Happy New Year!

GONG XI FA CAI

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR

No updates for my blog site as I have been busy lately with work and also with selling pineapple tarts to some friends.

Thanks to all that have been supportive to make it happen. :)

Cola Ribs

Behold not to be decived by the look of this dark looking ribs. It tastes pretty good and very simple to cook.

Cola Ribs Recipe (Serves 4)
Ingredients:
500-600g pork ribs
2 tbsp of Lee Kum Kee Cha Siew Sauce
2 cans of cola

Method:

1. Clean the pork ribs and drain excess water. Place ribs in a cooking pot
2. Massage well the Cha Siew Sauce with the pork ribs.
3. Pour 2 cans of cola into the ribs and let it stand at room temperature for 1hour.
4. Cook the ribs over high heat for about 30mins.
5. Lower heat to simmer for another 10-15mins till the cola dries up or until the meat is tender. (Watch the ribs when the cola is almost dried up and stir reqularly)

Tip:

Cook till gravy is thick if you want some gravy for for your rice. Alternatively cook till gravy dries up totally and coat the ribs. I refer to leave some gravy for mine.

Purchased some vegetarian squid from NTUC where this sales aunty was promoting it. Cooked sweet sour vegetarian squid. Pretty simple dish, no stir frying, just boil the sauce and put in the mock squid. The texture of the squid can be described as 'QQ'. Nice.

Orange Glazed Pork Chop

Orange Glazed Pork Chop with Mango Cashew Nut Rice and Salad for last Saturday's lunch. Some feedback that the pork chop was a bit tough... Opps.. forgot to tenderized it before cooking. :P

Christmas 2007 Feast

Smoked Salmon and Cream Chesse Canapes
Stir Fried Mushroom Canapes

Devil's Eggs
Steam Live Prawns
Yew Cha Kuey Sotong Grilled Lemongrass Spare Ribs
Mango Glazed Honey Baked Ham
Mee Siam

We had a mini Christmas Party on Christmas Day. My mother-in-law and I prepared the food for the party. Everyone had a good time and the kids were the happiest of course as they got many presents.

Mango Sago with Pomelo 杨汁甘露

I was introduced to this dessert by my bother-in-law who brought us to this dessert stall. If you are a fan of mangos, you will like this. I got this recipe from Zu's Kitchen. The original recipe called for 1tbsp of cornflour mix with some water to thicken the dessert but I thought this was unnecessary as the sago pearls would thicken the dessert eventually.

Mango Sago with Pomelo 杨汁甘露

Ingredients:
600gm mango (abt 2 honey mangoes)
400ml mango juice (Peelfresh or any other similar brands)
125ml evaporated milk
80g sago pearls (original uses 300gm pomelo, split into small pieces)
250ml water
2~3 tbsp sugar

Directions:

1. Boil 250ml water and sugar till sugar dissolves.
2. Mix cornflour/tapioca starch with 1 tbsp water and pour into the syrup and stir over low heat until mixture is smooth.
3. Take syrup and cornflour mixture off the heat and leave it to cool.
4. Cut the sides of the mango and cube them.
5. Scrap the remaining mango and put in a bowl, add 100ml of water to blend, put aside. Seive the mango puree to remove any fibre to get a smooth dessert.
6. Add blended mango, cubed mango, mango juice and evaporated milk into the syrup solution (from 1) then stir.
7. Add sago pearls and stir, if too thick, add abit of cooled boiled water or more mango juice.
8. Chill before serving.
   

Techniques for cooking the sago

1. Boil about 3 cups of water in a saucepan. Add in sago pearls and bring to boil.
2. Once it boils, cover saucepan and turn off heat. Leave for 20 minutes.
3. Remove the lid, stir the mixture, turn on the heat and bring it to boil again.
4. Once it boils the second time, cover again, turn off the heat and leave covered for 10 minutes. The sago should be cooked by now.
5. Drain the sago from the hot water and rinse. Soak in cold water (to stop it cooking further). When completely cool drain again and set aside.