CNY must-have

This is my 2nd attempt to make bak-kwa. tried it once sometime last year and din like it at all.... the meat was minced too finely but it was still edible and bore no resemblance to the store-bought ones at all.


however, i bought a kitchen aid mixer lately and got a meat grinder as a free gift, so i bought some pork and tried mincing the meat myself. this time round, i still found the meat minced too finely.. maybe it's just me... but i find it's good to have some fibre to chew on, rather to have finely miced meat. taste-wise, i find this attempt much much nicer. still, the meat was not fatty enuf. when i was choosing the pork, i din dare to take those with fats.

furthermore, i removed most of the fats attached to the meat. i guess i really have to be more daring to include more fats in my next try. afterall, most of the fats will be "melted" once i pop it in the oven....not?


On to the recipe....

What you need

• 550gm minced pork
• 1 1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp hua tiao jiu
• 1/2 tsp red wine dreg (hong-zhao)
• 1/2 cup sugar

What to do

• Mix all of the ingredients tog in a big mixing bowl (read in IK that i can actually use the mixer with the creaming attachement) until gluey.
• Place mixture onto greaseproof paper and put another greaseproof paper on top and roll it out to the thickness u want. (for the amt above, i managed abt 3 pcs of A4 size... however, as the meat shrink during the baking process, i will be rolling it thicker on my next try. probably reduce it to 2 A4 pieces instead)
• Bake at 180C for 10 mins, and turn it over and continue another 10 mins. keep a close watch as it may get burnt 'coz of the amt of sugar added. you may want to reduce the temp to 160C for the last 10 mins if the oven is too hot. As the bak kwa bakes, there will be alot of juices. What i do is to let it be and it'll dry up in no time. and then the bak-kwa is ready.
• Cool it completely and cut into desired sizes.

To end this post, here's a shot of the bak kwa that i like... more like a mood shot ....