Sweet and Sour Pork

One of my  childhood favorite dishes is sweet and sour pork. When I was a child I liked this dish so much, so each time I went to Chinese restaurant I would order it even tho my father thought it was a joke to order such sweet dish. And now I am grew up and I still like it every now and then. This dish is originally from Canton, China, a crispy pork nuggets coated with sweet and sour red sauce and my recipe is using the combination of white vinegar and ketchup mixed with plum sauce, it will give the sauce a more complex taste.
This is a easy to make recipe and all you do is to give it a first try and then the second time you will do it better because you know what it looks like and you can adjust the taste the way you like it. I always tell people that cooking recipe is just a guide, my taste might be very different than yours. So just cook the food following your taste, I myself like a little sweeter so I put more sugar, you can skip the plum sauce if you don't have any.

Last week, I cooked this dish for my house guest and their kids and they liked it, this sweet and sour pork is a international dish which everyone loves.


Ingredients:
1 kg of pork scotch fillet  (semi-lean), cut into 4cm cubes
Oil for deep-frying
One can of pineapple

Sauce:
5 tsp ketchup
1 tsp tabasco
3 tsp plum sauce

3 tsp pineapple juice from the can
3 tsp sugar - to taste
2 tsp white vinegar - to taste

Marinade for pork:
4 tsp corn flour
1 egg
1/2 white pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp pineapple juice 

Vegetables:
1  onion
3 pieces of ginger
1 small green capsicum
1/2 can of pineapple cube

Method:

1.  Marinade the pork with the  ingredients for about 10 minutes. Set aside.
2.  Cut the vegetables into big cubes.
3.  Heat up enough oil for deep-frying. Turn heat to medium.  Fry the pork cubes piece by piece.  Fry until 90% cooked and crispy, remove from oil and drain on paper towel. Allow to cool.
4.  Heat your wok or pan and put about 2 tsp of oil in the wok. Saute the ginger, onion and green capsicum until fragrant then put in the cubed pineapple.
5.  Put in pineapple juice, white vinegar, sugar, salt, ketchup and plum sauce, a few drops of tabasco sauce, bring it to boil.
6. Pour in the fried pork nuggets,  mix well to coat the pork with sauce.

2 Days in New York

2 Days in New York is a Woody Allen style of movie about a French family visiting their daughter who lives in New York with her boy friend.  It's a funny movie about family and cultural differences. But beside culture or habbit, some people I know just basically don't get it. They don't know the basic manners for being a house guest. They have no idea on how to respect and consider other people. At first I was trying to understand them or even make excuse for them, then I noticed they are just plain "ignorance".

As we all know there are some basic rules and manner if you are visiting and staying at someone's home. Remember, what ever I am going to write in the following, the people I know actually did the opposite.

1. Letting your host know your plans and communicate clearly about your comings and goings from their home, make sure that you are not going to inadvertently inconvenience them. Don't leave their home, even for a short outing, without telling them! Your host should not have to guess whether you went out or you're in your room with the door shut.

2. Make a conscious effort to adapt to their patterns. To be clear, ask about their expectations of you during your stay. For example: ask if you are expected to share meals with them, what time they prefer you to turn out the lights, etc. It is especially important to arise when your hosts do (or at least when your own children do), and accept that others have to live in the house too. Realize that if your kids are creating chaos at 7am on the weekends (and you are still sleeping), this is probably something you should acknowledge that your hosts tolerate.

3. If you have your own bedroom, keep the door open when you are not in it, with the bed neatly made and your belongings neat and tidy. Take care of the sofa , don't roll your suitcase inside the home, Don't put your things around the house. Remember that this isn't your home - this is someone else's home, no matter how close you are with the host.

4. Clean up after yourself. Do not leave your dirty dishes in the sink. Even if you find that your host leaves their dishes piled in the sink, doing this yourself is considered very rude. You should leave the kitchen cleaner than you found it. If you notice that the floor needs to be swept offer to do it.

5. Be reasonable about sharing a bathroom. If the house only has one bathroom, ask when it is convenient for you to use it, knock before you enter, only children will go to a shared bathroom without knocking  and make sure you do the following:

• Flush the toilet and put the lid down.
• Be clean. Check that you have not left hair on the floor, or toothpaste splatters in the sink. Make sure to always leave a clean toilet behind.
• If towels are not placed out for you in the guest room, don't presume that the fancy towels in a shared bathroom are for you.

6. When getting up in the night or very early in the morning, remember to be careful not to disturb your hosts. Loudly banging doors, flicking on lights outside their bedroom, or generally making a lot of noise will ensure that you're remembered as that guest they will never want to have stay again. Guaranteed.

7. Always offer to help at meal times. There is nothing more debilitating than having guests who sit around waiting expectantly for all meals. This is when a stay crosses over from being homey to like being in a hotel.  Collecting plates, carrying out dishes, offering to wash up or stack the dishwasher, cleaning off the counters, and taking the garbage out. You could even offer to cook a meal or two yourself. If you're not sure what to do, ASK! Even if the host may say "Nothing!", insist that you do at least one thing. If you are taking the time to cook for yourself, cook enough for your hosts - especially if you are using your hosts' kitchen staples and supplies.

8. Unless you are specifically told to "help yourself to anything" in the refrigerator or pantry, always ask before taking something, and never take the last of anything. This is especially true of left-overs which are not easily reproduced, or expensive items. If you must eat your host's food, a good idea is to pick up some more to replace what you ate. Follow the "you ate it, you replace it" rule and remember: buying the same product but keeping it in a separate area  or eating all of it yourself, or taking it with you when you leave does not mean "replacing" it.

9.  Offer to make contributions. Even if you're not eating at your host's home, offer to purchase the groceries (after all, you still need their toilet paper!). Remember that they have probably already been shopping for extra groceries and spent a considerable amount of time and money to get ready for your visit. You could either paid their next supermarket trip, or you could offer to go out and buy things for both yourself and for them (ask them for a list). If your host is embarrassed to give you a list, make regular financial contributions, like accompanying your hosts to the supermarket and paying at the checkout, or leaving money out in an obvious place on a regular basis clearly indicating it is for groceries.  Whatever the length of your visit, you should at least offer to take your hosts out for dinner. It should be the restaurant of their choice.

10. You're not staying in a hotel and your host will have to wash your sheets and towels when you leave. Make it easier by removing sheets, pillow cases and any other linens. Place them in a neat pile on the foot of the bed or in the laundry hamper. Better yet, start washing them for your host. If your host use a housecleaning service then offer to pay for it. You may even offer to contribute to the cost of cleaning supplies and laundry costs.

11. If you have to leave really early in the morning, say your farewells the night before. If you see your host come back home, say Hello. It's important to be polite.

12. Don't behave as if it's your own home. Be respectful of their belongings and adapt to your hosts' lifestyle.  

13.  Never, ever, gossip about or criticize your hosts, their homes or family members, It's disrespectful and rude.

14.  The Big No No- Don't be cheap. Nobody likes anyone who is cheap, especially a cheap house guest. If you're truly having financial issues, be humble and show appreciation and offer to do things around the house. You should feel even more grateful that your friend and his family is willing to help you out during a time of need. The wrong thing to do is float to the couch after a meal they cooked for you, not helping with dishes or other chores, and leave without  leaving as much as a thank-you note. If you weren't helpful, you should at least be grateful -- Cheap House Guest .. that is a nightmare of a house guest.

There are more than 14 points but I think the above is the basic list and everyone should follow. Some people said manner can be learnt but how to learn if they don't even care. Those ones who do not care are just totally ignorant and they don't even know how to teach their children, because they themselves behave like 10 years old,  they are being selfish and such a waste of time. The sad thing is, when those "Cheap house guest" reading this, they don't even know this is talking actually about them. Oh boy, they are the lucky ones, and I have to quote Sweet Brown here "Ain't Nobody Got Time for That".

Sorry this is not really a film review. But I hope someone learnt something from this.

Argo

Look at this year the Oscar Nominess -

"Amour",  "Argo", "Beasts of the Southern Wild", "Django Unchained", "Les Misérables",
"Life of Pi", "Lincoln", "Silver Linings Playbook", "Zero Dark Thirty"

When I look close into it this year's Oscar seems to be about revolution, politic and a little bit of the people who are forgotten by the society, the young, the old and the mental ill.

When Lincoin fighting for the 13th Amendment "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction", we have Django to revenge, when Argo is to save the Americans out of Iran, we have the American hunting for al-Qaeda terrorist leader in Zero Dark Thirty, while the French is preparing their June revolution, we have Life of Pi to question about religion, what will you choose to believe and beast of the southern Wild  about childhood and innocence, Sliver Linings Playbook about bi-polar and Amour is about test of love ...
Seems to be cover everything I guess?! but so far I think Argo is the best movie among them all.

The reason is simple, because this film has built up the tension a thriller should have, there is no blood or action but you can see it in your mind, something "bad" is happening or going to happen. This is one of the movies like the old fashion thriller, you have to watch it from the start, you have to understand the story and the reason the tension is built upon the information the director has given us. There is no real bad guy, just the situation, the opening was great, in a short 15 minutes, it tells the audience that the US the CIA and MI6 helped organized the overthrow of the elected government to install their puppet the Shah to Control the oil. The Iranians are angry, the Americans are nervous, you know there's something bad is going to happen, you edge of your seat, biting your nails, and wiggling your feet.

It has been long time I have not seen such "exciting" movie. Unlike any James Bond movies or action flick such as Taken, Die Hard, they are using "action" and visual to create the excitment but Argo is using their story and the situation to involve and engage the emotion of the audience. The difficult part to make a political thriller is to tell the truth, Movie like All the president's men, Munich and Hotel Rwanda, they did their best to stick with the truth and try to make it as exciting as possible, Argo is the same, you might complain about a few things, such as the director seems to forget the time zone issue between America and Iran, and why the solider can not stop the plane from leaving just calling the control tower? we know this is only for the "thriller effect" and it's far from the actual event. Many people said Argo make Iranians all "bad guys", which I don't agree, I can see the director and the writer is trying to be as neutral as possible. You can see they are pointing their finger to the CIA more than anyone else, after all they are the one to decided to drop the hostages, and they are trying to tell us why the Iranians were so angry, do they have their reason?

Maybe Argo is not as fun as Django unchained, or as meaningful as The Life of Pi, but Ben Affleck brilliant directing proves of his talent as a director.  And I do like his 70's look in this movie, I think he is now very mature and a better actor because he stoped acting.

Steam Fish - Hong Kong Style

I love fish and there are many ways to cook it and today I want to talk about one of the best ways - steam fish.
Europeans usually fry, grill, roast their fish or maybe the Spanish and Italian might bake the fish with salt but steam is almost never, also mostly they will only eat fish with lemon juice or tomato sauce, maybe because there not many fish is fresh enough and they are mostly frozen so they have to use the lemon juice to cover the fish smell? but I think if you can find "fresh fish" the best way to cook it is to steam. It not only gives the best flavor but it is also very healthy.

Here is Hong Kong Style steam fish,  after you learn this, you can try to do it differently, using different ingredients.  So have fun and enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 fresh fish (about 500g - 600g),
2 stalks green onion,
1/2 cup finely chopped, thinnest strips ginger,
1 cup thinnest strips scallion,
1/2 cup coriander
2 red chili – thinly sliced
4 tsp sunflower or peanut oil or any veg oil but don't use olive oil.

Seasonings:
4 tbsp light soy sauce,
1/2 tsp sugar,
3 tbsp water,
a pinch of white pepper
1 tsp Shaoxing wine to pour on fish prior to steaming (or any cooking wine like dry sherry, but I like to use brandy)

Equipment:
A plate to hold the fish & large pot or wok for steaming.  Big enough to put the plate inside. If you don’t have a steamer insert, take a small bowl and invert to use as a stand.

Preparation :
1. Clean out the fish inside, pat dry. Season inside and out with salt and pepper. Take some strips ginger and scallion stuff inside the fish.
Beside strips ginger and scallion, I also like to put inside some small and thinly cut pork belly.

2. Cut scallion into long pieces,  place them on the plate, put the fish on top, then put ginger slices on fish.
Personally, I like to cut up some tofu and place them on the plate instead , the seasoning and fish juice will go to the tofu after cooking and it will give an extra taste to the dish.

3. Soak strips scallion in cold water for 3-5 minutes, drain.

Cooking:
1. Add 6cm of water to your large pot or wok.
Put the fish into the steamer when the water is boiling (if without steamer, put the invert small bowl in the wok or pot and put the fish plate on top,  cover the pot or wok), turn down the heat to medium.
Cooking times:
- Whole fish 500g : check at 12 minutes, add 2 minutes for every 100g
- Fillets 3cm and thicker: check at 10 minutes, add 2 minutes for every 1cm more thickness

Tips: to steam the fish, best to put a dish towel in between the lid and the fish , so the steaming water will not drip back on top of the fish.

2. When the time is up,  check the fish to see if its cooked:

- Check the fish to find its thickest part. This is the part that will finish cooking last, so if this part is done then the rest of the fish is fully cooked.

- Stick the chopstick or fork gently into the thickest part of the fish. The flesh should be easy to separate and almost flaky. Usually after tun off the heat I leave the fish inside the pot with the lid on for extra 2 minutes, while I wait I will:

- heat up 4 tsp of oil in fry a pan

- now 2 minutes is up, take the fish out carefully, put the fish on a serving plate, pour over the fish juice and the seasoning, a dash of wine, the scallions, strips ginger and red chili on top of the fish

- you should see now your oil in the fry pan is smoking hot, add gingers and strips scallion, have a quick fry and pour over oil on top of the fish and you will hear the sound "Sizzzzzzzzz now eat...".

Thai Seafood Curry Pumpkin

Cooking curry is very easy, everyone can do it.
The best thing about cooking curry is we can do it in different ways, sweet or hot, with or without coconut milk. You can add fish, chicken, lamb, beef, pork, vegetables. The key is to cook it together with the curry sauce.  I love curry so much I can eat it all the time and won't get sick of it, one of my all time favorite is curry beef brisket with potatoes, the beef is so tender it is melting in your mouth, potatos filled with the taste of curry it taste even better than the beef itself. All vegetables are good with curry too. I never heard anyone failed to cook curry, so if you want to impress your girl friend or boy friend, just make curry for dinner, if you want to make it fancy then I suggest that you make this Seafood Curry with Pumpkin. This is really easy to make and simply impressive, the curry sauce and the pumpkin are the perfect match, it taste so good it is almost like a dessert. If you like prawns add more prawns. If you want it to be sweeter, put more sugar. Set up the table, light up some candles, put on Oscar Peterson and open a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc ... you get the picture. Yes, its a bit cheesy but she will love it.  If she doesn't like it? get a new girl friend.

Ingredients 1 small pumpkin
seafood mix -  salmon/white fish fillet, scallop, prawn, calamari, mussels, etc
1 onion, chopped to bite-size
3 cloves shallots, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp green or red curry paste.
2 tsp curry powder (more if you preferred)
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 cup coconut cream (more if you preferred)
3 tsp evaporated milk
2 tsp plum sugar (more if your preferred)

Instruction
Preheat the oven to 200C.
1. Rinse the seafood under cold running water and pat dry with paper towel. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Cut the top off the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Scoop out some pumpkin flesh, blend it to mash and set a side.
3. Bake the pumpkin in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size of the pumpkin.
4. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and set the oven to 220C.
5. Saute the onion with some butter until soft. 
6. Lightly fry the seafood mix with some butter separately, remove and set aside.
7. In a larger pot or pan, fry the shallot and garlic with some butter.
8. Add the curry powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and plum sugar and fry for a little while.
9. Add in coconut and evaporate milk, fish sauce, pumpkin mash and stir well until the pumpkin is like the texture of a thick sauce, if too dry, add coconut cream.
10. Return the onion and seafood in the sauce.
11. Add seafood mixture into the pumpkin and bake in a preheated 220C oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
12. Garnish with coriander, spoon on a little circle of coconut cream.

To be served with rice or bread 

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

3 medium yellow onions  about 750 g
2 tbsp  butter 
1 tbsp  oil 
1 tsp brown sugar 
1 Liter beef stock 
1/2 cup dry white or red wine /or without 
1 bay leaf 
1 small baguette 
1 tbsp butter, at room temperature 
1 to 2 cups grated gruyère or emmenthal cheese

Instructions

• Chop onion in half lengthwise and slice them all. 
• Heat butter and oil in a large wide saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, then sprinkle with sugar. Cook, uncovered and stirring often, until very soft and caramelized, about 15 min. Reduce heat if they brown too quickly.
• Add beef stock, wine, seasonings and bay leaf. Scrape up brown bits from pan. Bring to a boil over high. Then cover and simmer over medium-low for 30 min to develop flavour. 
• Place oven rack in top half of oven. Preheat broiler. Cut bread into slices, Butter both sides of each. Toast until lightly golden, about 2 min per side.
• Place soup bowls, ladle in soup with a toasts on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Place bowls in oven. Boil until cheese is bubbly, 2 to 4 min. Serve immediately. Now you have it .. enjoy your soup in the last month of winter.
• But if you are in Australia, woo hoo the winter is on its way so you can have this soup over and over again and then when the Australia finishes, we people in Europe will take over and have this soup again...
• I was going to do a history on this soup but I guess I am quite lazy this month so I think I will just tell you how good this soup is... "yes, this soup is good, so try it ".. told you I am lazy. 
• Everyone loves onion soup!! You might hate to do the chopping but you will love the soup. Some people who really into studying hitrory of food said this soup is for poor people in France back in the when ever time, and the farmers and poor people love it so much even the King had to try it and make it a "FRENCH NATIONAL SOUP", I guess poor people always have better taste.