The Soup Queen

What do you do when you're too tired to cook dinner? Sometimes I resort to making porridge or congee. Porridge is filling yet nutritious and with a rice cooker, you can cook porridge in 1 hour or less. This time, I will show you how to cook a simple chicken porridge with 3 basic ingredients - chicken, dried scallops and rice. I use chicken wings because I like the texture and softness of chicken wings but you can use any part of the chicken you like. Chop the chicken meat into fairly large pieces. Set aside. Wash rice as if you are going to cook rice. A cup of rice is enough for two persons. Put rice into your rice cooker and add 3 times the water. More water is better than less. Your porridge will thicken as it sets. Into this rice + water mix, add chicken. Add 3 large dried scallops (pre-soak in water to soften). Break up the scallops gently. That's it. Place the lid on the cooker (do not cover tightly or your porridge will boil over! And what a mess that will be) and switch...

It's often difficult to find soups which cater specifically for vegetarians as most Chinese TCM soups do contain some meat or other. I got this recipe from Bao Ma, that famous Taiwanese mother of Ah Bao (Eric Tsang's bubbly daughter who is a TV host in Taiwan). A few years ago, Ah Bao and her mum (or Mrs Eric Tsang) did a cooking show over TV - all about soups! How I loved that show. I was inspired to be more kitchen-friendly after viewing those episodes. Bao Ma used to recommend super simple soup recipes which I often scribbled down, and that's how I brushed up on my Mandarin. I never went to a Chinese school (which is often a big regret) but I have always felt at home with Mandarin. I do speak the language though, and am able to read basic Mandarin. With Bao Ma's how to make soup TV series, it was two favourite passions rolled into one: I got to learn how to make soups and learnt how proper Mandarin is spoken. As well as what certain herbs were named in Chinese. Well,...

It's been a busy month for me. Every other day, I've had to work on some client's project or go out and discuss something or another. That's why the SoupQueen has been missing from the kitchen and as such, not many soups to recommend! Anyway, I came across a website which talks about TCM and TCM herbs. I'm always on the lookout for good herb glossaries because herbs are just wonderful for health. And always good for soups. This website which I came across is called Sacred Lotus Arts Traditional Chinese Medicine. I was looking for a reason why I am spotting after my menses. Yep, there is a term for this. It's called Metrorrhagia. Anyway, one search led to another and that's how I ended up at the Sacred Lotus website which is truly a gem of a find. It has herbs plus photos of herbs. I always believe photos are always better than illustrations. And the herbs are in Pinyin too so it's easy to find the herb you want. If you like, you can search using Latin or...

I'm a big believer in flower teas - you know, teas made from real flowers. Of course, the easiest is chrysanthemum tea . But lately, there's been much interest about other flowers such as rose, lavender, jasmine, rosemary, sweet osmanthus and globe amaranth which can be made into healthy teas. Plus the fact that it helps with detoxing and beautification is another reason why women like me buy into these teas! Personally I've enjoyed drinking rose tea . Just add a few dried roses into a mug, pour in freshly boiled hot water and let it steep for 10 minutes. Instant rose tea. Add some honey if you want it sweet. Roses naturally add to women's health because it relieves menstrual pains, invigorates the blood and helps rid one of bruises. Rose is essentially the woman's flower! Globe amaranth tea is also easy to brew. Buy dried globe amaranth (those purple heads of flowers in any good tea shop) and add to a mug of hot water with a slice of dried haw, some cubes of rock ...