Friday, September 14, 2012

My Fake Mushroom Sauce Recipe

Deardo's mum left us some pieces of pork chops and it bothered me for a while as I wanted to do a western-styled pork chops dish but I have zero idea what kind of gravy should I make! I had bad experience using those powder-based gravy and I knew from beginning I have to find some recipe to make my own sauce. I wanted to do the Hainanese sauce but I have no HP Sauce or Worcester Sauce so in the end I trusted no one but myself to create a super simple fake mushroom sauce out of Oyster Sauce!

So here's what you need: 1 or 1 1/2 medium size onions, sliced mushrooms (canned or fresh), water, cornflour, oil, oyster sauce and black pepper to taste.

What to do:
1) Heat up some olive oil in a deep pan or a pot.
2) Add in the onion and simmer till they turned brown.
3) Add in the mushrooms and fry until they are slightly cooked.
4) Now add in some amount of water, depending on how many servings are you making for.
5) Add in enough oyster sauce (taste your gravy until you get the right taste).
6) As the water starts to boil, pour in the cornflour and water to thicken the sauce, continue to stir.
7) Add in some Coarse Black Pepper and you are done!

Pour the gravy over pork chop, chicken chop or even steak or pasta! Although it doesn't taste so much like the real western-styled mushroom sauce, this Chinese infused mushroom sauce actually tastes pretty good! The onion added a very nice scent to the gravy and the gravy was flavourful enough even when I only added some salt when pan-grilling the pork chop!
My pork chop dish is looking good!
Deardo and Deardo's sister enjoyed the Pork Chops with Fake Mushrooms Sauce, served with Stir-fried Baby French Beans and Potato, Eggs and Japanese Cucumber Salad a lot! I must say I'm also quite proud of my spontaneous try!:p
Phew~ At least my 'customers' were okay with the dish!
About a month ago, I have cooked my first dinner for our guests at our house when 4e said she wanted to pay a visit to my (not-so-completed) house. I don't see it as a house warming meal at all. Just a simple dinner for 4e, Uncle Mike, Ah Ma and also Ducum. I made everything that I've done before, just to be safe. But hey, these are dishes that they have never tried before!
Dinner is served! And oh... That ugly table is officially gone now! Hurray!
Very simple but delicious Shirlexia's signature dish Stir-fry Shrimps with Garlic and Lime Leaves! Deardo is madly in love with this dish.
Couscous to replace rice or pasta. Similar recipe here.
Oven Grilled Chicken Drumsticks with Nando's Marinate.
Chicpeas with Chorizo for a Spanish twist to our dinner. Recipe here.
I'm really glad my cooking the other night satisfied them all, except for Ah Ma probably, who isn't used to eating couscous.... I'm not sure yet when will we have a house-warming or will we even have one? But I'm still in a mood to cook for my guests even though it can be quite tiring lar!
So cheers~ For more cooking adventures to come! :)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Another Pork Outing @ S.Wine, B.I.G, Publika

Deardo and I are surely a fan of the BIG Group not so much of their food, but the owner's daring move in starting his businesses all over KL just in a few blinks time. We didn't even know S.Wine existed until Deardo's sis asked us to go lunch together one weekend.
Oink Oink~!
Hidden in the BIG Independent Grocers at Publika, S.Wine's location is more like a dark room hidden in a corner with a black curtain settings. The deco is pretty much very the BIG signature deco, simple yet artsy. I love it! And I think I must be quite outdated as there were already such big crowd there before 12pm!
True to its name, the restaurant serve PORK, PORK and PORK. Their breakfasts seems to be quite a hit but none of us order that probably because it was really a bit too late for breakfast? So here are what we had that day...
Warm Pork Confit, Watermelon and Lychee Salad, RM24
Pork Satay with Pineapple Peanuts Sauce, RM24.
Deardo's sis's Hainanese Pork Chops, RM26.
Deardo's BIL's Sausage and Bacon Chunks Pasta, RM26.
My Chorizo Burger, RM26.
Deardo's Grilled Lemongrass Pork Chops with rice, RM unknown.
Strange enough, my favourite dish of the day was the salad! The pork belly, which is basically Siu Yok was chunky but really crispy I would have wanted them all by myself if it wasn't a dish to share. I also love the fact that it has refreshing fruits like watermelon and lychee in it! Such unique and tasty dish! The pork satay was so-so but I'm truly a fan of the peanuts and pineapple sauce! It was really yummy with a generous amount of peanuts!
I mustn't say the rest of the dishes are bad, they are just a little forgettable lar. I actually hope they can try to be more creative especially in terms of their sides. For instance, more greens for the Hainanese Pork Chop and the Grilled Lemongrass Pork Chop. Good thing is, they actually have both Western and Asian Cuisines so it is an ideal place for family makan session! :)
Us still busy snapping photos...
Little Yue Yue wanting to sleep~! :(
Overall, not bad a dining experience with interesting pork dishes, especially when you know you are sitting right in a huge supermarket that have a huge variety of imported groceries! Don't you love to see those fancy stuff that can't be found easily in Malaysia? They even have a (very smelly) cheese room! Okay, running away from the topic already... The bill came up to almost RM200 which I think is quite decent for four mains and two dishes to share, plus the drinks.
I would go back once in a while just to try out some other dishes. The famous breakfast, perhaps?

S. Wine
Big Independent Grocers
Lot 1A 83 - 95 Level UG 1
Publika Solaris Dutamas
Jalan Dutamas 1
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-6209 1700