red dates

Watercress and Fish Ball Soup

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Watercress and Fish Ball Soup

People say watercress soup is good for this and that. Some say can even prevent cancer. All I know is when it is boiled as a soup, it tastes great. It is one of my go-to soups whenever I eat out at the food court.

I cooked the watercress by boiling it in the water as opposed to boiling the water then putting it in. I like the taste of the soup to be stronger. Instead of using pork ribs like I always do, I am opting to use chicken bones instead for a lighter flavour.

Add a few red dates to balance the sweetness against the bitter peppery taste and finish it off with non-spicy fish balls. Fish balls and watercress are unlikely travel buddies that have become great friends.

I also added a handful of mini-scallops (dried) to strengthen the flavour and a pinch of sea salt. The soup is sure to taste delicious by tonight. I am boiling the ingredients in water for about 10 minutes at high heat and then allowing it to cook further in the thermal cooker for about 12 hours.

Recipe

Ingredients

One bunch of Watercress (I always buy them fresh from the wet market)
A handful of mini-scallops (dried)
Chicken Bones for boiling the stock
A pinch of Sea Salt
A few Red Dates
A packet of non-spicy fresh Fish Balls

Method

1. Boil a kettle of hot water. While it is boiling. Place the chicken bones or carcass into the thermal cooker. Soak the watercress and remove dirt and debris.

2. Pour the hot water into the pot and boil the chicken bones. Add the mini-scallops and a pinch of salt. Then add the rinsed watercress and red dates. Boil at high heat for about 10 minutes with lid on.

3. Once the flavour of the watercress soup starts to emit from the lid, you know the soup is about ready. Add the fish balls and place the entire pot into the thermal cooker.

4. Come back 12 hours later and boil the soup again for dinner. East recipe.

Bon Appetit!

Drunken Prawns with Wolfberries and Red Dates

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Drunken Prawns with Wolfberries and Red Dates

Some people ask me why I post images of raw foods as opposed to delightfully photoshoped pictures. Well, I wanna show the freshness of the ingredients and to show that cooking is all about the beginning (as well as the journey) when you are about to cook because everyone will cook and their individual outcomes may all look different.

Don’t worry, I am sure you will make this dish look absolutely fabulous.

So drunken prawns with wolfberry and dates! Is this difficult to do? No way. It’s so easy I could have cooked it with my eyes closed. Try it.

Recipe

Ingredients

Freshest Prawns in the world
Handful of Wolfberries
4-5 Red Dates
Quarter cup of Hakka Rice Wine

Method

1. Shave off the whiskers of the prawns. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. But they look better clean shaven.

2. Arrange them in a steaming platter. Drop in the wolfberries and the red dates. Drizzle the rice wine all over the prawns. Place the plate in the steamer and steam for about 5 minutes and leave it there for another 1 minute with fire off but lid on. Then serve.

3. Steaming times differ. Depending on the size of the prawns, also if the water is boiling, the type of rice wine used, etc.. Blah blah blah.. Okay Nuff said, enjoy the process. I am sure yours taste the best.

Bon Appetit!

When Soups Get Complicated (Musing)

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When Soups Get Complicated (Musing)

There comes a time in the extended new dawn that there isn’t much to be afraid of anymore, where vampires and werewolves are just a figment of ingenious creative writing and gnomes and goblins become neighbours. There was no prodding or shoving of any kind this morning and I naturally got up and decided that there could be a greater purpose today than what it was originally intended for.

Time to make my soup, and perhaps a little more.

Today’s complicated soup of the day (just to prove that I am capable of complicated soups that still taste decent and nice), is none other than my easy as ABC soup, but with a little more pizzazz. So a complicated soup like this, would mean something like an ABCDEFG soup. I personally think that this soup has got great potential. It carries with it all the ingredients that came from near and far, and their masters’ blessings, hopes and understanding. These ingredients would typically hold its own weight, and be staple where they may come from. Carrots from Australia, Scallops from the sea of Japan, snowflakes from the top of the Himalayan ranges near the border. Yes, very exotic.

Ingredients that have no known origins, (actually I know where most of them came from) but where exactly, that is immaterial. What’s most important is that everyone is represented here in this huge pot, all ready to blend together and become one soup. So is it really a complicated soup then? Or is it really just a collation of many varied ingredients with distinct characteristics that would wow even the richest sheik or the wealthiest tycoon? Perhaps.

Recipe

Ingredients

200-250 grams of Pork Ribs *frozen or thawed – it doesn’t matter*

2 Carrots *cubed*

1 Sweet Corn *chopped*

1 Medium Yello Onion *sliced*

5 Dried Scallops (Japanese)

5 Dried Red Dates

1 handful of Wolfberries

 

Method:

1. Par boil the pork ribs and then discard the water. Boil a fresh pot of water, add all the ingredients and bring to an intense boil.

2. Once boiled for 15 minutes. The soup is ready for the thermal cooker.

3. Come back home and drink the soup.

Bon Appetit!

 

 

 

Simple Black Chicken Soup

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Simple Black Chicken Soup

The wifey broke my sleep and woke me up to the new dawn. She mumbled some words to which I had to say a “har?”. Maybe my brain is slow at processing slur words. So I asked her again, and it was then that I realized that she wanted me to cook one of my fabulous soups *shines fingernails*.

Alright, that shouldn’t be a problem, I thought to myself, making soups in the wee hours of the morning has now become my specialty. The only hurdle between me and making soup these days is probably the waking up part. It has been been a challenge since I got rid of that ridiculous cock-crowing ringtone which apparently irritated the entire population in my cluster; it also irritated my wife as well. So the ringtone had to go. Now in its place is this very zen and space-like ringtone named neon.

It’s not the John Mayer kind of neon with his signature slap and pluck style of guitar playing. But it was more like a vibrating double-stringed instrument sounding more like a cricket’s mating call. Very alien. Unfortunately it was also quite soft and good for if you wanted to continue to sleep.

“I already placed the black chicken in the sink.” came the voice in my semi-state of galactical subconsciousness. It was as if the voice transcended space and time to speak to me. “wake up lah.” My wife slapped my shoulder. Just as quickly my subconscious mind returned to full consciousness albeit my eyes still glued-closed due to excessive secretion of the tear duct (heaty?).

I peered into my mobile phone and it was just nice, one minute before neon; one minute before the new dawn. Now my quest can begin.

So to make black chicken soup the quick and dirty way, you really need a packet of dun ji tang herbs from the supermarket. This is the proven method of making the delicious soup. But the problem now is I am all out of the herbs! Jialat!

I really need to quickly summon my creative culinary powers in order to make sense of this newfound dilemma. Thankfully I always keep a stash of my favorite generic condiments somewhere, always ready to be deployed in any crisis of a lack of dun ji tang herbs.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 bottles of Brand’s Essence of Chicken
5 pieces of Japanese dried scallops
5 pieces of dried red dates
25 pieces of wolfberry seeds

Method

1. Par boil the chicken pieces to get rid of the scum.

2. Add in new water (not newater) and begin boiling. Add the chicken essence. Dump the condiments into the pot and close the lid.

3. After boiling for 10 minutes, place the pot into the thermal cooker and walk away. Serve at night when you return from work.

Bon Appetit!