Ribs and Parties

My family loves ribs, especially succulent and tender ones. Guess it's due to tasting ribs from a certain family restaurant that sharpened our palates to this texture. I have since been trying to recreate this particular bite at home.

I will also admit that I am a cable tv junkie especially now with a hubstation, I can record whatever shows I like and my children are always chasing me to free up the harddisk space. One of my favourite shows (I could have mentioned it before) is Chef at Home. He makes cooking look so easy and he creates recipes on the fly! "A bit of this and a dash of that... " I'm not sure if I can agree with some of the creations (which I have tried, of course) but it's inspiring (to me) just to watch this series. What about the house they "live" in...

I made this Oven Baked Ribs for a family gathering a while back (yes, backlog of photos and posts). I wouldn't say I had achieved the desired "bite". But gosh the ribs were yummy and they were gone in no time! Fortunately, I made almost 2kg of it and there were enough "leftovers" for my two sisters-in-law to bring home.

Not one to give up, I tried making this ribs in a different way recently. I used a trusty, multi-purpose claypot and (semi) braised the ribs. What d'ya know? I achieved the texture I was looking for and hubs agreed too. However, I realised that the tomato paste/puree made a big difference. I shall not use local brands for western cooking. On the cooking method, somehow baking meat for an extended period just doesn't sit well with me. Someone remarked "crazy... weather is so hot, bake in oven for one or two hours ... kitchen will overheat..." I'm glad I used the claypot.

Blessed Christmas

Here's wishing all my friends a happy and blessed Christmas.

I promised a friend photos of what I served at our cosy family Christmas Eve dinner. I am happy with the result of the honey plum roast pork, finally. I made Oxtail Stew at my sister-in-law's request and they loved it.

I brought the items below to our office gathering on Tuesday. I completed the crustless quiche in record time! Those who tasted it enjoyed it and I intend to keep practising. Hubs brought one bottle of Cornflakes Minicups to his office party. He had asked for another bottle of it for his colleague. As for peanut butter fans, guess which item appealed to them most?

Oxtail Stew

This is one recipe that I've been searching for the longest time. Basically, everyone at home loves beef stew and I have been looking for different recipes that will interest them.

The first beef stew was tomato based with lots of vegetables. I got really tired of that recipe fast. Then I learnt of a recipe from a friend's mom, and that one soon became a fast favourite of my girl. She doesn't eat much meat as a young child. But she loved beef stew, I suspect it's due to the soft and tender beef.

When I served them this dish tonight, they quickly endorsed it as a "keeper". As usual, mashed potatoes is a must have to accompany any beef (or oxtail) stew. I started cooking the stew since last night. I also added potatoes, carrots and turnips into the stew.

I got the recipe from Kitchen Capers. Thanks Gina!

Hong Zhao Ji

Thanks very much to Rei, she gave me a bottle of Red Glutinous Rice Wine and jar of wine lees. It's so kind of her to do so. She even posted a recipe on how to use these gems!

As we are not fans of chicken breast meat, I used 1 kg of chicken mid-wings instead. The dish is not decorated with cilantro nor scallions as we do not particularly like them. As a result, I tend to not remember to buy them.


I did not have the privilege of tasting this dish, 红糟鸡 after the birth of both my children, more than 10 years ago. My friend told me that her mom, who is Hock Chew, is looking for authentic Red Glutinous Rice Wine for her confinement in September. Of course, I'll be happy to hook her up with dear Rei and let them work out the details.

I tend to like stronger flavours in my food (重口味), so I followed the recipe exactly even though I had only 1 kg of chicken wings. As I had excess ginger juice left, almost 1.5 tbsp, I added it to the gravy. The gravy was a little bitter although it wasn't obvious. But we completely finished the portion I served tonight. I saved the rest in the freezer to be consumed in the weeks to come.

It's a First!

It's a first for Yuri's Bake Journal, to not have anything to do with eggs, flour or butter. Yes, it's Roast Pork Belly (or siew yoke, in Cantonese or sio bak in Hokkien). I got to know the recipe via Kitchen Capers (KC), a forum for like-minded people who enjoy cooking or baking. I've always enjoyed cooking even as a child, and having a mom who cooks well makes a lot of difference. Mom only need to verbally tell me the ingredients and method and I would imagine it in my mind. She always encourages me to be creative and work with whatever ingredients available on hand. That I can do with cooking, but baking, that's a different game altogether.

Anyway, back to the roast pork belly. Several KC forum members raved about this recipe and indeed, it was really easy. However, cleaning the oven is quite a nightmare. I don't suppose I'll be making this again without any assistance in cleaning up. How about a self-cleaning oven? Thank goodness I'm using a Sharp mircowave cum convection oven. It has served me well and I'm thankful for finally knowing how to make full use of it. Afterall, I have had this model for close to 10 years :S