Busy Bee in My Kitchen

As usual, Saturday I would be busy in the kitchen cooking lunch. As I don't usually cook on weekdays, I would try and whip up some nice dishes for the only home-cooked meal of the week. Here's what I cooked last Saturday:

This is the second time I'm using this recipe (see below) for sweet and sour pork, only this time I used chicken in place of pork.
The lotus root soup below is cooked using the slow cooker. I just put all the ingredients into the pot, and let it boil overnight. The next morning I'm greeted with a pot of delicious home-cooked soup. I've always been a soup person, especially Cantonese-styled soups like this lotus root soup, 'old cucumber' soup etc. Maybe it has to do with my Cantonese heritage?
I like to 'multi-task' on Saturday mornings, meaning while preparing the main dishes, I would also bake a loaf of bread, for breakfast the following week. This time I made Giselle's Pai Pau. I've also made this before a while back, just that this time round I replaced 20% of the flour with wholemeal flour (healthier breads, remember?). The bread is soft and fluffy, thanks again Giselle!

Recipe for Sweet & Sour Pork(updated 5 July 2015)

This recipe is taken from the book Hawkers’ Fare Simplified, but I’ve modified it based on the first try some time back.

Ingredients A:
500g pork, with fat like pork belly or shoulder (this time I used boneless chicken thigh)
1 capsicum(green, yellow or red all works), cubed
1/2 a Japanese cucumber, cubed
1 tomato, cut into wedges
1 onion, cut into wedges
100g pineapple, cubed

Ingredients B(marinade):
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tbsp oyster sauce
½ tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
½ egg(beat, then measure)

Ingredients C(sauce):
2 tbsp plum sauce
6 tbsp tomato ketchup
1½ tbsp sweet chili sauce
1½ tbsp white rice vinegar
1 tsp worcestershire sauce(Lea & Perrins)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt(or more to taste)
75 ml water

Potato starch for coating
Oil for deep frying

Method:

1) Cut pork into 1-inch thick cubes and marinate with Ingredients B for at least 5 hours (I marinate overnight).
2) Coat pork cubes with corn flour and deep fry until golden brown. Drain.
3) Leave one tbsp of oil in the wok, stir-fry capsicum, onion, tomato and pineapple until fragrant. Pour in Ingredients C and bring to a boil to let it thicken slightly.
4) Add in pork cubes from (2) and mix well. Dish up and enjoy.

Note:
The sauce may seem watery when cooking, but once the pork cubes are added, the sauce coats the pork nicely. If you like more sauce, adjust Ingredients C to suit your taste.