I wrote earlier about the Barley Drink and Snow Lotus Soup.

But I forgot to tell you how long to cook them. Actually I prefer letting the soup slowly mature so I always cook over small fire. that means you can simmer the soup over 2 hours. You can also use a Slow Cooker for this purpose. It makes the soup extra sweet.

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*Lynspirations
Share and learn. Learn and share :)

Stay Home Day

Today is a Stay Home Day for me.

Wanted to bring my Darlings out, but the thunder frightened my Darling No 2 so much that he had to take shelter in my lap. (He wasn't in any mood to go out, not that I don't want to bring him).

I then decided to boil some soup.

This is a $7 pre-packed Chinese soup from my local neighborhood shop - Shop & Save. I am sure you can also get this from else where. Normally the price ranges from $3.50 to $5. I got this as I had never tried this recipe before. And I always buy those soup that "cools" the body. That's the power of Chinese herbs!

This is how the package looks like: Snow Lotus Soup. I did not use the claypot to cook my soup though, I use a normal metal pot. And I just found out there are other Lotus Soup out there too!

Click on the pictures to view them in larger size

Well, if you can see, here are some preparation guide and picture of what the soup is suppose to do:

 


When I tear open the packet, you can see that all the ingredients are packed individually. There's also this white thing that's wrapped in the plastic white protective sheet, normally for fruits.

Here's a closer view. I think this is the special lotus thing.

And last night I soaked some Chinese Barley and you can see the bubbles forming on the top of the water surface. From Wikipedia, Barley also can be used to make beer. Thus I deduce you can either drink beer or barley to cool your body! ;p Well, since I can't feed beer to my Darlings, I choose a simple Barley Drink!

Well here are the simple ingredients:

1 Cup of Barley

3 Cups of Water (may be added to taste)

3 Pieces of Winter Melon

3 Pieces of Rock Sugar (may be added to taste)

*Water must cover the ingredients

Well, it is a rainy day after all :)

Hope the rain will cool down the Earth and my fiery heart!

 



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*Lynspirations
Share and learn. Learn and share :)

Recipes - Chinese Lotus Root Soup (莲藕肉骨汤)

Haha, I am so happy! After eating my Chinese Lotus Root Soup...

Normally I manage to wait till I've written the article before eating, but this time I couldn't!

It is my first time cooking Lotus Soup and you will understand when you read on.

Well here are the simple ingredients:

400gram Lotus Root
1 cup of Cuttle Fish
14 piece of Red Dates
500gram Lean Pork or Spare Ribs or Pork Loin
1 clove of Garlic

*Water to cover the ingredients
*Salt and Pepper to taste

As I normally take the easy way out, I did not blanch or pre-boil the meat. If you would like a clear soup, you can pre-boil the meat. Once the outer layer of the meat is cooked (I will give it an estimation of 3minutes in boiling water), you can bring it under cool water and rinse away the extra stuff (I suppose these are the blood). This is how you can pre-boil meat for clear soups.

Anyway, I boiled the meat with the Red Dates and Garlic first. The soup would taste better if you choose a meat with some bones, like spare ribs. However if you don't, it will still taste nice if you have enough cuttle fish.

I like to boil the meat with the red dates so that the meat will be more thoroughly cooked. But if you over do it, when the soup is served after cooling, the meat may not be as tender. So you have to estimate yourself. My guide is 3 mins from start of heat (just before the water starts to boil). This is the same amount of time that the meat is submerged in the water as the pre-boil that I was talking about in my 1st paragraph, except that I am boiling the water from room temperature. The garlic is added to enhance the taste of the soup.

Then I added the cuttle fish. My dad bought the cuttle fish from Beijing, China and they are really sweet. I used the sliced version instead the whole piece type because I want the soup to have more cuttle fish taste. That is why I used 1 cup of cuttle fish. The cuttle fish is also the dried version. I don't know if you can buy fresh cuttle fish but I think dried cuttle fish would have been sun dried (or air dried) so that the natural salt content would have enhanced the favour. Of course, if additional salt has been added, you should wash it off. Too much salt is not good for health.

Now let's talk about the Lotus Root.

I added this last because I like it crispy. If you choose a good quality Lotus Root, you will see that the outer layer is smooth and without any cuts or blemish. Lotus Root, also known as Lily Root, has a mild, unique taste. It is also crunchy, like sugar cane or water chestnut. As it can be eaten raw, a short cooking time (like 5 to 10mins in boiling water) is recommended.

I read somewhere that it is a good source of Dietary Fiber, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Phosphorus, Potassium, Copper, Manganese and of course Vitamin C. Traditional use for it include remedy for lung-related ailments (asthma, cough) and to increase energy and neutralize toxins such as mucus accumulation, congestion, or inflammation.

The lotus root is sliced thinly so that it retains its crunchiness. This also allows its favor to sip into the soup to spin a fresh taste. I divided the lotus root into slices that are less than 1cm thick. As this is after all a root, you should wash off all soil remnants. There will be parts that are stained black due to the submersion under water. These should be cut away. If you cut it too thickly, it will not be as crunch and you may need a longer boiling time.

Take note that if you boil the soup longer, the meat will become tougher. As this is the last ingredient, I stirred the pot so that the lotus roots went to the bottom of the pot (not shown here).

So after boiling the lotus root for another 10minutes, I brought the pot to another area to cool.

Of course the easiest way to cook this is to throw all the ingredients into the pot and bring it to boil. You should give 10minutes of boiling time before switching off the heat. Let cool and serve.

Before serving, when the soup is still lukewarm, you may add 2 or 3 dashes of pepper and a teaspoon of salt to taste. If you normally do not add pepper, please do. The lotus soup requires it to enhance the taste further. It will taste more like an authentic Chinese cooking :)

I ladled the ingredients into the bowl for this picture to show you the ingredients. Though all the ingredients may be eaten, the focus is on the soup. If you just want to enjoy the soup, you can serve the soup along with the lotus root. The rest of the items do not have to be served.

The clear soup!

As I love vegetables, I cooked Chinese Cabbage as a side dish. This was cooked in 5minutes: a few slice of garlic and carrot, stir-fried with Light Soy Sauce.

The end product: a sumptuous home-cooked dinner!

You may want to view my other recipes here or surf around my blog here.

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*Lynspirations

Love soup? or Love food? Try this recipe now :)

Brown rice, brocolli, cabbage, pear

Another recipe. I cooked this for my darlings but I took it for my dinner too.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Brown Rice

1 cup Brocolli

1/2 cup Cabbage

1 Pear

Place all ingredients in the cooker and cook till the rice is soft. Serve when cooled.

Tastes bland without any seasoning but it is healthy. Alternative, you may want to just boil the ingredients without the brown rice. It is a tasty soup too :)

Recipes - Black Bean Pork Soup

Today I made the infamous Black Bean Pork Soup.

Saw it on a chinese programme that provides special information on traditional chinese remedies.

I forgot what it was suppose to do, but the soup was so simple. I remembered there are only 3 ingredients that are necessary.

1) Pork
2) Black Beans
3) Gou Qi or WolfBerry

*Word of Caution: Water is required for the soup!

I used about 250grams of pork. I choose a pre-packed sliced pork because it meant that every part could be eaten. As I am conscious about avoiding fats in animal products (and I do try to cut down on animal proteins) I used the bare minimum amount of meat I have to. If you are a meat lover, you can try to have those spare parts that are supposed to be used for cooking soup. Or you could even replace with other forms of meat such as mutton. Chicken may be substituted but it is normally not used for Chinese soups because the meat and bones soften easily and is not suitable for boiling soup that requires long cooking hours or double boiling.

But to try the soup, any type of meat will do :)

For the next ingredient, you can buy the Black Beans in either dry or canned form:














In my recipe, I used about 120gram of the Black Bean. Or about 2 cups of it.

I understand from some website that these beans are considered "heaty". But it was not mentioned in the Chinese program and I do think the type of cooking determines if it is heaty or not. I read that it is also a major ingredient in those "nutritious food" meant for pregnant or ladies in confinement.

It is a great source of fibre and plant protein.

The last ingredient is the Gou Qi. It is funny but I always cannot remember the Chinese name of this ingredient. It is about 3/4 cup. I rather you proportion this to 1/4 the amount of Black Beans you are using.

From the Wikipedia, the Wolfberry or Gou Qi looks like this.



And this is their natural form (still on the tree). They do look like some of those poisonous fruits that I had been warned from young. So I suggest to get these from shops and do not try to pluck them from the natural woods or forest.

The Gou Qi is supposed to be good for eyes. My father even drinks tea from it (He adds Hot - not boiling - water to it and drinks. I think he uses about 1 tea spoon of Gou Qi per cup)

The dried Gou Qi does not require alot of cooking to soften it. In fact, soaking it in luke warm water will allow its medicinal properties to be dissolved in the water. But for Chinese soups, the Gou Qi is doubled boiled or put into the soup with the rest of the ingredients at the start to save the hassle of "looking after the soup". It will looked very dissolved when the soup is finally done.

This is what my soup looks like:

Notice that the Gou Qi has lost its brilliant red color.

A side view:

Another angle

As you can see, the pork is a sliced version. The Black Beans actually looks green color if you sliced it apart after cooking it.

I tasted the soup without adding any other stuff like salt or sugar. In fact, it tasted so nice that I wondered if adding anything is necessary. The soup tasted abit salty but just nice to my taste bud.

Oh! Did I mention the amount of water you need to put in? Just cover either all the ingredients or half the height of the pot that you are using. You do not need alot of water for this soup.

Hope you liked it!

*Lynspirations

Do try!

Recipes - Old Yellow Cucumber Soup

I have a sudden craving for the Old Yellow Cucumber soup.

This is the Old Yellow Cucumber that I was talking about.

Here is my secret recipe :)


Utensils
Chopping Board
Chopper
Pot (height of at least 15cm or 6 inches)


Ingredients
Old Yellow Cucumber (sliced into 3 or 4 big pieces, with seeds removed)
2 teaspoon of salt
5 piece of red dates (seedless if you can manage)
250g pork ribs (choose large bones so that the soup will have more favour)
1.5 litre of water


Place all ingredients into the pot and bring to boil. Once the soup is ready, remove from stove (or switch off heat). Serve when cool.


The soup should be clear with a fragrant that is simply mouth-watering. Normally when you cook, you need to add sugar to make the soup sweet. But the red dates works by distributing its sweetness and adding the soup's thickness. 


This soup dish is best served with a plate of green vegetables.

*Lynspirations

I love soup 

Recipes - Green Bean Soup

I have been boiling Green Bean Soups for the past 3 days and drinking the soup really cools the body and remove heatiness.

I used 3/4 cup of green beans, 6 red dates, 1 cup of white fungus and boiled with around 2 litres of water. Please add rock sugar or white sugar to taste. Personally I drink it without sugar because I do not like added sugar. You can try to have more red dates but more red dates will make the drink less cooling.

I let the pot cool down 3 to 4 hours before drinking it. It will be quite thick the more you let it sit.

The potful of softened green beans and the expanded white fungus will taste really palatable if you like mushy stuff. If not, a few table spoonful of these and 2 cups of this soup will cool you down.

SJ also suggested boiling barley but I have yet to try it yet.

This was in part because of the Chinese New Year cookies I have been snacking on... I loved the Prawn Rolls from Bee Cheng Hiang or

You should try their Prawn Rolls if you have not tasted it before...

Pictures from their website:

You may want to read up on your own regarding Traditional Chinese Medicine here at Shen-Non site on:

Body Constitutions
Dietary Advice for Different Body Constitutions
Health Topics

Recipes - Banana Cake

Banana Cake 

Ingredients

3 bananas (riped and soften)
3 cup butter (softened)
3 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar (fine)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 cup almond flakes (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Smash peeled bananas with a fork and let it stand at room temperature.

In large bowl, cream together butter and white sugar until smooth. (The effect will be better if you cut the butter into smaller pieces first)

Add the eggs one at a time and carry on mixing till all 3 eggs are added.

Stir together flour in very small amount at one time.

Add vanilla to smashed bananas and add to mixture.

Gradually add almond flakes to the creamy mixture.

Transfer entire mixture to baking pan.

Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Cool slightly, remove from sheet to wire rack.

Cool completely.

*Lynspirations

I can't stop raving about this recipe!

Banana Cake Time!

Just made a Banana cake and it is so nice!

It is not oily to the touch, not that sweet (if you don't really like sweet stuff) and it smells so yummy!

Here it is...

Isn't the color tempting?

This is taken with natural lighting. Somehow the flash in the first picture makes it nicer!

Here is the empty space for the first piece (went to my small brother).

I wanted to zoom in to focus on the texture but somehow I think I need to retake my photography classes again...

Here are the ingredients. By the way, I will be posting the recipe for this Banana Cake.

There you go, 250 grams of butter (but I used lesser than than as I cleared the remaining butter that I had from my last baking), 3 eggs, 3 riped bananas, 2 cups of all-purpose flour (not the entire packet my dear) and a cup of sugar. Actually, I also used less than a cup of sugar.

I never believe in using so much butter and sugar, anyways...

And I have to smash the bananas and let it sit in the room temperature to let it further ripen.  And the bowl is my creamed mixture of sugar, butter and eggs.

And then I poured in the smashed bananas. By the way, I did add a teaspoon of vanilla essence to enhance the smell.

Finally I felt the mixture was too creamy and I decided to add in some almond flakes for some backup measures ;p

And of course I put the mixture into my oven at 180 Degrees Celsius.

Gave 2 pieces to my Darlings each.

Another picture with flash on.

There... wish you were here to enjoy it with me. 

*Lynspirations

Banana cakes are so easy to make but so sinful!