Stir fry pork slices in honey garlic soy

I wanted to make a simple yet different sauce from our usual ginger spring onion combination. This sauce is really easy and you can always adjust the sweetness/saltiness to your liking. A dash of black pepper makes it extra yummy. I have steamed some broccoli to garnish the plate. A healthy combination of vegetables and meat for weekday dinner. :)

Ingredients

Pork tenderloin

Minced garlic 

Sesame seeds  

Black pepper

Marinate

Soy sauce 

Sesame oil 

Cornstarch 

Sauce

1 Tbsp honey 

2 Tbsp Soy sauce 

2 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine 

Recipe

1. Cut the pork tenderloin into thin slices and marinate using the seasonings stated.

2.  Heat oil in the wok and add in minced garlic. 

3. Stir fry till fragrant then add in the pork slices. 

4. Cook till the meat is no longer pink then add in the sauce. 

5. Stir fry for a while, add a dash of black pepper and it is done. 

Note: Make sure the meat is cooked before you pour in the sauce so that you do not undercook the meat. Also need to make sure you do not cook for too long else the meat might be dry.

Stir fry spinach with bunashimeiji mushrooms

My usual cooking routine at home consists of a soup and two dishes and I will make sure that we will have one vegetable dish. This is very important as I always feel that when we eat out, we do not take in enough vegetables. But I don't really like to eat fibrous vegetable or vegetable stems. Yup I am a picky eater when it comes to vegetables. So my usual vegetable choices are broccoli, baby spinach (hoi chai), shanghai green or japanese green. Recently I discovered spinach is not bad too! When I am feeling lazy, I would just blanch it. But on other days, doing stir fry is great. :) 

Ingredients
Spinach
Bunashimeiji mushrooms
Garlic slices
Chicken stock powder
Sugar
Soy sauce
Sesame oil 

Recipe
1. Heat the oil in the wok and add the garlic slices.
2. Stir fry till fragrant, then add in the spinach.
3. Stir fry at high heat till the spinach has wilted. Add in some water, chicken stock powder, sugar.
4. Let it cook for a while before seasoning with soy sauce and sesame oil. It is done!

Note: Usually I do not add sugar to vegetables but I find stir frying spinach sometimes has a bitter taste so adding sugar helps for me.

Steamed silken tofu with minced meat sauce

One of my usual dishes is steamed minced meat on egg tofu. Yesterday I tried to steam silken tofu instead of egg tofu and make a minced meat sauce to go with it. My son loves it a lot. I guess for children, you can never go wrong with minced meat and tofu. :) For below recipe, you need to do steaming and stir fry separately. If you prefer just stir fry alone, you can try this minced meat tofu with sauce.

Ingredients
Minced meat (approx 100~120g)
1 box of silken tofu
1 stalk of spring onion
1 clove garlic
Cornstarch solution 

Marinate
sesame oil
white pepper
soy sauce 

Sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
water (approx 1 small bowl) 
sugar

Recipe
1. Marinate the minced meat with the seasonings stated in marinate. Minced the garlic and set aside. Cut the spring onion and separate the white part from the green part. Chop the white parts finely and set aside. Chop the green parts finely and set aside for garnish later.
2. Cut the silken tofu and put it on a deep steaming plate. Steam it for 5 minutes then set aside. (I am using electrical steamer so I will go on to prepare the sauce at the stove)
3. Prepare the seasonings stated in sauce in a bowl except sugar.
4. Heat up oil in the wok and stir fry the minced garlic till fragrant. Add in the chopped white parts of spring onions. Let it cook for a while then add the minced meat. (Note: Do not need to keep stirring the meat with the spatula at this point. Allow some time for the meat to cook through and it will break easily when you stir then)
5. Add in the sauce and let it boil before turning to low fire. Adjust the taste with sugar. You can add a dash of white pepper if you like. Thicken the sauce with cornstarch solution.
6. Pour the meat sauce over the silken tofu and garnish with the chopped green spring onions. (Reason for using deep steaming plate is because I don't want to transfer the silken tofu to another plate for fear of breaking it.)

Steamed cod in garlic black bean sauce

I bought a bottle of garlic black bean sauce thinking how convenient it is to just put the sauce as it is without adding other seasoning. But it did not taste like how I would like it to be (just tasted very salty.. >_<) and so the bottle of garlic black bean sauce was quietly put aside in my fridge until I saw it again during my recent fridge clean-up. Decided to try and use the sauce again and this time it tasted so much better.

Ingredient
Cod fish (or other white fish)
Ginger slices
Chopped spring onions
Chopped garlic
Cornstarch solution 

Marinate
White pepper
Soy sauce
Chinese cooking wine

Sauce
1 tsp garlic black bean sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
Some water (approx half a small bowl)
Sugar (approx 1/2 tsp)

Recipe
1. Marinate the fish with the seasonings stated in marinate and let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. Put ginger slices on the fish and steam it together with the marinate until cooked. Mine took about 12 minutes on electrical steamer.
3. While steaming the fish, fry some garlic in the saucepan until fragrant. Add in the seasonings stated in sauce except sugar. Let it come to a boil and add sugar to adjust the taste.
4. Thicken the sauce with cornstarch solution. You may skip if you prefer it to be watery consistency.
5. Remove the steamed fish and place it on a deep serving dish. Pour away the steaming liquid. Now pour the sauce over the fish and garnish with chopped spring onions.