Five spice spareribs

are what I cooked today. For some reason they are tough, even though I cooked them for twice as long as the recipe required. I had no patience to cook them any longer, they're edible as they are. It must be the meat because last time I made them they came out perfect, juicy and practically falling apart. Below is the recipe.

Five spice spareribs

3 lb pork spareribs

4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t black pepper, ground
1/2 t five spice powder
1 T honey
1 T sesame oil
3 T light soy sauce

1-2 T peanut oil
1/2 cup hot water

Cut up the ribs. Combine the spices and rub well into the meat.

Heat peanut oil in a large heavy wok or frying pan and brown the ribs. Add hot water, cover and simmer for 30 mins or until tender.

Serve hot with rice and plum sauce. ... read more

Chinese spaghetti - zhajiang mian

Before going shopping tomorrow, I've been planning a menu for January. With another heating bill expected next month, I intend to cook cheap. I am also craving to try a new dish. While googling for pork cuts I came across a recipe for "Chinese spaghetti" - northern Chinese noodles with stir fried ground pork. See link for all possible ingredients of this dish, I will be using only the below, which I already have. This is what you need to do:

Dice scallions and garlic.

Stir-fry the ground pork until slightly brown, remove from wok.

Stir-fry the green onions and garlic until slightly brown (optionally, add shredded tofu or soybeans).

Return the meat to the wok.

Add hoisin sauce with some water and simmer until the meat is done.

Serve over noodles. If desired, add shredded carrots and/or cucumbers, bean sprouts, scrambled eggs, fresh soybeans/edamame and hot sauce.

Sounds really easy, albeit mild tasting. I think I will be adding hot peppers to the onion and garlic mixture, and perhaps some fish sauce to enrich the taste. I will post a picture when I make it.

Update: above, a picture of the ready dish. I decided to keep it mild and actually forgot to add the fish sauce. It's very quick to make. To me, it tastes better cold, as a filling for sandwiches.

Five spice pork belly

A Cantonese recipe jotted down from Travel Channel's show Planet Food, episode on Southern China hosted by New Zealand chef Peter Gordon. It's easy and very tasty, I made it countless times. Including today. A word of warning, though. This hearty dish is somewhat fatty and not the easiest on the digestive system. If you've been dieting or eating little meat recently, be careful - don't eat too much right before bedtime or it might give you nightmares.

Quantities are approximate, adjust to your liking:

1 lb pork belly, without bones or skin (I left the skin on because I like it)
1-2 t Chinese five spice powder (make your own or buy a ready made product)
2-3 T oil for frying, peanut oil is best (smell-free)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 inches ginger, chopped
8 green chillies, cut up into pieces (I use Thai bird's eye chillies)
1/4 cup light soy sauce mixed with 1/4 cup honey
rice vinegar to taste
rice wine (if you don't have it just skip it or substitute with apple juice)
a handful of prunes (optional)
a handful of mushrooms (optional)
hot water

Chinese five spice powder (enough to cook at least four dinners):
Pound finely or grind finely and mix
1 t Szechuan peppercorns (these can be first roasted for 3 mins in dry skillet to release more aroma but no problem if you skip this step)
4 star anise
1/4 t cloves
1/2 T ground cinnamon
1/2 T fennel seeds

Cut pork belly into bite size pieces and sprinkle well with five spice powder. Do not use too much powder (definitely not more than 1-2 t) because it tends to be pungent, especially if the spices are very fresh.

Heat wok, then heat oil in wok. Fry the pork until no longer pink, remove from wok.

Add oil to wok if necessary, lower the heat, add garlic, ginger and chillies. Stir fry briefly to release aroma without burning. Add the pork, soy sauce with honey and vinegar, rice wine, prunes and mushrooms and hot water to more or less cover it all. Stir, bring to boil, cover, reduce heat and cook for 60-90 mins or until the pork is done.

I make mine with prunes but without mushrooms. I also make my own five spice powder, simply pounding the spices one by one in a mortar. I don't bother to sieve them afterwards but if you don't like biting on an occasional piece of anise shell, grind them in a coffee or pepper grinder and then sieve them.

ready dish

Eating dangerously: pork belly stew Tung Po Rou

I made some pork belly stew Tung Po Rou according to the recipe enclosed below, only skipping the spinach. The dangerous part is that the pork belly was five days past its expiration date. It smelled very little so I decided to give it a try. I made sure the recipe called for prolonged cooking in order to kill whatever might already be living in the pork. I recall reading that before refrigerators eating unfresh meat was a normal practice and that spices were used not so much to add flavor but rather to cover the unfresh smell. So I am now eating it. It doesn't taste off, in fact it's quite good, and I hope to still be around tomorrow.

Pork belly stew Tung Po Rou

1 1/3 lb pork belly
2 scallions, crushed
1 inch piece fresh ginger, crushed
6 T soy sauce
1 cup Chinese rice wine or sherry (substitute with apple juice)
4 T rock sugar (I used brown sugar)

1 bunch of spinach, washed and drained
1 T oil
1/3 t salt
a pinch of MSG, optional

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan and put in the pork. When the water returns to a boil, remove the pork. Cut into pieces 2 inch long and 1/2 inch thick.
Put the scallions, ginger and wine in a pan. Add the sliced pork, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat and pour in the soy sauce. Cover and simmer until the meat becomes tender. If the juice evaporates too much, you may add a little water.
Stir in the sugar. When the sugar has completely melted and the pork is glossy, remove from the heat.

Heat the oil, add the salt and spinach, and stir-fry quickly over high heat. Just before removing from the stove, season with MSG. Put the meat and the sauce on a serving dish and place the spinach along one side.

(recipe from chinesefood-recipes.com)
... read more