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.

I decided we are having chicken this week but I have no idea what to cook with it. There is no point in asking the hubby as he will always say “curry!” I wanted to do something different and finally decided late last night I am going to cook it stuffed with glutinous rice.

Roast chicken with glutinous rice – I have not made this dish for a long time. This recipe is also not in this new blog. So I decided to cook, photograph and blog it, least I forget in my dotage.

As soon as I have made up my mind on what to cook, I washed and marinated my chicken overnight, soaked my glutinous rice and the mushrooms. This morning all I had to to was removed everything from the fridge and let all rest to room temperature before I started soaking the dried shrimps, peeling and slicing. Then it was a matter of just firing up the pan frying and stuffing.

When ready it was then placed in my convectional oven for 90 minutes because it is a very ‘Large’ M&S chicken. I preferred to use my single convectional oven over my big fan oven for this because it has a turn table and the chicken will come out evenly browned.

As usual my recipe is a guide. You do not have to add dried shrimps if you don’t want to, or you can use dark soy sauce, which I did not use in this case. You can use dried scallops or oysters even. It is entirely up to you. Today I also added chestnuts to mine as my hubby loves them. You know, sometimes less is really more. However I have used a bit more ginger because I really like the taste and ginger with sesame oil is a match made in heaven, according to my taste buds anyway. Here’s a few TIPs

TIP – When frying your rice, use the soaked mushroom water and make sure the rice is al dente and not too cooked for we do not want mushy rice. Hmmm….. well maybe one day, if I could be so lucky and live old enough to have that ‘toothless’ grin.

TIP – I did not wrap my chicken before baking because I actually like some of my rice ‘crunchy’ If you don’t then by all means wrap your chicken entirely after stuffing and bake for the first hour, then remove the covering and bake the last 30 minutes uncovered for browning the chicken. You may also like to brush your chicken with some honey at this stage (all optional) I brushed mine with a mix of sesame oil and more sherry.

Those who know me well know that I do NOT like Katsu curry at all. However my boy loves it as he is not a spicy fan. He doesn’t mind Katsu styled curry though as the ‘heat’ is all right for him. Recently he has been buying Katsu ready meals as mummy has been poorly.

I actually do not like him to do that if I can help it because I know prepared food sold in supermarkets contain a lot of e-numbers. It is not hard to make Katsu sauce from scratch so today I cooked it for him with help from my daughter using chicken thighs.

I even went the extra mile of marinating and then frying the chicken skin to give that extra texture. I do not like soft curried chicken skin myself.

On the other hand my girl prefers my normal Malaysian version curries with added belacan. Hubby will eat both as he eats anything I serve him, no complains. All he asked is that I do not serve him fats and innards. Heck he even like petai, stinky beans that I do not eat or cook myself. Since lockdown he has not had any because we could not visit a friend who sometimes cooks it for him. Poor man, not really. kekekekekeke

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.

Stir fry rice vermicelli with dried shrimps. My comfort food. While away for the last 3 weeks this is the dish I wanted to eat most. A simple rice vermicelli stir fry.

Woke up early today and could not get back to sleep. So I was already frying this at 7am this morning.

Luckily my hubby is one that is happy to eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He’s extremely good when it come to food. Every so often I asked him if he is just eating to please me and his answer is always ‘not at all’

He eats with such total enjoyment and gusto that I just have to believe him. In fact a friend’s husband, also an Englishman recently commented that if he had not met and seen my hubby eats he would never have believed it, if told an Englishman loves Asian food so much and can eat so spicy. My friend and her husband visited for a weekend and we ate at mine and at restaurants too.

TIP – Do not add water to your noodles as there will be liquid from your fresh vegetables and beansprouts. I hate soggy noodles.

TIP – Only soak the noodles in hot water quick, do not boil them if frying. Again I hate soggy noodles.

TIP – If you like to eat the bottom burnt bit turn your fire to high for a couple of minute at the very end with a a few drop of oil to the side all round the wok. This will give you the happy crispy bottom. These are the cook’s perk!

TIP – If you have pork lard use it!

A good dish we all enjoy but I do not often make. This is because i only like this dish made with Cantonese Crispy Roast Pork Belly. The skin just have that taste non other cooking style of pork can replace!

Coating the yam and frying don’t take that long and neither is it difficult to cook the sauce. Longest time spent was mincing the garlic and shallots. I prefer a lot of garlic.

After you got everything ready it is just a matter of arranging onto your dish, here I am using mason pie dishes as I normally cook a few and vacuum seal them to freeze and gift to friends.

The husband love it a lot and always ask if I am giving any and how many away. kekekekekeke I think I have to make this more often. He will pick the thin pork to eat and leave the skin to daughter’s delight. However she has to fight with him for the yam.

Please adjust the seasoning to suits your taste. I love rose wine but some people might not or finds it hard to get. I don’t add salt as the nam yue I buy is salty enough to warrant me adding some sugar even. Adjust and make it to your liking. It’s not that hard to cook as long as you get your roast pork all ready. Have fun!

KamPua Mee, Mee Pok, Kolok Mee, Hakka Mee, Kon Loh Mee, Mi Kolok, by any other names, in any other dialects are all basically dry flavoured noodles.

There is something about dried flavoured noodles that is so comforting to an Asian and especially to one who grew up in Kuching, Sarawak you just find it difficult not to have a deep desire to eat it when you are feeling a bit under the weather.

When I was working this is my weekend work. Making the ‘readies’ shallots crisps and oil, garlic oil, ginger crisps and oil, char sui for the freezer etc etc. In my house I always have ready mince even though I am not working now. Hubby will get very excited when he sees me frying this mince pork.

I remembered when we first moved from Kuching to Ipoh, Gunung Rapat area, there was a new Kedai Kopi with a stall serving Kon Loh Mee (Cantonese for dry noodles). The noodles were rather plain and wanting. My mother made friend with the lady seller and told her how in Kuching the Kolok Mee stall we frequent always have nicely flavoured minced pork toppings. That was the start of a great relationships! Mother then started to explain to her how she should have flavoured oil and flavoured minced pork.

The next time we ate there again, there were well fried and flavoured minced pork dotting here and there on the bowls of noodles and business for the lady improved! My mother was happy and I have always remembered this incident. Not sure why.

I can still remember the Kedai Kopi in my mind’s eye as it was next door to my Uncle’s the then Sundry Shop. Hmmm……a case of with age comes reminiscences? 😀 Certainly a sign of old age.

These noodles were from my old classmate. I must be not too bad a person to have good friends from school days who still loves me <3 At first I was rather sceptical about these dry noodles. I was thinking, nah they will never taste as good as the real ones ……. BUT I stand corrected! These were good! The dried KamPua Mee taste different to other dried noodles! I must get my hands on more! The hubby said they have a special springy bounce and I agrees wholeheartedly.

Sometime the hubby will just ask for kolok mee kosong. That means nothing added just the noodles, oils and mince! In his opinion simple is the best!

Updated 23rd September 2020. Added a few more pics and simple explanation of just making Kon Lo (dry noodles) kosong (with just mince pork, sauces and flavoured oils)

TIP – Fried mince pork can be kept outside (room temperature in a clean receptacle in UK) use a clean spoon when taking out for a week or if you have fridge space just put in your fridge. If you store in fridge please micro your prepared bowl before adding noodles to mix.

TIP – If you have any leftover by the end of the week you can fry rice with them, put on top of steamed toufo, fry mince with potatoes and many more.

Once in a while I have a hankering to boil this soup. It brings me down memory lane when my father would take us to this restaurant in the middle of Pandungan Roak, Kuching, Sarawak.

No matter what dishes the parents ordered, there will always be this soup. I guess it is because we, the children love it so much and easier to add to rice and eat as children like soupy rice.

I have been meaning to cook this and i have bought some sweetcorn before I sliced a chunk off my right thumb so I have to wait until now to satisfied my craving and to blog this.

Drinking this, memories of my early teens comes back in flood. My years growing up in Kuching were some of the best times of my life.

A good soup with a balance of sweetness from the fresh sweetcorn kennels and the tasty pork balls with cuttlefish, the fresh ground Sarawak pepper …… happy belly.

I hope those who have not tired before might try this for it’s good and quite tasty.

On a day like today where the weather is teetering between 13C & 16C you get to feel a bit bored. It has just been cloudy all day and I really feel like cooking something comforting. At the top of my comfort food list is steamed minced pork with Tung Choy. 

I still remember the happiness I felt when I moved from Devon in the South West to outer London and found tung choy in Chinatown. It’s amazing how we missed the things of our youth as we inevitably grew older.