Roast pork ( Heo Quay )

I am health conscious but this is a temptation too great to resist!

It used to be that roast pork can be had at any wet markets when I was a child. But with the disappearance of such conveniences now, stalls selling this are hard to find unless you are one of the lucky few who lives in the central business district in Chinatown.

My one and only roast pork supplier in the housing estate is finicky and when the weather acts up would be like our taxi drivers - non contactable. With the monsoon season at our doorstep, it is better to stock up on such essentials. I would not want to be caught in a long-winded rain and leave me bereft of basics such as roast pork. Life is duller when this commodity is not available to go with my noodles/rice/stew/baguette.

This dish, called Heo Quay, is  adapted from "Songs of Sapa" by Luke Nguyen. 

Takes 2 days to make an awesome strip of cackled pork belly.

Get high on the crispy skin

Ingredients :

One strip of pork belly, skin and all

For the skin : ( mix the following )

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp corn starch

1/2 Tsp 5 spice ( more if you fancy stronger tasting meat )

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

For the meat : ( mix the following )

1 tsp 5 spice powder

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

1 Tbsp sesame oil for brushing ( day 2 )

Method :

Preparing the belly -

Use a pair of tongs or chopstick contraption to do this without steaming your hands.

In a wide mouth pot of boiling water, scald the skin of the belly.  Do not let the water touch the sides.

When skin is white and has shrunken. Remove pork.

Use a sharp knife to scrape off hair or impurities from the skin.

Pat dry pork belly.

Marinate -

Using a sharp knife, score the skin making criss cross patterns.

Dust the skin with spice seasoning.

Dust the 2 sides with meat seasoning.

Chill belly overnight , wrapped in cling wrap.

The next day ..

Preheat oven to 250C.

Bake the belly, skin side up, for 20 minutes.

Reduce the temperature to 150C.

Bake for another 10 minutes.

Brush the skin with sesame oil.

Bake at 150C for another 35-40 minutes.

Pork belly is ready when juices run clear and skewer can run through the width of the meat.

Cool  the meat to allow the  moisture to be reabsorbed back to the meat , making it moist.

Tip : to keep the meat skin side up during baking, pierce a metal skewer or chopstick through the meat to prop it upright.

Braised Pork with Preserved Vegetables

Our lunch. What's good for the folks at Sarah  Center is good for us at home.

The Sarah Senior Citizens Activity Center is a care group set up in a block of single room rental flat in Singapore's Bukit Merah , catering to the needs of senior citizens of all creed and race. It is run by volunteers from church groups and coordinated by social workers.

Senior citizens living in poverty run into a gamut of problems. They lack  familial support and many  suffer from poor health. To meet their needs,  volunteers run programs  from social events to  handicraft programs  and physical exercises .  There is also a daily  food program for registered residents to look after their nutritional needs . For those who could not make it to the centre  for their communal meals, it would be delivered to them at their door step.

Here's where my teeny weeny role comes in. I am on the cooking roster and I contribute cooked food for 30 or so folks on a monthly basis. It is my longest serving  ministry  ever since I found out that I was incapable of  teaching in Sunday School because of kids-phobia.

Cooking for friends and cooking for at risk senior citizens is a totally different ball game. Most lack proper nutrition due to their poor finances coupled with ill health. One problem that I noticed is that dental issues severely restrict their food choices. Dental care in Singapore is expensive and most of the residents could ill afford a decent set of  dentures, if any at all.

Besides abiding to NEA's 4 hour rule for cooked food, I consider my contribution's nutritional value, using guidelines from organizations such as this. Finally, considerations  include their inability to masticate  food properly.  If only there is a dental ministry who will consider meeting  the dental needs  of these needy folks, I believe they will enjoy their meals even more.

Back to the dish. I was inspired by Luan's dish here and thought that the folks at Sarah Center will like it. Perhaps they were being polite but I would like to think their favorable response was real and earnest.

The original  recipe is from  Luan's mum here but here I have made  adaptations meant to address the  seniors'  problems. I have added a hint of chilli and ginger  as the taste buds of the senior citizens are not so sensitive. To make the meat and vegetables as soft as possible, the dish was prepared entirely in a pressure pot.

For 30.

Ingredients:

3 kg pork thigh meat

600g dried and pre-cut  preserved Mustard Cabbage  ( sieved of grits and soaked for 24 hours )

6  Garlic cloves

3 slices  of ginger

8  whole dried chilli, deseeded

Rice Vinegar, 1 Tbsp

1 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

 2  Tbsp Sesame Oil

1 Tsp cooking wine

Method

 Sieve and soak cut vegetables for 24 hours. Wash thoroughly to rid grit and sand.

Cut pork to bite size.

In a pressure pot, saute garlic, ginger and dried chilli.  Add meat and stir to cook evenly.

Season with  wine, sesame oil,  soy sauce,  vinegar .

Fry and toss well. Add vegetable. Add a cup of water and simmer.

Cover and cook the dish under high pressure in the pressure pot, about 30-40 minutes.

Serve hot with rice.

Vinegar Pork Knuckle , a confinement food

Almost everything inside can be consumed, from the meat to the ginger

Recently , I have become the kitchen lady at the activity center in Bukit Merah.  I am on the monthly roster but already  there have been requests what I should be contributing next month. That, not from the activity members but fellow volunteers. And why not ? They labour  even more than me and deserve some form of perks every now and then.

But when they requested for pork knuckle vinegar, it got me scratching my head.  Someone has mismatched this dish with the wrong kitchen lady. Even so, I shall rise up to the challenge.

And so I ran to my cleaner lady who is a traditional Hokkien. The vinegar used in this case is Dog brand, 'the best' in the market, as recommended by  her.  She should know  best since she cooks the dish as a confinement nourishment for all her daughter in laws.

I use a mixture of old and young ginger so that I can have the complex 'taste' and eat it as well. Vinegar ginger is the latest favorite: firm, juicy and infused with the taste of pork, dark sugar and top vinegar. Not to mention the pork : succulent meat falling off the bones, gelatinous skin that melts in the mouth.

Just describing it sends my salivary glands into overdrive.

Here's what I did with a front hock of a pig :

For 3.

1 front pig hock, chopped to chunks, void of bristles.

1 small bottle of chinese vinegar, Dog brand, or any good quality vinegar. Balsamic vinegar will be a good substitue.

1 old ginger, peeled, sliced across the grain. Ditto the young ginger.

2 T black sugar, 3 T if you are worried about the sourness.

Parboil hock. Drain. Flush hock with tap water to cool and firm flesh.

Fry ginger in oil until fragrant.

Add hock / trotters / knuckle. Cook uncovered.

Add sugar, vinegar.

Once it boils, transfer to a slow cooker. Set on high.

Add a little water to submerge hock.

Cook for 2 hours. Serve hot with plain rice.

Don't dump the pot of yummy vinegar yet! Toss some noodles with the vinegar, top it with scallions and it is good to go. I would do the same thing for fish too. Delicious !