Sweet Cherrie Pie: Noodles.

20 June 2010

Coconut Noodles with Honey Glazed Pork Belly : An International Incident

I was really excited about this month's theme for the International Incident. It is Noodles! This month I really wanted to cook something I would have never tried if it wasn't for this challenge. I also wanted to try something a little different.

I decided to replicate a dish I had at Fenix in Richmond, Victoria from memory. Fenix has since changed from a fine dining restaurant to a Wedding and Function centre. It is owned by Raymond Capaldi and Gary Mehigan (from Masterchef Australia). When it was a restaurant, Hubby and I used dine there often. In fact, it was Hubby's favourite restaurant.

My favourite entree dish that I always had was the coconut noodles with caramalised pork belly in a Laksa style sauce. This is the dish I made for the Noodles Party.

The first part of the dish was to make the coconut noodles. It basically is coconut milk and agar agar.

agar agar

Coconut Jelly

400ml can coconut milk

200ml water

50g agar agar strands

Place all the ingredinets in a pot on medium heat

Stir constantly till agar agar dissolves

Pour through a sieve into a dish

Refrigerate until set

When the coconut jelly is set, cut into into long noodles

The dish is served with pork belly. I used a honey glaze on my pork belly.

honey glazed pork belly

Honey Glaze:

1/2 cup honey

2 tbl dark soy sauce

1 tsp five spice powder

1 tsp ground ginger

Place all the ingredients in a small pot and cook over a low heat for 5-7 minutes. Strain and reserve until needed.

800g pork belly

6 cups hot chicken stock

2 medium onions quartered

Placed the pork belly in a large pot or casserole dish and pour over the hot chicken stock and add the onions. Place in the oven covered and cook for 2-3 hours or until the pork is tender.

Once the pork is cooked, remove from the oven and place on a baking tray with another tray on top and a weight (for example, 2 cans of beans) to help weigh down the pork. Place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours. Overnight is preferable.

Preheat the oven to 180degC

Once the pork has been pressed, remove the trays and cut into portions about 5cm wide. Place the pork skinn side down in a cold, non-stick pan with a little olive oil and begin to crisp the skin over a low-medium heat. Spoon half of the honey glaze over the pork.

Place the pan into the hot oven and colour all the sides of the pork, spooning over the rest of the honey glazw. Keep a close eye on the pork as it can burn easily.

Once it's coloured and crispy, remove fro the oven, cut in small slices and set aside till ready to use in the dish.

Laksa Style Sauce:

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp ground almond

1 lemongrass stalked finely sliced

1 tsp shrimp paste

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp tumeric

2 tsp ground coriander

Place all ingredients in a mortar and pestle and pound until it forms into a paste. Vegetable oil may be needed to blend easier.

To make the sauce, place tthe paste in a small pan and sauté gently until fragrant. Add 250ml coconut milk. Simmer on a low heat for 5 minutes

To dish up, place the coconut noodles in a circle in a bowl, place the pork belly scattered around. Pour a little of the laksa sauce into the bowl. To garnish, add blanched snow peas and finely sliced chilli.

Fellow Party People:

Penny – Jeroxie (Addictive & Consuming) – Homemade ban mian with minced pork and mushrooms
Christine – Christine’s Recipes – Spicy Pork Mince and Noodles in Crisp Lettuce Cups
Mardi – Eat, Live, Travel, Write – Ginger scallion & Butter noodles
Conor - Hold the Beef – As Above
Shirley – Enriching your kid – Vermicilli Biryani with Tahini
Natasha – 5 Star Foodie – Homemade Soba Noodles
Anges – Off the spork – Handpulled noodles at home
Joanne – Second Helpin
Tracey - Tangled Noodle
Evelyne - Cheap Ethnic Eatz – Incidental Noodles
Ms Baklover - Footscray Food Blog – Zha Jiang Mian
Casey – Eating, Gardening & Living in Bulgari
Tamar – Koreanfornian Cooking – Tteokbokki
Billy – Half-Eaten – Pumpkin Miso Noodles in Shitake Dashi Broth
Nina – Consumed Food Love – Vietnamese Noodle Salad
Suresh – 3 hungry tummies – Twice cooked pork with rice noodles
Anh – A food Lover’s Journey – Taco Soba Noodle

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

23 May 2010

Kulinarya Cooking Club May 2010 : Pancit (Filipino Noodles)

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and it's colourful cuisine.

Each month we will showcase a new dish along with our family recipes. By sharing these recipes we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino food as we do.

This month's theme is Pancit (Filipino Noodles) chosen by Caroline from When Adobo Met Feijoada Blog and Olive from The Latest Recipes Blog.

For this month's theme, I asked for help. Who else better to ask, than my mum. I knew straight away that I was going to make Pancit Palabok as this is my mum's specialty. She is well known amongst the Filipinos around town for her Palabok.

When I was in my teens, mum and dad used to have a stall at the Melbourne Philippine Fiesta. In fact, they had a stall at the very first Fiesta back in 1982. In those days, it was a small affair and there were only a handful of stalls, mostly all selling food. My parents sold Longganisa, Tocino, Chicharon to name a few. The week before the Fiesta, the house would be full of wonderful smells from all the preparation for the big weekend. My parents made everything from scratch, including Tinapa (smoked fish). I remember when I used to get home from school, it was my job to scale and gut a whole box full of sardines. I hated it at the time but looking back, I am grateful that I was exposed to my parents passion for Filipino food.

They eventually stopped having a stall at the Fiesta however kept selling Filipino food to the local Filipino community. This is where her pancit palabok really became a favorite among the locals.

I am happy to share with you this recipe and part of my family memory.

The sauce it the key part of this dish. It has to be flavourful and it needs to be able to carry all the other flavours of the garnishes. This recipe is enough to feed 2 families or as my dad says "enough to feed the barangay(town)". This is the quantity my mum usually makes.

In a large pot, boil 5 to 6 pieces of chicken thighs with bones and skin on. Have enough water to use as the stock for the sauce (around 4-5 litres). When cooked, remove the chicken and set aside. When cool, remove the skin and shred meat into small pieces.

In another pan, saute 2 medium onions that have been chopped, along with about a bulb of garlic that has been finely chopped. Once it's cooked add two packets (20g) of ground achuete (annatto). Cook further for another 5 minutes.

To the chicken stock, add another litre of boiling water, 2 tbl of chicken stock podwer. Add the onion mixture to the chicken stock and stir. Add the shredded chicken.

In a bowl mix 300g cornflour and enough water to make a slurry. Add this to the pot and mix well so no lumps are created.

Keep stirring until the sauce thickens.

Cook the noodles as instructed on the packet. My mum recommends using thin rice noodles. She cooks the noodles by emerging them in boiling water for a few minutes. Remove and place under cold running water to prevent the noodles from sticking together.

To serve, place the noodles in a bowl and pour the sauce over it. You can now garnish it with any topping you like. Here is what my mum usually puts :