Stir-Fried Pork Tenderloin with Enoki Mushroom

I like to eat enoki mushrooms. They are also known as “kim cham” mushrooms (meaning golden needles in hokkien) as they are longish with a small cap. These mushrooms are sometimes added to soups like Bak Kut Teh and commonly used in Japanese cooking. The stems have a crunchy bite despite it being rather thin and needle-like in appearance. It has a mild and delightful flavour and compliments well with meat dishes.

Enoki Mushroom

I usually cook enoki mushrooms with meat, pork tenderloins to be exact. You can substitute the meat with chicken breasts. The enoki mushrooms are added in towards the end of the cooking time as too much cooking will render the stems tough and stringy.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Pork Tenderloin with Enoki Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 200 grammes of pork tenderloins (sliced thinly)
• 1 packet of enoki mushrooms (cut off and discard the bottom of the cluster of mushrooms and gently rinse them to remove any dirt)
• 1/2 piece of carrot (julienned) - for added colour to the dish
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 50 ml of warm water
• Corn starch (prepared using 1 tablespoon of corn flour mixed with 5 tablespoons of water)

Marinade

• 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning

• 3/4 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon of chinese cooking wine
• Salt

Method

Marinade pork tenderloin for about 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok on high heat and stir-fry the garlic till beginning to brown. Add pork tenderloin and carrots and stir-fry till meat is almost cooked. Add oyster sauce and salt to taste followed by water and bring gravy to boil. Then add the enoki mushrooms and chinese cooking wine and stir well for 30 seconds.

If it is too dry to your liking, add a little bit more warm water. If the gravy is too runny, add a tablespoon of corn starch at a time.

Serve hot with steaming white rice.

Popularity: 14% [?]

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Stir-Fried Yau Mak with Garlic

I like vegetables. I think I am okay with all types of vegetables except the obvious bitter ones eg. bitter gourd. I know it is good for health but I usually give it a pass. Not with green leafy vegetables though.

There are many varieties of lettuce around and most of them can be eaten raw or cooked. If you intend to stir-fry the lettuce, make sure that your wok is really heated up to very high temperature (smoking) so as to minimise cooking time and to prevent too much water oozing out from the leaves. The idea is not to have the vegetables swimming in a pool of gravy. You also lose a lot of essential vitamins and minerals by prolonged cooking of the vegetables. Here, I use a type of lettuce known as “Yau Mak” which is a slightly smaller version of the romaine lettuce. I should have taken a photo of it before the leaves were separated and rinsed.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Yau Mak with Garlic

Ingredients

• 2 pieces yau mak (or to your desired amount but bear in mind that they will shrivel and reduce in size as you cook, separate leaves and rinse well. Drain in colander to remove excess water)
• at least 5 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 4 cloves of shallots (sliced thinly)
• 3 tablespoons of palm oil

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tablespoons of oyster sauce

Method

Heat up oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots aside.

Add garlic into remaining oil and stir fry for about 10 seconds followed by yau mak. Give it two or three stirs and add oyster sauce. Stir till leaves are evenly coated with sauce. I like the leaves crunchy, so I do not usually stir fry them for more than 1 minute.

Sprinkle fried shallots prior to serving.

Popularity: 14% [?]

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Pork Porridge with Dried Oysters

Let’s cook porridge / congee today! I like to eat porridge especially on for lunch on weekends. It is light and suitable on hot days especially when you want to eat something non-oily. When I plan to cook porridge for lunch, I will usually drop by at the wet market in the morning to buy yau char kuey (fritters) to compliment the porridge.

Porridge can be cooked with many different types of ingredients. Actually, the types of ingredients are only limited by one’s imagination. Here, I have added minced pork, pork liver and dried oysters. The dried oysters add a little sweetness to the porridge whilst the other ingredients each have its individual taste. I also like to break an egg into the bowl prior to pouring boiling hot porridge over it. It is a taste I acquired since young (runs in the family).

Give this recipe a try. If some of the ingredients are not your type, feel free to omit them or substitute them. If you need clarification, just post them in the comments below.

This is my recipe for Pork and Dried Oyster Porridge

Ingredients

• Approximately 50 to 100 grammes of rice (rinsed once and pre-soaked in water for 30 minutes)
• 100 grammes of minced pork
• 50 grammes of pork liver (sliced)
• 5 to 10 pieces of dried oyster (pre-soaked in water for 30 minutes and cut into half)
• 1 to 2 pieces of yau char kuey (cut across like in the picture above)
• 4 cloves of shallots (sliced thinly)
• 3 eggs
• 3 bowls of Water
• 2 tablespoons of palm oil
• 3 teaspoons sesame oil

Marinade (for minced pork)

• 3 teaspoons of light soya sauce
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce
• Salt
• White pepper powder

Garnishing

• Chopped spring onions
• Chinese salted vegetables or Tung Chai
  

Method

Marinade minced pork for 15 minutes or more.

Place water in a cooking pot and add rice. Cover with lid and bring to boil. Unlid and reduce heat to medium low and cook till rice becomes porridge / cooked and broken (approximately 20 minutes). Add a little hot water when it becomes too dry. You shall strive to cook it a little runny in consistency. Midway through cooking, add the oysters.

Meanwhile, place cut yau char kuey into a toaster oven to toast it till crisp. At the same time, heat oil in wok and fry the sliced shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots and set aside.

Once you have cooked the porridge, bring to boil again and add the minced pork (using a teaspoon, scoop one teaspoon of minced meat at a time) and stir. After you have finished adding all the minced pork, add the pork liver and stir the porridge till pork liver is cooked (no more blood oozing out - yes, I know it sounds gross but it’s delicious, I tell you!). Add seasoning to taste.

To serve, break an egg into bowl (you will have about 3 servings here) and pour boiling hot porridge over the egg. Drizzle one teaspoon sesame oil and add garnishing. If you still have some of the oil used to fry the shallots, drizzle a bit as well. Finally, sprinkle the toasted and crispy yau char kuey and fried shallots over the porridge.

Enjoy! I know it may sound a bit complicated but it is actually very easy to cook if you try it.

Popularity: 29% [?]

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I can’t believe that this is my 50th post! And I am truly encouraged that some have left kind words of encouragement to me for the recipes here. You can’t imagine how much I beam from ear to ear when I read that some of my recipes have been tried and tested to satisfaction. It’s very much like how a chef will feel when the food that has been cooked is given the thumbs up or finished cleaned on the plate.

Anyway, for the 50th post, I would like to highlight a recipe which my wife shared with me (and cooked for me). She does cook…and she cooks well too. Only thing is that I have persuaded her to allow me to use the kitchen and enjoy my hobby of cooking instead.

This dish is tasty as it is hot and spicy whilst at the same time, has a hint of sourness to it (due to the vinegar / lime used). It is also very fragrant due to the quite liberal use of chinese cooking wine. It is a variant of Kung Po Chicken, I believe but tastes slightly different. Adjust the taste according to your preference. That very day when she cooked this dish, we had some cashew nuts at home and she decided to throw some in hence what you see in the picture. It is not in the recipe but you can add it in for extra bite!

This is my wife’s recipe for Sauteed Chicken Supreme with Dried Chillies

Ingredients

• 500 grammes of chicken supreme (the most tender part of chicken breast which is longish in shape, slice it to cubes / thick diagonal slices)
• 20 dried chillis (pre-soaked for 30 minutes, seeded and cut into halves)
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Marinade

• 1 tablespoon chinese cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 2 tablespoon corn flour

Seasoning

• 2 tablespoon chinese cooking wine
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar (or squeeze approximately 10 limes or more for juice)
• 1 teaspoon of cornflour
• 1/2 tablespoon of light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon of water

Method

Pound meat slightly with blunt side of knife or tenderiser. Marinade for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok, fry the dried chilli for 30 seconds and then add the garlic. Continue to stir-fry till garlic begin to brown. Add chicken and fry till cooked (if you wish to add cashew nuts, add them now). Then add seasoning, stir well until evenly distributed and gravy dries up.

Serve hot with steamed white rice.

Popularity: 17% [?]

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