Steamed Silken Tofu Minced Pork Dish

"Another delicious adaption contributes to my express cooking journal"

I've got the Asian comfort-food classic combines with my silky favourite, making this new take-on our healthy and delicious dinner meal.

It's fast and hassle-free, whenever you can find just a 15-minute time.

What's more? This healthy steamed minced pork with silken tofu is suitable for the whole family, especially children and old folks.

Serves 4
Ingredients
200 grams of minced pork
1/2 block of silky tofu (about 50 gram)
2 eggs
Few small stalks of Chinese parsley, chopped

Seasoning:
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of chicken granule
1 tablespoon of potato starch
1 teaspoon of grounded white pepper
1 teaspoon of sesame oil

Method
1) Mix minced pork, tofu and eggs in a large stainless steel plate. Add seasoning and Chinese parsley.

2) Combine all ingredients well with a fork, and then, use the back of the fork to even out the surface of the minced pork mixture. Season the mixture for at least 15 minutes.

3) Place the minced pork dish in an electrical steamer, or on a wire steamer rack in a wok which half filled with water, and steam on high heat, for 15 minutes. Served.

A serving of my steamed tofu minced pork dish counts about 170kcal.

Tips: Prepare the dish a night before. Store in the refrigerator and bring it out to mix with the eggs only when you are ready to cook it the next evening.

Healthy Cactus Soup with Chicken (仙人掌煲鸡汤)

"Cactus soup. Sounds weird as food? Not true, it's surprising great as food, especially to be cooked in soup, trust me."

Came across many savory dishes on Aloe Vera and loved it. When come to Cactus, it gave an impression of an over-whelming greenish taste, but it is not true! After reading some write-ups on the benefits of taking cactus, I decided to give it s try. And guess what, it is really great to have in the soup!

Not sure since when, many articles claimed that cactus has become a popular dish in many occasions since it is easy to cook. Its stem can be eaten chilled with some additions of salad dressing. It can be fried or stewed, besides cooking in the soup. But, today, I am going to focus just on soup cooking because the soup tastes a real good!

As for the taste of the Cactus, if you are going to eat it as well, no worries, it taste pretty bland and the texture resembles cooked cucumber. It's crunchy to chew.

And so, what does it help?

Benefits of eating Cactus:
I read the articles claiming that cactus helps to promote good digestive system, improve immunity, strengthen bones and joints, invigorate blood circulation, detoxification of the body system, and etc. Some even claimed that eating cactus helps to improve in obesity due to its rich supply of Amino acids that balances up the body system, and hence, increases metabolism. And don't forget, it's low fat green food, too.

But, remember, only the spikeless edible cactus from the market can be consumed. :)




Serves 3 - 4
1 large pad of edible Cactus weights about 400gram, scrubbed, washed and cut into squares with skin remained intact
1/2 chicken, trimmed fat, skinned and chopped into chunks or whole half
2 pieces of Honey dates (蜜枣)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 pot of water, half filled (about 1200 ml)

Method
On stove:
Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Place in all ingredients and bring it to a boil again. Then, reduce heat to low fire and simmer for at least 2 hours, with lid on. Add in salt and stir well. Continue to simmer for another 15 minutes before heat off. Serve hot together.

Use of slow cooker:
Place all ingredients in a croak pot. Then, place croak pot into slow cooker, cover with lid and cook for at least 4 hours on auto or low shift mode. Add in salt and gently stir to combine. Let the soup cook for another 20 minutes before serve.

A regular bowl of soup counts about 60kcal. Since, this is a soup with both the protein and greens in it, cook this as your easy one-dish-meal... Eating with one portion of chicken and cactus in the soup, it counts merely 120kcal.

Tips: The edible cactus is nice to eat. Simply peel off the thick skin using a peeler or small knife. Place cactus flesh in a bowl. Gently scour with salt and leave for 5 minutes before rinse off and add into cooking (Skin is not edible).
* For the real diet-watcher, use skinless chicken breast meat to cook the soup.

Tonkatsu (Japanese Pork Cutlet)

"Japanese Pork cutlet with Special Miso Sauce that whets your appetite"

Once my non-Chinese friend asked me why Chinese likes to marinate the meat for ALL sorts of cooking other than BBQ? Will it really make a huge difference in taste? I was speechless. Frankly, I do my marinating for meat, even if it's to be added in my noodle cooking, fried or soup. Some said it is a must to elevate the taste of the meat... Some said marination is to hush up the 'meaty' (or 'fishy') smell in it... And, I could tell you that it is pretty much a habit learned from mum since young, more than any other reasons... (smile).

Gradually, I learned to save such effort in some of my cookings. I finally believed that as long as the ingredients are fresh, it is not a must to marinate or marinating for long hours. Once again, I am convinced with the theory. This pork cutlet was not marinated beforehand. It was as simple as just brushing some honey on the chops, I got myself a very flavorsome fried pork cutlet, still! Well, not forgetting that I had my savory Miso sauce topped on it, of course... (chuckles).

And, there is a special trick, to save your oil for frying the cutlet, an easier way to achieve its golden appearance, with even shorter frying time!

SIMPLE, flavorful, new easy tricks to get the most delicious crispy Tonkatsu here!

Serves 4
Ingredients
8 slices of loin pork chops, boneless (palm sized big, thickness of chop about 1 - 1.5cm)
4 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of plain flour

1 cup of cooking oil (for shallow frying)

For Batter (A):
2 tablespoons of soy milk (unsweetened or low sugar)
2 eggs
* Mix the above and stir well.

For Batter (B):
100 gram of store-bought breadcrumbs
1 piece of 4" long french loaf, blended till crumbs OR 6 pieces of cream crackers, mashed
* Combine the above.

Special Miso Sauce:
*Click for recipe here


Method:
1) Rinse and pat dry the pork chops. Use a knife to lightly cut a few slits on the entire surface of the chop. Then, use the back of the knife to lightly chop on the surface crosswise. On both sides, brush with honey. Set aside.

2) Get ready your electrical steamer or wok filled with boiling water on stove (with fine wire mesh steam racks in wok). Place the pork chops directly in the steamer or on the steamer rack without a plate. Cover with lid. Steam for 3 minutes. When done, remove from steamer and set aside to let it cool a little. Steam pork chops in batches, if steamer is not big enough.

3) Dust some flour on both sides of the chop. Then, dip the whole chop into the egg solution, followed by coating breadcrumb mixture on both sides again. Repeat steps for all the remaining chops. Leave all coated pork chops on the large dish to stand for 5 minutes before frying.

4) Heat wok with oil on medium fire. Place pork chop into wok to fry for 1 minute, flip over to fry for another minute, till both sides turn golden brown. Drain oil on wire strainer, and then, place on serving dish. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of my Special Miso sauce, and serve with my Mango & Strawberry Salsa, or steamed Japanese white rice.

A piece of my Tonkatsu counts about 180kcal.

Tips: Store-bought bread crumbs is those ready-packed Japanese finely blended bread crumbs, use for deep frying. (Brand type I used: Nissin soft panko)
* French loaf has to be blended (as finely blend as possible, but it's ok to be a little coarse for more interesting crunchy bites) using electrical blender, before mixing with the store-bought fine crumbs. Alternatively, use cream crackers. I used seaweed flavored cream crackers for extra flavor, but the choice is yours.

Special Miso Sauce

"A savory sauce you can eat in many ways"

Happened to learn a Miso sauce for pork chop cutlet from tv, as I mentioned previously. Happy to adapt its original recipe to my version of homemade Miso sauce! I couldn't wait to tell you how versatile this sauce is...

I used this Miso sauce as the gravy for my pork chop cutlet. The taste of the gravy went so well with the pork chop as well as the white steam rice I took along with the chop. It is even good enough to eat just the rice with this Miso gravy!

I also use the same Miso sauce in my steamed fish recipe, and it yielded an entirely different flavor in the steamed fish dish (share more with you next time)... For what you know, this earthy Miso is also a great salad dressing. So, its never a waste to make large portion.

Need not to mention again, this Miso sauce is very simple to make! It can be done within 10 minutes. Ingredients? All are common ingredients which may be obtained from supermarkets. I got my yellow miso paste from the Japanese products cells in NTUC Finest.

Yields 1 bowl
Ingredients
2 tablespoons of Miso paste (yellow miso paste with or without kun-bu)
2 tablespoons of Mirin
2 teaspoons of ketchup
3 tablespoons of brown sugar

60 ml of hot water

1 egg yolk

Method
Place miso paste, Mirin, sugar and ketchup in a bowl. Stir in hot water till ingredients dissolved using a metal fork. Add egg yolk, gently brisk and stir with the same fork to combine well. Ready to use.

Tips: Measurement based on using metal tablespoon, not ceramic soup spoon.
* Adjust amount of sugar to your desired sweetness.
* Kun-bu (昆布), in Japanese named, Konbu, is a kind of kelps, usually served in Miso soup. Some miso paste packets, especially readily packed into mini packets types mainly to make single serving of instant Miso soup, come with Kun-bu in it. Otherwise, get it in tubs. Both yellow and dark Miso paste are fine to be used in this recipe.