IP Char siu

Also known as cha siu or char siew because this is a cantonese name, so it cannot be spelt using hanyu pinyin. A long time ago, my close staff taught me to make char siu in my pots with pork butt (twui bak) and equal parts of sugar, oyster sauce, light soya sauce, and dark soya sauce. While that gave a really nice flavour, it didn't taste anything like soya sauce pork nor char siu. I decided to look for a recipe and came across these two recipes which I've adapted for my purposes. With the pork you can also use pork shoulder or even pork belly, depending on how fatty you like the pork. (https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/roasted-pork-belly-with-honey/)

Ingredients list: This link tastes the most authentic and because the other link uses char siu sauce. Why would I want to make char siu sauce from scratch if I already have the pre-made version?
http://www.curiousnut.com/chinese-bbq-pork-char-siu/

Method: This link uses IP method which is my preference to cooking in the oven and splattering everywhere and basting (and basting and basting), although this method is two-step ie cook in IP then grill in oven.
https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/char-siu-chinese-bbq-pork-pressure-cooker/

Ingredients
500g of pork butt
2 tbsp garlic, finely minced
3 tbsp light soya sauce
3 tbsp honey (or maltose)
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp juice of red fermented beancurd (nam yu)
2 tbsp light soya sauce
3 tbsp brown sugar (reduced from 5)
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp five spice powder
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp salt (optional, depends on how salty the other sauces are, which depend on the brands used)
1 cup (250ml) of water
Glaze
2 tbsp light soya sauce
3 tbsp honey

Method
1. Prepare the pork by slicing down the centre until it makes 2 long strips of pork. If preferred, poke holes in the meat for the marinade to penetrate. Mix the marinate and marinate the pork in the mixture for min 2 hours or best overnight, up to 2 days.
2. Drain the marinade and pour into the bottom of the IP. Add the cup of water and stir until combined. Try to remove as much of the marinade from the pork and especially the garlic pieces or these will burn later on.
3. Place the pork in a steam basket. Cook on high pressure for 18 minutes, and natural release for 12 minutes.
4. Mix the glaze. Brush onto the pork.
5. Preheat to 230 deg C or Grill function. Place pork on a grilling rack (over a roasting tin lined with foil for easy clean up) and grill for 4 to 6 minutes per side (I did 5 min). Watch like a hawk. Once the surface turns slightly charred from the sugars in the honey and soya sauce, flip the pork or remove from the oven as necessary.
6. Serve chopped up with rice with the cooked gravy, or use in other meals e.g. wanton mee, char siu buns, fried rice, etc.

Beauties after grilling

Looks a bit dry but tasted ok after drizzling on the gravy

Recipe feedback
1. The meat came out a bit dry but looked correct. I wonder if it's the twui bak (pork butt) which was used instead of pork shoulder. I also recall that some char siu that I've eaten was very dry but because it was sliced wafer thin, you couldn't really tell. It might also be because I sliced it across the grain rather than with the grain, or because it was overcooked in the IP (I added an extra minute because one slab was really thick). I might try pork shoulder in future just for a comparison.
2. BK added that he'd like it sweeter and I did reduce the brown sugar from 5 to 3 tbsp, however, when I tasted the gravy, it tasted correct to me. The only thing is that it needs to be reduced like a sauce, which I was in too much of a rush for time to do.

Siew mai (Shumai)

I have long thought that siewmai were very difficult to make until I watched a few videos. It's quite easy to wrap, just hold hand in a cupping motion and push the filling in. The wrapper pleats itself. The trick comes in flattening the bottom on a flat surface, then using your thumb and ring finger to create a waist near the top of the dumpling. This uses considerably more filling (probably about 1.5 to 2x more) than I anticipated given my experience with other dumplings, so I had under-estimated the amount of filling needed.

This is the best link for wrapping siewmai that I could find: https://www.theburningkitchen.com/shrimp-and-pork-dumpling-siew-mai/

Ingredients (makes 20)
500g minced pork
100g dried black cloud fungus
20 prawns, shelled and deveined and chopped into chunks
4 sliced small to medium carrots
Enough frozen peas for decoration
2 tsp salt
2 tsp soya sauce
Dash of pepper
1 tbsp chinese rice wine
2 tsp minced garlic

Method
1. Soak the cloud fungus. While waiting, mix the minced pork and prawns. Marinate with soya sauce, pepper, rice wine, and minced garlic. Leave to marinate for at least an hour.
2. Drain the cloud fungus and squeeze out any excess water. Slice into short strips.
3. Prepare the carrots by slicing into rounds. Line a steamer with a parchment with holes cut out. Place the carrot rounds on top of the parchment, using the carrots as a lining so that the dumplings don't stick together.
4. When prepared to wrap, mix in the cloud fungus. Wrap each siew mai as described above and place the wrapped siew mai into the steam on top of the carrot rounds.
5. Bring a steamer to a rolling boil and steam the dumplings (about 10 to 12 each time) for 10 minutes.
6. Serve hot with sweet chilli sauce or sambal as desired.

Matcha ice cream

I've made ice cream on several occasions now. I could never quite get the recipe for the basic recipe right until I read a new recipe.

https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/homemade-ice-cream-party/

The main difference is when the condensed milk is added, whether it is beaten, and also the temp. Gemma put the condensed milk in the fridge and also beat the double cream initially until stiff peaks. I've also read in another of her recipes that she beat them until soft peaks before adding in the condensed milk and then continued to beat till stiff peaks, which is the method I used. I'm always petrified of over beating cream, and then it becomes butter! Below, I've adapted for matcha which I happen to have a tin lying around and need to use up.

Ingredients
1 tin of condensed milk, leave in the fridge overnight
600ml of double cream, suitable for whipping
2 tbsp culinary grade matcha powder
3 to 4 tbsp of hot (not boiling!) water, just enough to make into a paste
2 tbsp of icing sugar

Method
1. In a food processor or mixer/beater, add the chilled double cream. Beat until soft peaks.
2. Pour in the cold double cream and beat until stiff peaks.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the matcha powder and hot water into a smooth paste. To ensure that there are no lumps, you might want to sift the matcha adding the water.
4. Add the sugar to the matcha paste and combine until no lumps remain.
5. Pour the cream mixture into the mixing bowl and fold in carefully until no streaks remain.
6. Transfer to a freezable container (plastic or metal but no glass!) and freeze for at least 6 hours but best overnight.

IP Nasi Chicken Biryani

Easy recipe last posted here: https://simmetra.blogspot.com/2018/11/ip-nasi-biranyi.html

Found another recipe which seems to have more flavour than the Ministry of Curry because it also fries the dry spices for the rice but I still prefer the method from MoC. The marinade is mostly the same but the difference is in the rice and dry spices. (quantities have been adapted for 1.2 to 1.5 kg of chicken)

https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/chicken-biryani-in-pressure-cooker/

Ingredients
8 to 12 pieces of chicken drumstick

Marinade
1 tbsp ginger grated
1 tbsp garlic grated
2 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp red chilli powder
¾ cup yoghurt (or about 6 tbsp)
2 tsp salt (if required)

Whole dry spices
1 bay leaf
4 cardamom
4 to 6 cloves
1 inch cinnamon
1 star anise
¾ caraway seeds

Pot
3 cups basmati
3 cups of water or thin coconut milk
3 tbsp ghee or oil
1 large onion, sliced
½ cup mint, chopped
1 green chilli, slit
6 tbsp yoghurt
¾ salt to sprinkle in water
1.5 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp fried onion (optional)

Served with tomato raita

Method
1) Marinade chicken for at least 1 hour. Soak rice for 30 minutes.
2) Heat the oil and fry whatever dry spices you have. Fry the onion until light brown.
3) Add the chicken and fry for 5 minutes. Evaporate excess water.
4) Add the additional ingredients into the pot (mint, chilli, yoghurt, garam masala). Deglaze the pot with 1C of water to prevent burning later on.
5) Layer. Ensure the chicken is at the bottom. Spread rice over the chicken (and avoid letting the rice fall to the bottom of the pan where it will burn)
6) Pour 2 cups down the sides of the pot. Pour the remaining cup on top of the rice. Level if necessary.
7) Sprinkle on the mint and fried onions.
8) Set on manual for 10 minutes, natural release for 5 minutes.
9) Fluff up the rice. Serve from the bottom layer. Serve with raita and flat breads.

Recipe feedback
This is much more tasty than the previous recipe and I learnt a very important lesson: that c cup of water per cup of rice is sufficient as far as this recipe goes. In a pressure cooker and also with the addition of chicken, a lot less water is needed to cook the rice than it would in a normal rice cooker or even microwave rice cooker. I know the writer of this recipe did say that basmati esp old rice needs less water than other rice so it does seem true. I will only really know when I cook basmati in the microwave to compare with how I cook with Jasmine.

Otherwise, the recipe is great and the same tricks from the last recipe applies i.e. must deglaze pan so the bottom won't burn, pile rice only on to of the chicken so the rice doesn't burn, and finally, natural release for only 5 minutes.