Colourful Summer Rolls

Colourful Summer Rolls

We harvested some of our fresh herbs and flowers from the garden and had fun with decorating our summer rolls. It was a simple cooking, boiled pork, prawns and noodles. The rest were fresh vegetables and rice paper. Served with fresh homemade dipping sauce (lime juice, chilli, water, fish sauce, sugar and garlic) or hoisin sauce. A plate of beautiful summer rolls are ready. Credit to Sarah.

Pho Bo- Beef noodle Soup

Beef Noodle Soup- Pho Bo

2 litres water
1.5 kg beef oxtail/bones
750 g beef flank/brisket

2 ½ cm fresh ginger, peeled and bruised
1 large onion, peeled and cut into quarters
2 cloves garlic
1 (25 g) cassia bark/stick cinnamon
5 star anise
5 cloves
1 big black cardamon
1/8 teaspoon black peppercorns

3 litres water
1½ tablespoons salt or to taste
3 tablespoons fish sauce
25 g rock sugar or to taste

500 g fresh rice noodles
300 g raw beef sirloin, thinly sliced
100 g bean sprouts
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cups sweet basil leaves
2 spring onion, sliced to garnish

Chilli sauce
Hoi Sin sauce
2 red chillies, sliced
2 limes or lemons, cut into wedges

• Discharge the fat part from the beef bones. Bring 2 litres water to the boil. Add in bones and flank. Blanch for a few minutes and drain.
• Grill the ginger, onion and garlic until slightly burnt. Removed and set aside.
• Dry-roast the cassia bark, star anise, cloves, black cardamon and peppercorns in a fry pan over low heat until it fragrant or about 3 minutes. Wrap the spices in a muslin bag and tie up tightly in a knot. Set aside.
• Bring 3 litres of water to the boil. Add beef bones, flank, ginger, onion, garlic, spice bag, salt, fish sauce, and rock sugar. Turn the heat to low and let it boil for at least 3 hours (You may need to top up a bit of water if too dry). Skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Strain the stock and it is ready to use.
• Bring a pot of water to the boil. Blanch the rice noodles in the boiling water until soft for a minute. Drain and transfer the noodles to few large bowls.
• Place few sliced raw beef, sliced brisket/flank and onion on top of the noodles. Pour the hot soup into the bowl, garnish with bean sprouts, sweet basil leaves and spring onion.
• Serve with small bowl of chilli sauce, hoi sin sauce, lemon wedge and chilli.

Old Style Char Siew

This time I cooked in the air fryer (200C) but you can cook in the oven. It will be quicker to cook in the air fryer. Turn over the meat once half way of cooking. This is not a very sweet Char Siew, if you like it sweet, please increase the quatity of Maltose.

500 g pork belly (skinless, strip) or pork shoulder
Char Siew mixture (in a small bowl):
20 g fermented red beancurd/Nam Yu
1/2 tbsp Nam Yu water/sauce (in the same jar)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsps Maltose/Malt sugar or more
3/4 tsp five spices powder
1 1 /2 tbsps Shaoxing wine or rose wine

Marinate the pork with the Char Siew mixture overnight. Bake it in the preheat oven at 200C for about 20 minutes. Turn over the other side and continue to cook for another 10-20 minutes or until cooked (It depends on how thick the meat is).

Keep the remaining mixture sauce in the small pot and bring it to the boil until absorbed and thick. Pour the sauce on top of the Char Siew.

Simple Keow Teow Soup

Simple Keow Teow Soup

I often cook a quick Keow Teow noodles soup at home if I have leftover noodles. So, few days ago, I cooked this dish with kids. It is a very simple dish. I made only 2 portions because I only had 1/2 pack of noodles left.

I boiled about 430g chicken breast in 1.5 L water, 2 tsp salt, a bit of pepper and 4 instant cuttlefish nuggets. Boiled the noodles in a separate pot until just soft. Kids helped to chop 2 cloves of garlic and spring onions. Sarah fried the garlic to make garlic oil. Peeled or sliced the cooked chicken breast...tatata...our breakfast is ready. Have a nice day everyone and keep safe!

Black Pepper Pork Ribs

1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) pork ribs, cut into pieces

6 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon whole black pepper

4 tablespoons sugar or palm sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons fish sauce

Place the garlic and black pepper in a mortar, and use a pestle to grind to paste. Add sugar, salt and fish sauce into the mortar and mix well. 

Marinate pork rips with the garlic and black pepper mixed sauce for 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. 

Preheat the grill on 220⁰C. Grill the ribs 20 minutes or until cooked through or cook in the air fryer. 

Hokkien Char (Fried yellow noodles)

Hokkien Char- This is our simple way of cooking Hokkien noodles (yellow noodles) without lard. It is simple and delicious! hope you like it too!

Ingredients:
2 tbsps vegetables oil
2 cloves garlic
5-6 prawns - preferred skin-on
500 g yellow noodles
150 g choi sim or more

Soy mixture (mix in a bowl):
2-3 tbsps dark soy sauce
2-3 tbsps oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp raw sugar or to taste
A bit of black ground pepper
1/4 tsp salt (optinal)
2 cups water

Heat the oil in a wok or big fry-pan and stir fry the garlic until lightly brown. Add prawn cook for 1 minute, or until coloured. Add noodle and stir fry for 1 minute. Pour the soy mixture and let it boil for 5 minutes.

Add choi sim into the noodle, stirring couple of times. Cover the wok with lid on and let it boil for another 5 minutes or thicken. Serve hot.

Thai Grilled Fish Wrap in Leaves- Miang Pla Pao

Miang Pla Pao