Lazy Roast Chicken

Is there anything better than a perfectly roasted chicken?  With its crisp, browned skin and juicy, succulent flesh, it’s so simple and yet irresistible!

I post this early, so as to allow you to plan for Christmas meal. If you are just feeding barely 4 pax, do consider roast chicken instead of the traditional big fat roast turkey that takes forever to finish.

But some cooks find the idea of roasting a chicken really daunting. How to choose a nice bird? How long should I roast the bird? What is the temperature? Marinating the bird seems stressful. How long should I keep the bird marinated? Should I truss it? Do I need to baste it? If so, how often? How will you know when the bird is well cooked? Urgh!!!

Well, relax! It's Christmas soon! There’s a way to eliminate most of those worries if you read on: My lazy roast chicken guarantee foolproof, stress-free and welcoming. Just marinate it, lightly pan-seared the bird, and then roast it using high-heat and medium heat method.  It’s the easiest, fastest way to roast a chicken.

Superb flavor and nicely browned skin is the result you're gonna get. The chicken that tastes way better than those supermarket rotisserie birds, and I’m sure your guests will be impressed by the roast chicken that you presented infront of them. 

You might call this a cheat recipe due to the existence of Roast Chicken Seasoning. Yes! In a way, I do agree. But, well.... I would say, probably this is not really a recipe post. It's more like a fuss-free method for you to get your meal done! As long as you feed your guests well, who cares?

I prepared this as part of my mother in law's gathering with her friend.

Fresh Chicken, olive oil, roast chicken seasoning, rosemary, salt, pepper and strings. This is all you need! Let's get start cooking!

Ingredient

• 1 large Fresh Chicken, weight about 1 to 1.2kg
• 10g Masterfood Roast Chicken Seasoning
• 3tbsp Olive Oil
• 10g Sea Salt 
• few dashes of Pepper
• some Fresh Rosemary, about a tbsp or so. Just estimate lah.

Optional Ingredients : Some potatoes, carrot and celery. 

I just grab a large sized chicken at NTUC, cost S$6.80. Masterfood Roast Chicken Seasoning S$5.10 I think.  For fresh rosemary, I have it planted, so I could pluck it whenever I need it. If you don't have it, go Cold Storage. You could get a pack of fresh rosemary for S$2.00, available at the vegetable section.

Method 

(Marinating)

1. Clean the chicken, cut away the chicken feet and neck. Use kitchen towel to pat-dry the chicken.

2. Mix olive oil, roast chicken seasoning, rosemary, salt and pepper together. Stir well, and the marinade mixture is ready.

3. Spread the marinade mixture on the chicken and give it a good rub all over. Lift up the breast skin (be gentle, don't tear the skin), rub some marinade mixture underneath the skin too. This will give your chicken breast lots of flavor!

4. Once marinade rubbed evenly, add more rosemary all over if you want.

5. And this is the trussing part. Use the string and tie the end of the leg and join them together. However, since I did not stuff the chicken, this part is optional. You could just leave it if you are lazy to tie them up. It's perfectly alright. For appearance wise, of course if I truss the chicken, it looks kinda more presentable in a way. But well, it's individual. I will only truss it when I'm feelin' good. Oh yes! Pls make sure you are using oven-safe strings! Don't use strings that is not meant for cooking / baking ok?

6. Use cling-wrap to wrap the chicken tightly.

7. Double or even triple wrapping of course! Marinade juices leaked all over and mess up your fridge is the last thing you wanna see. Check if there's leakage. If you are still not confident, put them into a plastic bag before you throw the bird into the fridge.

This can be kept in the fridge for very long. I usually prepare this few days in advance.

So, here's the tips...

If you need it for lunch, the night before you go to bed, take the chicken out of the freezer and let it thaw overnight.
If you need it for dinner, in the morning, once you wake up, take the chicken out of the freezer and let it thaw.

Like this, the chicken is perfectly thawed at room temperature by then... perfect for roasting!


(Roasting)

1. Turn on the oven at 220 degree - top and bottom heat, fan ON.

2. Before roasting, pan-sear the chicken about a minute at each side, let it slightly browned. If you are lazy, this is optional. But for it's appearance wise, I would always want to do this before I roast it.

3. I added some potatoes, carrots and celery to roast together with the chicken. What I did is just cut them into big chunks, coat them with half teaspoon of salt, drizzle some olive oil, dashes of pepper if you want. You could even add some paprika or other spices if you want more flavor  Oh yes! You don't have to coat them with too much oil. During the roasting process, the rendering chicken fat will add enough additional fat to cook them nicely.

4. Put the chicken into the oven for 30 min. Set alarm, and go do the washing. After 30 mins, turn the oven to 190 degree, and roast for another 15 mins, and wala! You're done!

Don't worry if the chicken is too big. Well-wrapped leftovers keep a few days in the refrigerator. I love left-over roast chicken! I could just pull the leftover meat into small pieces and eat it together with my salad for lunch! No stress!

If you are hosting a Christmas lunch or dinner at your place, there's alot to organise. But well, this probably the best stress-free dish on your Christmas dining table!

Le Creuset cooking demo with Chef Jeremy Choo

Le Creuset selected 10 lucky fans to attend Chef Jeremy Choo's cooking demo yesterday. And I'm one of the lucky one. I'm happy, and I really thankful to Le Creuset for the opportunity.

This is my first time meeting Chef Jeremy. He's really a nice, humble and yet funny man. I like him! :)

Thunder Tea Rice (河婆擂茶)

Thunder Tea Rice 擂茶 is a traditional dish among the Hor Poh 河婆 clan which is part of the Hakka's 客家. This dish bound to have mixed responses. If you don't like it, you'd rather settle your meal with a pack of instant noodle. But if you are the person who know how to appreciate this dish, you will get hooked on it and started to tell others how wonderful this dish is.

Lower cholesterol, detoxify the body, aid digestion, lose weight, clear complexion and the list goes on. My maternal grandma 外婆 always told me about the goodness of eating Thunder Tea Rice. Lose weight is something that she always highlight to me. Haha..

I grew up  Hor Poh Family. My mother is Hor Poh 河婆, and now, my husband's family too.

That's when my parents working overseas to make a living, I was taken care by grandma since young. My grandma used to cook this often. This is how my knowledge of Thunder Tea Rice comes from.

My grandma has 12 childrens (5 sons and 7 daughters). All my uncle and aunts will gather at my grandma's house and cook this dish together. The last time was during my teenage time, should be somewhere around 13 years old I guess. And that was the last time. I suddenly miss my grandma so much. Sigh!

People don't make this at home anymore. Because they think this dish is too troublesome. Too much ingredients to buy, and youngsters don't really appreciate such traditional food as we do. Another reason why this dish is being slowly forgotten is probably due to the complexity of preparations. Modern people tends to measure the amount of ingredients purchased and prepared vs the amount of people gathered at home to enjoy this dish. Small families? It's just not worth the effort of preparing. That's sad.

Chilled Soya Beancurd (冰冻豆花)

Okay, I'm really slow when it comes to this Chilled Soya Beancurd rave. People already go gaga over the Lao Ban Soya Beancurd (老伴豆花) selling at Old Airport Road. And I'm not into it at that point of time.

Since a year ago, hardwarezone chanzhf who have tried every possible combination of coagulants available in the market in order to recreate this dessert, and finally he came up with the recipe that makes people really go into replicate it at home.

I supposed to make this somewhere Aug'12, where the Diner en Blanc's 1st appearance in Asia that causes the blast of Make And Eat Tau Huay Day. But then, at that point of time, I'm super busy with house moving. So, I didn't even have the time to cook myself a bowl of instant noodle! Let alone making soya beancurd.

I had Lao Ban Soya Beancurd once when Max brought me to Old Airport Road hawker centre. Nice! But I'm not a person who will go gaga over it la. It's S$1.50 for a half-filled bowl. Say me stingy, but I feel expensive. Max asked me if I could taste what's the ingredient in there. The only thing I remembered I told him was Coffee-mate. I'm very very sure that they added Coffee-mate.

I adapted this recipe from Noob Cook. I didn't bother to compare this recipe with another recipe before I make it. I just follow it blindly for convenience sake. Don't worry about it. Yumms!!! This recipe works! It taste really really close to the one I ate at Old Airport road.

All you need to do is to gather all these ingredients before you get started. You can get both Soya powder and coffee-mate from NTUC, and Instant Jelly Powder from Phoon Huat.

This is super easy, and I think I will make this often at home. I double up the original recipe because I find it no point making a recipe that only serves 2. Max can swallow all of them in just a glance loh.

Ingredient (Makes 4 servings)

• 60g 'Unisoy' Instant Organic Soya Milk Powder
• 30g 'Polleney' Soya Bean Powder
• 30g 'Nestle' Coffee-mate coffee creamer
• 30g Sugar
• 700ml Hot Water
• 10g Instant Jelly Powder

Noob Cook slightly modified the recipe by reducing the amount instant jelly powder (originally should be 14g), because she wanted to achieve wobbly and soft texture. She also swapped the quantity of Polleney and Unisoy powders around. I'm ok with it. I just follow. I like it wobbly too.

Method 

1. Measure all the ingredients using a digital weighing scale for accuracy. 
2. In a saucepan, add all the ingredients except instant jelly powder. Pour over hot water, in low fire, use a whisker to stir until the soya milk powder fully dissolved. At this point of time, the soya milk should be warm, but NOT boiling.  
3. Heat off, stir in instant jelly powder until fully dissolved. 
4. Run the soya milk through a sieve, slooooow and steadily. I did it twice. If you see bubbles on the surface, use a sieve or a spoon to fish it out. 
5. Gently pour into bowls. Leave it cool at room temperature, and then chill it in the fridge. 

Step 2 and 3 - Stir until everything fully dissolved.

Did you see lots of bubbles in there? This is why we need to sieve it away. If not, your soya beancurd will end up with lots of bubbles and holes.... like Mark Lee's face. Hahaha... Ok, just joking. Mark Lee's face looks nice and smooth now compared to last time.

You must be slow and steady when you sieve it, and even pouring the mixture into the bowls. Please do it gently and at a low height to avoid bubbles, and so that you could achieve this smooth surface. I used small container this time. I prefer smaller, and I get more portion. But well, it's really up to you. :)

And there, after I unmould it, it's soft and wobbly! I think I like this version.

Each gram of instant jelly powder makes a difference. If you prefer more firm, add another one or two grams of instant jelly powder in it. It's really up to individual preference.

Seriously, this recipe is worth a try. I love it. Maybe I shall try using 12grams Instant Jelly Powder next time and see which texture I prefer :)

I'd highly encourage you to do it at home over the weekend! :D

Kuih Gedung Cak - (MFF Kedah Perlis)

This is my 2nd submission for MFF Kedah Perlis Month. And I don't know how to name this Kuih in english. It is basically a combination of glutinous rice flour, dark brown sugar and grated coconut flesh, wrapped in banana leaves.

For those who know me well, they should know, I had been crazily busy at work, the errand at home and I barely have my own time to sit down and write. But well, I have to find time.

This kuih is easy. Really easy. Cooking time is short. Ingredient is easily available too. Stress free!

When I decided to make this, I did plan to make Kuih Lepat Liat at the same time. But time doesn't allow me to. So, I just managed to do this. This is like dodol, but baked version.

Beancurd Skin Rolls with Shrimp filling

Well, you won't see deep fried food recipe from my blog often. Not because I don't like it. It's because I seldom make deep fried food at home. I try my best not to do it. Unless it is requested by Max, then I will consider to do it.

This is one of my favorite. I can eat alot at one go. This is not a special recipe or something, I just did it with my guts feeling, just estimation. But to me... I'm beyond word to describe this dish.

I had been delaying this post, as I can honestly say that it was easier to make the skin rolls than writing this post. Sometimes, it is really difficult to explain and describe how good the dish is when a simple dish like this could gives you really good flavor. Sometimes, the more I write, it sounded like everything was more complicated than it truly was.

I did this dish last month, and I supposed to tell myself to post this recipe next month (kept dragging, I know, my bad). But upon Linda, Henny, Kat, Audrey and Mei Fong's request, I post this recipe earlier than scheduled.

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Ingredient (Makes about 28 to 30pcs)

For Filling

• 220g Minced Pork
• 200g Fish Paste
• 200g Shrimps, chopped.
• 7 pcs Water Chestnut, chopped.
• 2 sprigs Spring Onions, diced
• ½ tsp Salt
• dashes of pepper
• 2 tsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tbsp Corn Flour

For Skin 

• 50 - 60 grams Beancurd Skin, cut into about 12 x 11cm size. Should have about 28 to 32 sheets.
• Corn Starch Water (1 tbsp Corn Flour + half cup of Water)

For Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce - I used some Thai Chilli Sauce, Lime juice, a dash of fish sauce, a tsp of chopped garlic and some chopped coriander. Give it a mix and it's done. Just adjust to suit your preferred taste.

Method 

1. Cut beancurd skin into 12 x 11cm size. Set aside. If you are free, you can use a damp clean cloth to give it a wipe, to wipe away the excess saltiness on the skin. But if you don't have the time, leave it. 
2. Prepare all the necessary ingredient for filling - Peel, chop prawn meat and water chestnut.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix all filling ingredient together, mix well until everything is well combined.  
4. Mix corn starch water. This is to be used to seal the edged of the roll later.
5. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of the beancurd skin, apply some corn flour water, fold beancurd skin over the filling, roll over to meet the other side. 
6. Using fingers to lightly press on the roll, flatten it. Repeat step 5 until filling are all used up. 
7. Under low fire, deep fry the rolls to golden brown. At this point of time, heat control is very important.
8. Drain and serve with sweet chilli dipping sauce. 

Note : 

1. You have to ensure the beancurd skin do not get burnt before the filling is cooked. This is the reason why, it is important to flatten the filling, so as to make the filling spread into even thickness. So that the filling will get cooked evenly at the same time.

2. Beancurd skin itself is really salty. The fish paste too, there's mild saltiness. So, ½ tsp Salt is just nice. When you bite on it, the overall saltiness would be fine.

3. I don't have the best sweet chilli dipping sauce recipe here. I just did it randomly. You can just do it your own way. As long as it is sweet, tangy and with mild spiciness, I think it's fine.


Step 3 - Mix all filling ingredient together.

Beancurd skins cut into 12 x 11cm size, wrapped into roll, and then flatten the filling into equal thickness.

With this recipe, I make about 28. And it is now ready to deep fry them.

Take a look at the filling. Lots of shrimps in there. Crispy outside, juicy inside. Yumm~!!!!

I brought this pot of yumms to a gathering. They love em' :)

Do give it a try! I'm sure you will love it :)

Daging Masak Asam / Beef with Tamarind - (MFF Kedah Perlis)

While I'm scratching my head what to cook for Kedah / Perlis month, Wendy found this recipe for me. I kinda like it!

Daging Masak Asam, literally beef cooked with tamarind juice. This is Perlis dish. I never had it before. But I kinda adore the unique taste! This dish is easy and stress free too.

I'm fussy over what to cook sometimes. Not that I'm a fussy eater, but I have a fussy big kid to feed. Whenever I wanted to cook a new dish, I will needa make sure that he eat. For this, he's ok. He loves this stewed dish.

Moist Banana Cake

I like classic food. This moist banana cake. Simple, easy, yummy and well received.

I adapted the recipe from here, but I did modification to the recipe and twist the method too.

This recipe is for 8 x 8 inch square cake tin. But I didn't want square cake this time. So, I just used a 18cm round cake tin, and a small heart shaped cast iron cake bundt tin.

Ingredient A (to combine and sieve)

• 250g Plain Flour
• 1tsp Baking Powder
• 1tsp Baking Soda
• ½ tsp Salt

Ingredient B (to combine and mash)

• 6 Small Bananas, mashed, and it should weight about 240g
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice (Optional)

Ingredient C

• 180g Unsalted Butter
• 100g Castor Sugar
• 4 Egg Yolk
• 40g Brown Sugar
• 4 tbsp Fresh Milk
• 1tsp Vanilla Essence (Optional)

Ingredient D

• 4 Egg Whites
• 40g Castor Sugar

This is the small banana that I always used for banana cake. Try to get this banana if you are making this cake. It must be very ripe. Or else, the fragrance of your banana cake will not be ideal.

Method

1. Pre-heat oven 175 degree. Grease and line 8 x 8 inch square cake tin. Or 8 inch round tin if you want.  
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, sieve, set aside.
3. Combine banana and lemon juice, mash, set aside.
4. Separate egg whites and yolk. In a clean and dry bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks, gradually add 40g castor sugar and beat until stiff peak.
5. Beat soft butter, castor sugar and brown sugar on high speed until light and fluffy.
6. Add in egg yolk one at a time, mix till combined.
7. Add in mashed bananas, vanilla essence and fresh milk, mix well.
8. Mix half flour mixture on low speed until incorporated, and another half, mix until just smooth. Don't over mix it.
9. Put in half the egg whites in and mix on low speed. Pour the balance egg white in and FOLD using your spatula.
10. Pour batter into pan and level. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

NOTE

1. Adding lemon juice into the mashed banana is to prevent mashed banana from turning unpleasant color while you busy mixing your batter at another side.

2. If you don't have brown sugar at home, you could just use all castor sugar. Brown sugar gives your cake nice brown color. Some people likes to use all brown sugar too. Your cake will turns out darker color then.

3. The cake is really hot once it's out of the oven. I always let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes before removing it.

4. Let the cake completely cool before serve. If you could wait, this cake taste nicer overnight! I always bake my cake at night, and serve it in the morning.

The messy batter is now ready...

Cake just out of the oven. Nice! Abit cracked tho.

Left : Max got me this 18cm round loose bottom cake tin from Tokyo Japan. Good quality. I love it!
Right : I bought this cast iron heart shaped mould from Shanghai Street Hong Kong. It cost me S$20.00. I like the size :)

I love my heart shaped banana cake.

The outer layer of the cake browned evenly. When it is out of the oven, the color might looks abit dry. That's normal. Once the cake is cooled, the cake will looks nicer. Moist and brown.

The texture is soft and moist. I really love it. I only used 40 grams of brown sugar. So, the cake turns out not so brownish. I like this color.

This is really ideal for a lazy afternoon tea...

With a cuppa Chamomile honey tea of course! :)

I hope you like it :)

Mdm Chai's Pig Trotter in Vinegar with Ginger (猪脚醋)

I specially dedicate this recipe to my girlfriend Ginnie Lu who's gonna give birth anytime by next week.

Pig Trotter in Vinegar with Ginger 猪脚醋 is an old traditional Cantonese recipe originally formulated for mothers after birth, to keep new mums warm during the first month after birth. In Malaysia, Cantonese families who has new baby will cook a shed load of this, together with some red coloured hard boiled eggs in their shells (红鸡蛋) and some chicken cooked in homemade rice wine (姜酒鸡), all these packed and given to relatives and friends, proudly announcing the arrival of a new baby. Singaporean's usually add hard boiled eggs in this dish and let it stew together. It's optional. You could add it in if you want.

Before anything else, let me share with you where I usually shop for my ingredients. This is my favorite dried sundries store that I usually visit whenever I wanted to buy chinese ingredients and condiments. It is located at the basement of Chinatown Wet Market. But of course, wet markets at other area do have such dried sundries store too. You just get those ingredients at your own convenience.

If you were to visit Chinatown wet market, you could get everything you want for this dish.

Butchery Stall : Pig Trotter
Dried Sundries Store : Vinegar, Brown Sugar, Old Ginger, Shao Xing Wine, Red dates, Sesame Oil.
Vegetable Stalls : Young Ginger

When it comes to vinegar, my mother is very strict. She told me to make sure I buy the right brand if I were to re-create her recipe. She insist to mix both sour and sweet vinegar together. Doggie brand sweet vinegar, and Zhe Jiang sour vinegar is the specific vinegar. No nonsense.

My mother emphasize on using both old and young ginger. She says that this dish need the hotness of the old-ginger, and the aroma of the young ginger. If you used only old-ginger, you might find there's certain gingery aroma is missing. Old ginger do gives gingery aroma too, but young ginger gives you another level of unexplicable fragrance. They are just different.

By the way, the Old-Ginger that I used is from Indonesia. It taste more gingery than Old-Ginger from China. If you could, try to get this instead of China one. Indonesian Old-Ginger definitely taste hotter and better. The top one is washed ginger, looks clean. The bottom one is unwashed ginger. But they are the same.

For Pig Trotter, people usually misunderstood the difference between front feet (猪手) and back feet (猪脚). I'm one of them too. I thought the bigger and meatier ones are the back feet! But it is not! Thanks to the friendly butcher clear my doubt. And here, this picture says it all...

In olden days, this dish originally cooked using back feet 猪脚. Yes! I know, less meaty. That is why in modern days, people prefer this dish to be more meaty. So, it is now usually cooked using front feet 猪手 instead. I can't live without both. I love the back feet, as it gives me lots of thick collagen and smooth trotter texture to chew on.. OMG! Salivating! But Max only appreciate the meaty part. So, both mix together makes perfect dish!

Usually, butcher will to cut pig trotter into pieces for you. You won't be able to do that at home. Your mighty chef knife won't work. Trust me.

Front Feet (猪手) at the left - S$6.00, and Back Feet (猪脚) at the right - S$3.50

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Ingredient (Source: My mother - Mdm Chai)

• 1.8kg - 2kg Pig Trotters (1 Front Feet + 1 Back Feet) 猪手 + 猪脚
• 280g Old Ginger  老姜
• 280g Young Ginger 子姜
• 400ml Zhe Jiang Vinegar 浙醋 （长城牌）
• 400ml Doggie Brand Sweet Vinegar 甜醋 （狗仔牌 - 双料添丁黑醋）
• 120g Normal Brown Sugar (I used light Muscovado) 黄糖, or adjust to suit your own
• 4 tbsp Dark Brown Sugar (I used Molasses) 黑糖
• 10 tbsp Sesame Oil 麻油
• 800ml - 1000ml Water 水
• 1½ tbsp Salt 盐
• 2 tbsp Shao Xing Wine 绍兴酒
• 5pcs Red Dates 红枣
• Hard Boiled Eggs (Optional)

Preparation

1. Slice and bruise both old and young ginger. Set aside

2. Blanch pig trotter, and then, rinse with pipe wate. Set aside. 
3. Red dates, seeds removed. Soak red dates with Shao Xing Wine in a bowl, clingwrap it. Set aside. Let it infused for at least 3 hours or even more if you have the time.

Usually, gingers are bruised for this stewed dish. But my family member won't eat bruised ginger. They are too big for them to chew. I don't mind chewing bruised ginger. I love it. But I can't finish all of them, and most of the bruised ginger will gone wasted. So, what I did here is partially bruised, and partially sliced them. So that they will eat the sliced ginger while they eat the pig trotter too. Easier to chew. But you can't slice all the ginger. Because your dish will looks really messy with all the sliced ginger all over. Haha.. Just a suggestion. You could just do it your way.

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Blanch the pig trotter to remove the cloudy residue. This step is a MUST!

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Method

1. Heat wok with 10 tbsp sesame oil. Fry both ginger together till fragrant.
2. Add in blanched pig trotter, fry till fragrant.
3. Add in brown sugar, stir well.
4. Transfer the pig trotter to a pot and add 1L water into the pot. Bring to boil.
5. Once it is boiling,  reduce to medium low fire, let it boil for 30 mins.
6. Add salt, vinegar, dark brown sugar, red dates and wine. Adjust taste accordingly. If you want to add hard boiled eggs in, add them in at this time.
7. Once the taste is right, let it continue to boil under low fire for another 30mins.
8. After 30mins, heat off, leave it there for at least 3 hours (or more), to allow the flavour to infused into the pig trotter thoroughly. Reheat it before serving.

This stew is a labour of love and will take a long time to prepare. If you just want to rush it and eat within an hour or two, it won't be that nice. If you could, keep and consume the next day. I prepare mine in the morning, finished cooking by 1pm, and eave it there for 5 hours. We consume half portion at night, and keep the other half for next day for better flavour.


Step 3 : Add brown sugar into the pig troter.

Step 4 : Add 800ml Water (or more), just enough to cover the pig trotters. Not too much. You find it way too little water? Fret not! Read on...

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My grandma use old style seasoned earthen claypot and cooked the dish with charcoal. She told me that this taste way more delicious than the one cooking on stove top using expensive stainless steel pot. I'm now cooking this dish using my grandma's method.

I love this pot. This pot is inherit from my Mother in law. She told me that she got this pot from her friend who had been using it for many years! And my mother in law kept this pot for more than 5 years. So, I think, this pot should be easily 10 years old.

You must be wondering why I named this dish as Mdm Chai's Pig Trotter in Ginger with Vinegar. When my mother told me that "This red dates and wine is the secret recipe!", I think my mother deserves the ownership of this recipe. She told me that this dish is taught by my grandma, and she twisted the recipe abit to suit her own. And throughout her many attempt, the idea of using red dates infused with wine idea popped out of her mind. She just blindly try it and it works really well, and from there, she sticked to this recipe and method for many years.

I used both light brown sugar and dark brown sugar. If you don't have dark brown sugar, use all light brown sugar then. It's okay. But dark brown sugar has heavier flavour, and it gives the gravy really thick dark consistency. So, if you could, try not to skip this. I used Muscovado and Molasses. But not necessary to follow. You could use normal dark and light brown sugar that you could get at the market. They are cheaper. Billington's brand is always more expensive.

Added vinegar in there, the amount of liquid for this dish is gonna be juuuuuust nice! Not too watery. Good thick consistency! You won't want a pot of soup instead of stew yea :)

It's done! I adore this sweet, sour and tasty pork and ginger since I was a kid. My grandma loves cooking this dish during rainy days. Eating a bowl of this vinegary pork trotter will keep us warm. Grandma told me that this dish is good for people who have cold feet too.

If you never had this bowl of goodness before, this bowl of deep brown looking soft and succulent pig trotter flavoured with a gingery sweet vinegar is really irresistably good. The ingredients are simple. Just massive amount of vinegar and ginger is used to prepare one pot of this.

I wouldn't able to resist this. Seriously!

It's soft, flavorful and melt-in-your-mouth piece of pig trotter!  

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Look at the heavenly thick black gravy!

My grandma's way of cooking.

My mother's recipe...

Nostalgic!