(Buta no Kakuni) Japanese Braised Pork Belly in Thermal Pot

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon oil
500 grams pork belly
4 eggs
2 leeks
1 knob fresh ginger
2 cups dashi stock
4 tablespoon sake
3 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon soya sauce

Method:

1. Pound the pork on both sides with a meat pounder or the back of the knife.

2. Mould back the shape of the pork belly and cut into 2 inch chunks.

3. Heat the oil in a pan and brown all sides of the pork belly with the fat side down first.

4.  When meat is nicely browned, transfer to a paper towel and wipe off excess fat.

5. Slice the ginger into thin flat slices.

6. Cut the leeks into two sections.  The green section into 2 inch pieces.  The white setion can be kept to make shiraga negi for garnish. *Note 1

7. In the thermal pot, place the pork belly, green part of leek, half of the sliced ginger, and enough water to cover the meat. Place on high heat.

8. Let it boil over the stove for 15mins, then place in the outer pot and let it continue cooking for 6-8hours at least (usually I let it cook overnight)

9. Next morning, skim off any fats that floated to the surface of the water.

10. Take out the meat and lightly wipe off excess oil with paper towel.
      Discard the leeks and ginger.

11. Clean the pot, put the dashi, mirin, sakae and sugar into the cleaned pot and bring to boil on a high heat.
2 cups dashi stock, 4 tablespoons sake, 3 tablespoons mirin, 1 tablespoon sugar

12. Add the pork belly and cover lid and bring to boil for 10mins and place in thermal outer pot to boil for another 4hrs or more depending if its for lunch or dinner.  Its ok to boil longer in the thermal pot, in fact its better as the meat will be more tender.

13. Just before meal, make the 4 hard boiled eggs

14.  Add the hard boiled eggs and continue simmering for another 30mins. Remove any fat that rises to the surface while cooking.

15. Add 2 tablespoons of the soya sauce, cover lid and continue simmering for another 20mins.

16. Its ready to serve the pork belly and eggs with Shiraga Negi on top.

*Note 1- How to make shiraga negi
1. Cut the white part of the leek into 2inch long.
2. Make an incision lengthwise.
3. Take out the green core to keep for cooking with the green parts of the leek
4. Open the white part, lay it flat and cut into thin strips
5. To make it curl, soak into cold water for 10-15mins and drain dry.

Sharksfin Melon Soup in Bone Broth

Benefits of sharksfin melon:
1) Its hypoglycemic effect helps treat diabetes. *source: wikipedia
2)  In tcm its known to expel heat  *source: 饮食本草


Ingredients

1) 1.5litres of bone broth
2) half of a sharksfin melon (de-skin, cube and remove the seeds)
3) 6-8 seedless red dates
4) 1 honey date or if your honey date is small size u can add 2pieces.

Method:

1) Sieve through the bone broth from the big thermal pot over.

2) Place the rest of the ingredients into the bone broth and boil over the stove for 10mins in the thermal inner pot.

3) Then place it back in the outer pot to continue boiling for at least 4hrs.

4) Add a bit of salt to taste if desired.  Usually I'll skip the salt for a healthier lifestyle.

*Usually I boil my soups at night after my girl turns in for the night, so I'll heat it up again in the morning to let it continue cooking throughout the day and its still hot enough for dinner.

Cordyceps militaris in chicken soup

Ingredients

1 Chicken
30grams cordyceps militaris
8 pieces of mushrooms (presoaked)
Handful of small scallops (presoaked)
2 tablespoon wolfberries
8 seedless red dates
2 honey dates
2 slices of jin hua ham
1500ml water
salt

Method

1) Remove chicken skin, trim fats.  Wash and cut into chunks.
2) Blanch chicken
3) Bring water to boil.  Put all the ingredients except wolfberries into 1500ml of water.
4) a) For thermal pot, let it boil for 15mins over stove before putting into outer pot.
    b) For slow cooker, let it boil for 10mins on high before simmering for 2hours.
5) For thermal pot cooking, let it boil for 4-6 hours, usually I'll boil the night before and heat it up in the morning again and have it for the 2nd day's dinner.
6) Heat thermal pot soup, or switch on high for slow cooker and add wolfberries and boil for another 5mins.
7) Add salt to taste if desired.

Bone Broth

Bone Broth Recipe

Bone broth is mineral rich soup stock from boiling bones of healthy animals.
It contains high calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus content making it good for bone and teeth health. With its high collagen content, it supports joints, hair, skin, and nail growth.

A good broth can be used as a base for most of your cooking needs.  I'll use it for simple soup noodle dishes or even to stewing and stir frying of dishes giving it the flavourful taste but reducing the need for salt to minimal amount.

A good bone broth is best to be boiled for 24hours or longer,  economically I prefer using thermal pot to cook so that I can save on electrical bills and yet have a good broth without having to worry about unattended stove or drying pot in a slow cooker.

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 Large pork bones
2 Chicken carcass
20+ chicken feets
1 Large onion (roughly chopped)
2 carrots (roughly chopped)
4 celery (roughly chopped)
1 sprig of parsley
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
2.5 litre of water

Method:

1) Heat up a full wok of water and parboil the pork bones, chicken carcass and chicken feet.

2) Rinse the bones and chicken feet

3) I'm using a 7litre endo thermal pot, I'll place all the bones and ingredients except the parsley into the pot and fill up with water(estimated 2.5litre) and boil over the stove for 15mins. Usually I'll cook over the stove at night around 10pm when my girl has slept.

4) After boiling over the stove for about 15mins, sieve the scum that floats up to the top. I'll put it into the outer pot and let it continue cooking on its own till next morning around 9am and take it out to reheat on the stove for another 15mins.

5) Cooking time over the stove will usually be like this:
Day 1: 10pm
Day 2: 9am
Day 2: 6pm
Day 2: 10pm
Day 3: 9am
Day 3: 6pm

6) On the third day when I heat up after work around 6pm, I'll add in a sprig of parsley and boil for another 30mins.

7) Sieve through all the ingredients and store.  I'll usually keep some in the fridge to store if I need it the next 2days.  Balance of the broth will be frozen and can be kept for another month.

Note:
Feel free to change the vegetables to your preferred ones.
Try to keep parsley as it helps to seal the mineral in the broth
Adding apple cider vinegar or any forms of acid like lemon juice will help in extracting the minerals from the soup.

Goats' milk from Hay Diaries

My mum has always been preaching how healthy it is to take fresh goats' milk and that's why my grandma is so healthy and lived to 98years old.  Since weaning Si en off breastmilk at 18mths old, I've been hunting for the right milk.  Which brand of fm, which brand and type of fresh milk do I give her?  

I just cant wait to share my joy at discovering Hay Dairies goat milk at the Famers' market event last weekend.  I quickly bought 4bottles for my family members to try as people were snatching it up real fast and I havent tasted fresh goats' milk for so long! Grabbed the golden opportunity to let Si en try and see if she takes to goats milk.

Tasting her first goat's milk

Cheers! 

   

With the use by date

I did a quick search into the benefits of goats milk:

1) Environmental Friendly
Goats need less space and food as compared to cows.

2) Metabolic Agent

Studies show that goat's milk have the increased ability to metabolize iron and copper which aids digestion and absorption limitations.

3) Bio availability

It's chemical make up is closer to mother's milk as compared to cows milk, thus making it easier to digest and absorbed by the body. 

4) High in essential fatty acids

Cow's milk has about 17% as opposed to goat's milk of 35%.

5) Calcium rich

Goat's milk are equivalently calcium rich as cows' milk.

6) Anti-mucousal

The fat globules are one ninth the size of those found in cow's milk, thus making it possible reason why it does not produce irritation of the gut.

7) Ultra-nourishing

Goat milk has traditionally been used in medicinal cultures to nourish and regenerate an over-taxed nervous system.

8) Less Toxic

Its less toxic then cow's milk, as its not injected with growth hormones.

9) Boosts immunity

Goat milk contains trace mineral, selenium in keeping the immune system strong and functioning well.

Do hop over to Hay Dairies in Singapore for a farm visit or order some goats' milk for your kids! 

https://www.facebook.com/haydairies

Oden 关东煮

Ingredients:

- 1500ml of water
- 2 strips of konbu
- 1 pack of dashi
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon sugar

- 1 daikon, skin and cut into slices
- 4 eggs, hard boil and shell
- 1 carrot, skin and slice
- 1 packet of konnyaku, cut into chunks
- 1 packet of japanese fish cakes from supermarket

Method:

1) Put the daikon into a saucepan and cook in low heat till the center of the daikon is soft.
2) Bring the konnyaku jelly into the saucepan and bring to boil, drain after boiling for a min.
3) Bring the pot of water to boil, blanch the japanese fish cakes, to remove the oil.
4) Rinse the konbu and tie a knot.
5) Put the konbu, dashi, mirin, sugar, and water to make the stock.
6) Place the daikon, eggs, carrot, konnyaku to cook at low heat for about 2-3hours
7) Add the fish cakes and cook at low heat for another half an hr.

Air fried lemongrass chicken wings

Ingredients:
500gms of chicken mid wings. 
5cloves of garlic, minced. 
3 stalks of lemongrass. 
3 tablespoons of thai fish sauce
2 tablespoons of honey

Method: 
1) chop the lemon grass finely and pound it 
2) season with all the ingredients overnight
3) place in airfryer temp 160 for 10mins, flip in between
4) turn temp to 190-200 for 3mins on each side if u want a darker or charred kind of look.