Recipe: Korean spicy pork bulgogi

Not anything new that I'm in love with Korean food and the love escalated after my visit to Korea last Summer. <3 

This time round I attempted another popular korean dish, spicy pork bulgogi. 

Ingredients:

 pork belly, thinly sliced

onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon gochujang
1 teaspoon Korean sesame oil - or use normal sesame oil if you do not have this
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoon minced garlic
sesame seeds 
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method:
1. Marinate pork with gochujang, sesame oil, minced garlic and light soy sauce. Set aside for about 2 hours or overnight in the fridge.
2. Heat oil in wok. Stir-fry onion until softened, about 2-3 minutes.
3. Add pork,stir-fry until cooked through.
4. Garnish with sesame seeds.
5. Serve immediately with rice.

So yummy using the simplest ingredients! :')

Love,

Lirong.

Kimchi Soup

Weekends have become so precious now that FYP started. :') That's because my usual semester timetable is too slack. LOL! 

So I spent the Saturday nua-ing at home, in my 'entertainment room' Life is so good for that moment! :D Anyways, if I don't tweet or reply to your whatsapp that's because I'm in the basement! No reception there sorry. :X 

Decided to try something different for dinner tonight.

I love kimchi but has never thought of making them at home. Since I chanced upon a good recipe while blog-hopping,  it's fate that I'm gonna have you for dinner! :D 

Ingredients: 

1. Kimchi (김치)
2. Pork belly, cut into strips
3. Napa Cabbage(大白菜), cut into thick sections
4. Silken Tofu, cut into thick section
5. Stalks of Spring Onion, cut into sections
6. Medium Brown Onion, sliced
7. Garlic Cloves, minced
8. Gochujang(고추장)

Method:

1. Place a hot pot or pan on the stove, saute minced garlic with some 1 teaspoon of sesame/cooking oil till fragrant. Add in pork belly and cook till it changes colour to almost white.

2. Add onion, spring onion, kimchi and gochujuang and give it a quick stir till combine before adding water and bring to boil. 

3. Add in napa cabbage and simmer over the mixture over medium low heat for about 10 minutes. 

4. Lastly add in tofu and simmer for about another 5 - 7 minutes. 

5. Ready to serve.

Notice that I don't put any quantity to my ingredients? One I don't measure my ingredients, I think it's quite silly to do so (baking is another thing) I go by my instinct and experience. LOL! Second I have a family of big eaters. If I do specify the amount of ingredients and state to feed a family of 4, you probably can feed a family of 8 instead. :/ 

 

Was quite worried that the parents might not be able to accept since it's not very 'chinese', but luckily it turned out that they love the soup too, especially mummy! :D 

Braised pork belly 

It will be shocking to say that my braised pork belly is 100% oil-less. Yes, I'm serious! :D

I normally choose the most fatty part of the pork belly and pan fried it until all its fats melt to become oil. See I don't need any extra oil! ^^ Plus, animal fats give an extra fragrant to the dish! This is call killing 2 birds with 1 stone. LOL! 

Ok, bye I'm going down to basement. :P

Auspicious Dishes for CNY: 烧肉炒包菜

Hello!:) Been too busy to blog lately. :P

 Really caught up with quite a few things on hands. :/ 

1. CA once per week. this is really killing me.

2. Assignments and report. T.T

3. Helping my mummy with her business 

4. Summer programme application

4. LAZINESS

lol!

Nonetheless, still in the mood for CNY! Sort of. :P

烧肉炒包菜

This dish is quite popular on the reunion dinner table but we only had this on day 9 of CNY, because all the other days we were having steamboats instead. 

HAHA! 

Ingredients:

1 whole cabbage (thinly sliced)

300g roasted pork (sliced)

1 tbsp of oyster sauce

1 small piece onion (chopped)

2 small pieces garlic (chopped)

1/4 cup water

Methods:

1. Heat oil in wok.

2. Add in the chopped onion and fried till golden brown.

3. Add roasted pork, give a quick stir. Close lid and cook for about 2 mins

4. Add cabbages, give a quick stir before adding oyster sauce.

5. Add water and toss in the chopped garlic, close lid and let it cook for about 5 minutes.

6. Give it another quick stir and let it simmer for a further few minutes. 

7. Plate and dish. :)

A very simple dish right? So simple that you actually don't need a recipe. lol! I wrote the 'methods' purely based on my memory of the steps. I think cooking is really very dependent on 'feeling' unlike baking, every measurements count. :/ 

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (January 2012) hosted by Wen’s Delight.

Secret recipe

I found out a sad news yesterday.. :( One of my friend lost her mother. I was really very shocking, how can someone leaves so suddenly? Life is so vulnerable ya? I found out when I was stalking her fb. :X Tears rolled down when I saw the msges she left one her mum's wall. Every words touches my heart, every words aches my heart. I used to stay near her and knows how close she was with her mum, her mum was like her bff. Really felt so upset for her. :( But she is much stronger than I would imagine. I admire her courage, her braveness. I starts to put myself in her shoes and think if I'm her would I be as strong as her? And I started to cry harder. NO! I don't want this to ever happen!!! :'( I don't wanna even think about it. Call yourself coward Lirong! 

Sigh.. Life is really too unpredictable right? So I'm constantly reminding myself to cherish the ppl around me and love them like never before! But I feel that I taking more than giving to my family. I feel that I'm not doing enough for them. 

1. I feel disrespectful to them sometimes cox I'm that kind that is super 'mei da mei xiao' to my parents

2. I'm like a boss at home. :/ (I'm very different at home)

3. I always quarrel with my mum and regret after that. Becox of my impatient and hot temper. 

Despite these, my parents still love me and treats me like a queen and gave me anything that I want! I think it's also becox my parents pampered me too much that I become so 'mei da mei xiao'. :/ My brother never had the kind of 'queen' treatments from my parents though. :/ 

But I think I changed a lot as I matures, still not enough though. I will continue to improve myself to be a better daughter!!! :) 

Enough of my self reflection! haha! Anyway I realized almost every post that I write is to do with food. LOL! Says what? 

So there is no exceptional for this too. :P 

Last night I commented that I miss having my family's secret recipe - vegetable meatballs! And mum did it for me today. :') 

Never seen it elsewhere right? It's exclusively the Sun family's secret recipe! :p

I love this as much as I love pumpkin. HAHA! But this is tedious to make so I don't dare asking my mother to make every week. :/ 

Super lots of ingredients involved!

1. pumpkin

2. yam

3. onions

4. carrots

5. radish

6. garlic

7. onion spring

8. water chestnuts

9. pork belly

All the vegetables you have to skin them and shred into these tiny strips. Now you know it's so tedious? Plus the onions always make my mum tear like mad. :/ 

Give all the ingredients a good mix

Followed by 15 cups of potato flour. You see right, my house actually have huge containers of potato flour! I'm a carbohydrate-sucker! :/ 

Potato flour to 'cement' all the ingredients together into a ball.

Steam and ready to serve hot! :)

An old photo of my 80 yrs old ah ma making this delicious meatballs for me. :') Ah Ma I miss you! 

Dip with the super nice bibimbap sauce that I bought!

I can eat this forever, really love this lots.

But I love my family more for loving me even more!
:)

It is addictive

I must say baking is really addictive. Not very happy with all my previous attempt, so I made my way down to the library today to get books on baking! I wanna get it RIGHT! LOL! Baking is really an art! Whoa! So much knowledge and science involved! I kinda feel more knowledgeable now. LOL! 

Packed lunch home from Kopitiam for boy boy and I! :D

Crazy right?! Hehe! Actually I secretly love chap chye peng too! Notice the similarity between CCP and YTF? You get to choose large varieties of food! Hohoho! I love varieties! :D Each packs have 4 different meats (sweet sour fishes, sweet sour pork, lemon chicken and braised chicken) and 2 types of vege! Guess the price? HAHA! $6.50 each. :X Our over-flowing lunch~ Managed to finish everything! Ok, not the rice though, only ate 1/4 of it which have my sweet sour gravy~  HAHA!

I definitely need the energy from lunch. Cox I'm baking cake again! This time round I followed the recipe from my library book. Yet another sponge cake. 

Notice the top 2 photos! They are purely eggs and sugars only! This is what I'm talking about, beating the eggs till foamy white form. A process which kills my arm. T.T This time round I was very determine to beat till the desired form! (usually I stopped beating at pale yellow form) This took me half an hour~ and I was sweating mad too! LOL! Hardwork but damn satisfied with my determination! ^^ 

Tada~ This is then the sponge cake that I'm looking for! Light, soft and bouncy! Though the top was burned. Blame on my small little tiny toaster. Too small to handle this. :/ Ok, I admit I put in too much baking powder too. :X

Lalala~ I'm like a proud mummy! :') 

My mummy also said I finally made something more like a cake. LOL. Basically, I WAS DAMN HAPPY PLEASE! HAHAHA! YAY! Point noted: Follow recipe from a book instead. LOL!

Very hungry after the bake. LOL! No surprise since I put in so much energy and effort to beat the eggs! HAHA! 

Today's dinner~

1. Fried rice

2. tofu and kelp soup

3. Stingray and onion

4. Vinegar trotter

Ytd's dinner~

1. Otah

2. Steamed fish

3. Dumpling, seaweed soup

4. brown rice

PS: I'm trying to stop myself from over-eating! 8/10 full is the best! 

Love these few days, just staying at my peaceful home to bake and make dinner for the family. :) 

Bread and more bread

I was trapped in the kitchen for half a day because I wanted to try making some bread. Ok, I didn't expect bread-making to be so tedious~ Usually I can bake a cake in less than an hour! But baking a bread took me 3hours! :O

Let the picture do the talking :)

3 hours to prepare 5 breads. >.< So time consuming because 2 provings needed and it's an hour each~ You can see that I ran out of patient for the bread on the right, so I merely rolled it. LOL! 

Long ones are red bean fillings with white sesame seed. Round one is crabstick specially made for myself! :P My brother thought these were bought from bakery! hohoho! The bread was soft and supple! Yay! Have to man! 3 hours of labour! :X 

Mummy say I make bread better than cake. :X Actually I think so too! hahaha! Bread baking is idiot proved! Only that it is damn tedious! :< While to bake a cake requires more skills! Especially the whisking part which I ALWAYS FAIL~ T.T 

Egg sponge cake

Finally I baked one cake that turned out to be expected and not something else! LOL! Ok, I need more practices!

My mummy is damn greedy! Last night she cooked so much noodles for dinner!!! Picture to prove! Bound to have leftovers and became my lunch for today. Stir-fried it with a new bottle of sambal chilli. The photo looks very harmless right? WRONG MAN! Bloodly HOT HOT HOT! Nando's should use this brand of chilli instead. LOL! 

Dinner was on me tonight! Braised pork belly and a simple double-boiled soup! ^^

Thinking of what to bake tml...... :P 

My new hobby

Finally I put on hands on flours, eggs, yeast and everything about baking! Yay! Been wanting to do so since last year! Hehe! :D Only have 3 pieces to showcase as for now, more to come definitely!

1. Red-bean Pancake 

I feel it's the easiest for beginner plus my favorite snack too! :D

Spam spam spam spam spam spam lot lot lot lot lotssssss of red bean! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Beautiful not? :D 

My first baking all polished by myself! BECAUSE PANCAKES ARE NOT MEANT FOR SHARING! :P Anyway I did share the photos with my family. LOL! *selfish never share the food* :P

Ok, so I really like this recipe! Totally my customized piece of pancake~ Sorry jollibean I think we have to bid goodbye, I've found my true love. :) Anyway, I've already made this pancake twice! Haha!

2. Raisin Sponge Cake 

Difficulty increased! 

Ok, I admit. There's too much raisin on the cake. :X Also, I had too much eggs beaten too. :X Mum said the egg smell was overwhelming. :X But I feel was ok, since I love the smell of eggs! Hehe!:D

Pretty good looking and the taste was much denser than expected. The family finally gets to taste my bake! HOORAY they like! Gone fast! ^^ 

3. Steamed Pandan & Raisin Layered Cake

Just made this earlier on. This was much more tedious cox it's a layered cake (8 layers altogether). 

Yeast is very amazing, from a thin flour it fermented to this thick! At first I thought I'm gonna fail it, cox there wasn't any aroma while steaming. :< But the first bite proves me wrong. IT WAS GREAT! 

Another beautiful piece~

Compared to the raisin sponge cake, this recipe is softer. Family said they prefer this! ^^ Actually me too! I think pandan and raisin are the best combination yo! Finished the bake just before dinner, mum and I can't wait to try it! Ya, we spoiled our appetite for dinner. :X

PS: I can smell the strong pandan cake from the kitchen! Tempted to grab a piece now! But must save them for breakfast later~ T.T

My 3 successful bakes so far! 

Ok, I'm still not very good at baking but definitely improving! Thanks to all the recipes! :D Tml gonna make chiffon cake! Getting more and more challenging ya? Pray hard it gonna be a success again! :>

Though I'm baking, I didn't give up my love for cooking too! :D

Fish tofu soup, pan-fried luncheon meat w egg, stir-fried bittergourd and carrot

Chicken soup w sharkfin and mushroom, abalone w acar, stir-fried black fungi w dried beancurd

Gong bao chicken, tofu seaweed tomato soup, cauliflower fish soup, black fungi chicken fillet

So happy! I can stay in the kitchen like forever! HAHA! 

MAN VS FOOD

If you have a Starhub Cable, tune in to TLC every sunday @ 4pm for MAN VS FOOD! Check out all the yummy, sinful, unhealthy gigantic servings of food exclusively in USA! It's no wonder the obesity rate in USA is so HIGH! LOL!

Recess week officially starts, so is my mugging week! But I can't concentrate at all!!!! I regretted buying a Mahjong App on my Iphone, I'm damn addicted now. D: Playing it more than studying simply spells trouble for myself!

DIE DIE DIE! 

LIRONG VS FOOD: Sat

Round 1: LUNCH

Seafood EeFu

Jollipancake + Tiong Bahru Pau 

Bought this as afternoon snack, in the end I finished it with my lunch. =.= How full was I? :O 

Big Chicken Pau

Half-ed the Pau with my brother, too full~ I'm so nice to give him the one with egg! Haha! 

Fruit platter - strawberries, grapes, pears and apple.

Afternoon snack became a health plate of fruits instead! :D 

Round 2: DINNER

Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs

Awesome! :D My brother is a sucker at this! He almost finished the whole plate himself!

*Note: Less butter and more sugar next time*

Bak Kut Teh

Ok, too much soup that the pork ribs are covered. LOL! Peppery version of Bak Kut Teh is my all time favourite~~~ 

Random green vege

Tada~

LIRONG VS FOOD: Sun

Round 1: LUNCH

Mix fried Bee Hoon and Noodles

The chilli is BEST!

Jollibean

Hahaha! Ok, I did leave it for afternoon snack today!!! lol! But cold already. :(

 MICROWAVE to the rescue~ We love technology don't we? :D

Fruit Platter - strawberries, grapes, apples, pears and banana

Another fruit platter for afternoon snack again! 

Eating fruit is good;

 Eating a mixture of fruits is better. 

Ok, I'm looking forward to dinner~ Daddy gonna cook tonight! :D 

I like the part in MAN VS FOOD when Adam announces MAN WINS!!! YAAAAAYYYYYY~

So in LIRONG VS FOOD:

*DRUM ROLL*

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LIRONG WINS! 

:P

It's kinda a lame post and you have wasted your precious time on it. So good luck to you!