Taiwan Pork Chop Bento Box
- 2 pork chops
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tablespoon five spice
- 4 tablespoons cornflour
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine (mi chiu)
- A dash of sesame oil
1. In a bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice wine, garlic, five spice, sesame oil and stir well. Add the pork chops to marinate, ensuring most is covered.
2. In a heated pan, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil.
3. In a bowl with the cornflour, take a pork chop and coat completely with the cornflour, transferring straight to the hot pan. Repeat for other chop.
4. Fry the chop for 5-10 minutes on each side, ensuring it is thoroughly cooked.
5. Serve immediately with rice, tea eggs and vegetables.
Three Cup Chicken (San be ji)
Three Cup Chicken is one of the most well known dishes from Taiwan and its key ingredients as it suggests forms from three parts – soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil. This is a very fragrant and flavoursome dish, perfect for dinner parties or family get togethers. Its so quick and easy to make, you’ll have it ready in no time when your guests arrive!
Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 25 mins
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 500 gram chicken drumsticks
- ¼ cup rice wine (mi chiu)
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ sesame oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons raw sugar
- 5 cloves roughly chopped garlic
- 200 gram basil
Directions
1. Using a strong knife (I use a butchers knife), cut the chicken drumsticks in half.
2. In a heated pan, add the sesame oil and garlic and saute for a minute.
3. Add the chicken and fry on medium heat.
4. Once the chicken has slightly browned on both sides, add the soy sauce, rice wine and sugar.
5. Mix well, turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes, turning the chicken occasionally.
6. Add the basil and stir gently for 2 minutes.
7. Serve immediately with rice.
Dried Bbq Pork (Bak kwa)
My many trips through Asia left me craving for dried bbq pork (bak kwa). Usually, the are sold freshly char-grilled and hot from a street stall in Taiwan and eaten as a snack. Not only are they delicious, but they are also so easy to make in the comfort of your home and will leave your guests amazed when they try this devine nibble. Serve it before a meal or with a glass of wine or beer and you will be the talk of the town!
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 mins
Ingredients
- 500 gram mince pork
- 100 gram sugar
- 5 gram chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon rice wine (mi chiu)
- 1 teaspoon caramel syrup
- 1 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, adding the rice wine and syrup last.
3. Line a baking tray with baking/parchment paper.
4.Slowly spread the mince across the baking paper, to the edges of the tray, roughly 0.5cm thick. You may need to use 2 trays depending on the size of your oven/tray.
5. Turn the temperature of the oven down to 100 degrees celsius and place the tray in the centre of the oven. If you have 2 trays, switch the trays halfway during cooking time.
6. Bake the mince pork for 1 hour with the door ajar.
7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
8. Slowly peel off the pork from the baking paper, turn it over and return to the oven.
9. Cook for another 15 mins to colour the other side.
10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Tips:
1. Store in an air-tight container. It should last up to a week but if it were my household, it wouldn’t last that long!
2. Slightly fry it to get the char-grilled effect before eating.
Breakfast Rice Roll (Fan Tuan)
This is a common dish for breakfast in Taiwan, traditionally served with hot/cold soy bean milk and other dishes such as spring onion pancake, shao bing sandwich or dan bin. They’re great to take to a picnic or a lunch on the go as they’re very quick and easy to make.
Preparation time: 2.5 hours
Cooking time: 15 mins
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 3 cups sticky rice
- 300 gram pork or fish floss
- 50 gram dried chilli radish
- 1 chinese cruller (yo tiao)
Directions
1. Soak the rice for 2 hours (or overnight if possible)
2. Drain the rice and put into a steamer.
3. Once the rice is cooked (it should be almost clear), remove and set aside to cool.
4. Cut the chinese cruller into 6 pieces, one cut through the middle to separate the two joined sticks and then into thirds for each stick.
5. Cut a square piece of cling wrap (roughly 20cm by 20cm) and lay on top of a bamboo sushi roller.
6. Once the rice is cooled, using a rice spoon, flatten some rice in roughly 10cm x 10cm square shape on top of the cling wrap.
7. Place one cruller along the bottom third of the rice.
8. Sprinkle pork floss along one side of the cruller and some radish along the other side.
9. Slowly roll the rice and sheet away from you to completely cover the stick with the rice. Make sure to keep the cling wrap outside of the roll.
10. Slowly close both sides of the stick with the rice.
Taiwanese sesame noodles (liang mien)
I love these noodles, they’re really tasty and so quick and easy to make. Best of all, they are individually made so great for cooking for friends and family or just for one! They are a very popular Taiwanese dish, particularly in the night markets of Taiwan. You can add shredded chicken, cucumbers and/or egg or they even great plain, just as I have made them here.
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves 1
Ingredients:
- 200 gram noodles
- 1 1/2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon hot soy bean paste
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- Shredded chicken (optional)
- Sliced cucumbers (optional)
- Sliced egg omelette (optional)
Directions:
1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, add the sesame paste, peanut butter, soy sauce, spicy soy bean paste and mix until well combined.
3. Drain the noodles and add to the sauce bowl.
4. Add the chicken. Mix and combine well.
5. Serve immediately.
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Simple Hand Made Noodles (sho zwo mien)
Hand made noodles are just so quick and easy to make and I want to show this in the post and hope more people will try this at home. You will quickly learn the benefits. The taste is so much fresher and chewier that only freshly made noodles can achieve and the satisfaction of knowing you made it is just amazing. I recently invested in a Kitchenaid which cuts the effort to almost next to nothing and I recommend it if you have the cash, however the post below makes the noodles from scratch, all by hand.
Preparation time: 1 ½ hours
Cooking time: 6-8 minutes
Serves 2
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups plain flour
- Extra flour for dusting
- ½ cup rice flour
- ¾ cup warm water
- 2 teaspoons salt
Directions
1. Add the plain flour, rice flour and salt in a bowl and mix well.
2. Making a well in the flour, pour the warm water and using your hands, slowly fold the flour into the well and start kneading.
3. Once the ingredients have formed into a ball, use the palm of your hands to press and knead the dough flat, then fold over twice. Knead and repeat the process 3 times.
4. Dust a flat surface with flour and using a rolling pin, roll the dough flat into a circle (roughly 2cm thick), then fold over into a flat ball and repeat the process 3-4 times.
5. Roll the dough into a ball and put aside to rest for 1-2 hours. Place a wet cloth over the dough to stop it from drying out.
6. After the dough has rested, dust a flat surface with flour and roll the dough out into a rectangle, roughly 0.5cm thickness.
7. In a pot, bring to the boil some hot water and add a dash of cooking oil to stop the noodles from sticking.
8. Dust the top and bottom of the dough well. Fold over the dough into thirds and slice into long strips, roughly 0.5cm thickness.
9. Slowly add the noodles into the boiling pot of water. Cook the noodles for 6-8 minutes.
10. Drain the noodles and run under cold water for a few seconds. Serve immediately.
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