Black Bean Pork Ribs

Hadn't had these for a long time. Used to get these at Dim Sum places, but there isn't a good dim sum place in the Dallas anymore, or at least not a clean one. Khim taught me how to make these some time ago. This time around, I used ginger juice instead of ginger strips.















1 1/2 lbs baby back pork ribs, cut into individual ribs
salt
1 Tbsp ginger juice (grate ginger and squeeze out the juice)
2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
2 tsp salted black beans
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch


Rub salt all over pork ribs, and then rinse with water, pat dry, and put ribs in a big bowl. Add ginger juice, Chinese cooking wine, salted black beans, 1/2 tsp salt, sugar, and corn starch to ribs, mix very well with your hands. Let marinade for 45 minutes.

Heat up your steamer. Place ribs in a flat bowl, steam at high heat for 30-40 minutes.

Serve with noodles or rice.

Lean Pork Porridge

I was iced in today, and I didn't even know about this bad weather coming until I was woken up by my daycare teacher's phone call in the morning at 6:30 about our ISD closing.

What a good day to make some porridge, I thought! ;-) So I started cooking, I was going to make "Century Egg Lean Pork Porridge" (Pei Dan Sau Yook Jook in Cantonese) until I found out that my century eggs were all dried up. You would think the name "century egg" would mean that the eggs could be kept forever, at least for a century, and not turning bad, right?!

Without century eggs, my porridge turned out to be just "lean pork porridge".















1 cup white rice
13 cups water
1/4 lb lean pork, cut in strips, seasoned with salt for at least 45 minutes
5 dried scallops, soaked in hot water, shredded
salt
white pepper
sesame oil
pickled vegetables (jar choy in Cantonese)


Soak rice in water in a big pot for an hour.

Bring rice and water to a boil, it will foam up, watch constantly so it doesn't spill over. When it's boiling, add pork and dried scallops. Turn heat down to low and let it simmer. Put the lid on the pot, but leaving a little gap for air to escape so it does not foam up.

Stir occasionally to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of your pot.

Cook for about an hour or until you get the consistency you want. Turn off the heat, add sesame oil and salt to taste, stir well.

Ladle porridge into a bowl, sprinkle some white pepper on it, and put a spoonful of pickled vegetables on top.

Malay Style Stir-Fried Rice Noodles

In Dallas, when there is a little ice/snow on the road, schools and businesses will be closed. But it's dry outside, with only some icycles hanging off of some cars.

Anyway, my noon meeting was canceled because of the icy condition on the roads, so I stayed home. Had to cook something or else I had nothing to eat.















3/4 lb shrimp, shelled, deveined, cut in half
4 cups cabbage, cut in shreds
1/2 lb pork loin, cut into strips, marinated with salt, cooking wine, and a little sugar
1 1/2 cups ground fresh red chilli peppers
1 1/2 cups ketchup
2 tsp belacan powder
rice noodles, soaked in water to soften
oil
water
salt
fried shallots for garnish


Heat enough oil in your pan at medium heat and add ground chilli peppers, ketchup, and belacan to it and stir fry for about 2 minutes.

Add pork strips, cabbage, and shrimp. Stir constantly until pork and shrimp are cooked.

Add about a cup of water to the pan, mix everything up. Put noodles in pan and stir until all liquid is absorbed and the color is even on all noodles. Add more water if necessary. Salt to taste if necessary.

Garnish with fried shallots (and/or fried eggs, cut in strips).

Veggie Curry with Shrimp

Most of the Malaysian dishes that I cook now I learned from Khim. I didn't even know how to crack an egg when I first started college. Since there wasn't a single Malaysian restaurant here in Dallas, I thought I was never going to see Malaysian food again until I met Khim.

This is of course - Khim's recipe. Khim did not give me any exact amount of any ingredients, so I made up my own.















3 shallots, diced into small pieces
2 pieces of ginger
1 tomato
1 Chinese egg plant (long, not round), cut into pieces, leave skin on
4-5 long beans
2 stalks of lemon grass
3/4 cup of cubed pineapple
3/4 cup cabbage
2 star anise
curry leaves from 2 stalks
1 tsp roasted belacan
1 small bag fried tofu cubes (tau foo bok)
3 heaping tablespoons of seafood curry powder
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp hot chilli paste
2/3 can evaporated milk or coconut milk
2/3 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined, leaving tails on
water
oil
salt

1. Cut all vegetables into your preferred sizes. Mix enough water into curry powder to make a paste. Smash lemon grass with the handle of your knife.
2. Heat up oil in medium heat in your wok/pot, make sure you have enough oil to saute the following. Saute shallots for 1 1/2 minutes. Add curry powder paste, star anise, lemon grass, curry leaves, hot chilli paste, ginger, and roasted belacan. Saute until your curry powder smells toasty.
3. Add all vegetables and mix to coat all vegetables, saute for 1 minute. Sprinkle some salt on all veggies, mix well.
   
4. Add enough water to cover up all vegetables. Bring it up to a boil, add fried tofu cubes.
5. Let it simmer until your egg plant is soft, add shrimp and pineapple and sugar. Salt again. Stir well.
6. Add evaporated milk and mix well - do not let the milk overcook otherwise you will see small milk bits floating all over your curry. (This only happens with evaporated milk, coconut milk does not do that)
   
7. Turn off heat. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Note: hot chilli paste is Homemade Ground Chillies in Oil from Little Corner Of Mine.