May's Porky Pork

Uh...Ok, I must admit the picture of Porky Pork doesn't look too appetising (I am, after all, not famed for my lavish presentation style). However it does taste good and it is quite cheap to make! Yes!

This is a Chinese dish and it is very simple to make, believe it or not. Very good party food because you can make loads of it.

Vat you need:

Mince pork
Potatoes, peeled and sliced
Eggs
Cornflour
Oyster Sauce
Garlic, chopped finely

How now, brown cow?

1. After peeling and slicing the potatoes, throw them in a pan and fry em' till they are cooked and nice and brown. Set aside.
2. Mash up mince pork with a fork. In a separate bowl, beat a few eggs and season with pepper.
3. Mix the pork and eggs together. Mix well! Add a little cornflour (about 2 teaspoons).
4. Heat oil in a pan. Using a spoon, spoon out the pork. Arrange your cute porky cutlets well so that they don't stick to each other.
5. Turn porky cutlets over to cook through. Once cooked, set porky aside. Repeat until all the mince is used up.
6. Add chopped garlic into the pan and fry until fragrant. Throw in the potatoes. Add some oyster sauce and stir well.
7. Mix some cornflour and water and add it to the potato mixture. This will thicken the oyster sauce gravy. Season to taste with some salt.
8. Throw in your porky cutlets and toss well.

Dig in!

Tags: chinese pork gravy budget recipe

May's Lagsane

You know how a lagsane looks like, right?

Well, because I forgot to take a picture of my finishing product the other day *knocks head*

I learnt this recipie from my Mum but made quite a number of alterations to it as I am, after all, lactose intolerant and I wanted to do away with the rich, too creamy (and very fattening) white sauce that often accompanies your usual lagsane.

So yes, May's little version of her lagsane. This recipie makes a small portion, not the big arse ones in those huge ceramic trays.

Vat you need:

Instant lagsane sheets
1 small bag of Pizza Cheese (a combination of mozarella, cheddar and parmasen cheese)
250g mince beef
Tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 carrot, grated finely
2 bay leaves
Parsley, chopped roughly
Garlic, chopped finely
2 onions, chopped roughly

How now brown cow?

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Fry garlic and onions until garlic is fragrant and the onions are soft.
3. Over medium flame, add mince beef a little at a time.
4. Once cooked, add in about 5 or more tablespoons of tomato paste. Turn flame down to low. Add diced tomatoes.
5. Add grated carrots, bay leaves and parsley.
6. Add more tomato paste, about 3 tablespoons more.
7. If you need to add water, add only a little (I normally do not add any water. Always use boiled water if you have to.)
8. Allow the sauce to simmer. Season to taste with sugar, salt and black pepper.
9. Alternatively, you could add some chili flakes to spice up the taste of the sauce!
10. Remove sauce from heat.

So now you have your sauce, yes? Good. Now's time to arrange the lagsane sheets before you pop it into the oven. So how?

First, oil the tray with a little olive oil. Then arrange the sheets like so:



Remove bay leaves from the sauce, then pour the sauce onto the sheet like so:



Then sprinkle the Pizza Cheese on top of the sauce. If you're a cheese fan then you can sprinkle lots. If you're like me and cautious about the fat/lactose content, go easy on the cheese!



Now, repeat those 3 simple steps. Sheet-sauce-cheese. If you are using a big ceramic tray to cook your lagsane, you need to turn the lagsane sheet(s) the other way around (you'd need to break the sheet in half to do this.) This is done so that when the final product pops out of the oven you'd be able to see nice criss-cross layers.

Once you've repeated those steps (you may need to repeat the three steps 2-3 times depending on the size of the tray) and your tray is now filled to the brim with cheese, pop it into the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Check that the lagsane is cooked! We don't want our guests biting into hard pasta, no?

Tags: beef lasagne budget recipe

yakitori

And now, the first recipe using the white meatballs! Yakitori is a Japanese kebab, a kind of informal snack that one goes to enjoy after a long day's work. You can also use other types of meat, although I'm quite partial to the chicken meatball version you see here. And yes, ideally a *real* yakitori should be skewered and cooked over hot coals, but we're on a budget, yes?

Yakitori
White meatballs
1 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp dark soy
4 tbsp light soy
6 tbsp mirin, or chinese rice wine

1. Create the sauce dip by mixing everything (except the meatballs) together and heat in a pan until sugar is melted. Pour into a bowl.

2. Using a little oil, brown desired amount of meatballs.

3. Once browned, dip each meatball into sauce dip and continue frying. Take care to keep the meatballs rolling because the sauce browns easily. Repeat the process as many times as you like.

Oh well, if you really want the atmosphere, you can skewer them and serve...

Tags: chicken pork yakitori Japanese meatball skewers budget recipe