Butcher's Deli News July - Aug'09

THE PICKY EATER!
It has always been difficult to get kids to eat healthy and nutritious food. That’s a given. Somehow, children naturally gravitate towards chocolates, burgers, fries, and other delicious treats we otherwise call ‘comfort’ food. And once they’re defined what they like, they usually stick to them. They become picky eaters. And while meat tops their list of favourite food, they’re not exactly huge fans of vegetables, fruits and fish. Feed them what they don’t like, and the most you can make them do is take a bite or two. And this is when they take meals at home, under the watchful eye of Mom. But have you ever wondered what kinds of food they eat when you’re not around to observe them? For instance, what do they buy in canteen during recess time in school? What do they love to eat there? When you can’t see them, you can’t be in control, can you? Uh-oh…...


BUILDING HEALTHY EATING HABITS

Luckily for parents, information particularly on health and nutrition, are readily available these days through internet. Hit the ‘search’ key and you can find out all the nutritional information that you need on a certain type of food. You can even find out the cholesterol, carbohydrate and fat content of the dish that you’re planning to prepare.

With all the nutritional information at your fingertips, yes, you can feed your kids - even the pickiest and choosiest of them all,properly.

* Start them early.
If you want your kids to eat healthy food, start building healthy their eating habits early in life. If you want your kids to eat healthy, you should start feeding them healthy food, right at the beginning, introduce vegetables to their palate early - lettuce in sandwiches, tomatoes in pasta sauce, etc; so that when they get older, it won’t be difficult to make them eat vegetables.

* Be consistent.
It’s not enough that you introduce vegetables to your kids early in life. It is important to follow through and consistently serve vegetable dishes in their growing up years. Make each meal a balanced meal with rice, meat or seafood, and vegetables. On weekends, when there’s more time for the family to bond and enjoy your dining experience together, why not make start your meal with a salad or soup, then serve the viands with rice, and end your meal with a light and fruity dessert?

* Practice what you preach.
Be a good example to your kids. If you want them to be eating vegetables and fish on a regular basis, you’ve to enjoy eating them too. You cant convince them with mere words. They have to see you eating healthily so they can follow the example you set.


HEALTH IN A LUNCH BOX!

That, however, goes only as far as home-cooked meals are concerned. But what about the school meals that your kids have to take during school days? What can you do to make sure they’re eating real, healthy food and not just indulging in junk food readily available to them?

* Send them to school with healthy tapau everyday.
It’s important that you set aside time every morning to personally prepare your kids’ tapau. Draw up a weekly menu guide on what tapau you can send your kids to school. Take into consideration what they like and what you think will balance out the health factor and taste profile of such dishes. Make sure too, that you personally prepare their tapau, knowing that you prepared the tapau will motivate them more to eat it than if the maid prepared it.

* Try to incorporate healthy ingredients into their tapau.
If they like ham sandwich, for example, you can probably line the bread with lettuce and slices of tomatoes. If your kids like fried chicken, either bake it of fry it in healthy oil. If they like burgers, incorporate chopped tomatoes into them. For the bread, how about introducing whole meal bread instead of usual white bread.

* Make their tapau attractive.
Feed their eyes as well as their tummies. For them to truly enjoy their tapau, it has to be a feast for the senses. If your kids like burger, why not have them in star-shape? Package their tapau nicely, for example, you can wrap it nicely in greaseproof paper with design on the outer side, much like what fast-food restaurants use for their burgers.

* Add juices to their tapau.
Add a pack of fruit juice, too, to discourage them from buying soft-drinks from the canteen.

* Give words of encouragement or praise when your kids finish their tapau.
If they come home with an empty lunch box, encouraging words such as ‘I see you’ve finished your food. Very good. You’ve made me very happy’.

Sometimes, all it takes to make kids eat healthy and real food is a little encouragement. Make it available to them, put some personal touch into it, make it look attractive and encourage your kids to enjoy eating it and - VOILA! Whoever says it’s difficult to get picky eaters to eat healthy must be a bit wrong.

HOW TO CLEAN PIG'S TRIPE

1. Invert tripe (inside out) and rinse under running tap. Rub 3 spoons of tapioca flour all over, both inside and outside, rinse.

2. Rub 2 spoons salt all over on the inside and outside, rinse. Trim off fatty linings at the edge, rinse.

3. Heat tripe over low frame in oil-less wok until dry.



HEALTH TIPS

Diet & Digestive Problems

At some time in life, a lot of people suffers from digestive problems or duodenal ulcers. Fortunately, treatment can be effective. If you always have attacks of gastric, it is important to cut down the amount of acid in your stomach and eat frequent small meals rather than having one big meal. This way, the stomach is not allowed to become empty. In Eastern medical theory, sensible eating for digestive problems is strongly recommended. One should eat food that heal digestive problems instead of those which irritate them.

The person with a ‘cold stomach’ have symptoms like pain in the pit of the stomach or signs of diarrhea. Sufferers should consume warm food like spring onions, ginger, chives, garlic, pepper. For a person with ‘weak stomach’, eating red dates, ‘huai shan’, fox nuts, lotus seeds can help. But a person with ‘warm stomach’ should take cooling food such as pears, lotus root, sugar cane or honey. If there is a fullness sensation in the chest, take radish or tangerines or drinks brewed with tangerines’ skin. They can regulate the stagnation feeling. Not eating well may be the direct cause of many health problems as poor nutrition weakens the body’s ability to resist illness. Continued care is necessary to prevent the digestive problems from returning as eating right helps the sick get well.


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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.

Jiăozi (饺子) & Xiǎolóngbāo (小笼包)

Jiăozi (饺子), or pot sticker is a Chinese dumpling, widely popular in China. Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping. Jiaozi should not be confused with wonton: jiaozi have a thicker, chewier skin and a flatter, more oblate, double-saucer like shape (similar in shape to ravioli), and are usually eaten with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce (and/or hot chili sauce); while wontons have thinner skin, are sphere-shaped, and are usually served in broth. The dough for the jiaozi and wonton wrapper also consist of different ingredients.

Chinese dumplings (jiaozi) may be divided into various types depending on how they are cooked:
• Boiled dumplings; (shuǐjiǎo-水餃) - "water dumplings"
• Steamed dumplings; (zhēngjiǎo-蒸餃) - "steam-dumpling"
• Shallow fried dumplings (guōtiē - 鍋貼) - "pan stick", "potstickers", "dry-fried dumplings" (jiānjiǎo - 煎餃).

Dumplings, one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year, and year round in the northern provinces. Traditionally, families get together to make jiaozi for the Chinese New Year. In rural areas, the choicest livestock is slaughtered, the meat ground and wrapped into dumplings, and frozen outside with the help of the freezing weather. Then they are boiled and served for the Chinese New Year feast. Dumplings with sweet, rather than savoury fillings are also popular as a Chinese New Year treat.

Cantonese style Chinese dumplings (gaau) are standard fare in dim sum. The immediate noted difference to jiǎozi is that they are smaller and wrapped in a thinner translucent skin, and usually steamed. In other words, these are steamed dumplings.

Jiaozi were so named because they were horn shaped. The Chinese for "horn" is jiǎo (角), and jiaozi was originally written with the Chinese character for "horn", but later it was replaced by a specific character 餃, which has the food radical on the left and the phonetic component jiāo on the right.



Guotie (锅贴; literally "pot stick") is pan-fried jiaozi, also known as potstickers in North America. They are a Northern Chinese style dumpling popular as a street food, appetizer, or side order in Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean cuisines. This dish is sometimes served on a dim sum menu, but may be offered independently. The filling for this dish usually contains pork, cabbage, scallions (spring or green onions), ginger, Chinese rice wine or cooking wine, and sesame seed oil.




Xiǎolóngbāo (小笼包), also known as soup dumpling, is a type of baozi (包子) from eastern China. It is traditionally steamed in small bamboo baskets, known as xiao long, hence the name.

Traditionally, the Xiaolongbao is a dianxin (点心) or snack item. The buns are served hot in the bamboo baskets in which they were steamed, and may be dipped in rice vinegar with ginger slivers.

Xiaolongbao have also become popular as a main dish, it is also commonly served as a yum cha item.




Check out our latest frozen home-made products at our Delis:

a) Jiăozi with corn(饺子 - 猪肉玉米)
b) Jiăozi with garlic chives(饺子 - 猪肉韮菜)
c) Jiăozi with cabbage(饺子 - 猪肉包菜)
d) Xiǎolóngbāo (小笼汤包)