Bak Kwa (22 January 2012)

Hi guys, today I am making Bak Kwa. I started preparing the marination yesterday while I prepared the ingredients for making Pineapple Tarts (see yesterday post HERE). :)

Today is Chinese New Year's eve so I had to make some Chinese New Year's goodies! I wanted to make something yummy for Hijiki and I know he will surely like Bak Kwa!

The end product doesn't look like the real thing but it definitely do taste like the real thing!! :))) Try and enjoy!
(I got the recipe from HERE. I doubled the portion (from 230g minced pork to 500g) because I thought the original portion was too little for us; we are Bak Kwa lovers! :D)

 Ingredients (makes 10 rectangular pieces, each 5cmx7cm):

• 3 Tbsp of fish sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp of light soy sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 230g minced pork
• 70g sugar
• Optional: Honey mixture for glazing (for 500g minced pork portion I used 3Tbsp of honey with 1Tbsp of water) 

Preparation:

• Mix all the sauces and sugar into a bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Add the minced pork into the bowl and marinate the meat well. Leave the marinated meat for at least two hours. You can choose to leave it overnight in the fridge.(I marinated it for over 24 hours :D)
• Preheat the oven to 120C for 20 minutes. Grease the baking tray or wrap it with aluminum foil.
• Use a tablespoon to spread the marinated minced pork thinly (no thicker than 0.5cm) over the tray. (I used a roller to even out the meat instead. If you use this method, I suspect the meat would not be as cruncy.)
• Place the tray into the oven set at 150C for one hour. Use the grilling function in your oven.
• After half an hour has passed, the meat would be semi-cooked.
•  Take out the tray from the oven and using a tablespoon spoon, cut the meat into rectangles. Then flip the meat over to the other side and pop the tray back into the oven. (I glazed both side of the meat before putting the tray back into the oven.)
• Once the full hour passes, the bak kwa is done. You can eat it immediately, but for extra crunch, put it into the toaster oven for 3 minutes before consumption.

 

 
 
 

 

Pineapple Tarts (21 January 2012)

Happy Chinese New Year guys!!! Today I am going to make Pineapple Tarts!

Pastry Ingredients (makes 18 tarts):

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 125 g butter
• Some salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp cornflour
• 1 egg yolk (lightly beaten for egg wash)

Stuffing Ingredients:

• 2 Cans (110g each) mashed pineapples
•  4 Tbsp sugar (more or less to taste)
• cornflour slurry

Preparation:

• Drain the mashed pineapple and using your hands, squeeze out the extra juice.
• Using low heat, cook the pineapple and sugar until most liquid has evaporated, and the filling turned golden. Stirring constantly using a wooden spoon to avoid burning.
• When about done, add in the cornflour slurry. Continue stirring until the cornflour slurry has evaporated. Let it cool in the fridge.
• Combine the dry ingredients into a medium bowl.
• Add the dry ingredients to the soften butter and egg yolk. Knead to form dough.
• Divide the dough and pineapple filling each into 18 equal rounds.

• Flatten the pastry dough with the palms and put the pineapple filling in the middle and use the dough to cover the filling. Use your palms to round it up and then brush it with the egg wash.
• Preheat the oven for 180 degrees and bake for 25 minutes or until light brown.