Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Pork Cutlets



Pork cutlets is a dish from my childhood. Loved it. Still do. Best eaten with grainy, white rice and the tomato sauce (onions, tomato ketchup, water, tomato wedges). Good as leftovers too either with rice again, bread, or by itself. Delicious finger food. When I was eating pork cutlets for lunch at work (back when we were still living in Southern California), someone came in and called them meatballs. I think I winced inwardly as they were not meatballs to me, they were pork cutlets. Of course they were often described as meatballs because of their shape and pork cutlets around here are not shaped like meatballs.

I found this second definition of cutlet from Answers.com:
A patty of chopped meat or fish, usually coated with bread crumbs and fried; a flat croquette. Okay, I can breathe again.

I prefer pork and chicken to beef (unless it's another old favourite like beef with kai lan) which is another reason why I enjoy eating these cutlets. The pork cutlets that I love and know so well are minced or ground pork mixed with mashed potatoes, soy sauce, salt, pepper, chopped green onions then coated with egg and bread crumbs and fried in hot oil. Those are the ingredients I remember. I sometimes use Italian bread crumbs instead of Plain or a combination of both. I have yet to try it with panko bread crumbs but maybe I will one of these days. The crunchier, the better.

Mine have a tendency to get rather dark too quickly when I fry a second or third batch in the pan for the oil gets too hot. I usually fry them over a medium heat. I wanted them crisp on the outside and I also wanted the meat cooked on the inside. I've been pretty successful so far and we enjoy a pork cutlet and rice dinner every so often. And if there wasn't any of the tomato sauce left, I'd usually heat up the leftover cutlets in the microwave oven (no longer crispy but at least they were hot) and then eaten with rice and bottled sambal oelek. There had to be some sort of sauce or chilli accompaniment and there have been times when I wished I also had sambal belachan at home. Now that would have been delicious as well.



These pork cutlets remind me of my Singapore home, my childhood, and the people around me at the time including, or especially, Ah Eng, Ah Yeng and Ah Choo, who cooked and cleaned for us at different times over the years. And I remember Ah Eng the most because I actually remember her frying the pork cutlets (either for lunch or dinner) and I would go into the kitchen and ask to sample one or two (or three!) that were already cooked. Another nice memory and maybe that's the best part of all. Plus they taste good.

"I give my life, a sacrifice of love for you"



This is the description of the video from the YouTube website:

"This is My Body" was inspired through a conversation that Fr. Pavone had with Dana about the comparison between the words "This is My Body" as used by Jesus to give us eternal life, and as used by abortion supporters to defend the taking of life. Fr. Pavone gave Dana the brochure that he had written about this comparison, and suggested that a song should be written to convey this powerful message. Within a few hours, Dana called him back and said that she had the song basically written! After subsequent meetings and sitting together at the piano, Fr. Frank and Dana were satisfied that the finished product would inspire pro-life people worldwide.

In the song, Dana plays the role of a woman who has had an abortion. Gretchen sings as a woman who believes in the "right to choose." And Mark plays the role of Jesus, who teaches us to sacrifice ourselves for others. They each do this using the same words, "This is My Body."

Carrot Cake



This was my first attempt at baking a carrot cake. The recipe can be found here at the Betty Crocker web site.

It was for hubby's birthday as he had requested a carrot cake. And he wanted a heavy cake. All the recipes I found online mentioned how dense their cakes were. Sounded good to me! I had either whipped the frosting too much (till it got too thin to spread) or it was affected by the heat as it was pretty hot that day. Anyways, I managed to frost the cake and added walnuts to make it somewhat pretty. It wasn't the best-looking cake but at least it tasted good. Hubby was very pleased with it and enjoyed it again and again, sometimes with extra frosting on the cake as I'd kept the remaining frosting in a bowl and refrigerated it along with the cake. I have to admit that I didn't care for it when I first tried a piece. It tasted all right. But it did taste better the next day. The next time I bake a carrot cake, I'll be sure to add more frosting in between the layers. Lots more. You can hardly see any frosting in mine (yes, I was a stingy poker in that department).



I've bookmarked two other carrot cake recipes and will be sure to try another one some other time. And, hopefully, it will be a prettier cake! Practice makes perfect, as they say. Gotta keep practicing!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

One Bread, One Body

I felt compelled to post this video when I saw it on YouTube the other day. And when one feels compelled to do something, well, one just has to do it, I suppose. Especially when I read today's gospel reading which included the following lines:

So they said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
(John 6:34-35)


Now how can anyone ignore that?

I have always loved this hymn. And I also like the images in this video. And I wish reverence for the Mass would make a comeback.



Maybe this blog is evolving into something else. Yes, it was inspired by food, initially, but it was never meant to always be about food. And He is the Bread of Life after all. What more could we want?