Chinese-style miyuk guk- wakame soup

Chinese-style miyuk guk- wakame soup (serves 2-3)
Ingredients:
-less than 1 handful/palmful of dried vegetable, soaked to hydrate(one handful dry yielded so much)

-1 small block silken tofu, drained and cut into strips
-4 fresh shitake mushrooms, wiped with damp cloth, stalks removed
-half a bunch of enoki mushrooms
-1/4lb(or slightly less than 1/4lb) ground pork (just to flavor the soup, add some sweetness). (Note: The real Miyuk guk has beef in it)
-1 egg, lightly whisked
-1tsp shaoxing wine
-1tsp cornflour
-3tbsp black vinegar(option)
-300-400ml water
-dashes of pepper, to taste

Aren't these healthy, nutritious ingredients?

Method:
1.Add wine and cornflour into the meat to lightly marinate and flavor
2.Boil water in a small soup pot. When boiled, add the meat, assorted mushrooms, and tofu; cook and return to boil for 5-7mins

3.Add the hydrated wakame to the soup, and cook for 2-3mins
4.Add in the beaten egg slowly
5.If you like the sour taste of Szechuan Hot and Sour Soup(四川 酸辣汤), you can add some black vinegar to the soup, at this time. I did, because the truth is... (...I was craving for 四川 酸辣汤 but did not have all the ingredients at hand, so I made this soup as a substitute instead. There is no "Hot" portion of the Hot and Sour Soup in this "beauty" soup, but it was good enough for me.)
6.Serve!

Stir fry scallops and asparagus with ginkgo

Stir fry scallops and asparagus with ginkgo-代代平安 (serves 3-4)
Ingredients:
-8 giant scallops quartered
-10-12 stalks of asparagus, cleaned and cut into finger lengths
-1cup button mushrooms and 1cup straw mushrooms
-3-4oz fresh ginkgo nuts
-1 small piece ginger, sliced thinly (Note: I wanted to taste the full natural burst of flavors from scallops, asparagus, and ginkgo, so I kept the "seasoning" part simple by only adding slices of ginger to zest up the whole dish)
-some chicken broth or water


Method:
1.Heat some oil in the frying pan
2.Add the ginger and fry till aromatic
3.Add in scallops, and fry till scallop changes color (meaning it's cooked). Dish out and set aside
4.Add in asparagus, mushroom, and gingko nuts and fry for about 1-2mins. Add in broth or water
5.When simmering, add back the scallops and stir fry quicky for another 1min to mix well
6. Serve


With the asparagus 芦笋, can also name 事事顺心 (笋 and 顺 pronounced "shun" altogether)


With these ginkgo nuts that are yellow/golden, can be 金玉满堂(Gold Everywhere) too!

The special ingredient I've used here is ginkgo nuts. Ginkgo nuts are commonly used in many luxurious/fine-dining Chinese vegetarian restaurants because these nuts are considered expensive ingredients (due to labor intensiveness to crack the hard shell of each nut, removing the thin skin, and removing the young shoot that is usually bitter). So, usually what you eat is just the sweet flesh of ginkgo nuts. By using ginkgo, any simple vegetarian dish remains vegetarian and can be charged at a premium. Can you recall in the last gingko dessert you have eaten, how many gingko nuts did you have in that bowl, in proportion to the white fungus and beancurd skins ?

Lontong

Sayur Lodeh-Mixed Vegetables in Coconut Gravy, is surely good with steamed rice, but you can also add in compressed rice cakes (a.ka. ketupat) to savor the gravy as soup - Lontong! - a yellowish soup mix of vegetables with ketupat.


Enjoy homemade lontong with a mix of carbo - rice; proteins - eggs, long beans & beancurd/tofu; and fiber - the vegetables, plus the vitamins associated with the spicy chilli. MmmMmmMmmMmmMmmmmmm.............










Tag: sayur lodeh, vegetables, coconut gravy,lontong, rice cakes

Cream of mushroom soup

Cream of mushroom soup (yields 3-4 small appetizer servings)

Ingredients:
-2tbsp butter, divided use
-1/4lb crimini/white mushrooms; clean with damp paper towel, cut half quantity into slices, chop the remainder
-1/2 medium onion, chopped
-1/8 cup flour
-2cup chicken broth/water
-1/2 cup heavy cream
-salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1.Melt half the butter in a saucepan and saute sliced mushrooms until golden. Set aside.
2. Add remaining butter to the same pan, along with the chopped mushrooms and onions. Sprinkle with salt, to taste. Cook, stirring often, until onion is soft

3. Return sliced mushrooms to the pan. Add flour, stir constantly about 2mins, till smooth.
4.Slowly add chicken broth while stirring. Simmer, stir often, till thickened. Add pepper, to taste.
5.Add heavy cream and bring to a simmer (Note:Do not boil)


6.Ladle into mini soup cups or bowls and......................wait wait wait, you can't drink or eat it yet (be patient...) coz' I'm not done with everything !!!

Here's the twist (not by Chubby Chucker, of course)...WATCH!

Tag: soup, mushrooms, puff pastry

Sayur Lodeh - Mixed Vegetables in Coconut Gravy

Sayur Lodeh - Mixed Vegetables in Coconut Gravy (serves 6-8)


Ingredients:
Curry paste -
-16 dried red chillies, soaked in water 15mins
-2cup chopped shallots
-4 cloves garlic, peeled
-1tbsp turmeric powder
-1tbsp sambal belacan
-1.5tbsp dried shrimps, soaked in water 5mins, then rinsed off water


Vegetables & others -
-1cup thick coconut milk
-3cups chicken stock/broth
-3tbsp oil
-5cm galangal, peeled and smashed
-0.8lbs firm beancurd, cut to half
-1lbs long beans, cut into finger lengths
-0.8lbs baby carrot
-1.2lbs cabbage, cut into thick strips
-6-8 fishballs (option)
-4 hard-boiled eggs; to be halved (option)
-3cups water, adjust accordingly while cooking

Method:
1.Drain the chillies, and grind all curry paste ingredients together to a smooth paste

2.Mix half of the coconut milk with the stock
3.Heat oil in large saucepan and brown the beancurd on both sides. Remove and cut into bite-size
4.Fry curry paste in remaining oil until fragrant, add glangal, and stock-coconut milk mixture and bring to boil
5.Add long beans, carrots, beancurd, bring to boil. Add cabbage, fishballs, and cook briefly till vegetables are just tender but still firm. (Note: Do a taste test here-and add water/more broth accordingly)

6.Add remaining coconut milk, bring to boil, then remove from heat and garnish with hard-boiled eggs



7. Enjoy!

Tag: sayur lodeh, vegetables, coconut gravy

Wat Dan Hor -ried Rice Noodle with Seafood and Egg Gravy Sauce

"Wat Dan Hor" - Fried Rice Noodle with rich egg sauce (serves 2)
Ingredients:
-1lbs rice noodles/sticks (half from here)
-2tsp dark soya sauce
-oil for cooking

Gravy:
-6 medium-sized prawns; shelled and deveined - marinated with pinch of salt, pepper
-8 fishballs; sliced (to make them fishcakes-鱼饼 )
-1 piece chicken thigh meat; cut into bite-size
-0.8-1lbs bok choy and bok choy-sum, cleaned and cut into sections of stalks/stems and leaves

-1/2tsp crushed garlic
-1/2tsp crushed ginger
-1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1/2 cup water
-1/2cup chicken broth
-2 eggs
-pepper and salt to taste
-oil for cooking
-water

Method:
1. Loosen the fresh rice noodles
2.Heat oil and saute prawns till cooked, set aside
3.Add in fishball slices, fry till soft, set aside
4.Heat more oil in frying pan/wok at high heat add in rice noodles, add dark soya sauces and stir fry briskly (Note: You can allow noodles to burn a little at the edges for that smaky taste). Set aside.

5.Add more oil into frying pan and fry the chicken till cooked. Add in garlic, ginger and fry until fragrant.
6.Pour in broth and bring to the boil. Simmer 5mins.
7.Add in vegetables(stalks/stems first, then leaves since former takes longer to cook) and when gravy comes to a simmer, add in the cornflour mixture. Bring gravy back to simmer
8.Add in the cooked prawns and fishcakes. Season to taste.


9.Turn off heat and crack in the 2 eggs, stir to cook the eggs


10.Dish gravy onto the fried rice noodles


That's my Wat Dan Hor!
Fried Rice Noodle with Seafood and Egg Gravy Sauce (滑蛋虾仁 河粉)!
Another Tze Char (煮炒) being replicated!
Yummy Yummy!


Tag: seafood, egg, rice sticks, rice noodles

Stir fry spinach with fishcake

Stir fry spinach with fishcake (serves 2)
Ingredients:
-1lb spinach, cleaned thoroughly
-6-8 fishballs, thawed; and cut into thin slices (fish cake)
-1tsp crushed garlic
(Note: Fishballs contain some salt-as preservative(what else), so it will make this dish tasty even without adding salt)

Method:
1.Heat oil in frying pan at medium heat
2.Add garlic and fry till fragrant
3.Add in fish cake, quick fry for 1-2mins
4.Add in spinach, continue fry for 2-3mins
5. Serve!


Tag: stir fry, spinach, vegetables, fishballs

Chai Buey Soup -Chinese Mustard Vegetable Soup

Chai buey soup (serves 2-3)
Ingredients:
-1pkt chinese mustard vegetable, sliced
-2 medium size tomatoes, cut into wedges
-1lb poultry (chicken or pork, any cuts you prefer)

Method:
1.Blanch pork to remove scum
2.Place pork and mustard in the slow cooker
3.Cook on high for 1 hrs
4.Turn to low, cook for 1-2 more hrs

5. Add the tomatoes early if you like it soft, add it 30mins before turning off the slow cooker if you prefer the "crunch"

6. Dish soup in a bowl whenever you are ready for drinking


Tag: vegetables, soup, mustard greens

Zhajiang noodles, 炸酱面

Zhajiang noodles, 炸酱面 (serves 2-3)
Ingredients:
-1 ready-packed "regular" tofu, cut into small cubes
-1/4lb ground pork
-1tbsp chilli bean paste (a.k.a tou ban jiang, 豆瓣酱) - Lee Kum Kee recommended.
-1/2 tsp finely minced garlic
-1 stalk scallion/spring onion
-1 cucumber; washed, peel off skin, and julienned
-any noodles you prefer (Instant, Fresh, Dry, even your own hand-pulled ones!)

Method:
1.Heat some vegetable oil in frying pan
2.Add minced garlic to flavor the oil
3.Add ground pork and fry (on medium-high heat) for 4-5 mins
4.Add the chilli bean paste and continue frying for 2-3mins. If too dry, add some water
5.Finally, add the tofu, mix well into the spicy sauce and simmer covered for 3-5 mins

Tag: bean sauce, noodles, tofu