Tag Archives: food

Soup, Uncategorized

Trotter & Soy Bean Soup

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My husband suddenly mentioned collagen the other day. Trotters came to my mind immediately. So I decided to cook this soup. A very classic Chinese trotter and soy bean soup.

It’s a very simple but time-consuming soup.

  1. Wash trotters in water and remove the hair.
  2. Soak soy beans in advance for 2 or 3 hours at least.
  3. Place trotters, soy beans, ginger slices, in a pot. Add in enough water.
  4. Turn to high heat, bring it to boil first. Skim the soup. And simmer with low heat for 2 hours at least.
  5. Season with salt and garnish some chopped spring onion.

I used the rice cooker’s soup function and simmer it for over 4 hours. It turned out amazing.

Soup is sticky and rich. Meat can easily fall off from the bone. My husband drank a whole big bowl of soup very fast. He couldn’t stop and kept saying “delicious”.

mushroom

Steamed Enoki Mushroom

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Enoki mushroom is a necessary ingredient for hotpot or Sichuan ma la pot. Steam enoki mushroom is another way to cook them.

1. Remove the root. Rinse enoki mushroom under water. Drain them and place them in a plate.

2. Heat a pan. Add in 1 tablespoon oil. When oil is hot, add in 1 tablespoon chopped garlic and 1/2 tablespoon chopped ginger. Stir fry till aromatic. Also add in the salt and a little sugar.

3. Pour the hot oil over enoki mushroom in the plate.

4. Steam enoki mushroom over boiling water for 8 mins.

5. A pot juice will come out. Pour it out into the pan. Heat the pan again. Add in a little light soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and starch water. Reduce a bit. Pour back over the enoki mushroom.

https://flic.kr/p/2bx5CK6

Beef

Beef Stew 2.0

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The first time my husband and I wen to buy groceries after he came back, I suddenly stopped in front of the beef shelf. A voice talked to me in my mind “buy some beef and cook beef stew”. Then I bought beef. Haha.

I cooked tomato beef stew before. This time I’m gonna make a beef stew 2.0. 🙂

1. Cut beef into small cubes. Prepare 3 big rotten tomatoes. Cut a cross at the bottom. Soak in hot water for a little while. Peel them and chop into small dives.

2. Heat a pan. Oil in. Fry beef till brownish. Set them aside.

3. Same pan. Add in chopped 1/2 onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Sauté till aromatic. Add in tomato dice. Sprinkle a little salt and black pepper. Simmer a bit.

4. Transfer everything into a deep pot. Add all beef in. Pour in stock covers all ingredients. Also add in star anise, bayleaf, dried thyme. I also add in 1 tablespoon tomato sauce to make color brighter and 2 tsp sugar. Cover the lid. Simmer for 1 hour and a half. Trust me, your kitchen will be full of incredible smell.

5. Prepare 1 carrot and 2 small potatoes. Cut into small chunks. Add them into the pot. Simmer for another 30 mins.

6. Mix 2 tablespoon flour with water or stock till no lumps. Pour into the pot. Quickly stir evenly to make it rich and thick.

It’s perfect to go with rice or noodles. My husband really really loved it. He finished all rice in a great speed and kept saying yummy.

Chinese, egg, Quick recipe, shrimp

Scramble Eggs With Bitter Gourd & Shrimps

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I’m not surprised that my husband likes sweet food. But he also likes bitter gourd, which really does surprise me.

I think I used to cook bitter gourd by frying it or stir frying With scrambled egg or making it soup. I cooked scrambled eggs with bitter gourds for many many times. This time, I would like to add shrimps in.

It’s still quite easy.

1. Beat 3 eggs in a bowl. Stir with chopsticks. Cut 1/2 bitter gourd into slices (remove the seeds and white part first). Thaw the shrimps if you use frozen ones.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the pan. When it’s hot, pour the egg in. When the bottom starts to solidify, stir egg with chopsticks till almost cooked. Set aside for later use.

3. Add a little more oil if needed. Fry the shrimps till pinkish. Set them aside too.

4. Fry the bitter gourd slices in the same pan. Stir fry for around 3 mins.

5. Add all egg and shrimps back into the pan.

6. Season with salt and a little sugar. Stir fry evenly for another min.

Ready to serve.

Simple and healthy. Especially suitable for hot weather in summer.

Potato, Uncategorized

Mashed Potato

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1. Cut potatoes into small chunks. If your potatoes are very clean, you can peel them after boiling. If not, please peel them before boiling. Boil potatoes in hot water with some salt till completely soft.

2. Mash potatoes with a fork and set aside for later use.

3. Heat a sauce pan. Cut in 15g butter. When butter melts, add in 15g flour. Keep stirring till they get fully mixed. Keep low heat to avoid getting burnt.

4. When the flour & butter mixture turns brown, pour in 1 cup chicken stock. Keep stirring let flour & butter mixture dissolve in stock.

5. Season with 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1/4 tablespoon dark soy sauce, salt and black pepper. Keep stirring to reduce the sauce till very condensed and thick.

6. Pour sauce over mashed potato.

 

My husband gave it a big thumbs up.

Noodles

One-pot Long Beans, Pork & Noodles

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This is a very popular way to cook noodles in China.

1. Heat a pan, add in a little oil. Sear pork belly slices. Pork better has some fat, so pork belly is a good choice.

2. Add in chopped long beans. Stir fry till surface has some wrinkles on it.

3. Add in 1 tsp cooking wine, 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp white pepper, 1/2 tsp five spice powder and 1 tsp sugar. Stir fry evenly.

4. Place noodles on the top. Fresh soft noodles are the best choice. But if you use regular dry noodles, please boil them in advance till almost half cooked.

5. Pour in one small bowl of water along the pan. Cover the lid. Simmer till it dries up. Then add in another bowl of water. And simmer again. So this step is to steam the noodles.

6. When sauce reduces, turn to high heat. Remove the lid. Mix noodles well with sauce.

Serve hot.

Pork, Uncategorized

Yu Xiang Rou Si （Yu Xiang Shreded Pork)

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Yu Xiang Rou Si is a famous Sichuan dish. It’s Chinese name is 鱼香肉丝, because 肉丝 sounds like Rose. Many Chinese people joke its English name should be Yu Xiang Rose. 🙂

1. Cut pork into shreds. Put them in a bowl. Add in 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon cooking wine, 1 tsp salt and 1 tablespoon corn starch. Mix well and let them marinate for a little while.

2. Prepare the sauce:

2 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tsp salt and 1 tablespoon corn starch.

Mix all the ingredients above in a small bowl.

3. Heat a pan. Add in some oil ( a little more than usual). When oil is hot, add shredded pork in. Quickly separate them and fry them till white and cooked. The set them aside.

4. Same pan. Add a little oil if needed. Heat it. Sauté chopped garlic and ginger. Then add in 1 tablespoon Sichuan pixian soy sauce. Stir fry till aromatic.

5. Add in shredded carrot, black fungus. Stir fry till vegetables softens.

6. Add shredded pork in. Pour in sauce. Stir fry to mix well and reduce sauce. Add in shredded green chili. Stir fry for another 2 mins.

Ready to serve.

Breakfast

Oatmeal Bar

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When I made an adventurous journey in my kitchen searching for cookies, I found a pack of rolled oats. Then I remembered I bought it to make chocolate chip cookies. Now there is still 1/3 left.

When I explored the fridge for any ready-to-eat food, I found some black currant jam left in the bottle. My husband bought it long time ago to spread on his bread. I checked the expiry date, still safe to eat. So I decided to make this oatmeal bar to consume both oats and black currant jam.

Ingredients:

2 cups of oats

80g butter

70g flour

70g brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Place oats, sugar, flour, salt and baking soda in a big bowl. Mix them well.

2. Cut in butter. Make all ingredients into crumbs with ginger. This may take a little while.

3. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

4. Press 2/3 crumbs into the baking pan very firmly.

5. Spread jam over it. Apart from jam, you can also choose peanut butter or Nutella.

6. Sprinkle the rest crumbs on top.

In to the oven, bake for 30-35 mins till golden brown.

Cool down and cut into squares.

You can put them in an airtight box and save for breakfast.

https://flic.kr/p/29XRA2W

You can also add in chopped nuts. And reduced oats. And I cut down brown sugar so mine oatmeal bars are not very sweet. If you really like it to be more sweet, you can add more sugar.

Chicken

Oven Roasted Crispy Whole Chicken With Potatoes

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My chicken is a small one around 800g, which is enough for two people’s serving. I think I mentioned before that my husband is a meat lover. I was pretty sure he’s gonna love this dish before I even started cooking it.

1. Remove chicken’s head and butt, of course. Cut the chest open with a sharp knife. Sprinkle salt all over the chicken on both sides. Rub a bit by hands.

2. For the marinade:

1 tablespoon cooking wine, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon chopped garlic, 1/2 tablespoon chopped ginger, 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 tablespoon hoisin sauce ( you may find out that my recipe is pretty Chinese style).

3. Poke chicken several times with a toothpick. Then put it in a bag. Pour all the marinade in. Give the chicken a good massage. Put into refrigerator for overnight. Trust me, the flavor will definitely go in.

4. Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Prepare potatoes. Wash them clean and pat with kitchen towel till dry. Cut into halves. ( if potatoes are kind of medium size, better cut into fours). Sprinkle salt, paprika powder and olive oil. Toss a a bit.

5. Take the chicken out. Wipe chicken skin with kitchen towel. I even used a hair dryer to make sure skin is very dry. How insane I am! Better fix the chicken like the posture in the pic below. You can use toothpick like I did.

https://flic.kr/p/2bBsJaB

6. Spread butter onto the chicken skin. I’m very generous with butter.

7. Place chicken in a baking tray with skin side up. Scatter potatoes around it. Potatoes better not under chicken. I found pieces under chicken were still a bit hard and raw.

8. Into the oven for 30 mins. Then turn to 200 degree C and roast for another 10 mins to get the skin crispier. Incredible smell will fill up your kitchen.

Just as I expected, my husband really really loved it.

Potato, Quick recipe

Sweet Potato Snack

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A quick and easy snack with only 3 ingredients:

1 small sweet potato ( chopped into small dice)

1/4 – 1/2 cup flour

Around 1/4 cup water

1. Cut 1 small sweet potato into small dice. The smaller they are, it will be easier for them to be cooked.

2. Place sweet potato into a bowl. Add in 1/4 cup flour (maybe a little more).

3. Pour in water. Just to let sweet potato be coated with batter.

4. Brush pan with oil. Add spoonful batter into the pan. Fry till both sides turn golden brown.

If you want it to taste more sweet, you can add extra sugar. Just because my sweet potato is sweet enough to me, so I skip the sugar.

Don’t cut the sweet potato into big pieces. You don’t want your snack taste burnt with sweet potato is still raw and hard.