Braised Noodle aka Lor Mee 卤面

Lor Mee is my daughter's favourite local food. I love it to, especially with raw garlic, pickled green chilli and lots of black vinegar!

During the olden days, it has shark's meat it in. Nowadays, to make is simple, beaten egg white is used instead. The recipe I'm sharing is not authentic but it's good enough for my family.

I added crispy fried bean curd skin and ready made Ngoh Hiang to it too.

Ingredients:

• 600g Yellow (flatten) Noodles
• 300g Pork Belly
• 2 Hard Boiled Eggs
• 2 Egg White or 2 Whole Egg, beaten
• Some Bean Sprout

Braising Sauce:

• 500ml Water
• 3 clove Garlic, smashed with skin intact
• 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce

Soup Sauce:

• 1.5 litre Pork Bone Stock
• 1 Star Anise
• 1/2 tablespoon Chinese 5-spice Powder
• 1/2 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Sugar or to taste
• Salt to taste
• Cornflour Mixture (thickener)

How to do it:

1. Combine ingredients for braising sauce together in a pot enough to cover the pork.
2. Add in pork belly and hard boiled eggs.
3. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
4. Braise for an hour till the pork is tender.
5. Remove the pork and cut into smaller pieces.
6. Remove the eggs and half them.
7. Retain the braising sauce.
8. Bring the bone stock to  a boil.
9. Add in the braising sauce, star anise and 5-spice powder.
10. Season with sugar and salt.
11. Thicken with cornflour mixture.
12. Turn off the heat and gently stir in the beaten egg white.
13. The soup sauce is ready to be used.
14. Blanch some noodles and bean sprout.
15. Drain and pour into a serving bowl.
16. Pour hot soup sauce over and top with pork belly, egg and other ingredients.
17. Serve immediately.

Note：

• You can use chicken stock instead of pork bone stock.

Pan Roasted Char Siew 叉烧

Last week I made Char Siew Rice during one dinner.  The kids are not fans of Char Siew so I make them something else.

The Char Siew was done using my Happy Call grill pan. However you can use any non-stick pan with a lid on. It's relatively quite easy to make but you have watch over it to prevent the char siew from burning.

I'm using the lowest heat I can get on my burner so I can roast the meat longer to make it tender without burning it. Have hot water on hand and if you find the sauce drying up, thin it by adding some hot water to continue cooking it.

This works well with ribs too. You don't really need an oven to do it. If you love to have ribs for this coming Christmas but do not have an oven, you might want to try this pan roasting method.

Ingredients:

• 500g Shoulder Butt Pork (pork with a bit more fats is preferred)
• 2 tablespoon Maltose
• 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Hoisin Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Cooking Wine
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 100ml + additional 50ml Water

How to do it:

1. Combine all ingredients, except water, together.
2. Marinate for at least an hour.
3. Pour the marinate into the pan and add 100ml water.
4. Bring the sauce to a boil.
5. Add in the meat and cook on all sides first.
6. Reduce heat to low.
7. Cover the pan and continue cooking for 45 mins.
8. Turn the meat every 10 mins to coat it well with sauce as well as to prevent it from burning at the bottom.
9. Turn it more often when sauce reduced and starts to thickened. Add a bit more water if necessary to prevent the sauce from burning which will makes it bitter.
10. Remove the meat and set aside to let it cool before slicing it.
11. Add in the remanding water to thin the sauce.
12. You can use the sauce to drizzle over the char siew or rice.

Note:

• Do not replace maltose with sugar as sugar will turn hard when it's cooled, which in turn, makes the meat hard. If you do not have maltose, you can use honey instead.
• Amount of water added depends on how fast your sauce thickens. Every stove is different. Hence, the low heat/fire might be different. I have lower the fire on my stove to the lowest I can get.
• Happy Call Pan has a wider cooking area hence the sauce will dries and thicken faster. If you are using a smaller pot or pan, you might need to reduce the amount of water added at first. Please adjust accordingly.