Stewed Sweet Tapioca Root

 My husband woke up early on Sunday morning and went jogging with my daughter. On his way home,  he went to the morning market to get some ingredients for spaghetti sauce for lunch. While walking in the market, he spotted a small stall selling fruits and tapioca root and he immediately bought some tapioca root home. Tapioca was his favourite since young.  
During our childhood days, rural folks will just grow some tapioca in the backyard and use tapioca to make nyonya cake (tapioca cake) or simply steamed and eat with castard sugar or freshly grated coconut. It is usually serve at tea time and goes well with black coffee. 

Ingredients:
Tapioca Root
Brown Sugar / Raw Sugar
Sea Salt
Coconut Milk / Double Cream (optional)
Pandan Leaf

Methods:
1.  Peel off tapioca skin.  Clean and cut into pieces of desire size.
2.  In a stew pot, pour in water, pandan leaf and tapioca pieces.  Stew tapioca until soft.
3.  Add raw sugar, salt and lastly coconut milk or cream.
4.  Serve hot or cold as afternoon tea break snack.

Points I followed:
-  Try to get young tapioca root, which has less hard root fibre.
-  Must stew until tapioca is soft before sugar is added.
-  Small amount of salt really enhance and balance the sweet creamy taste.

Braised Pork Belly with Salted & Sweetened Preserved Mustard Cabbages

I always wanted to prepare this dish... finally I made it!  
Invited my parents and sister over for dinner.  We have only this braised dish and steamed rice on the dinner table, nothing else.  A very down-to-earth dish but at the end of the dinner our guests left with satisfied face. 

What I used:
1kg Pork Belly
500g Salted Preserved Mustard Cabbage
250g Sweeted Preserved Mustard Cabbage
1/2 cup Cooking oil
1 bulb (medium) Garlic (with skin)
1500ml Water


Seasoning: 
2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce (for pork belly)
2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 Tbsp Sugar

How I made:

1. Boiled salted preserved mustard cabbage in water for ~ 10 minutes.  Pour away salted water and repeat this process (boiled twice - if necessary), to remove excess salt.  Pour away salted water, rinse, squeezed the mustard cabbage and cut coarsely.
2. Soaked the sweetened preserved mustard cabbage in water for ~ 30minutes.  Pour away water, rinse, squeezed the mustard cabbage and cut coarsely.
3. Boiled pork belly in water for ~ 20 minutes.  Removed and pat-dry.  Marinate with dark soy sauce evenly.
4. Deep-fry pork belly in hot oil until golden brown.  Dish up and soak into cold water immediately for ~ 20 minutes.
5. Heat up cooking oil in pot, saute cloves of garlic with skin until fragrance.
6. Then pour in water, seasoning, pork belly, salted & sweetened preserved mustard cabbage.  Covered and cooked until boiling.
7. Reduced heat and braised for ~ 1.5 hours or until pork belly is tender.
8. Remove pork belly and cut into slices.  Continue braise the mustard cabbage until gravy thickened.  
9. To serve, place slice pork belly back on mustard cabbage gravy.  Serve hot.

Points to hightlight:
Highly recommend to use both salted and sweetened preserved mustard cabbage together for this dish.
If possible, for braising, used a heavy base pot which comes with matching cover.  I used cast-iron pot.

Stewed Minced Pork with Preserved Bean Curd

When my homemade preserved bean curd "matured", I used it in the pork stew. My niece was here for dinner the other day and she doesn't like stew minced pork so much, but this recipe with preserved bean curd, she ask for more!
I like this dish simply because it is suitable for the old and young at home. It goes well with a bowl of hot steam rice! Also, its very rewarding especially with homemade preserved bean curd add in to make the taste unique. What I used:

• 500g Minced Pork (pork belly)
• 200g Shallot (chopped)
• 100g Garlic (chopped)
• 20g Ginger (chopped)
• 1/2cup Cooking Oil
• 4 pieces Preserved Bean Curd
• 4 nos Chinese Black Mushroom (medium - diced)
• 2 Tbsp "Shao Xing" rice wine
• 700ml Water
• 1 Tbsp Light Soya Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce
• 2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
• 15g Rock Sugar
• 1 tsp Five Spices Powder

How I cooked:

1. Heat up oil, saute chopped shallot, garlic, ginger until fragrant and light golden brown.
2. Add minced pork, preserved bean curd and rice wine. Stir fry over high heat until pork is cooked and combined well with other ingredients.
3. Then, pour in water, add seasoning and bring to boil. Covered, simmer over low heat and stew for ~ 1 hour.

Points to highlight: 
I love to add hard-boiled egg while simmering. Stewed eggs is another flavored dish at home. If you like the stew to be sweet, add more rock sugar to desired sweetness.