Over the last year, after much ‘encouragements’ from friends I researched and finally bought 2 Air-Fryers; fundamentally one for my son who has moved away and one for me to learn so I can teach him easy recipes to feed himself. However I have since fallen in love with it!

I use it as a glorified oven really. After a year of experimenting and such, there are some food I will never use it for, especially those that only taste good with frying. Air-frying might be ‘healthier’ but for food that needs frying in oil, it is not nicer in taste. However I would never use my big oven for certain food now, like Cantonese Crispy Roast pork – Siu Yuk, 脆皮烧肉 which I think I have perfected in my air-fryer to my satisfaction. For full recipe please refer to this link – https://www.julieolive.co.uk/2019/09/06/traditional-cantonese-crispy-roast-pork-belly-siu-yuk-%e8%84%86%e7%9a%ae%e7%83%a7%e8%82%89/

My recipe uses red nam yue, fermented bean curd. To me this is a MUST. If you do not please do NOT refer to yours as ‘authentic’ or ‘traditional’ It kinda pisses me off. This is the way traditional Cantonese roast pork Siu Yuk, 脆皮烧肉 used to taste like when I was young. After roasting the pork itself will have a shade of light pink hue due to the nam yue and it taste so much better for it. Below are pics and TIPs of roasting it in an air-fryer. Enjoy and please feel free to ask me any questions pertaining to this cook.

My hubby has a love affair with black-beans but he only appreciate the whole black-beans that I marinated overnight with rice wine/sherry and fresh chillies, not the commercial packets or jarred mushy ones. He knows how to enjoy his black-beans! He is a connoisseur of black-beans – kekekekeke

Today I made his favourite sauce but he don’t eat pork belly (fat) so I added in (toufo) tofu pop for him as they soak in all the sauce and he loves all things tofu or rather all produce from yellow beans.

As he was eating his lunch, he asked if I have saved some for dinner! His request were the tofu pop and all the carrot coins on my stir fry mix vegetables. I think he is one of the easiest men to feed by a long shot. He did not even ask why I cooked with pork belly instead of his favourite chicken breasts for him. I will have to reward him for that in a week or so. I will cook him his favourite chicken breasts black-beans with mustard vegetables.

Note : I marinated my black-beans with a minced fresh red chilli and 2 tbsp of rice wine. You can add more chillies but at the moment I cannot stand too spicy so going slowly to retrained my taste buds after Covid19.

Note : My rule of thumb is always season AFTER you braised a bit and ready to serve and not before as when you braise the taste will change. Different brand of black-beans also have a different saltiness scale.

Note : I did not add corn-starch slurry to thicken this time but you can always do so.

Note : I only add ginger and sesame oil if I am using seafood as my protein but it is of course entirely up to your and your taste.

Enjoy!

p/s I am loving my ‘tong san’ wok. It is getting more and more ‘licin’ smooth and non stick use by daily use.

Kiam Hue steamed pork belly or minced pork is one of those dish that makes you go for that extra bowl of rice. On a cold raining day like today it is fabulous.

This is such an easy dish to cook. I literally start by frying the salt fish on low heat and start slicing the rest of the stuff, Then it is a matter of assembling and steaming.

After frying the salt fish next fry the ginger until crispy. Then assemble the rest.

The biggest challenge is to find the strength to stop eating at one bowl of rice.

My salt fish came all the way back with me from Kuching. I just brought home 2 big fishes, dried them in the sun, portioned and vacuum sealed them into my freezer. Treat them like gold and eat extremely, EXTREMELY slowly.

TIP – My hubby don’t eat pork belly. If you have one such fussy person at home you can put sliced pork belly one side and mince pork another side.

TIP – it is important to mix the 2 tablespoon or more of the oil with the pork belly before steaming. This is to make sure the pork belly will be in slices separately and not stuck together in a lump after steaming.

Enjoy.

This Jiangxi triple cooked pork belly dish is a very traditional and popular dish I learned from my ex mother-in-law. She cooked this dish a few times a year and as the youngest daughter-in-law I was terrified not only of this matriarch but of the oil spits!

She came to ‘Nanyang’ aka the old thermology for ‘Southeast Asia’ as in this case, Malaysia when she was in her 20s with 3 children on board an extremely small space on a Chinese junk because she was worried the father-in-law will look for a new wife! That was in the early 20th century.

She was an amazing woman and I am lucky to have learnt a few special Jiangxi home dishes from her after I overcame my initial fright and learned to speak the Jiangxi dialect.

This traditional homey triple cooked pork belly is one I have not seen in any recipe on the net or cook books. it is simple but oh so delicious! Mother-in-law cooked this on special occasion like festivals days only.

In Chinese it is called “Hui Guo Rou”, (回锅肉) , meaning the meat to be returned to the wok and to be cooked again. However this time not twice but triple cooked. That is, first boiled, second fried in oil and then stewed (simmered).

When she was cooking this dish I was always scared, the oil spitting and cleaning! It was scary! The huge amount of garlic to be minced finely, else we, the other sister-in-law and I will get THE look!

When it come to eating time, no one dare to take more than twice, aka 2 pieces or we get the matriarch’s STARE.

Today I have from my garden gathered some home grown spring onions and garlic. I am so happy to have my first harvest of garlic this year! I will definitely plant more next year! I wanted to use my garlic for a good dish, the best dish and I decided to pay homage to both my ex deceased mother-in-law and my home grown garlic.

This is also to document this Jiangxi triple cooked pork dish least I forget in my dotage.

This is a dish I have a craving for few times a year. Cincalok Pork belly. I was so blessed to be the recipient of a beautiful jar of this goodness from a friend. I almost want to put it by my pillow and sleep with it. kekekekeke

Cincalok this jar that I have is from Malacca so the pinkish shrimp used is called udang geragau. Cincalok are readily identifiable and the taste is salty. Therefore when cooking this dish do NOT add salt.

I am sharing what I used in cooking this dish but the proportions is entirely up to you.

Warning – This dish is very moreish. Boil more rice!

p/s I like mine with lots of onions. How do you like yours?

Braised Pork Rice Bowl – Lu Rou Fan (滷肉饭) my way 

Recently in the cooking group I am in many mummies and daddies were cooking pork belly until I can’t stand it anymore. Got to eat Chinese/Asian for the Christmas month of December of British meals is getting too much. I don’t think I want to see another sausage or bacon strip for at least a month!

This is my take on Braised Pork Rice Bowl – Lu Rou Fan (滷肉饭)

The most important different way in which I cook my Braised Pork Rice Bowl – Lu Rou Fan (滷肉饭) is that I like to fry my pork belly skin first. This gives the skin an extra ummmph. The skin also absorb more taste from your stewing ingredients.

Pomelo, prawns and cellophane noodles salads is my final decision.

A friend gave me a pomelo a couple of weeks ago and I have been wondering what to do with it. I know that some medicines may interact dangerously with pomelos and some pomelo hybrids, including grapefruit, some limes, and some oranges and I am taking one medication that makes it not so great for me to mix pomelo though I am very partial to the pink fruit variety. Hence I have been wondering what to do with my gift. I wanted something fresh. 

As luck would have it, the friend is coming here for lunch so I have decided to feed it back to her in the form of a salad, a pomelo, prawns and cellophane noodles salads. To my utter surprise the hubby love it too!

Salted Pork Belly – simplified version. A very simple recipe. I like to make this sometimes and it taste extremely good but as it does takes little bit of patience but for something so simple to make it tastes quite satisfying as an accompaniment to a good shot of whisky or brandy or beer or even all of the above. kekekekekeke

When I make this dish I always add some pork without fat because my husband do not eat fats. Actually I want to make The  Hakka Styled Pork Belly with Szechuan Peppercorns and 5 spice but I am out of Szechuan Peppercorns so this is a ‘simplified version – Salted Pork Belly.

I actually love to eat this just wrapped with fresh lettuce. You can stuff them into soft buns but that’s carbohydrates though.