Roasted Pork
My attempt at making roasted pork was actually a month ago, but I got lazy about blogging and hence am only writing about it now. :P
I’ve always loved roasted pork – the saltiness of the meat, the crispy, oh-so crunchy skin, even the juicy lard… not every stall gets it right, but when they do, it is PORKY HEAVEN. With this dish sold practically everywhere in Singapore, though, it has never actually crossed my mind to try it out.
A while ago, though, I came across this programme on Mediacorp’s Channel 8. It was called Ladies Night (or something). There was this segment where a guest was invited to make a few of his/her signature dishes, and that particular week, this guy made roasted pork and apple sauce. I knew at once that I had to try it. Not only was it one of my favourite meats, there was also apple sauce – so reminiscent of my favourite childhood series, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five! The characters sometimes ate apple sauce with pork, and the descriptions always sounded so good. I’ve always wondered what it tasted like.
I managed to copy down the ingredients but not the measurements, so everything was done roughly. For the pork I used (bought from a local supermarket and not a big slice, though please forgive me when I say I’ve completely forgotten the exact weight), I used roughly a tablespoonful of each ingredient. For the more flavourful or salty ingredients, such as five spice powder and salt, I used slightly lesser. The result was wonderful, and my family polished it all off quickly. I’m still puzzled over one thing, though. The skin took a much longer time to become crispy in my oven as compared to the time indicated in the recipe, which is the time that I copied from the programme. When it was finally alright, it was just a little too hard, and though still tasty it was very difficult to cut through. Sadly, all the accompanying vegetables that were also roasting in the baking dish were completely burned. Perhaps my oven wasn’t hot enough and hence the time taken ended up as much longer? I would have to try again next time – no complaints there!
As for the apple sauce, it didn’t disappoint. Tangy and slightly sweet, it went perfectly with the pork, and was also good on its own. It makes re-reading my childhood classics so much more pleasurable :)
Roasted Pork Belly
Ingredients
Oyster Sauce
Garlic, minced
2 garlic cloves
Five Spice Power
Salt
Carrots, sliced
Onions, sliced
Star Anise (八角), about 2 or 3 will do
Oil
1 small cup of water
1 piece pork belly
Directions
1) Marinate pork with oyster sauce, minced garlic and five spice powder. Flip over and apply salt.
2) Put pork in the fridge and leave overnight. Do not cover!
3) NEXT DAY: Place sliced carrots and onions into a baking dish, followed by the star anise (八角) and 2 cloves of garlic.
4) Place the pork in the baking dish. Apply some oil and salt onto the pork skin.
5) Pour in one small cup of water. Be careful not to get any water on the skin!
6) Bake for 90 minutes at 200 degrees celcius. (I took longer, for some reason.)
Apple Sauce
Ingredients
Green Apples (I used about 3)
~one tablespoonful butter
~one tablespoon brown sugar
Water
Chilli Powder (optional - I didn't use any as my sister cannot take spicy foods)
Directions
1) Peel and slice green apples.
2) In a saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar. Stir fry and add some water until the mixture is smooth.
3) Add apples and continue stirring until the apples are soft and mushy.
4) Add chilli powder if desired.
5) Serve. Enjoy!
I’ve always loved roasted pork – the saltiness of the meat, the crispy, oh-so crunchy skin, even the juicy lard… not every stall gets it right, but when they do, it is PORKY HEAVEN. With this dish sold practically everywhere in Singapore, though, it has never actually crossed my mind to try it out.
A while ago, though, I came across this programme on Mediacorp’s Channel 8. It was called Ladies Night (or something). There was this segment where a guest was invited to make a few of his/her signature dishes, and that particular week, this guy made roasted pork and apple sauce. I knew at once that I had to try it. Not only was it one of my favourite meats, there was also apple sauce – so reminiscent of my favourite childhood series, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five! The characters sometimes ate apple sauce with pork, and the descriptions always sounded so good. I’ve always wondered what it tasted like.
I managed to copy down the ingredients but not the measurements, so everything was done roughly. For the pork I used (bought from a local supermarket and not a big slice, though please forgive me when I say I’ve completely forgotten the exact weight), I used roughly a tablespoonful of each ingredient. For the more flavourful or salty ingredients, such as five spice powder and salt, I used slightly lesser. The result was wonderful, and my family polished it all off quickly. I’m still puzzled over one thing, though. The skin took a much longer time to become crispy in my oven as compared to the time indicated in the recipe, which is the time that I copied from the programme. When it was finally alright, it was just a little too hard, and though still tasty it was very difficult to cut through. Sadly, all the accompanying vegetables that were also roasting in the baking dish were completely burned. Perhaps my oven wasn’t hot enough and hence the time taken ended up as much longer? I would have to try again next time – no complaints there!
As for the apple sauce, it didn’t disappoint. Tangy and slightly sweet, it went perfectly with the pork, and was also good on its own. It makes re-reading my childhood classics so much more pleasurable :)
Roasted Pork Belly
Ingredients
Oyster Sauce
Garlic, minced
2 garlic cloves
Five Spice Power
Salt
Carrots, sliced
Onions, sliced
Star Anise (八角), about 2 or 3 will do
Oil
1 small cup of water
1 piece pork belly
Directions
1) Marinate pork with oyster sauce, minced garlic and five spice powder. Flip over and apply salt.
2) Put pork in the fridge and leave overnight. Do not cover!
3) NEXT DAY: Place sliced carrots and onions into a baking dish, followed by the star anise (八角) and 2 cloves of garlic.
4) Place the pork in the baking dish. Apply some oil and salt onto the pork skin.
5) Pour in one small cup of water. Be careful not to get any water on the skin!
6) Bake for 90 minutes at 200 degrees celcius. (I took longer, for some reason.)
Apple Sauce
Ingredients
Green Apples (I used about 3)
~one tablespoonful butter
~one tablespoon brown sugar
Water
Chilli Powder (optional - I didn't use any as my sister cannot take spicy foods)
Directions
1) Peel and slice green apples.
2) In a saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar. Stir fry and add some water until the mixture is smooth.
3) Add apples and continue stirring until the apples are soft and mushy.
4) Add chilli powder if desired.
5) Serve. Enjoy!
Written on Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 6:35 PM
by huis
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Failures and More
So in my previous post, I blogged briefly about my rather disastrous baking outcome this afternoon. I don't want to go into too much of the painful details, so I'll let the pictures do the talking:
This, my friends, is a Nutella Pound Cake. Or at least, it was supposed to be one. I took the recipe from Dana Treat, and the photos looked so incredibly yummy that I had to try it out for myself.
So confident I was that it was going to turn out a success that I didn't even check my oven settings.
Now, my oven is still relatively new and I'm still not too familiar with it. I suppose that's also partly the reason why I didn't notice that the oven was at the "spit-roasting chicken" setting instead of the normal "oven" setting.
My poor pound cake was charcoal black (at least on the top) within minutes!
Even so, I wasn't disheartened. I changed the setting back, thinking that I could just slice off the top layer of the cake later on. All seemed fine and dandy again. Then, I took out the cake, waited for it to cool (45 minutes to be safe) and tried to slice them.
They were stuck to my brand-new loaf tin. I must have put too little oil, or perhaps it was because I neglected flouring the tin, as usually I find spreading oil more than enough. Anyway, the cake turned out terribly un-cakeish. It tasted pretty okay, but appearance-wise it was just sad. The remains went into a plastic bag and down the rubbish chute.
Oh well.
I was planning to bake another cake tonight, but I got too tired and I don't think I want to see, taste or smell Nutella for some time, shocking as that may seem. So I cooked dinner instead -
And can I just say this - these were DELICIOUS. I can't get enough of the sauce. I didn't have peppercorn so I just used lots and lots of black pepper and it was good, but next time I'm going to try this with peppercorn. The sauce is addictive, especially with white rice!
This dish is comfort food - I love sesame oil and since young this has always been one of the dishes I would order from the economical rice stall. Finally, I get to re-create it! Mine turned out a bit bland though, another careless mistake - I forgot to adjust the amount of ingredients according to the amount of chicken I had.
And lastly, some random vegetable dish (broccoli and lettuce) that I quickly whipped up because, you know, vegetables are essential for completing a healthy meal!
Not exactly my best day at culinary attempts, it seems. It's disappointing, but at the same time it's failures like this that make me more determined to make my next attempt a great one. We all have to start somewhere, don't we? And one day when I stop feeling sick over the thought of Nutella, I'm going to give that pound cake a go again (with correct oven settings, of course!).
(So I wanted to post another much more successful baking attempt that I made a couple weeks ago, but as this post is getting too long already, I'm going to double-post! Phew - new post in a bit!)
Labels: cake, chinese, nutella, pound cake, savoury
Written on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 9:40 PM
by huis
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chronicles of a novice baker
Hello! My name is Huihui, but I prefer to go by the easier-to-pronounce Huis. I'm a fresh University graduate, having majored in Psychology, and am currently desperately looking out for a job! I'm a novice baker and cook, and this blog chronicles my various attempts at these two hobbies of mine. It's a long learning process and I'm enjoying every minute of it!
If you would like to tell me something regarding my posts, or if you just want to say hello, do drop me an e-mail here.
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