Pai Kut Wang

"Pai Kut" means pork ribs in Chinese. Pai Kut Wang is a very popular Chinese dish, which you can find in almost every Chinese restaurants. It has the combination taste of sweet, sour and salty. Preparation and cooking is easy, give it a try.

Ingredients

1kg Pork Ribs
1 tsp Cooking Wine
1 tbsp Garlic (Chopped)
1 Onion (Diced)

For Marinate:
1 tbsp Custard Powder
1 tbsp Corn Flour
1 tbsp Sugar
1/2 tbsp Salt
1/4 tsp Soda Bicarbonate
1 large Egg
3 tbsp Water

For Sauce:
2 1/2 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
7 tbsp Water
2 tbsp Tomato sauce
1 tbsp "HP" sauce
1 tbsp "A1" sauce

Methods:

1. Mix all the marinate ingredients and marinate pork for 1 hour.
   
2. Mix ingredients for sauce.
3. Fry pork with low heat for 2-3 minutes and set aside.
4. Fry pork for second time with high heat till golden brown and set aside.
5. Heat up the sauce mixture and add in garlic and onion.
   
6. Lastly add in fried pork and cooking wine. Mix well.

Notes: To avoid moisture when marinating, adjust the amount of cornflour.

Thai Green Curry

After these busy months for my university works, I've finally taken out a weekend to try out this new dish, Thai green curry. Last few weeks, I went to a Thai restaurant and had their green curry. It was delicious. That's why I wanted to try it out as well. As usual, I searched for green curry recipe and I've found one from about.com.

Basically, Green curry is one of the variety of curry in Thai cuisine. The name "green" curry derives from the colour of the dish. Other Thai curry dishes are identified solely by their colours, such as yellow and red curry. The main ingredients for the sauce normally consist of coconut milk, fish sauce, cilantro, etc. Thai green curry can be made with meat, duck, chicken, fish or vegetables and is usually eaten as an accompaniment to rice.

Ingredients

Paste:

• 3 big green chili , with the seeds removed
  
• 2 small green chili, with the seeds removed (you could add more if you prefer more spicy curry)
  
• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 tbsp minced ginger
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup minced lemongrass
• 1 tsp grated lime zest
• 1/4 onion, diced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 cup fish sauce

Other ingredients:

1-1/2 cup Diced Zucchini
1 cup Sugar Peas
8-10 Round Eggplants
1 Green Bell Pepper
1/2 bunch Thai Leech Lime Leaves
1 can Coconut Milk (425ml)
2 Chicken Thighs, chopped into small pieces (you could use boneless chicken thigh as well)
1/2 cup Chicken Stock

Method:

1. Throw all the paste ingredients into a blender and puree it very fine and set aside.
2. In a heavy pot, cook about 2/3 of the green curry paste on med-high heat for about 5 minutes.
3. Add 1/2 can of coconut milk, and when it comes to boil, add the chicken and chicken stock, and boil for 5 minutes.
4. Add 1tsp of soy sauce, the other half of the coconut milk, and let it simmers for another couple of minutes.
5. Add the lime juice and the green peppers, zucchini and round eggplants. Cook for 3 minutes.
6. Add the green curry paste to taste. Add more if you want it hot and spicy.
   
7. To finish, add the leech lime leaves and sugar peas. The peas only take about 40 seconds to cook.
   
8. Garnish with some leech lime leaves or cilantro (optional)

-=Happee Cooking=-

Coleslaw

Coleslaw is a salad which consists of raw shredded cabbage but carrot is included as well nowadays. I believe most of you had ever tried the coleslaw from fast food restaurants where Kentucky Fried Chicken's coleslaw is finely diced with less mayonnaise taste and Sugar Bun's coleslaw is shredded with more mayonnaise taste. As I'll be trying out lamb chop this weekend, so I've decided to have coleslaw as a side dish rather than boiled broccoli and cauliflower. This is the recipe I've found which is totally perfect for my taste, not so "mayonnaise" with a slight sour taste. Chopping the cabbage and carrot need some time but if you have a chopper machine, it would save up a lot of time. If you're a mayonnaise lover, you could increase the amount of mayonnaise. Try it out!!


Ingredients:
7 cups Diced Cabbage
1/2 cup Diced Carrot
2Tbs Minced Onion
1/3 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Pepper
1/4 cup Milk
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1-1/2 Tbs White Vinegar
2-1/2Tbs Lemon Juice
Method:

1. Cabbage and carrots must be finely diced.
2. Pour cabbage and carrot mixture into large bowl and stir in minced onions.
3. Add in remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.
4. Cover bowl and refrigerate several hours or overnight before serving.

-=Happee Cooking=-

Cornflakes Cookies

Here's another cookie which I've made for Chinese New Year. Although cornflakes were used in the butter cookies as well, but this cornflakes cookie has more intense cornflakes taste than butter cookies. Some people might find cornflakes not nice to eat, cause it is not sweet enough, especially kids. But when cornflakes are used in cookies, it enhances the taste as it makes the cookies crunchier.

Ingredients:

120g Butter

80g Icing sugar, sifted

1 Egg Yolk

1/2tsp Vanilla Essence

120g Flour, sifted

30g Cornflour, sifted

30g Milk Powder, sifted

100g Cornflakes

Method:

1. Cream butter and icing sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla.
2. Fold sifted flour mixture into butter mixture.
3. Drop mixture teaspoon by teaspoon onto the cornflakes.
4. Shape into balls and place into small coloured paper cups.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes till golden brown. When cool, store in air-tight container.

Butter Cookies

During Chinese New Year, biscuit seems to be a common treat in everyone's house when we visit. Rather than just ordering from others, I've tried out this butter cookies. It turned out a bit darker but the taste is just perfect. =P Although Chinese New Year is almost over, if you are interested in trying this cookie, go for it. You could have it for your breakfast or a snack during your tea break.

Ingredients A:

150g Butter

100g Castor Sugar

1 Tbsp Condensed Milk

1 Egg Yolk

1/2tsp Vanilla Essence



Ingredients B (Sifted Together):

200g Plain Flour

50g Cornflour

1/8tsp Salt

Some crushed cornflakes or Nestum

Method:

1. Cream butter and castor sugar till light and fluffy.


2. Add condensed milk and egg yolk. Mix Well. Add vanilla.


3. Fold in the sifted flour and mix into a soft dough.


4. Spoon dough onto the crushed cornflakes and shape into balls.


5. Place onto a greased baking sheet.


6. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree Celsius till golden brown. Cool and store in air-tight tin.
   
   
   

Aromatic Crispy Pork Chop

Using garlic as marinade makes the pork tastes more delicious, with crispy bread crumbs coating it.

Ingredients:

500g Pork Chop, cut into 0.5cm thick slices and pounded with the back of knife.

100g Bread Crumbs

2 Cups Oil for deep-frying

Marinade:

3 Tbs Minced Garlic

1 Egg

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Sugar

1 Tbs Corn Flour

Method:

1. Mix pork with marinade and marinate for 1 hour.
2. Coat pork with bread crumbs, deep-fry in hot oil until golden brown. Dish and drain.
3. Serve with mayonnaise and chilli sauce.

-=Happee Cooking=-

Some Useful Tips for Baking Cheesecake

Steam bake : Prepare a tray (bigger than the cake mould), add water until half thickness of the cake mould.

If you are using springform mould for steam-bake cheesecake, you need to cover the outer part of the cake mould with aluminium foil to prevent water from sipping into the cake.

Door Ajar: Do not remove the cheesecake from the oven immediately after baking. Leave the oven door ajar by putting a metal spoon in between the oven door until the cheesecake is cool before taking out from the oven.

To make cheesecake, remove cream cheese and eggs from the fridge one hour before making so that cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature.