This is another way to exercise mind and movements. Making roast lemon chicken and roast pork in milk on top of that craving for fried rice and adding leftover green beans.

Google: “Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish. Chinese fried rice- light soy sauce and dark soy sauce are used. A blazing hot wok (a wok is ideal, but a large pan) will do”.

The first thing you need to know about wok cooking is that oil is very important. To bring flavour around your dish, flavour the oil first. If you want to learn good wok technique, this simple fried rice is a good choice. Fried rice is affordable, quick and easy to make. Although it’s “plain” in its ingredient list and technique, it’s a fantastic dish to learn some very valuable and basic Chinese cooking skills.

I enjoyed multi-staking skills as a way to exercise; moving around and developed my mind to be conscious on what needed done first and what is last. The best thing is the joy I get from multi-staking. My meal that is comforting, satisfying, West meets East flavoured, colourful and delicious. Let’s cook!!!

Ingredients

Roast pork in milk

1.2 kg pork belly
3 dried bay leaves, crushed
3 sprigs rosemary
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 sage leaves
2 Tsp fennel seeds powder
2-2 1/2 c milk about 750 ml
salt
pepper

Roast lemon chicken

1 whole chicken size 16
2 lemon
salt
pepper

Fried rice

3 Chinese sausages, thinly sliced
4 c cooked rice, 2-3 days old
150 g frozen vegetables (carrots, corns, and peas)
3 eggs, beaten
4 Tsp minced garlic
1 Tbs Shoa Xing (Chinese cooking wine)
oil
salt
pepper

Sauce for fried rice

1 Tbs Teriyaki sauce
1 Tbs Shoa Xing (Chinese cooking wine)
1 Tbs oyster sauce
2 Tsp sesame oil
1/4 Tsp sugar
1/8 Tsp ajinomoto (OPT)

Leftover

cooked green bean

Method

Roast pork in milk-4 hours in advance

Wash hands and pat the pork dry with a paper towel. Score the skin of the pork belly with a very sharp knife, taking care not to cut through to the meat. Mix together fennel seeds powder, 1 Tbs salt and pepper and rub this all over the meat.

Place rubbed pork belly on a piece of foil and create a foil boat wrapping the pork, leaving the skin exposed and place in a baking tray. Place in the fridge for overnight to help the skin further dry out. If time does not permit, try to air dry the pork in the fridge for at least 1-3 hours.

Meantime-prepare roast lemon chicken

Cut lemon in half and remove seeds. Place chicken on top of a rack in a baking tray. Pat the whole thing dry with paper towels. It’s super important to get the chicken as dry as possible, which helps with browning.

With chicken breast facing up and legs pointing toward you, use a sharp knife or BBQ fork prick all over the whole chicken, the thighs and wings. This exposes the leg joint, making it easy to tell if chicken is cooked. Repeat on the other side. Turn back with breast facing up. Squeeze 1 1/2 lemon and rub the whole chicken, inside cavity, under wings, and thighs, prick half the remaining lemon then stuff inside chicken. Put in fridge for 30 minutes.  

Back to roast pork in milk

Preheat oven to 240˚C. Bring out pork belly from fridge and remove the foil boat for about 1 hour. With pork belly in baking tray; pat dry the skin again with paper towel and season the skin with some more salt; rub all over the skin and in between the scored parts: one whole layer of salt evenly. Add sage leaves and roast for 20-30 minutes until the skin is starting to blister and crackle. Watch closely for burning.

For you – no leftover green beans

Ingredients

12 green beans, remove stems and cut into bite size, 5 Tbs water or vegetable stock, 2 Tsp minced garlic, 2 Tsp Shao Xing Chinese cooking wine, 2 Tsp oyster sauce, 1-2 Tsp soy sauce, oil, salt, pepper

Method

Add green beans to boiling water and cook, uncovered, until crisp tender, or the desired degree of doneness. Scoop green beans from the water and immediately put them in the ice water, to stop the cooking and set their colour. Cool and drain, and set aside. 

Heat up a saucepan with 1 Tbs oil and add garlic cook for 15-20 seconds. Add in green beans and 5 Tbs water or stock, cook for about 2 minutes. Pour Shao Xing Chinese cooking wine, oyster and soy sauce. Stir to mix well for 1-2 minutes. Check the doneness of vegetables. Once done to your desired cooking add seasoning. Set aside.

Moving on to roast pork

Carefully bring out the pork tray a bit from oven. Pour the milk around the meat to come about half to two thirds of the way up the sides of the pork. Add rosemary sprigs, crushed bay leaves and crushed garlic. Reduce the heat to 160˚C and roast for a further 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is meltingly tender.

Basting the pork with the milk every 25 minutes. This will prevent the skin from burning. The milk will reduce during the cooking. Check the level of milk during cooking and if it has evaporated add a little more to baking tray.

When it is time to remove the pork from the oven, you should be able to poke a metal skewer into it and, when it comes out, the juices should run clear. The crackling should be lovely and crisp, but if it isn’t quite there yet, transfer the pork belly on to another baking tray and put it back into the oven for 10 minutes. Discard the milk (they will break into curds).

Leave the pork belly to rest for 20 minutes. Then remove it from baking tray and leave to rest for a further 10 minutes on a plate. For easy cutting, place the meat flesh side up on a chopping board and use a heavy, sharp knife to cut it into slices about 2-3 cm thick.

While roast pork in oven starts roast lemon chicken in another oven

Preheat oven 220 degrees C. Bring chicken to room temperature for about 30 minutes. After time up, rub a lot of salt and pepper all over the chicken and inside too. Transfer to oven and roast until chicken is nicely browned and cooked through, checking for doneness after 45 minutes. To check, carefully remove from oven, poke a knife into thickest tight, and pierce the meat. If juices run clear, the chicken is done. If you see a rosy, pink colour, it needs more time. Continue to roast, checking every 5 minutes, until juices run clear.

Let chicken rest in tray and cover loosely with foil for at least 15 minutes before cutting—this will help the juices in the meat to settle and will also get it down to a temperature that is cool enough to handle with your thin plastic gloves while chopping up to pieces. Don’t worry: It’s a big piece of meat, so it will still be plenty warm.

Moving on to fried rice: Heat up a wok with 2 Tbs of oil and sauté 1 Tsp garlic until aromatic. Add in Chinese sausage; cook for about 4 minutes until soft and remove to a plate, set aside. Now add in 1 Tbs oil and cook 2 Tsp garlic until aromatic. Add 2 c rice and sauce for rice ingredients and stir fry sauce until well combined and rice has some slightly dark colour. Add frozen vegetables and cooked until soft and cooked about 3 minutes.

Make a “well” in the middle of the wok and pour the beaten eggs in the well. Wait for 30 seconds and then cover the “egg well” with the remaining 2 c rice. Leave it for 30 seconds and continue to stir fry fried rice so the eggs form small pieces and mix well with the fried rice. Now add back the cooked Chinese sausages, green bean; gives a couples of tossing to mix well with rice. Switch off hob.

To assemble: spoon fried rice onto bowl, followed by chopped chicken pieces and roast pork pieces.  Enjoy with a glass of white wine!!!

Note: You MUST DRY the pork belly with the skin EXPOSED in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

If any edges are starting to burn, place a small piece of foil to cover to get the skin as evenly crisp as possible. If needed, place pork under broiler for a few minutes to speed up the blistering process (watch carefully to ensure skin does not burn). This will reduce the moisture and result in a super crispy skin.

If possible, ask your butcher to select a pork belly with a thin layer of white fat in between the meat sections. I have found that these pieces results in the most optimal end result. The pork belly will be not as fatty and have plenty of lean meat.

Saw on one recipe saying can use the milk; don’t waste. “Whisking to break up any curds, then strain through a sieve into a small pan. Tip in any resting juices from the pork and warm through to make a thin, milky gravy.”

Saw on another recipe saying: “Reduce oven to 170C. Roast, topping up milk when needed, for 2 hours or until meat is tender and the rind is crisp.”

https://helenscchin.com/2024/11/14/fried-rice-roast-pork-chicken-lup-cheong-green-bean-corn-and-pea/

Roast pork in milk recipe:

https://helenscchin.com/2020/06/08/roast-pork-in-milk/

Roast lemon chicken:

https://helenscchin.com/2021/12/04/roast-lemon-chicken/

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