Roast Pork, Cabbage & Tofu Pot
One of hubby's favourite homecook dish is the Roast Pork, Cabbage & Tofu Pot, a very quick & easy one pot dish which I cook once in a few weeks.
Ingredients are fairly simple.
- 1 long cabbage 大白菜. I usually get the smallest one sold at supermarkets (around 600-700g) and use up the entire cabbage. Some supermarkets sell half of big size ones. Cut the cabbage into 1-inch pieces.
- 1 carrot. Cut into slices.
- 1 egg tofu. Cut into about 2cm thickness, about 8 pieces.
- 300-500g roast pork, depends on how much meat you like. Sheng Shiong sells quite nice roast pork, if not wet market. Cut into about 1cm thickness.
- A few slices of ginger.
- Optional --- baby corn, shiitake mushroom
First, heat up a deep pot with medium fire. No need to add oil. Once pot is hot, add the roast pork slices and stir fry. Some oil from the roast pork will be 'forced' out. Add ginger slices. Stir fry till the roast pork gets a little light brown and you can smell the aroma of the pork. Hmmm, heavenly.
Next, add the cabbage and carrot. The veg will fill the pot to the brim but soon they will simmer down. Try to stir fry a bit despite the tight space. Then cover pot with lit and let simmer.
After 5-10 mins, the veg would simmer down to 3/5 pot, you'll notice some water 'force' out from the cabbage. Add more water to level just barely covering the ingredients. Once the soup base starts to boil, lower to medium small fire, cover the pot and let simmer.
Meanwhile, coat the tofu slices with some corn starch. Pan-fry the tofu with some oil. You may deep fry the tofu, but I find pan frying a healthier option and use much less oil. The purpose of this step is to add some colour to the tofu and also have a slightly crisp coating so that the tofu doesn't break easily when added to the pot later. Keep the remaining corn starch for use later.
After simmering the ingredients for about 15 mins, the veg would have softened. Add the tofu slices. Add some water to the corn starch, and stir into the pot to slightly thicken the soup base. Cover and simmer for just a while more.
Ready to serve. I find that it's not necessary to add any sauces as the roast pork itself is roasted with lots of sauces and flavours hence saltish enough and the flavour goes into the soup base during the simmering process. In addition, the sweetness of the cabbage and carrot also adds to the flavouring.


Seriously a lot of hard work goes into the Fraisier. Preparing the Pistachio Butter Cream itself requires another 2 recipes - butter cream and crème patisserie. Not to mention the almond genoise sponge. Assembling the cake itself is also tedious - almond genoise sponge, pistachio butter cream, neatly placed strawberries, more butter cream to fill all the gaps, sponge, spread with layer of Italian Meringue, caramelised the surface using blowtorch for colour, topped with a layer of apricot glaze and finally some fruits for decoration. Phew!
The Strawberry Tart requires 2 components - the sable dough for the tart and almond cream for the filling. Both are fairly easy, except that got to work very fast with the sable dough as the dough does not work well in our hot and humid weather. Just look at the amount of strawberries, rasberries and blueberries that go into just one tart. These fruits are not cheap, especially strawberries which preferably from Korean or Japan (even more ex) as they look nicer and are sweeter. End result, very lovely and vibrant and sure whets my appetite.
And now for the star. The strawberry shortcake remains one of the best seller and hot favourite of Bakerzin, according to Chef Daniel.






The restaurant looks so different in daylight (previous time, it was night time and the whole place seemed quite dim and secluded).













We took up a 4-hr fishing package which included fishing guide, bait and 2 rods. And we got our very own fishing hut as well. Cool. 2 fishing guides were attached to us on that day, probably coz there weren't any other anglers around, and 1 teenager, probably a relative also came to help out.















Moving along, we saw many pizza places offering wood fire pizza along the main central Chaweng but couldn't find parking lot for car anywhere. The bane of driving in Samui.
Service was very very slow and food so-so only. Can't even recall name of restaurant. By the time we were done, it was quite late. Quickly went back to resort for a good bath and hit the bed after a long day.


Naturally hubby went for his 1hr 'Tiger Balm' Back Massage, whereas I settled for a soothing foot massage to ease my tired legs from water retention. Bliss.


Tom Yum soup again. Not as spicy, very 'mum's place' style.



Entrance to the resort by main street of Chaweng Beach, considered mid-south area.






Sofa and TV is bedroom which we didn't use since we prefer hanging around the living room.
Spacious and impeccably clean bathroom with separate shower and bath tub. I love the overhead shower.

Separate walk-in wardrobe area which is most useful for depositing our luggage and hang the clothes and stuff.

Beach is fairly deserted at this part of Chaweng Beach.



Betelnut Restaurant where we have our daily breakfast included in the rate. Didn't have chance to try other meals.



There is also a menu where we could place orders for various hot items. My order, omelette and pork sausage, which was fairly standard.
After lunch, we decided to go for some massage (yes, again for hubby) at a spa (Paragon Massage & Spa) we passed by that looks not bad.
I did a foot scrub, foot massage (not reflexology) and pedicure, whereas hubby did foot scrub and foot massage. The therapists were quite skilled and gentle knowing that I'm pregnant. It was totally soothing for me, whereas hubby still preferred his Tiger Balm body massage at the other spa.





Modified the recipe very slightly, using the available ingredients I have at home.


By 11.45am, all of us were famished and couldn't wait to tuck in to the sumptuous 8-course seafood lunch. Couldn't remember all the dishes now, there were prawns, squid, crab, fish, veg... not bad!
After lunch, we took a short 10min boat ride to the chalet (1/2hr to walk). Overall, the chalet is quite spacious and clean with 3 bedrooms (enough for 24pax), 1 living room, 2 toilets and 1 kitchen. Important thing, there is air-con.


Sunning small shrimps before fermenting to make Cincalok.
Cleaning up jellyfish.
Sorting out shrimps and small fishes.
Houseflies. Very common in fishing village.

Spread was pretty decent. The usual like chicken wing, fishball, hotdog. I love the tender satay and totally raving about the deep-fried prawn cracker with sweet chilli sauce, a local specialty apparently.





Decided to leave decoration simple as I ran out of patience for the frosting part :p

























