HONEY LIME GRILLED PORK

When I was in the army, we had training sessions in Thailand. In the nearest town to the army base, there was this stall selling BBQ pork on sticks. it's been more than 25 years since I've had that and i really missed that Thai BBQ pork, so I decided to try to make some on my own. Turned out quite good, and I'm seriously thinking of adding this to my menu.

I've got some off cuts of pork lying in the freezer, and it seemed like a good idea to use them to make this. The best cut of meat to make this is pork belly, but this marinade can be used on pork chops, chicken and even fish too.

Ingredients

500g mixed pork cuts
A handful of chopped coriander leaves
4 pieces of garlic, chopped
6cm young ginger, chopped
1 whole red chili, chopped
1.5 teaspoon of coriander powder
5 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons olive oil
The rind and juice of 2 key limes
Some dried chili flakes

Method

In a ziploc bag, mix everything up, leaving aside some of the chopped coriander leaves and dried chili flakes for garnish and let the meat sit in the bag to marinade for an hour

When the hour's up, on a smoking hot grill, sear the meat, lower the temperature and let it cook till it's done, basting it on and off with the remaining marinade.

When the meat's cooked, let it sit for 15 minutes before cutting into strips and garnish with the remaining coriander leaves and dried chili flakes.

I chose to serve this with a mushroom and garlic angel hair olio with some vegetables to make it a complete meal for tonight's dinner. This pork is so easy to make that even a kid can do it on his own, but there's nothing kiddy about the taste. Should I be having a BBQ anytime soon, this will surely be on the menu! 

Enjoy!

SALTED EGG CARBONARA WITH FRIED PORK LARD

A word of caution...... If you can't take such unhealthy food, please do not read further. I have been told that some of the food that I cook should come with a health advisory label, you know, like those that come on cigarette packs? Well, this is one of them. So, there! Done!

I've always been a fan of salted eggs. Lately in Malaysia and Singapore, lots of food have fallen to the mighty salted egg. Salted egg prawn, squid and crab is now a commonplace in the food scene. Burgers and croissants just joined the list.  And now, it seems, pasta too! I came across a recipe of salted egg carbonara on the internet, but since I love my food spicy and sinful, I tweaked the recipe with some fried pork lard and bird's eye chili and viola! My new favorite dish! 

Ingredients for a plate of heart attack inducing goodness.......

125g penne

2 egg yolks

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 rashes of the fattest bacon, chopped

3 bird's eye chilies, finely chopped

A handful of parsley, chopped

Parmesan cheese, as much as you like

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon Italian herbs

1 sated egg yolk, steamed for 15mins and mashed

some salt for the pasta water

50g of fried pork lard bits

Method

Cook the penne according to the instructions on the pack.

In a pan, pour in the olive oil, garlic, Italian herbs and bacon, cook till the bacon is crispy, put it aside.

Beat the egg yolk and slowly add 3 teaspoons of Parmesan cheese into it.

When that's done, add the mashed salted egg yolk into it. You will not be using all of it as the mixture will be too thick. Don't worry about the remainder, you can toss it into the pasta when it's done. you should get about the same consistency as in the picture below

In a mixing bowl, put the remainder of the mashed salted egg yolk, parsley, bird's eye chilies and bacon bits.

Drain the pasta, saving a cup of the water used to cook the pasta.

Mix the hot pasta with the egg yolk and cheese mixture, with all the other ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Add a little of the water you saved earlier into the mix to get it a little creamier.

Now's the time to add in the fried pork lard and it's ready to serve!

Enjoy! But remember, Too much of the good stuff is not good for you! Moderation is the key! And should you think that this should be on my menu, please let me know! Thanks!

BAK KWA

Since the Chinese New Year's around the corner, I thought I'd give making Bak Bwa a shot. I always loved this sweet slices of BBQed meat! Can't keep my hands off them! Searched the internet and found that the recipes of Bak Kwa are almost similar to my Char Siu, and since I have all the stuff needed, why not make some?! 

Last year, when i was back in Singapore, they had this Bak Kwa with pieces of pineapple in them. Pork and pineapple is a winning combination. However, I was a little disappointed with it as it seemed that there was not enough pineapple, so since I'm making some, why not add more pineapple pieces? That's the beauty of D.I.Y! And since pineapple mixed with cinnamon tastes excellent, why not season the pineapple bits with cinnamon? Excellent stuff!

Ingredients

500g minced pork (60/40% mix of lean and fat)
8 tablespoons sugar
Half tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon chinese five spice powder
1 tablespoon chinese rice wine
1 cube of red fermented bean curd
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
3 pieces of pineapple bought from the cut fruits stall
Some honey for basting

Method
Roughly chop the pineapple and marinade it with cinnamon powder.
Mix all the other ingredients together and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours to marinade
When it's done, spread a thin layer of it on a non stick pan and put it in an oven that is preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 10 minutes

The meat will shrink a little after the 10 minutes are up, and there will be a fair bit of liquid on the pan.
Drain the liquid and cut the meat slices into manageable chunks.

For those of you who have a BBQ grill handy, now's the time to break it out! Nothing beats the smoky smell on a Bak Kwa! But unfortunately I don't, so it's back into the oven to get it slightly charred. 
Baste the slices with honey, put it in the oven at 250 degree celsius and take it out when there is a slight charring on the sides

I know it's quite a bit of work for so few slices of Bak Kwa, but the taste is pretty good! If it was finished on a charcoal grill, it would be awesome! 

So, it's not too difficult to D.I.Y. Bak Kwa. Give it a shot! You'd be pleasantly surprised how easy it is to do and how good it tastes too!

Enjoy!

BAKED POTATOES

These are not your normal, run the mill baked potatoes. I love to have a really crispy, skin on baked potatoes with a soft, fluffy centre that explodes with taste when it gets into my mouth. This is perfect for those who are lactose intolerant, as there are no cheese or sour cream in this recipe. To get the rich taste, a good splash of pork lard is added. Not only does it bring along a wallop of flavour, it also helps to give the potatoes a crispy crust!

Ingredients

2 of whatever different potatoes you can find.

zest of 1 orange

1 teaspoon of coarse black pepper

10 cloves of garlic

4 rashes of bacon, chopped

3 stalks of sage, roughly chopped

5 tablespoons of pork oil

Method

Parboil the potatoes

Press the boiled potatoes to give it extra surface area. This is to make sure that there is more of the crispy crust when you bake them.

Generously coat the smashed potatoes with pork oil, put them on a tray and bake them for about 30mins on medium heat

On a hot pan, fry the garlic and bacon bits until golden brown.

When the 30mins are up, add the garlic, bacon bits, orange zest, black pepper and sage to the potatoes and bake for another 10mins.

The dish is ready to be served when you smell the aroma of sage and orange.

I just love the crispy skin and the fluffy texture of this dish. The orange zest, bacon and sage brings a christmassy feel to this dish. It goes on famously well with a slab of roasted pork belly.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS ROAST PORK

Christmas is around the corner, and I was asked to make a siu yoke, but with a western twist. So having made porchetta before, I decided to work some of the porchetta's marinade into this.

Ingredients

2kg pork belly

4 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary

1 whole garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon coarse black pepper

The zest of one orange

The juice of one orange

2 teaspoons of sea salt (for the marinade)

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

Method

Clean the pork belly, and make sure there's no bristles on the skin.

With a sharp meat pricker, prick the skin side of the pork belly. The more pricks, the better. ( that sounds so wrong! ;-) )

Mix all the ingredients to form a paste

With the tip of a sharp knife, make tiny cuts into the flesh side of the pork belly.

Rub the paste on the flesh side of the pork belly, and make sure to have the marinade into the tiny cuts that you made earlier. This way the flavour has a much better chance of penetrating the meat.

Now, rub some salt on the skin and let the meat air dry for 5 hours. While that is happening, you will notice water on the skin. I usually wipe the water off every hour and rub salt again. This is to draw moisture out so you will get a good, crispy skin when it's roasted.

Preheat an oven to 180 degree celsius and when the 5 hours are up, put it in and let it roast at that temperature for the first hour. 

Set the temperature at 150 degree celsius for the second hour and 200 degree celsius for the third hour.

Take the meat out after the third hour and baste the skin with vinegar, put it back into the oven, set the temperature to 250 degree celsius and let it cook until the meat is slightly charred. Don't worry about the charring, as you will be able to scrape it off when the meat is cooled.

When it's done, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes before scraping the charred bits off and you're ready to serve!

I know it's a tedious process, but the end result is well worth the effort. What you will get is a really crispy skin and a really tender flesh under the crackling. This will be an impressive dish to have on your Christmas dinner table!

Enjoy!

THE LIFE OF A LUNCHBOX
CATERER

Got myself into the lunchbox catering business with a friend recently. It all started with a friend posting on Facebook asking if anyone was interested in a new business venture. Since the workshop business was kind of slow, I got in touch with him and we discussed it for some time. A few names were bandied around before us settling on the name Hot Chicks and pasta, which described our business to a T. 

Finally, we did a food tasting session on 1st November this year, which, coincidentally, was my sister's birthday, and the anniversary of my dad's passing! The two of them are real foodies, and on such an auspicious date, how can anything go wrong?!

The food tasting session was an unprecedented success. With four flavours confirmed for the initial menu, we even did the photoshoot for the menu on the same day!

So once we got the costings right and the menu confirmed, we started taking orders and the first eight packs were sent out on 25th November.

So, what is the life of a lunch pack caterer like? Well, it all begins two days prior to delivery, with the search for the freshest halal slaughtered chicken. All the chicken that we use are slaughtered on the same day that we buy and has to be between 1.5 to 1.7kg in weight. This is to ensure that the chicken remains fresh and it will fit into our compartmentalized boxes.

The chicken is then brought back to be cleaned and quartered. My pet peeve when eating chicken from any shop is that there are coagulated blood in the inside of the chicken, something that I thoroughly remove during the cleaning process. Any feathers that escaped the cleaning process at the slaughterers are also removed at this point.

All the marinade is made fresh, with the freshest ingredients and the cleaned chicken will be soaked in the marinade in almost airtight sealed bags in the fridge for two days. This is to ensure that the chicken absorbs all the flavours before being grilled, to bet the best tasting chicken.

Depending on the size of the day's orders, waking up at 5am in the morning to start preparing for the day is not unusual. The carrots and broccoli needs to be cleaned and chopped to manageable sizes, the penne needs to be boiled and the chickens need to be roasted, depending on the quantity, for up to two hours at a go. All the equipment and ingredients used are free of porcine contaminants, to aplease local sensitivities.   

When all the cooking's done, it's time to pack everything and head to our central kitchen. This is where we heat the chicken again and pack them according to the orders and delivery locations. 

By eleven am, all the orders would be ready for delivery, waiting for the runners, who would then deliver the food to the respective customers. If time permits, we actually do deliveries on our own too. The cycle continues, with me going to the chicken shop, looking for the freshest chicken to marinade for the coming orders.

This job can be tiring, but if you really like to cook, this is a pretty rewarding one. So next time you order a Hot Chicks Chicken meal, you will know all the work and the freshest ingredients that makes the meal a great one!

LAUNCH OF THAT BLOODY BOTAK

It's been an incredibly busy month for me. Besides juggling my time between maddriver's garage and Rapid Stop brake pads, I got my feet wet in the food catering business with a partner and formed Hot Chicks. Waking up 5 days a week at 5 in the morning to prepare food is no joke!

But being the sucker for punishment, and a lover of all things pork, I've decided to plunge head on into this and make That Bloody Botak into a roast meat business. 

Delicious, melt in your mouth char siu, suitable for all occasions and super tasty too! The char siu is not overly sweet, but for those who like their char siu really sweet, it comes with a serving of sweet and sticky char siu sauce. The char siu is made using only the finest imported pork belly, as this particular source provides the best texture of meat for making super tender char siu. 

The char siu is made using only the finest imported pork belly, as this particular source provides the best texture of meat for making super tender char siu. 

The meat is then marinated for at least two days with my blend of spices to get that rich and sweet taste. It is then grilled low and slow, for at least 3 hours to get that nice and tender meat and a sweet and savoury outer crust.

This is what you will expect from a char siu made by That Bloody Botak. Delicious, tender char siu with the flavour going through the meat!

Besides char siu, my other product, which is also quite popular among my customers id the siu yoke. The things that makes this siu yoke stand out from the rest is the tender, well marinated flesh, and the super crispy skin that remains that way for at least 10 hours, if you have not already finished them off! Trust me, it was was a difficult 10 hour wait!

See how juicy it is! The siu yoke is made from the freshest locally sourced pork belly, lovingly marinated and grilled to perfection. For those who would like to have a little sauce to go with the siu yoke, I have a spicy pineapple sauce that goes just perfect with this, but as is, the siu yoke is good enough to eat on it's own.

As much as I would like to list the prices here, I can't because the price of pork fluctuates, so should you want some of this mouth drooling, lip smacking goodness, call me at +60133420849 and I'll quote you accordingly. The minimum order for  charr siu is 1kg and 2 kg for siu yoke. The weight is taken when the meat is raw, as after grilling, the meat tends to shrink, more evidently in the siu yoke.