Thermal Cooker Red Bean Paste 焖烧锅红豆沙

Cooking raw red/Azuki beans to soft usually needs a long heating process. However, with the use of a thermal cooker, the stove heating time can be cut down substantially.  

A few stripes of candied orange peels was being added to give the sweet red bean paste a tinge of orange scent. With the use of an handheld blender, a smoother texture red bean paste can be achieved faster and easily ;)

Yield: about 320g sweetened red beans

Equipment: 

1.5 L thermal cooker,

Handheld blender

Ingredients

100g organic red beans 有机红豆

1 blade pandan leaf (optional) 香兰叶

2 tbsp coconut/vegetable oil 椰子/植物油

50g raw sugar 黄砂糖*

20g rock sugar 黄冰糖

A few candied mandarin orange peels, optional 糖渍柑皮, 可免

* the amount of sugar can be adjusted depending on your taste.

Click the link below for the candied mandarin orange peel recipe:

http://mymindpatch.blogspot.sg/2016/02/candied-mandarin-peel.html

Directions

1. Rinse and soak red beans with about 2cm deep of water for about 3 hours. Or,  cover and place the bowl of beans and water in the fridge for overnight soaking.

2. Drain away the water after soaking.

3. Pour the beans into the inner pot of the thermal cooker. Add water to about 5cm above the beans.

Add a blade of pandan leaf.

Cover and bring to a light boil for about 10-15 minutes.

4. Transfer the inner pot to the outer thermal cooker and cover with a lid quickly to prevent heat loss to the surroundings.

Let the red beans self-cook in the thermal cooker for about 1 hour.

5. After 1 hour, open the lid and try crushing one to two beans with your fingers. If the beans are not soft enough, heat the inner pot over the stove to another light boil. Cover and return the inner pot to the outer pot, and let it stays for about 30 to 60 minutes.

6. After the second simmering, try crushing the beans again. If the beans are soft, then pour about 80% of the red beans soup into a bowl, leaving behind about 50 to 80 ml of soup in the pot.

You can keep the red bean soup collected for a "total red bean bun" recipe.

7. In a separate pot, heat up 2 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, pour in the cooked red beans from (6), add sugar, rock sugar and a few stripes of candied mandarin peels.

Stir in medium low heat till all sugar has melted and some water has evaporated.

You can stop here if you wish to prepare some sweetened red beans instead of paste.

8. Use an handheld blender to grind the red beans into a smooth paste.

Try not to dry up too much of the liquid, after you have blended the beans, the bean paste will absorb more liquid. If the bean paste is too dry, add some of the red bean soup which you have saved in step (6) to adjust.

9. Transfer the red bean paste to a clean container. Allow to cool down before storing in the fridge :)

Thermal Cooker Braised Pork Belly 焖烧锅卤三层肉

Succulent braised pork belly slow-cook in energy efficient thermal cooker.

As the liquid is served as a reservoir of heat energy to cook the meat to soft without external heating. It is typical to end up with a surplus amount of gravy using the thermal cooker to cook. Don't discard the extra gravy, save it up to cook another delicious dish another day :)

Appliances:

1.5L thermal cooker

Ingredients 

300~350g pork belly, cut in thick strip of about 3cm 

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed with skin on

1 corner of star aniseed

1 thick slice of ginger

2 hard boiled eggs

1 tbsp raw sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp dark thick soya sauce 

Dash of five-spice powder

Salt to taste 

Directions

1. Cut pork belly into two big chunks. Pour boiling water into the bowl and allow it to stand for about 15 minutes before you drain away the water. Cover and set aside.

2. Heat up about 2 tsp of olive oil in a pot at medium high heat. Pour in the raw sugar to melt.

3. When the molten sugar turns dark brown, add in the ginger and garlic, followed by onion. Stir-fry till fragrant.

3. Lower the heat and pour in the oyster sauce and ark soy sauce.

4. Coat the two chunks of pork belly with the stir-fried ingredients and sprinkle some five-spice powder over.

5. Tranfer all the ingredients to the inner pot of the thermal cooker. Add water to submerge all the ingredients.

6. Place the hard boiled eggs in.

7. Partially cover with the lid and bring to a boil. After the ingredients start to boil, bring the heat down and allow them to simmer for 10 minutes.

8. After the simmer over the stove, cover the inner pot and transfer to the exterior pot. Let it stands for about 1 hour.

9. After 1 hour, transfer the inner pot to the stove ,to heat at low temperature, to almost boiling. Add salt and sugar to taste.

Finally, stir in the starch water to thicken the gravy slightly.

10. Return the inner pot to the exterior pot, and allow it to simmer for another 1 hour or more, or till serving.

11. Slice the braised pork belly and serve with warm rice and sweet vinegar chili sauce. Enjoy :P

Bonus dish

For the leftover gravy, you can keep in the fridge till needed. It's best to consume within 3 days.

1. Braised shiitake mushrooms 

Simmer the gravy with softened shiitake mushroom and pan-fried 豆干 using the thermal cooker for another delicious dish ><

2. Noodle in braised sauce

1. Blanch cooked noodle and bean sprouts with boiling water. Heat up seafood tofu cake together with the leftover braised sauce.

2. Pour the braised sauce and seafood tofu cakes into the bowl of noodle. 

Garnish with spring onion, Chinese coriander and cut chilli. Enjoy warm :)

Thermal Cooker Char Siew 焖烧锅叉烧

Thermal cooker is an energy efficient equipment in the kitchen which helps to bring meat to tender-soft with minimum energy used and supervision. After bringing the ingredients to a light boil in the inner pot, place the inner pot immediately into the outer pot of the thermal cooker. The cooking heat is sealed and continue to simmer the dish to soft without a loss of moisture. 

The char siew pork cooked in a thermal cooker was able to retain its juice, and simmer to tender. To add a glossy coat to the meat, the meat was coated with syrup and roast in a oven toaster to bind the syrup to the meat more firmly.

Yield: 4-adult servings

Appliances: 1.5L thermal cooker

Ingredients 

350~380g collar pork

Marinades

1.5 tbsp Hoisin sauce

1.5 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tsp sesame oil 

1 tbsp rice wine

1 tsp rose wine , optional

1/4 tsp dark soya sauce 

1 tbsp raw sugar

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

2 tsp honey

1 clove garlic, crushed with skin on

100ml water

材料：

350~380g 五花肉

调味酱

1.5 大匙 海鲜酱

1.5 大匙 蚝油

2 小匙 麻油

1 大匙 花雕酒

1 小匙 玫瑰露酒，可免

1/4 小匙 黑酱油 

1 大匙 黄糖

1 大匙 黑糖

2 小匙 蜜糖

1 瓣 带衣蒜头，拍扁

100ml 水

Direction

1. Cut the meat into 2 large chunks to fit nicely in the 1.5 liter inner pot. Rinse and drain.

2. Add all the marinades to the pork in a mixing bowl. Mix with your hand for about 1 to 2 minutes.

3. Cover with a lid, and let the meat marinate for at least one hour, or overnight.

4. Pour all the ingredients into the inner pot of the thermal cooker.

5. Heat in low heat and bring to a light boil.

Add hot water, as necessary, to fully submerge the meat.

6. When the ingredients start to boil, cover the pot with a lid partially, and allow the ingredients to boil for about 10 minutes.

7. After the 10-minute light boil, cover the lid fully, and transfer to the outer pot immediately.

Allow the meat to simmer for about 1.5 to 2 hours.

8. After the simmering, transfer the meat to a bowl and cover well to prevent the meat from drying up and harden.

9. Pour away half of the gravy, leaving behind the other half to make the char siew syrup.

In order to thicken the gravy, it's not energy efficient to boil down from a large volume of liquid.

10. Add 1 tsp hoisin sauce, and

1 tbsp of rock sugar,

Bring to rolling boil in medium high heat. When the sauce starting to form tiny bubbles and thickens, the sauce is done.

11. Dip the cooked meat into the syrup to coat well.

Place on a tray lined with parchment paper.

12. Roast the meat at 150 degree Celsius for about 3 minutes in a toaster oven. The heat will dry up the syrup on the meat faster. Repeat step 11 and 12 for about 5 times.

End of the roasting process. Allow the 叉烧 to cool down.

13. Pour some water and starch to mix and dilute the remaining sauce in the inner pot. Heat the mixture till it becomes thicken.

This will become the 叉烧 gravy to be poured over the warm rice during serving.

14. Cut the Char Siew into slices.

Serve the sliced char siew with warm rice, cucumber and gravy. 

Enjoy :)