Thursday, July 29, 2010

Pork Marinated in Gochujang

I love to explode food from different country or culture. It is so amazing that food can connect human beings & help us to understand different culture. Living in Asia in the 21st century is great because we have access to lots of vibrant & amazing Asian food.

The main reasons I enjoyed Korean food are:
- Healthy (e.g. you can wrap the below dish with better head, lettuce or iceberg)
- Less oily
- Pack with flavors


Let's start with the marinade:
2 cloves of Garlic
1 cm Ginger
2 tbsp Gochujang
1 tbsp Mirin
1tsp sesame oil
salt
a little corn starch
Spring onion (chopped finely)
a little pepper & corn starch

Method:
I find it is better to grind all the material above into fine paste to avoid burn.
I didn't because I am too lazy to wash the blender but I did grind the garlic clove manually using the little plate. Don't be like me ;P


In the sliced meat, I use pork.
You can cut any meat in to cube or slices. Since I am in a rush & hungry, I sliced it.
It cooks faster.
Marinate for 20 mins while cooking the rice.

Lightly coat a frying pan, grill it until it is cooked.
Garnish with some spring onion or toasted sesame seeds for nice presentation.

Enjoy.

Black Promphet - Soy Sauce Chinese Style

We used to dislike black promphet because it smells fishy. But not anymore. Once I started explore into eating fish as our main staple ( we will have fish at least 4 times a week for our dinners). I have learned a lot about fish- what type of fish is best with which cooking style & also what is their names. Haha......It sound funny though. I used to think all fish looks similar especially if they are from the same family - e.g. carps, grouper.....etc......


Black promphet is a pretty misunderstood fish. If they smell like the sea, it tastes just great.
If you are staying in Malaysia, I don't deny that to get fish direct from the fisherman is a challenge. However, I am very pleased that both local grocers (Jy Grocer & V Grocer) managed to sell direct from the fisherman to the local market with slightly premium price. It worth paying the premium.

Another tips is, buying medium size fish is much cheaper than buying big size fish like what you served in the restaurant. Bigger size fish look more presentable in a restaurant setting. It does save a little for the medium size fish without scarifying the quality. To me, fresh is good regardless of the size.

It is easy to prepare this dish:

1) Clean the fish, cut a few lines on the body, make sure the cut is deep almost until the bone.
2) Rub salt on the fish body ( it looks like rub salt into the wound) so that it is seasoned properly.
3) Deep fried the fish in vegetable oil. Medium high heat 2.5-3.5mins depends on the size.
You can even eat the fin & the tail like a cracker.

Sauces:
2 tbsp of soya sauce mix with 2 tbsp of water
a little sesame oil
a little sugar

1) Just mix all the above together => sauces mixture
2) Heat the wok with oil, throw in some ginger & garlic, fried until fragrance.
3) Pick up some of the fried garlic & ginger for garnishing later
4) Just pour in the mixture into the wok, let it bubbling for 1 mins.
5) Pour on the fish immediately.

Lastly, garnish the fish with fried ginger or garlic & some chopped spring onion.