Sweet & Sour Pork

Hubby decided to buy some food court Sweet & Sour Pork for his lunch the other day. My Daughter asked if she could try some. She then promptly finished off his plate and asked for more!  So I decided to try making my own without all the colouring, MSG etc.... that is added to commercial sauces. I used Kylie Kwong's recipe as it is full of fresh vegetables. Turned out very well and the whole family loved it. http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/331/sweet-and-sour-pork

Pork
500g pork fillet cut into half lengthways then diagonal bite size pieces
1½ tablespoons Cornflour
1 tablespoon cold Water
2 egg yolks lightly beaten
3 teaspoons light Soy sauce
2 teaspoons Sesame Oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup Plain Flour
¼ cup Cornflour extra
vegetable oil for deep frying

Sweet and Sour Sauce
¼ small ripe Pineapple peeled
1 small carrot peeled
1 small Cucumber peeled
¾ cup malt vinegar
5 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry
½ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt extra
4 Cloves Garlic crushed
2 tablespoons Ginger julienne
½ medium yellow pepper julienned
2 small Tomatoes finely sliced
2 tablespoons light Soy sauce

Blend cornflour with water in a medium-sized bowl until dissolved. Add pork, egg yolks, soy sauce, sesame oil and salt and mix well.Cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
Combine plain flour and extra cornflour.
Add to the marinated pork and mix well.
Heat vegetable oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly.
Deep-fry pork in batches over high heat for 1 minute, then reduce heat to medium and fry for another 2 minutes, or until pork is almost cooked through.
Remove from wok, using a slotted spoon, and drain on kitchen paper.
Gently reheat Sweet and Sour Sauce.
Finally, return all pork to the hot wok and deep-fry for a further 3 minutes, or until lightly browned, crispy and cooked through.
Remove from wok and drain well on kitchen paper.
Arrange pork on a platter and serve immediately with a bowl of warm Sweet and Sour Sauce.

Sweet and Sour Sauce
Remove core from pineapple and finely slice into pieces.
Using a vegetable peeler, finely slice carrot lengthways into ribbons.
Cut cucumber in half lengthways, slice on the diagonal and set aside, together with the pineapple and carrot.
Place vinegar, wine or sherry, sugar and extra salt in a medium-sized heavy-based saucepan and stir over
high heat until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil, add garlic and ginger, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
Add reserved pineapple, carrot, cucumber, pepper and tomato and simmer for a further 3 minutes or until pineapple is tender and tomato has broken down slightly.
Stir in soy sauce, remove from stove and set aside.

Chicken Potato Bake

OK I know this is not a low fat dish..... but it's quick, economical, can easily be doubled/tripled, is full of vegetables and kids love it. You can replace the Potato Gems with regular mashed potato but I find it lacks the texture the gems give it. I make this whenever any 'fussy' children come over who insist on Nuggets & Chips. They always gobble it up (veges included).

2 chicken breasts diced (or use already cooked & shredded BBQ chicken if you prefer)
1 onion diced
2 cups veges frozen or fresh (I usually use carrot, corn, peas, capsicum, celery)
1 can condensed Cream of Celery Soup
1 cup sour cream
1 bag of Frozen Potato Gems

Cook the chicken in a little oil until browned all over. Set aside. Cook the onion until soft. If using fresh veges add to the onion & cook for ten mins (if using frozen you don't need to do this).

Mix the cooked chicken, onion, veges, soup & sour cream together. Put into a large baking dish. Top with the Potato Gems.

Bake in the oven until bubbling and the Potato Gems are brown & crunchy.

Bastilla of Lamb

Another Good Chef Bad Chef recipe. This time it's the Bad Chef Gary's turn. I added some mint to the yoghurt and served it on the side. Went great with a crisp green salad.
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/11381/bastilla-of-lamb-olives-and-pine-nuts

400g Lamb mince

2 Cloves garlic

1 Onion

2 tsp Sumac

2 tsp Coriander
2tsp Cumin
1 tsp Smoked paprika
Salt
Pepper
200ml White wine
1 cup lamb or beef stock
2 Bay leaves
2 sprigs Thyme
2 tomatos chopped
75g Black kalamata olives - pitted
Fresh coriander – chopped including roots
Pine nuts
12 sheets Filo pastry
100g Butter melted
200ml Yogurt drained over night
30ml Olive Oil

Fry the lamb mince in olive oil, until caramelized add the onions and garlic and cook for a further 3 – 4 minutes until softened. Add the spices and cook out for a few minutes. Add the wine bay leaves and thyme, fresh tomatoes and lamb stock.


Bring to a simmer and add the olives and half of the chopped coriander. Allow to cook over a low heat for 1hr approx until the flavours have combined.

Remove from the heat and add the remaining coriander and pine nuts. Remove the thyme and bay leaves.

Line the moulds with the filo brushing each sheet of filo with the melted butter. Place the lamb mince inside the pie and wrap the filo in to seal.

Bake at 180°C for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

De-mould the pies smear the yogurt onto the plate and drizzle with EVOO. Place the pie on top.

Chocolate & Tofu Cheesecake

I'm really enjoying watching Good Chef Bad Chef on Foxtel. I decided to try this recipe of Janella's. It was very easy to make. To be honest, it doesn't taste as good as the real thing but if you are on a sugar free diet or watching what you eat it certainly hits the spot. Can't wait to try some more of her recipes.
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/11275/chocolate-and-tofu-cheesecake

Base
1 cup rice flour
1 cup almonds or hazlenuts
2 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 tsp ginger, ground
1 tbls agave or maple syrup
1/3 cup sunflower oil or omega spread
1 tsp vanilla essence
Pinch of salt

Filling
450g dairy free dark chocolate
180g tub silken tofu
1 shot of espresso or 30mls of strong instant coffee
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup palm sugar, grated (optional)

Heat your oven to 160oC and lightly grease a 20cm spring form pie tin with omega spread or sunflower oil.


For the base, put the dry ingredients in a food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then add the wet ingredients and blitz until the mixture comes together on a ball. Press the mixture into the base and sides of the pie tin. Bake for 15 minutes then set aside.

Next, melt your chocolate in a bowl over a simmering pot of water. Blend the slightly cooled chocolate with the rest of the filling ingredients. Pour into the pie dish and bake at 160oC for 20 minutes. Allow to cool before taking it out of the tin.

Potato Salad

This is my favourite way of preparing a potato salad. It is a bit time consuming cooking the potatoes twice but I think the results are worth it. I don't usually measure the dressing so amounts are approximate. Just keep tasting and amend to your liking.

2 kgs potatoes

175g bacon

5 tablespoons Heinz Salad Cream
4 tablespoons Sour Cream
1/2 buch dill chopped
1 bunch chives chopped
1 tablespoon seeded mustard

Peel and par boil the potatoes (about 15-20mins). Drain and chop into bit size pieces. Place in a roasting tray and drizzle with oil. Season with salt. Bake until potato is golden brown (about 45mins). Allow to cool.

Cook the bacon until crispy then crumble into small pieces. Place in bowl and combine with the Salad Cream, Sour Cream, dill, chives & mustard. Pour dressing over the cooled potatoes and stir through until well coated.

BBQ Baby Back Ribs

I love making this for a BBQ with friends. They are always so impressed!  It's really a very easy dish to do especially if you have a crockpot or slow cooker. You can also do this in the oven on a really low temp.

Ribs

4 racks pork ribs
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup red wine vinegar

Basting Sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup water
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup prepared mustard
50g butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon tobassco sauce
Pinch salt


Place the ribs, water & vinegar in the Crockpot and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours or until tender. 

To make the basting sauce, in a saucepan, mix together ketchup, water, vinegar, worcestershire sauce, mustard, butter, brown sugar, hot pepper sauce, and salt; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer barbeque sauce for 1 hour.

Preheat BBQ grill for medium heat. Grill cooked ribs over medium heat for about 15 minutes, turning and basting ribs with the BBQ sauce until sticky & brown.

Thai Beef Salad

One of my favourite meals for a hot summer day. Really easy to prepare, light and full of flavour. I don't usually measure the amounts in the dressing but adjust to my taste until I feel the balance is right. Feel free to add more or less of anything you like.

Dressing

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce
Juice of 2 fresh limes
3 tablespoons kecap manis
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoom minced fresh ginger

1 tablespoon brown sugar (or palm sugar)

1 chilli diced finely (I use a red birds eye)

Salad
1 bunch corriander roughly chopped
1/2 red onion finely sliced
1 red capsicum finley sliced

1 cucumber sliced
2 cups mixed lettuce leaves (I use an Asian Style mix from Woolies)

1/2 cup toasted cashew nuts

2 sirloin steaks

Mix all the dressing ingredients together and set aside.

Place all salad ingredients into a big mixing bowl.

Cook the steaks to your desired doneness (I do medium rare). Slice and layer over salad leaves.

Pour the dressing over the warm steak slices so they soak it up. Toss together and serve with boiled jasmine or basmati rice.

Lemon Curd Layer Cake

My Husband saw this being done on Celebrity Masterchef and asked me to make it. Always up for a challenge I did just that. It ended up being quite easy cooking wise. Just fiddly & time consuming because of having to cool each layer before proceeding. I used powdered gelatine as couldn't be bothered driving around Sydney looking for the sheets. Also reduced the amount of zest in the curd and used fresh passionfruit instead of juice. Stephanie Alexander's original recipe can be found here:-
http://www.masterchef.com.au/lemon-curd-layer-cake-with-fresh-passionfruit.htm

Lemon Filling
1 tablespoon powdered gelatine
150ml Juice & rind of 1 lemon
6 egg yolks
½ cup castor sugar
100g soft butter, chopped
150ml cream
2 tablespoons boiling water

Crepes
¾ cup plain flour
½ tsp salt
3 eggs
80g melted butter
1 cup milk
extra melted butter

Cream layer
600ml cream
1 teaspoon powdered gelatine
1 tablespoon boiling water

Jelly Topping
1 & 1/2 tablespoons powdered gelatine
Pulp of 1 passionfruit
Juice of 2 squeezed oranges (about 3/4 cup)

To make lemon filling, dissolve gelatine in hot water. Put juice, rind, egg yolks and sugar into a saucepan and whisk well to combine. Add the soft butter. Cook on a low to medium heat, stirring all the time, until the curd has thickened. Take off heat & add gelatine into the lemon curd mixture. Pour into a bowl, cover with a piece of buttered paper to prevent a skin forming. Chill in fridge until cool. Place the lemon curd in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir through 150 ml of cream and beat until thick. Put in fridge to cool again before assembling the ‘cake’.

To make crepes, sift the flour and the salt. Place in the food-processor and whirl in the eggs, the melted butter and the milk. Stop the machine and scrape the base of the bowl at least once. The mixture should be like thin cream. Adjust with a little extra milk if necessary. Allow to stand for 15minutes before using. Heat a crepe pan over medium heat. Remove from heat brush with extra butter then pour ¼ cup mixture into centre of pan, swirl quickly to coat pan. Cook for 30 seconds, turn over and cook for a further 30 seconds or until cooked. Repeat with remaining mixture. Separate crepes with a piece of baking paper.

To make cream layer, dissolve the gelatine using boiling water. Add the gelatine to the cream and whip until very thick. Refrigerate until required.

To assemble, place one of the pancakes in a lined spring form tin, spread with 1/5 of the lemon curd. Place a second crepe over the first. Spread with approximately a quarter of the whipped cream. Continue in this manner until the tenth and final crepe has been placed in position. Put in fridge to set

To make the topping, dissolve the gelatine in boiling water. Pour the dissolved mixture into the combined orange/passionfruit juice. Allow to cool in fridge. When the fruit jelly is just turning syrupy, remove the assembled ‘cake’ from the refrigerator and pour over the topping. Return to the fridge and leave until set (at least 2 hours).

Lemonade Scones

These scones are from one of my favourite shows The Cook & The Chef. Such a shame it's ended now. Simon made these scones using Wattleseed and finally I have made them. Ended up being very light and not sweet at all. Tasted great with lots of jam & cream! You can find the original recipe here:-
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/cookandchef/txt/s2054726.htm


1 cup lemonade
1 cup cream
3 cups of self-raising flour
3 teaspoons ground wattleseed

Preheat oven to very hot 220C.

Sift flour and wattleseed together. Add lemonade and cream to flour mix. Blend to form soft dough with pastry cutter or finger tips, then place mixture on floured surface. This is a soft wet mix.Bring together to a 2 cm thickness and cut with a floured cutter.

Place scones close together on tray, brush with milk and bake for 10 - 15 minutes.