[Recipe] Prawn Noodles Soup

The craving for this bowl of prawn noodle soup came suddenly one day; I missed my late dad's prawn noodles soup, he's best at making this! We often teased him that his bowl of prawn noodles would easily fetch $15 a bowl, as it was always packed with loads of good stuff (huge prawns, loads of pork ribs and vegetables), and the broth was simply too good that it's beyond description!

Alas, I never did make it a point to jot down the recipe when my dad was still around, nevertheless, with a tip given by a friend, I managed to make myself a nice pot of prawn & pork ribs broth that was as close as I can get to my dad's recipe.

Preparing the ingredients wasn't that difficult all it took was time and patience. The most important thing of the prawn noodles soup was the broth, so give it a bit of time and "love" you'll yield yourself a wonderful pot of broth.

Ingredients
800gms prawns (legs and feelers trimmed; keep the shell in tact)
500gms prime pork ribs
500gms pork bones
chicken bones of 1 chicken
1 medium size chinese turnip (cut into large chunks)*
1 head of garlic (cut into half length wise; put into a soup pouch)

photo credit link

50gms fried shallots
2tbsp rock sugar
2tbsp fish sauce
1tsp of dark soya sauce (for the colour)
salt to taste
a bunch of kang kong (aka water spinach)
100gms bean sprouts
2 fish cakes (sliced)
Fresh Egg Noodles (yellow mee)
Vermicelli (bee hoon)

Photo credit link

*note: this is how the secret ingredient looks like :)

Method of preparation

1. boil a pot of water; when water is boiled blanch the pork ribs & pork bones for 5minutes; set it aside once done.
2. in a separate pot (use the pot which you'd boil the broth in), boil 3 litres of water; once water is boiled cook the prawns in the water, this will take about 2-3mins; set the prawns aside to cool down.
3. once the prawns have cooled remove the head and shell (do not discard the shells and heads)
4. place garlic, chicken bones, pork ribs, pork bones, prawn shells/heads, turnip, fried shallots and all seasoning (rock sugar, fish sauce, dark soya sauce) into the soup pot and bring mixture to a boil then simmer for 2-3hours.
5. skim the top layer of the soup and discard the scum 
6. once broth is ready add salt to taste then drain the soup into a separate pot through a sieve; discard turnip, pork bones and chicken bones.
7. boil water to blanch the noodles and vermicelli in a separate pot; use the same pot of water to blanch the bean sprouts, kang kong and fish cake
8. serve by topping the pork ribs, prawns, fish cake and vegetables followed by the broth
9. if you like, you may garnish the noodles with fried shallots and red cut chilli (or chilli powder)  

Enjoy!

Versatile Vegetable Soup Base

I love soups and I used to think only meat can offer the best flavour for making soups. Well, I was in for a surprise!

With the use of a variety of vegetables we CAN make tasty and flavourful, not withstanding extremely nutritious soups too!

Here's a soup base recipe that I've used for quite a number of my meatless meals. The kids and hubby love it and so do I. What's more, the colours of the ingredients have already won me over, I simply love colourful food!

Vegetable Soup Base (A)

Ingredients required - 1 large Carrot cut into chunks, 3 stalks of Celery cut into 3 parts each, 5 Shitake Dried Mushrooms (there's no need to rehydrate them beforehand), 1 Sweet Corn, 1 large Onion cut into half, 5 cloves of Garlic. Boil all the ingredients in a pot of water sufficient to cover all the ingredients. Once water start boiling simmer for an hour, add salt to taste. Discard all ingredients after sieving the soup into a separate pot.

Vegetable Soup Base (B)

Ingredients required - 1 large Carrot cut into chunks, 2 stalks of Celery cut into 3 parts each, 5 Shitake Dried Mushrooms (likewise not required to rehydrate them), 1 Sweet Corn, 1 large Onion cut into half, 3 medium size Potatoes cut into chunks, 3 medium size Tomatoes cut into wedges. Boil all the ingredients in a pot of water sufficient to cover all the ingredients. Once water start boiling simmer for an hour, add salt to taste. Discard all ingredients after sieving the soup into a separate pot.

With this soup base I've made the following as meals

What I did with this soup meal was I boiled the chickpeas separately for about an hour till it was tender. I boiled all the rest of the ingredients in the soup base I made till they are cooked through, except for the Chickpeas and Kailan (green leafy vegetable), I added those just a minute before the heat was turned out.

This meatless Miso Soba Noodle meal was easy peasy. I boiled the soba till it's cooked in just plain boiling water. I cooked the tofu, mushrooms and green vegetables (in this case was Kailan) in the ready soup base. I added miso after all the cooking was done. Assemble the ingredients together and top the noodles with chopped spring onions, sesame seeds and Japanese hot pepper powder. 

This was even easier, other than the Chickpeas being boiled separately, the rest of the ingredients were taken out from the soup base.

The soup base can also be used for other meals/dishes that requires soup stock. Try it some time! Let's journey through a healthy eating lifestyle!

Meatless Meal Plans

I shared a little about why I decided to have an overhaul of my diet plans in my other blog. I am convinced that it was no coincidence neither was it by chance that I felt deeply within me that a drastic change in my dieting habits was necessary.

With that, I am following the principles laid down in the book, "What the Bible Says About Healthy Living", I've worked out a weeknight dinner meal plan for the entire month of May. I do not believe in a complete vegetarian diet would be the key to healthy living but I am making a deliberate effort to be mindful of the ingredients I choose to cook with. While I have set out to a meatless diet for weeknight dinners, on the weekends we will consume meat mainly chicken and fish and occasionally beef. It will be based on the following principles -

• Eat only substances God created for food. Avoid what is not designed for food.
• As much as possible, eat foods as they were created - before they are changed or converted into something humans think might be better
• Avoid food addictions. Don't let any food or drink become your god.

As for what in specific I choose to and choose not to eat, you might want to read in detail from this link.

Here's our weeknight dinner meal plan for the month of May.

I took about a day to carefully select the recipes and work into the meal plan ensuring that it's something my family would find palatable yet adhere to going meatless. Some of the recipes can be found on the internet (which I will leave a link to them) while others were picked out from some of the recipe books I have in my own collection. Most of which would be adapted or adjusted according to with as little processed ingredients/seasoning as possible.

Here's our grocery haul for this week (mainly ingredients for our weeknight dinners). The overall total was kept within a budget of $50. I must say, going meatless helped with keeping our budget low.

Our dinners this week
Monday

Long Bean Omelette (can't go wrong with this dish, it's the family's favourite)
Nonya Vegetable Stew (packed with loads of vegetables; I have switched to mushroom sauce instead of oyster sauce in the recipe)

Tuesday

Fried Bee Hoon (one of my favourite one-pot meal!)

Wednesday

Vegetarian Tofu (simple but tasty)

Broccoli & Cauliflower Stir-fry (easy peasy dish done just by frying it with minced garlic)

Thursday

Meatless Fried Rice (Fill us well and satisfied!)

Friday

Stir Fry Chinese Mustard Green and Stir Fry Bean Sprouts with Miso Tofu Soup
(I've made a slight tweak to Friday's meal, as I've some ingredients left over which was meant for my lunch meals of the week. Not wanting to keep them over the week, decided to just use them up).

Update:
We've survived five evenings of fully meatless dinners and I must say it was tempting to want to swap one of the dishes to a meat dish *hah* but I reminded myself just keep to it and we can do it! 

I've also made it a point not to consume anymore food after 8pm, yes, not even fruits or a healthy snack. I (just me alone) fasted from 8pm all the way till the next day 12noon and within this period I just drank water. This fast kept me alert and I was able to accomplish a lot more things within the day before the kids were home from school, it was amazing! I've also noticed that I have lost a few cm all around my body!!! Oooh I am so loving my new diet and I know I can get use to it! 

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Here's another inspiring story by a fellow blogger friend who's embarked on the healthy eating and healthy living journey for the past few months. Read her story and pick up a new tip or two, she's got loads of wonderful information to share!

[Recipe] Fried Bee Hoon - Meatless

I used to always think in everything that I cook I MUST add meat unless it's stir-fry vegetables or a pure vegetable dish.

For as long as I've been cooking meals for my family, I've never once fried bee hoon without meat. I didn't think fried bee hoon would be tasty without any meat, so I was a little apprehensive at how this meal might taste.

I wasn't disappointed! With a wide variety of colours in the fried bee hoon, it was already very appetising even without eating!

To prepare this meal, it was SO simple. I love loads of colours in my meal because I know it is first very appetising, secondly, since we are not having any meat within the meal, I need to find substitutes for the protein that we will be lacking from. Thirdly, with a wide variety of different vegetables, we will have a vast amount of different nutrients drawn from them. So even without meat in our meal this evening, we were still able to have loads of good stuff packed within it.

Recipe for 4 pax
Ingredients
Dried rice vermicelli (bee hoon) (rehydrate it by soaking in water till soft)
1 Carrot (julienned)
1/2 Zucchini (julienned)
100gms Bean Sprouts (roots plucked)
6 Shitake Mushrooms (thinly sliced)
2 Eggs (beaten and fried as an omelette then shredded)
1 Red chilli (seeded, julienned) - you may replace it with red bell pepper
4 Cloves garlic (minced)
2 Onions (thinly sliced)
1" long ginger (skinned and flattened)
3tbsp light soya sauce
1tbsp dark soya sauce
1/2 cup Water
Salt & Pepper to taste

Process
1) Heat a tablespoon of cooking oil in a wok then saute the aromatics (ginger, garlic & onion) for a minute
2) Add all the vegetables except bean sprouts, stir-fry the vegetables for 2 minutes then add 1tsp of salt. When the vegetables are almost cooked down, add in the bean sprouts and stir fry for another minute.
3) Pour in the water followed by the rice vermicelli, add the seasoning (light and dark soya sauce)
4) Toss the vermicelli to even out the seasoning till it's well combined.
5) Taste to test if the seasoning is sufficient otherwise add a tsp more of light soya sauce if you prefer.
6) Turn out the heat and combine the shredded omelette into the mixture and serve with spring onions/red cut chilli (optional).

[Recipe] Vegetarian Tofu

This dish caught my attention as I was conscientiously trying to lift out all recipes that are mainly vegetarian/vegan/vegetable based from the cookbooks I have in my home library.

It's simple and I was able to adapt it by changing the vegetables that I fancy. The main thing that brought the dish together was the sauce. So this was a hit with my family that they asked for "repeat order" (ie. to have this in our next dinner meal in the near future).

With very simple ingredients everything can be pull off within minutes!

2 Pieces of Firm Tofu, sliced into approx 1cm thickness; then pat them completely dry

Pan-fry them till they form a crispy exterior - approx 5mins each side. Once done, set it aside.

Ingredients that I've used as the vegetable topping. Originally the recipe calls for baby corn, black fungus and mushrooms. Well I love my food colourful so these were the ones I've used - 1/2 pack of Sweet Snap Peas, Yellow Bell Pepper (thinly sliced into strips, Red Chilli (seeded & cut into thin strips), 1/2 Carrot (julienned), 2 Fresh Shitake Mushrooms (thinly sliced).

I cannot do without any aromatics in my dish, so garlic and onions are the usual aromatics I'll have in my cooking.

I've done away with the use of oyster sauce and even commercially made mushroom sauce. Have changed to the use of Natural Black Bean Sauce instead. Tasted just as good!

Recipe for the sauce:

1Tbsp Black Bean Sauce

2 Tbsp Light Soya Sauce

1tsp Sugar

1/2 Cup water

1-2tsp Corn Flour

*Note: Combine all the ingredients for the sauce together

Process

1) Pan fry the firm tofu slices till crispy on the outside and set it aside.

2) Heat oil and saute onions and garlic till fragrant

3) Add in all the vegetables and stir-fry till cooked

4) Add in the sauce and cook till the sauce thickens; turn out the heat

5) Serve by plating the tofu at the bottom of the plate and pour the vegetables with sauce over the tofu.

[Recipe] Meatless Fried Rice

Fried Rice has always been the easiest meal for me to whip up in a jiffy because it's one-pot and best of all it's just a huge marrying of all ingredients in one wok! Very little to think much about seriously when it comes to preparing a traditional yang zhou fried rice. However, it's a different story when it's meatless!

I thought long and hard how to make the fried rice tasty and still full of flavour with just vegetables alone without the enhancement of taste from chinese sausages and prawns.

Decided upon using the mushrooms and French beans to replace the protein that's missing in the meal. Sweet corn kernels was for the added sweetness to replace the chinese sausages. The rest of the colours were for the added fibre and nutrients and of course visual appeal. 

Fried firm tofu is entirely optional, but since I have a left over piece of it I just included it into this fried rice meal. This added a level of texture to the meal.

Don't these colours look attractive? I was salivating even before the rice was added.

Voila! It's Done!

Serves 4-5pax
Ingredients
1 pot of cooked Basmati Rice (or you may use regular Jasmine Rice)
4 cloves Garlic (minced)
1/2 large Yellow Onion (chopped)
8 stalks French Beans (cut into thin slices)
1/2 Carrot (julienned)
5 Fresh Shitake Mushrooms (sliced thinly)
Corn Kernels from 1 sweet corn
1/2 Red Bell Pepper (cut into cubes/julienned; may substitute it with red chilli that's been seeded)
1 Firm Tofu (cut into cube and pan fried - this ingredient is optional)
Salt to taste

Seasoning
2tbsp Vegetarian Oyster Sauce (commonly known as mushroom sauce - I have instead used an Organic Black Bean sauce)
1tbsp Light Soya Sauce
1tsp Sugar
*Note: prepare this seasoning in a small bowl adding all the seasoning ingredients.

Process
1) Saute Onion and Garlic till fragrant and onion has slightly soften
2) Add in all the vegetables and stir-fry till it's cooked down
3) Add salt to the vegetables and stir-fry till well combined
4) Tip in the rice and add the seasoning
5) Add the firm tofu ^(optional ingredient)
6) Stir and Toss till all ingredients are well combined
7) Serve it warm with a dash of white pepper

[Recipe] Char Siew Pastry (叉烧酥）

The idea came upon making Char Siew Pastry (BBQ Pork Pastry), when I stopped by Phoon Huat for some shopping and picked up a package of puff pastry.

I've been thinking of making Char Siew Pastry for a while now, after reading this blog post by Christine of Christine's Recipes and finally got my act together. You can imagine how gleeful I was when I can have a taste of one of my favourite tim sum snack, yet have it homemade within a short time.

I am not a purist and really, I DO NOT enjoy rolling, folding & turning the dough to make my own puff pastry, it's simply too tedious and time consuming. So thank goodness for ready made puff pastry sheets. You really can't go wrong with store bought puff pastry sheets. The savings of time and energy will definitely motivate me to make more puff pastry snacks in the future.

So without further adieu, here's the recipe for making that Char Siew Pastry (叉烧酥）

Ingredients
Pastry
1 pack puff pastry sheets, thawed in the refrigerator (I used only 9 sheets of puff pastry)
1 egg beaten (add approx 1Tbsp milk and mix well); for eggwash
2-3 Tbsp Sesame seeds (optional)
*Tip: Always store the rest of the puff pastry sheets in the fridge as you work on one sheet at a time. Maintain the puff pastry in a low temperature will make it easier to handle in addition, the pastry will turn out crispy.

Filling

500gms BBQ Pork*, (叉烧), diced into small cubes
130ml Water
2-3 Tbsp of sweet char siew sauce (you can request for this from the stall owner; be sure to ask for only the sweet char siew sauce)
2 Tbsp Corn Flour
1 Tsp Dark Soya Sauce
2 Tsp Sugar
3 Shallots minced
*Note: I bought ready made char siew from the roasted meat stall at the wet market. You may make your own char siew if you like, here's a recipe for homemade char siew. To obtain the char siew sauce just follow the recipe accordingly.

Process

• Mix all the filling ingredients, except the char siew & minced onions, in a bowl till well combined, set it aside.
• Heat up a frying pan with 2 tsp of olive oil and fry the onions till fragrant.
• Add the filling mixture (without the char siew) into the pan and stir constantly under low heat till the mixture thickens. 
• Turn off the heat and tip in the chopped char siew into the mixture, mix till well combined then set it aside till it cools down completely.

• Preheat oven to 200C, prepare baking trays with parchment paper laid.
• Flour your work surface lightly with plain flour and lay the sheet of puff pastry down, cut the pastry sheet with a circle cutter or you may use a knife to cut the puff pastry into triangular shape. (I was able to cut approximately 5 circles out of 1 sheet of puff pastry).

Note: Ignore the 9 circles I've cut out in this photo, I realized it was too small hence changed to a larger circle cutter after which 

• I used approximately 2 teaspoonfuls of filling to 1 circle of pastry.
• Brush the egg wash on the edge of the pastry before folding it into half and use a fork to press down on the outer edge of the pastry (see photo below) to seal the side. Do bear in mind not to fill the circles with too much filling otherwise the sauce will start leaking out of the pastry half way during the baking process.

• Before sending these 'babies' into the oven, brush the surface lightly with egg wash and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.
• Bake for approximately 15-19 mins (that was the time the pastry took in my oven to turn golden brown and puffy).

• Once baked, take the char siew pastry out and let them cool on a cooling rack.
• Store them in air tight containers after they are completely cooled. It didn't take more than 24hours the Char Siew Pastries were all GONE *smile*
• The pastry will turn soft after a few hours so to have the crispy crunch again on the pastry, simply heat up your toaster oven for just 5 minutes, place the char siew pastry into the toaster oven for approximately 5 minutes it should turn out crispy again.

I have shared a few other ideas on how to use the puff pastry sheets, so be sure to check them out -

Sardines Pocket Pies

Sweet & Savoury Twistables

Pigs in Blanket; Bacon, Spinach & Cheese Swirls

[Recipe] Herbal Soup Bowl

I know many people drink herbal soup without consuming the herbs but I on the other hand, love to clean out the entire bowl of soup. It's so comforting savouring the entire bowl of goodness, soup, herbs (those which are edible of course), dregs and all! 

I grew up drinking such soups and have learned to appreciate every bit of such soups that my mom used to prepare for me. Now that I am not under her direct care anymore, I'd make sure to recreate that childhood nostalgia by preparing such soups for my family. 

This soup was prepared from scratch in which I gathered the ingredients on my own (read: did not buy pre-pack herbs). It's rather easy to locate all these ingredients in any chinese medical hall. Go to Hock Hwa if there's one nearby you they are very well stocked and everything is nicely packed which makes obtaining them an easy task.

For easy reference here's the recipe
500gms  Pork Ribs (preferably those with a little more meat as it will flavour the soup better)
5-6 pieces Dried Chinese Yam
20gms Solomon's seal Rhizome
50gms Gordou Eurylae Seeds
50gms Red Lotus Seeds
50gms Lily Bulb
20gms Dried Longans

Process
1) Boil of pot of water sufficient to just scald the pork ribs; Scald the pork ribs for 5-8mins and set it aside. Pour away the water.
2) On a separate soup pot place scalded pork ribs with the rest of the ingredients. Fill it with water till all pork ribs are submerged in water.
3) Bring the water to a boil then simmer for 2 hours.
4) Add salt to taste

[Recipe] The Black & White Chicken Soup

As you can tell from one of my earlier posts, I love making soups, drinking soups has always been such a pleasure to me. Naturally, I'd research more and try out new recipes in making soups. While I do love the chinese herbal chicken soups, I also love to explore new ways of making other chicken soup as well.

Here's a recipe I've discovered and adapted from a chinese cook book (which I cannot remember where I've seen it before, so I am sorry I am unable to share the resource from which I've taken from).

So what's this black & white chicken soup about? I love the white & black fungus, also known as (white) snow ear fungus and (black) cloud ear fungus; they have many other names to it, but you know what I am referring to right?

Here's a super simple and absolutely yummy chicken soup that anyone can prepare in very little time.

Ingredients
30gms White Fungus (add less or more to your preference)
30gms Black Fungus (add less or more to your preference)
500gms Chicken Winglets
4-5 thin slices of Ginger
3-4 stalks of spring onions
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp soya sauce
Salt to taste

To prepare the white and black fungus, they usually come in the dried form so all you need to do is give them a good rinse and soak them for up to an hour to rehydrate them. Once they have fluff up, just trim the stalk or hard areas off, cut them into smaller pieces for ease of consumption.

*Quick tip: when choosing white fungus, select those that are slightly yellow in hue, try to avoid getting them if they are in pure white form as they might be bleached in the process of packaging. 

Clean the chicken winglets thoroughly (you may also use other parts of the chicken for this soup, ideally chicken breast meat which gives flavour), add all other ingredients into the soup pot, fill it up till water covers all the ingredients. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer it for 40-50mins (or till the white/black fungus have soften).

Add the seasoning to your preferred taste and garnish the soup with parsley(optional), that's it!

Preparing soups is just such a joy and drinking them is simply comforting. So do make more soups as it truly nourishes!

[Recipe] Quick & Easy Dishes

I am no gourmet chef, neither have I the luxury of time to prepare elaborate meals on a daily basis. I'd usually go for simple quick-fix or easy dishes to make up our daily dinners.

Over time, I've picked up on the experience of meal prep with the least amount of time and effort. What's more important is not compromising on the nutritional value of the food while keeping the budget in mind at the same time.

So here's something I prepare regularly on our daily dinners. Oh, in case you didn't know, I only cook one meal a day (well usually, unless I am in the mood for "slaving" in the kitchen, which is rare these days).

I love to use ready teriyaki sauce, I used to buy Mizkan's thick teriyaki sauce until they stopped production, I then found this other thick teriyaki sauce by Kikkoman to be somewhat as good as Mizkan's.

Life gets easy in the kitchen when you have this bottle of sauce on hand. I make grilled teriyaki chicken and salmon a lot and they have been a hit with my family ALL the time!

All you need to do is to clean the chicken or salmon fillet thoroughly, pat it dry, sprinkle some pepper on top and spread this luscious thick sauce generously on the chicken or salmon marinate it for just 15mins. Pop it into the oven (preheated to 180C) or toaster oven (I love my toaster oven, as it heats up much faster than a regular oven), grill it for 20-30mins and voila! Serve it with a sprinkle of sesame seeds if you like and you are good to go!

Teriyaki Chicken Thigh

Teriyaki Salmon Fillet

Best part of preparing this, is I only need to rinse the baking tray with water, hah! Because, I laid a piece of aluminium foil on the tray and place the meat/fish on a piece of parchment paper before sending it into the oven. Talk about time & effort saving! 

Comforting Chicken Soup

It's the year end and it's been raining rather often lately. What better time than it is now to have a wonderfully nice bowl of chicken soup that nourishes and comfort ourselves with.

Hubby has been working late (even weekends) lately and the weather has been rather erratic recently, with the haze looming in the air. I've decided that we need to boost our immunity and strengthen our overall health, so I made it a point to prepare nourishing soups at least twice a week now.

Sharing in verbatim, as said by the author of this book -

Photo Credit Link

Soups transform our health, drinking soup helps to ease mental tension, minimizes weakness,  fatigue and relieves symptoms of overworking commonly suffered by urbanites such as tension, stress and disrupted metabolism.

I bought a pack of these Cordycep Militaris (冬虫草花) commonly known as Cordycep Flowers, recently, it's not the first time I've prepared soups with this ingredient, it's still one of my favourite ingredients for chicken soup.

Preparing soups is really not that difficult, it just requires time for the essence of the ingredients to be fully released. The time required for active preparation is not more than 10mins tops! Which is why, I can just survive on soups if I don't have a brood to feed *smile* I am not particularly excited about slaving in the kitchen for hours just to prep meals.

Sharing the recipe and the nourishing tidbit about the Cordycep Militaris here (click on link) which I wrote in detail some time back when I was still actively working on Munch Ministry. I hope it'd benefit you one way or another.

Eat healthy and be healthy!