Sunday, February 26, 2006

Crusty Ham & Cheese Meatloaf







Got the standard meatloaf recipe from Mags. Decided to do a 'clear up of leaftovers' in the fridge thing before supermarket shopping later on. Decided to improv (that's the training term for 'improvise' activities) and here's what I got. Not a bad outcome, the top was almost like short crust pastry. Give it a try!
Ingredients
300g minced beef
Herbs (I used my favourite '4 big kings' or 'shi da tian wang' variation but you can use anything that you like which goes well with beef e.g. rosemary, oregano, etc)
2 tbls light soya sauce or salt to taste
Freshly milled black pepper
2 eggs
4 slices picnic ham, sliced into cubes
3 thick slices of bread, blitzed into breadcrumbs
Parmesan cheese, grated
8g melted butter

Method
1. Mix the minced beef, herbs, salt and black pepper together. Add the ham and half the bread crumbs and mix well.
2. Beat up 2 eggs. Pour into the mixture and mix well.
3. Brush a baking tray or casserole dish with melted butter.
4. Spread on the beef mixture, pressing down with a fork to ensure that the mixture is well distributed over the surface of the pan, and pat down the surface so that it is flat.
5. Pour in the melted butter into the bread crumbs. It should resemble breadcrumb consistency (no pun intended)
6. Spread on the bread crumbs on top and pat down with the fork.
7. Sprinkle grated cheese on the top.
8. Bake at 200 C for 20 mins. If using a casserole, cover for 1st 15 mins and unconvered to brown and melt the cheese for last 5 mins.

Slice up and serve with salad. Nice for a warm summers' day or as picnic food.

Variation
If you're a real cheese lover, sprinkle the grated cheese into the beef mixture and mix well for that extra cheesey surprise when you bite into the loaf.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

5 spice Pig Maw soup

People say that as we get older, our tastes change and we start to appreciate foods with stronger flavours. Indeed, as a child, I would swear off intestines of any form. Yet in the last 10 years, after an introduction to 'kuay chup', I started liking intestines. I developed a liking pig maw (stomach) soup only in the last couple of years and would look forward to it. Of course it's not the healthiest dish on earth and frankly, neither is it very tasty, but I like the texture of chewing pig maw.

However, I notice that most pig maw soups that I've had are usually quite bland - it is usually just pork bone/chicken stock and pig maw with tonnes of black pepper. Not much taste otherwise, which has always been a 'source of concern' for me. Especially since most soups I've tasted had so much black pepper, it was more like a very peppery soup and not much else, and it's usually to cover the 'soh' smell of the maw.

I thought of my mom's great 5-spice chicken soup and decided to adapt that. I cook this all up in a slow cooker so that the pig maw is not tough. Great to pop this into the pot in the morning and u got lovely soup after a hard day at work! (that's provided u can pry yourself from bed in the morning!)

Ingredients (serves 4)
300g cooked pig maw
300g pork bones for soup (soft bones are great too)
10 cups of water (coffee mugs are great - u can add more water if you want a thinner soup)
1 handful wolf berries (optional, adds sweetness)

Seasonings A
1 shallot, finely chopped
2-cm length ginger, sliced
2 tsp 5-spice powder
9 cloves
4 star anise
2 cinammon sticks
10 black pepper seeds

Seasonings B
2 tsp sugar
2 tbls chinese rice wine
2 - 3 tsp salt (to taste)


Method
1) In a slow cooker, put in the maw and bones. Boil the water and pour it over the maw and bones. This is very important as it will scald the bones and seal in all the juices, and keep your soup clear. Alternatively, I brown my bones in a pan (what they do for ang mo stews) together with the onion and ginger. It takes more time, but adds a nice caramalized flavour to the soup.
2) Put in the wolf berries and Seasonings A and cook for 1.5 hours.
3) Add in the sugar and wine to taste after the 1 hour mark.
4) Add in the salt last (also to taste), about half an hour before the end. You don't want to put in the salt too early as salt is easily absorbed into the food. 1stly, salt causes meats to 'sieze up' and turns it tough. 2ndly, it is easily absorbed into the food and at the end of the cooking time, u can't taste it in the soup anymore, so you end up putting in more. I've been taught to put it in near the end so that you only flavour the soup and it means u add less salt to your cooking overall.

Serve with steamed rice. Lovely.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Cheesy Bak kwa sandwich

Now that the CNY feasting is nearly over, what to do with left overs? Well, usually with bak kwa, that's seldom a problem but I guess the weight-conscious people like me would eat it really sparingly.

To assauge my guilt, I turn it into a good and super easy to prepare meal, and I use other 'healthier alternatives' like low fat cheese and margarine (rather than butter). Especially useful after a bout of exercise of course! :P


Of course in reality, we all know I'm fooling myself...but what the heck, CNY only comes around once a year. Eating bak kwa any other time of the year kinda loses it's festive 'flavour'.
Ingredients
1/2 slice of bak kwa
1 slice low fat cheese (but of course!)
2 slices bread
margarine (but of course too!)

Method
1) Only assembly required. I usually put the cheese on top of the bak kwa so that it melts into the bak gwa. Yum.
2) Grill the sandwich or toast it. For best results, use a sandwich maker.
3) Optional - you can slot slices of tomato or lettuce into the sandwich but only after it's been grilled/toasted. You don't want your veggies to wilt!

Buchujeon (Garlic chives pancake)