Day 8 of mat leave: Revisiting the steamed black bean pork

OK here's a quickie post to jot down the recipe for the steamed black bean pork before I forget:

Ingredients:
-1 tablespoon of black bean sauce
-2.5 teaspoons of sugar
-2.5 teaspoons of salt
-2 teaspoons of Hoisin sauce
-a slab of lean pork meat

Steps:
-chop pork into thin rectangular pieces
-dump into a bowl for marinade with rest of ingredients
-mix up and stick in fridge for an hour of marinading
-take out of fridge
-add a bit of oil, 2 teaspoons of starch, mix up
-transfer all to a dish for steaming
-steam for 10 minutes
-check if meat is cooked through, stir around
-steam for another 5 minutes or until cooked through

Result:
Really yummy steamed pork dish. Pairs well with simple stir fry bok choy and garlic.

Day 3 of mat leave: Culinary training continues

Yesterday, I decided to venture into my roots for my second day of culinary training. Cantonese food yo! I'd say this was a way more successful attempt :) Nothing beats flavor like good old soy and hoisin sauce marinades! Feast your eyes on my stir fry black bean pork and tomato-egg dishes:

I cheated a bit. For one, I tried getting the marinade recipe from my mom who just couldn't describe it because she cooks in 'mom-approximations' meaning, she eyeballs everything. So instead of providing me with instructions, she just went ahead and concocted the marinade for me while I observed..... Ah well. Maybe next time I can repeat what I managed to eyeball. My tomato-egg dish lacked a bit of sugar to combat the acidity of the fruit, I thought I'd put enough but maybe not for the amount of liquid that I had in there. And next time, I will heed my mom's advice and dump the egg on top of the tomato after it's cooked for a bit and just mash it all up for full flavor in egg. 

All in all, I'd say it was a vast improvement from Monday's dinner attempt but can still use improvements on it's own. 

Aside from that, I also realized that I have slow-cooker cookbooks lying around in the house, gifts from family ! What a moron am I for not having thought to break those out and get some slow-cooking basics before attempting THREE SEPARATE times to make something good. DUH. Turns out, slow cooking still requires a bit of prep work. As in, aside from chopping and dicing, may require some initial cooking on the stove BEFORE transferring to cooker to be slow cooked...  To be honest, I realistically hashed out the amount of time required for the actual prep work and I think stir frying Chinese style will be much quicker and easier... Still, I think slow cooking is good for prepping for dinner parties and on weekends when one has a bit more time and/or needs the stove for various other things. So, I shall not give up! 

Which is why, tonight, I will attempt to make apple crumble in my slow cooker in addition to stir fry chicken and bok choy ! Did you know that you could slow cook desert? Cause I didn't! And it sounds so simple. ....... Sounds :) Let's see how this turns out...