Quay Po Cooks: lotus seed

Showing posts with label lotus seed. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Stewed Dong Po Pork Belly

This recipe is largely adapted from Chef Sam Leong’s recipe.

Last weekend, my brother and his lovely wife came for dinner at my house, I made pancakes to go with herb pork sausage, bacon and eggs. He loves pancakes. You must be wondering what has pancakes got to do with this dish and this Quay Po has gone crazy. What happened was, I made Dong Po pork belly in the morning and it was my first time making the dish. I brought it out during dinner to let everyone taste so that they can give me their feedback. I did not expected my brother to it with pancakes but he did anyway and liked it! I have to say he was right although I was unsure about it at first. It was awesome with pancakes. If it paired well with pancakes, I believe it will go well with crepe too and what about corn bread? Mmmm, I will have to try that later, maybe come up with a Dong Po pork belly crepe party serve with crepe and corn bread with the family next weekend. This is what happens when a Kampong Chinese woman marries a Mat Salleh (Guaylo) It truly shows in our food isn't it?

This dish is usually served with “Mantou” Chinese steam buns in most Chinese Restaurants. Some even serve deep fry “Mantou” instead of steam ones. Needless to say, anyone would love to eat this with plain rice and no side dish necessary. The gravy in this dish is what makes it so special. The flavor is addictive and once you start eating, you do not want to stop haha. At least it did that to all of us that evening. You will be surprised that the fat in the belly is actually quite tasty after long hours of stewing. It is not oily anymore but crunchy to the teeth. Don't believe me, try it just once even if you do not like fat.

Serving: 4

Ingredients:

500 gm Pork belly

5 slices of ginger

3 nutmeg (cracked)

3 star anise

20 gm lotus seeds, soaked overnight

2 medium white onion, peeled and sliced

30 gm rock sugar

1 tb thick black sauce

150ml Chinese cooking wine, (hua tiao)

350 ml Chicken stock

Method:

Cut pork belly into cubes and use the broad side of knife to pat and smoothen skin. Blanch pork belly in boiling water. Drain and pat dry, set aside. Put all ingredients into a clay pot and fill with chicken stock. Bring to boil over high heat and let simmer for 3 hours until pork belly is soft and fragrant. Dish out the pork belly and place them on the serving plate. Turn heat to medium and reduce sauce to half. Pour sauce over pork belly and serve.

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.