Chinese Chives and Dried Krill Fritters - Seafood Week #1

I am a teacher. Still am. I am just on leave. I have not resigned. I teach Living Skills in school, or Kemahiran Hidup as called locally. In Living Skills, there are 4 electives to be chosen, something like a minor thingy, namely home econs, technical studies, agriculture and accounts.

When I was teaching in PESS, I was given 1 class with home econs as an elective in the subject.
The class was split to 2 for the subject and the other teacher sharing the class with me was Meldylocks. Home Econs consist of sewing and cooking basically, but the school didn’t encourage cooking. Yes!!! You heard me. So, it was all talk and chalk. Both of us were like “Huh??”How can cooking class be just talk and chalk?

I have taught Home Science for 2 years in Selancar and there will be cooking lessons for every chapter. I have never encountered a situation like such. Our subject form supervisor in PESS told us, there was no budget, and that she was told by the subject supervisor that we just explain, no need to do practical work. Meldylocks and I just couldn’t bring ourselves to teach this way. In the end, we used our own money and bought some ingredients to teach our students about “Batter”. This is the recipe that I made with them to demo “thick batter”. It was a nice experience with the students and I left the school the next year and came to where I am now. Ex 1-Teratai of 2007, if you happen to read this, I was happy to conduct those lessons with you gals.

Jicama and Krill Fritters (cucur udang geragau)
Source: Wendyywy

1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup water
1 egg
1/3 tsp salt
¾ cup dried krill, 虾皮
½ cup chopped Chinese chives
½ cup grated jicama (sengkuang)

Pouring chilli sauce

Every 2 part of chilli sauce, mix with 1 part water.

Make as much as u need.

1. Put dried krill in a sieve and rinse under running water for few seconds. Drain.
2. Mix water, and egg together. Pour into flour and salt, and mix until well combined
3. Put in rinsed krill, grated jicama and chopped chives and mix.
4. Heat some oil for deep frying.
5. Put in ½ tablespoon of batter and deep fry until golden. Repeat until batter is finished.
6. Serve with pouring chilli sauce.

Lime and Longan Slush with Pomegranate - Fruit Week #6

It's crazily hot these few days right?
Last year December it was pretty chilly.. well, for Malaysia a night temperature of 22C is considered chilly. And after Chinese New Year, it turned so so so so hot. The sun stings the skin and it's a pain to go out, even in the shade.

Even Lyanne reduced her diaper use, it seems much much dryer now : ( All that she ever drank seem to have evaporated rather than passed out.

This is perfect for this stupid weather. After I downed one shot of this, I felt so much better. My MIL said it was good too.

Lime and Longan Slush with Pomegranate
Recipe source: Wendyywy

200gm ice (lightly crushed before use)
1 Tbsp lime juice
80ml longan syrup (from the can)
1 Tbsp sugar or more (I used 2 Tbsp of homemade sugar syrup cooked using 1:1 volume ratio)

Blitz everything in the blender until fine. Pour into serving glass, top with canned longan flesh and pomegranate

Next,

Seafood Week

I'll be cutting my posting days from Monday to Friday.

Let's make it a 5 day work week now, :p

See you on Monday

Fresh Black Forest Cake - Fruit Week #5

 

I'm so so happy that cherries are getting more affordable here each year. This season (southern hemisphere's), the lowest was RM8.99 for 250gm at Tesco.

I grabbed 4 punnets when I saw it at this price because my mother's birthday was coming up and I want to make her a Black Forest with fresh cherries.
Why use canned ones when fresh ones are available? No doubt it is far far more pricey, but fresh ones still have nutrients in them, it's worth it. And I never scrooge when it comes to baking birthday cakes for family members.

For the cake, I used Rose Levy Beranbaum's chocolate cake base for her Designer Chocolate Baby Grands that doesn't harden in the fridge. I've also used the same chocolate cake recipe for my Chocolate Hidden Banana Cake. And all the cakes turn out lovely and soft, direct from the fridge. I made 1.5 portion of the cake and baked in a 8 inch cake pan. Cut the cake into 3 layers and then I prepared the rest.

I pitted 2 punnets of cherries using a chopstick, as seen here in this post. Then I halved the pitted cherries.
Kept the cherries in the fridge while I whipped the cream. And I also froze a block of chocolate at this point.

As always, I try to use dairy cream, and then stabilized it by using gelatin. I filled each layer with cream and pitted cherries, generously : )
Made a crumb layer, and chilled it.
Then I covered the whole cake with cream.

I looked for my serrated comb....................but it's no where to be seen! Yikes! Comb, please don't treat me like this, please don't. In the end, I used my zigzag jelly knife to comb the cake. The effect was different. The grooves were wider. But then, sigh, had to make do.

Then I piped ugly dots of cream around the cake, top and bottom. Piped small mounds of cream to attach more cherries on the top
I then grated the half frozen chocolate and sprinkled them on the cake. And top each mound of cream with a cherry.

Phew, cake done, and now, in the fridge it goes until it's time for dinner.

Verdict:
Everybody except my eldest brother enjoyed the cake. My eldest brother said, he cake texture is different, like a choc moist cake, he prefers sponge. But the rest felt that this cake taste better than sponge. With a better mouthfeel. The cherries also made the cake very very moist. Cakes with fruits are best chilled for a few hours before serving so that the juices will soak the cake.

Braised Carrots with Orange and Rosemary - Fruit Week # 4

I had to do a veggie side dish for my main dish and I only have carrots in the fridge. I then remembered Bob Blumer making carrots with orange and I have 10 oranges in the fridge. This is it!!!

But how to do it? I’ve forgotten, so I googled and found this site . Read thru and used the recipe as a reference.

The taste was really good, and seeing Mike eating another piece of carrot after the other, I’ll definitely do this again some other time.

Braised Carrots with Orange and Rosemary
Inspired by Bob Blumer

Recipe refered from here

For 2 persons only

300gm carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
1 orange (you can either juice it or segment the flesh)
1 heaped teaspoon chopped rosemary
1 heaped tsp orange zest or julienned peel(no white parts) from ¼ of an orange
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp butter (I used the renderings from my roasted chicken and skipped the butter)
1 tsp brown sugar (use only after tasting)

1. Put butter (renderings instead, if you have) into a heated pan.
2. Put in carrots and spread them around single layer.
3. Let the carrots cook for 1-2 minutes. Then flip the carrots and let it cook for another minute.
4. Put in orange zest/peel and chopped rosemary. Add 1/3 tsp salt and some pepper, and let it cook for another minute or so.
5. Put in segmented orange or orange juice and put in few tablespoons of water.
6. Cover and let it cook on low heat until the carrots reach desired softness, it may take 5-10 minutes.
7. Remove lid and taste the carrots, adjust with sugar if it is too sour.
8. Turn heat to high and reduce until no liquid is seen and carrots look shiny with a nice glaze.
9. Dish up and serve

Peach Chiffon Slice - Fruit Week #3

I have 2 pieces of canned peach left over from Lydia’s carousel cake (this cake was made in Aug 2010). I don’t feel like eating it just like that.

So, I used it to make this, a sudden idea.
The peach flavor was just so so but texture is very soft, as all chiffons are.
I wonder if fresh peaches will taste the same when used to make this.

Peach Chiffon Slice
Recipe Source: Wendyywy

2 pcs canned peach halves, pureed (about 80gm)
80gm cake flour
20gm sugar
4 egg yolks
50ml corn oil

4 egg whites
50gm sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar or 1 tsp lemon juice

Buttercream for filling

Method
1. Preheat oven at 160/180C. Fully line a 10 inch shallow square pan or a swiss roll pan
2. Combine egg yolks, 20gm sugar and peach puree. Mix until well combined.
3. Put in flour and combine, then oil and combine.
4. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy.
5. Put in cream of tartar or lemon juice and continue to beat until soft peak.
6. Gradually add in 50gm sugar and beat until stiff
7. Fold ¼ of egg whites into yolk mixture. Repeat with another 1/4 of egg white.
8. Pour (7) into beaten egg whites and fold.
9. Pour batter into prepared pan. Level surface and bake for 30 minutes or until golden and springs back to touch.
10. Leave cake to cool in pan for 5 mins. Remove cake from pan and place on rack. Pull away baking paper from the sides and let cake cool completely on the rack
11. When cake has totally cooled down, cut into half and spread with butter cream. Top with the other half and slice to serve.

The peaches I used here as props weren't used to make the cake. They tasted YUCKS!!! They were peaches from China and I so so so so so regretted buying them. They totally didn't taste sweet and there is no fragrance at all. Maybe they were very very under ripe when they were picked for export. I don't know and I don't want to know. This is my first and last purchase ever. But somehow, China's nectarines are fine and fragrant. It's just the peaches. Ignore them if you ever see them.

Orange Cheesecake with Kumquat Compote

When I saw this cheesecake on Zurin's blog long ago, I fell in love with the kumquat crown. It looked so pretty. When I saw kumquats in Ipoh's Jusco, I had to get my hands on some. It's not expensive, at less than RM4 per punnet.

I didn't want to do a rich rich cheesecake that'll take up few blocks of cream cheese. I always prefer light creamy cheesecakes. No, this is not as light as featherlight cheesecake or Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. This is still creamy but not that, that rich. I want to eat cake, not lick on cream cheese. And I also have little bit of cream left from my pineapple tarts and Minnie Cakes (not sure when I'll be posting them, as I'm going themed now), and a opened can of condensed milk. Might as well utilize them.

Well, yeah, this is another dump in cake. Hey, I don't simply dump in things. I do calculations in my brain before I dump them in. How much aeration I want, how sweet and milky I want the cake to be, how firm I want it. I never just throw things in before giving it a second thought. Never. Ingredients are too expensive to be wasted.

Kumquats are a nice fruit to be incorporated into CNY.
So, if you ask me, Is this fruit common?

Well, when I was a kid, my neighbour bought two kumquat trees for CNY, and I asked him , why is the lime so funny, it's oblong rather than round. He said, oh, it's a new variety. Darn, he doesn't know it's a Kumquat 金橘. So, I bet most of you have seen this somewhere in someone's home, or even your own home, but have no idea, this is the kumquat that I'm talking about. It's a longish oblong lime lookalike that has no flesh. The fruit can be eaten whole. Just pop it into your mouth and chew away.

So, who were the eaters of this cake. Don't ask Mike. He didn't even catch a glimpse of this cake. I made this for my friends, that I met up on Day 4 of CNY. They cleaned up the pan very quickly. I never knew kumquat compote tasted so good. I used less sugar than found in online recipes because I found my kumquats to be on the sweet side, rather than being tart. I'm not going to keep the compote at room temperature for ages, so, why use so much sugar? Now with this ratio that I formulated for sweet kumquats, it's just nice for me. Like a light marmalade. The cake may be sweet on first bite due to the compote, but as you go on, it'll be fine. No one complained, but asked for seconds

Orange Cheesecake with Kumquat Compote
Recipe source: Wendyywy

250gm cream cheese, softened
125gm sweetened condensed milk
60gm whipping cream
1 egg
20gm corn starch
40gm cake flour (All purpose should work fine here too)
1 Tbsp (packed) orange zest
60ml fresh orange juice
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
30gm sugar

1. Prepare and line a springform pan. Wrap pan with aluminium foil to prevent water from seeping into the baking pan. Refer here if not sure how. Prepare a pot of boiling water. Place pan into a slightly larger pan. Preheat oven to 130C(fan)/150C
2. Sift cornstarch and flour and set aside.
3. Mix orange juice and egg yolks, lightly beat for a while and set aside.
4. With a whisk or large spoon, beat cream cheese until smooth and put in condensed milk and mix until smooth. Put in whipping cream and beat until smooth. Put in egg and beat until smooth. Put in sifted flour and mix until smooth. Put in orange juice mixture and and zest and mix until smooth.
5. Beat egg whites until frothy. Put n cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks. Put in sugar gradually and beat until stiff, and the peaks are softly hooked when whisk is turned upright.
6. Fold half of the beaten egg whites into the cheese mixture. Repeat with balance of whites.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and put the whole set of prepared pans into the oven. Pour boiling water into the outer pan until it’s at least 1/3 the height of the inner pan.
8. Bake for 1 hour. Cool cake in oven (door ajar) for half an hour. Remove cake from oven and cool down totally. Chill in fridge for 5 hours before serving. With a skewer/toothpick, poke cake to create at least 30 holes absorb the syrup from the compote.

Kumquat Compote
250gm kumquats
125gm sugar (use more if kumquats are tart)
125ml water or more

1. Slice kumquats about 3mm thick. Remove all the seeds
2. Place all the prepared kumquats into a saucepan and put in water and sugar.
3. Cook on medium low heat until all the kumquats turn translucent. If it's too dry, add a bit more water.
4. Arrange warm kumquat slices over cheesecake and brush remaining syrup over kumquat slices.

Pictures of cheesecake taken with my Sony Ericsson TX5, not as good as usual, right?

Apple Yeasted Sugar Tart -Fruit Week #1

Sick of soup already? I'm going to drown you with fruits this week. *Evil look*

Apples. I bought 2 granny smiths 3 months back (post done in Sept 2010). Yes. And one was still with me after the apple crumble.
Then I saw on technicolour kitchen (again!!!!) , an apple yeasted sugar tart, and it looked so so appealing to me. I knew I will be having some cream after the birthday cakes and oh yes!!! I definitely will make this very soon.

Today I finally used the 3 month old apple, and it still looked fine, just like the way it was when I bought it. Hahah!! The wax really does a good job preserving the apple. Can I use the wax on my face???? Hahaha!!!

My oven is always too hot for breads made with milk. It always browns too fast when baked according to the instructions and I always, always have to do it at 150C, which is far far lower than recommended. And today is no different. How hot you need to bake this with, you really have to gauge it yourself. I gave you the original temperature, so make your own decisions.

Apple Yeasted Sugar Tart
Recipe taken from Technicolor kitchen who sourced from "The Cook's Companion"

245gm all purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
Small pinch of salt
1 tsp yeast
120gm warm milk
1 egg, room temperature
28gm softened butter
2-3 eating apples (I used 1 large granny smith, and it was enough)
67gm demerara sugar (I used a mixture of demerara with brown sugar, as I ran out of demerara)
120ml whipping cream (I was left with 100gm of it, just used this)

Method: If you think I'm being too long winded here, please check out Technicolor Kitchen's version. Hers is a lot more "compact"
1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast together in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center.
2. Mix milk and egg together and pour into the well.
3. With a spoon, try to bring the flour in gradually and form a dough.
4. When everything has come together, knead in softened butter. Continue to knead (I did this by hand), it is very soft and sticky at the beginning and knead it (by pulling the dough from the bowl and putting it back, and pull it away and put it back cos the dough is the soft tacky type) until it no longer feels sticky, and a smooth dough is formed. *I used only my right hand to knead and kept my left hand clean. I used my left hand to test the dough’s stickiness as the right hand is always covered with the glob of dough. When the dough is ready, you rub the dough off your working hand, touch the dough with your working hand and it should not stick too, but it will still be very soft.
5. Then cover and let it proof for 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare a loose bottomed 9 inch tart pan. Generously butter the pan.
6. Punch down the dough and give it a 1-2 minutes knead. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes before flattening it into the pan.
7. Let dough in pan proof for another 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, peel and cut apple(s). When 30 minutes if up, the dough looks puffy. Press the apples in and sprinkle the demerara sugar onto the apples.
9. Preheat the oven at 200(fan)/220C, the tart will continue to proof until the oven is ready and bake the tart for 10 minutes. (I found this too high for my oven, I think I’ll do it at 180C next time, cos my tart was nicely browned at 8 minutes)
10. Meanwhile beat the whipping cream to soft peaks.
11. Remove tart from oven and spoon the cream over the apples.
12. Return tart back to oven at 180(fan)/200C (I used 150C only) for 20 minutes or until the base of the tart sounds hollow when tapped.
13. Remove from oven and transfer tart to cooling rack, remove mould and let it cool on rack.
14. Slice only when tart turned warm to touch, if not the cream filling will be runny.

Verdict:
Darn it. This tasted so good. The baked cream topping is super!!! I wanted to make another one the next day to bring to my mom, but I ran out of cream. I don’t want to buy another large carton, cos I won’t be around for days.
This is the perfect "bread" for lazy kneaders. Even with the short kneading time, I assure you that you'll get the soft bread fresh from the oven due to the moisture from the apple being baked in the bread. It's best eaten warm, but then, it's still not hard later. Well, not as soft as fresh and warm, but acceptable even to the next day, but please keep air tight.
But for those who are thinking of trying this out, I suggest you mix the topping sugar with some cinnamon or scraped vanilla. That’s the only miss about this yeasted tart, if not it’ll be perfect!!!

Beef Soup with Waterchestnuts and Wintermelon - Soup Week #6

I had some waterchestnuts on hand and I remember this soup with beef in my soup book. Then when I checked the ingredients, sugarcane???? Where to get fresh ones? Then I came to think of it, should be the dry ones at herbal shops. Then when I went there,I found that it comes prepacked, and there's couchgrass root in it too. So I bought the pack home to later pick out whatever I needed. But there are no Chinese almonds in it, so I asked the herbalist to pack some for me separately.

Frankly there’s not much beef smell or taste. But the soup itself is sweet, but lacks a savoury meaty end. It does need more salt than most of the soups that I’ve done (my slow simmered soups usually need minimal soup to lend a salty end), maybe due to the high amount of non meat compounds, or the absence of seafood ingredients. Anyway, this is good for you.

Try this if you would like to clear heat, promote urination, detoxify and nourish the skin.

Beef Soup with Waterchestnuts and Wintermelon
Recipe Source: Soups for Expelling Dampness and Heat, by Chiu Sang
200gm beef
750gm winter melon
200gm water chestnuts (about 7 pcs)
150gm carrots
80gm dried sugarcane
10gm sweet Chinese almonds 南杏
10gm dried couchgrass 白茅根
2L water
Handful of coriander for sprinkling

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, peel water chestnuts and cut carrots.
3. Scrub skin of wintermelon clean, remove seeds and cut into chunks.
4. Rinse dried sugarcane and couchgrass.
5. Cut beef into smaller pieces.
6. Put everything into the boiling water, bring back to a boil and let it simmer on low heat for 2 hours.
7. Sprinkle coriander into hot soup before serving.

What's up on Monday?

Fruit Week

Black Soy and Pork Ribs Soup - Soup Week #5

I still have black soy beans left since Lyanne’s confinement days. Hahaha!!! Super long right?

For my next confinement, I’d make sure my mom won’t be buying me so so much black beans. It’s rather wasteful if I can’t finish it.

My mom’s addicted to buying things, foodstuff and kitchenware mostly, with textiles as a past love now. She’d buy durians, lots of it, just for the sake of buying and opening them to see how good her purchases are. She’d buy pots and pans, anything made of stainless steel that she falls in love with. When we left home no one bought pots and pans but just took them from home. And 3 siblings and one cousin couldn’t finish her stock, and she’s still buying. When she went to Australia for a holiday, she spent almost all her cash on abalones. My brother nagged her about that when she got back. If you ever let her know you love to eat that one thing, she’ll try her best to buy that for you. Not that I’m complaining about her love for buying, but I know, she only does that for people she loves and cares about. If she doesn’t love you, she won’t be buying and buying stuff for you.

When I saw this recipe, my eyes lit up, Good!!! Another way to use up the beans. Hahahaha!!

Black Soy Beans and Pork Ribs Soup
Recipe source: Meishi China

600gm pork ribs
80gm black soy beans, washed and soaked for 4 hours (or overnight)
10 black dates
2.5L water
2 tbsp wolfberries/goji berries
Salt to taste

1. Blanch pork ribs in boiling water for 20 seconds. Drain and discard water.
2. Bring 2.5L to boil.
3. Put soaked beans, black dates and blanched ribs into the boiling water, bring back to a boil. Lower heat and boil for 3 hours.
4. Put in wolfberries, boil for 10 minutes and season with salt.

Potato Savoy Cabbage Soup - Soup Week #4

I bought this half head of savoy cabbage at Jaya Grocer and I had no idea what to do with it. As always whenever I see something new, I just buy it first, think later.

Savoy cabbages look very pretty, with lacy leaves and it comes nicely green unlike the regular cabbages. Since I’ve never eaten savoy cabbages before, I had no idea how it taste like. So, I better google for a recipe. I don’t want stir fries or salads. Nor do I want to do meat rolls with it, since it’s only a half head, the leaves will not be suitable. Then I saw a recipe on BBC Good Food, savoy cabbage soup with potatoes, sounds yummy and topped with crispy bacon!!!

Here’s my first attempt, cooking with savoy cabbage.
If you’re thinking of serving this as a side dish, maybe you’d like to think twice. It’s so hearty that it can be a meal on its own. This portion is enough to feed 4 adults.

Potato and Savoy Cabbage Soup
Recipe loosely adapted from BBC Good Food

150gm leeks (Try not to use China leeks)
200gm onions (I used yellow ones)
600gm floury potatoes (russet)
75gm carrots
500gm savoy cabbage
2 Tbsp olive oil
100gm bacon (bacon chips does it well, no need to splurge on rashers)
½ French loaf
Some butter (I used 2 heaped Tbsp initially, adding more as I toast the cubes on the pan)

1. Peel and thinly slice leeks, onions, potatoes and carrots
2. Heat up a pot and put in olive oil. Put in onions and leeks and cook until it softens and takes on a little bit of goldenness.
3. Put in sliced potatoes and carrots, stir and put in 8 cups of water.
4. Let it simmer for 15 minutes or until carrots are tender. Season with salt or throw in a chicken bouillon cube or 2.
5. Let it cool down for a while and whizz with a immersion blender until fine and smooth. (if using a regular blender, please leave it to cool down until slightly warm.
6. While waiting, prepare your croutons. Cube French loaf and heat a pan. Put in some butter and when it has melted, put in your cubed bread and toss it around to coat well. Put in more butter if you find it not sufficient. Slowly toast them on your pan until very golden and crispy.
7. Prepare bacon chips by frying in a little bit of oilon medium low heat until golden and crispy, dish up and drain off the oil on absorbent papers.
8. When it’s almost time to serve, reboil soup and put in sliced savoy cabbage and simmer for 5 minutes.
9. Ladle soup into bowl and top with crispy bacon chips and croutons.


Verdict:
Gosh , this soup is very delicious. Do not be fooled by how it looks, yellow and dirty looking. The bacon can be skipped, but don’t forget the croutons. Maybe I’m used to drinking western soups laced with loads of cream and when this one doesn’t, the butter from the croutons adds the “milky” smell that I will usually relate with western soups. My hubby and kids loved this and all were full from just having the soup.

Dried And Fresh Bok Choy Soup - Soup Week #3

I’ve seen a TVB documentary on food, and the host was treated to a dried and fresh bokchoy soup. But her soup looked milky and white instead of mine looking so clear, hahahaha.

Actually I didn’t know what was in the soup so I just threw in whatever I think might make the soup nice. But it doesn’t look like what I saw on TV. Was it that the soup was boiled with pork lungs? I forgot, but here’s soup for you to try if you like “choy gon tong”

Dried and Fresh Bok Choy Soup
Recipe Source: Wendyywy

50gm dried Bok Choy
400gm fresh Bok Choy
1 large carrot
¼ of a foot long dried octopus
250gm pork loin or 300gm pork ribs
2.5L water
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Soak dried bok choy until it softens and cut into 2 inch lengths.
2. Peel and cut carrot into slanting chunks, rinse and snip octopus into 1 inch slices
3. Boil water and put in carrots, octopus, dried bok choy and pork.
4. Boil for 2 hours.
5. Wash and cut fresh bok choy into 2 inch lengths.
6. Put fresh bok choy into the soup and boil for 30 minutes
7. Season with salt and pepper.

Burdock and Red Bean Soup - Soup Week #2

I have 2 sticks of burdock in my fridge, due to a miscommunication between my MIL and aunt. Both helped me get burdock for my Miracle soup. But since Mike refused drinking more of the detoxifying soup after getting black stool, which was a good sign that it was working, I had to try using the excess burdock in another way.

My soup recipe book didn’t have a recipe for this, so when I saw Blessed Homemaker who loves making all sort of soups getting online in MSN, I asked whether she has one. She recommended me to this site . Ohhh... I don’t like pork trotters in soup, so I substituted it with pork ribs, something that I already have in my freezer, But her recipe is not all that complete with measurements, and I’ve measured out what I’ve used, so that you will know how much to put if you want to try.

Burdock and Red Bean Soup
Recipe loosely adapted from Retrenchee
150gm burdock /gobo (ngau phong)
25gm red dates
50gm red beans
2 candied dates
500gm spare ribs
2.5L water
Salt to taste

1. Soak red beans overnight in cold water or hot water for 2 hours
2. Wash burdock and slice, unpeeled.
3. Discard red date seeds.
4. Put everything into a pot and bring to a boil.
5. Lower heat to simmer for 2 hours and season with salt.

Beetroot and Sweetcorn Soup - Soup Week #1

I was attracted to this by the colour. I’ve never seen a Chinese soup using beetroot. So, this is a must try for me. Few times at Jusco, I can’t get nice beetroots, and then I finally got a nice blemish free, still plump beetroot. But then I forgot the white radish/daikon, but I usually prefer to get the slim and curvy type at a Malay vendor in KK. That variety taste much better than the fat plump straight variety.

But on the day I wanted to boil this, it rained cats and dogs, and I couldn’t go out to get my white radish. So, I just skipped it. It might still taste good, fingers crossed : )

Beetroot and Sweetcorn soup
Recipe adapted from : The Sweet Spot

400gm beetroot
2 ears of corn
200gm waterchestnut (7 large ones)
200gm carrots (2 medium ones)
200gm pork loin or lean pork, or 300gm pork ribs
2.5L water (10 bowls)

1. Bring the water to boil.
2. Peel beetroot, cut into chunks.
3. Peel waterchestnuts, cut into halves.
4. Peel carrots, cut into slanting chunks
5. Shuck the corn and cut into chunks
6. Cut pork into smaller pieces.
7. When water has come to a boil, put in everything and let it simmer for 2 hours.
8. Season with salt.

Verdict:
Yummy. Everybody loved this soup especially my Mother in Law.

Thanks Swee San for this cute soup... Oh yes, I do find this cute.