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Tag Archives: black pig

Kanto style Sukiyaki すき焼き, Japanese hotpot

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by denisegan in Eggs, Healthy, Home Cooking, Japanese, Mains, One bowl meal, Pork, Stew

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Tags

bacon, black pig, cast iron pot, easy, grilled tofu, Home Cooking, hot plate, hotpot, japanese, kanto style sukiyaki, kanto sukiyaki, kurobuta, leeks, mizuna, nabe, nabemono, pork, pork shoulder, raw eggs, seared tofu, shirataki, streaky pork, sukiyaki, udon, yaki tofu, yaki-dofu

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On a recent trip to Hokkaido, I finally got to try sukiyaki. It’s a pretty commonplace dish, one that I’ve never tried because most of the time sukiyaki tends to be a quintessential beef hotpot dish. I don’t eat beef so I could never have it. In Hokkaido however, I found a sukiyaki place that offers the pork option. After cooking the pork in the sauce and dipping it in raw egg, I fell immediately in love with sukiyaki.

Many cooking videos and recipes later I discovered that there are two main types of sukiyaki; kansai style sukiyaki and kanto style sukiyaki. Kansai style sukiyaki calls for the method of frying the meat in some rendered fat and sugar before adding the sauce and the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Kanto style is where the sauce, called warishita (割り下), is prepared beforehand and everything is thrown in. This is what I am more familiar with. Normal chinese hotpot sessions normally have large boiling tubs of soup with various vegetables, fishballs and meat thrown in. I guess sukiyaki is a little more special as it seems to be geared towards good cuts of meat. It is also sweet and savory making the cooked meat perfect with a bowl of white rice.

I was initially worried about the idea of using raw egg back here in Malaysia. Salmonella and all. Then I discovered that pasteurized eggs are safe for raw consumption as they eliminate risk of Salmonella and Avian flu virus. Make sure you do your research before buying and consuming raw eggs in any circumstance! I bought mine from safeegg at Aeon:-

http://www.safegg.com.my/subContent/what_is_safegg.swf

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Ingredients (feeds 6 people)

warishita (割り下)sauce

  • 3/4 cup sake
  • 3/4 cup mirin
  • 3/4 cup sugar and 1-2 tbsps extra sugar in case you want it sweeter (*edit* I used less sugar and found it so much better, around 2/3 cup. I’d recommend 2/3 cup of sugar  rather than 3/4 cup as it is less cloying and enhances the taste of the ingredients better)
  • 1.5 cups light soy sauce (I got the low sodium Kikkoman soy sauce, which is why I still had to add a little salt afterwards; it wasn’t salty enough ;p)
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 4.5 cups water

Other ingredients 

  • 1.5 kg of sliced meat (I got some sliced pork belly, pork shoulder and even managed to get some kurobuta meat)
  • 1 leek
  • 4 stalks of spring onion
  • 6 pasteurized eggs
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 pack firm tofu
  • 1 pack enoji mushroom
  • 10-12 fresh shiitake mushrooms
  • 1 pack other mushrooms (whichever you like)
  • Shungiku leaves – I couldn’t find these so I used mizuna. You can use any other preferred leafy vegetables
  • 1/2 chinese cabbage
  • Udon (I used 3 packets but since we also had rice we couldn’t finish all the udon. Cook as much as you think you need)

For sukiyaki it would be sufficient if you had a multi-purpose cooker placed in the center of the table so as to cook all the food as you eat. I do NOT think it is a good idea to throw in all the ingredients and cook it in the kitchen and brought over to the table. It pretty much defeats the purpose of sukiyaki and more often than not your ingredients will be overcooked and will lack the “freshly cooked” taste to it. I used a cast iron pot with sides high enough so that I can fit all the vegetables comfortably, as well as a hot plate.

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Cooking Instructions

  • Wash all the vegetables and mushrooms.
  • Cut off the roots of the spring onions and cut the spring onions into 3 sections.
  • Cut off the roots of the enoki mushrooms and separate them
  • Cut off the stems of the shiitake mushrooms and create star shape patterns onto the cap of the mushrooms

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It’s also a good idea to arrange the vegetables in large plates as you go along. Presentation is always important in Japanese cuisine!

  • Slice the carrot thickly
  • Slice onion
  • Cut the chinese cabbage into bite sized pieces
  • Pour a tablespoon of oil into a frying pan and fry/sear the surface of the tofu. What we are making here is yaki-dofu or grilled tofu. This is a good step-by-step on how to make it:http://japanese-kitchen.net/yaki-dofu-grilled-tofu/
  • Once you’re done searing the tofu, cut it into bite sized pieces

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Tadahhh! All that effort of cleaning and cutting those vegetables! Not to mention searing tofu. I accidentally broke off some of the edges T___T

  • Prepare the udon according to instructions and set aside
  • Drain the shirataki and set aside

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Next, combine all the wareshita ingredients in the pot and simmer to dissolve sugar.

Prepare all the meat and have it on standby with the vegetables.

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Start the sukiyaki feast!   DSC01362 DSC01368

Place your pot on the hot plate and bring the sauce to a simmer. Cook the meat, dip into raw beaten egg and eat with fresh white rice. Throw the ingredients in according to your preference but I’d suggest putting in the leeks, onions and carrots first along with the meat as it lends more sweetness to the sauce. Not that it matters much, the sauce is already sweet enough, it’s just that these vegetables also take more time to cook. Enjoy!!

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Leonardo’s, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by denisegan in Alcohol, Dinner, Pork, Restaurant review, Western

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Tags

bacon and eggs, bacon wrapped, bangsar, bangsar restaurants, black pig, chocolate lava cake, chocolate molten cake, iberian black pig, KL, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur restaurants, Leonardo, leonardos, malaysia, Malaysia restaurants, molten chocolate cake, Pasta, pork balls, pork loin, pork loin steak, pork steak, restaurant review, www.leonardos.my/; pork

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I’ve been meaning to do a review on Leonardo’s since last year! It has become one of my favorite restaurants in KL. There aren’t many restaurants in KL that serves really good pork. This was a good find!

This post includes pictures from two trips to Leonardo’s. Might make another trip sometime soon just for the molten chocolate cake. 20131212-215020.jpgNice and cosy ambience, perfect for a chilled and relaxing dinner.20131212-215039.jpg

Yeah, prices are on the steep side ;( If you do come here though, order the pork. That’s what Leonardo’s is known for.20131212-215058.jpg

20131212-215124.jpgFirst up, the pork balls. This is a really fun dish, like a fried meatball on a stick but a more refined version.

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Chunks of pork meat and fat. You eat it like you would a meatball, but that first crunch obviously puts it heads and shoulders (and whole body) above the average meatball. It’s got a good balance of flavor, rich but not overpowering.

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We had the scallop and lychee salad as well. I can’t exactly remember what it tastes like now but I remember not being disappointed with any of the dishes. Good thing is, this place is pretty consistent. Over a span of 7-8 months the quality remains at the same standard, really good stuff.

20131212-215244.jpgPasta with mushrooms, bacon, chilli padi and garlic. A bacon aglio olio XD. Al dente on the noodles, all the flavors have been well absorbed and each strand is well-coated and well-seasoned. Love the little kick that the chill lends to it too!20131212-215525.jpg

Spanish Iberico Black Pig shoulder loin steak. As tender and juicy as you can imagine it. The meat from an Iberian black pig tends to be more tender than the regular pig and is obviously not going to be as tough. The steak is served medium done with truffle oil mash potatoes and some vegetables. Yes please do away with the notion that pork has to be well cooked to be safe for consumption. That isn’t necessarily true. An internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit is deemed safe by the USDA. So a pink middle is fine as long as the internal temperature is 145 Fahrenheit. A relief to pork eaters as we never liked tough cuts of thoroughly cooked pork either. Same concept as beef well done I suppose?

Anyway, this loin steak and the truffle mash? Yummy-licious! I’ve a dire weakness for meat and potatoes like that. Beef eaters would say I’m missing out on all the good steak and mash but I’m very content if I have this instead. Meat craving satisfied!20131212-215347.jpgAnd a glass of cloudy bay. Lovely and easy to drink. One of my favourite wines for a chilled dinner with friends. I tend to veer towards the more complicated French wines when I’m with colleagues. 20131212-215448.jpg

And helloooo slice of heaven!20131212-215506.jpg

I can’t even begin… will you look at that? It’s so molten it oozed bittersweet chocolatey glaze as we dug into the cake. The vanilla ice cream was pretty good as well but I didn’t even notice cuz of the cake!!! We didn’t have to dig to deep before we hit the chocolate gold so I’d say perfect ratio of cake to molten chocolate. Neither the cake or the molten chocolate has that cloyingly overly sweet commercial vanilla note that most chocolate cakes do. They’ve hit the perfect note with bitter and sweet and rich. The outer layer of the cake is also slightly crisp which makes this dessert texturally perfect for me. 20140630-163908-59948702.jpg

Onto the 2nd dinner at Leonardo’s. Above is the watermelon and feta cheese salad with a ball of soft mozzarella in the middle. I love soft mozzarella! Watermelon and feta cheese is pretty good too, very refreshing. But I’m not a big fan of olives so I left those alone.

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Now this was a surprise! When we ordered bacon and egg we didn’t expect this succulent, tender braised pork belly at all! It just melted in our mouths. The molten egg was a delight as well. Put them both together and you have a luxuriously smooth and sexy combination melting together in your mouth. xoxo 20140630-163908-59948551.jpg

Pork balls again! Different presentation, same delicious taste. I especially like the balsamic glaze to go with it just because I could never resist the thick black shiny sweet stuff.

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And here we have the grilled pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon in garlic au jus. It was perfectly cooked and tender but I prefer the Iberico loin steak as it was more… juicy I would say. Good nonetheless. I don’t remember how the sauce tasted like as I didn’t take much of it. All the calories are in the sauce! (well, the bacon too but I’d rather meat over sauce).20140630-163908-59948219.jpg

Yes this was what I’ve been waiting for the whole night. My molten cake !!!! 20140630-164450-60290371.jpgOur greedy faces. Very very satisfied indeed.

Website and Contact details for Leonardos:-

www.leonardos.my/

61 Jalan Bangkung, Taman Bandaraya, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
03-2093 2226

 

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