Japanese Style Braised Pork Ribs

Most of the Japanese dishes that I have come across make use of the pork belly, a cut that i must agree makes the most delicious dishes.  But it is also one that i rarely buy mainly for health reasons, i have this weird notion of those glorious fats transferring from porky's belly to mine when i eat them!  So, I normally go for the ribs instead.

This braised spare ribs recipe is from a book named The Japanese Kitchen by Hiroko Shimbo.  This dish is known as Supearibu no Nikomi in Japanese.  Supearibu does sound like spare ribs doesn't it? Well, it is!  And Nikomi means stew.

I would describe the taste as something similar to Chinese style barbecued ribs with a tinge of spiciness and less sticky. We had it with rice for dinner but it would do well as a finger food served with some cold beer too.

Recipe
Source: The Japanese Kitchen by Hiroko Shimbo

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds pork spareribs (400g)
• 3 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce) (1 1/2 tbsp)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon toban jiang (chili-bean sauce)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey (1 tbsp)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (1 tbsp)
• 1/4 cup sake (rice wine)
• 2 tablespoons sugar (1 tbsp sugar)
• 3 tablespoons komezu (rice vinegar) (1 tbsp)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Steps

1. Cut the meat into individual ribs.
2. In a bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of the shoyu, the Worcestershire sauce, the chili-bean sauce, and the honey. Marinate the spareribs in this mixture for 30 minutes. I left if for 1 hour.
3. Remove the spareribs from the marinade, and discard it.
4. Heat a medium skillet, and add the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, add the spareribs. Cook them over medium heat until all sides are brown. Remove the spareribs from the skillet, and set them aside.
5. Into a medium pot, put the spareribs, sake, sugar, and 1/2 cup water. Bring the mixture to a boil, and cook it over low heat, covered, for 20 minutes.
6. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons shoyu and the komezu to the pot, and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes, basting the spareribs several times with the cooking liquid. (I let it cook until the sauce was just enough to coat the ribs)

Note: My variations in blue.

And like they say in Japanese, Itadakimasu!

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest # 1 Oct 2013 : Japan hosted by Alan from Travelling-Foodies 

and this post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Doreen from My little Favourite DIY and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Mich of Piece of Cake at this post

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Duanwu with a Nyonya Twist

Duanwu (端午节) Festival also known as Dumpling/Dragon Boat Festival falls on 12 June this year which is tomorrow!  I will spare myself from dishing out the story behind it and jump to the part on dumplings aka zongzi ( 粽子) or Chang in the Hokkien dialect.  It is during this time that we feast on rice dumplings stuffed with various fillings which are wrapped in bamboo leaves.

I tried my hands at making my own Chang last year.  Unfortunately it didn't turn out too well.  But I think I pass the test this year. My changs didnt loosen or worse still opened up during the boiling process, besides tasting quite good unlike one of my past experience where it turned out totally bland.  Lesson learnt was one has to go heavy on the seasonings for the fillings as it tends to thin out during the boiling process.  And when that happens there's no rescue except to cry over it!

I have chosen to do the Nyonya twist this time.  First up is the traditional Nyonya Chang.  I can still remember how it was love at first bite when I had a first taste of Nyonya Chang.  It was so delicious, bursting with a unique blend of flavors which is very different from the more common meat dumplings. A combination of pork, mushroom and winter melon fried in a mixture of coriander and fermented bean paste, sweeten with palm sugar and getting some savory flavors from soysauce.   And with some blue tinged rice from the blue pea flower, the nyonya chang looks pretty and sexy like a nyonya in her striking kebaya :)

I used Amy Beh's recipe with some slight modification for this Nyonya Chang and I am very satisfied with the taste.

Recipe - Nyonya Chang
Source : Kuali.com (Amy Beh)
Yields approximately 12 dumplings

Ingredients

• 700g glutinous rice 
• Some screwpine leaves, cut into 4 cm lengths
• Dried bamboo leaves, washed and boiled until soften 
• Hemp strings for tying
• 2 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar

Filling

• 5 shallots, minced
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• ½ cup oil 
• 3 tsp preserved soya bean paste (tau cheong)
• 7 tbsp coriander powder (ground ketumbar), mixed with 170ml water into a paste (reduce to 5 tbsp)
• 450g belly pork, skin removed and cut into very small cubes
• 12-14 dried mushrooms, soaked and diced
• 100g candied winter melon, diced

Seasoning (combined)

• 3 tsp pepper
• 5½-6 tbsp sugar or to taste (replaced with gula melaka according to taste but slightly heavier)
• 1 tbsp thick soy sauce (2 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce (2 tbsp)
• 2½-3 tsp salt or to taste
• ½ tsp ground black pepper

Method

To prepare rice (I apportioned the rice to tinged some blue with the blue pea flower)

1. Boil some water together with 30 blue pea flowers to get blue tinged water.
2. Soak 200g of the rice with this water for at least 3 hours.
3. Soak the rest of the rice with water at the same time.

To prepare the filling

1. Heat oil in a non-stick pan, fry shallots and garlic until aromatic. Add soya bean paste and coriander paste. Fry until fragrant.
2. Add pork, winter melon and mushrooms, and mix in combined seasoning. Fry until pork is heated through. Dish out and set aside.

To assemble the dumplings

1. Drain the glutinous rice and briefly rinse the rice.
2. Overlap 2 bamboo leaves lengthways then fold into a cone. 
3. Fill in this order into the cone-2 tbsp blue glutinous rice, 2 tbsp filling, 2-3 tbsp white glutinous rice.
4. Cover with a piece of screwpine leaf. Press down to compress the dumpling. Wrap into a pyramid shape. Tie tightly with hemp string to secure. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up.
5. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and sugar then put in the dumplings and immerse them completely. Cook in rapidly boiling water for 2-2½ hours. Remove the dumplings and hang them to drain off excess water. (I boiled mine in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes)

I also tried another Nyonya variation that I thought was pretty interesting.  You never know what you will get when the Nyonya lends her touch,  I came across this Sambal Kiam Hoo (salted fish) Chang while flipping through the complimentary Malay Mail papers that the hotel provided when I was in Penang. The recipe is courtesy of Debbie Teoh, a popular Nyonya cuisine chef.

Verdict? It's a unique combination of spicy and salty flavor.  The use of turmeric, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves gave it a fragrance similar to the rendang dish.  The mix of salted fish with some pork in a sambal like gravy was tasty and definitely something unlike a typical meat dumpling.



Recipe - Sambal Kiam Hoo Chang
Source : Debbie Teoh in Malay Mail, 7 June 2013
Yields approximately 8-10 dumplings

Ingredients

• 450g glutinous rice
• 1 1/2 tbsp turmeric powder (replaced with 1 tbsp turmeric powder plus 2 tbsp shredded turmeric)
• Dried bamboo leaves, washed and boiled until soften 
• Hemp strings for tying
• 1 tbsp salt
• Some screwpine leaves, cut into 4 cm lengths

Filling

• 15 dried chillies, soaked in hot water until soften
• 10 shallots (120g), peeled
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 stalk lemon grass, finely sliced
• 1cm fresh turmeric, skinned
• 150g salted fish, cut into 0.5cm cubes (reduced to 120g)
• 8 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar or to taste
• 200g belly pork cut into 20 pieces measuring 1.5cm and marinated with pepper and 1 tsp sugar (cut into small cubes)

Method

To prepare rice

1. Soak rice with water mixed with turmeric powder and shredded turmeric for at least 3 hours.

To prepare the filling

1. Blend chillies, shallots, garlic, lemongrass and turmeric to form a spice paste.
2. Heat the cooking oil in a wok and deep fry salted fish until fragrant and light brown in colour.  Remove and set aside.
3. Heat fresh cooil oil and saute spice paste until fragrant.  
4. Add fried kiam hoo, kaffir lime leaves and sugar.  Stir until sugar has melted.

To assemble the dumplings

1. Drain the glutinous rice and briefly rinse the rice.
2. Overlap 2 bamboo leaves lengthways then fold into a cone. 
3. Fill in this order into the cone-2 tbsp glutinous rice, 2 tbsp of pork belly, 1 tbsp sambal kiam hoo,  2-3 tbsp glutinous rice.
4. Cover with a piece of screwpine leaf. Press down to compress the dumpling. Wrap into a pyramid shape. Tie tightly with hemp string to secure. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up.
5. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and sugar then put in the dumplings and immerse them completely. Cook in rapidly boiling water for 1 1/2- 1 3/4 hour. Remove the dumplings and hang them to drain off excess water. (I boiled mine in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes)

Note : Modifications in blue

Happy Chang Feasting!

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Green Green Taste of Home

I had the strongest desire to write this down almost immediately.  This is the first time I am making this ever since I started this blog.  Nostalgia, this dish brings back lots of cherished memories from the yesteryears not only for myself, possibly for many of you who are reading this too.   If I am making you miss home a lot more, especially for those in faraway lands, awww...I plead my guilt :)

A simple stir fry green dish but these greens are special.  They grow wild.  Known as paku-pakis in the Malay language it's actually a type of wild fern shoots.  In fact if we share the same homeland, I am pretty sure that just by looking at these photos you would have formed a conclusion that say she's from a kampung (aka village) :) Yes, I was from a kampung :)    This started off as a delicacy of the rural people although it is available in some restaurants nowadays.  These greens cooked in chili paste, dried shrimps and shrimp paste is so crunchy, refreshing, flavorful, spicy...in short heavenly.

It's the rainy season now, and these ferns grow in abundance in this weather.  Flashback...when I was young and living in my kampung, we got to eats lots of these during rainy seasons.  Big Uncle will pluck them from his rubber estate for Ah Mah to cook.  The other wild plant that we get during the rainy season is a type of mushroom that is so delicious when cooked in chinese wine, i shall not deviate and steal the limelight from this beautiful fern this time around.  Then comes the phone call informing us about the bountiful 'harvest' and asking us to go back to savor them.  There was so much to share, everyone gets to eat their to heart's content! I remember some of us would take a whole rice bowl of these greens and just munch away on them like having a nice green snack.  And today, all I got was this measly amount for RM2.

Here's a piece of advice dished out by Ah Mah ~ 

Since this is a wild plant, there's this risk of picking plants that have been contaminated (possibly from picking the wrong fern or those that got some pesticide sprayed to rid weeds in the estate).  So, the golden words from Ah Mah was to throw in a few slices of ginger when stir-frying, if ginger turns black, this means these ferns are not to be eaten.  

Only the shoots are to be eaten, discard the stems (starting from the portion that you can't break with your fingers).  So, prettily green they are, aren't they?

The greens are then blanched in hot water.  This step is obmitted in some recipes, but we do this to get rid of the puckery taste and also to lessen the stir frying time which will make it look dark and wimpy otherwise.

Recipe

• 1 bundle of paku pakis (approximately 150g)
• 30g dried shrimp
• 1 tsp dried shrimp paste granules
• 5 shallots, sliced finely
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili paste
• Slices of red chili (optional)
• Juice from 1 calamansi/lime
• 1 tsp sugar

1. Stir fry shallots, garlic, dried shrimps and shrimp paste granules until fragrant.
2. Add in blanched paku pakis.
3. Mix and stir fry until shoots are slightly withered.
4. Add in calamansi juice
5. Dish up and serve hot with white rice.

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Wa Si Hokkien Lang

Do you know your roots?? Yes? Do you know enough about it then? Edith of Precious Moments' invitation to participate in her Heritage Food Trail event got me thinking for awhile. I was touched that she left a personal note to extend the invitation. Thanks, Edith.

Well, I only know this fair bit about myself. As we say in our dialect, Wa Si Hokkien Lang meaning I am Chinese, from the Hokkien clan, and if I were to trace it down a little deeper, I was told our family originated from the Eng Choon sub-clan. Basically this means, our ancestors came from the Fujian Province of China. Being what is known as the Banana kind to our fellow Chinese (i.e. Yellow Outside, White Inside aka Chinese who doesn't speak/read Chinese but English), we never got much exposure about our Chinese roots. Although I don't read Chinese, I am proud to say I can speak Hokkien fluently. We needed it to talk to our grandparents, Ah Mah (grandma) and Ah Kong (grandpa) otherwise they would need to learn how to speak English instead (which i think they did pick up a smattering bit along the way :)) Nowadays, I tend to be more appreciative of the ability to converse in our dialect. Whenever I meet somebody from the same clan, we break into our dialect (they say those from the same clan are distant relatives, in most cases the distance beyond imagination). Unlike back then, I remember it felt so proud to be able to speak English to a fellow Chinese. Getting more appreciative of my roots, a sign of old age?

Now how many Hokkien dishes do I know? Most of what I think are Hokkien dishes were introduced to me by my Ah Mah, in fact I have a "Ah Mah's Inspirations" category which I intend to build to cherish her memories. Ah Mah didn't really hand down her recipes, hers were built over the years through experience and stored within her memory. For the times that we remembered to ask when we were not too busy indulging, it would be in "agak-agak" (estimate) units which can become more complicated when one discovers she has her very own measuring tools. We have ourselves to blame for not putting in much practice and also by allowing Ah Mah to spoil us.

When I was young, I always had the impression that whatever Ah Mah made belonged to our clan but nowadays I am not too sure anymore because I see so many similiarities among the other clans, it becomes a little more tricky, making me wonder "Is this ours or theirs?" Maybe it's my ignorance that is causing this confusion. Hopefully, I will learn more through Edith's event. However, I am pretty sure I wouldn't go wrong with this one, since it popularly known by its Hokkien name, the Bak Chang (steamed meat rice dumplings). No, this post is not about Bak Chang, simply because I don't make them very well. So, here I am with it's close cousin, Steamed Glutinous Rice in Hokkien Style :)

It was known as Ee Peng to the family. My strongest memory of this dish would be eating it when we celebrated the full moon of a new addition to the family. Besides this, we had pickled ginger, red eggs and the angku kuih too (a type of sweet steam cake). At that time these celebrations were not too far apart since there are close to 30 of us in my generation, within the extended family that is :) Ah Mah was indeed proud of her broods.

The rice is stir-fried with dried shrimps, shitake mushrooms, meat, chinese sausage before being steamed. Dark soy sauce being the main seasoning used, complements the dish (which by itself is already very flavourful) with a nice aroma and its dark brown colour. I maybe wrong but I think we Hokkien Lang like dark soy sauce, a lot of our dishes are 'black black' in colour! This dish is quite similar in taste to the cantonese version of Loh Mai Kai commonly found in Dim Sum restaurants. The difference is in the Hokkien version the accompaniments are mixed into the rice, as such one gets to eat them throughout in a more even manner.

Here's the recipe based on what I learned from Ah Mah's version and I made reference to Wen's version on Wen's Delight just to make sure I was on the right track.

I was contemplating whether to continue with this when I noticed that Honey Bee Sweets had already posted this dish on her blog in conjunction with the same event while I was preparing this post (yes, I am that slow, unfortunately). I decided to go on when I noticed that her recipe is slightly different. I thought why not go ahead and share it so that we can also see the different variations in each other's home.

One would also see this in many other sites. Ah Mah's version had little tofu cubes and we don't use ginger in it. Another thing, we don't steam or serve it in little bowls in an upside manner like the Loh Mai Kai although i am not sure whether it's just for photography effect. I believe none is superior than the other but don't we all treasure our house version, priceless for all the love, the stories and the memories behind it.

Recipe

Ingredients

• Glutinous Rice - 300g (Soak for 3 hours and drain)
• Pork - 150g (Cut into small strips, season with 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce and 1/2 tsp corn flour)
• Dried Shitake mushroom - 50g (Soak to soften and cut into strips)
• Dried Shrimps - 40g (Washed, drain and leave some in whole and chop others to smaller pieces)
• 3 pieces of fried tofu (Cut into small cubes and fried)
• 1 Chinese sausage (Sliced)
• 7 Shallots (Sliced)
• 2 cloves of Garlic (Chopped finely)
  

Seasonings

• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2/3 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cube chicken stock

Garnish

• Fried Peanuts
• Fried Shallots
• Chopped Spring Onions

Method

1. Heat oil in wok and stir fry shallots until slightly brown. Remove 1/3 and drain dry for garnish.
2. Add in garlic.
3. Add in dried shrimp, continue to stir fry until fragrant.
4. Add pork and mushroom. Stir fry until pork is cooked.
5. Add in rice and seasonings.
6. Add in 2/3 bowl of water and let in simmer until water dries up.
7. Transfer into steaming tray and steam for 30-45 minutes until rice is cooked and soft.
8. Garnish with peanuts, shallots and chopped spring onions.

I want to take this opportunity to dedicate this post in Ah Mah's memory in conjunction with Edith's Heritage Food Trail event.

On a lighter note, fellow Hokkiens or those who speak this dialect or even those who don't (to hear what our dialect sounds like), check out this funny song, Wa Si Hokkien Lang.

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Inspirations from Ah Mah

A humble All in One Meal that has been around for ages. One which is most probably common among the Chinese community and one which many Chinese mothers would know how to whip up for their families. But for me, this is comfort food, one which I grew up with...so here's the looking back story.

Ah Mah, meaning grandmother in our dialect introduced this to us, many many years ago. Our family had our own place but dinner was almost always (unless we couldn't make it) at Ah Mah's place every Saturday until Ah Mah left us a few years back. This weekly affair started when we were young and my parents held on to it after we grew up, left our hometown and had families of our own. Even then, whenever we went home, a trip to Ah Mah's place was a tradition we held on to; along the road, we brought in our hubbies and children.

Ah Mah would ask us to 'chiak peng' (meaning to have dinner) the moment we stepped into her house. The walk towards the kitchen came with a little excitement, wondering what Ah Mah had prepared for dinner that night.

Ah Mah had a long list of yummy dishes in her repertoire. No surprise because Ah Mah's place was her coffee shop too. She had paus (steamed buns), lo mai kais (glutinous chicken rice), yau char kwais (fried chinese crullers), changs (dumplings), or kuei (yam cake), chai tau kuei (carrot cake) etc, etc, etc.

This long bean rice is one dish that I personally like. Although it's a simple all in one meal, it's delicious and it remains in my memory till today. A savoury rice with fragrance from the dried shrimps, the crunchy long beans alternating between the sweetness from the chinese sausage with small chunks of lean meat and shitake mushrooms. I remember how we would gather around Ah Mah's big round dining table with a bowl of rice each, aunties, uncles, cousins and all. It was easy eating, allowing us to chat while we eat.

Today, I can make my own long bean rice but with some shortcuts thrown in. I use a rice cooker while Ah Mah made hers in a big black wok. I stir fry all the ingredients together with the uncooked rice, add some seasonings, then transfer everything to be cooked in a rice cooker. Although it may not be as nice as Ah Mah's, I am glad that I can make it and introduce it to my little one who loves it too. I hope with God's grace, I can continue to pass this on and tell them the story of their great great grandmother. If I not granted this opportunity, at least this post will do it on my behalf, assuming nothing happens to this blog :)

Ah Mah, thank you for making beautiful memories for us to cherish, thank you for passing on traditions, thank for feeding us, thank you for making us what we are today...thank you from the bottom of our hearts

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