Gong Xi Fa Cai and Happy Valentine!

In this Valentine, I'd like to declare my love for my.... cast iron pan. Heh heh heh...

I acquired a used pan sometime in the fall at a flea market for almost nothing. Just recently I managed to properly season it, used it, and fell in love with it. If you owned one, you know what I'm talking about.

Things you can make with the pan:

Apple cake

Recipe: Apple cake in iron skillet
Verdict: Really yummy, but next time I would use 1 more apple, and reduce the butter used in cooking the apples

Pork chops

Recipe: mine. But it's basically pork seasoned with salt n' pepper, dredge with flour and fried.
Please overlook the blackness of the pork. It's not that burned, just a little bit :)

Potato skillet

Recipe: improvised.
Finally I can eat a proper skillet like the ones at Denny's. There's no Denny's or potato skillets here, so I'm quite excited.

And finally...Fried Chicken!!!!

Pretend there's a fried chicken pic here

I completely forgot taking pictures of it. We're so excited in having fried chicken for dinner, that we forgot to take a pic until there were just piles of bones left.
The chicken is really really good. The Monkey King said that it's comparable to Kentucky's. Mwahaha....that's good. Coz there's no Kentucky here either.
Man...remind me why we move here again?

Anywho...last but not least...

Homemade pizza

I know it's not made from the iron pan. But, it's so good that I just have to post :)

Happy Valentine everyone!
And Happy Chinese New Year too! Wish you all the best in the Year of Tiger.
Gong Xi Fa Cai! I'm off to make dinner. Hopefully I won't burn my duck :P

What's for dinner?

If you have several hours to burn (about 2 hours). I seriously recommend making these for dinner:

Short Ribs


Recipe: PW Short Ribs
Modi: Used bacon instead of pancetta (but I think it didn't change the flavor much), and simmer it on stove top instead of bake it.
This is seriously good. It's like the ones that's served in restaurant. And it took only about 30 mins of preparation, after that simmer it for 2 hours, no need to check it etc. I served it with creamy mashed potatoes and salad.

Pig ear and tongue


It's really easy. This is more or less the recipe (I didn't measure anything, just eye ball and taste check it)

Procedure:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Place the pig's ear and tongue in the water and par-boil for a few minutes to remove any scum and impurities.

2. Remove the pig's ears and tongue from the water, throw the water away. Place the ear into a small pot. Add enough water to cover the ear. Add the Shaoxing Rice Wine, or sake, soy sauce, sugar, star anise, salt/pepper, five spice and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 1 hour, occasionally checking to see that the ear is immersed in the water. Add tongue, and simmer for another 30 min. When done, the ear will be very soft and very dark brown in color. A chopstick should easily pierce through the skin. At the end of the braising, reduce if not already the soy sauce mixture into a syrupy mass, put it in a small bowl for dipping.

3. Let the ear and tongue sit at room-temperature

4. Place them onto a cutting board and slice lengthwise into slivers. Serve cold.