No catchy title just food!

I couldn't think of anything catchy to say about this post so feel free to suggest! Sue is on holiday in Sydney and I've been entrusted with keeping her blog going. So, here we have tonight's dinner.

Loads of food to feed only 2! To start with there was arrowroot (feng ge in Mandarin) soup boiled with pork ribs and red dates. The arrowroot is a thick fibrous root which looks a lot like a yam. The outer bark is peeled off and then the root is chopped into smaller pieces. The chopping of the root into pieces is literally hell to go through as its hard as a rock! I usually have to use something heavy to whack the cleaver or it just won't cut through the root. I boiled the soup for about 2 hours so it was nice and thick and absolutely yummy. Its supposed to be good for soothing the throat which is just as well as I have been feeling under the weather lately.

Next up was steamed egg custard (in the bowl) which is essentially 2 eggs whipped with the trusty chopstick and seasoned then steamed in the wok for about 10 minutes. It turned out my typical holey texture which frustrates me to no end as I have been trying my utmost best to get the smooth texture that my grandmother makes i.e. similar to chawan mushi texture egg custard. But no luck this time. Anyone with suggestions on how to get the smooth chawan mushi texture feel free to tell me! It may have been the amount of water - not enough? too much?? But it was nice if I don't say so myself! haha...

For vegetables there was "choi sum fa" or sawi with flowers. Just a simple chinese style stirfry with garlic as I didn't want it to clash or overwhelm the palate in light of the last meat dish I had to offer.

The last dish I erm... dished out (no pun intended) was something I shall call Seasoned Grilled Pork Ribs with Garlic Sauce. I had some pork ribs leftover from the soup so I created a grilled rib dish that turned out surprisingly nice! The ribs had been marinated for a few hours with oyster sauce and a dash of montreal steak mix and basil. I then browned it on all sides on a hot grill pan to seal the juices then finished it off under a hot grill. It took only about 15 minutes for it to be thoroughly cooked - you can't be too careful with pork. The final result was a slightly smokey flavoured rib.

Then, feeling it might be too dry, I proceeded to whip up a sauce to accompany the ribs. I melted butter and threw in 2 cloves of chopped garlic, mixed in a dash of oyster sauce, added some water, some black sauce for colour and finally a dash of chinese shaoxing cooking wine. It turned out that it went superbly with the grilled meat as it had a slightly tangy sweet taste due to the wine and garlic, tempered by the mellow taste of the butter. The sauce even went well with the bland meat from the soup. Hurrah for new recipies!!