Roast pork belly with crackling (after a long hiatus)

I've tried getting a good crackling on my pork belly before, but never did do it quite so to my satisfaction.

This version seems good for both crackling and meat. Unfortunately, I cocked it up later when reheating.

1. Dry brine the meat (next time I will wet brine with skin above fluid to try for more juiciness) with salt and 5 spice for about 24-48 hours.
2. Prick the skin deeply all over. Then also score the skin about 2cm apart (will make for easier cutting).
3. Wipe down the skin (but no special effort, just normal wipe down. The long cook will dry it out).
4. Cook in 115C oven until internal temp reaches about 80C (i think it was 2 hours or so).
5. Reduce oven temp to 90 and cook until meat is tender but still chewy (I think it was 2-3 hours).
6. Take out meat, and let a fan blow over the skin for about 15 mins.
7. Store in fridge for at least 3 hours to let the skin dry out further. Overnight is fine - I was extra paranoid by making sure the only things touching the (already sterile) pork was clean.
8. Turn the oven to 300C and preheat. Once it hits 300C, switch to broiler on high. Let it heat for several mins more.
9. Place pork close under broiler. Watch it carefully! Took it out when the skin is starting to turn black in places (bottom pic).
10. Let the pork cool. Then using a small knife, scrap the black char off.

Up to now, it was good. Then I stored some of the pork overnight to reheat the next day. When I reheated, I was afraid the pork would dry out and turned on some steam - big mistake. I tried to recover by re-broiling: unfortunately, I didn't watch it carefully and the crackling burnt badly. Ah well..... this was luckily a cheap cut I had in the freezer for a while. I cut off the skin and all good, just no crackling.

Sort of a buta kakuni

A loose version of this Japanese fav. The only commonality is the pork and the use of sake, and soya sauce in the braising fluid.

Braising fluid :
1. 3 cups homemade chicken stock
2. half cup or so of sake
3. 2 tablespoons soya sauce + 2 tablespoons sugar
4. 3 cloves garlic
5. generous dash of fish sauce (recommended by serious eats to add umami to meat braises)
6. Had some scallop powder, so added to the mix.
7. Boil the lot together (missed out ginger - did not have it on hand. Did not seem to be missed)

Braise the pork belly for about 4 hours at around 90C.

Take out meat. Put aside.

Cook cabbage and potatoes in braising fluid till done. Reassemble with meat (sliced).

I think it was fairly nice.

Second try yam cake

I had a variety of feedback on the first try. Overall, I think impression was taste was ok (with different people liking or disliking slightly different things), but the texture was crumbly.

With my other yam, repeated again. The texture is much firmer this time. I also think it tastes better. What I did different this time was.
1. Same amount of flour, but about 20% of it was glutinous rice flour. The yam was slightly more this time so it amounted to less flour.
2. Slightly more lap cheong. Also sprayed a touch of Apple cider vinegar into the fluid used for the rice batter (to give it a longer finish).
3. After rendering the lap cheong for the oil, mix in the diced yams and stir them both around to coat with oil.
4. When moulding the cake, use a potato masher to tamp down the mix to compress it.
5. Used more Sakura prawns for the topping. After putting it on, tamp it down as well.

Chee Cheong Fun redux

The texture is better. Also, I found that the batter can be made overnight, and kept in the fridge without harm to taste or texture.

Makes for 2 person breakfast.
1. 1/2 cup rice flour + teaspoon glutinous rice flour + generous pinch salt.
2. Mix into batter with 1/2 cup water + 1 tablespoon neutral oil.
3. Pour in 1/3 cup (slightly more for thinner batter) boiling water and continue mixing.
4. Stand for 40 mins or refrigerate overnight.
5. Put well oiled tray in 120C oven to heat it up. Tray is about 20cm by 15cm.
6. Beat the batter again, then carefully pour some over the tray. Do not over pour - holes in the surface are ok. Pick up the hot tray and tilt it to slosh the batter over the holes. The hot tray will Ensure the batter sticks.
7. Steam for 3-4 mins.
8. Take out, cool for abt 3 mins on counter.
9. Using a flexible silicon spatula, slowly edge all around the noodle. Then slip one end over. Use fingers to complete rolling.
10. Serve with spring onions, toasted sesame seeds, soya sauce and a dash of sesame oil.
11. Repeat steaming for second batch. Make sure you reoil the tray and put it in 120C oven briefly.

First attempt at yam cake

I think its a decent first try.

1 piece of Thai yam reduced to about 500g of small dice plus 200g of rice flour, about 40g dried mushrooms (soaked, pressed and sliced), 40g dried shrimp (soaked, pressed, and sliced), about 3 lap Cheong (small dice), one small onion, and scallop powder.

First, fried the lap Cheong to render the fat. Took it out, added to the yam and then sauted the onions till soft and added all to the diced yam. Then fried the sliced mushrooms and dried shimp, and added it to the yam. Add about 1 teaspoon of 5 spice to the yam mix. Add about 400g of water + soaking liquid from shrimp/mushrooms + scallop powder (abt a tablespoon) + soya sauce + dash of fish sauce. Bring to boil and scrape the wok. Add in the flour and stir until no lumps left. Add the fluid to the yam mix and mix well. If this is a little dry, add some boiling water a little at a time.

The water is an estimate.

Ladle the lot into a oven safe dish, flatten it down. Sprinkle with Japanese dried shrimp (Sakura prawn). Steam for 40 mins. In my case, turns out the cake was a little wet. So I popped it into a 160C oven for 15 mins.

Ideas from Paul @ takashimaya

Baguette with emmenthal cheese, garlic and olive oil.

Roast beef on caramelised onions and toast with a dab of balsamic vinegar

Another attempt at Chee Cheong Fun

Ok. This turned out better.

The mouth texture was approximately right this time. Freshly made rice noodles like this tastes nice with just soya sauce, sesame oil and spring onions.

For the rolling, it helps to cool the tray a little first. Also use of hands makes for better control.

I'm going to try for even lighter texture next time. First experiment is to use a little more water.

An interesting abject failure

They say that no science goes unrewarded. Even the failures tell you something.

I had a little time on the hands since my school schedule freed up and the wife is out partying. So I went back to do some experimenting after a long hiatus.

I tried to do Chee Cheong Fun.

Turns out I made a stupid mistake of using a stainless steel tray. So the rice sheet just stuck on it and made a most horrid mess. It looked bad. I sprinkled some sesame seed and a little dribble of soya sauce on it, and .... what do you know.... it actually tastes quite good (though the skin's a little thick).

Seems too easy (aside from the rolling bit haha). can try it again with a non stick later. Hmm... or should I do it on baking paper and use that to roll up the sheet?

Amount makes about one sheet on a tray that fits into a 3/4 of a 60cm square steam oven.

recording for a repeat try.

1. 1/2 cup rice flour.
2. about 2-3  tablespoons finely milled glutinous rice flour
3. 1/2 cup water at room temp + 1 tablespoon of neutral veg oil.
4. Salt to taste (about a generous "dash").
5. 1/3 cup boiling water

mix well flour, salt and the water/oil mixture in a bowl.
then pour in the 1/3 cup boiling water.
Mix well.
Set aside for 40 mins
Stir once more, and pour on to well oiled tray in thin layer.
Steam for 4 mins  (with the steel tray, I warmed it up first then steamed 3 mins).

The reference recipe called for 2 kinds of starch. Won't buy that just to experiment. Instead I went with the glutinous rice flour I had from a previous experiment.