Kelp and Nori Soup 海带紫菜汤

Kelp and nori soup.

Kelp is also known as kombu, or 海带.
Nori is the type of seaweed used to wrap sushi. The type I used today is the snack pack nori.

I was curious about this soup found in a recipe book I have. And it's a great way to use up nori snacks that have turned limp in our humid weather.

Sliced Beef Soup ~ Sup Daging @ My Fav Ala-Thai #2

My low carbo fix for supper cravings!
This is what I will order if I want something light for the tummy. I know....  'light'... *laughing cheekily*

Ala-Thai eateries usually will have a big pot of beef broth in their kitchen, mainly from boiling the beef chunk for their beef stir fry dishes.

Taiwanese Hakka Tang Yuan - AFF Taiwan ~ Chewies #3

Tang Yuan, is usually eaten during the Winter Solstice Festival.
They are made with glutinous rice flour, round and chewy.
One can either make them plain, or filled with fillings like red bean, peanuts, or  black sesame paste.

For the Taiwanese Hakka, they will cook tang yuan in a savoury broth. They love to use aromatic vegetables in the broth. My family also cooks savoury tang yuan, but not in the same way.

Kongnamul Guk @ Soybean Sprout Soup - AFF Korean Soups #1

From where did I hear of this soup? The Korean show Full House. Rain, the actor keep on asking the lady, Ji Eun to cook this for him. I wondered... bean sprout soup? How nice can it be? Kind of bland as I imagined it.

Kongnamul Guk is a popular breakfast soup, and it it also used for hangover relief.
I went through a few recipes, as some really is plainly salt, water and beansprouts. I chose the most complex version of it, with garlic, chilli and stock :)

Zucchini Salted Egg Quick Soup - Zucchini Courgette #2

I cooked this dish based on another common quick soup in Cantonese cuisine, that is the Hairy Marrow Soup (毛瓜汤).

I thought, why not cook zucchini or courgettes this way too! As they are squashes and taste soooo sweet.
I liked the result, and so did my kids.

Chinese Cabbage Rolls in Broth - Chinese Cabbage #2

This idea of doing something like this has been in my head for quite some time after seeing these on Anne's blog.

Finally I got it done and there are some regrets to it. I think my filling needs some changes. It's tender, but a bit too tender for me, it doesn't fall apart, but.. then.. maybe I should just skip the egg, give the mince more workout, because I used frozen mince, which tends to be softer than fresh. But it was well received by my kids and Lydia could eat up one large roll herself and asking for more, LOL.

Miyeok Guk, Korean Seaweed Soup - Confinement Month # 9

My brother went to Korea lately and bought a large pack of Korean seaweed for his wife and I.  My SIL just had a baby, Arianna 5 weeks before Reuben came by. Yes, he is Reuben for life now. It's black and white in his birth certificate. My dear brother then bought the beef stock powder from Jaya Grocer, googled up a recipe, passed to my mom and taught my mom how to prepare it for my SIL who was in confinement at that time.

Clams in Broth 上汤蝲蝲

Lala is the local name for the clams used here. It's a thin shelled clam that is not found countrywide naturally. But sold countrywide. Maybe for the peninsula only. I'm not sure. East Malaysians, would be glad to get your clarification on this.

I'm not the type of person that consumes all molluscs. I don't like mussels and oysters. But I like them in soups, but don't ask me to bite into one. I CANNOT comsume cockles, no matter how tasty they are, no. I'd be in the toilet the whole day. I like scallops but they are too pricey. So, the cheapest and tastiest for me is Lala.
Used to be cheaper, but recently due to low supplies, prices hit RM8kg, which is considered rather pricey.

Lalas are very sweet, but they are dirty. They live in mud, not sand beds. So, you must wash them internally before cooking.
How to wash the insides? Soak them in salt water(as salty as the sea), not fresh water. If not, you'd kill them. You don't want to eat dead clams. When they sense there is salty water around them they will open up their shells and this way, the mud in them wil be spit out as well. Soak for a few hours at least. And never ever chill your lalas, you'd kill them too. Buy them the day you want to eat. If you intend to cook it for dinner but bought it in the morning, keep them alive in salt water. After cooked, do not eat any closed clams. Only eat opened up clams.

If you intend to cook them with a thick gravy, do not dump them straight into your wok. They'd release so much moisture you will have soup at the end and not thick gravy. Parboil the lalas before adding into you favourite gravy. You can check out my Spicy LaLa post.

But today, I intend to cook this with something light and clear. With broth. My hubby was estatic when he knew I was cooking lala for dinner, but when he saw I cooked it in broth, he said, 'Ohh Wasted. I thought you're going to cook spicy lala." But in the end, he slurped every bit of the broth, took 2nds and 3rds. Licking the bowl clean each time. Hahah! Never judge a book by its cover, or maybe a broth by it's colour.

This dish is inspired by Shogun. A Japanese buffet restaurant in Klang Valley. I know it's not one of the best places to eat Japanese food, but just close one eye for the price that one pays. They have this 'clams in superior stock' that I'd eat by the bowlsful each time I go there. My hubby wonders why. Hahaha. I did not use superior broth, but just frugal dried anchovies and this is good enough for us. The soup was cleared up by only 4 adults. MSG free and absolutely SWEEEEEEEEET!

Clams in Broth
Recipe source: Wendyywy

1kg lala clam
1/2 bowl dried anchovies, rinsed
1 L water

2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed, do not chop
2 shallots, sliced
2 inch ginger, julienned
2 Tbsp goji berries (wolfberry)
Large handful of Chinese Celery / Kan Choy/ Daun sup
2 Tbsp Shao Xing Wine
Salt to taste

1. In a small pot, put in 1 tsp oil and saute rinsed anchovies for a while. Put in water and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook until broth turns whitish.
2. Soak lalas in salt water for few hours. Wash and rinse a few times in fresh water just before cooking. Removing clams with only mud in them. Some clams were long dead and the shells were filled with mud instead.
3. Heat a bigger pot /wok and put in 1 Tbsp oil. Put in smashed garlic and sliced shallots and cook until fragrant, no need to be golden.
4. Put in rinsed lalas and pour in hot strained broth. Add more water if needed. Put in ginger.
5. Bring a boil and season with salt.
6. Put in goji berries and cook until clams have opened up. Turn off the heat and put in Chinese celery and Shao Xing Wine.

Don't forget that I'm posting Mon-Fri.

See you on Monday.

Berry Week

Goji Soup with Salted Duck Egg

We are familiar with goji berries or wolfberries. But do you know that the Gau Gei soup are made with the leaves of the goji berry plant? It’s just that the goji plant flowers but never fruits here.

Goji plants are very easy to plant. You can just use the stems of the ones you bought. After you’ve taken off the leaves for the soup, tuck that stem into some soil, in a area with good light, water it twice a day, and later on you’ll have goji leaves sprouting out. Give it more time, and then it’ll grow into a bush. My mom did that once, but it didn’t take long for us to eat off the plant : ) We were consuming faster than it could grow.

When I was 13, I did marketing for mom. Everyday she’ll tell me what to buy and which stall to go to. And 2 months after that, she no longer told me what to buy and I’ll decide by myself. One day, I bought these goji stalks and the lady who sold me them told me, the soup is best made with salted egg, not regular chicken eggs.

So now, may I present to you Goji Soup with salted duck egg.

180gm goji stalks (pluck only the leaves, discard the stems) Caution: Stems are thorny
1 salted egg (break the egg into a bowl, cut the yolk into small pieces, put the yolk back into the whites)
1 Tbsp wolfberries/goji berries
1/3 cup dried anchovies, rinsed
1 tsp oil
1L water
Salt to taste

1. Put anchovies into saucepan/wok and put in oil. Let it fry for a while. Put in water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Strain the anchovy stock. Return stock to pot. (You can skip step 1 and 2 if you prefer to use stock cubes)
3. Bring stock to a boil, with a ladle in one hand and the salted egg in another hand, pour the salted egg into the pot with the other hand stirring so that the egg will not clump together.
4. Now, taste the soup. If it’s not salty enough, add in salt. Do not season before the salted egg, because you won’t know how salty the egg will be.
5. Put in goji berries. Then the goji leaves. Stir and bring back to a boil.
6. Remove from heat and ladle into bowl to serve.

I wonder how do you clean those dirty looking salted duck eggs? Rinse the while thing under running water??? Or just rub it off with bare hands??? I always rub off the dirt before washing in a "wanted to throw away" plastic bag. And If you have a garden, rinse the egg there, so that the dirt won't clog your sink.

Tomato and Egg Soup 番茄蛋汤

Lydia loves this soup.
Simple, easy, done in just 5 minutes!!

2 large tomatoes, cut into chunks.
2 large eggs
1L water
2 Tbsp cooking oil
Salt to taste
Good dash of pepper
Handful of Chopped spring onions

Heat wok/pot and put in oil. Put in tomatoes. Stir fry until slightly soft and put in eggs. Scramble and let the eggs cook until fragrant.
Put in water and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for 1 minute, season with salt and pepper. Put chopped spring onions into serving bowls and ladle soup onto the spring onions. Serve hot with rice :)

The scum on the soup is caused by the eggs. Don't worry about its looks :)

Minestrone

Minestrone, pronounced :- meen -es-strohn -ay

I first made this dump in soup when I was 11 or 12.. don’t quite remember the exact time, but it was definitely the early times when I first learnt to cook. I didn’t know that it’s an actual soup called minestrone. To me at that time, it's just a no name soup.

How come I could bump into a minestrone soup? Well, my mom liked to buy vege that can keep well in the fridge, and these were available in the fridge at that time. So, I put in whatever I could find, pork, celery cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, and onions. I liked the outcome of this soup, so I made this dump in soup with the same ingredients the next time, and the next time, and the next time.Minestrone was made with broth as the soup base, I just made the meat broth as I made the soup.

Sigh…. I guess I have to change the ingredients next time I make this, no more tomatoes in my minestrone, as Mike doesn’t quite like tomatoes. But it does taste good with them in, what can I do? He doesn’t like the red plump fruits.
Therefore goodbye my old warming friend, and I shall say hello to the new tomatoless minestrone next time.. The name Minestrone still sticks to it, as there are no rules to a minestrone.

1 cup cabbage, cut into 1 inch squares
1 cup sliced celery
¼ cup sliced carrots
2 tomatoes, cut into 8pcs each
¼ cup sliced red onion
100gm thin pork/chicken slices
3 cups water
1 Tbsp oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat pot and put in oil.
2. Put in onion and sauté until fragrant, but dun brown it.
3. Put in pork slices and fry for a while until colour changes white.
4. Pour in water, tomato and carrots.
5. Bring to a boil, let simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Put in celery and cabbage. Simmer for another 3 minutes.
7. Season soup with salt and pepper. Serve.

Chinese Chives Soup 韭菜汤

Chinese Chives (gow choy) sounds the same as nine veg.. and many people refrain from eating this after having measles or chicken pox because, they believe they’ll get 9 times of that disease if they consume this 9 veg.

When I was a kid, I hated Chinese Chives… the smell was urgh!!!!!

Then grandaunt made this soup.. that was when it changed my opinion about this member of the onion family. It became my next favourite veg.

From a smelly green thingy.. it became the sweetest veg to my tastebuds…

A very easy soup to make

Chinese Chives Soup
½ cup dried anchovies, wash and drained
1 Tbsp oil
1L water
Salt to taste

10 fishballs
100gm Chinese chives cut into 3cm lengths)
1 egg , beaten

Heat a pot and put in oil. Stir fry anchovies until fragrant and pour in water. Let boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove anchovies and season with salt.

Put in fish balls and wait for them to float.
Put in Chinese chives and wait for soup to boil.
Drizzle in beaten egg while stirring continuously with a ladle.
Turn off the heat and serve.

Chicken and Oyster Mushroom Soup 平菇鸡汤

This soup was created way back in 2001, when I was still staying with my buddies after graduation.

I never liked Chicken Rice Wine Soup, I like it before the wine is added, but not after the wine. So, my grandaunt will always ladle out one bowl for me before she adds the wine. That was when I was a child.

Many many years later, I wanted to do 'that pre wine chicken soup', and there were these mushrooms in the fridge almost going to go rotten if I don't cook it soon. So, in they went into the soup... and it made it even more delicious. The grey oyster mushrooms added an extra touch of sweetness to the soup..and it thickens the soup a bit.. lovely addition..

This soup has lots of ginger in it, and my hubby is no fan of ginger... yet, he says it is good! Best taken on a cold rainy day...

Chicken and Oyster Mushroom Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1 chicken whole leg or 2 thighs (cut small)

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup of ginger (roughly 6 inches), smashed with the back of a cleaver. (If u like to eat ginger, by all means, slice it or julienne it)

2 tbsp oil

4 cups water

200 gm grey oyster mushroom (torn to smaller pieces)

Method:

1. Marinate chicken pieces with salt for 15 minutes.

2. Heat wok, fry ginger with oil until slightly golden.

3. Put in marinated chicken and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.

4. At this point, if you want to discard some oil, you may do so.

5. Pour in water and bring to a boil. Simmer chicken soup on medium heat for 10 minutes.

6. Add in oyster mushrooms and simmer for another 3 minutes.

7. Taste and place onto a bowl.

Amaranth Soup with Century Eggs 皮蛋苋菜汤

What is amaranth? Some Malaysians may not know.

What is bayam? We know.

Bayam is edible Amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor, A. gangeticus, A. oleraceus, A. mangostanus ) lor! Hmmm..some may call it spinach, but spinach is Spinacia oleracea. Well, some call bayam as Chinese Spinach, but in Wikipedia, Chinese Spinach can also be Kangkung(Ipomoea aquatica) and Malabar Spinach or as Malaysian call it as Emperor's Shoots (Basella alba)

For those that can understand cantonese, what do u think is spinach then.....? In Cantonese Spinacia oleracea is Por Choy, and edible amaranth is Yeen Choy, Kangkung is Ong Choy and not forgetting Malabar Spinach is Charn Choy or Tai Wong Choy too.

For those that cannot understand cantonese, just a look at the scientific name and make ur verdict.

Ok, enough said about spinach. This page is about edible Amaranth.

So, here's a picture of my soup



It does look a bit murky, due to the century eggs. My hubby loves this soup.

Amaranth Soup with Century Eggs Recipe

Ingredients:
A bunch of Amaranth (about 150-200 gm before trimming)
A handful, abt half cup of cleaned anchovies (bilis, I used Terengganu large anchovies, really yummy)
1 tbsp oil
1 century egg (cut into 8 pcs)
3 cups water (water will be reduced when simmering bilis)
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Heat a saucepan, put in oil and saute the anchovies for a while and put in water. Boil, cover and turn low heat simmer for at least 15 minutes.
2. Take out the boiled anchovies. (U can retain them if u want, but they're rather tasteless already)
3. Put in trimmed Amaranth and boil for a minute or 2 depending on size of plant, baby bayam will need less time. Add salt and taste.
4. Put in century egg and boil for another minute. (this makes it murky, but it taste better)
5. Place soup in a bowl and serve.