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My mom cooked this soup for me during my confinement month. It left me with good impression as the shallots made the soup sweet and it had a hint of lemon grass. Now, I cooked this soup because I just learned that lemon grass is very good for our general health and anti-cancer. I added ginger just because it is anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. This soup definitely brings no harm to us so I will be cooking it more often, just for prevention and general health benefit. Best of all, it tasted great. You can eat the shallots with the soup as it will be really soft with a tint of sweetness.
Ingredients:2 chicken drumsticks
1 or 2 lemon grass, cut and smashed
10 shallots, peeled and keep it whole
1 small piece of ginger
1000ml water
1/2 tsp. sugar
Salt to tasteMethod:1. In a pot, bring 1 little of water to a boil. When boiling, add in the drumsticks. Then add the rest of the ingredients except sugar and salt. Let it simmer at low for 3-4 hours.
2. Season with sugar and to taste with salt. Serve hot.
My initial plan was to bake some meat balls. Then, I saw a blog post at Babe in the City on this steamed tofu and thought why not since I had some soft tofu. I marinated my minced pork with ShaoHsing rice wine, sesame oil, salt, white pepper, garlic powder, chopped carrots, ginger and scallions and some cornstarch water. Then, I cut out the soft tofu, lay it on a steaming tray and used a melon scoop to scoop a hole in the middle of each tofu. The scooped out tofu I added them into the minced meat mixture (don't want to waste you see) and mixed it well.
After that, I used the melon scoop and a spoon to make meat ball shape balls and placed it on top of each tofu. Lastly I drizzled some soy sauce, ShaoHsing rice wine and sesame oil before putting it to steam at high heat for 15-20 minutes, or until the meat balls are cooked. Serve warm!This steamed dish was very fragrant with the Shao Hsing rice wine and sesame oil. What best was it was well received by my two girls. Got to make them loved tofu at young age. ;-)
When I made my Emperor Herbal Chicken dish the other day. I took 1 Tbsp. of the spices out for this dish which I made the next day. It was for the fun of experiment and my curiosity of how it would taste like. Glad to say it tasted great, flavorful with a hint of herbal taste and my two girls loved it. They were not into shrimps until recently, not sure what made them to like shrimps suddenly. But I am so glad that they liked shrimps, easy for me to prepare dinner for them. Just hope that the little one will start eating spicy food soon.
Ingredients:15 large shrimps
(A)
1 Tbsp. Emperor chicken spices
Salt to taste
Black peppers to taste
1 tsp. chicken stock granules
Cornstarch to coat
Method:
Season the shrimps with (A). Before pan-frying, coat the shrimps with cornstarch and slowly put into a medium heat hot frying pan. Fry until shrimps are curled up and pink. Serve hot!
Goodness in one plate again, well be another delicious vegetarian dish, protein and fiber combo. For this dish, I would recommend regular or hard tofu so that it can maintain its' shape. The vegetable I used for this is Chai Hsin (Asian green) and carrot. Again, another easy stir-fry dish using only oyster sauce as seasoning. Evy loved this, not only she ate the veggie but lots of tofu.
In a hot oil, add in chopped garlic, stir-fry for a while, add in the stems (harder part) of the veggie, fry for a little while, add in the greens, fry until soften. Add in a little water and tofu. Then season with oyster sauce, quick stir and serve hot. Quick and easy and I believe anyone can cook this.
Summer time comes with abundance of peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, melons, etc. This is also the time when these fruits are cheap and at its' sweetest. I made a similar cake before and this is my other version. Not too pretty looking because some of the fruit sank but nevertheless it's still delicious. This time I used the sour plum and peach for my choice of fruit and thus I used 1 cup of sugar for my cake to counteract the sourness of the fruit. If your choice of fruit is sweet, you can use 3/4 cup of sugar. And remember to put this cake in the refrigerator as the moisture from the fruit will turn moldy if not.
Ingredients:
(A)
1/2 cup butter (or 1 stick or 113g)
1 cup sugar (use 3/4 cup for less sweet version)
(B)
3 large eggs
(C)
3 Tbsp. whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. Rum extract (optional)
(D)
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
(E)
Summer fruit of your choice, I used slices of peach and red plum (sprinkle with a little sugar and mix well)
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350'F. Spray and lined a 8-inch square pan with parchment paper. Spray again and on the sides. Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat (A) together until creamy. Add (B) one at a time, beat well. Add (C), beat well with electric mixer. Then, add in (D), beat until smooth.
3. Pour batter into the pan, level nicely and arranged the prepared fruit on top (don't press it down). Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
4. Cool on wire rack. Place in air-tight container and store in the refrigerator. Set it aside at room-temperature for 10-15 minutes before consuming.
My friend gave me a big bottle of her homemade XO sauce recently. What a treat for me as I loved XO sauce but not willing to pay the price for it and yet too lazy to make my own. So, I was real grateful of receiving this gift from her, like a valuable treasure.
For this above dish, I cooked the Chai Hsin with XO sauce and season with a little salt and that was it. Easy, flavorful and delicious. I have since used the XO sauce to top the soft tofu and microwave for a minute and a dish is served. XO sauce not only used as condiment but in stir-frying dishes as well. The restaurant here used the XO sauce to stir-fry squid and rice rolls noodle too. What other creative way have you used your XO sauce with?
I bought few packets of A1 Emperor Chicken Spices when I was in Malaysia. Today, I wanted to try something different with it instead of the usual baking or steaming the chicken. I simmered the chicken instead and added wood ear fungus and wolfberries/ Goji berries/"ke chi". I loved this version too, truly flavorful and delicious.
Ingredients:
1 packet A1 Emperor chicken spices
8 chicken drumsticks, chop into 2 or 3 pieces each
1/8 cup of wolfberries
1 cup of wood ear fungus
Few thin slices of gingers
Cooking oilMethod:1. Add a little oil in a pot. Add in ginger slices and fry until fragrant. Add in cut chicken pieces and fry until slightly brown on the outside. Add in water to almost cover.2. Add in Emperor chicken spices, wood ear fungus and wolfberries, stir to mix well. Let it simmer in low heat for 1 to 1.5 hours or until chicken is soften.
