Month: July 2016

Lotus Root Soup

khorhmin Leave a comment

Last Sunday, I cooked one of my favourite Chinese soups, which is Lotus Root Soup. Normally, I like to cook it with chicken, but it can be meatless as well. The sweetness of the lotus root as well as the red dates give the soup its signature flavour.

 

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Lotus Root Soup

Serves: 4-6
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

3-5 sections of Lotus root (washed and cleaned)
1 Chicken carcass and/or pieces of Chicken
10 pitted Red dates (washed and halved)
A few slender strips of Dried cuttlefish
Salt (to taste)
White pepper (to taste)
Filtered Water
Light soya sauce (optional)

 

Method:

  1. Scrape or peel the lotus root. Cut into thin slices.
  2. Marinade the pieces of chicken (and carcass, if you like) with the soya sauce and pepper. Set aside.
  3. Fill a pot half full of water and put on the stove. Turn on the heat on high.
  4. When the water boils, put in the carcass, red dates and dried cuttlefish. Then, lower the heat to a simmer.
  5. Check on the water level once in a while to make sure that there is still water in the pot!
  6. After half an hour, add the lotus root and chicken pieces. Let the soup simmer.
  7. After another half an hour, add salt to taste.
  8. Then, switch off the heat and scoop the soup into bowls.
  9. Serve hot with rice and your choice of dishes.

A faster version of this recipe is… do away with the carcass. No chicken carcass. You will cut the cooking time by half.

Revised method:

Cooking time: 30 mins

  1. Scrape or peel lotus root. Cut into thin slices.
  2. Marinade the pieces of chicken with the soya sauce and pepper. Set aside.
  3. Fill a pot half full of water and put on the stove. Turn on the heat on high.
  4. When the water boils, put in the chicken pieces, red dates and dried cuttlefish. Then, lower the heat to a simmer.
  5. After 15 mins, add the lotus root. Let the soup simmer.
  6. After another 15 mins, add salt to taste.
  7. Then, switch off the heat and scoop the soup into bowls.
  8. Serve hot with rice and your choice of dishes.

 

Pumpkin with Dried Shrimp

khorhmin Leave a comment

I love pumpkin. It is nutritious, sweet and flavourful. It is very versatile – we can stir-fry it, braise it, steam it, roast it, or boil it in a savoury soup or sweet dessert. We can also boil grated pumpkin with barley as a cooling drink, great with ice cubes on a hot day! Pumpkin can also be baked in pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie. Both are wonderfully delicious.

I cooked Pumpkin with Dried Shrimp last Sunday . Here’s the simple recipe. Hope you will like it. 🙂

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Pumpkin with Dried Shrimp

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

Half a small to medium-sized Pumpkin
A large handful of Dried shrimp
5 pips Garlic (chopped)
Salt (to taste)
Macadamia nuts (optional)
2-4 tbsp. vegetable oil

 

Method:

  1. Wash dried shrimp to get rid of sand and dirt. Soak them in 1 cup of water.
  2. Remove seeds from pumpkin. Cut it into wedges. Then, slice the skin off the pumpkin carefully. Cut the pumpkin into thin slices.
  3. Heat up oil in wok or non-stick pan.
  4. Remove dried shrimp from water. Reserve the water. Turn heat to medium.
  5. Fry dried shrimp until fragrant and slightly browned.
  6. Add garlic. Fry garlic until starting to turn golden around the edges.
  7. Add pumpkin. Stir, and using a spatula, bring pumpkin from bottom of wok to top, so that everything is mixed evenly. Add a pinch of salt and repeat.
  8. When pumpkin has started to turn colour, add the reserved water (used to soak shrimp). Give it a good stir. Cover wok. Turn the heat to low.
  9. Stir every 2-3 minutes. Cover again.
  10. Repeat until pumpkin has soften – a spoon can cut a slice of pumpkin relatively easily, without much resistance. Stir in macadamia nuts, if you have some.
  11. Taste to see if you need to add more salt (this is subjective). Normally, I don’t need to add any more.
  12. Scoop onto plate and serve with rice and other dishes.

 

Thai-style Steamed Fish

khorhmin Leave a comment

Today is the second Sunday I’m cooking lunch at the Home. The main dish of the day, as requested by Jean, was Thai-styled Steamed Fish.

It is sour, salty and spicy. All the flavours that combine to make this an appetising dish! I’m happy that everybody tried and reviewed it, and gave it their stamp of approval.  😀

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Thai-styled Steam Fish

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

1 medium to large fresh Fish, such as seabass
2 inch piece of Ginger (cut into strips)
6 stalks Lemongrass (white parts only; smashed and cut lengthwise)
1 red chilli (seeds removed; sliced)
5 pips garlic (chopped)
1 large onion (cut into wedges)
Juice of 6 large limes
4 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tsp. brown sugar
Coriander leaves (chopped; as garnish)

 

Method:

  1. Put water in a steamer and turn on the heat on high.
  2. Clean the fish. Pat dry with kitchen towels. Put on a large plate.
  3. Put some of the ginger, lemongrass and garlic in the slit-open belly of the fish.
  4. Arrange some of the ginger, lemongrass and garlic under the fish.
  5. Sprinkle the remaining ginger, lemongrass and garlic, and also chilli, on top of the fish.
  6. Mix the lime juice, fish sauce and brown sugar in a bowl. Pour carefully over the fish.
  7. Put the fish into the steamer. Steam for 20-30 mins.
  8. When fish is cooked, garnish with the coriander leaves. Serve immediately with rice and other dishes.

 

Stir-fried Sweet Pea Sprouts (tao miew)

khorhmin 2 Comments

I like sweet pea sprouts a lot. They are short and cute, crunchy and sweet. In Chinese, they are called ‘tao miew’. Sweet pea sprouts are best eaten stir-fried with garlic, so that the sweetness of the vegetables shines through. I cooked this dish last Sunday, at a newly set up home for old folks, single mothers and underprivileged/abandoned/orphaned children. Besides this dish, I also cooked black pepper & honey chicken, as well as mini bok choy with ginger and garlic.

If you haven’t tried sweet pea sprouts before, you should try this simple recipe. 🙂

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Stir-fried Sweet Pea Sprouts

Ingredients:

Sweet pea sprouts
2-4 pips of garlic (chopped)
Salt (to taste)
2 tbsp. Vegetable stock (optional)
2 tbsp. Vegetable oil
1 inch piece of red chilli (chopped) (optional)
Method:

  1. Heat up the wok or pan. Fry garlic till fragrant.
  2. Sprinkle 1 pinch of salt over the garlic. Stir.
  3. Lower the heat to medium. Add the sweet pea sprouts. With spatula, constantly scoop the sprouts from below to the top, so that they cook evenly.
  4. When the leaves of the sprouts become a darker shade of green, add vegetable stock, and salt to taste. When the stock is bubbling and the stalks are a little wilted, the dish is ready.
  5. Scoop onto dish and serve hot with rice and other dishes. Sprinkle the chopped chilli on top as a garnish if you like a bit of zing.

 

Mini Bok Choy with Ginger & Garlic

khorhmin 2 Comments

Last Sunday, I cooked lunch at a newly set up home for old folks, single mothers and underprivileged/abandoned/orphaned children. I prepared 1 chicken dish, 2 vegetable dishes and 1 soup. Here is one of the vegetable dishes.

Besides this dish, I also cooked black pepper & honey chicken, as well as stir-fried sweet pea sprouts.

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Mini Bok Choy with Ginger & Garlic

Ingredients:
Mini Bok Choy (washed and cleaned)
A few slices of Ginger (sliced thinly)
3-5 pips Garlic (chopped)
1 inch red chilli (chopped)
Oyster sauce OR shitake sauce (to taste)
Vegetable oil
Method:

  1. Heat up oil in wok.
  2. Fry ginger till fragrant. Add garlic and chilli. Fry till fragrant again.
  3. Reduce heat to medium. Add bok choy. Fry till start to wilt and change to deeper green colour.
  4. Add oyster sauce to taste. For vegetarians, replace oyster sauce with shitake sauce. Stir-fry till vegetbales are done.
  5. Scoop up and serve hot with rice and other dishes.

 

For vegetarians who don’t eat garlic, you can omit it from the dish, besides using shitake sauce instead of oyster sauce.

 

Black Pepper & Honey Chicken

khorhmin 2 Comments

Last Sunday, I had fun cooking lunch at a newly set up home for old folks, single mothers and underprivileged/abandoned/orphaned children. Chinese food was not a common daily occurrence there, so the people got to try something different. 😉

I modified a personal recipe I liked with the ingredients available at hand to come up with a new variation, which I called Black Pepper & Honey Chicken. 🙂 Give it a try. Perhaps you will like it.

Besides this dish, I also cooked stir-fried sweet pea sprouts, as well as mini bok choy with ginger and garlic

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Black Pepper & Honey Chicken

(Serves 6-8)

INGREDIENTS:

1 Chicken (cut into medium-sized pieces)
1 large Bombay onion (sliced)
1 large Green chilli (seeds removed; cut lengthwise into 4-6 slices)
1-2 tsp Black pepper (coarse ground)
3 tsp. Honey
½ cup Water
Salt (to taste)
Light soy sauce (to taste)
2-3 tbsp. Vegetable oil

Ingredients A
1 tbsp. Light Soy sauce
1 tsp. Dark soy sauce
1 pinch Salt
1 tsp. Corn flour

Ingredients B
2 tbsp. Water
2 tsp. Corn flour

 

 

METHOD:

  1. Half an hour to one hour before cooking: Wash and clean chicken pieces. Remove skin with the help of kitchen scissors and/or small knife. Marinade chicken pieces with Ingredients A. Massage marinade into pieces well with fingers. Cover and set aside.
  2. Heat up oil in a wok or non-stick pan. Reduce heat to medium. Fry onions until fragrant and starting to turn translucent. Add the green chilli. Cook till the chilli starts to turn brown/soften (which is quite quick).
  3. Add marinated chicken. Fry on one side for 2-3 minutes. Then flip to the other side. Monitor to prevent burning. Stir once in a while.
  4. When the chicken is almost cooked, add the half-cup water. Give it a good stir. Then, cover the wok/pan with a lid. Let the chicken simmer in the sauce for 10 minutes. The steam will help the chicken to cook well. Open the lid every 3-5 minutes to stir.
  5. When the chicken is cooked, combine Ingredients B (the 2 tsp. corn flour and 2 tbsp. water) in a small bowl. Mix well to ensure there are no lumps. Pour the mixture slowly into the middle of the wok, while continuously stirring with a spatula or ladle. Let the sauce thicken.
  6. Add salt and/or soy sauce to taste.
  7. Serve hot with rice, accompanied by your preferred vegetable dish or salad.

 

I would like to point out that the amounts in the recipe above are just estimated amounts. You can adjust accordingly. For example, if you don’t like your food too spicy, you can omit the green chilli, and put less black pepper.