ROASTED PORK RACK WITH PEI FONG TONG CRUST
Serves 10
INGREDIENTS
For the marinade:
200ml oyster sauce
100g five-spice powder
50ml Chinese cooking wine (hua diao jiu)
50ml rose wine
10ml sesame oil
100ml honey, for the marinade
1.2kg pork ribs
500g sliced almonds
Cooking oil, for deep-frying
50g dried red chillies, thinly sliced
50g curry leaves
200g dried shrimp
10 cloves garlic, chopped
20g sugar
200g rustica powder* or Cajun seasoning
10g espelette powder*
30ml cooking oil
Honey, to coat the pork
*Rustica powder is a type of seasoning, and espelette is a type of chilli pepper. Both can be found, bottled, at major supermarkets.
DIRECTIONS
1 Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and season the pork ribs with it overnight.
2 Preheat the oven to 120 deg C, and toast the almonds in it for 15min until golden-brown, then crush them coarsely. Turn the oven up to 140 deg C to prepare for step 6.
3 Heat the oil in a pot, then deep-fry the dried chillies until crispy and set aside.
4 Deep-fry the curry leaves with the dried shrimp until crispy, then crush coarsely.
5 Mix the crushed almonds, deep-fried dried chillies, the crushed curry leaves and shrimp with the garlic, sugar, rustica and espelette powders, to make the Pei Fong Tong crust.
6 Heat 30ml cooking oil in a pan over high heat, and sear the pork on all sides until brown. Transfer to a baking dish and bake for 30min.
7 Glaze the pork with honey and coat with the Pei Fong Tong crust, then serve.
CHICKEN POT PIE WITH SWEET POTATOES
INGREDIENTS
100ml vegetable oil
2 cinnamon sticks
5 star anise
2 tomatoes, cut into large chunks
2 green chillies, halved
2 shallots, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
50g ginger, finely chopped
500g chicken breast, diced
2 stalks curry leaves
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
100ml water
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
400g sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
50ml coconut milk
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
2 eggs, beaten (for the egg wash)
DIRECTIONS
1 Heat the oil over high heat and saute the cinnamon, star anise, tomatoes and green chillies for 2min until fragrant.
2 Add the shallots, garlic and ginger and saute for 3min until golden-brown.
3 Add the chicken, curry and bay leaves, and powdered spices. Stir, then add the water and bring to the boil.
4 Lower the heat and simmer for 15min until the chicken is cooked through, then add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.
5 In a separate pot, boil the sweet potatoes until very soft – pierce a fork through them to check. Drain and mash finely until smooth.
6 Stir the coconut milk into the sweet potato mash and season with salt and pepper.
7 Divide and spread the mash over the bases of two 12cm baking dishes, then top with the chicken.
8 Cover each dish with a sheet of puff pastry and brush the egg wash over.
9 Bake in an oven preheated to 160 deg C, for 15-20min, until the pastry is golden-brown.
CHOCOLATE JACKFRUIT PUDDING
Serves 12
INGREDIENTS
10 whole eggs
10 egg yolks
275g + 100g sugar
500g + 150g jackfruit flesh
500g cacao chocolate buttons*
500g unsalted butter
148g plain flour
Sifted icing sugar, to garnish
*Chef uses Valrhona 55% Cacao Chocolate Buttons, available at Sun Lik Trading, 33 Seah Street, tel: 6338-0980.
DIRECTIONS
1 Preheat the oven to 150 deg C.
2 Hand-whisk the eggs, egg yolks and 275g sugar in a bowl over a pot of boiling water until the mixture is even, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Set aside.
3 Mix 500g jackfruit flesh with the remaining 100g sugar. Set aside.
4 Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat.
5 Fold the melted chocolate, the sugar-and-jackfruit mixture and the flour into the egg mixture to make a batter.
6 Pour the batter into a 30cm baking pan and bake for 30min, or until a fork inserted into it comes out clean.
7 Garnish with the remaining 150g jackfruit and icing sugar.
All recipes by Vijayakant Shanmugam, executive chef of Parkroyal on Pickering.
This article was originally published in Simply Her December 2014.