Jelly Oranges

It's been at the back of my mind to whip some jelly oranges up and then guess what? Yi made a batch after seeing it on some website. She's forgotten about the jelly oranges we ate at little Masae's house a long time ago. Masae is the daughter of Yoko, a neighbor from Japan whose soba sushi I had blogged about.

Instead of making another batch of jelly oranges using Yoko's recipe, which I prefer because she uses the juice from the oranges, I will put up the photos Yi took of her culinary masterpiece.

Why make jelly oranges when you can eat the real thing? It puzzles me too, the Japanese knack for imitating this and that and generally tinkering with nature. Haven't you noticed? Imitation crabmeat and square watermelons, enhanced eyes and noses, fake eyelashes that can SLICE, wannabe singers (karaoke) and even cartoon characters (cosplay). However, besides copycatting, the Japanese are good at improving on whatever they copy. Cars, cameras, you name it. When I was little, anything Japanese-made was fa hok or fragile/not-lasting and nobody would buy it. Then the Taiwanese came along and elevated the Japanese because their (the Taiwaneses') products were even more fa hok than the Japanese. Now it is the Chinese who supply the world with fa hok things from fridges to food products. While the Japanese are eager to prove their ingenuity, they also make sure they uphold their country's reputation, but the Chinese have only one thing in mind: profits.

And what was this post about? Oh yes, jelly oranges. So, anyway, if you have a children's party coming up, jelly oranges are a sure hit. Which child will eat the real thing anyway.






Yoko's Jelly Oranges
Oranges, preferable NOT navels because they have obtrusive navels (duh)
juice from the orange, strained
sugar
gelatine powder

1. Cut oranges into halves, scoop oranges sections out to make cups.

2. Use 1 tablespoon gelatine powder to 500 ml water, or adjust to your liking. Heat half the amount of water required to boiling and stir well to dissolve the gelatine powder and sugar. Remove from heat. Now add the juice and water to make up to the correct water level.

3. Scoop jelly mixture into the orange cups and chill until firm in fridge. Cut each half into half.

You can also use orange-flavored Jello instead of the juice and gelatine. Cheat if that's your style.

Chinese Tied Pork Knuckle

Here's the recipe Nick and friends and some of my friends requested for: Chinese tied pork knuckle. Translated literally from the Chinese name ze ti (tied leg) for this dish, tied pork knuckle is usually served cold as an appetizer. The only restaurant that serves tied pork knuckle in KK is King Hu in Tanjung Aru. King Hu's version is bland but goes very well with black vinegar. I have eaten another type of ze ti from Sandakan, obviously a Hakka version, because 5 spice powder is added as seasoning. I myself like to add some Sichuan peppercorns, whole or grounded, for the flavor and numbing kick. Feel free to adjust the seasoning to your liking. If you are going to make it for CNY, do it now because pork knuckles are going fast. The knuckle or hock by the way is the lower part of the leg and our butchers call it ti or leg. The upper leg is usually cut up and sold in chunks.

I've not seen this recipe anywhere so I am proud to present it to you in time for CNY. I am almost reluctant to post this because this recipe is a guarded one by those who know it. I guess after this post it'll be all over cyberspace. This recipe is based on my own try, my MIL's experience and information I sought from a lady who makes it commercially. How to cook the pork knuckle is easy but to tie it is not if you have no idea how to do it and I have not been successful in a previous attempt. I had my MIL over to teach me this time, and it really is not hard once you've seen how it's done. MIL too learnt it by experience so there may be other ways to do it and you probably will adapt my recipe and improve on it.My MIL uses plastic and raffia strings to tie her pork knuckles. I tried both plastic and muslin cloth but am not sure if the cloth is a good idea because it soaks up the pork juice/liquid/seasoning. Raffia is definitely better than cotton strings because it is thinner and broader so it doesn't cut into the skin as easily as the string does. Raffia also covers and binds a bigger surface area so the ti will be more tight and compacted. In the photos, I've used plastic sheets because they are clear and give a better picture of how the ze ti looks and I had only cotton strings so that's what I used.

You can keep the tied knuckles for a couple of weeks in the freezer so they come handy when you have unexpected dinner guests. Just thaw the knuckle slightly (too soft and it will break apart when you cut it), still wrapped in the plastic, and cut into thin pieces and serve cold or on a plate of pickles, or even better, with dressed jellyfish or other cold cuts. I think Sichuan garlic sauce will go very well with it, but usually I don't bother and just serve it with several dips: black vinegar, chili-lime and even mayo.

Tied pork knuckle must be served cold. When warm, it goes soft and oily, so serve in small portions, keep the rest in the fridge and top up as required.


Chinese Tied Pork Knuckle
2 pork knuckles, skin & bones intact & cleaned*
3 star anises
1 t salt (or more, up to you)
white pepper
1 t Sichuan peppercorn, grounded or 1/2 t 5 spice powder
msg (optional)
shao xin wine

*Since our butchers sell the knuckle with the trotters, you can remove the trotters from the knee joint but boil it together with the knuckle until the trotters are tender, then chop the trotters into small pieces and season with salt and shao xin wine for drunken trotters.

1. Put the knuckles (and trotters if making them into drunken trotters) into a pot of boiling water (enough to cover) with the star anise and let it boil gently for 1/2 hour. If you skip this step, your ze ti will have an awful smell. Of course I learnt this the hard way.

2. Throw away the water and the star anise in which the knuckles were boiled and add fresh water, enough to cover. Boil gently for one to one and a half hour, depending on the knuckle. How do you tell? Well, this is where experience comes in. Test by poking the skin with a chopstick. It should be soft but not mushy. Remember that upon chilling, the skin will firm up. Too hard and the skin will be hard when it's chilled. Too soft and the skin'll cut when you tie the knuckles.



3. Remove knuckles from the water (you can save it as stock) and let them cool slightly. Use a sharp knife to cut knuckle down one side (keep the other in a pot, covered) and remove the bone. Now cut the de-boned knuckle into half lengthwise and put into a large bowl or plate.

4. Season the knuckle halves with 1/2 t salt, 2 t shao xin wine, some pepper, some msg if using, and either 5 spice powder or Sichuan peppercorns, rubbing in well with your hands. Adjust the seasoning amounts according to the size of the knuckle and your taste. Work quickly because the knuckle must still be warm when you wrap it or it won't stick together well. Sprinkle more wine over if like.

5. Put the knuckle on a piece of plastic, invert the halves so that the thinner part of half will have the thicker part of the other on top of it. Got it? Wrap the knuckle by rolling it in the plastic sheet. Fold the plastic on one end loosely to close, giving about 1 cm space and start tying the knuckle, pulling on tautly as you go down the length of the knuckle. The knuckle will lengthen because you are pressing it tight. If you don't tie tautly enough, the meat will break up when you cut it. Close the other end of the plastic sheet by folding over like you did the other side and tie tightly. A good tied knuckle should be even in thickness.

6. Repeat with the other knuckle and put into freezer until ready to serve. Cut into thin slices to serve. Serve with Chinese black vinegar or other dips.

Borneo Deli

Fresh pork sausages from Borneo Deli. Borneo Deli's link sausages are not tied and the ends are left open.

There is a deli in KK! Our one and only, with freshly made pork sausages, cheeses, fine Italian dressings and oils, wines and many other foodstuff all in one store.

When I was young(ger), there were two small delis (although at that time they were not called delis), Fah Hing and Huat Lee, both located on Gaya Street. That was where you get mayo, olives, ham, canned herrings, those western things. Of course now we have Merdeka and Tong Hing Supermarkets, but whenever I need to cook for a western dinner party, I go crazy running everywhere because these supermarkets just aren't well-stocked. Merdeka, especially, where I always shop because it's near my house, has gone down in its variety of imported foods. Even the choice of local foodstuff has gone down. I recently searched for Tastie Breadcrumbs to make pork schnitzels but they only had Japanese panko which is twice the price of Tastie's crumbs. And yesterday I couldn't find any Aunt Jemima pancake flour. Don't even get me started on their breads, meat (minced beef very fatty) or choice of imported potato chips (Oregon Fresh?? Sucks). But this is not a grouse post, no. I still prefer Merdeka to Giant or Servay even though I complain each time I shop there. So if you see me scrowling down the aisle, be understanding.

Shan had me and a number of food bloggers over to Coffee Bean for the launching and tasting of their December drinks and I committed a big flogger sin--I didn't bring my camera. Hey, I thought I was just there to relax and drink. But anyway, I met Andrew, the proprietor of Coffee Bean, and he was really nice and amicable especially when we talked about food and travel, he being also a graduate of a Canadian uni. Round about Christmas, I got a call from Andrew's (who was away skiing) staff about a package for me to be picked up at Borneo Deli.

I picked Yi up from Louis' where she's learning the ropes and we sped to 1 Borneo, up in Kingfisher. The place is so far I needed to plan my schedule just to go there. And guess what? I forgot my camera again! So yesterday when Yi made a trip to 1 Borneo, she took the pictures you see here with her new Nikon D90. You can see that the dslr pics have a more mellow and elegant look while photos of the sausages taken using my Lumix are less classy but still pretty okay.



Borneo Deli is a beautiful shop next to--guess--CoffeeBean, 1 Borneo. When you step inside, you could be anywhere in some deli in some western country except that there are no jambons hanging from the ceiling. But anyway, I had a fine time choosing some cheeses and snacks, not too many because we couldn't keep these things too long in the car while we shopped in 1 Borneo. That's what you need to remember, shop first and then check Borneo Deli out on the way out. It's on the ground floor, to the left of the building in the front. It is hidden by a large renovation partition of the store in front of it so you may need to ask at the information counter.

Borneo Deli's prices are very reasonable. A 400g of Bonomi (made in Italy, mind you) lady fingers cost only RM11.20 and their fresh sausages are RM40 per kg. I hope Andrew's not reading this, but I think that's the cheapest so far for fresh sausages. Borneo Deli is able to keep its prices reasonable because it has a wholesale link. Here's what we carried home, in a beautiful green bag. Well, a brown green bag.











The package was 4 packets of sausages! (Thanks, Andrew.) We couldn't tell which was what because the sausages weren't labeled. Of the 4 types of sausages, we liked the paler types because they had just the right amount of herbs while the red sausages were spicier which detracted the flavor of the meat. While we think the sausages were great in terms of flavor, the texture could be smoother. I also like sausages to have a slight bouncy bite, as per those we ate in Brisbane but maybe that's only expected from bratwursts and not English or Italian-type sausages.

Next time you venture out to 1 Borneo, remember to check out Borneo Deli, next to Coffee Bean. I am already planning to get some Lindt chocolates on my next trip there, and chow on it with a cuppa from Coffee Bean.

Borneo Deli & Wine Shop
Lot G-813A, Ground Floor, 1 Borneo Hypermall
Tel/Fax: (088) 485 933, www.borneodeli.com