Steam minced pork with seaweed

The other day I was checking out with my hubby what he preferred to have for his dinner. He is a pork lover and he said he would like to try Steam minced pork with seaweed! Sounds delicious and nutritious huh! Indeed it is. This time is really a challenge to me as I never tried this recipe before. Of course I did it! ho ho ho... and he likes it! Please try this:

The ingredients:

• 400g of minced lean pork
• a piece of seaweed
  
• an egg (optional)
  
• a pinch of salt to your taste
  
• some soysauce to your taste
• pepper powder to your taste

The steps:

1. Marinate the minced lean pork with salt, soysauce and pepper powder and set aside for about 30 minutes.
   
2. Clean the seaweed if necessary and chop it to smaller pieces.
3. Mixed the marinated minced lean pork with the seaweed evenly (add an egg into the mixture if you like)
4. Boil water with your pot or wok and place a steam base into the pot/wok.
   
5. Spread the mixture evenly on a plate and place it on the steam base.
6. Steam it for about 25 minutes.
   
7. Serve it with rice.

Before mixing

The mixture, spread it evenly

Cooked, okay la:-)

Something that i missed!

Hi there! I think I missed something rather important on the list of the kitchen setup. Please add 2 more items on the list:

• Cutting board
• Knifes
  

Let's start with some soup!

After getting your kitchen setup, I think you are ready to start cooking some simple dishes. Why not starting with some delicious and easy making soup? I would like to recommend a water cress soup. Please refer to the recipe below:

The ingredients (for 2 persons):

• Water Cress (450g)
  
• 300g Pork rib
• 20 Red dates (to remove the seeds)

The steps:

1. Boil about 2.5 liters water with your pot.
   
2. Wash and clean the cut pork rib and put into the pot.
3. Wash and clean the red dates and remove the seeds then put into the pot.
4. Wash and clean the water cress and pluck the water cress stalk into 4 to 5 cm each.
5. Stir in the water cress into the pot when the water is boiled.
   
6. Boil the soup for 2 to 2 and half hours long with medium heat. (Stir the soup once a while to ensure the ingredients are spread evenly in the soup)
   
7. Add some salt to taste.
8. The soup is ready to serve.

Benefits of this soup:

• Suitable for everyone in the family.
• Nutritous and Nourishing.
• Easy to make.

Kitchen setup

To setup a simple kitchen (in order to cook simple dishes). I recommend some of the 'must have' instruments/utensils as below:

• a gas stove (get a reliable brand to ensure safety)
  
• a medium size iron wok with it's cover (iron wok is more long lasting than the normal steel wok)
• a medium size pot (if affordable, it would be best to invest in clay* made pot)
  
• a wok spade
• a soup scoop/stirrer
• a steam base
  
• a set of bowl, plate, spoon, fork, chopsticks (the quantity depends on the family size)

* clay pot is good to retain heat and also the taste of the food.

Besides the above, some of the basic flavourings/spices which you need to buy are:

• salt (it would be good to invest in rock salt or sea salt for health purpose)
• sugar
• soy sauce
• pepper and pepper powder
• cooking oil (to choose vegetable/low cholesterol oil eg. sun flower seed oil, rice bran oil, olive oil, etc)

I believe the above is sufficient to setup a basic kitchen. You'll need to stock up your kitchen when there is a need arises.

Always make sure that all the cooking instruments/utensils are clean and arranged nicely and tidy all the time. For the cooking flavourings/spices, please keep it in the air tight containers and always keep it dry and clean. You can label the containers for easy recognition too.
Remember that a good kitchen need effort to maintain it's cleanliness. Always keep it clean and dry to get rid of all the unwelcome friends (mouse, ants, cockroaches, etc). So friends, don't be lazy!!