Kitchen Notes 15-12-11

Notes

Echo's braising stock for chicken or pig trotters

For Pork:

Blanch in pot of clean water to which 1-2-inch smashed ginger has been boiling as follows:

Fire off, wait 1 min, then put the trotters into hot water and leave for 3 min. Then straight into the braising stock.

For the braising stock, it's simmering under very low fire, a whisper, barely visible. Braise for 1 hr 10 min.

The outcome is:

Pig tail taste wonderful and the texture is just right!

Pig ear may need another 15 min? But maybe for Add and LZ the texture may be fine bcoz there is still a crunch to the ear!

Pig large and small intestine. Taste wonderful, just tender enough!

Did not take out the pork belly. From prev trial the braising time was 2 hr, the fat texture was just wonderful, esp after braising and leaving in stock overnight. But maybe too soft already. I will braise 1.5 hr for 2nd trial.

Wonder why Echo needed 3 hr to braise? Maybe it's the combination of my inner-flame burner and heavy-bottom WMF pot?

Update 15-Dec-2011 - after yesterday's braising, warmed in stock pot today, also simmer..: Simmer add'l 10 min (for pig ears, belly pork) + 20 min (for belly pork) - intestine and pig tial already warmed so did not leave in pot. The intestines were already too soft and lost the bite! Belly pork -- fork seemed to pierce easily, maybe another 20 min for the protein part of belly pork?

For Chicken: preparation of chicken mid-joint, shoulder joint, and chicken feet!

Braise ? min for shoulder joint, mid-joint, thigh. Best part is chicken feet! IIRC 30 min is enough - test with fork

Blanch ?

16-Dec-11: Braise chicken feet today after buying from SS. Braising time: 35 min, remove from pot immediately, just a tad from just right texture, to provide for warming time next day, another 5 min wld be perfect

Pig tail: braise 35 min, to provide for next day 'warming' - another 5 min wld be perfect
Chicken feet: 35 min, to provide for next day 'warming' - another 5 min wld be perfect
Pig large intestine: 45 min, just right texture; to clean, intestine was marinated in lime juice (8 limes) overnight. Use fingers and hand to squeeze gut, wash in several changes of water. Faint smell but not objectionable, remain but that dissipiated upon braising.

Mon 19-Dec-11: Pig Intestine - still have bite but would be better with 40 min braising time instead of 45 min.

Thu 22-Dec-11Tofu & Steamed Egg with Oyster Sauce

Prepared this for lunch today. Very tasty and satisfying! It's a new taste wrought by honey:

Marinade 150 g minced pork for 15-20 min with foll:

1 Tbl oyster sauce
1 Tbl honey
1/2 tsp sesame oil
pinch white pepper
1 stalk chive

Break eggs into bowl, add the flavoring below but do not whisk to avoid bubbles:

2 eggs
3/4 c water, pinch of Knorr Ikan Bilis Powder
1/2 tsp rice wine
Salt not added

Lightly fry the minced pork and do not overcook. Place the pork as the bottom layer in a bowl and top it with the eggs.

Boil water and steam mixture for 15 min. Serve and enjoy!

***

Sun 18-Dec-11: Perfect Poached Egg:

The perfect poached egg has the white still soft and all together, not spread out all over the soup. You have 2 ways to poach egg - one is by swirling the simmering water which creates a whirlpool to hold the egg white together, and the other method is to use vinegar. The vinegar makes the egg white hold together. Serve the poached egg on toast or muffin.



This lady in the video combines both method - add vinger and swirl the water:


Moist Oak Cookies

Added about 30-40 ml veg oil on top of the 300 gm salted butter (150g x 2 batches) - for moisture and see if can replace / reduce butter in future

Result: Cookies more moist and flavor not affected

Recipe:

3 eggs + vanilla

AP Flour 105 g x 2

Cinnamon 0.5 tsp x 2, Clove 0.5 tsp x 2, Baking Soda 0.5 tsp x 2

Oats 260 x 2 g

Very nice!

Substitute Canola Oil for Butter? and also this article.

Sat 31-Dec-2011
Made another 2 batches of moist oat cookies, this time using rolled oats. The ingredient follows:

Ingredient:
Butter, 250g + 4 tbl oil
90g brown sugar
3 eggs
210g AP Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp clove powder
150g vanilla powder
520g rolled oats

Baked at 180°C for 11 min.

Remarks: Delicious and nice, though I left out salt entirely as the butter was unsalted!

Mashed Tofu with Minced Pork
Decided to make a tofu dish with minced pork and oyster sauce. But instead of preapring the usual way, i decdied to mash the tofu and mix it with the pork and other ingredients. Would be nice with porridge or noodles.

Ingredient:
150g minced pork
1 pack silken smooth tofu
1 tbl oyster sauce
1 tbl honey
0.5 tsp white pepper
3 stalks spring onion

Mash the tofu and mix with all the ingredients. Set aside to marinade for 15 min. Steam in boiling water for 12 min.

Remarks: New taste sensation, the honey combining nicely with the pork, oyster sauce and tofu to smother the taste buds! Will prepare again.