红糟肉

紅糟或紅麴乃制自紅露酒的酒糟，主要由红曲米中的红曲菌酿制成,擁有天然紅色色泽跟独特香味。

中华料理中闽菜系用紅糟做調味料。在砂捞越，福州菜肴常用红糟做菜，其中以红糟雞最有名。

福州菜不是我的专长。吃过红糟鸡，味道不错，有样学养也试煮了一牒。味道似是而非，有待改进。请各位福州菜师傅赐教。

以下列下材料、煮法，请赐教。

一、红糟，两汤匙。

二、三层肉，切片，以红糟腌制数小时。

三、蒜，垛啐，备用。

先爆香蒜米，再放入三层肉，微炒。后加少许水，搅拌。小火焖熟为只。不加盐、味精。

Braised Bitter Gourd with Pork Belly 苦瓜焖三层肉

First, slice pork belly for about 5mm thick.  Gently fry them over slow heat till browning. 

Alternatively, can also deep fry them.  But deep fry requires a lot more cooking oil, which is not very healthy, not to mention wasteful.  So I opted for  Ongrizinal green cooking

Meanwhile, I cut open horizontally a bitter gourd.  Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and the whitish core.  Then slice them into 2 mm thick.  Thinly sliced gourd are easier to cook.  By the time the pork belly are already nicely browned, put in all the sliced bitter gourd.  

Stir for a while, then add in some water.  After its boiled, turn the flame to minimum to simmer the ingredients for about 10 minutes, or till the bitter gourd is softened.  

Add salt to taste.

The bitter taste of bitter gourd is because of momordicin.  To remove the bitter taste, some would soak the sliced bitter gourd in a salt solution.  A faster way is rubbing the sliced bitter gourd with salt.  The salt would create a higher solute concentration compare to inside the plant cells.  Thus the water in the cells moves outwards the cell, bringing along the momordicin.

Braised Chicken & Pork Belly with Judas's Ear

While preparing the ingredients for Braised Chicken with Judas’s Ear,  I can’t find enough chicken for the dish.  Less chicken meat means relatively lots of Judas’s ear… that’s kinda off balance. 

It was too late to abort the cooking, as I had already soaked the Judas’s ear.   Out of desperate, I decided to top up with pork belly instead.

Midway during simmering, out of nowhere, I pour in some rice wine.    

Surprisingly, it turn out quite okay.