Leftover congee and pork belly

Tonight I made leftover congee and pork belly. It was a good meal on a Friday night after a long week.

Recipe

Ingredients

Congee (Lau, Tam et al. 2016, Gabbay, Fins et al. 2021, Ng and Lui 2022)
Pork belly
Chillies
Spring onions

Instructions

The congee had previously been cooked in a pressure cooker and this portion had frozen in a vacuum bag.
The pork belly had been cooked in a pressure cooker and then frozen in a vacuum bag.
Boil some water in a large saucepan and place the bags into the water. Heat the bags in the boiling water for ten minutes.
Transfer the congee to a bowl.
Transfer the pork belly into the bowl on the congee.
Slice a chilli and a spring onion and garnish the meal.
Add some soy sauce for taste.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Eat with a spoon.

Photographs

References

Gabbay, E., et al. (2021). “Congee for the Soul.” Hastings Cent Rep 51(1): 10-12.

Provision of adequate nutrition to elderly patients who develop dysphagia after a stroke can be quite challenging, often leading to the placement of a percutaneous entero-gastrostomy (PEG) tube for nutritional support. This hypothetical case describes the additional challenge of cross-cultural belief that leads a daughter to provide oral feeding to her mother, an act that the medical team believes is dangerous and the daughter sees as salubrious. In this case, what is the proper balance between patient safety and deference to cultural traditions and norms? Where are the limits? Two commentaries offer insights for conflict resolution, including recommending that the medical team seek to understand the cultural motivations of the family, balancing safety and respect for cultural norms. The second commentary also disagrees with the team’s presumption that the daughter’s feeding of her mother is a greater threat to the patient than the PEG tube feeding is.

Lau, E. Y., et al. (2016). “Importance of clothing removal in scalds.” Hong Kong Med J 22(2): 152-157.

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that prompt removal of clothing after scalds lessens the severity of injury. METHODS: This experimental study and case series was carried out in the Burn Centre of a tertiary hospital in Hong Kong. An experimental burn model using Allevyn (Smith & Nephew Medical Limited, Hull, England) as a skin substitute was designed to test the effect of delayed clothing removal on skin temperature using hot water and congee. Data of patients admitted with scalding by congee over a 10-year period (January 2005 to December 2014) were also studied. RESULTS: A significant reduction in the temperature of the skin model following a hot water scald was detected only if clothing was removed within the first 10 seconds of injury. With congee scalds, the temperature of the skin model progressively increased with further delay in clothing removal. During the study period, 35 patients were admitted with congee scalds to our unit via the emergency department. The majority were children. Definite conclusions supporting the importance of clothing removal could not be drawn due to our small sample size. Nonetheless, our data suggest that appropriate prehospital burn management can reduce patient morbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Prompt removal of clothing after scalding by congee may reduce post-burn morbidity.

Ng, M. L. and H. Y. Lui (2022). “Rice congee as an alternative to thickened liquids for patients with swallowing disorders.” J Texture Stud 53(3): 405-416.

Seeing the popularity of rice congee consumption among Asian families, the present study examined the possibility of preparing thickened liquids from rice congee of different consistency levels that are commonly prescribed for individuals with swallowing disorders. The two most common rice varieties in Hong Kong, indica and japonica rice grains, were used to prepare rice congee from which thickened liquids were extracted. By varying the water-to-rice ratio, cooking time, optional reheating on a frying pan, and temperature, slightly thick, mildly thick, moderately thick, and extremely thick liquids were obtained. Recipes for extracting thickened liquids of different consistencies from rice congee cooked with indica and japonica rice grains were established. The consistency levels were defined with reference to although not strictly following the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative framework. Results revealed that the consistency of the product varied with water-to-rice ratio, cooking time, and temperature. Recipes were established for preparing thickened liquids using rice grains at both serving and room temperatures. Findings support that thickened liquids so obtained can be used as an alternative to thickened liquids preparing using commercial thickeners.

Pickled pork belly fried rice

Check out this amazing meal which will have your mouth tingling like there is a party in it. Pickled pork belly fried rice with loads of Bird’s-eye chillies to keep your tongue and lips alight.

Hello and happy Sunday. I hope you’re well on this lovely day.

Last night I cooked a childhood favourite, viz., pig trotters with vinegar and ginger. In cooking that meal I included a piece of pork belly. You can get the full recipe and a story here.

Tonight I have the pickled pork belly with the leftover rice from last night and made a pickled pork belly fried rice.

Ingredients

Pickled pork belly (see last night’s recipe) as well as the leftover reduced cooking liquor
Leftover rice
Ginger
Garlic
Spring onion whites
Shallots
Broccolini stalks
Carrot
Daikon
Broccolini florets
Spring onion greens
Bird’s-eye chillies
Peanut oil
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Dry sherry

Instructions

Mince the ginger and garlic.
Dice the shallots.
Slice the spring onion whites.
Slice the Broccolini stalks.
Julienne the carrot and daikon.
Slice and shred the spring onion greens.
Slice the Bird’s-eye chillies.
Slice the pickled pork belly.
Heat the wok.
Add the peanut oil.
Fry the aromatic ingredients.
Soften the florets, carrot, and daikon.
Warm through the pickled pork belly.
Heat the leftover cooking liquor using microwave radiation.
Stir through and toss the leftover rice.
Add sesame oil, some dry sherry, and soy sauce and cook to keep the rice grains separated.
Turn the heat off and stir through the garnish vegetables.
Transfer to a bowl.
Spoon over hot liquor.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Eat with chopsticks and a spoon.

Pork belly and cabbage roll

Last night, I cooked pork belly in the pressure cooker and stir-fried some cabbage. Tonight, I roll it in puff pastry. I was sort of inspired by Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella.

Hello Reader,

Last night, I cooked pork belly in the pressure cooker and stir-fried some cabbage. Tonight, I roll it in puff pastry. I was sort of inspired by Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella.

Pressure cooker pork belly and cabbage Stir-fry

Ingredients

Pork belly

Pork belly
Chinese five-spice powder
Master stock
Dry sherry
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Water

Cabbage

Shredded drumhead cabbage
Minced garlic
Minced ginger
Finely chopped shallot
Finely chopped spring onion (white portion)
Julienned carrot
Julienned daikon radish
Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Peanut oil
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Dry sherry
Cornflour
Water
Coriander
Red chilli
Spring onion

Puff pastry

Store-bought home brand stuff

Instructions

Pork belly

Add the pork belly, Chinese five-spice powder, master stock, dry sherry, soy sauce, sesame oil, and water to the pressure cooker.
Seal the lid and cook for 30 minutes.
Remove the pork belly and slice with a sharp knife.
Set aside what will not be eaten in this meal and refrigerate.

Cabbage and final plating

Heat a wok
Add in some peanut oil and sesame oil and swirl it around the cooking surface of the wok.
Toss in the aromatic ingredients and cook until fragrant
Add in the cabbage, carrot, and daikon radish and stir-dry
As the cabbage wilts, add in the soy sauce and dry sherry
Stir-fry and add some MSG to taste
Toss in the pork belly strips
Stir-fry the pork into the vegetables
If necessary, add a slurry of cornflour, soy sauce, and water to thicken the sauce.
Turn off the heat and add the garnish vegetables
Put it in the refrigerator overnight
Thaw some puff pastry and put the pork and cabbage filling in the middle, and roll the pastry.
Cook in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes
Put it on a plate
Give thanks to the Lord
Eat with your hands and burn off layers of the mucous membrane in your mouth.

If you try this recipe and like it, please let me know.

If you want to see more recipes, check out the food blog Facebook banned, viz., Yummy Lummy.

Pork belly and cabbage

Unctuous pork belly cooked in a pressure cooker with Asian flavours. Served with stir-fried cabbage. 🐖🥬🥢

Hello Reader,

Tonight, I’m cooking pork belly in the pressure cooker and stir-frying some cabbage.

Ingredients

Pork belly

Pork belly
Chinese five-spice powder
Master stock
Dry sherry
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Water

Cabbage

Shredded drumhead cabbage
Minced garlic
Minced ginger
Finely chopped shallot
Finely chopped spring onion (white portion)
Julienned carrot
Julienned daikon radish
Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
White peppercorns
Black peppercorns
Coriander seeds
Peanut oil
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Dry sherry
Cornflour
Water
Coriander
Red chilli
Spring onion

Instructions

Pork belly

Add the pork belly, Chinese five-spice powder, master stock, dry sherry, soy sauce, sesame oil, and water to the pressure cooker.
Seal the lid and cook for 30 minutes.
Remove the pork belly and slice with a sharp knife.
Set aside what will not be eaten in this meal and refrigerate.

Cabbage and final plating

Heat a wok
Add in some peanut oil and sesame oil and swirl it around the cooking surface of the wok.
Toss in the aromatic ingredients and cook until fragrant
Add in the cabbage, carrot, and daikon radish and stir-dry
As the cabbage wilts, add in the soy sauce and dry sherry
Stir-fry and add some MSG to taste
Toss in the pork belly strips
Stir-fry the pork into the vegetables
Pound the white and black peppercorns and the coriander seeds in a mortar with your thick heavy pestle. Pound them as hard as you can. Give them a good pounding.
Season further with the pounded pepper and coriander seeds.
If necessary, add a slurry of cornflour, soy sauce, and water to thicken the sauce.
Turn off the heat and add the garnish vegetables
Transfer everything to a bowl
Give thanks to the Lord
Eat with chopsticks and a spoon

If you try this recipe and like it, please let me know.

If you want to see more recipes, check out the food blog Facebook banned, viz., Yummy Lummy.

Pork belly and fried noodles

Dear Reader,

Earlier in the week, I made this dish and posted the photo in the Facebook group, “Cooking meals for one”. One of the members, viz., Merryn, suggested I write a post on Yummy Lummy.

I am happy to do this; it makes me giggle though that I’ll not be able to share the post on Facebook because the good people of Facebook have banned Yummy Lummy for breaching its community standards. If you want to read this recipe on Yummy Lummy, click here.

I’d appreciate if you subscribed to Yummy Lummy if you got here via Facebook 😉

I’ve tried to appeal this decision but to no avail. I don’t know what component of the Facebook community standards I breached. Maybe the good people of Facebook don’t like my take on fusion cuisine. Perhaps they didn’t like the videos I used to make and post.

Anyway, there is nothing to be gained by crying over spilled milk. Not to worry, it is what it is, and the way I see it, it’s the good people of Facebook who are missing out!

I used a pressure cooker to cook the pork belly. You could also use a slow cooker.

Saturday lockdown dinner. Pressure cooker cooked pork belly and potato with stir-fried noodles and capsicum.

Ingredients

Pork belly strips cut into rough cubes
Star anise (1 star)
Black whole peppercorns (1 tablespoon)
Onion shallot (1)
Vegetable stock (1 cup)
Sweet sherry (1 cup)
Barbecue sauce (1 vigorous squirt)
Chinese five-spice (1 tablespoon)
Bay leaves (2 or 3 leaves)
Potato (1 cut in half)
Capsicum (I used yellow, green, and red capsicum for colour)
2-minute noodles
Neutral oil (I used rice bran oil)

Instructions

Sharpen your cook’s knife and ponder as always Proverbs 27:17 (As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.)
With long, firm strokes drawing the blade of your knife towards you (yes, this sounds counterintuitive, but it’s the most efficient way to cut pork belly strips), slice through the meat.
Place the meat into the pressure cooker vessel.
Peel the onion shallot, cut it along a sagittal plane, and cut each half again along a sagittal plane. Separate the layers and put them into the pressure cooker vessel.
Add the star anise, peppercorns, sherry, stock, barbecue sauce, Chinese five-spice, bay leaves, and potato to the meat and onion.
Inspect the lid of your pressure cooker to make sure the gasket is in place. If you don’t clean as you cook, look for foreign debris and remove it. The point of this step is to avoid a pressure leak. The other reason is to prevent a potentially fatal outcome if the escape valve is blocked and the pressure cooker becomes a bomb. Check out what happened at the Boston Marathon a few years ago when a pressure cooker bomb exploded. The carnage was extensive. Don’t be put off by this advice. Pressure cookers are safe if you maintain them correctly.
Put the lid on and seal it closed.
Turn on the heat, achieve cooking pressure, and cook for between 40 and 45 minutes.
Allow the pressure to equilibrium to atmospheric pressure.
Remove the lid.
Pick out the pork belly and potato with tongues. You could use your fingers, but I reckon you’ll burn the skin, and the pain will be most unpleasant.
Strain the liquor to remove the solid material. Yes, liquor is the correct word. If you doubt me, look up a good English language dictionary.
Pour the liquor into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.
Add the instant noodles to the boiling liquor and cook for 2 minutes.
Strain off the liquor and allow the noodles to drain for a few minutes.
Heat a wok or a skillet and add some neutral oil. Heat the oil until it’s near its smoking point, and then add in the noodles and the slices of capsicum.
Stir fry the noodles and capsicum until the noodles start to take on some colour.
The noodles should have changed from limp to firm, and the capsicum should have changed from firm to a little soft but not limp. You don’t want limp capsicum, and you certainly do not desire capsicum, which has lost its vibrancy.
Move the fried noodles and capsicum to a shallow bowl, and with cooking forceps (or fingers), take the capsicum and bring it to the top of the noodles to show it off better.
Add some of the pieces of cooked belly pork to finish the presentation.
Thank God for wages to buy food, and thank Him for the skills to prepare and cook food.

Final thoughts

Have you experienced problems with a pressure cooker?
Are you afraid of using a pressure cooker?
Do you like pork belly?
What do you think of this dish?
How do you feel about Facebook banning Yummy Lummy?

What’s with the bible verses and the mention of prayers?

I realise I’ve lost a few subscribers because I’ve outed myself (this seems to be the terminology used these days to reveal personal change or orientation or identity). At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a friend shepherded me back to faith after nearly two decades of life in the wilderness.

Yummy Lummy is still a food blog, but you’ll read about the real me.

If the bible verses, mention of prayer, or the books I’ve been reading cause you to unsubscribe, I don’t mind.

Penne pasta “mac and cheese” with pesto

Over at Yummy Lummy, I’ve posted a recipe for Penne pasta “mac and cheese” with pesto.

Because of the Facebook ban on Yummy Lummy, I’m sharing the link to the post here. Please do me a solid and click on the link which will take you to Yummy Lummy and the recipe.

Thanks.

Penne pasta and cheesy white sauce after the oven

Fried rice with pork three-ways

Ingredients

Pork belly
Long grain rice
Chilli
Chinese sausage (lup chong)
Speck (smoked pork belly)
Spring onions
Red onion
Frozen peas
Soy sauce
Marmalade
Cooking sherry
Queensland nut oil
Iodised salt
Black pepper

Chilli, Lup Chong, Marmalade, Pork belly, Red onion, Speck, Spring onions

Instructions

Cook rice in the morning and refrigerate.
Slice the lup chong.
Dice the speck.
Cook the pork belly in a hot oven (220 °C) for 40 minutes to create cracking.
Slice the spring onions. Slice the white on an angle for a fancy look and the green on a right angle for a more traditional look.
Slice the red onion into large slices.
Slice the chillies. You need to figure out whether you want to remove the seeds or not. The chilli seeds add to the heat. I kept the seeds, mainly because I’m lazy.
Heat a wok to a smoking hot.
Squirt in some Queensland nut oil and start to fry off the spring onion greens and red onion.
Add in the speck and lup chong and stir fry until the Chinese sausage and fancy bacon takes on some colour.
Toss in the chilli and stir fry and add a splash of cooking sherry along with the marmalade.
Add in the cold rice and break up with the spatula. Add some soy sauce and keep everything moving in the wok.
With a sharp, heavy knife cut the pork belly into cubes.
Press down the spatula on the rice to get more contact with the hot metal of the wok. Doing so enables a better Maillard reaction. I add marmalade because the sugar will assist with this process.
You want a crunchy rice texture and mouthfeel.
Once the rice is crunchy, turn off the heat and then stir through the pork belly and the fancy shaped spring onion white bits.

Notes

I know there are lots of spelling variations for Chinese sausage. The way I’ve spelt it in the ingredients is how we used to say it as kids at home. I don’t mind how you spell it.

Crispy pork belly with salad

Crispy pork belly with baby beetroot, sugar snap peas, mini asparagus, fennel, red onion, parsley, goat cheese, halloumi, lime juice, olive oil, and cherry tomato salad

I bought the baby beetroot ready to serve from Coles.

I cooked the sugar snap peas and mini asparagus in boiling water and flash cooled them in ice water.

The fennel and red onion were sliced thinly with a mandolin (using the safety guard).

The halloumi was washed, dried, and fried to remove any squeakiness.

The cherry tomatoes and pork belly were cooked in a hot oven for 40 minutes.

Lunch

Leftover pizza heated in a skillet with the lid on.

Breakfast

Morning walk

Scooters laying around — I’m not sure about this new piece of Public Art in Canberra

Weightloss

Garlic Udon noodles, coconut cream, pork belly, prawns, and choy sum

Happy Saturday night everyone. For more of a story check out the post at Yummy Lummy.

Ingredients

Udon noodles
Coconut cream
Garlic
Choy sum
Pork belly
Fresh prawns

Instructions

Dry the skin of the pork belly strips and place into a hot (200 °C) oven for 45 minutes to get the crackling crispy.
Cook the Udon noodles in boiling water for about 7 minutes and then with 2 minutes to go, toss in the choy sum.
Rinse the noodles and choy sum in cold water and drain.
Heat a skillet with the leftover fat from the pork belly and sautée the garlic gently.
Add the noodles and choy sum.
Pour in some coconut cream and bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer.
Add in the prawns and cook through.
Cut the pork belly into small pieces and add to the skillet.
Transfer everything to a bowl and eat with chopsticks.

The meal was delicious. The question is, is this Asian or Italian?

Pressure cooker pork belly with cabbage curry

I indulged in a tuck shop lunch today of hot chips. To balance that indulgence I went with a meal in my fast slow cooker. Pork belly with some sliced cabbage is quick easy and tasty.