Thank God it’s Friday! I’m sure you feel the same way too! What bothers me is the weather, it doesn’t seem to have improved. Looks like we had only a week of good sunny days and that was probably weeks ago. I hope the sun will come out and play soon!

 

Back in the kitchen, I was trying to gather all the ingredients that I needed for the dish that I had been wanting to make (also had been craving to have) - Sweet and Sour Pork, slightly spicy. I do like some sweet and sour dishes but not from some of the Chinese restaurants though. Most of them use the same kind of same ‘off the shelf’ sauce that looks to have too much food colouring and tastes too sweet. 

 

I know I would be disappointed if it’s not up to my taste. So, I usually don’t order sweet and sour dishes when I go to Chinese restaurants. In fact, I go to Chinese restaurants mostly for Dim Sum. My favourite? Still, it’s Yauatcha. I have been there for several times and tried different things and I think this is the BEST Chinese restaurant on my list for Dim Sum.

 

Talking about Yauatcha , when Arnaud’s mom was in London, we went for Dim Sum and that was when she had her first Yum Cha experience. She wasn’t sure if she would like them. But, after some explanations and descriptions, she decided to give it a try. Did she like it? Of course, she does! (Who doesn’t? hehehe..) 

 

Right, let me bring myself back on track. I was talking about Sweet and Sour Pork, hey? So, what makes my recipe different? Well, it’s just the sauce that I make tastes better (it’s not only sweet and sour but Sweet, Sour and slight Spicy) and I don’t use any sort of food colouring.

 

 

Probably Chinese Takeaways are just a few blocks away. But, try to make this once and see which one you prefer. It doesn’t take you long to cook. To serve it with rice, just let the rice cook in the rice cooker (if you have one) or in a saucepan while preparing this dish. Now, let’s dash to the kitchen and start cooking!

 

Ingredients:

250g - 300g pork loin (cut into cubes) 

** Pork can be marinated before (to enhanced the flavour) with a dash of white pepper,  1 tbsp chinese rice wine, 1 tbsp soya sauce

1 clove of garlic

1 medium onion (cut into thin wedges)

2 sprigs of spring onions (cut into about 5cm in length)

some cucumber (cut into cubes)

some fresh (or canned) pineapples (cut into cube)  ** I prefer fresh pineapples

2 tomatoes (deseeded, skinned, and chopped)

0.5 red pepper (cut into cubes)

some corn flour 

some sunflower oil for deep frying and stir frying

 

Seasoning for the sauce: (these are just rough estimation)

2 tbsp sweet chili sauce

1 -2 tbsp maggi tomato sauce

1 - 1.5 tbsp maggi chili sauce

0.5 - 1 tbsp dark soya sauce 

3-4 tbsp soya sauce

0.5 tbsp corn flour

some water

 

Method:

1. Heat up a wok or saucepan with sunflower oil enough for deep frying. Make sure the oil is hot before putting the pork in. This can usually be done by putting in a wooden chopstick, if bubbles form around it, then it’s hot enough. 

 

2. Coat the pork in corn flour then deep fry them in batches. Fry until golden brown. 

 

3. Then, put them in a plate laid with kitchen towel and set aside.

 

4. Heat up a wok with some oil. Slightly brown the garlic and onions. Then, put in red pepper. Stir.

 

5. Add in the chopped tomatoes after 2-3 minutes.

 

6. Meanwhile, put all the seasonings for the sauce in a bowl and add some water. Mix well. 

 

7. Pour the mixture in and stir.

 

8. When the sauce starts to get warm, put in cucumber, pineapple and spring onions. Followed by the deep fried pork.

 

9. Give it a good stir for 2 - 3 minutes so that the sauce coat evenly on the pork and other ingredients. Adjust the seasoning if needed.

 

10. Dish and serve with boiled rice.

 

 

Yeah, another weekend has gone by! Perhaps too quickly! I did nothing (cooking and eating not count) except battling on Mario Kart Wii in becoming the Kart Champion! I started off as a very bad Kart driver but managed to raise my trophy in the end (well, at the moment for the 50cc only *LOL*).

 

It’s addictive….too addictive that you always want to press theNEXT GAME button to start a new game. What is so cool about this game on Wii console is that you could play with the people around the world included your friends!

  

Even though I spent most of my time in front of the TV and holding tight on the Wii Wheel remote, I did spend some time in the kitchen to prepare a wholesome Sunday Lunch.

  

Strange but it’s true that I do crave for roast chicken from time to time. I am sure you all know that it is important to have a good quality of chicken in order to make a great roast. Free range, preferably. Free range chickens tend to be slightly expensive, thus, not popular. As consumers would rather opt for 2 for £5 chickens. From this kind of promotional price, you would probably have guessed that they are conventional intensively raised chickens or also called industrial chickens.

  

I don’t think that supermarkets (like Tesco and Sainsbury’s) stock enough free range/ pasture-based chickens. Once, I wanted to get a whole free range chicken but I couldn’t find even one. Anyway, I was surprised to see lots of free range chickens at Tesco last weekend. However, when I looked at the labels, they are French free range chickens (Label Rouge to be precise)! Wow, could it probably be that free range chickens are so popular nowadays that they have to be imported? I doubt.

 

It doesn’t bother me much really. Instead, I love this. I like them stocking more quality products from France. I am praying hard that one day they will have 2 big full selves of various flavours of yoghurt.

 

Right, to get to the point - not only I had a fantastic Wii weekend but had a wonderful Sunday lunch at home. I bought the Label Rouge free range chicken and made the simplest and yummiest roast ever! Ah, never forget to have some vegetables and new potatoes with it!

 

Here’s the recipe of My Cooking Hut’s Succulent Maple Roast Chicken.

  

Ingredients:

1 medium Free Range Chicken

Some sprigs of Lemon Thyme

1 bulb of garlic (halves)

1 onion (halves)

Salt & pepper to taste

Some olive oil

Some water

Maple syrup to glaze (can use clear honey too)

Some new potatoes

Some carrots

Some broccolis

 

Method:

1. Clean the new potatoes, leave the skins on and boil them for about 15 - 20 minutes.

2. Drain them and place in a baking tray and drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle some lemon thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Then, give them a good toss before putting them into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celcius.

3. Rinse the chicken and dry with kitchen towels.

4. Generously drizzle some olive oil and rub all over the chicken.

5. Rub salt and pepper all over.

6. Stuff the onion, the garlic and some sprigs of lemon thyme in the chicken.

7. Sprinkle some lemon thyme on the chicken.

8. Put into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius. Roast the chicken according to the duration specified. Usually a medium-size chicken would take slightly more than an hour.

9. Bath the chicken from time to time with some water to maintain the moisture.

10. Half way through the roasting, take the chicken out and brush maple syrup/clear honey. This will give the chicken a nice glaze and taste.

11. While the chicken is roasting away and nearly cooked, prepare the vegetables. I usually steam them.

12. Check the new potatoes and they should be roasted till the skin is brown and crispy.

13. Serve the vegetables and new potatoes with roast free range chicken.

 

Yum! Please feel free to share your version of roast chicken with me

 

My verdict on free range chicken… for this occasion, it’s based on Label Rouge (Red Label) free range chicken from France.

• Less fat.
• Distinctive taste.
• More juicy.
• Thin and translucent skin.
• Firm flesh yet not tough.

Overall rating for the quality: 9/10

If you a fan of duck, I will make your day today as I am gonna feature our ALL TIME FAVOURITE - Five-Spice & Orange Duck. Never does this dish fail to satisfy our hunger.

 

Often, over complicate a dish is a big no-no, simple and good quality of the main ingredient itself is the centre of attention. Like this dish, I use very simple marinate but I make sure that I spend a little more for 2 good pieces of duck breasts.I usually like to marinate meats a few hours before cooking or even overnight sometimes! This allows the marinate to work its magic in making a wonderful and impeccable dish.

 

I remember when I was young, duck was only served during special occasion. It’s not a dish that my mom makes on a frequent manner like chicken. I guess that’s why duck seems to be a very special dish when it’s served. In Chinese cooking, Roast duck, Peking duck and Crispy duck are the famous ones that no one will miss when visiting a Chinese restaurant.

 

But, today, let’s bring this special dish - Five-Spice & Orange Duck to your kitchen, shall we?

 

You need:

2 pieces of good quality duck breasts

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

2cm of ginger (sliced)

4-5 cloved of garlic (slightly crushed and leave the skins on)

3 stalks of spring onion (cut into about 4-5cm)

some orange zests

2-3 tbsps of orange juice

4-5 tbsps of dark soya sauce

4-5 tbsps of soya sauce

pinch of sugar

1 tsp of white pepper

2 tsp of Chinese rice wine

2 tsp of Five-Spice powder

 

Method:

1. Wash and use kitchen towel to pad dry the duck breasts.

2. Place the duck breasts in a big bowl and put in all the above mentioned ingredients and seasonings.

3. Mix all the ingredients well.

4. Cover the bowl with cling film and put into the fridge to marinate for a few hours.

5. Once the duck breasts have been marinated for a few hours, heat a pan and make sure it’s hot enough to sear the duck breasts.

6. Always skin side down.

7. Meanwhile, turn on the oven at 180 celcius - 200 celcius.

8. Cook the skin side for about 8-10 minutes. Then turn the other side and cook for about 5-10.

9. Once both side are seared, put the duck breasts into the pre-heated oven and cook for about 25 minutes depending if you’d like to have the meats slightly medium cooked. If you prefer them to be cooked well done, leave in the oven slightly longer.

10. Check the duck breasts from time to time and and brush the marinate on each side to keep them moist and to have nice golden brown colour.

11. Once the breasts are cooked, slice the breasts thinly and serve on the plate with its juice.

 

Enjoy cooking & Bon appetit! Tell me what do you think after you have tired this!

These are the dishes that I made on 06/05. Do they look as good as they sound?