Apple and Sage Pork Chops

Makes 6 servings.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons Sage, Rubbed
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
1 teaspoon Thyme Leaves
1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
6 pieces Butcher's Deli pork chop / sirloin
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 Gala apples, cut into thin wedges
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup apple juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix flour, sage, seasoned salt, thyme and nutmeg in small bowl until well blended. Sprinkle both sides of pork chops with 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture.

2. Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add pork chops; brown on both sides. Remove from skillet. Add apples, onion, remaining seasoned flour and juice to skillet; stir until well mixed. Return pork chops to skillet.

3. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 5 minutes or until pork chops are desired doneness. Remove pork chops to serving platter; keep warm. Simmer sauce 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Serve sauce over pork chops.

Gawai Special

Butcher's Deli's Gift Voucher

Pork Rib-Prawn Noodle (虾面)

It's not easy to get a good bowl of prawn noodle in Kuching. I love the one at 'Auntie's Corner' at Bormill Estate.





Serves 4 bowls

Ingredients
• 20 large prawns (more prawns, the merrier!)
• 400 g pork ribs (Butcher’s Deli Prime Ribs)
• 1 liter water
• 400g egg noodles (may substitute/mix with vermicelli)
• 6 shallots
• 2 garlic cloves
• 75g dried anchovies
• 100g bean sprouts
• 100g kangkung
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Directions
• De-shell prawns and keep the shells and prawn heads.
• Clean peeled prawns.
• Using 2 tablespoons of olive oil, fry prawn shells and heads in a soup pot.
• Add dried anchovies to the prawn shells/heads mixture and fry for about 2-3 mins.
• Add water to cooled mixture and bring to the boil.
• Add pork ribs and bring to the boil.
• Crush garlic (with skin intact) and add to broth.
• Lower the flame and let the broth simmer for 30 minutes.
• Dish out and discard the prawn shells/heads and anchovies.
• Add dark soya sauce, salt and pepper to the broth.
• Deep fry sliced shallots in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until golden brown.
• After the broth is ready, cook yellow noodles, bean sprouts and kangkung in a separate pot by blanching in boiling water.
• Cook peeled prawns by boiling them in a separate pot.
• Place cooked noodles, vegetables and prawns in a bowl.
• Pour the prawn broth over the noodles and prawns.
• Top with fried shallots and serve.


For fast and easy cooking, grab a pack of ready-to-cook prawn noodle sauce, save your time in making the broth then.

Babi Ponteh

After watching Singapore's drama series of 'The Little Nyonya'(小娘惹), I miss Babi Ponteh (stew pork)so much that I still vividly remember Aunty Shirley, a Peranakan Celebrity Chef whom I met while working at Swissotel Merchant Court. She made good 'Durian Pengat' (durian cream) that I never got the chance to learn from her back then. Knowing that I love to eat pork so much, she once sneaked in 'Babi Ponteh' with steamed bun, man tou (馒头) to our then halal staff cafeteria. I fell in love with the dish, and asked for the recipe. Now, I am sharing this recipe with you.



Ingredients:
1 pig's trotter or 300 g pork belly
2 10cm cinnamon
3 onions, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
300 g yam bean (bengkwang), peeled (I replaced it with turnip)
4 potatoes, peeled
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon preserved soy beans (taucheo)
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
720 ml water

Method:
* Cut trotter into pieces.
* Blanch in hot water and rinse in cold running tap water to remove scum. Drained.
* Wash cinnamon stick. Grind onions and garlic until fine.
* Wash and cut yam bean into wedges. Wash and cut potatoes into 4 and soak in water.
* Heat oil in a pot and fry cinnamon, ground onions and garlic until light brown and aromatic.
* Add preserved soy bean and fry for 1 minute.
* Add pork pieces and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
* Add dark soy sauce, sugar, salt and water. When meat is half-cooked, add yam bean. Cook, covered for 15 minutes.
* Add potatoes and cook until meat is tender, yam bean is soft and potatoes are cooked and stew thickens.