tomatoes. Lower heat to medium, then mix in shaoxing wine, tomato pasta, sweet thai chilli sauce, chilli sauce, worcestershire sauce, light soy sauce, fish sauce and white pepper. Stir fry until the sauce is bubbling.

To assemble:
In an ovenproof dish, spread over cooked rice. Then arrange fried pork chop on the rice. Pour sauce on the pork chop. Sprinkle it with cheese generously. Bake in the preheated 350`F oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

AYAM KALASAN

Chatting with my long-lost-friend Selly did result homemade food! That's cool, isn't that? We really sound like 'emak2' :).

One day, she made ayam kalasan based on her mom's recipe, and shared the recipe to me. And I am too happy to not make it, because I loved ayam kalasan since I was a little girl.

The taste is really good *to me, a lot better than the one which sold at Indonesian resto here. No offend tho*. Just reminds me to those old days when I lived with my parents and siblings...... *miss you alot guys!*
This time, I tried to bake it instead of fry it. Think, bake is alot healthier than fry, isn't it? ;)

Ayam Kalasan
Source: Selly

Ingredients:
A whole chicken, rinse and cut into 8 pieces
1 log of Indonesian palm sugar
4 pieces of bay leaves
2 cm of galangal, smashed
500 cc of coconut milk
Salt and pepper, to taste

Spice paste:
7 cloves shallots
5 cloves garlic
3 pieces candlenut
1-1/2 tsp cumin powder

Directions:
Boil coconut milk, Indonesian palm sugar, bay leaves, galangal, spice paste, season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add in the chicken, stir well. Bring to simmer until the coconut milk is reduced *thick-alike*.
Separate the chicken from the coconut milk. Place the chicken in a baking sheet. Bake it in the preheated 350`F oven until golden brown. Serve it with yellow saffron rice and sambal bajak.



Sambal Bajak ala Ayam Kalasan

Ingredients:
3 tbsps sambal oelek
3 cloves shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 tomato
1/2 tsp belachan
Salt and sugar, to taste

Directions:
Boil the tomato, then pasted with pestle&mortar together with the rest of ingredients. Bring to simmer the chilli paste, then add in the remaining coconut milk from the ayam kalasan. Simmering until the chilli produced oil.

LEMON-LIME TARTLETS

Got this recipe from a magazine while I'm waiting my hubby at the doctor's waiting room. It tasted fresh, but too sour *for me*. But I like the tartlet texture. I might change the lemon-lime curd with chocolate curd next time :).

Lemon-Lime Tartlets
Makes: approx. 24

Ingredients:
Crust:
4 tbsps chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream

Curd:
4 yolks
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp grated lime zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into slices

Directions:
1. Place butter, flour, sugar and slat in bowl of mixer fitted with paddle attachment or in a food processor, mix to form coarse crumbles.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together egg yolk and sour cream. Add to flour mixture and blend until dough just comes together.
3. Shape dough into a round flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least three hours or overnight.
4. Place egg yolks, eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lime zest and juices in medium saucepan. Heat mixture over medium heat. Whisking constantly until sugar h as dissolved and mixture has reached 150`F. Remove from heat and stir in butter, one piece at a time, stirring until the butter has completely melted.
5. Run curd through a fine sieve to remove any large clumps (best to do this while it's still hot or slightly hot). Cover with plastic wrap placed directly on surface to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate until ready to use.
6. Preheat oven to 375`F. Rool out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness, then cut into individual crusts using a 2-inch biscuit cutter or a 2-inch diameter jar. Press each crust gently into mini cupcake or muffin pan and prick the bottom of each with a fork. Bake until light golden brown, about 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
7. To assemble, fill each shell with 1-1/2 tsp lemon-lime curd and garnish it with a slice of strawberry.

SPICY BEEF MISO RAMEN

My neglected blog....I'm here!! :). This time I wanna share my experience also experiment on making spicy beef miso ramen from scratch. Yep, scratch for everything, the ramen and the broth for the soup.

In this very hot weather, I don't think it's wise enough to make hot soup, but the urge of making ramen was so huge til it vanquished these hot-sweaty-day! Fyi, I made this ramen few days ago, because current weather is quite cold (to me).

I saw this simple ramen recipe from Astrid's blog, and I wanted to submit it for Cooking Mama #1 : Ramen, so I decided to make it.

I made the ramen with 3 kind of flours (bread flour, cake flour and whole wheat flour) with ratio 2:1:1. For the soup, I made broth of bonito flakes, konbu (dried seaweed) and beef ribs, and it tasted very good! The flavor of the soup remains me of those japanese ramen! I think the bonito flakes and konbu which are gave a different flavor. Beside, I read an article about ramen few months ago that the secret of good ramen is in the soup.

At the end, eating this flavorful hot soup on hot-sweaty-day are forgiven....:)



Spicy Beef Miso Ramen

Ingredients:
3 cups homemade ramen *recipe below*
2 pieces of carrot, julienned
1/2 cup corn kernel (Belzy -- I used frozen corn)
1 piece of uzumaki (japanese fish cake, white-pink in color), sliced
Roasted seaweed

For Miso Soup:
1000cc water + 500 cc water
3 sheets of konbu (dried seaweed)
1 cup bonito flakes
250 gr iga sapi
150 gr sukiyaki)
1-1/2 tsp cayenne powder
1-1/2 tbsp white miso paste
Fish sauce or salt, to taste

Directions:
1. In serving bowl, place blanched ramen, carrot and corn. Set aside.
2. In pressure cooker, boil ribs, konbu and bonito flakes with 1000cc water for 20 to 30 minutes. Or, you can boil them in a regular saucepan, and boil them until the ribs are tender.
3. Drained the ribs, konbu and bonito flakes from the broth. Place the broth in the saucepan, add 500cc water, boil over high heat. Stir in white miso paste, cayenne powder. Season with fish sauce or salt, to taste. Stir well.
4. When the soup starts to boiling, add in sukiyaki, boil until the meat is well done (if you like it medium done, you can skip this step and put the raw sukiyaki on the serving bowl, then pour in hot soup).
5. Take the ready serving bowl, pour in the hot soup. Garnish with sliced uzumaki and sprinkle it with roasted seaweed. Serve immediately.



Homemade Ramen
Yield: 4 portions

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups bread flour
3/4 cup cake flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
4 tbsps water
4 eggs
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. By hands:
In a big bowl, mix the dry ingredients, make a well in the center, and beat the eggs and water inside. Then slowly combine the ingredients together. Once the ingredients are combined, remove it to a clean counter or bowl, and knead it until the dough a little stiffer than bread dough. In case your dough is too sticky, add some flour and knead it in. If it doesn't stick at all, add some water a few drops at a time.

By standing mixer:
In a mixer bowl, mix the dry ingredients, make a well in the center, and add in the eggs and water inside. Then attached hook attachment, then use speed 2 to mix the ingredients until the dough a little stiffer than bread dough. In case your dough is too sticky, add some flour and knead it in. If it doesn't stick at all, add some water a few drops at a time.

2. Wrap tight the dough with cloth, let it rest for 30 minutes.

3. After 30 minutes, divide dough into 4 portions. Sprinkle some flour generously over the dough, then start to rolling and stretching. You have to roll it super thin (about 1mm), because the dough will be alot swollen when you boil it. If it starts sticking, get some more dry flour onto there. If it starts springing back to its original shape, let it rest for a minute or two.

4. Fold those sheet dough into three, then cut it as your desire (if you like wider noodle, then you cut it a little wide, but if you like thinner noodle, cut it super thin). Repeat the steps until you have no more dough left.

5. Boil water over high heat, dump salt, a pinch or two in it (or you can use olive oil). Let it boiling before you start blanching the noodle.

6. Sprinkle the noodle over the boiling water. DO NOT dump the noodle, they will stick together. Use chopsticks and blanch the noodle until cooked.

7. Ready to use.

BIJI SALAK

Gosh....I missed Indonesian dessert so badly!! It's been long time I never go back to Indonesia, and it means, the last time I ate Indonesian dessert was 3 yrs ago......heezzz.... Since I arrived Seattle, I can't really find a good Indonesian Restaurant. Yeaaa...there is some of Indonesian Restaurant at downtown, but not all Indonesian dessert that I want sold by them, and it's pretty expensive, also a bit far from my home. So the only way I can enjoy it at my own kitchen, means I have to make it by myself which is I have to search, find or ask my sister in law for the recipe. As you know, when I was in Indonesia, I never make any Indonesian dessert such as onde-onde, ketan item, biji salak or kacang telor.

When I woke up this morning, my mind kept thinking of Indo's dessert, and after I looked around my kitchen drawer, my choice fell on biji salak *yea of course, the only ingredient I have for Indo's dessert is yam (ubi)*. The right choice cos my hubby loved it so much. It tasted sweet on the soup and chewy on the biji salak (but I reduced the sugar, cos both of us dislike it too sweet).
So, here it is Biji Salak from Belzy's Kitchen. Enjoy! :)

BIJI SALAK

Ingredients:
4 pieces yam
150 gram tapioca flour (you can use corn flour as well)
1/2 tsp salt

Sweet Soup:
250 gram palm sugar
200 cc coconut milk (I used Kara)
2 sheets pandanus leave
1 ltr water

Directions :
Steam yam until soft (you can use pressure cooker), softened.
Mix yam and tapioca flour until thoroughly combined.
Make dough become a little round/ball form. Do it until the dough finish.
Boiled water, then add sugar, stir well. Add the yam balls one by one and boil until the ball floats.

Serving:
Placed cooked biji salak in a bowl, then pour in coconut milk.