Spring Cleaning

How's 2012 been for y'all so far? Started checking off the items on your new years resolution list one by one yet? 

A friend recently pointed out that the herbs which I normally use to cook, the ones from McCormick actually have an expiry date! 

With the Chinese New Year round the corner, I decided to do a little Spring Cleaning in my kitchen. I ended up emptying most of the herbs and rubs which I purchased a while back. I couldn't even see the expiry dates on the bottles because the labels had already fallen off! Better to be safe than sorry, I got rid of most of them.

While clearing out the kitchen cabinets, I came across some really old rice. I was quite sure it was still edible and decided against throwing it away. After a couple of rinses, I was left with about a cup full of rice.

A cupful of  rice

Rather than just cooking a pot of white rice, I decided to rummage through my fridge to see what I could come up with.

Looking through my freezer, I spied some pork belly fat which was originally supposed to be turned into Siew Yok. I also managed to located a stash of Lap Cheong. I also had some left over lettuce which looked like it had seen better days.

An idea came to mind and I decided to do a my interpretation of a risotto based on what I managed to rummage from my fridge.

Sliced up the pork belly and marinated it in some Chinese rice wine, corn flour and black pepper.

Belly Fat. Chilling in Marinade.

Lazy man's stock. 2 tablespoons of Canned vegetable broth brought to boil with 3 cups of water and infused with a single bay leaf. Apologies for the bad picture of the stock, auto focus decided to go on holiday. LOL!

Squint to find Bay Leaf.

Lightly toast some Shallots and Garlic in Olive oil.

Sweating the Shallots and Garlic.

Toss pork and lap cheong into pan after garlic and shallots have browned. Stir fry till the meat changes colour and the sausages have released most of it's oil. 

Toss till lightly brown.

Toss rice in. Mix to make sure each grain is coated with oil. 

Stir frying to ensure each grain is coated with oil.

Slowly ladle in stock a 1/4 cup at a time. Stirring the rice occasionally to ensure that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and to make sure that rice is evenly cooked. Add 1/4 cup of stock again when the pan is starting to dry out. Repeat till rice is al dente. The rice should take about 20 minutes to reach this stage. The trick is you don't want the rice to be too dry, you don't want it to be too soupy either. 

Toss in chopped lettuce and serve.

I'm afraid there isn't a picture of the finished product as my hunger got the better of me =) 

Now that the kitchen has been cleared, it's time to stock it up! Heheheh...The significant other warns me that most of my meds have also expired and have started to oxidise. Looks like another round of spring cleaning will be needed soon. Hopefully I don't get too creative with the meds and create a concotion to get high with. ROFL! I Kid. I Kid.

In case I don't write a post again before the Chinese New Year, Kong Hee Fatt Choy to all my readers and friends :)