Saturday 9 November 2013

Cooking: Dad's Pan-fried Drunken Pork (Secret Recipe Leaked!!)


Dad's Pan-fried Drunken Pork
Image from Locky's English Playground
It's Cooking Friday Saturday!

This simple yet scrumptious dish is a huge part of my childhood memory. When I was still a kid living in London, my dad only got to come home once a week, so every time he returned home, he cooked for the family. Since he was a chef at a Chinese restaurant somewhere in Portsmouth, he does have quite a bit of skills when it comes to cooking. Among all dishes he cooked for us in those days, this pan-fried drunken pork is the easiest to cook and top-notch in taste!

This has never been documented before and so this is his secret recipe being leaked for the first time ever in history!


You'll need, 
  1. fresh pork (loin)
  2. soy sauce
  3. dark soy sauce
  4. Shaoxin wine
  5. sesame oil

Ceramic knife rocks!
Image from Locky's English Playground
Step 1: cut the pork into thin slices.

Slicing pork in the speed of light
Image from Locky's English Playground
The thickness is for you to choose. Thinner slices means less cooking time but thicker slices is better at juice retention.

The meat is cut
Image from Locky's English Playground
Step 2: Once the pork is sliced, place them in a large bowl or container.

Soy sauce followed by dark soy sauce
Image from Locky's English Playground
Add a generous amount of soy sauce to bring out the taste, and a teaspoon of dark soy sauce to give the colour,

Image from Locky's English Playground
followed by half a cup of Shaoxin wine -- the essence of the drunken pork.

Mixed and marinate
Image from Locky's English Playground
Step 3: Mix well and let the pork marinate for about 2 hours in room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

Cooking starts
Image from Locky's English Playground
Step 4: Use a pan or a wok, cook the marinated drunken pork thoroughly with a small flame or a medium flame.

Why not use a large flame? Because we don't want those heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons created in the process of high temperature cooking like that with a halogen oven. Using large flame for cooking also tends to produce undercooked food because of the shorter cooking time, and undercooking the pork is also not cool, unless you want to have some bacteria and parasites in you, such as staphylococcus aureustoxoplasma gondiicampylobacteriayersinia enterocoliticalisteria and trichinella.

Here's a sidetrack video for those of you who want to learn more about bacon / pork.




Pork 100% cooked
Image from Locky's English Playground
Step 5: Switch to large flame and slightly sear the pork to lower its moisture content.


Image from Locky's English Playground
Step 6: Tuck in! Beware, it is irresistible!



Vocabulary:
scrumptious -- (adj)  (UK informal scrummy) tasting extremely good:
retention -- (n) formal the continued use, existence, or possession of something or someone:

staphylococcus aureus -- a bacterium that is a member of the Firmicutes, and is frequently found in the human respiratory tract and on the skin. Although S. aureus is not always pathogenic, it is a common cause of skin infections (e.g. boils), respiratory disease (e.g. sinusitis), and food poisoning. Disease-associated strains often promote infections by producing potent protein toxins, and expressing cell-surface proteins that bind and inactivate antibodies. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant forms of pathogenic S. aureus (e.g. MRSA) is a worldwide problem in clinical medicine.

toxoplasma gondii -- an obligate, intracellular, parasitic protozoan that causes the disease toxoplasmosis. Found worldwide, T. gondii is capable of infecting virtually all warm-blooded animals. In humans, it is one of the most common parasites; serological studies estimate that up to a third of the global population has been exposed to and may be chronically infected with T. gondii, although infection rates differ significantly from country to country. Although mild, flu-like symptoms occasionally occur during the first few weeks following exposure, infection with T. gondii generally produces no symptoms in healthy human adults. However, in infants, HIV/AIDS patients, and others with weakened immunity, infection can cause serious and occasionally fatal illness (toxoplasmosis)

campylobacter -- Campylobacter (meaning "twisted bacteria") is a genus of bacteria that are Gram-negative, spiral, and microaerophilic. Motile, with either unipolar or bipolar flagella, the organisms have a characteristic spiral/corkscrew appearance (see photo) and are oxidase-positive. Campylobacter jejuni is now recognized as one of the main causes of bacterial foodborne disease in many developed countries. At least a dozen species of Campylobacter have been implicated in human disease, with C. jejuni and C. coli the most common. C. fetus is a cause of spontaneous abortions in cattle and sheep, as well as an opportunistic pathogen in humans.

yersinia enterocolitica -- a species of gram-negative coccobacillus-shaped bacterium, belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Yersinia enterocolitica infection causes the disease yersiniosis, which is a zoonotic disease occurring in humans as well as a wide array of animals such as cattle, deer, pigs, and birds. Many of these animals recover from the disease and become asymptomatic carriers. It infects the host by sticking to the cells of the host using Trimeric Autotransporter Adhesins (TAA).

listeria -- a genus of bacteria that contains ten species. Named after the English pioneer of sterile surgery Joseph Lister, the genus received its current name in 1940. Listeria species are Gram-positive bacilli. The major human pathogen in the Listeria genus is L. monocytogenes. It is usually the causative agent of the relatively rare bacterial disease, listeriosis, a serious infection caused by eating food contaminated with the bacteria. The disease affects primarily pregnant women, newborns, adults with weakened immune systems, and the elderly.

trichinella -- a genus of parasitic roundworms of the phylum Nematoda that cause trichinosis (also known as trichinellosis). Members of this genus are often called trichinella or trichina worms. A characteristic of Nematoda is the one-way digestive tract, with a pseudocoelom (body cavity made up of only an ectoderm and endoderm).

tuck in -- UK informal — phrasal verb to start eating something eagerly:
irresistible -- (adj) impossible to refuse, oppose, or avoid because too pleasant, attractive, or strong:

Resources:
Health & Fitness: Is Halogen Oven Safe For The Health? @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/08/health-fitness-is-halogen-oven-safe-for.html

Harmful Bacteria Found in Samples of U.S. Pork @ WedMD
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/news/20121128/harmful-bacteria-pork

Staphylococcus aureus @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staphylococcus_aureus

Toxoplasmosis gondii @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosa_Gondii

Campylobacter @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campylobacter

Yersinia enterocolitica @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_enterocolitica

Listeria @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listeria

Trichinosis @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/scrumptious?q=scrumptious
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/retention?q=retention
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/tuck-in-tuck-into-sth
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/irresistible?q=irresistible

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