Thursday, October 11, 2012

I cooked: Steamed Minced Pork with Tung Choy (冬菜蒸猪肉)

Another favorite dish of mine from my childhood days is 冬菜蒸猪肉, a.k.a. steamed minced pork with tung choy, which my mum would make for us. It is also a dish we sometimes order when we visit our favorite Seremban dai chow. There is something extremely comforting about this dish, and it's one of those dishes where you end up having an extra bowl of rice. Who else loves this Chinese dish?



Tung choy 冬菜 is a type of preserved vegetable, made from Chinese cabbage, garlic and salt. Over here, it is usually sold in small packets. Straight out of the pack, it is extremely salty so you need to soak it for an hour, then rinse 2-3 times to remove the excess salt. Other than this pork dish, we also like to use tung choy in porridge, or in soupy noodles. I like it for its crunchy texture.



This is a relatively healthy dish, since only 1 tbsp of sesame oil is used (and sesame oil is good for you, lots of vitamins and minerals). Good for days when you come back from work tired and want a quick dinner.





Chinese steamed minced pork with tung choy 冬菜蒸猪肉
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time:  8-10 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
300g minced lean pork
50g tung choy, soaked, rinsed and roughly chopped
2 shallot, finely chopped
1 mushroom, finely chopped (I used shiitake)
1 mushroom, whole
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp sesame oil 
1 tsp cornstarch
1 cherry tomato, finely chopped
1 tbsp light soy sauce
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Sping onion (white part), finely chopped

To garnish
Spring onion (green parts), finely chopped 


1. Place all ingredients in a 30cm stainless steel plate or a large heatproof dish. Mix and marinate for 30 minutes.



2. In a steamer or wok over high heat, steam the pork for 8 minutes or until cooked. Garnish with spring onion and serve immediately with a bowl of rice.



3. Optional ingredient: Salted egg yolks. You can either slice the raw salted egg yolk and top on the minced pork or mash it together with the rest of the ingredients, and then steam over high heat for 8 minutes as above.

Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here. 



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35 comments:

  1. Yen, I love your simple and well-described recipes! Especially the Chinese recipes. (I like to think I'm ok at cooking western-style dishes but Chinese cuisine is a whole different animal :p)

    Bookmarking it to try one day at home because we don't usually put in the cherry tomato and mushroom. :)

    Wendy

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    1. Hi Wendy, my mum taught me many great Chinese dishes so am happy to share my knowledge here with all.

      Ah cherry tomato is optional, we put it more for the colour as it makes the dish look a bit more vibrant! (we always eat with our eyes first, right?)

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  2. is the tung choy same thing as the 'chai poh'?

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    1. Hi Sharon, they're different things. Tung choy is salty, whereas chai poh is more on the sweet side and if I'm not mistaken it is made of turnip. Usually you can find chai poh on "wun chai koh" (directly translated small bowl kuih).

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  3. Love this dish! Last time my grandma use to make this...

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    1. Hehe looks like everyone loved this dish as a child hor. Hopefully my children rmbrs this dish when they're older too :)

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  4. i like this dish, but i must say, most restaurants seem to do only a very basic version of it with stingy amounts of mushrooms and/or salted egg etc inside. yours really is the nicest i've ever seen, very nicely textured. looks delicious! now i'm not sure whether to hope you open a western-style cafe or a chinese restaurant! :D

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    1. I guess that's the beauty with homecooking, you get to put in what you like and more of it. Thx so much for your lovely compliment btw :)

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  5. My mum puts in 1 tablespoon of water as well. It loosens the meat, makes it more moist and produces some juice/gravy to have with the rice.

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    1. Ah yes, that will work if you like more gravy.

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  6. Not a fan of this cos my missus cooks it all the time...and a whole lot of it each time - so much that we would be eating that for days!!! Will eat when she cooks - what to do...at least, no need to cook myself...but I certainly would not go and cook it myself and if I do, I would use different ingredients, vary it in any way I can like e.g. using cincaluk - as least a bit different, not so bad.

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  7. I love tung chai... when I was young, my grandmother used to make this alot. I don't eat much pork these days, think chicken should work well here too.

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    1. Yeah chicken would work too. Why don't you eat pork? Not as healthy as chicken?

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  8. Love this dish..i make it sometimes as a quick and easy supplement for dinner. Yum!

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    1. Yeah, great for lazy evenings! Does your son like this?

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  9. I wish I can visit you EVERYDAY. During breakfast, lunch, and dinner... hahahaha.. So naice la the minced pork, my fav too!! Goes very well with rice..! *drooling on my keypad*

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    1. Hehehe... this is just a very simple dish wor? Sure boh u wanna eat?

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  10. OMG my mum makes this dish for us! I recognised it straight away! :D

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    1. Hehe glad it brought back some (nice?) memories for you :D

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  11. Me me me, I love it but since William doesn't like preserved vegetables(he even bans me from buying "lam yu"), I normally use lots of chopped garlic & mushroom but I recall that my mum would use water chestnuts.

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    1. Why he ban u from using preserved vegetables? Cos not healthy ah? We only eat this once in a long time, so I find it acceptable.

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  12. I've cooked this for dinner ! lol But yours looks way better ! :D Quick and easy dish .... I always use the sweet muy choi .

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    1. Ah, okay. Never used the sweet mui choy with steamed pork before, usually just with the braised pork belly.

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  13. My mum used to cook this at home, but without cherry tomato and mushroom. :)

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    1. I think it's my first time using cherry tomatoes but it turned out well. We add it more for the colour.

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  14. I love this dish . EAt with rice very good

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  15. Hi Baby Sumo, I love this, can have extra rice and no need cook other dishes. LOL
    Your look extremely good, yum yum.. hungry lorrr.....

    Have a nice weekend.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Amelia, you're always so kind with your comments. :)

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