FOODlog #269: Hokkien Cuisine Food

Mum cooked her hometown cuisine today for lunch and dinner today. Its a Chinese cuisine from the Hokkien culture and its always a treat when she cooks her kind of food.

We had 2 dishes today. A pork trotter stew and a dish called 'Jiu Hu Char' which is consist of primarily jícama.

The 'Jiu Hu Char' is usually served wrapped in a lettuce. You could say its the ultimate Chinese lettuce wrap that's vegetables in vegetables. The ingredients are jícama also known as 'sengkuang' in our local language, shredded carrots, Chinese mushrooms, and dried cuttlefish. Its stir fried with shallots and garlic then carrots go in to sauté for a couple of minutes before the jícama, mushrooms and dried cuttlefish goes in. It's then seasoned with soy sauce and oyster sauce and season to taste with salt. Stew it for 30 minutes or until desired texture and its done. It should be soft but not mushy in texture. Serve with your favorite lettuce.

The pork trotter is basically pork trotter that's been blanched to remove impurities then seasoned with soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, then stirred until everything is coated. Chinese mushrooms goes in along with cuttlefish and then water to stew for a couple hours. You should get a really velvety sticky sauce at the end and serve it with rice or a bao.

My mum also made some freshly pounded 'sambal' with fresh chilies, 'belacan' which is shrimp paste, and finished off with some freshly squeezed calamansi or lime.

Super delicious eaten with both dishes.