The boy is seated next to me now and writing furiously in his small little notebook that his classmate gave to him today – ONE, TWO, THREE . . . . .ELEVEN TWELVE THREETEEN FOURTEEN FIVETEEN – and then making me write out the numbers in a row telling me that I need to learn from him. I screamed at him: ‘Threeteen? Who taught you anything about threeteen?” Looks like I need to do something about his literacy soon.
Anyway, back to this receipe, which is just a simple comfort food that I attempted to do at home this weekend. I can’t even remember where I got this recipe from. A book? Online? Pinterest? On TV? Oh well, never mind. Just eat it, and then hopefully I can forget about everything else.
Ingredients:
- Oil: 2 tbsp
- Garlic: 2 cloves, minced
- Fermented soy beans: 1 tsp
- Minced pork: 100g (mixed with 2 tbsp water)
- Dried mushroom: 2, soaked, sliced
- Silken tofu: 130g, diced
- Sugar: 1/2 tbsp
- Sweet chilli sauce: 1 tbsp
- Fish sauce: 1 tbsp
- Sesame oil: 1/2 tbsp
- Cornstarch mixture: 1/2 tsp cornstarch + 3 tbsp water
Method:
- Heat oil in wok.
- Fry garlic and fermented soy bean till fragrant.
- Add minced pork and mushrooms. Fry till meat is cooked.
- Add silken tofu, followed by sugar, sweet chilli sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil.
- Stir in cornstarch mixture, then bring to a boil.
- Serve hot with rice.
Tricks:
- This dish can be devilled and non-devilled – the non-devilled version can be made using ketchup instead of sweet chilli sauce.
- Mixing the minced pork with water allows the meat mixture to break up more evenly during the stir-fry.
Serving:
2 persons