The Soup Queen

This is a new recipe I learnt from my aunt just this week. I had had this dessert twice already when I visited her. She's a wizard in the kitchen, this aunt of mine. She is a cheesecake maestro too. For this dessert, you'll need: Dried beancurd sticks (ask your grocer for the type that makes desserts, not the cooking type) - wash and soak in water for 20 minutes A handful of barley (washed/rinsed) 1/2 cup peeled fresh gingko nuts (or get the ready peeled version at your local supermarket) rock sugar to taste 1.5 liter water In a pot, bring water to boil. Add soaked beancurd sticks ('fu chuk' in Cantonese). Boil for 20 minutes on low. Cover pot. Add gingko nuts, barley and rock sugar. Boil for another 15 minutes. The beancurd stick should have melted into the water by now. Turn off fire and serve warm. It should look like a milky liquid with barley and gingko nuts. A great cooling dessert and of course makes your skin smooth and beautiful! You know me, I love anything th...

This is a soup I made today while digging about my fridge. I found some corn on the cob, some lotus root, a handful of soyabeans and half a carrot. I decided to make it a full vegetarian soup because I knew soya beans would provide the sweetness desired, in fact, carrot and lotus and corn already are 'sweet' vegetables. So I put them all together in a pot of water and brought the whole thing to a boil. Put on the lid and turned down the heat so the soup was just simmering. Simmer for 2 hours and season with salt and pepper. How did it taste? Very light, very sweet and very clear on the palate. The type of soup that one should drink in this scorching heat. Penang is very hot in the day time and I can feel the heat so here's more reason to drink soup. Also, when the day heats up and I don't feel like taking much food, soup comes to the rescue. Try this soup and let me know how it goes. For variation, you can add some chicken thighs to the soup (but do remove the chicken ...

I love porridge because it's so easy to cook. All you need is a rice cooker and the porridge can happily cook itself while you go about doing other things - like updating one's blog. ;-) Because porridge is so versatile, you can make plain porridge which goes well with fried crunchy anchovies, fried peanuts, choy poh (Chinese salted vegetables) or you can make fish porridge (basic porridge with the addition of fresh fish slices) or you can make pork porridge. For pork porridge, you need: 1/2 cup minced pork (marinate with pepper, salt, soya sauce and 1 tsp cornflour for 10 minutes in the fridge) 1 cup rice, washed and drained (1 cup rice serves 2 people, so double up if you have more mouths to feed) The ratio of rice to water is 1:4. The water should be at least 3 inches above the rice level when it's in the rice cooker pot. When cooking porridge, do not close the rice cooker lid tightly. Slant it at an angle or you will have a mess of gruel to clean up after! Plus your por...

I'm going to link you to a deliciously simple seaweed soup by Patrica because her version is absolutely yummy! And so easy to prepare. Head on over to her blog and try it out. Besides that, she has other equally fun and easy recipes too. Check them all out! I shall be back with regular blogging in the next 2 days... In case you wanna know my versions, it's the 3-minute soup here and kelp soup here .

This has to be one of the simplest recipes ever (besides my grandmother's soya sauce chicken, of course ). You marinate the chicken wings overnight in the fridge and next day, pour them into a pot, add 300 ml of water and simmer until cooked, probably 20 minutes or so. For this chicken recipe, you need: 8 chicken wings, drummets included 1 tbsp dark soya sauce 2 tbsp light soya sauce 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1 tsp sesame seed oil 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 1/2 tbsp sugar Now mix the above and put into an airtight container. Leave to marinate in fridge (not freezer) overnight or 12 hours. Next day or 12 hours later, pour chicken together with marinade into a wok and pour in 300ml water. Bring to a fast boil. Cover tight and simmer 15 minutes. Simmer another 5 minutes with wok uncovered. This dish is not supposed to drown in gravy so let the water evaporate until you have a little bit gravy left. Serve hot with plain rice. Simple, easy and tasty! This got the thumbs-up from my husb...

I got this recipe from Amy Beh but I have yet to try it. I couldn't get my hands on any fresh aloe vera! Back home in Banting, I have a huge overgrown pot of aloe vera but here, I don't. I am waiting to get some from my aunt one of these days so I can try this soup. Aloe vera helps remove heat from the liver, and relaxes the bowels. So this soup is good for those suffering from constipation. If used externally, the aloe gel helps those with skin problems like eczema and ringworm. I often use the gel on my face and arms after a long hot day out or if I accidentally scald myself with hot water! Aloe can be also used as a cooling drink with the aloe gel cut up into cubes. They're chewably delicious! For this soup, you need: 3 plump aloe vera leaves half a chicken, chopped into chunky parts 15 white peppercorns, lightly crushed 3 red dates, stones removed 1.2 liter water salt Wash the aloe and peel off skin. Cut the white jelly parts into thick slices. Boil chicken, peppercorn...

I love eating eggplant or brinjal but Nic is not to keen on it. He likes it in curries but not cooked plain. When I do buy brinjal, I have a favourite way of cooking it. With minced pork. I can get this dish ready in less than 10 minutes because it's simple and delicious. The crunchiness of deep fried brinjal with the spicy minced pork - out of this world. For this recipe, you need: 1 medium length brinjal (about a foot long) 1/2 cup minced pork, marinated with some cornflour and soya sauce (leave aside for 5 minutes) fresh ginger, about 2 slices, minced fine fresh garlic, 1 clove, minced fine 2 tbsp Thai chilli sauce (from bottle, I use Mae Pranom brand) 1 tbsp dark soya sauce some salt, pepper, sugar and soya sauce to taste red chillies, sliced, optional - if you like to spice it up more First, wash and cut brinjal into diagonal slices. Sprinkle some salt over to draw out water. Leave aside for a while. Next, make a batter from self raising flour and rice flour (2:1 ratio) with a...

I went looking on the Net for the herbs that are used in the cough syrup King To Nin Jiom Pei Pa Kao and found these which I have compiled below. Each one works to alleviate cough, phlegm and all manner of lung problems. I got the info from this website: http://www.fzrm.com/plantextract.htm in case you want to go on your own TCM herb hunting adventure or find out what those Latin terms actually mean. Fourleaf Ladybell Root or Nan Sha Shen nourishes yin and removes heat from the lung, resolves phlegm, and reinforces qi. Suitable if you have heat in the lung with dry cough; cough with scanty sticky sputum; or deficiency of both qi and yin with feverishness and thirst. Bulbus Fritillaria Cirrhosa or Chuan Bei Mu removes heat, moistens the lung, resolves phlegm and relieves cough. Good for those with dry cough due to heat in the lung; cough with bloody sputum in consumptive diseases. Folium Eriobotrya Japonica or Loquat Leaf removes heat from the lung and the stomach, and relieves cou...

I still have a bloody phlegmy cough. Despite eating everything I think is good for curing a cough. So as a last resort, I turned to a favourite cough remedy - King To Nin Jiom Pei Pa Kao! I had a bottle stashed in my kitchen so I thought, might as well take that and see if my cough can be cured. The funny thing was, it has expired in 2007. But what the heck. It's just cough syrup, right? Won't die anyway. So being highly practical, I took whatever's left of this remedy. (I'm Cantonese. We're a highly practical people. That's probably why we can survive anywhere. I grew up with lots of pragmatic advice from mom and grandma.) For those of you who don't know what King To Nin Jiom is, it's a thick, gooey, honey-like syrup masquerading as cough syrup. It's a traditional Chinese preparation so it's lovely and sweet, much like honey. It's not like those yucky cherry-flavoured cough syrups doctors give. Not at all. (By the way, I hate those.) This sy...

I bought fresh peppermint at the market today. I usually don't fancy peppermint but I thought with my flu and scratchy throat, peppermint soup sounds real good. The peppermint was RM1 one bunch. When I came home, I just plucked the leaves and soaked them. Ditch the stems. Next I marinated some fresh minced pork - about 1/3 cup of minced pork. You can use chicken if you want. Marinate with some salt, pepper and cornflour. The cornflour makes a world of difference. The minced meat will be smoother!Put this aside in the fridge for 10 minutes. Bring a pot of water to boil. Since I was only making this soup for lunch and dinner, I measured out 4 medium bowls of water. Once water is boiling away merrily, drop in the minced meat - form them into tiny balls of meat. I like mine like the size of marbles. I also put into 3 cloves of garlic, with skin attached. This flavours the soup a bit. Next, add your rinsed and drained peppermint leaves. Let the soup simmer for 5 minutes on medium fire b...

Not that I am major doubter in his basic bread recipe... it's more like I doubt my bread kneading skills. But I armed myself with complete knowledge before I plunged into breadmaking again yesterday, despite the awful headache I was having. Despite my flu and sneezing 20 times! Still, I had to throw out cups of yeast in lukewarm water because silly me, I wasn't patient enough to let the yeast bubble and ferment. Finally it dawned on me that the yeast was alive but a bit slow in 'waking up'. 4 lukewarm cups of water + yeast + honey later, I realize this. Bah. Anyway, the basic bread recipe is simple and yes, I finally have 94% of what resembles bread. I cannot say 100% because Nic says it needs some 10 minutes more in the oven but excited old me took it out at 30 minutes and it was slightly, just slightly underdone. But it was bread. It looked like bread, it tasted chewy and lovely. It was BREAD. Thank you Cosmic Universe! So the recipe is super simple. Make the yeast co...

This blog may be about soup but sometimes, I come across other types of niche food blogs too and thought you might like to know! Recently, a friend found me on my other blog . He apparently is into bread-making (like me, but my first few attempts sucked) and he seems to be a maestro at it, looking at the number of bread recipes and modified recipes he has at his blog. I know I am the soup queen (please take it with a pinch of salt) but he is definitely a bread king. He makes his own bread so that his wife (who has a thyroid condition) need not eat commercial bread which as you know is full of preservatives and stuff even my cat won't eat. (Do you know that a piece of commercial bread can stay fresh and unmoldy up to a week or more?!) As I am bread newbie, I can tell you I was excited on learning that he has a blog dedicated to his fascination with bread. Do hop over to BG's blog on bread baking and bread making .

Sometimes I get so tired when I get home from work (even though it is my own business but I tell you, running a business is far more exhausting than being a salaried employee! I've been on both ends so I know that as an employee, you can 'shut off' the moment you get home. As a business person, I'm thinking of work even when I'm on the throne!) So what's a girl to do when she comes home tired and yet wants to cook something homemade for the man in her life? Ah yes, I can be traditional in some ways. I think the less I eat out the better. I always have some beancurd or tofu in my fridge for those emergency dinner moments. I prefer the silken tofu in a box which you can easily buy at any supermarket for RM1 per box. 1 box of tofu is good enough for 2 persons. To prepare this steamed tofu (which takes less than 10 minutes to cook), just open up the plastic casing and put the tofu on a plate. Steam this over high heat for 5 minutes. The tofu will 'sweat' som...

I first had this soup when I was at my Mom-in-law's back in Kuching a few months ago. I really love beans so I decided to recreate this soup here in Penang. I noted that my mom-in-law used a variety of beans in her soup plus some chicken carcasses. I was thinking of buying a handful of each type of beans but thought better of it! It would be such a waste if my own concoction didn't turn out right or taste right. So I turned to Green Love's Multi Bean Soup Mix which had 5 types of beans in one packet (RM4.80 for a 250 gm packet). The beans were chick peas, kidney beans, borlotti beans, large lima beans and Great Northern Beans. This bean premix pack can make a savoury or sweet soup. I made a savoury soup with blanched pork bones which was delectable. I love beans in all manner so this was really comfort food. Here's how you make a Five Bean Soup (makes 6 serving bowls of soup). 125 gm of beans from Green Love's Multi Bean Soup Mix 300 gm blanched pork bones 1 tbsp m...

This is yet another recipe I picked up from TV. You see, you can learn from TV if you choose your TV programmes well. Black sesame with milk is a drink recommended for people who are constipated. Black sesame seeds are used to tonify yin, jing and blood and most importantly, moisten the intestines. Hence its usefulness in helping to move the bowels. (It's associated with Kidney and Liver meridians.) Other than that, Chinese love the black sesame because it can keep your hair glossy and black. A sweet, thick dessert made from ground black sesame seeds is often served in good Chinese restaurants. In fact, black sesame seeds are good for improving memory and preventing Alzheimers. Here's how you can prepare this beverage: Warm up some 400 cc of fresh milk. Add 1 teaspoon of black sesame seed powder. Mix well. Add honey to taste. Also if you wish, you can add in some medlar seeds (pre-soaked in hot water to soften). Drink warm.

I got this recipe from a Taiwanese TV show on traditional chinese herbs. It looks easy enough to prepare. In a pot, bring 500 ml of water to boil. Add dang shen and red dates. Simmer for 20 minutes. Serve warm. This tea helps to boost the immune system. Dang Shen or Codonopsis Pilosulae is helpful for the spleen and lungs. It's a root similar to that of the ginseng family. It is considered the poor man's ginseng as it is cheap yet full of amazing properties. As it's mild, the whole family can take this herb. According to FoodsnHerbs website, this power root helps: -Build immunity and raise resistance -Promote the production body fluid -Nourish blood and energy -Lower blood pressure -Raise blood sugar -Tonify spleen and lung energy Dang Shen is also suited for people suffering from chronic fatigue, hypertension, loss of appetite, loose bowels, pale complexion, exhaustion after surgery or childbirth, body bloating and facial swelling due to edema, immune deficiency and hypo...

Everyone has this idea that Gui Ling Gao, a Chinese herbal jelly , is made from Tortoise Shell. I think it used to contain tortoise shell scrapings but no longer. I bet it must be tough finding people who would ingest anything made out of the poor chelonian. I made some Gui Ling Gao today with a premix powder I bought from Eu Yan Sang. The packet priced at RM 10 consisted of 2 smaller packets (so it's actually RM 5 per pack). From RM 5 worth, I could make 14 small cups of gui ling gao, which would last me a whole week! (Normally I would buy readymade Gui Ling Gao at RM 2 for a small plastic container but I love to experiment so I thought I should be able to make some on my own. Plus it's cheaper too.) This herbal jelly has a bitter taste but it is recommended for teens as it helps clear acne (and most women too as it enhances the complexion). Gui Ling Gao is served chilled and as a dessert after a heavy meal. As it clears heat, it is a cooling dessert and pregnant women are not...

This is yet another herb soup packet mix which I got from Eu Yan Sang. Ning Shen Soup is a traditional Chinese soup recipe for calming the mind and keeping the heart healthy. Its ingredients are: radix astragali rhizoma dioscareae rhizoma polygonati odorati pericarpium citri reticulatae bulbus lilii arilllus longan fructus lycii If the above sounds like gibberish to you, it actually isn't. Of course it sounds like a bunch of sophisticated herbs but really, they're normal Chinese herbs. radix astragali -- Huang Qi or Milk Vetch Root rhizoma dioscareae -- Chinese yam or shanyao rhizoma polygonati odorati -- Solomon's seal pericarpium citri reticulatae -- dried tangerine peel bulbus lilii -- dried lily bulb arilllus longan -- dried longan fructus lycii -- wolfberry The herbs are clean so a quick rinse was just about it. Next I brought a pot of water (1.5 liters) to boil. Once the water was bubbling, I added in the Ning Shen herbs and blanched pork bones. Boil on high for 10...

I bought a packet of Five Flower Tea (comprising 2 sachets) from Eu Yan Sang for my mom-in-law not too long ago but she only kept 1 sachet and gave the other sachet back to me. I think older people do not dare to drink too much of these cooling teas...something I should have remembered when I bought this tea! But one learns! I've become a fan of Eu Yan Sang of late, possibly because I visit Jusco in Queensbay Mall so often. I am the mad sort, the type who loves the smell and fragrance of herbs in a TCM shop and that's what Eu Yan Sang/EYS is. And perhaps the great thing is, I can ask for the herb in English and the staff knows what I am talking about. But EYS is also a modern shop which means a lot of the herbs are packed hygenically. Of course the prices at EYS is much higher than my regular TCM stall inside the Lip Sin market BUT the herbs really do look better - they don't look too dried up! One of those things I would spend on is food and herbs are food and I s...

Madam Chin is my grandmother who is touching 91. She's my dad's mom and a mother to 9 children. One of the best recipes come from my grandma. She cooks the best stuffed crabs, the best braised ikan terubok with black beans and the best soya sauce chicken. In fact, her salted chicken is a family favourite. But she's 91 now and can hardly walk, what more cook. She now spends her time in her room, watching TV, reading magazines and talking to her sons and daughters and grandchildren. My grandma's soya sauce chicken is my life-saver for days when I do not know what to cook or when I get too darn lazy to cook. This recipe is a sure success because the ingredients are easily found in any good kitchen. It's also a dish for children because they will love the soya sauce gravy to bits. It's a foolproof dish that keeps well and one that you will adore for its so easy and quick to prepare. (My husband loves this dish too!) And if someone asks you where you got this recipe,...

Today's recipe is not so much a soup but a drink! And this one comes with its own little story. One day, many moons ago, I was at the Tropical Spice Garden. This was at Teluk Bahang, almost near the end of the tourist hotel strip. My sis, cousin and I decided to lunch there, not knowing what we would find. But adventurous girls that we were, we headed there, despite the oncoming drizzle. It didn't help that my sis and cousin were in 'urban attire' - short skirt, shorts, heels. It was a bit of a climb up to the cafe of the spice garden (which by the way is a must-see for horticulture fans. It's a spice garden so it's full of plants and herbs for the green fan.) I'd been on the spice garden walk years ago so we skipped that. We were there for the grub. Which wasn't much and that itself was a disappointment. The cafe basically served as a snack and beverage corner though the view of the sea off Batu Feringgi was amazing. Imagine, post-rain, the aquamarine s...

It's been raining nonstop the whole of today. And I've been sneezing and having such a running nose! I woke up with a little bit of a sore, parched throat but I quickly drank a warm glass of water mixed with a squeeze of lemon juice and a teaspoon of honey. That seemed to do it but my nose is still red and runny! Yes, even SoupQueen sometimes get the sniffles! That's the main reason I stuff myself with soups. So that I don't get the sniffles and have to down some pills. I was thinking of popping 2 cold pills and going to bed (since it is lovely and cosy to be in bed right about now) but I shall let my body battle the cold the natural way. Maybe my cold is due to the sudden changes in the weather - it is hot and sunny in the morning and suddenly rains nonstop in the evening. The weather changes from warm to cold can be unnerving for my body. Or it could be the KFC which I took for dinner last Tuesday. I was hankering for some fried chicken and thought, time to try out th...

Fruits, especially local fruits like bananas, papayas, dragon fruits (my favourite is the deep ruby red variety) are cheap and plentiful in Banting. That's where I was last week. I went home to visit my parents for a few days and decided to teach my mom a new dessert recipe. I bought an unripe papaya at the Banting Sunday market. My mom chided me saying that it's not palatable. I told her I was going to cook it, instead of waiting for it to ripen. The fruit vendor was smart enough to tell my mom that she knew what I was going to do with the unripe fruit. Hmmm! After I made it, mom took some over to our longtime neighbour, Mrs Chan. Mom told me the unripe papaya tasted a lot like sweet potato after it's been simmered. So here's a green papaya and snow fungus dessert recipe you can try: 1 unripe papaya (a bit green with blushes of orange, signs of going to ripen), cut into bite size chunks 8-10 dried red dates a few pieces of snow fungus, soaked and cut up into smaller p...

I haven't gone missing though I've been quite busy. I was in and out of Penang and doing stuff I wouldn't normally do. You can see what I was busy about if you read this - which is over at my regular blog. Anyway, I am back in Penang already. And super excited because I bought myself a new recipe book on Chinese soups (Cooking with Chinese Herbs: New Edition with 20 Additiional Recipes) by Terry Tan for RM60, a book which I'd been eyeing greedily this year. *grinning like a Cheshire cat* I am glad I waited because I won a book voucher from Popular Bookstore recently and I used that voucher to redeem this book. Did this yesterday when I was on a book browsing spree at Popular Midlands (they're having a book sale of up to 20%). I said spree because I spent close to RM200 buying books and magazines. Now Terry Tan is not a new author. I'd seen his books before and one of his recipe books was published in 1983! Now that's what I call a long time cook and author....

Just got back from one week in Kuching. It was warm over there which is unusual as I always expect rain in Borneo. When it rains in Kuching, it pours. I go back to Kuching for 1 reason - to visit my parents-in-law. So I take it as a break from work. But the thing that gets me truly antsy is that we just have dial-up internet access in his parents' home. Which is horrible. After years on broadband, getting to dial-up is torture. I don't cook when I get to my mom-in-law's. She likes cooking and she has a particular way of cooking to accommodate my father-in-law. I tried once but my efforts were rebuffed. So the SoupQueen gets a total break from the kitchen when she's in Kuching. Anyway, enough of gossip stuff. In the spirit of Sarawak, I am going to teach you how to cook 'kachama' or 'kachangma'. It's a wild grass or herb that's used famously in Sarawak for mothers who are in confinement / just given birth. This dish helps get rid of wind. ...

I bought some fresh cordyceps from the Lip Sin market just last Friday and asked the vegetable lady how to cook it. I remember clearly the last time I cooked this fresh cordyceps - I went to the Chinese herbalist and got a packet of prepacked herbs to add to the fresh cordyceps. It made a lovely soup. This time though I wanted to try something else. My vegetable lady told me that it's also good to boil fresh cordyceps with medlar seeds/wolfberry seeds and honey dates. And I, being the adventurous sort, never say no to a new soup recipe . Yum! Luckily I had some honey dates in my fridge as well as some leftover medlar seeds . (It's good to stock up on herbs - buy a little of everything and store in jars in the fridge. On any good day, I have dang gui, red dates, honey dates, tao ren, medlar seeds and dried longan which I can use to make anything from soup to sweet dessert! It's my stockpile of Chinese herbs... which is very important, well to me anyway!) I also...

Clockwise from top: dried longan, dried lotus seeds and American ginseng slices I was wondering what kind of soup to cook this week when I saw a box of American Ginseng in the fridge. It had been sitting there for almost 2 months now. Usually I will use pre-packed herbs for soups but this time around, none were to be found. So American Ginseng it is. American Ginseng, unlike its cousin, Korean Ginseng, is the best kind of ginseng to brew and drink as it is not cooling nor heaty. Korean Ginseng is very heaty - it is a tonic after all. My 90 year old Grandmother consumes Korean Ginseng to give her strength and warm up her limbs. At the same time, the Korean Ginseng is helping turn her grey hair black - I am not kidding. I saw her with partially black hair and wondered why. Did she dye her hair? My cousin then remarked that her health (and hair) started to improve eversince she started taking Korean ginseng. But if you are of the heaty type (which means you have a heated blood system), do...

I'm bowled over by everyone's comments! I never knew so many people were reading this blog. Starting from this post, I will feature more regular recipes apart from soup recipes. Today, let me share with you a simple chicken recipe. I love eating bitter gourd but not my husband. So if I thinly slice bitter gourd and fry it with egg (as an omelette), the bitterness still lingers. Using the braising method, I find that bitter gourd is more palatable and easier to eat. Its taste is more mild. Bitter gourd is a good vegetable for removing heatiness in the body (which is accumulated if you stay up late or have eaten too much meat or have taken one too many alcoholic drinks). This is a recipe which serves 4 persons well. When I cook this, I cook more so that I can freeze the rest for dinner. It has a touch of gravy so it goes great with rice. Braised Chicken with Bitter gourd 2 chicken thighs, chopped into bite-size OR 6 pairs of chicken wings - drummets included 1 whole bitter gourd,...

Just a quick one: you can now bookmark this blog at www.SoupQueen.net If you type in SoupQueen.net, you will reach this blog of mine on Blogspot. I know many of you probably have bookmarked this site at Blogspot, but a shorter domain name is always preferable. I know how confusing it is to have a long URL! As I run a web design business, I always aim to walk the talk whenever I can. Of course I wanted to get the SoupQueen.com domain but that's already taken up! So what can a soup queen do but buy the next available one, even though it's a .net I know you come to SoupQueen for soup recipes. I'm a big experimenter in the kitchen and always look out for ways to cook tasty, simple and nutritious meals even if it's only for me and my husband. I'm not the type to resort to instant Cintan or Mamee noodles. No way. Cooking for me is also a way to spend time with myself. I can talk to myself while I'm stir-frying vegetables or chopping garlic. It helps me unwind and rela...

OK, OK, I keep going to Than Hsiang Temple for vegetarian meals BUT I also go to check out what vegetarian soups they have. I mean, that's like killing 2 birds with one stone right? On one end, I get to be healthy (by focusing less on meat and more on tofu and greens). On the other, I get some ideas for my vegetarian soup series. Hmmm, what could be better than that? I always thought that soups made purely with vegetables tasted bland. For the longest time, I thought meat/chicken gave soup such robust tastes. They still do but they also can be oily (skim the oil off before you serve) and for non-meat eaters, a definite put-off if they want a vegetarian version. I deduced that any soup made with carrot as its core ingredient will be light, clear and delightfully tasty (I opt out of using 'sweet' but that's how we Cantonese describe a light and tasty soup - it's "sweet". The meaning for "sweet" is very distinct from the "sweet" one gets f...

Here's a super simple recipe to reduce heatiness and prevent colds. I got this recipe from a Taiwanese TV programme today - yes, so it's fresh! This dessert soup is not suitable for people with gastric ulcers or weak stomachs as it contains hawthorn, which can be too acidic. If you are serving this to the elderly folk, you can reduce the amount of hawthorn too. Chrysanthemum Dessert Soup 25 gm honeysuckle or jin yin hua 5 gm licorice 25 gm dried chrysanthemum flowers 15 gm hawthorn 6 bowls of water Place water and all ingredients into pot of water. Simmer closed for 15 minutes on low heat. Serve warm, sweetened with honey. * Honey is also a good remedy for constipation. Drink honey if you are constipated.

I'm a big fan of watercress because it makes for a delightfully delicious soup. Watercress is big on nutrients too but usually I make the carnivore version - watercress soup with chicken or with pork. This time though I tried a vegetarian version of watercress soup. I was inspired to cook this soup as I've been visiting Than Hsiang Temple almost weekly now for my vegetarian lunch (one of my resolutions this year is to eat less meat and more veg - not that I am a big meat-eater. I just want to do my part for the environment). I salute those who are vegetarian because it's not easy, well for me at least. I still love fish too much! So yeah, I made a pot of watercress soup today. And it's suitable for vegetarians. You need only 3 ingredients: 1 bunch of fresh watercress (pluck leaves and wash. Do not throw away the hard stems. This will go into the soup too. It'll be too wasteful to throw out the stems when they can add flavour to the soup.You don't have to eat the...

This is my lifesaver soup! Doesn't need any boiling and doesn't need anything except some fresh kelp. I believe that soup should nourish the soul and tummy but like all busy bees these days, I sometimes don't have time to simmer soup for 2 hours. I need to zip in and out and watching the stove can be tedious. But never fear. If I can make this 3-minute soup, so can you. It's called Miso. ;-) My favourite instant soup. It is also great if you are feeling blue and not up for cooking but just want something to keep one's tummy warm. You can buy miso paste in single-serve packs or you can buy one whole carton of it (around 400 gm). Miso paste is basically fermented soya bean paste ("tau cheong") which we Chinese use often in cooking. I buy my miso paste at Jusco supermarket, RM4.50 for 10 packets of single-serve miso. Some miso paste have shreds of seaweed or kelp. Some come with bits of mussels. Of course since I don't read Japanese, I look at the graphic...

I made this soup today because I haven't tried this type of melon before (I mean I have not cooked it before). My mom-in-law always makes this soup whenever we are back in Kuching. It's called Shark Fin Melon or Spaghetti Squash (Cucurbita Ficifolia) because once cooked, the melon really resembles shreds of sharksfin! I confirmed this with the lady who sells vegetables at the Lip Sin market. In Hokkien, it is called Shark Fin Melon. I bought half a melon because I plan to make a pot of soup for 2 meals. The melon is distinguished by its smooth light green and pale green skin. Almost like a watermelon skin. (See how the whole melon looks like from this blog: http://eatzybitzy.blogspot.com/2005/06/sharkfins-in-melon.html ) The melon needs to be peeled and cut into chunks. The part which I didn't really relish was removing the seeds! There's a lot of seeds in this melon, even a chunk has about 4-5 seeds. You can be lazy and skip this part (that's what my vege woman sai...

I know this is not a soup BUT it does taste so good and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare. It has a bit of a gravy that goes well with plain rice. White radish is a versatile root vegetable. You probably have eaten radish in its other forms in Japanese or Korean cuisine. In Korean food, you probably have eaten radish as a spicy kimchi. In Japanese cuisine, you would have been familiar with "daikon" used in Japanese stews or even as a white shredded pile of mush you usually add to the dipping sauce for tempura. But a word of caution, if you have taken herbal soups such as ginseng a few hours before, you should NOT take anything (soup or otherwise) that is cooked with white radish. White radish detoxes the body of all the goodness that you have just eaten. I once heard that if you have food poisoning, taking white radish is good as it helps flushes out the unwanted from your body. Anyway, white radish is a vegetable you should eat if you want a clear complexion. Perhaps tha...

Discovered how to make a new soup this time during my travel back to my husband's hometown of Kuching, Sarawak. He used to tell me that his favourite soups were seaweed soups. I always thought seaweed was seaweed until I tried kelp. It's not that I have not heard of kelp before. I had a bad experience a few years back when I tried cooking soup with kelp. It turned out rubbery and to this day, I call it my Tyre Soup because it looked like rubber! Also, it could be that the kelp was "old" and tough. So this time around, mom-in-law cooked kelp soup and it tasted very much different from mine. In fact, the kelp wasn't rubbery at all. It was soft but still had a bite to it. Kelp is called 'hai dai' in Chinese or 'kombu' in Japanese. Like most seaweeds, this is a nutrient-packed ingredient . In Kuching, it is sold in dried strips. It is cheap too at RM1.90 per packet. Remember that a little kelp goes a long way as it expands during cooking. We made the m...

This is a recipe for a stomach and spleen tonic called Black Date Tea. In Chinese culture, we have 2 types of dates. Large, black dates and small, red dates. This one uses the big dates called Da Zao. Black Date Tea 20 black dates Rock sugar to taste 4 bowls of water Simmer all ingredients for 20 minutes until water has reduced by half. Drink warm. Black dates are also called Nan Zao (Southern Dates) although both red and black dates apparently come from the same plant. While red dates are usually used as a harmoniser for soups, the black date helps tonify the stomach and spleen. Read and find out more about dates from http://www.innvista.com/health/herbs/jujube.htm