General Tso’s Pork Ribs in Crock Pot

I still had some General Tso’s Glaze Sauce in my fridge and last weekend was another culinary experimental journey for me. I went to the market in the morning with the aim of cooking a simple lunch of chicken porridge followed by dinner comprising stir-fried spinach with garlic and a meat dish. I duly settled for pork ribs. As I intended to take a nap in the afternoon, I decided that I was going to just marinate the pork ribs and place it into the crock pot (some call it a slow cooker) and allow it to cook whilst I proceed to dreamland. This dish is simple and fuss free just like most of the other recipes on this site.

However, I do understand that General Tso’s Glaze Sauce might not be available worldwide, even in Malaysia. A thoughtful reader of this site, Reese, bought me a bottle all the way from Boston! Based on the sample recipe found on the label of the sauce, roasted pork ribs which were marinated in the sauce is supposed to be good and I believe it should be. I don’t have an oven with me and I decided that slow cooking would also be suitable.

I asked the butcher for meaty and tender parts of the pork ribs. That was the description I gave to the butcher. Unfortunately, I don’t know what it is called in English. Perhaps spare ribs? Anyway, I complimented the pork ribs with baby corns (I simply love their natural sweetness) and chunks of plump carrots and finally added a handful of chinese celery to give it a slightly herbal taste. Perfect! I had two big helpings of steamed white rice and ended up very pleased with what I cooked. If you can get hold of General Tso’s Glaze Sauce, try this recipe. It’s a no-brainer!

This is my recipe for General Tso’s Pork Ribs in Crock Pot

Ingredients

• 150 grammes pork ribs (chopped into 4 to 5cm lengths)
• 5 to 8 pieces baby corn (sliced lengthwise)
• 1 medium sized carrot (cut into medium chunks)
• A handful of chopped chinese celery (optional)

Marinate

• 3 tablespoons General Tso’s Glazing Sauce
• a pinch of salt

Method

Wash pork ribs and pat dry. Place in suitable container and marinade for 2 to 3 hours.

Lay baby corn and carrots on bottom of crock pot. Place pork ribs on top of baby corn and carrots. Pour remaining marinade over the pork ribs. Cover lid and cook on high for 3 hours.

After cooking, place pork ribs, baby corn and carrots on serving plate and sprinkle chopped chinese celery (optional) over them. If you find that the gravy is too watery to your liking, reduce and thicken it separately in a sauce pan by adding a little corn starch. Pour gravy over the pork ribs.

Choy Sum with Sweet Tau Kee

It was difficult for me to find the exact English equivalent for Sweet Tau Kee or Sweet Tou Kan, a type of soya product which is popular amongst vegetarians. Sweet Tau Kee comes in rectangular dried hard pieces and are brown in colour and you will need to soften them by pre-soaking in water for a few minutes prior to cooking. I have had experience where certain Sweet Tau Kee softens much faster than others depending on different manufacturers. After they have softened, you should cut them into smaller pieces as they measure approximately 15cm in length and 5 cm in width prior to cooking.

Sweet Tau Kee is not for everyone due to its unique taste, which can be bitter to some. Here, I have paired the Sweet Tau Kee with Choy Sum (菜心) or “Flowering Chinese Cabbage” so that there is a good balance between the subtle sweetness of the Tau Kee and the refreshing Choy Sum greens. This dish is quite easy to cook and with a little effort in presentation, you can dish out something which can rival what is being offered in the chinese restaurants. By the way, if you intend to serve this as a complete vegetarian dish, omit garlic from the ingredients.

This is my recipe for Choy Sum with Sweet Tau Kee

Ingredients

• 200 grammes Choy Sum (choose tender shoots, rinsed thoroughly to remove dirt)
• 3 pieces Sweet Tau Kee (pre-soak till soft enough to cut with scissors, yet with a little firmness. Cut into desired sizes)
• 3 cloves garlic (sliced thinly)
• Water for blanching Choy Sum
• Potato starch (mix 1 teaspoon potato flour with 100 ml water)
• 2 tablespoons peanut / corn oil

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon mushroom / abalone flavoured sauce
• A pinch of salt
• A couple of dashes of white pepper powder

Method

Bring to boil in a pot or wok. Add a liberal pinch of salt and a couple of drops of cooking oil. Whilst water is boiling rapidly, add Choy Sum and blanch it until the leaves turn dark green, indicating that it is cooked. Remove and drain. Arrange Choy Sum on a plate.

Heat cooking oil in wok and fry the sweet tau kee for 1 minute on both sides on medium high heat. Once done, push the sweet tau kee to one side and add garlic to remaining oil. Saute till aromatic.

Then, push back the sweet tau kee to the garlic and add 200 ml water. Bring gravy to boil and add seasoning to taste. Gradually add potato starch to thicken gravy to your preferred consistency. Then, pour gravy with sweet tau kee and garlic over the pre-arranged Choy Sum.

Pumpkin and Luncheon Meat Combo

I had a small quarter of pumpkin the other day and we all know how sweet pumpkins are. But I was bored of stir-frying pumpkin with dried prawns and needed a change. After rummaging through my kitchen cabinet, I found a can of luncheon meat and I thought “why not?”. The sweetness from the pumpkin would complement the slightly saltish luncheon meat and that could be a good combo. So, what I did was to cut both ingredients into equal sized cubes and stir-fried them to make this pumpkin and luncheon meat combo. It turned out quite alright

For this recipe, I cut the pumpkin and luncheon meat into cubes. You can cut them into slivers if you prefer it that way. Somehow, I could not resist the use of dried prawns to give it a slight seafood bite. If you are unable to get hold of dried prawns, I would recommend just omitting it altogether. Do take care with the seasoning as the taste depends on how sweet your pumpkin is and how salty your brand of luncheon meat is. So, use salt judiciously. Otherwise you will have to take extra helpings of steamed white rice and a double dose of water to flush them out

This is my recipe for Pumpkin and Luncheon Meat Combo

Ingredients

• 100 grammes pumpkin (cubed)
• 100 grammes luncheon meat (cubed)
• 1 tablespoonful of dried prawns (rinsed and pre-soaked for 30 minutes in 150 ml water. Keep water)
• 4 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• 4 shallots (sliced finely)
• 5 tablespoons cooking oil

Seasoning

• Salt / Light soya sauce and white pepper powder to taste

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in wok and fry luncheon meat till golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add 2 tablespoons oil into wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add garlic and pre-soaked dried prawns into wok and fry till aromatic and until garlic becomes golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add 2 tablespoons oil into wok and fry pumpkin for 1 minute. Then add water previously used to soak dried prawns. Cover with lid and allow water to dry up. Uncover lid, stir well and add more water up to half the height of pumpkin. Repeat covered cooking process till pumpkin slightly soft. Then add fried luncheon meat, fried dried prawns, fried garlic and water. Add seasoning to taste.

Stir until water slightly evaporated and pumpkin has been cooked to your desired softness.

Remove from wok and garnish with fried shallots.

Bak Chang Recipe

We’ve finally reached the third installment in the Bak Chang series and today, I will feature our family Bak Chang recipe. Now, this recipe is definitely not for beginners as a considerable amount of skill and estimation on ingredients are required. You see, with home-cooked food, we don’t measure ingredients using measuring spoons or cups. Rather, it’s a lot to do with estimation or what the locals call “agak-agak” (”estimate”). So, this recipe is a guide for you so that you roughly know what ingredients go into the Bak Chang and how is is prepared and cooked.

This Bak Chang recipe is quite close to the Nyonya Bak Chang especially in the taste department. It is probably world’s apart from Cantonese Bak Chang which tends to be a bit on the saltish side and contains bigger chunks of ingredients. Those who are fond of eating saltish Bak Changs might find this not suited to their palate because our Bak Chang recipe is sweet and saltish with a slight emphasis on the former. Nevertheless, for those who are craving for a slightly sweetish Bak Chang, this might be the recipe you are looking for. In this recipe, we are looking at making approximately 25 Bak Changs depending on how you wrap the Bak Chang.

This is our family recipe for Bak Chang

Ingredients

• 1 kg glutinous rice (washed, pre-soaked for 4 to 6 hours and drained)
• 1 kg pork (lean pork from the fore thigh, cut into small cubes not more than 1cm sides)
• 300 grammes dried winter melon (cut into small cubes not more than 1cm sides)
• 250 grammes dried prawns (rinsed and pounded)
• 15 pieces chinese dried mushroom (pre-soaked till soft and cut into cubes not more than 1 cm sides)
• 8 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 1 bulb garlic (chopped)
• 60 pieces Bak Chang bamboo leaves (washed thoroughly and boiled for 15 minutes to soften)
• 5 tablespoons cooking oil
• 10 pieces pandan leaves (knotted)
• Reed or Banana stem reed to tie

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons dark soya sauce
• 4 tablespoons coriander powder (ketumbar)
• Liberal dashes of white pepper powder

Method
Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil in wok and fry 1/2 the garlic and shallots till aromatic. Add glutinous rice, 1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce, 1 tablespoon of ketumbar and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder. Stir well. Remove and leave to cool.

Heat up 3 tablespoons of cooking oil in wok and fry the other half of garlic and shallots till aromatic. Add dried prawns and stir till aromatic. Next, add mushrooms and pork. Stir well followed by adding of winter melon and seasoning to taste. Stir till even and pork is cooked. Set aside to cool.

Wrap the Bak Changs. Bring to boil a large pot of water and throw in the pandan leaves. Boil Bak Chang for 3 hours completely submerged and covered. For best results, use a charcoal stove. For quick cooking, use a pressure cooker and boil for approximately 45 minutes on pressure and 15 minutes standing.

The Bak Chang Wrapping Process

Wrapping a Bak Chang is no mean feat. You are dealing with 2 pieces of bamboo leaves or pandan leaves in hand, folding them into a cone-like shape, filling it with glutinous rice and other ingredients, wrapping it up into a pyramid-like shape and finally, tying them up using banana stem strings or reeds. Some use raffia strings (especially traders) but I am wary of possible leaching of chemicals during the cooking process.

The following video shows you how to wrap a Bak Chang. That’s my dad on the right hand side and my mum on the left. To start off, choose two leaves with the smooth side as the inner side and the rougher side of the leave on the outer side. Fold them to make a cone-like shape. Then, add glutinous rice to the bottom and make a simple well. Next, add the bak chang filling followed by more glutinous rice to almost fill up the whole cone. Insert a small piece of pandan leaf on the side. Wrap the Bak Chang just like how mum does it and tie them securely using the strings or reeds.

Watch the video for a step-by-step guide on how a Bak Chang is wrapped.

Teaser : Bak Chang Filling

Bak Chang (or Zongzi), meat enclosed in glutinous rice filling, is traditionally eaten in June for the Chinese. It stemmed from the Dragon Boat Festival which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom of Chu who lived during the Warring States period. Of course, in this day and time, eating Bak Chang is more of a “seasonal food” though it is not uncommon to see Bak Chang being sold all year round.

I have been brought up to eat Bak Chang made by my parents and for me, our homemade Bak Zhang is incomparably delicious. Many of our relatives will ask for a couple of these southern-styled Bak Zhang whenever they hear my parents making them. Our family Bak Zhang is closely related to the Nyonya Bak Zhang in taste though the presentation is a little different. The pork is cut into bits rather than cubes (which are more common with Cantonese-Styled Bak Zhang) and freshly-toasted coriander seeds (also known as Ketumbar) which are blended into powder are used.

Just like our family Popiah recipe, our Bak Zhang recipe is also lengthy and labourious but the hardwork comes with immediate satisfaction as these delicious dumplings are savoured over a cup of chinese tea. When I was in my teens, I could eat about 4 of these Bak Zhangs in one sitting! There were even times when I had them for breakfast and lunch and had to be stopped from eating them for dinner on the same day because mum was worried about my over-indulgence!

Anyway, this will be a 3 part series on Bak Zhang. Following up from this post will be an exclusive video on wrapping Bak Zhang expertly performed by my parents. It’s nice to see my dad and mum combining their skills to create these delicious Bak Zhangs. The finale will be the unveiling of our family’s secret recipe in the hope that it can be passed on to the rest of the world. So, do watch this space!

8 Treasures Dessert

This is another dessert recipe which I was unable to find the right name for it. So, I will call it the 8 Treasures Dessert because in the dessert, you will find 8 ingredients, though only 6 are visible. Anyway, the name is not all that important because what is more important is the deliciousness of this dessert - especially when eaten cold.

This dessert is really cooling, and I don’t mean just because it is served chilled. With a combination of white fungus, ginkgo nuts, lotus seeds, honey dates, red dates and sea coconut served in a chrysanthemum  and sugar-based soup, you will clamour for bowl after bowls of this nutritious dessert. I would recommend that you cook a substantial portion to share because it saves you the effort and your guests are likely to ask for seconds. This is a dessert which is great for parties and hot days.

A point to note. The gingko nut and lotus seeds need to be prepared for cooking by removing its inner core. For the gingko nuts, you will see one end which may show a tiny shoot just about to sprout. Poke the other side using a pointed toothpick. Do not poke at the end which the shoot can be seen. As for the lotus seeds, the technique to remove the inner core is similar.

This is the recipe for 8 Treasures Dessert

Ingredients

• 15 grammes white fungus (pre-soaked and cut into smaller pieces)
• 15 to 20 pieces ginkgo nuts (remove inner core by using a pointed toothpick to poke at the one end )
• 30 grammes fresh lotus seeds (remove inner core by using
• 4 pieces honey dates
• 12 pieces red dates
• 1 can of sea coconut slices (remove syrup)
• 10 grammes dried chrysanthemum flowers (rinsed)
• 100 grammes rock sugar
• 1.5 litres water

Method

Bring water to boil. Add chrysanthemum flowers and turn off the heat. Cover lid and allow to steep for 20 minutes. Strain to remove flowers.

Add in the rest of the ingredients except the sea coconut. Bring the soup back to boil then reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Thereafter, turn off the heat and allow to cool.

If you prefer serving it hot, add the sea coconut slices after turning off the heat and serve immediately. Otherwise, allow to cool, then add the sea coconut slices and chill it in the fridge prior to serving.

Napa Cabbage Rolls

I once ate something similar from a chinese take-away and decided to give it a try. The Napa Cabbage used in this dish is also known as Chinese White Cabbage (大白菜) or similar to Kimchi. It is longish and sweet in taste and widely used in East Asia. Though I usually stir fry this dish or use them in soups, this is my first attempt at steaming them after rolling them up like popiah.

There are 3 main steps to this dish. Preparing the stuffing, softening the cabbage and steaming the cabbage rolls. This recipe makes about 10 to 12 rolls with each roll using a single napa cabbage leaf. Actually, the stuffing can be left to your creativity. I used pork and prawns here. You can use fish paste, chicken meat or even beef or lamb mince depending on the seasoning applied.

The result was good and I was happy with how it turned out. The stuffing was nice and firm (and does not crumble) whilst the napa cabbage leafs were not overcooked and retained a slight resistance when bitten. Rather healthy dish, I must say. Tasted great with steaming white rice and a favourite with the kids. I should cook this for Chinese New Year Eve Dinner

This is my recipe for Napa Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

• 150 grammes pork mince
• 150 grammes prawns (deveined, shelled and chopped roughly)
• 5 pieces chinese dried mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft and chopped)
• 12 pieces Napa Cabbage leafs

Marinade

• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• a few dashes of white pepper powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 teaspoon cornflour

Method

Place steaming rack on steamer and steam napa cabbage leafs one by one till limp and soft enough to roll. Set steamed leafs aside to cool.

Place pork, prawns and mushrooms with marinade in a large mixing bowl. Combine the ingredients in a one-way movement (eg. clockwise or anti-clockwise) till even. Leave mixture to stand for at least 30 minutes.

Place a single napa cabbage leaf on a large plate / table with pointed leaf away from you. Take 2 tablespoons of mixture and place on the stem end and form into a sausage-like roll. Fold stem end over the mixture, fold both sides and roll over till the pointed leaf edge. Repeat with the rest of the leafs and mixture till complete.

Arrange rolls on a plate and steam for 10 minutes. To test whether completely cooked, pierce with a chopstick. If the chopstick comes out clean, it’s cooked.

Remove steamed rolls and place on a plate (you can slice them if you want). With the remainder of the gravy on the steaming plate, pour it into a saucepan and reduce it into a thicker gravy using a little cornstarch if necessary.

Serve hot by pouring over with gravy.