Quay Po Cooks: babi ponteh

Showing posts with label babi ponteh. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Too late but no regrets

A few months ago, I wanted to submit this recipe for the Malaysian Food Fest hosted by my friend, Wendy of "Table for 2 or more". By the time I remembered that I had written this post for food from Melaka, it was too late to submit. Oh well! LOL! Anyway, I have no regrets cooking it and I hope you will try and feel the same. Although it was my first attempt it came out delicious suggesting its simplicity. I will definitely cook this again for my family and friends.

I am not sure if I could call this Babi Ponteh because I have added a few of my own choices of spice and I used turnip which were not used in any Babi Ponteh recipes that I found so far.

Both my mum and my Quay Loo are not big fans of fatty pork but they both enjoyed this one. Needless to say, for myself, every bite into the meat sent yours truly to food heaven. LOL! If you don't mind to tasting something a little different from what you are used to, you might consider trying my version of this famous Nyonya dish and here is the recipe.

QPC’s version of Babi Ponteh

Ingredients:

700 gm pork belly, cut into big pieces

4 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped

5 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

1/4 cup oil

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anis

4 cardamon

3 cloves

2 tbs taucheo (fermented bean sauce)

1 tbs dark soy sauce

1 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs palm sugar, chopped

4 potatoes (Yukons or Reds), peeled and cut into large pieces

1 turnip, cut into chunks.

chicken stock enough to cover the contents in the pot.

Salt and white pepper to taste

Method:

Set aside. Brown the pork belly in the dutch oven and dish out and set aside. Add oil and sauté shallot and garlic until fragrant. Add in taucheo, dark sauce, soy sauce and palm sugar. Stir until palm sugar has completely dissolved and liquid has thickened, about 30 seconds. Add pork belly, turnip and potatoes and add enough of chicken stock to cover the meat and potatoes.. Bring to a boil, turn off heat and braised in a pre heated oven at 150 degrees C for 1 hour or until pork belly is tender and potatoes are soft. Season with salt and white ground pepper to taste. Serve hot with steamed rice.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.