Asparagus Wrapped with Bacon using Lee Kum Kee Honey Garlic Sauce

Following my first recipe post on Minestrone Soup, I shall now share with you the second dish which I had made concurrently - Asparagus Wrapped with Bacon is done using Lee Kum Kee's Sauce for Honey Garlic Spare Ribs. Inspired by my previous tasting at Moosehead Kitchen, honey dates wrapped in bacon, I decided to do my rendition of this dish. The three main ingredients are asparagus, bacon and leeks. I feel bacon is quite a versatile ingredient. It is like a condiment that gives the dish a salty, smoky characteristic. I use leeks a lot in my everyday dishes as they have a long shelf life and pair well with meat or fish.

First, I wrapped 3/4 of the asparagus with the bacon

After my non stick pan was heated, i placed them neatly side by side to brown the bacon. I turned them regularly to prevent them from being too burnt on one side.

Once evenly brown, I placed them on an aluminium foil ( when I'm too lazy to wash the oven pan). I then glazed the bacon streaks with Lee Kum Kee's Sauce for Honey Garlic Spare Ribs. I only use about 2 tablespoons of it and kept the remaining in a container. They are to be roasted for 15 minutes, 250 degree Celsius. Oven is my best friend in the kitchen. It allows me to prepare other dishes or back to my chores while it works its magic.

While waiting for the asparagus to be done, I stir fried some shredded leeks with the oil rendered from the bacons.

When my asparagus was done, I topped it with the shredded leeks. I then dressed it up with my very own lemon mayonnaise to cut the fats. You may want to use lemon juice only. I adore savoury-sweet taste! I find that the garlic-ky sweetness of this sauce coupled really well with the salty, smoky bacons. The lemony mayonnaise also lends some creaminess and tanginess to the overall taste.

 If you ain't into intuitive cooking, below is the recipe:

Dish: Asparagus wrapped with bacon, glazed with Honey Garlic Sauce, spiked with shredded leek. Drizzled with lemon mayonnaise.

Ingredients
- Lee Kum Kee's Sauce for Honey Garlic Spare Ribs
- Asparagus
- Bacon streaks (1 streak per asparagus)
- 1/2 stalk Leeks
- Cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
- Dash of lemon juice

Dressing 
Simply squeeze some lemon juice in the mayonnaise and mix it up. · 

Cooking method
1)Wrap 3/4 the asparagus with the bacon. As bacon can be quite salty and flavourful, wrap half the green is enough.
2) Grease the non-stick pan thinly and place it over medium heat.
3) Once heated, lay the wrapped asparagus neatly side by side one another.
4) Grill to slight brown.
5) Slice the leeks and stir fry it in the non stick pan using the oil rendered from the bacon.
6) Once brown, roast them in the oven for 15 minutes , 200 degrees celsius.
To be safe, check it after 10 minutes, to make sure that the temperature of your oven is right for the bacon. Too high a heat may cause the bacon to char before the asparagus gets cooked.
7) Lastly, dress it up with lemon mayonnaise and its done!

Lee Kum Kee
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeeKumKeeGlobal
Website: http://singapore.lkk.com/en/Kitchen

Written and Photography By Si An. A girl who is allured by travelling, loves the feel of freedom, smell of the rain and the aroma of fine coffee and food. 

Minestrone Soup Using Lee Kum Kee Tomato Garlic Prawns Sauce

I love cooking... For its therapeutic nature, and partly because my taste buds do fuss a lot. By far, I do not adhere to any recipe, dread the use of any measuring equipment and the aftermath of cooking (washing, scrubbing, wiping etc.) More subtlety put, free-style and intuitive or you may call it lazy.

For the next few posts, I'm going to share with you my experiences in cooking. I usually cook individual portion for just myself, and when I have gatherings, it would then be more towards tapas-style. I won't say that my recipes are original. They are more of inspirations or motivations derived from other meals. I feel once you start to get your creativity working, cooking can be rather simple.

Many may find it not worth the hassle just to cook for an individual portion. It can be tricky when comes to buying the ingredients - too much for too little used. To counter that, I try to use more versatile ingredients that allows me to create a variety of dishes throughout the week and those with a longer shelf life means you don't have to worry buying too much of it. Using pre-mix sauces can be one of the ways to help lighten your load. They enable you to create the flavour without you having to purchase the numerous ingredients.

I was really disappointed with a minestrone soup which I tried recently in a restaurant. Hence, the very first dish that I am going to share with you is my own version of Minestrone Soup made using Lee Kum Kee Sauce for Tomato Garlic Prawns. Soup is usually the first dish I would make for the meal as time is needed to get the goodness out of all the ingredients. By the time I am done with the rest of the dishes, the soup will be just ready in time together with the rest.

I love making soups, because I just need to put everything into a pot and leave it alone. For this minestrone soup, it's the same. Simple ingredients - onions, tomato, carrot, celery. As I'm not of a meat person, I used cod fish bones in place of pork ribs or chicken bones to give the soup some sweetness and viscosity.

After the water came to a boil, I threw in all the ingredients and let it boiled for 20 minutes in medium heat. As all are hardy vegetables, I do not need to worry about overcooking them. If you prefer, you may add some white pepper corn to spice it up a bit, especially on wet days.

After 20 minutes, the vegetable cubes were pretty soft. I mixed in 2 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee Sauce for Tomato Garlic Prawns into the soup and let it simmered in low heat for another 10 minutes for the ingredients to soak in the flavour.

I think sweet corns, leeks or even potatoes very suitable for such vegetables soups as well. To make it even more sumptuous, seafood such as prawns, squid and white fish will make the taste more robust. On lazy days, a hearty soup makes the best meal.

Dish: Minestrone Soup

Ingredients
- Onions
- Tomato
- Carrot
- Celery
- Cod Fish Bone
- Lee Kum Kee Garlic Prawn Sauce
- Optional: Other vegetables e.g sweet corns, leeks, potatoes, or seafood such as prawns for a more hearty soup.

 Directions
1) Dice all the ingredients.
2) Bring the water to a boil.
3) Put in all the vegetables and let it boil for 20 minutes.
4) Put in 2 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee Sauce for Tomato Garlic Prawns. (You may put more if you want to make it more flavourful)
5) Simmer for another 10 minutes or more for a thicker broth.

Lee Kum Kee
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeeKumKeeGlobal
Website: http://singapore.lkk.com/en/Kitchen

Written and Photography By Si An. A girl who is allured by travelling, loves the feel of freedom, smell of the rain and the aroma of fine coffee and food.