O Taste and See

That looks yummy. Yes, yum, yum, good!

But if I tell you this almost turned into a "disaster", you will laugh.

I dropped by the office this morning to clear some works as I would be on the go again tomorrow. A colleague dropped by and gave me a recipe that he had been talking about. It's called "Wu-Xi Spare Ribs". Wu-Xi is a name of a place in China.

I know I don't have spare ribs in my fridge. And it was mid-day when I left office. Well, I do have some "three-layered pork" in the fridge. I thought, why not? Always be creative and think out of the box, right?

Now, here is a simple cooking instruction. As said earlier, I don't take recipe as the "Bible", I cook yan-way - the agak-agak way.

Cut the pork into reasonably sized pieces. Marinate with two tablespoons of dark soy sauce. Pan-fried the pork. Set aside.

Put a table spoon of oil in the wok, add in a slice of ginger and two stalks of spring onions. (Now I don't have spring onions, so I forget about it). Put in the pork, add in one piece of "Bajao" or Star Anise and two tablespoons of cooking wine (Shao Hsing Hua Tiao Chiew), two tablespoons of dark soya sauce and water to cover the pork. Simmer with low fire until the pork is cooked. That will take about 45 minutes to an hour. When the pork is cooked, add in two tablespoon of rock sugar (ice-sugar) and continue cooking until the sauce thicken. Before you dish out the pork, add one tablespoon of rice vinegar (black). Dish out when the sauce dries up.

What's the disaster? I thought the "rock salt" kept in the bottle by my mum in law was the "rock sugar". I crushed it and added two tablespoons of it!

O taste and see! I was quick to taste - poured the sauce away and re-cooked. Believe me, it tasted as yummy as its look!