Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh (Hokkien: 肉骨茶) is a Chinese soup popularly served in Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan (where there is a predominant Hoklo and Teochew community) and also, cities of neighbouring countries like Batam of Indonesia and Hat Yai of Thailand. The name literally translates as "meat bone tea", and, at its simplest, consists of meaty pork ribs in a complex brothstar anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic), boiled together with pork bones for hours. However, additional ingredients may include offal, varieties of mushroom, choy sum, and pieces of dried tofu or fried tofu puffs. Additional Chinese herbs may include yu zhu (rhizome of Solomon's Seal) and ju zhi (buckthorn fruit), which give the soup a sweeter, slightly stronger flavor. Light and dark soy sauce are also added to the soup during cooking, with varying amounts depending on the variant. Garnishings include chopped coriander or green onions and a sprinkling of fried shallots.

And this would have been all I would have known, if not for the kindness of my neighbors, Fay and Kingston. Kingston is from Malaysia and Fay is from Shanghai, and is a great cook. I've been learning first hand about the most subtle and delicate Chinese dishes from her, and they've had some of my stuff as well. Recently after Malathi and I devoured a bowl of Bak Kut Teh, Fay offered to fix a fresh batch during the day, so that could photograph it. Her method was close to the description above; the meat was spareribs, and for the base of the 'tea' she used sort of a large 'tea' bag, which is packed with the dried ingredients, that give the soup, its subtle rich flavor.



You can see what's in there; nothing familiar to me at all. The bag boils in a claypot, with dried tofu, mushrooms, dried red dates, and other stuff, and of course the pork spare ribs. Meatiness of the ribs, is soft in the mouth and tea/soup -- its not sweet, its not sour, its not chilli hot -- its such a complex blend of new flavors, that finds places on your tounge, you didn't know you had!

Pan Roasted Pork Loin

this can be a really simple dish, which can also be plated impressively.
ask at the meat counter for the pork loin to be sliced into 3/4 inch slices. once this is done, its as easy as falling of a chair really! either marinate the loin medallion in balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper or brine it over night in chicken/spare-rib stock, with your favorite fruit juice added in. (now, okay, you are thinking this is getting complicated, but you don't have to do this -- but it will make the pan roast more succulent and moist, is all. quite good with out!).

pan roast, middle heat on a heavy skillet (i used cast iron) for 7 mins, 3.5 on each side, and your done! i tried a new cream chille sauce with this, which came out well: heavy cream, tomato paste, and chille pices, mixed in to taste, with some salt, and a tiny bit of sugar. heat this up a little in the microwave, or small heavy bottomed sauce pan. this reminds me of my other variation on tomato sauce, which i called, tomato nosauce! (which I paired with grilled fish).

i scalled some pok choy, to go with this, because i can't do with out its crunch for more than two weeks, if i can help it.

Steamed Spare-Ribs, with Sweet Turmeric Cream + Cumber, with Wasabi/Vermouth Dressing.

i love spare ribs! usually, i grill them, but this time, i tried steaming after awhile. the preparation is the same; marinated in vinegar, salt, crushed garlic, and black bean sauce (or soy, if there isn't any BBS), and sugar. then i steamed it for 10 mins. the karavila salad, has been described in another post, but i thought up a sweet turmeric sauce (1/4 cup cream, heated with two pinches of tumeric, one of salt and a tiny bit of sugar), which was very warm and comferting, a good counter point to the bitterness of the gourd.
On the side is sliced cumber, dressed with cap full of dry vermouth, into which one squeeze of wasabi paste as been mixed.
all spur of the moment ideas, which seemed to work well.

Dinner at Elibank

On Thursday, in pursuit food critique, I had a small dinner party - just two people, Jehan and Radhika— who thought they might enjoy my cooking, and comment on the new dishes I’ve been working on.

We started with grilled prawns, which I’ve been working on for awhile.
This time, I marinated the prawns in a prawns sauce, that I made with prawn shells and prawns, boiled for 20 mins, then pureed strained, boiled down again, until it halved, then blended, with a little olive oil, quite a lot of chili pieces and Thai fish sauce. I let the prawns sit in the marinate overnight, adding fresh pressed garlic, a tiny bit more oil, and pats of unsalted butter, right before grilling for 6 mins. (1.30 + 4.30, combo1 + grill) I think they were good; I may just declare this dish done!

The main course was pan roasted pork medallions, with a pineapple/wasabi glaze. Now, this is part of my pork roast extravaganza, that has been going on all month and I think just in time for Vesak, it may well have come to an end! Pan roasting the pork, works better in a way that oven roasting the whole cut, even though of course, nicely done dry roast has its own flavor, which is not what pan roasted gets you to. But its so much easier to manage in a way. I marinated the sliced (3/4 inch) pork in salted ( 2 teaspoons to 0.75 l --that's 3 cups) unsweetened pineapple juice over night. Then, I used a cup of the marinade, with a cup of fresh juice, and another of diced pineapples, for the base of the reduction, boiling that down, until the pineapple was soft, then pureeing it, and reducing until thick. That’s 30 odd mins of boring, hot work — but this time, I didn’t burn it! Adding wasabi to taste is easy, right at the end, once the pork has been pan roasted in medium heat for about 7 mins., total. Since I use cast iron pans, I just popped it in the oven ( at 5) for about 10 mins also, to giving it that dry roast tinge. May be that worked; but the pork was soft, succulent even, and glaze was done right. My guests suggested that I add a little unmixed wasabi on the side, which I agreed I should have. I should remember next time! The medallions were served over mashed potatoes with pepper, and iceberg lettuce, undressed, scalded spring onion shoots and pineapple slivers. Jehan suggested that the spring onions be slit, some thing Ritu also suggested, some months ago when I made a soup — but in the main, both my guests thought the glazed worked well the pork, and was well blended. I had the dish earlier in the day, when I did a trail run, and yes, I was pleased!

For desserts, and yes there was dessert; we had what called a Strawberry Bomb, soon, when its worked out to perfection to be called, Strawberry Orgasm. I’ve been on a strawberry trend for a few weeks now, so no surprises there, I guess. The base of this, is a strawberry vodka jelly, made with sweetened pureed strawberries, reduced to a cup, blended with a 1/3 cup of vodka, and jelled. On top is sweetened whipped cream, Red Man, again, and Strawberries one of which I embedded in the cream, and the others served on a small side dish. This is a dish you have to work on, dipping your strawberries in cream, waiting for zingy—tangy melt in your mouth vodka jelly below.

Roast pork, with fruit relish

Me? I've been roasting a lot of pork lately.
Trying to really understand how to do it well -- and make a memorable dish of it. Can't say I've got there yet, but hey its fun to try.
-- this loin was marinated in red wine vinegar, pineapple juice, over night, then stuffed with fresh pineapple and roasted. The meat was subtly flavored, I wonder if I could make that stronger.
Since not even I can eat a whole loin of roast pork at a sitting, I've been having this in sliced helpings over a few days.
When I warm it, I add a little sesame oil, and that really gives it fine, nutty overlay.
The relish is diced pineapple and mango with red chilli pieces -- some thing I've done with black bean beef earlier, on the blog.

Would you like try some? Seriously, if you are into food, and like the kind of stuff I cook (meats predominate right now) -- I'd like to hear from you -- if you can offer thoughtful comments on what you taste.
Really.
Leave a note on the blog or let me know on facebook, and I'll get back to you.

Pork, Sour Mango & Bokchoy

Pork, Sour Mango & Bokchoy
Originally uploaded by pradeep jeganathan.

This dish isn't well worked out yet. Another work in progress!
The pork loin is marinated in an arrack brine; the sour mango is supposed to be a sweetish relish, and the bokchoy scalded in pork broth.
The texures worked well with each other, but the mango relish was too sour. Needs to be tweaked.

I used my new tall tripod with the magic Canon 50mm/1.4.
No flash.
Looks colourful, so thats nice!