Braised Pork With Sugraone Seedless Grapes

Grapes are packed with antioxidants. Sound good? It is also a very versatile fruit to have around.

I use it to flavour cooked dishes and find it especially delicious with pork and chicken - the meat I buy most for our meals. Whenever I feel like whipping something up out of the same old, same old, I turn to grapes.

Where I live, grapes are largely underappreciated as a cooking ingredient. It is taken mostly as a fresh fruit to be eaten raw. Although there are recipes out there showing various exciting ways it can be enjoyed, it is still commonly found as a salad serving at parties - the kind with just a dollop of mayonnaise stirred in! That's how it is in the small town I come from. We're mayo-salad loving folks.

Anyway, this is an easy braised dish that I came out with the other day to pair with plain white rice.

Braised Pork With Sugraone Seedless Grapes

Taste-wise, this is a sweetish savoury take. It's really yum to eat! The aroma from the curry leaf makes it more thrilling on our sense of smell.

Braised Pork With Sugraone Seedless Grapes
Ingredients:
- 260g minced pork (or finely chopped)
- 320 Sugraone seedless grapes (halved)
- 1 medium-large red onion (chopped)
- 14 hard-boiled quail eggs
- 1 stalk curry leaf
- 1 tsp cooking caramel
- ½ tsp corn flour mixed with 1tbsp water
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- Salt and white pepper to taste

How-to:
1) Heat cooking oil in pan.
2) Saute onions with curry leaf.
3) Add pork and grapes. Stir-fry for a bit.
4) Add water. Cook covered on low heat for 10 minutes (more or less), or until the grapes are slightly tender.
5) Season with cooking caramel, salt and white pepper. Stir to combine and leave it for a minute or so for the flavours to settle in.
6) Switch heat off. Stir in corn flour mixture.
7) Finally, stir in quail eggs. Serve with rice.

1) The main ingredients. 2) Adding the grapes and pork in.
3) Do the quick stir-fry before adding water to simmer.

Braised Pork With Sugraone Seedless Grapes

Enjoy!

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Curdled Milk Chicken (Slow-Cooker)

I know the name of this dish isn't attractive, but it turned out to be a delicious experiment.

Inspired by Jamie Oliver's Milk Chicken recipe, but dying for convenience, I threw it into the slow cooker with my fingers crossed. The results were surprisingly good. Imagine bits of savoury silky soft tau foo fah (soybean pudding) with chicken. That's the closest description I can come up with!

Curdled Milk Chicken (Slow-Cooker)
Ingredients:
- ½ chicken (rub with salt, to taste)
- 2 large potatoes (cut into chunks)
- 1 medium red onion (slice into chunks)
- 1 key lime
- 4 calamansi limes (green stage)
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup water
- Salt to taste

How-to:
1) Set slow cooker on high. Add ½ cup water. Leave aside.
2) Heat butter in another pan.
3) Sear chicken and potatoes until lightly browned.
4) Transfer all the ingredients into the slow cooker (potatoes first, chicken on top). Add the onions in.
5) Sprinkle a little salt around. Squeeze key lime and calamansi juice over (seeds removed). Pour milk in.
6) Cook on high for 2 hours and 15 minutes (cooking time will vary). Chicken should be tender, but not until it breaks into pieces too easily.

1) Ingredients for curdled milk chicken. 2) Sear the chicken with butter.
3) Transfer seared ingredients into slow cooker. 4) Add milk, lime juice, season and cook!

Curdled Milk Chicken Fresh Out Of The Slow-Cooker!

Curdled Milk Chicken Garnished With Fresh Coriander

Best eaten on it's own. I went with rice. Habits die hard.

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Steamed Minced Pork With Cauliflower

Steamed minced pork is a much loved dish where I come from. This is something I made weeks ago but haven't had the time to blog about because I was gallivanting in and out of town.

Steamed Minced Pork With Cauliflower

The busy bee gathers more honey - equating honey with sweet life experiences. I went to Kajang for a holiday, and then zoomed to Penang the following week for Cheng Beng (Tomb-Sweeping Day). In between, a flurry of visits from relatives kept me occupied with touristy activities.

Now that things have settled down, I'm back to blogging again.

Here's how I prepared this simple dish.

Steamed Pork With Cauliflower
- 1 cup minced pork
- 1 cup cauliflower florets (slice away bigger stems*)
- 1 medium-large red onion (chopped)
- 1 tbsp chopped spring onion
- ¼ cup Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing)
- ¼ cup water
- Salt to taste
- White pepper (less than ¼ tsp)
- Fresh coriander (the garnish)

How-to:
1) Mix minced pork with onion, spring onion, cooking wine, salt and pepper.

2) Spread pork mixture onto steaming plate. Drizzle water all around.

3) Arrange cauliflower florets in the center. Sprinkle a little salt over.

4) Steam for about 10 to 15 minutes in a pre-heated cooker (I use an electrical cooker).

5) Serve garnished with fresh coriander.

*Note: I sliced the cauliflower stems thinner (or away), so that it takes a shorter time to cook. 
 

1) Gather ingredients into a bowl. 2) Mix ingredients together.
3) Place pork mixture onto steaming plate. 4) Steam!

Taste-wise, a pleasant deep (but not strong) savoury flavour due to the addition of wine. Cauliflower has a natural sweetness that compliments the overall dish. Best eaten with rice!

Steamed Minced Pork With Cauliflower

 Easy-peasy?

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