Apologies for my 2/3 year hiatus from the blog… Don’t worry, I’m still the ardent foodie I was before, still loyal to frequenting my favourite food blogs, partaking in new food adventures and trying new recipes.
I’m really surprised that my blog views haven’t declined over these months, and even has been escalating! (the sharp drop is because we’re only midway through May)… I was predicting the blog would eventually dwindle into a void of nothingness as I haven’t updated it for so long. I guess it might be because Google leads a lot of people here. This might motivate me to update it more frequently and write in a better quality (this post doesn’t reflect the best of my standards, by the way, as I’m feeling a bit rushed to start studying for exams coming up!), maybe even develop a fan base (highly unlikely with the poor quality of photos and infrequent posts haha!)
It’s really not so easy to update this blog. First of all, pictures are important in a food blog. More important than whether the recipe itself is worthwhile; because imagery sells. You don’t see famous food blogs with substandard photography. Unfortunately, I am neither endowed with photographic talent nor a good SLR, plus the fact that I usually cook dinner, which means the lighting makes the food look horribly unphotogenic and looks quite unappetising reheated as leftovers the next day.
Another reason is that I’m simply lazy. I’ll try to rectify that, surely it would be good for my studies as well. Oh, about studies… I’m in my second year of N&D now. It’s getting interesting, but also getting harder. I’ll write about it in another blog post. Right now, I just want to get into the food!
This recipe is one of those really excellent ones that fail to disappoint. I’ve cooked this for my family as well as several ‘visitors’ (mum’s friends) and they always gorge themselves on it, not having enough room for any fruits/desserts. You can’t really blame them (and me): it’s just like the ones you get in Cha Chaan Tengs (茶餐廳) in HK, but even better because it’s not drowning in too much cornstarchy sauce, or lacking in meat/vegetable ingredients (and filled only with rice). The dish is made up of a (one-dish-meal) medley of lightly fried rice as the base (I also stirred in some vegetables (including frozen vegetables)), topped with fried pork chops (flavoured with ginger and garlic, lightly crumbed if desired (I did in the photos shown)), with pre-cooked sauce of tomatoes, onions, capsicum, ketchup and worcestershire sauce poured over to seep into the meat and rice. Really, it’s the sauce that makes the dish as amazing as it is. Grated cheese can be sprinkled on top, and the whole concoction placed into the oven to bake until the top is browned. I got this recipe originally from my uncle, but have since tweaked it very much with other recipes I’ve found on the internet.
Granted, it is a very time-consuming recipe, so save for weekends.
Baked Pork Chop with Egg Fried Rice, Onion and Tomato (焗豬扒飯)
3-4 eggs (beaten with salt and pepper)
1 ¾ cups (2 ½ rice cups) raw rice (or a large bowl of leftover rice)
400g boneless (3-4) pork scotch fillet/(half a piece of) pork loin chop
(Whichever is preferred: Skotch fillet has CT, pork loin has less CT)
1 medium onion (peeled, stems cut, sliced thinly)
3 large tomatoes (sliced thinly)
1 clove garlic (minced)
Optional vegies (chopped): mushrooms, capsicums, carrots, peas, baby corn etc.
(optional) ½ cup mozerella cheese
Marinade: a little light soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, (optional) 1 clove minced garlic, 1-2 tsp grated ginger
Sauce: 4-5 tablespoons ketchup or tomato paste, 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon rice wine, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (don’t use dark: sauce will be ugly!), 2-3 tablespoons sugar, dash sesame oil, black pepper (mixed in a bowl)
Method
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Cook rice as usually. Put into an oven-proof dish and cover to retain heat.
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Scotch fillet: Use knife to ‘squash’ the fillets on both sides, using criss-cross patterns. Cut fillets into halves. Pork loin: slice into 0.5-1cm slices across the grain, then cut in half to shorten.
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Marinate pork 30 mins.
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Preheat oven to 200°C.
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(optional) Just before cooking, pour some of the beaten egg into the fillets to coat them evenly, then dredge each fillet individually into plain flour or dried breadcrumbs.
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Heat a generous amount of oil in a large flat wok over high heat.
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Place however many fillets fit onto wok, arrange so all surfaces touch the wok. Pan-fry over high heat (or medium, if it burns), flipping fillets over occasionally. Pork should be hard and springy if it is all cooked, and browned on both sides: test by poking with chopstick. When a fillet is cooked, remove from the pan, continuing to add more uncooked fillets. (optional) Cut the cooked fillets into 3cm wide strips.
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Heat oil in pan over high heat. Scramble eggs until half cooked, then toss in the rice. Stir-fry quickly (then add a little soy sauce if desired), then place into an oven-proof baking dish, cover with a lid to retain heat.
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Heat oil in wok over high heat. Fry onions and garlic (plus hard to cook vegies eg. capsicum) for 3 minutes until browned, add tomatoes (and optional vegies) and saute a further 3 minutes, until tender. (optional: Take out 1/3 or 1/2 of the vegetables to stir into the rice.) Add the sauce ingredients and let it simmer over low heat for 3 minutes. If sauce is watery, thicken with cornstarch and water, if too dry, add water.
- Lay pork chop in one layer over fried rice, evenly pour the sauce over this.
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(optional) sprinkle cheese over the top.
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Bake for 10-15 minutes uncovered, until top is browned.
Source: Lobus Kaufu and http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2008/09/baked-pork-chops-with-rice-classic.html
Rating: *****
Ten Thousand Taste Buds 