Braised Pork Belly with Dried Squid

Looking at this picture is enough to make me drool. When I was young, my granny would often make this, as this showcased the lovely big dried squids given by relatives who visited Hong Kong from her seaside hometown in Zhejiang. In those days, I was merely an eater happily munching piece after piece of pork belly. How much I now regret not learning this dish from my granny! To make up for my past misgivings and to satisfy my greedy appetite, I recreate this dish with the help of my mom over the phone.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1. 900g pork belly
2. 2 dried squid
3. 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
4. a knob of ginger, about 40g, cut into thick slices
5. 2 spring onion, sliced
6. 3 tablespoons light soy
7. 2 tablespoons dark soy
8. 3 tablespoons rock sugar pieces
9. 80ml shaoxing wine
10. 1 star anise

Method:

• Soak the dried squid in some cold water for about an hour or until soft. Remove the membrane and the hard bone of the squid and cut into thick strips.
• Put the whole piece of pork belly in a large pan of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes so that the impurities will surface on the water. Lift out and rinse off the scum sticking to the pork belly in cold water. Cut the pork belly into 2cm dices.
• Heat a cast iron casserole or wok with 2 tablespoon of oil. Add spring onion and ginger and stir until you can smell the fragrance of the spring onion and ginger.
• Add the dried squid strips and pork belly pieces to the casserole/wok and stir-fry until the sides of pork belly pieces are slightly golden. Add in light soy, dark soy, rock sugar and star anise and toss until the rock sugar has melted. Add shaoxing wine into the pan and stir for a minute.
• Finally, add in about 200ml of water. Close the lid and let it simmer for about 1 1/2 hour. You may need to check from time to time and add more water if the cooking liquid evaporates. Taste to see if you need any salt.
  

Grape Trifle

To all the friends who are still reading this =)



Everytime I log in and see the Live Traffic Feed bar, I am very happy to see there is someone visiting this blog from Hong Kong. I don't know who you are, but I am very grateful that you still pop in to visit!

I had taken the last module of the exam last week, and will now be on full turbo to find a job... Meanwhile, there is time to squeeze in some baking and cooking! I am making trifle again... This time round, I tried to incorporate Y's favourite fruit into his favourite pudding. I cheated by using some Waitrose sponge fingers for the sponge layer. But I am pretty sure this is going to be the last time I cheated in a trifle: the shop bought ones were so sickening sweet that Y's mom immediately spotted it wasn't a homemade sponge upon tasting it...

In case you are wondering, the cherries in the picture weren't related to the trifle recipe...It is just that I picked them in our front yard in the morning and thought what beauties they were and it would be nice to show off the fruits from our garden!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

For the jelly layer

1. 1 can of assorted fruits
2. 400ml grape juice
3. 3 tablespoons caster sugar
4. 6 gelatine leaves (Different gelatine leaves do have different setting qualities, so please check the directions on the packaging to make sure you have used the correct quantities)

For the sponge layer

1. 60g soft margarine/vegetable spread/butter spread
2. 60g caster sugar
3. 50g self-raising flour
4. 10g cornflour
5. 1 egg, beaten
6. 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Or shop bought sponge fingers

For the sponge soaking syrup

1. 50ml blackcurrent liquer
2. 50ml grape juice

For custard

1. 1/2 vanilla pod
2. 275ml double cream
3. 3 large egg yolks
4. 1 tablespoon caster sugar
5. 2 teaspoons cornstarch
6. 2 teaspoons Bird's custard powder

For whipped cream

1. 200ml double cream
2. 2 tablespoons caster sugar

Method:

1. You can either use 4 glass tumblers or a big deep glass dish for this recipe.
2. Make the jelly: drain the can of assorted fruits and arrange the fruits on the bottom of the glass tumblers/glass dish. Soak the gelatine leaves in some cold water for 5 minutes. Gently heat the grape juice with the sugar until the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat. Put the gelatine leaves with the grape juice and stir until the gelatine dissolves. Pour the jelly mixture into the glass tumblers/glass dish. Leave it to cool and then put in the fridge to set.
3. Make the sponge: pre-heat the oven to 180c. Use baking parchment to line an 8 inch round cake tin. Make the sponge layer by placing margarine (or vegetable spread/butter spread), sugar, flour, cornflour, baking powder and an egg in a large bowl and mix until all ingredients are thoroughly blended. Spoon cake mixture into the cake tin, spreading evenly. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out and cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and let it cool down for a while. Place the sponge carefully on the set jelly. If you are using sponge fingers, simply put them on top of the set jelly. Use a teaspoon or a pastry brush to soak the sponge with the sponge soaking syrup.
4. Make the custard: split the vanilla pod into half and scrape out the seeds from one half. Put the scraped pod and the vanilla seeds in a medium pan with doublecream. Bring to the boil slowly and immediately take off the heat and leave to stand. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks, caster sugar, cornflour and custard powder together. Take out the vanilla pod from the cream. Then whisk the egg mixture with one hand while you gradually pour the cream into the bowl with another hand. Return the mixture back to the pan immediately. Put on a medium heat and stir non-stop until the custard thickens. Since it is going to be put into the trifle, the thickness of the custard should be more like mayonaise, so it does take a bit of time to stir the mixture. Make sure it does not boil or the custard will curdle. If it happens, immerse the pan in the sink filled with cold tap water for a few seconds to cool it down. When custard is completely cool, pour it on the sponge evenly and cool.
5. Make the cream layer: whip double cream with the sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Spoon and spread the doublecream mixture on top of the trifle. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.