Braised Pork Belly with Coke

This simple dish is one of my favorite dishes.  My brothers and I loved drinking coke when we were young.  My mom liked buying a big bottle of coke for us during festive periods.  Sometimes we could not finish the whole bottle within one to two days.  Then the coke would go flat easily.  My mom liked cooking food with it.  

Last weekend my friends and their children came to visit us and we had a small party.  We enjoyed that evening very much.  We finished most of the food but there was a half-bottle of coke left.  I immediately think of this recipe which just takes about 20 minutes.  It is easy and yummy!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serve: 2

Ingredients:

-      200g pork belly (thinly sliced)

-      6g garlic clove (crushed)

-      40g spring onion (chopped)

-      1 slice of ginger (sliced)                  

-      150 ml coke cola                              

-      ½ tsp olive oil

-      1½ tbsp light soy sauce

-      1½ tbsp rice wine or white wine

Method:

1.	Heat a non-stick pan with ¼ tsp olive oil over a medium heat.  Add pork belly and pan-fry both sides of each piece of pork belly until a bit golden brown.  Remove from heat, throw away the oil and set aside.
2.	Heat a non-stick pot with ¼ tsp olive oil over a medium heat.  Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry for one minute.  Toss in pork belly and stir-fry for another one minute.  Pour in coke, add soy sauce and rice wine.  Reduce to a lower heat, cover and simmer for 18-20 minutes until the sauce is reduced to one-third and thickened.  Check every 8-10 minutes to see whether it is too dry.
3.	In the meantime, add spring onion and cook for one minute.
4.	Serve with rice.

炆冬菇生菜 (Braised Shiitake Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce - Chinese style)

準備時間：2小時

烹調時間：45 分鐘
份量：2-3人

材料：

Ø  乾冬菇 10隻

Ø  乾瑤柱1粒

Ø  一片薑

Ø  冰糖 10克

Ø  生菜半個

Ø  生粉 1湯匙

Ø  橄欖油 ¼茶匙

Ø  水1700毫升

獻汁：

Ø  生抽1茶匙

Ø  蠔油 2湯匙

Ø  粟米粉 / 生粉 2茶匙

Ø  麻油少許

做法：

1.	把冬菇先冲水洗淨，切去冬菇蒂，用500毫升水浸約2小時至冬菇完全軟身。
2.	撈起冬菇，浸冬菇的水留用。瑤柱用100毫升水浸乾瑤柱1小時至軟身，用手撕乾瑤柱絲。
3.	用手將生粉搓勻冬菇，待十分鐘後，用水沖洗淨。
4.	把冬菇，浸冬菇的水、薑和冰糖放入鍋中，用中慢火炆約20分鐘。不可猛火注意乾水。如有需要可加少量水。
5.	用另一個煱加入生抽、乾瑤柱絲、蠔油和麻油再炆約20分鐘。用2湯匙水拌勻粟米粉後，慢慢加入鍋中，搞拌成獻汁。
6.	煲1000毫升水至滾，下橄欖油入滾水中，加入生菜灼2分鐘。灼熟即可排放在碟上。
7.	將炆好的冬菇放在生菜上。

Braised Shiitake Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce (Chinese style)

Preparation time: 2 hours

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Serve: 2 persons

Ingredients:

Ø  10 Dried Shiitake mushrooms

Ø  1 slice of ginger

Ø  1 dried scallop

Ø  10g Rock Sugar

Ø  1/2 Iceberg

Ø  2 tablespoon Corn flour

Ø  1/4 teaspoon Olive / vegetable oil

Ø  1700 ml water

Sauce:

Ø  1 teaspoon Soya sauce

Ø  2 tablespoon Oyster sauce

Ø  Sesame oil

Ø  2 teaspoon Corn flour

Ø  1 tablespoon Water

Method:

1.	Clean the dried shiitake mushrooms, trim and discard the stems. Add 600 ml water and mushrooms in a bowl. Soak the mushrooms up for 2 hours until they become soften.
2.	Take out the mushrooms and keep the soaked water for braising. Soak the dried scallop into the 100 ml water for 1 hour unit it becomes soften.  Tear it into slices.  Keep the soaked water for further use.
3.	Rub the corn flour on the whole mushrooms and rinse.
4.	Add the mushroom, the soaked water, rock sugar and ginger into a pot for braising.  Reduce heat to simmer for 20 minutes.  Check regularly to make sure the water is not dried out.  Add a bit water if necessary.
5.	Add slices of scallop, soya sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil into the pot and braise for another 20 minutes. Mix corn flour and one tablespoon soaked scallop water in a bowl and stir them well.  Add the corn flour sauce into the pot and stir constantly until the sauce has thickened.
6.	Cook the lettuce in 1000 ml boiling water with 1/4 teaspoon olive oil for 2 minutes. Put them slice by slice on the plate.
7.	Put all the braised mushrooms and the sauce on top of the lettuce.