The Soup Queen

Garden Weed Or TCM Herb for Urological Problems

2012-01-26T13:12:00.000+08:00

I came across this post on Persicaria capitata and it seems this weed is really a herb.

In many ways, I have often pondered on the fact- when is a weed a weed and when is it a herb?

Even certain grasses function as herbs for cats. My cat loves to chew on grass when she's feeling a bit under the weather. In the past, we used to bring home grass for her (we used to live in an apartment where grass was scarce!) and she was too scaredy to go down to the park to chew some grass, well at least the kind cats can use for stomach problems.

Now Margaret has all the grass she can chew. We're still living in an apartment but it's on the ground floor and we have a tiny backyard where we grow quite a bit of herbs and stuff. The grass, all types, are plentiful. It's a veritable buffet.

With grass, comes weeds.

What really are weeds anyway?

Weeds are just a name we give to plants which we feel we have no proper use for. To Margaret, grass is a herb. If we humans find a use for a plant, it becomes less of a weed and more of a herb! That's my definition of weed versus herb. Correct me if I am wrong.

Many years ago, my sis had some problem with her urinary tract where she would pee urine stained with blood. Mom got worried and took her to the Chinese sinseh. He recommended that she find this particular herb and boil with brown sugar and drink it as a tea.

Now living as we did in a small town of Banting, mom and dad went searching everywhere for this herb.

They had to peek at drain cracks and little patches of grassy plots to find the all elusive herb. Here's how it looks like.

Anyone knows what this is called?

Actually it is found in most grassy areas. It is a weed. I even have some in my garden (see above photo).

When mom visited me, she pointed out to me that the "weed" growing between crevices and cracks in the cement (near the drain) was the very herb she used to cure my sister's problem! The things I learn!

Anyway, back to the Pink Knotweed or Persicaria capitata. It is also known as Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Smartweed and Pink Bubble Persicaria. I found some growing near my compost pots. I often wondered what kind of plant they were. Thanks to Gardening with Wilson, now I know.

Pink knotweed

Wilson states that this is a herb used in TCM for "for the treatment of a range of urological disorders, such as kidney stones and urinary tract infections." Pink Knotweed also contains antioxidants.

Misai kucing herb

What do you know!

Now besides my misai kucing or Java tea plant, I can use this to treat urinary tract infections.

A Seat on the Aisle, Please!: The Essential Guide to Urinary Tract Problems in Women
Urinary Tract Infections: Detection, Prevention, and Management
Urinary Tract Infections (Library of Sexual Health)

Pumpkin Barley Dessert

2012-01-16T21:05:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year folks!

I have been so busy with business in between planning out stuff for this year that I've been quite guilty of not updating fast enough. Anyway, since this is the week before Chinese New Year, I'm going to be good and share some interesting dessert soup recipes.

OK, onwards to this dessert made with two nourishing ingredients, pumpkin and barley.

I had this as a drink recently when I was lunching with a good friend at a macrobiotic cafe. I enjoyed the taste very much and decided to replicate it at home.

Pumpkin barley dessert - so nutritious and easy to make

Pumpkin is one of my favourite vegetables but Nic doesn't like it much (especially cooked as a dish for dinner). But I do know that pumpkin is good for health and I try to incorporate it as much as I can into our food.

Buying pumpkin whole is always better than buying halves but how else can you have pumpkin besides stir-fried with garlic? Hence this recipe! (Also I make pumpkin man-tou too with leftover pumpkin. I also roast pumpkin when I am roasting chicken - my pumpkin man-tau is a true keeper I tell you! Soft, fluffy goodness! Will share that here soon so come back.)

If you make this pumpkin barley dessert, even those die-hard haters of pumpkin will eat it. Once it is simmered, the pumpkin pieces taste like sweet potato (just make sure you do not over simmer or the pumpkin will be mushy).

Pumpkin and barley

Pumpkin Barley Dessert
(Makes 6 servings)

You need only 4 ingredients:

1/2 pumpkin, remove skin and seeds, cubed
50 gm barley (soaked and rinsed)
some rock sugar
2 fresh pandan leaves, cut into pieces

Put these ingredients into a pot of 1 liter water.
Cover and bring to a boil.
Once it is boiling, lower heat and simmer covered for another 45 minutes.
Taste to adjust sweetness. Serve warm as a dessert.

If you are unable to finish this in one sitting, you can refrigerate it (do not freeze). When you wish to drink it, just warm it up lightly on your stove (do not bring to a boil).

Closer look at this soothing dessert

Why Eat Pumpkin?
I am a big fan of pumpkin. I will eat pumpkin even if it is not nutritious! But then again, pumpkin is terribly good for your body.

Pumpkin is good for your eyes as it's loaded with vitamin A and antioxidant carotenoids, particularly alpha and beta-carotenes. It contains vitamins C, K, and E, and lots of minerals, including magnesium, potassium, and iron. According to Chinese medicine, pumpkin seeds - dried and ground up - are good for expelling worms from your intestines! On the Western front, pumpkin seeds are famous for helping with prostate health.

According to TCM sites, pumpkin has a cooling nature and helps to resolve dampness, stabilizes a hyperactive foetus, kills worms, reduces fever and diabetes. It is also (surprise) an antidote for opium addiction!

What's most interesting is that pumpkin seeds helps to build Kidney Yin which is essential for reproduction and fertility.

Anyone Have This Recipe?

2011-11-04T10:43:00.000+08:00

I got an email from Leslie this week who wrote:

Hi! I wrote you a message last week about a Chinese Women's health soup with adzuki beans, black sugar, red wild rice, dates, peanuts and goji berries. Do you know this recipe and the amounts and when is the best time to eat it?

Personally I have not come across this recipe before. Anyone here has heard about this soup or even eaten or cooked this before?

Although I have not cooked it before, the rule about eating or drinking Chinese soups is that you MUST drink them warm and on the day you cook/brew it.

Freshness is paramount in Chinese cooking (hence, fish must still be alive and jumping in aquariums before it is cooked etc. though I feel that is a terrible fate for the poor fish!).

That idiosyncrasy of the Chinese aside, soups can be drunk any time of the day though if it is a nourishing soup, it may be drunk an hour or two before you go to bed (such as Dang Gui soup).

If you have encountered this soup before, I would appreciate if you could let Leslie know what the true recipe calls for and its ingredient amounts.

A Book on Herbs From The Herb Shop!

2011-10-27T13:08:00.000+08:00

Introduction to Chinese Herbs published by herbal company, Eu Yan Sang

While shopping for herbs for my Mom-in-Law a few weeks ago at the Eu Yan Sang outlet near my home, I saw this book on Chinese herbs. Priced at RM38, the book is published by Eu Yan Sang and contains an introduction to Chinese herbs and their origins, pinpointing their location in China.

I told myself that I was there to buy herbs for my Mom-in-Law so I thought I'd buy this book the next time.

I have quite a few books on Chinese TCM herbs but I still love collecting these books. Even in today's Internet age where I can easily google and find out about a specific herb, nothing beats browsing a real book.

I also realized why I need to quickly learn how to read in Chinese - many books on TCM herbs are still largely in Chinese (as I found out when I was at Popular Bookstore). I found myself annoyed that I could not understand 80% of what was written in these Taiwanese and Chinese books.

(In case you are keen to learn Chinese, let me point you to Skritter which I am using. It helps me a lot and at US$9.95 per month, quite an affordable deal for self-motivated Mandarin learners like me. I like to be able to login any time to learn.)

In the end, I did buy the book above, no thanks to the fact that the sales promoter told me I would qualify for their lucky draw if I spent another couple more ringgit to make it a total of RM160. (Packets of herbs in Eu Yan Sang are not cheap - a packet of herbs for soup costs about RM16 to RM18. Compare this to my market herbalist who sells similar packet herbs for RM5 to RM8. So Eu Yan Sang is a little more expensive than your no-brand herbalist.)

However, I do believe the herb selection and processing should be much better at Eu Yan Sang. After all they have their brand to protect.

The book caters to both English and Chinese readers. It's not a recipe book but a book which informs how you should select herbs, what to look for, what region or province in China it comes from and what are the distinguishing features. It does have recipes but without the photo of the dish. The pages are in full colour.

The best part is they do inform you how many grammes of the herb to be used, which makes it a lot easier than going by guesswork.

Many of the featured herbs are familiar but they get the in-depth treatment for each page. It's always interesting to know the regions they come from and how the herb is processed. Things like these fascinate me to no end.

Over the next few weeks, I shall share more from this book. Anyway I am pleased I bought this book. Another herbal book to add to my TCM book collection!

Red Bean Dessert

2011-10-22T22:15:00.000+08:00

I tend to poke about the kitchen a lot more on weekends.

Sweet red bean dessert with dried longan and rock sugar

Cooking is my therapy. It gets me away from computers and the Internet for two days.

Today, I made some red bean dessert for tea. Yes, for tea.

We Chinese like our desserts for those in-between meal times.

Actually you could drink/slurp this dessert any time of the day. For me, it just so happened that the dessert was ready around 4pm and tea it was.

Red beans or adzuki beans are commonly used in Asian food. In Chinese cuisine, red beans are normally eaten in sweet form, but I have eaten it as a soup, a savoury version when my Mom-in-law boiled it as a soup with pork bones. Nic was aghast at the taste but like a dutiful son, he drank up the soup though he did tell me privately that it was rather weird to have a savoury red bean soup. I thought so too. All my life, I've grown up drinking a sweet red bean dessert so savoury red beans do taste odd!

Red bean dessert is simple to make. You do need, however, to soak the beans in water for a few hours before you cook them. I heard this soaking reduces flatulence (they are beans anyway) but mostly it helps 'soften' the red beans.

I used my claypot for this recipe because I was only cooking a small cup of red beans, enough for two people. But then again, I will caution you - it depends on how watery or how thick you want your red bean dessert to be. Some people like a thick, gooey porridge-like red bean dessert. I like a more watered down version. It's more of a drink than a porridge.

Put your soaked red beans (100 gm), rock sugar (50gm or adjust to your taste) and a handful of dried longan into a pot of water (1 liter). Bring the pot to a boil and then cover and simmer for an hour. After an hour, you need to test if the red beans are soft. If they are not soft yet, let it simmer for another hour. Once ready, serve warm.

The good thing about using a claypot is its heat retention. It softens the beans in an hour. If you do not have a claypot, you can use a slow cooker or crockpot too.

I found this recipe for adzuki bean tea where one drinks it like a tea! You can try this version of red bean soup by author Letha Hadady (whose book - Asian Health Secrets - was one of the earliest books I had on Chinese herbs).

Why Eat Red Beans?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, aduki or adzuki or red beans are known for their “strengthening” qualities and yang energy. Red beans are good for blood-building as they're full of iron. Its high iron content also makes them a good choice for women’s health. In Japan, adzuki bean soups are often consumed after menstruation to replenish red blood cells.

Red beans are also used to support kidney and bladder function.

Besides, red beans are a good source of magnesium, potassium, zinc copper, manganese and B vitamins. They are a high-potassium, low-sodium food which means they can help reduce blood pressure and act as a natural diuretic.

Like all beans, they are a good protein substitute and contain lots of soluble fibre, which binds to toxins and cholesterol, eliminating these from your body.

Adzuki beans are also used in some TCM fertility treatments.

However, I have also read that you cannot overconsume red beans as they will make you emaciated and dry (as it promotes urination).

In my recipe above, I added dried longan because it adds a different texture to the dessert plus it contributes a delicate sweetness. Dried longans are also useful in preventing hair loss and hair greying so all the better!

Basic Won Ton Soup

2011-10-13T18:30:00.002+08:00

I got this question today in my email. A reader emailed me to ask for the "wan tan" or "won ton" soup.

Please help me with the recipe for the broth (only) for won ton soup. Every Chinese reataurant makes it and has the same taste which I am addicted to. Tried with plain chicken broth and added garlic powder, celery, some soy sauce and green onion, perhaps some white wine and sesame oil but not the same. Can you help?

Here's my answer:

I've tasted the Malaysian versions of wan tan soup, not the American Chinese restaurant version. So my answer and reply to this reader is based on what I have tasted.

I recently watched a TV programme where I learnt how wan tan soup is made.

They used "ikan bilis" or dried anchovies as well as dried red dates. I am not sure if they added chicken bones or meat bones but it is OK to do so as this adds to the 'sweetness' of the soup. Please do not be mistaken about 'sweetness'. Sweetness usually means a clear tastiness to the soup and has nothing to do with it being sugary sweet.

We don't add garlic powder to soups. Neither do we add white wine.

If you're good with making won ton soups, please share your version of this soup. I would really appreciate it!

Dang Gui for Replenishing Blood

2011-09-29T15:23:00.000+08:00

I've been schooled to replenish my blood each month after my menses. This is something drilled into me since I was young, about 12 or 13. It also helped that my sisters and I were often fed with soups and tonics since young so making blood tonics isn't something new at all.

Wonderful and nourishing Dang Gui tonic for women.
Recommended to be taken often.

When I went away to study in university, I rarely had chance to make these nourishing soups for myself. We couldn't cook in our dorm rooms - the hazard of fire was very real.

When I moved out of the dorm and into a student house (located out of campus), my dad bought me a Pensonic slow cooker so I could make soups on my own. That was about 15 years ago. That Pensonic slow cooker is still with me and yes, it still works!

The slow cooker is rather small and only makes up to 2 bowls of soup. But back then it was sufficient. After all I was only making soups for myself.

The best thing about using a slow cooker is that you pop in all the herbs, add boiling water, close the lid, switch it on to Auto and let it simmer till done (about 3-4 hours). I usually put on the slow cooker in the evening and by 10pm or so, my tonic is ready to drink. If you are in a hurry, you can use the fast setting that allows your tonic to be ready in 2 hours or less.

I don't know if I told you this but sometimes I get rather lazy and go to Eu Yan Sang for blood tonic in the form of tiny black pills. You can read all about this in this previous post. I won't repeat myself.

This time around, I found some Dang Gui in my fridge. Decided to make some Dang Gui herbal tonic. It was just the day my menses finished.

Dang Gui slices (top) and dried red dates

How To Make Dang Gui Tonic

Here's what you need for a Dang Gui tonic for one person. This tonic is highly recommended for women. Many men shy away from drinking Dang Gui so don't attempt to feed your husband or spouse this tonic. ;-)

3-5 pieces of Dang Gui root, sliced
1 chicken thigh, remove all visible fat and skin (wash, pat dry and chop into 2 pieces)
2 large pieces dried red dates, stones removed
1 bowl of boiling water (250 ml)

Ensure the water covers the chicken sufficiently

1. Place Dang Gui slices and red dates in the inner ceramic pot.
2. Place chicken pieces on top of the herbs.
3. Pour over hot boiling water.
4. Put on the glass lid of the slow cooker.
5. Turn the setting to AUTO. Let this simmer for 4 hours at least.
6. Before dishing up, add half a teaspoon of salt to taste.

The tonic must be drunk warm.

Even if you remove the chicken skin, you will see a layer of oil floating atop your tonic. You may skim this off before you serve the tonic.

After drinking this tonic, you must not drink Chinese tea or any sort of tea for the next 12 hours. You should avoid taking cold drinks too.

You can eat the chicken too as it is very tender and infused with the flavour of Dang Gui. Add a little soya sauce if the chicken meat is too bland.

All About Dang Gui

Dang Gui or angelica polymorpha var. sinensis is one of the most popular Chinese herbs for women. It is often prescribed for gynaelogical problems - menstrual irregularities and fertility issues - as well as poor blood circulation resulting in dizziness, paleness, fatigue and dry skin.

As a root, Dang Gui's efficacy depends on which part of the root you use. The bottom part is said to move blood most strongly while the head of the root is a stronger tonic. You must ask your herbalist whether what you're getting is the head or bottom!

As a Warm herb, Dang Gui affects the liver, heart and spleen meridians. It is also rich in Vitamin B12 and folic acid besides being a liver tonic.

In Chinese TCM, deficient blood is normally associated with the liver which is believed to store blood and the heart which helps it circulate.

As blood in a Yin substance, a blood deficiency is a Yin deficiency.

It's not only Dang Gui which helps with blood deficiency. Other herbs such as Dang Shen (Salvia miltiorrhiza), Shu Di Huang (Rehmania glutinosa), Bai Shao Yao (Paeonia lactiflora), Chuan Xiong (Ligusticum wallichii) and Gan Cao (Glycyrrhiza uralensis) are also used.

Note that Dang Gui is NOT recommended if you are pregnant, have diarrhea or have abdominal fullness.

Finally.....When To Take This?

Apparently, regular consumption of Dang Gui will prevent menstrual cramps and PMS.(I can vouch for this. If I take Dang Gui regularly each month, my PMS - bloating, tender breasts, headaches - are considerably lessened. Also when my period comes, I do not suffer interminable cramps.)

What is regular? Once a month is good enough (in my opinion). It should be taken one or two days after your period is finished. I have read that drinking Dang Gui tonic is ONLY recommended for the few days after your period. Dang Gui is contraindicated for women who are pregnant.

However, if you take the Bak Foong pills, it is recommended that you take 1 bottle per week. I have never done that so I cannot say if that's good or not. Please ask your herbalist or TCM practitioner if you are in doubt.

Self Heal Tea

2011-09-20T16:07:00.000+08:00

This is an updated post where I've added more information and photos.

Sometimes it's a revelation to know that certain herbs I thought to be Chinese actually has been in use in the Western world for a long time too.

Self Heal or Prunella Vulgaris - a great liver tonic!

One particular herb called Self Heal or Prunella Vulgaris is just that.

I grew up with this herb. Mom used to make Xia Ku Chao tea (a dark tea which looks just like Lo Han Guo tea) for us when we were little. It helped to cool down the body.

And Xia Ku Chao or Self Heal (flower spikes) is cheap and plentiful. With RM1, you could buy a fairly large packet. Just put this dried herb into a pot of water and boil away. Add rock sugar and you can drink it the whole day.

For a robust taste, substitute with brown cane sugar. For a pot of 1.5 liter water, I add about 1 to 2 pieces of the brown candy sugar.

Brown candy sugar is made from sugar cane juice.
Available at all Chinese shops and herbalists.

But Xia Ku Chao or "Har Ku Chou" (in Cantonese) is more than just a cooling tea.

It has a host of benefits too and can be made well ahead and refrigerated for those hot, balmy days. Much better than drinking canned soda!

Self Heal is a common European wild flower and like its name, it is about healing. It is used in folk medicine to heal wounds.

In Chinese medicine, it is a herb to remedy heat where it cools the liver and calming hyperactive children! If you have swelling of lymph nodes, it is also helpful to take some Self Heal tea.

All About Self Heal

The flower spikes are used for the lung and gall bladder meridians. It is anti-bacterial, lowers blood pressure, stimulates urine flow. It is also astringent and helps with wound healing. It helps clear heat from the liver.

It can be combined with Chrysanthemum for headaches and dizziness linked to liver fire. Avoid this herb if you have a weak spleen or stomach.

Why Does Watercress Soup Become Bitter?

2011-09-14T19:08:00.000+08:00

My friend, Jo, asked me this question about making watercress soup.

She says that her watercress soup turned out bitter. When it comes out bitter, it is really a waste of time and money (and appetite too) as no one will touch the soup.

Naturally I have come across this "bitter watercress soup" puzzle once. Yes, even I - I who profess to know my soups. Actually I am still learning. I am curious about soups and so this question by Jo niggled me to no end.

Many years ago, I made a pot of watercress soup and strangely, it didn't taste good at all. It had hints of bitterness. I never really got around to investigating why until Jo asked me this question again.

Now that I am a lot better at making Chinese soups, I started to think of whom I could ask.

Two people come to mind.

The woman who sells vegetables at the market. She's a friendly matronly type, a grandmotherly soul. She would know.

And then there was my balding and ever cheerful Chinese uncle herbalist at the very same market. (Gosh I love this market. I was just remarking to Nic how lucky we are to live in this area where the market people are truly helpful and lovely.)

Anyway - I asked the daughter-in-law of my favourite vegetable seller (the woman wasn't around today, unfortunately). Now she tells me that the cardinal rule of making 'sai yeong choi' or watercress soup is this - your pot of water MUST BE BOILING before you add watercress.

If you add watercress into water which is warming up or even cold water, your soup will turn out bitter.

That's it.

That's the thing you have to remember.

In all my soup-making days, I always bring water to boil first. I never add ingredients to cold water in a pot.

I will verify this again with her mom-in-law when I do see her in the market but this daughter-in-law of hers is also an experienced cook and she has been helping her mother-in-law sell vegetables for a long time.

Now you know why your pot of water must be boiling before you add your soup ingredients.

Note: She also mentioned that if you are making soup with matrimony vine leaves, you cannot overboil the leaves. If you do overboil them at high heat, the soup will also end up bitter and nasty.

Black Soya Bean & Pinto Bean Soup

2011-09-06T13:55:00.000+08:00

I made this soup a few times already and I really like the combination of two types of beans in the soup. Their textures are completely different and that is what makes this soup a true winner.

I usually get fresh pinto beans in pods when I go to the market. Peeling them is Nic's job although it isn't really that hard to peel them. They're beige beans speckled with red dots.

My vegetable seller tells me these beans are great for soups as they're nourishing. Pinto in Spanish means "painted".

A quick search on pinto beans turns up wonderful information. You can find out more about the nutritional profile of these beans here and here.

As for black soya beans, I use the dried variety which I get from my sundry goods store in the market. Before you use them, you have to dry fry them in a pan until their black skins crack open to reveal their green insides.

Black soya beans contain antioxidants and are deemed high in Vitamin E content. They are also anti-aging and the colour of their skins are beneficial to the kidneys too. Having a healthy kidney means you get healthy skin, healthy glossy hair and reduce hair loss. (You can also make black soya bean milk which is supposedly better-tasting than regular soya bean milk.)

What's interesting is that black soya beans possess higher Vitamin E levels when they're cooked. So if you add these beans to your soup, you actually get more Vitamin E!

A high level of Vitamin E helps you improve your skin health. It also improves the collagen and elastin which helps your skin retain its suppleness.

Besides the two types of beans (about 1 cup of each), I just add pork bones (or chicken bones), chicken feet and a few dried red dates (pitted). Bring some water to boil and blanch the meat/pork/chicken feet. This gets rid of the scumminess from your soup.
In a regular stock pot, bring to boil 1 liter of room temperature water.

Once it is boiling, add your ingredients. Bring them to a rolling boil uncovered for about 10 minutes. Then cover with a tight lid, lower fire to a mere simmer and let the soup simmer for 1.5 hours. Season with salt at the end. Serve hot. (Don't over-simmer as the pinto beans will get very mushy.)

You can freeze leftover soup which I usually do. They keep well frozen. When you need to consume the soup, warm it up again on the stove. The longer you keep some soups, the better they taste. Of course, that said, don't freeze them forever. Consuming the soup within a week is probably best. For Nic and me, we usually can have this soup about 3 times.

Since we're talking about freezing soups, a little warning here - do not freeze lotus root soups as something about freezing changes the texture and crunchiness of the lotus root. You will end up with some soggy and pathetic bits of lotus root which really isn't that palatable!

24 Herb Tea - Bitter, Foul-Tasting But Oh So Good For You!

2011-08-31T18:17:00.000+08:00

Was out running a couple of errands this entire afternoon and ended up buying groceries at the nearby supermarket. If I had a choice I wouldn't go into this decade-old supermarket because it's small, cramped and you tend to knock into other shoppers with your trolley (yes, the aisles are that narrow). Nic and I figured that we might as well buy our groceries since we were in this vicinity and he did need some coffee. Finally we ended up with a trolley full of cheese, butter, coffee and noodles.

Anyway, I was getting thirsty after all the errands and shopping.

We decided to stop and have a drink at this stall which sells Chinese herbal tea. This uncle who mans it is actually a Hong Kong native who has been living in Malaysia for a long time. He drives a little white van which he parks at the corner of a junction and opens up for business. You see, he sells hot and cold Chinese herbal teas of all types - the kind that is slowly boiled and brewed.

It's common to see Malaysians of all walks of life - businessmen types, sales executives, men, women - who stop by his van to get herbal tea served either in a Chinese soup bowl or plastic cup to quench their thirst and give their bodies a good replenishing of vital nutrients.

He has Five Flower Tea as well as the bitter and foul-tasting 24 Herb Tea.

If you've slept late, worked too hard, been under stress, ate out a lot and exercised too little, the friendly uncle will recommend that you drink 24 Herb Tea, served in a Chinese bowl (RM2.50 per bowl). If you are seriously under the weather (flu or feeling down in the dumps), he would ask if you want some bitter powder added to the tea.

The bitter powder is something that is powerful because if you have the flu, one sip of this tea with bitter powder will probably kill all your germs! It's that foul-tasting!

24 Herb Tea is an all-round tea for cold and cough, fever, headache, tiredness, pathogenic dryness and heat in combination, constipation, halitosis, anorexia, abdominal dissension, weakness, dizziness, pimples and acne. Regularly imbibing this tea will make you hale and hearty.

I was interested to know what is in 24 Herb Tea. We Chinese are damn literal folks. If there are 24 ingredients in the tea, we say it is 24 Herb Tea.

I read that Hor Yan Hor brand also sells this 24 Herb tea in convenient tea bags. I wonder if they consist of the same 24 herbs. Apparently, the tea is touted as the magic cure-all tea for all aches, pains, fevers and such. Their ingredient list contains Camellia sinensis, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Prunella vulgaris, Gardenia jasminoides, Perilla futescens, Atractylodes lancea, Forsythia suspensa, Scrophularia ningpoensis, Mentha arvensis, Agastache rugosa, Schizonepeta tenuifolia, Cincifuga heracleifolia, Ledeboriella divaricata, Rheum oficinale, Ligusticum wallichii, Buplearum chinense, Angelica anomata, Platycondon gradiflorum, Notopterygium incisum, Elsholtzia splendens, Poncirus trifoliata.

In HK, I've bought Chinese herbal teas in 500 ml plastic bottles (HK$18 each), just like the soda you can buy in 7-11 stores. Whenever I land in HK, I'd be amazed at the wonderful varieties of hot and cold Chinese herbal teas for all types of ailments which you can buy easily from any MRT station where these herbal tea shops are mostly found.

Of course in HK, Chinese tea shops are just about everywhere. Tired and thirsty after a day's walking? Stop by a traditional Chinese tea shop and get your fill of herbal goodness.

Replica of a traditional Chinese herbal tea shop inside the HK Art Museum. It's so 1960s!

As for me, I love anything that's bitter because I know it does my body a lot of good. What about you? Are you up to drinking stuff which tastes horrid but is beneficial to your health?

Here's how the exhibition looks like.

And here's the real HK Chinese tea shop. This was taken in Central on one of our jaunts last year. That's Nic (bottom right corner of the pic).

The Ancient Art of Tea: Wisdom From the Ancient Chinese Tea Masters
Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch
Chinese Art of Tea

Alvin Quah's Masterchef Favourite - Drunken Chicken & Cucumber Salad

2011-08-23T14:08:00.000+08:00

Remember how I made my version of Drunken Chicken (and which I was terribly pleased with as it was so easy and so yummy!) two weeks ago?

I was inspired to make the dish based on Alvin Quah's recipe which Gary, one of the Masterchef judges, gave the thumbs-up for.

Today I am going to share with you Alvin's recipe which he re-created in one episode of Masterchef 2 (Australia). He also shared a cucumber salad which I have made and yes, it is delicious too!

And yes, I am going to share both recipes here with you because I realized that the Masterchef Australia website does not (I repeat) does not feature these recipes! Why not? Maybe it is to do with copyright. Maybe the Masterchef brand would be publishing their own recipe book based on the creative recipes of their participants. Oh well.

Drunken Chicken by Alvin Quah of Masterchef Australia Season 2

1 liter Shaoxing wine
2 small bottles mirin
some palm sugar
500 ml water

Put all of the above into a pot. Bring to a boil.
Add whole chicken into the pot.
Cover and let it simmer gently for 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Drain and chop into bite-size pieces. Reserve broth to ladle over the chicken before serving.

Alvin's Cucumber Salad

a handful of peanuts
a handful of dried shrimp
3 pips garlic

In a mortar and pestle, pound the above 3 ingredients.
Add 2 bird's eyes chili and a slice of lime (with skin on). Bruise these gently in the mortar.

In a bowl, combine palm sugar, lime juice and fish sauce well. Taste and adjust. (This is the dresssing.)

In another bowl, combine sliced cherry tomatoes, snake bean (or what we call long beans), and cucumber chunks. Mix the pounded ingredients with the vegetables. Drizzle over with the dressing. Before serving, drizzle some sesame oil.

Serve with drunken chicken.

Two Asian Kitchens: Recipes from Australia's Master Chef
Vatchs Southeast Asian Salads
Classic Asian Salads
MasterChef Australia : The Cookbook - Volume 2

Best Goji Berries Soups From My Recipe Collection

2011-08-18T14:46:00.001+08:00

"Kei Chi" or goji berries or medlar seeds or wolfberry seeds - they refer to the little dried red berries which we Chinese love to use in our soups and dishes because they are packed with nutrition.

These berries are given to kids especially by Chinese parents so that their kids will grow up with good vision. In my case, either I didn't eat enough as a kid or my genes are predisposed to short-sightedness. (Anyway, I had my eyes lasik-ed last year so technology can take care of things for you.)

Goji berries help with the Liver and Kidney meridians. That's why they're beneficial for remedying Kidney Qi deficiency which brings about problems like lower back pain, impotence, dizziness and tinnitus. It helps lowers blood pressure, lowers blood sugar levels and lowers blood cholesterol levels besides acting as a liver tonic and nourishing blood.

Though they're full of goodness, don't overdo it. All herbs in moderation please. If you are prone to excess heat or dampness, don't make it worse. Just a handful in your soup will do.

If you aren't bothered to boil goji berries in soups, you can add a teaspoon of these berries into a glass, pour over hot water and steep for 5 minutes. Drink it up and chew on the re-hydrated berries too. Or you can also chew on them like you'd eat raisins. The good quality ones are naturally sweet. I once tried Young Living's Ningxia Red drink which is made with goji berries. They tasted great but I'd rather have the real thing.

I thought I'd round up some of my past recipes on goji berries since they're so easy to eat and so good for your health.

Matrimony Vine Leaf Soup with Wolfberry Fruits

This is a simple and quick soup and can be ready in 30 minutes. Yes, it is that easy. This soup does not qualify as a slow simmered soup as it needs a fast boil. Very suitable for moms who are home late and need to whip up nutritious yet fast soups.

Chicken Garlic Kei Chi Soup

This is a quick soup which can be ready in 30 minutes.

Red Dates, Longan and Medlar Seeds Tea

This is a nourishing tea/sweet dessert soup recipe because the three main ingredients (see title above) are good for building blood, regenerating Qi and beneficial to the eyes. This can be served on its own, as an afternoon drink (please serve it warm) or after a lovely dinner to clear the palate.

Porridge with Kei Chi, Wai San & Pork

Wai san porridge is a great recipe when you are strapped for time. Second of course is that wai san (I'm talking about fresh wai san in this case) is soothing for the stomach.

Papaya Soup with Medlar Seeds and Ciku Fruit

This soup helps clear the lungs.

The Book of Jook: Chinese Medicinal Porridges--A Healthy Alternative to the Typical Western Breakfast
Asian Soups (The Essential Kitchen)
The Sweet Spot: Asian-Inspired Desserts

Drunken Chicken, Inspired By Masterchef 2 Participant, Alvin Quah

2011-08-13T16:39:00.003+08:00

Drunken Chicken, Soup Queen's Quick & Easy Version and Absolutely Yummy

It's an understatement to say I love the TV series, Masterchef. I'm talking about the Aussie version which I started to get hooked on beginning with the adorable junior chefs in Junior Masterchef. I was bowled over by the kids' passion and knowledge of food. It puts some of us to shame really when you look at the breadth and depth of these kids' wisdom about cooking good food.

After that I started watching the Masterchef but I think our Astro here started showing only Masterchef 2. I think I missed a few episodes because I wasn't sure what time the show aired. Astro's programming can get a little weird.

But the Australian version of Masterchef, be it the junior or senior/adult versions, are very interesting to watch. Of course, nothing beats the precociousness of the Aussie kids.

Anyway, in one of the last few episodes, Alvin Quah (a Malaysian!) despite not being in the top 3 was picked to recreate his chicken dish - a dish he called Drunken Chicken.

I excitedly jotted down the recipe because Gary, one of the judges, loved it to bits. Especially when you pair it with the cucumber salad.

I have not had time to try Alvin's recipe but I have made something akin to that just this week.

Nic loves Taiwanese food and one of his favourite dishes is - you guessed it - Drunken Chicken or Chicken in Wine. It goes incredibly well with rice. We used to visit this lovely little Taiwanese cafe located on the first floor of Midlands One-Stop Mall for their superb dishes and that is how he got hooked.

(Speaking of which, I managed to get the recipe for the Taiwanese Three-Cup Chicken dish - my fave - and have made it a few times and gotten the thumbs-up from the husband. That is why he likes it when I start experimenting in the kitchen. He knows he's privy to some goodies soon.... goodies for his tummy and good for his health too!)

Technically, Drunken Chicken is more soup than dish because it's the rich broth infused with chicken and wine that makes it such a comfort to eat/slurp up on a cold day. In Penang, we really don't have freezingly cold days (unlike HK in early spring but that's cause I really cannot stand cold) but we do have thunderstorms and rain. I figured this dish would go down well with Kuching people as it rains constantly over there.

In the spirit of Soup Queen, I think this dish is worthy of being featured as it contains herbs (goji berries or 'kei chi' to you and me) and it's really a soup more than a dish. Sometimes I even chew on dried goji berries because they really resemble raisins and taste sweet too. I learn this from my friend who said she chewed on goji berries all the time when growing up and I see it has done her a world of good as she isn't short-sighted at all.

Surprisingly, it was my first attempt at this dish so I am quite pleased that it turned out rather well. *pats myself on the back*

OK, enough chatter.

Here's how the dish looks like once it's done.

A closer peek at the Drunken Chicken

I made this in my glazed claypot because claypots retain heat well, cooks food to just the right amount of done-ness and keeps food warm (great for keeping fried vermicelli or fried rice before you serve them).

Here are the ingredients.

Half a chicken, chopped into bite-size pieces (rub and marinate with 1 teaspoon salt for 20 minutes)
1/2 cup (125 ml) Shaoxing Hua Diao wine
3 tablespoons dried kei chi or goji berries, soaked in water for a while and drained
1 teaspoon salt
2 small pieces rock sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
5 slices young ginger
2 stalks spring onion
500 ml water

1. Put water, young ginger and spring onion into a pot. Cover and bring to a boil.

2. When water comes to a boil, put in chicken pieces, goji berries, salt, rock sugar, fish sauce and Shaoxing wine. (Actually you can add more wine if you like. As this was my first time, I decided 1/2 cup was just good enough. When I make it again, I would add a little more.)

3. Cover the pot. Reduce fire to the lowest so that the chicken simmers in its own broth. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Taste the broth after 30 minutes and see if you need more salt or more wine.

4. Dish up and serve hot.

Nic told me that for more robustness of flavour, I could add a dash of wine once I dish up the chicken and its broth. Hmm, good idea.

This dish tastes even better if you keep it overnight in the fridge and re-heat the next day. The flavours would have been better combined.

But if you smell the loveliness of the dish when you're simmering it on the stove, you probably cannot wait till tomorrow to taste it. It's that good.

In my next post, I will share Alvin Quah's recipe for Drunken Chicken.

A Tradition of Soup: Flavors from China's Pearl River Delta
Soup! Soup! Soup!: Chinese Style

MotherWort Herb With Chicken, Sarawak-Style Confinement Food

2011-04-24T17:05:00.012+08:00

I've written about kachama or kachangma before. Even included a recipe with photos back in 2008.

Kachama chicken is best eaten with dark soya sauce

However, back then, I never knew what kachama was called in English. I tried looking high and low and could never find the name. If only I knew, I could google for it. Heck, I only know how it looks like dried and chopped up!

Finally one day I chanced upon a herb called Motherwort which was listed as an ingredient in one of my client's products. She confirmed that yes, this herb is quite popular in Sarawak. I don't remember how I counter-checked but in the end, I realized kachama is Motherwort. In Mandarin, it is called Yi Mu Cao.

Now this herb is, like its name suggests, benefits the mother!

Well, in Sarawak, kachama cooked with chicken is traditionally served as a confinement food to help moms get rid of 'wind' or "angin". This is evident from the plethora of "angin"-busting ingredients in the dish - ginger, sesame oil, rice wine and of course, motherwort herb. It also helps with milk flow so perhaps that is another reason why it's recommended as confinement food.

For Chinese moms, getting rid of wind after giving birth is a MUST. I don't have kids yet so I cannot vouch about the effects of wind. Apparently if you don't get rid of angin after giving birth, you will get all sorts of ailments when you get older such as rheumatism, achy joints and stuff like that.

Accordingly, "Motherwort has a long history of use as an herb in traditional medicine in Central Europe, Asia and North America. Like many other plants, it has been used for a variety of ills, and consumed. Midwives use it for a variety of purposes, including uterine tonic and prevention of uterine infection in women, hence the name Motherwort."(from this page in Wikipedia)

Motherwort resembles a "lion's tail" - it is a mint with dull green, hairy leaves and an intensely bitter taste. The botanical name Leonurus refers to a fanciful resemblance of the leaves to a lion's tail. It is also a mood elevator and helps women with their womenly problems. So really, the name Motherwort is an apt name!

Kachama with chicken is an acquired taste. Sarawakians or at least my husband and his family eat it dipped with some dark soya sauce. Kachama has a slightly herbally and bitter taste, somewhat like 'sawi' or mustard green.

In Kuching, you can find this dish easily in food courts and hawker centres.

Men don't have to worry about eating this dish - motherwort herb helps calms nerves, improves blood flow and prevents blood clots. So it isn't just women who benefit, men will be able to prevent heart attacks and strokes too if they eat this herb.

Besides, it is also good for headache, insomnia, and vertigo. It is sometimes used to relieve asthma, bronchitis, and other lung problems.

What is there not to like about Motherwort? If you can get Motherwort, do try out the recipe.

Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (Cunningham's Encyclopedia Series)

Pomelo Rind Braised With Prawns

2011-04-15T00:56:00.002+08:00

While in HK, my friend took us to a local food joint which was located on the first floor of a building near the wet market of Causeway Bay. I can't recall the name of the place and anyway, I read very little Chinese (though I am learning, thanks to Skritter) so even if I did see the name of the place, I'd have forgotten by now.

We had had enough of wan ton noodles and char siew rice and roast goose rice. The rice you get in HK is one mountain! Sometimes we had to share our rice. In Malaysia we don't gobble that much of rice!

We had met SP at Times Square at Causeway Bay (in Cantonese, "thung lor wan") and we walked towards the wet market, which at 6.30pm was in full swing. Vendors were selling fruits, fish (live ones too), chicken, pork and fresh vegetables. The sky was dark but the bright yellow lights made the market come alive with festivity. The chill was still getting to me though. At 14 C, it was cold for me. Too cold. And the skies were mostly grey when we were there in end March. How I missed my Malaysian sunsets!

Anyway, our dinner place proved to be a locals' joint where lots of Hong Kongers converged for their piping hot dinners. Peeking at the tables filling up fast around us, we saw steamboat, rice with dishes, seafood and more. It was everything under one roof.

Eat where locals eat and you can't go wrong!

The lady who served us knew we weren't locals. The moment we opened our mouths, she knew. Yet she was also kind enough not to scream at us, as impatient HK people usually do - they're notorious for talking down to tourists who can't keep up with them. Fortunately we have been lucky. No one's ever grumbled at us.

SP told us of a queer dish made from pomelo rind. She's been working in HK and Greater China for 5 years now and she had come to this joint for the pomelo rind dish but never got to taste it.

Braised savoury pomelo rind

The cheery lady immediately knew what dish we were talking about. She said it was a pomelo rind dish braised with prawns. At HK$18 for a plate, we felt we had to try it out. She helpfully ordered it for us from another stall.

The dish came to our table in a jiffy. The pomelo rind was braised till soft, almost mushy and had lots of tasty gravy. Grated nutmeg was sprinkled on top. I didn't know if it was an appetizer or a main dish but it sure tasted delicious!

When I came home, I told my aunt about this. She laughed and said that she used to despise this dish as a child. My great-grandfather's cook would prepare this dish from leftover pomelo rind (after you've eaten the pomelo fruit) and she'd hated the idea of eating fruit peel! To her, it was a poor man's food.

It was the first time I'd eaten such an interesting dish though.

Back From Hong Kong

2011-04-09T01:02:00.002+08:00

Was in Hong Kong for 10 days last month for a few reasons. Business, leisure, etc. The usual. We try to pack a few things into our travel whenever we go abroad. This time was no different.

But the best part is always the food. This is my 3rd time to HK - strangely the country grows on you. Nic and I like the weather though at times it gets to me. Like this time around, we were there late March and while it seemed like spring, to me a tropical girl, it was mighty chilly at 14 C. Yes, I know. To most of you, 14 C is not a problem. For me it was way too chilly. All my limbs were cold. I only took one shower a day (in Penang, I take showers at least 2 times a day and more if the weather's overly warm!).

Anyway, I did a great many things while in HK.

Will write more!

Here's A Peek At My Cookie Treats

2011-03-10T13:17:00.000+08:00

Here are some photos of Chinese New Year cookies which I didn't make. All of these were either bought from friends who made them or given to me. Yes, I am fortunate that I am surrounded by capable bakers. I had 3 different types of butter cookies, 2 different types of seaweed crackers, and a host of delicious munchies. Here are some pineapple rolls, courtesy of my youngest sister.

Here is the view from the top. Pineapple rolls are a firm favourite each Chinese New Year.

Below are some seaweed or nori crackers made by my aunts. Apparently it's very easy to make. You just need sheets of nori sandwiched between popiah skin wrappers. Cut them up into bite-size pieces and deep-fry till crispy. Warning - these are completely addictive! I can munch through half a canister of this while watching Glee. Then I get all guilty!

These are called Almond London cookies. Also quite a sweet treat and available to me because my sister makes them for me. Inside each chocolate covered biscuit is a whole almond. Almonds are expensive so it's like a luxury or so my sis says. Great with a cup of hot tea!

These mini spring rolls with homemade pork floss were ordered from a friend. Absolutely crunchy and tasty. Also very heaty if eaten too much, just like the above chocolate treats. Ensure you drink a lot of chrysanthemum tea or buddha fruit tea.

What is Chinese New Year with some buttery goodness in the form of butter cookies?

Here are some cranberry oat cookies which I ordered from my neighbour. I think she added some Baileys to these chewy cookies. By the way, I love chewy cookies.

Again, Chinese New Year isn't CNY until we have our basket of mandarin oranges! Don't consume too many or else you will suffer damp-heat. You can save its peel, dry it under the sun and use the peel when you boil red bean dessert.

It gives a nice orangey tang to the dessert. "Chen pi" or dried tangerine peel cures coughs! Fancy that. If you eat too many oranges, you get coughs but if you want a remedy, go look for orange peel. Everything has its own cure and remedy. That's the fascinating part about Nature!

Arrowhead chips have become quite a fave too the last few Chinese New Years. Made from the arrowhead bulbs which are apparently only available during January and February (as they come from China), these chips are again a good accompaniment to TV watching. As they are deep-fried, they are heaty so again, all Chinese mothers will caution: eat this and drink lots of water.

My Favourite Chinese New Year Snacks

2011-02-08T16:30:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year is always about feasting and snacking.

It's that one time of the year when you can really tell yourself, "I'll exercise more when CNY is over!" It's hard to resist traditional snacks and biscuits especially when you only get to eat them once a year.

I wrote a post about my favourite snacks for Chinese New Year once but I think the list needs updating.

Biscuits are in big demand in Penang during this time of the year because many women do not have time to make their own cookies or biscuits (how Americanized we've become - we used to call them biscuits but now they're cookies!).

Chinese New Year cookie business is a lucrative business for many homemakers who are good at baking. I am not big on making cookies so I usually order from my aunt (who makes such scrumptious pineapple tarts) and my neighbour. I get cookies from my sister too - she makes good stuff!

The most sought after cookies and traditional-style biscuits are the ones we associate with Chinese New Year.

KUIH KAPIT

It's unthinkable to not have kuih kapit (love letters) in your home during this time of the year. They're paper-thin, crispy and melt in the mouth. The right kuih kapit is flavoursome - made with eggs, flour, sugar and coconut cream.

When I was a child, we used to have kuih kapit making sessions in my Grandma's home. It would be a whole day affair - we'd start early in the morning and work till evening. It was hot work. We'd sit in a row with specific duties.

The main cook's job was to pour the batter into kuih kapit moulds and quickly put them on the charcoal-lined pits (like BBQ pits). The main person doing this has to be quick and nimble; the batter cooked fast. When the batter was almost done, the expert would peel it off the mould. The person sitting next to her would fold the circle into half, and fold the half into a quarter. As the batter would be hot, it takes a pair of seasoned fingers to do this work without the batter hardening first! Cooled kuih kapit would be stored in airtight Milo tins.

The Thai people have put an innovative twist into the ordinary kuih kapit (which is really a Nyonya biscuit). In Hadyai, you can buy kuih kapit with pork floss. The pork floss makes for chewy and savoury accompaniment to the crunchy and mildly sweet kuih kapit. The combination of flavours is excellent and this makes it an unstoppable snack!

JAM TARTS

Pineapple jam tarts are another favourite. A jam tart is usually a rich, buttery pastry with a dollop of homemade pineapple jam on top. The cookie pastry must be of a melt-in-the-mouth texture and the jam mustn't be too sweet or it gets too cloying after one too many jam tarts.

Again, I've made these tarts before when I was young. I used to help my mom grate fresh pineapple for the jam-making. That's the most tedious and time-consuming task. Mom would remove all the juice from the grated pineapple before she cooked the pineapple mush in a pot. The upside is, I got to drink lots of fresh pineapple juice!The downside is, I had to stand at the stove, stirring the jam so that it wouldn't stick to the bottom of the pot. Now that was backbreaking work indeed.

In the 1980s, a pineapple tart was one which looked like a flower with the jam as its centre. Nowadays, a pineapple tart was a roll of pastry with the jam inserted inside this roll. The secret to the pastry is using the best butter you can find. My aunt makes the yummiest and largest-looking jam tarts ever. She makes each tart by hand so you can imagine how much time she takes to make these Chinese New Year must-have.

Besides their tastiness factor, Chinese folks love pineapple tarts for their symbolism. The pineapple is called "wong lai" (Cantonese) or "ong lai" (Hokkien) depending on what dialect you speak. No matter what dialect you use, it sounds like "luck is arriving". So it is imperative to have jam tarts during Chinese New Year because we Chinese are big on abundance, luck, prosperity and wealth.

To be continued in the next post......

Peonies, Pussywillows and Limes

2011-02-06T16:25:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone!

It's the 4th day of the Chinese Lunar Year and the festivities haven't really ended yet - after all we have 15 days for the Chinese New Year. Of course, festivities do taper off after the 9th day especially in Penang.

Penang Hokkiens celebrate with a thanksgiving prayer session on the eve of the 8th day of Chinese New Year - it is what we Cantonese call the Hokkien Chinese New Year. It is a big deal in Penang as the Chinese majority here are Hokkiens so the markets get busy again when the 8th day rolls around. Shops run by Hokkiens will again close on this special day as the families gather to offer food and prayers.

I've been taking it easy this Chinese New Year - this year, Nic and I celebrated Chinese New Year here in Penang. It's been fun decorating our apartment with red - not that we don't have enough red in the house (our feature wall is unmistakably red).

We bought a bunch of pussy willow stalks from a wholesale florist supplier on Anson Road just last week. I've always been intrigued by these little 'furry' flowers. They are a symbol of spring arriving. Of course Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival but that only seems to be true if you live in China where snow melts and spring arrives with flowers budding and flowering.

In smouldering warm Malaysia, spring is in the mind. So one of those ways to remind ourselves about spring is to ensure we have fresh pussy willow blossoms in the home. We chose the original pussy willow stalks - which will open into white catkins. Catkins are really soft and furry to the touch. The guy who sold us the pussy willows said that we could hasten the opening of the catkins by pinching the covering of the catkins.

Our 6 foot long pussy willow stalks are immersed in water to encourage more catkins to open up. They don't have any distinct fragrance though.

The next flower which is very closely tied to the Chinese New Year is the peony flower. However we didn't and probably couldn't get fresh ones even if we tried. The next best thing was to get fake ones from a home decor shop. I found magenta peonies to match our magenta throw pillows.

Lime trees with lime fruits are also much in demand during Chinese New Year. I chuckled to myself when I saw a Caucasian couple buying two potted lime trees from Jusco just last month. The limes were ripe and golden. The Chinese love these lime trees for their abundance and prosperous connotations. But the other problem is, with lime trees, they only look good for a brief time before the fruits fall. Apparently the nurseries pump a lot of fertilizers into these plants prior to selling them. This ensures a hearty flowering and fruiting session just before Chinese New Year.

The idea of growth and prosperity and flowers means that you will see Chinese homes bedecked in all types of plants and flowers, especially any shrub or plant with happy symbolism. And if we cannot get the real thing (as in peonies and such), we have no qualms using fakes either.

As Valentine's Day also falls inside the 15 days of Chinese New Year, it also brings more good business for flower shops, flower suppliers and florists. The price of roses become astronomical too. I've personally never quite fancied the commercialisation of the day of love (and since I've been married for 9 years already so I think I am so beyond that). It's not that I don't like romance - I do but romance without the tackiness of corny-looking cotton pink bears with hearts!

Lotus root soup! Yummy!

Anyway, I took a break from the kitchen this Chinese New Year and did not make any soups whatsoever. I do have some lotus root in my fridge though. This is again a symbolism for us Cantonese. Lotus root sounds like "abundance" in Chinese so it is a MUST to have it somewhere in the house during Chinese New Year. I plan on making some lotus root soup really soon. (Here's a vegetarian version of the lotus root soup too.)

Is It Really Turtle Carapace In Gwai Ling Kou?

2011-01-24T12:19:00.000+08:00

The weather in Penang is becoming unbearably warm, particularly in the afternoons when the heat really sears.

I decided to take a break from boiling Buddha Fruit and make something different. I was rummaging in my fridge and found a packet of Eu Yan Sang's Gui Ling Gao powder - it didn't have an expiry date so I thought, what the heck, I'd just use it.

The thing is, and this is what I haven't figured out, does it really contain the shell of the turtle? Or is it just a name for a cooling dessert thanks to the ingenuity of the Chinese in naming their desserts?

Anyway, I think there aren' that many turtles around these days so I hope the modern "gwai ling kou" is made from herbs.

You can see this post I wrote previously on how I made this gui ling gao dessert.

My Rosemary Story

2011-01-11T14:30:00.000+08:00

In tropical Malaysia, I usually steer clear of temperate plants and herbs. Planting them is an exercise in patience as it can be quite trying to get some plants to grow properly.

One of those herbs I love a lot is rosemary. I first bought a potted rosemary plant, about half a foot tall, for a princely sum of RM20 a pot some years ago. At that time, I was still at my old apartment where my balcony did not get direct sunlight. It worried me that my precious rosemary would not survive.

It survived all of 2 years before it started to wilt and die. I blamed it on the lack of sunlight.

Fast forward to 2010. I bought another rosemary plant, this time for RM16 at my local nursery. This time, I had a small plot of garden in the back of our ground floor apartment. It gets direct sun every day and I read that rosemary likes the sun (it is after all from the Mediterranean region).

I piled on the compost (made by yours truly) and it grew happily. However, the rainy season came and with it, came some black bugs which landed on the rosemary too. In the end, I had to trim off the leaves.

It's still growing (thank god) but slowly as the rainy season keeps the soil overly moist. I love running my hands over the spiny leaves and inhaling its fragrance. It refreshes me each time!

But here's something interesting - rosemary is good for strengthening Yang, thanks to Neil's blog. It is also a Qi tonic. No wonder I love inhaling the fragrance of rosemary. (I am tempted to buy the rosemary essential oil the next time I put in my order for essential oils.) At least I can still get my favourite scent should my little plant die on me.

What is your favourite herb? Do you plant it? Or do you get it as an essential oil? I'd love to know!

What Grass Jelly Really Is...

2011-01-07T13:19:00.000+08:00

If you have always wondered what makes "cincau" or "leong fan" (Cantonese) or grass jelly, this post will definitely enlighten you. It's from a plant called the Mesona with shiny leaves.

Unlike "gwai ling kou" which I have associated with tortoises and their carapaces, grass jelly is less scary.
The grass jelly drink is very common in Malaysia. It consists of black chewy jelly-like bits in syrupy sweet water which also gets its dark tinge from the grass jelly. Usually served cold with ice, this drink is a thirst quencher on hot days. It also helps 'cool' the body especially if one gets too heaty.

Although it is a typically Chinese drink, many other races in Malaysia drink this too. For instance, Malays mix cincau with soya bean milk to make a sweet thirst quencher when they break fast during the fasting month. In fact, Yeo's usually sell their soya bean drink (1 liter tetrapack) with a can of cincau drink so you can mix them up at home!

Of course, over-indulging in cool drinks like cincau is not good. Moderation is the key. But at least,
now I know where my cincau comes from!

What 2011 Holds For The Soup Queen

2011-01-03T17:14:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year to you!

Can you believe it? It's a new decade.

I woke up this morning feeling like I've been transported to a new era. Of course it rained very heavily this morning and what struck me was this thought: I am very glad I am not in school anymore.

I met a friend who had gone to his daughter's school during her recess to see if she's OK. I remembered how my nephew had the first day of school jitters last year this time. He's all right now but in the early days, he used to search for my mom (his Por-Por/ Grandma) to help him make sense of the Mandarin the teacher was using!

This year I hope to blog more at SoupQueen.

Last year took me away from my soup-making activities. Business has been good and I've been travelling too. And what with staffing and marketing and client servicing, it really left me very little time for experimenting in the kitchen.

SoupQueen will have a little diversion once in a while - for instance, dishes and such because I realized how important it is for me to remember my heritage. A lot features food (not just soups though they are still my favourites) and one way to preserve culture is through food.

So expect a few more recipes which I culled from my mom and my grandma. My grandma is too old to cook now (she's in her mid-80s) but when she cooked in her younger days, her dishes were typically Xining - which I characterise as salty but thoroughly flavourful! A lot of Xining dishes I had as a child involved a lot of salted fish, salted eggs, fermented black beans and pork!

My mom, who is not Xining, but typically Cantonese, still cooks but she cannot replicate my paternal grandma's Xining dishes. Dishes like salted chicken, braised terubuk fish with black beans, stuffed flower crabs with pork and more are very much my grandma's signature. I'm not the only one who misses these dishes - my uncles and aunts too.

So this year, I aim to diversify into these dishes once in a while. I also intend to feature some Malaysian herbs and plants which I am growing in my little garden. I've become quite the herb gardener because there isn't anything that compares to using fresh herbs plucked from one's garden. That's as organic as it can get.

As I'm doing composting daily now, I have rich, fertile soil for plants. This helps plants and herbs bloom well. The leaves are gigantic, growing up to 5 times their regular size. The plants are taller and stronger too. Just goes to show why we should really look deeper into organic compost and its uses for the home garden. I don't want to rename my blog - I thought about it though.

The SoupQueen will still feature Chinese soups and desserts, but it will also feature Malaysian herbs and some of my Xining food fetish. Sometimes I will also feature interesting blogs which I read. Or books which I stumble upon.

Thank you for your support of this little blog over the years. It awes me to think that people actually like the recipes I feature.

Thank you for honouring this little blog of mine.

Pig Trotters in Vinegar

2010-11-02T15:09:00.001+08:00

I know this is not a soup recipe but it is something I promised you.

Actually I learnt this when I went home to my parents' place in September. And after that I went travelling for business (first to Kerala, India and then to Singapore) so I didn't manage to share the recipe.

The cool part is, I took snapshots of the process so you can see how easy the entire process is.

My mother is a good cook (but then again everyone says this of their own moms).

My mom makes very good Nyonya kuih like kuih talam, kuih lapis, abok-abok, onde-onde and kuih seri muka. She used to supply to school canteens and she stopped doing it when I reach secondary school as she found the work tiring. My sisters and I used to help her pinch the edges of curry puffs - we used to do this while watching Incredible Hulk on TV! Back in those days (in the 1980s), the only channels we had were TV1 (RTM1) and TV2 (RTM2) and the only good shows were series like Incredible Hulk.

Anyway, my mom knows that pig trotters in vinegar is my favourite dish so whenever I visit, she will make it a point to cook it for me. That's how moms are. Well, at least Asian moms. Food is a representation of love!

This is a Cantonese version. My mom told me of a Hokkien version which has more vinegary taste than sweet taste.

Here's what you need:

2 pig trotters (front legs of the pig*)
* The front legs are less fatty than the back legs. You sometimes need to order this in advance from some butchers. About 2 front trotters chopped into chunky pieces will do. You will include the skin too. That's the best part of eating vinegared trotters! They become gelatinous and gooey after simmering so that is the best part.

1 bottle of black vinegar (which you can get from any supermarket)
For this recipe, my mom bought Pearl River Bridge brand of sweetened vinegar.

6-7 pieces whole ginger (peeled, washed and smashed)
Mom used young ginger for this recipe as we were just eating it as a dish. She told me that if we are cooking it for women who have just delivered babies, they must use old ginger (to get rid of 'wind').

And some rock sugar and salt to taste.

First, Mom heated up the pot with sesame oil. This is a fairly huge amount of sesame oil. I think it was about 2 -3 tablespoons.

Next she put in the ginger. Fry it for 30 seconds.

Next add 500 ml of water. Close the pot. Let the water boil.

Once the water comes to a boil, add the pig trotters and the entire bottle of vinegar. Add a few cubes of rock sugar too. Close the lid and let it boil for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, bring the fire down to low and let it all simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours or until the pig trotters are tender. Dish up and serve hot with steamed white rice.

The beauty of this dish is the longer you keep, the better it tastes! The end result should be a dark soupy gravy with pieces of tender pork.

If you have drunk up the gravy, worry not. You can add in more vinegar and simmer the dish again. I can drink the gravy like soup! The ginger pieces will also be tender and can be eaten too with the pork.

A dish like this can be kept in the fridge for up to a week.

* My mom makes a version with chicken for my sister as she does not take pork. However, pork and chicken have different textures so chicken tends to be all meat and very little fat. The star quality of this dish lies in the fat content of the trotters. The fat content kind of 'glues' the whole dish into one truly yummy meal by itself. My favourite way of eating this dish is to scoop a bowl of it and eat it on its own, without rice.

I forgot to snap photos of the final result, excited as I was about the recipe!

You can view how a dish of pig trotters in vinegar looks like over at Audrey's blog (her version with eggs).

Indian Borage for Curing Coughs

2010-10-07T13:28:00.002+08:00

I have been travelling about so that is why the blog is a bit slow on the updates. Well I had gone home to Banting to visit my parents and to indulge in mom's homecooked food for a few days. I also learnt from her how to make vinegared pig trotters, a recipe I am going to share with you in the next few days.

Fresh vanilla pods!

After visiting my parents, I had come home for two weeks before I was packing again. This time, Nic and I were going to Kerala, India. This visit was with a client as he had wanted to visit some organic farms and farmers in the Wayanad region of Kerala.

The climate in Kerala is just like our Malaysian climate. We were lucky that when we were there, the rains didn't start yet. I heard that it is flooding now in Kerala and travel may be hindered.

Pepper, grown organically in Kerala

Kerala is famous for ayurvedic treatments and clinics. Health is a top priority for the people of Kerala. They pay a lot of attention to herbs and plants for medicinal purposes besides using yoga and other holistic treatments for health problems.

Lemongrass oil, camphor oil, castor oil and more in an Indian supermarket

In fact their supermarket sells a lot of oils, remedies and balms made with herbs and plants. Even their soaps are made with herbs!

All sorts of herbal remedies for coughs

Anyway, while visiting an Indian farmer who planted pepper and vanilla, among other crops, I saw that he also planted a pot of Indian borage. I've had more than a mild interest in Indian borage because I was introduced to this plant/herb not too long ago by a friend here in Penang. She had given me a cutting and my Indian borage now thrives in my garden.

This herb is pungent and smells a bit like oregano. Therefore it also goes by the name Local Oregano. I believe the Filipinos call it Oregano.

It is an easy plant to grow as long as its cutting has taken root. I noticed it also loves the sun as it has bloomed really well in the morning sun.

Why do I like this plant so much? Like my TCM herbs, this herb is useful for coughs and for asthmatic conditions. It is also useful for clearing dandruff, encouraging lactation in breastfeeding moms and helps with sore throats.

As I had just come home from Kerala with a dry cough, I decided to cure myself with some of my own homegrown Indian borage.

I plucked 2 leaves off the plant, crushed them and put them into a small pot with 1 cup of water to boil for 5 minutes. Once cooled to touch, stir in 2 teaspoons of honey. Drink warm.

I believe it is helping my cough as I am coughing less as I type this now. I will drink another decoction later this evening.

If you want to know how the plant looks like and what else you can use it for, this helpful article is all you need.

A Lil Diversion.....

2010-08-23T18:45:00.003+08:00

Well this has nothing to do with food or soups but it has something to do with Orientalism and health and in a way, well-being.

I came upon this Oriental Tit Tar website when I went over (OK, OK, more like moseyed over) to a friend's blog. He had sprained his ankle so he went to see a Chinese Tit Tar.

How shall I translate Tit Tar?

It's a Cantonese word for the chiropractor who puts you right again.

It's very cool that this particular Tit Tar is smart enough to take hold of technology and use it for his own business.

After all, complementary medicine should be here as an option for people like you and me.

Particularly me as I love my Sin Seh (Chinese medicine man). Sure, the healing is not as fast as Western medicine. But asking for quick, fast relief isn't always the best way to cure the body.

So I like my medicine to work with my body to heal it, not work as a 'patch' and cover up the symptoms but not treat the root causes.

That is perhaps why I like going back to the basics - prevention through soups!

This Is For The Eyes

2010-08-19T18:37:00.001+08:00

While I've gone ahead and got my eyes iLASIK-ed, my dear husband is doing it the natural way. He says he can train his eyes to see better with a combination of eye exercises, nutrition and Bates pinhole glasses.

I'm OK with whatever he chooses to do. He supported me when I told him I needed to laser my eyes and get back my vision before I turn 40 in 4 years' time. Supported me as in financially, he paid for my vision correction surgery.

So of course I am supporting him in his endeavour.

He diligently does his eye exercises and of late, he can actually sit at our living room sofa and read the time on our Astro decoder (which is like 7 feet away!).

I'm really happy for him because it will be so good when he does not need to rely on his glasses anymore.

On this note, I told him I'd make him nutritious stuff to help him improve his eyesight.

Wolfberry in soups is one of those methods. Wolfberries are great for the eyes and as any Chinese mom will tell you, it is one of those herbs you have to have in your kitchen. My neighbour, Vern, told me she thinks her good eyesight comes from her snacking on dried wolfberries like raisins when she was a kid!

Aside wolfberries, we've been taking cod liver oil capsules too. Cod liver oil contains Vitamin A so that again is perfect for the eyes.

Another cool thing I discovered lately is beetroot. I never knew how to cook or eat this root vegetable but I sure loved its purple colour. In fact I like any fruit that's magenta-purple like berries, red dragon fruit and plums. So it's no wonder I have taken to heart the humble but powerful beetroot.

Making Juice Out of Beetroot

On days when I go to the wet market, I buy beetroot. A small one will do.

I peel it and slice it up. Put it in a blender with 1 small carrot (also diced up) and 2 tablespoons honey. Add two glasses of water and blend for 10 seconds or until everything's gone pulpy!

Add some ice and serve chilled.

This recipe makes 4 regular mugs of deliciously dark and purple beetroot juice.

I was thinking of getting a juicer initially but after a while, it's rather fun to have bits of beetroot fibre to chew as you drink this vitamin-packed juice. It'd be such a waste to throw out the pulp!

Besides helping to lower blood pressure and helping with constipation (and a host of other health problems), beetroot juice is a natural liver cleanser. I read that if something is good for your liver, it is good for the eyes because in TCM, apparently the eyes and the liver are connected. So if your liver's not feeling too well, you can be sure your eyes won't feel their best either.

Accordingly, beetroot contains the compounds, betaine and methionine, which support liver detoxification.

(Can I tell you that it's also an aphrodisiac? Yes, it is!)

So while I continue feeding my husband with all those stuff that's good for his eyes, you just might want to add beetroot to your shopping basket the next time you see this vegetable. Tastewise, it's like jicama that's tinged purple.

I find that adding carrots sweeten the beetroot juice evenly - some people can't stand its raw taste but hey it's good for you! (And carrots as anyone knows is superb for eye health!)

The Remarkable Nut of Nuts

2010-08-12T16:26:00.000+08:00

In this recipe, walnuts and dried red dates are combined to make a healthy and life-giving dessert. And with honey added, it packs a punch.

A truly simple dessert which is used to prevent the usual flu magnets - colds and coughs. It helps too with your kidneys and with bowel movement.

Walnuts are much revered in Chinese medicine, not least because the nut resembles the brain! Again, the Chinese believe that walnuts are good snacks for children as they help boost brain power which is true because of the high amounts of Omega 3 fats (good for the brain).

Walnuts are of course a good source of essential omega-3 fatty acids and in Roman times, considered the food of the gods.

Walnuts are a 'yang' tonic and useful for toning up weak kidneys. It also warms lung Qi while acting as a laxative, moistening the intestines (hence encouraging bowel movement if you are constipated).

Walnuts are called Hu Tao Ren (juglans regia) in Chinese medicine.

Walnut & Red Date Dessert

150 gm walnuts
150 gm dried red dates, remove pits
3 tbsp honey
5 cups water

Bring to boil all ingredients except honey. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Add honey just before serving. Remember to serve warm!

Some walnut trivia:

Did you know that walnuts soaked in vodka for a month can be used as an energizing tonic for strengthening your kidneys?

Aside these, walnuts pack a punch because they are great for people with hypertension. They contain relatively high levels of l-arginine, an essential amino acid which inside the body is converted into nitric oxide, a chemical that helps keep the inner walls of blood vessels smooth and allows blood vessels to relax.

It is a remarkable nut for its helpful cardio properties! Recommended eating is about a handful of walnuts about 3-4 times a week. Or just 4 walnuts a day is all you need.

And if you want to sleep well at night, eat walnuts!

Spare Ribs with Herb Trio

2010-08-01T13:52:00.001+08:00

This is an easy soup but it is a warming soup (good for women in confinement). I read that spare ribs or pork are neutral in nature. It is how you cook the soup and with what sort of herbs which turn the nature of the dish.

In this soup, you need only 3 herbs:

Chinese yam (which I've written about before) - 8 gm, rinsed, drained
Chinese angelica or Dong Quai - 8 gm, rinsed, drained
Wolfberries or Kei Chi - 2 tbsp, rinsed and drained

1 liter water
2 tsp salt
500 gm spare ribs, blanched in boling hot water

Combine all ingredients into a slow cooker. If you are using a slow cooker, the 1 liter water must be boiling hot. Cook on Automatic for 2 hours. Add salt at the end of the process. Serve hot (with or without rice).

Absolutely deliciousness in a pot! And hearty too.

Spinach & Bean Thread Soup

2010-07-28T15:13:00.001+08:00

For this recipe (again a quick soup!), you will need the simplest of ingredients. Bean thread is what we call over here "tung hoon" or "tung fan". Basically they are clear vermicelli made from mung beans. With a springy texture, it can be used in soups as well as stir-fry with vegetables or in some cases, used as a major ingredient and eaten like one would eat vermicelli or "bee hoon".

Anyway, this is a homely dish and most of the ingredients are found easily in the market.

Here is what you need:

1 packet of mung bean threads, soaked in hot water and drained
3 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked, washed and drained
8 cups water
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
fresh spinach (as much as you like), washed and drained
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
5 cups chicken stock
1 tsp Shao Hsing wine or sherry

In a pot, place the 8 cups of water, salt and baking soda. Bring to a boil and blanch spinach. Lift and drain spinach when it turns a bright green.

Heat another pot over high heat and add peanut oil. Add ginger, garlic and dried shrimp. Stir, then add chicken broth and wine. Cover pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and allow soup to simmer for another 10 minutes.

Turn the heat up and add spinach and bean thread. Boil again before turning off heat. Serve hot.

Tomato, Potato & Beef Soup

2010-07-23T15:24:00.000+08:00

This is a soup good for warming up on cold days. We don't get very many cold days in Malaysia. I was in Hong Kong in March and at 14C, it felt quite cold to me. If I were in HK, I'd make this warming soup!

You'll need:
1 slice ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups fresh tomatoes, blanched, de-skinned and cubed
2 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil

6 oz ground beef

Marinate ground beef with:
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soya sauce
3/4 tsp sugar
1/2 salt
1/2 tsp whiskey
3/4 tsp cornstarch

Allow the ground beef to marinate up to 1 hour.

Heat wok and add oil, salt, ginger and garlic. Add tomatoes and potatoes and fry for 1 minute. Remove and place this into a pot. Add water and bring to a boil. Cover pot, simmering over low heat for 30 minutes until the potatoes are soft.

Raise heat and add the beef with its marinade, breaking up beef with fork. Boil the soup again and turn off heat. Serve hot.

Red Bean Dessert Soup

2010-07-19T13:32:00.003+08:00

This is one of those famously simple and easy to make dessert soups to round off a meal.

Every Chinese would have grown up imbibing this nutritious red bean dessert. Red beans are like mung beans - full of goodness. What we call red beans is really Adzuki beans. They are also the most "yang" of all beans. They're tiny and hard red beans which when cooked, turns soft and delicious!

Adzuki beans (Paseolus angularis) are rich in soluble fibre which, like oats, help eliminate cholesterol from your body. They contain magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc copper, manganese and vitamin B3. And the good news is, they also reduce blood pressure. Accordingly, these powerful beans possess inhibitors which disturb the development of cancer cells.

It is no wonder that Adzuki beans are the "Mercedes" of beans.

Here's how you cook Adzuki beans.

1/2 pound Adzuki beans
7 cups cold water
rock sugar to taste

(optional: 1/2 cup dried longan flesh)

Wash beans and drain. Put them into a pot and add water. Turn to high heat, cover pot and bring to a boil.

Allow to simmer on low heat for 2 hours or until beans are tender. (You can add dried longans at this stage). Do not cover pot too tightly - allow some steam to escape. Stir from time to time. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Add rock sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves approximately 10 minutes. Turn off heat and serve.

This is a dessert soup so you can make it as thick or as thin as you wish. You can also serve it warm or cool. It is not advisable to refrigerate this dessert as it becomes really yucky then, all mushy and soft. But then again, some people like cold desserts so it's really up to you. Just like some people like cold durians!

Note: If you add dried longan (which are sweet by nature), reduce the amount of rock sugar. Dried longans rehydrate when they are simmered and give a nice bite to the pulpy red bean dessert.

You may also add dried tangerine peel (4 pieces or so) if you want to add a zing of flavour to the dessert. Tangerine peel is also good at reducing phlegm. During Chinese New Year, we'd eat a lot of Chinese (mandarin) oranges. My grandmother would carefully peel the mandarin oranges and keep the peel. She'd dry the peel under the hot sun and keep for times like this!

Fish & Lettuce Soup

2010-07-14T15:04:00.004+08:00

I got this recipe from an old recipe book.

It's a Cantonese soup called "Sang Choi Yue Pin Tong". According to the writer, she uses fresh carp but it's equally OK to use sole, flounder or sea bass.

1/2 pound fresh fish, sliced thinly

Marinate fish with 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/4 tsp cornstarch, 1 tsp ginger juice mixed with 1 tsp white wine, some pepper and 1 tsp light soya sauce. Let it sit in the marinade for 10 minutes.

In a pot, bring to boil 3 cups water. If you have fish stock, even better. It will be tastier, says the writer. Add to this pot 1 slice of ginger and 1 clove garlic. Add lettuce, stir and add in fish slices (together with marinade). Bring to boil. Turn off heat and stir in some scallion oil. Serve hot.

How to make scallion oil:
In 2 cups peanut oil, add 1 cup of the whisker/root ends of scallions and 2 cups of scallions (spring onions). Heat wok. Pour this into wok and heat until scallions brown. Strain oil and discard scallions. Allow to cool completely before storing in a jar. Use as needed. Scallion oil is delicious when a teaspoon or so is stirred into dishes.

So there you have it. A quick soup you can make in less than 15 minutes. My kind of soup!

GreenLove Bean Soup

2010-05-11T18:06:00.002+08:00

I bought a packet of GreenLove Mixed Beans the other day at the supermarket. It's a small packet (250 gm) of mixed dried beans - pinto beans, red kidney beans, chickpeas etc which you can use to make either a sweet soup or a savoury one. I prefer savoury soups so that is what I made today.

If you cannot get this particular brand in your supermarket, you can easily buy different varieties of dried beans and mix them together. I could have done that but I was feeling particularly lazy and not in the mood to buy various types of beans. So I opted to buy GreenLove's pre-packed version.

For this soup, you will need additional ingredients such as:

2 tablespoons of wolfberries ("kei chi") - soaked and drained
2 slices of young ginger
8 to 10 dried red dates (soaked in water, remove pits)
200 gm pork or chicken (blanched in boiling water)

Bring to boil a pot of 1.5 to 2 liters water. Once water is boiling, add all ingredients. Again, bring it to a rapid boil for 10 minutes before placing lid on the pot and reducing fire to a mere simmer. Let it simmer for 2 hours. Season with salt about 10 minutes before you turn off the fire. Let the soup sit for 10 minutes before you serve.

Beans are really good for everyone so these days I try to reduce the amount of meat used in the soups. As it stands, beans are a great source of protein so it is always best to eat up the beans in the soup.

Some people recommend soaking the beans overnight before boiling them as this reduces the gassiness caused by eating beans.

Toi Shan Dishes Anyone?

2010-05-03T10:57:00.000+08:00

I am Cantonese of Toi Shan origin. We speak a dialect that's similar to Cantonese but it's not really Cantonese. I suppose you could say it is an offshoot of Cantonese, perhaps even a deeply skewed version.

Not many people speak Toi Shan dialect these days. The ones who do speak it are as old as mountains. Most are in their 60s and 70s.

I call it a Dinosaur Dialect as it seems that old to me. The younger Toi Shan generation either do not bother to learn it or find it hard to speak (after all, you can't practice if you have no one to speak it with!). Or maybe it just sounds funny to the ears and Cantonese sounds much better. I've promised myself that if I have kids, I will teach them this language.

I speak Toi Shan because my Dad is Toi Shan. I speak it with him and my second sis. With my youngest sis, I revert to Cantonese. With mum, I speak Cantonese as she's Cantonese through and through.

One of the best memories of being of a small, select dialect group is we get to bitch about others without them knowing it. It's a bit like speaking Foo Chow dialect. The Foo Chows are also talking in a lingo only a fellow Foo Chow can understand. And so it is with Toi Shan.

But a Toi Shan uncle I met in Hong Kong told me this - many Toi Shan are wealthy particularly if they are living overseas (such as USA). They were the first people to go in search of gold!

I should have gone looking for gold in San Francisco, hah!

Anyway, this little post will come in many parts as I am reminiscing about the dishes my Grandma cooked for us. She was Toi Shan and her dishes are particularly appealing now that I am all grown up!

Come back for more...

Quick Way For Nourishing Myself

2010-04-29T00:28:00.001+08:00

Taking care of myself has been a philosophy that Mum drummed into me since I was a young girl.

Taking care of myself meant eating healthy and in my case, I'm the only daughter who dares to drink the darkest of brews just so I can look my prettiest best. Ah yes. I also believed in no pain, no gain.

So if I had to drink some herbal soup with strange ingredients (and they usually smelled very strong), I told myself, it's for my own good. I'm nourishing my body. I'm keeping alive centuries of knowledge and practise.

Until today, I find the best places to remind me of my childhood is to walk into a Chinese herbal shop and inhale the fragrance of herbs! To me, that is the best smell in the world.

Anyway, for Chinese women, replenishing our blood and reviving our bodies is a must after each menstruation. I've learnt this since young whereby Mum would brew for us Dang Gui or Ba Zheng Tang a few days after we were done with our periods.

Usually boiled with chicken thighs (minus chicken skin as the skin tends to make the soup oily), slurping these soups warm at night just before going to bed was a treat. I loved eating the tender chicken meat, dipped in soya sauce while I slurped spoonfuls of the dark brew (if it was Ba Zheng Tang). We had to drink the soup while it was still warm.

Now that I'm an adult, I still take care of myself. It's very telling that when I was studying in university back in the mid-90s that Dad bought for me a mini slow cooker! I was to remember to brew for myself nourishing soups because more than ever I was not living at home then and didn't get the benefit of drinking homecooked soup!
(By the way, I still have the mini slow cooker - after countless house moves and such. It's still something I cherish!)

Although I now have my own kitchen, sometimes I just want a bit of convenience even when I am supposed to be eating healthy.

My key secret is Eu Yan Sang's Bak Foong Pills. Yup, instead of brewing soup, I can now pop pills each month. It's priced at RM88 for a box of 6 bottles (14 gm each).

I am supposed to take 1 bottle of these pills with warm water once a week but I usually take 1 bottle each time my menstruation ends. Maybe I should follow Eu Yan Sang's instructions. The only thing I worry is that taking too much of these pills will be heaty as it does contain blood-building herbs.

I used to buy Bak Foong Pills of the non-branded variety but these days, I think I should be careful what I eat. That's why I trust Eu Yan Sang a lot more than a no-name bottle of pills. Knowing what I know of things and stuff made in China, I best put my trust in a brand that's known for generations. My rationale is, in case there's any issue, I can always go back to the brand and get some answers.

The Essential Buddha Fruit Tea

2010-04-26T00:00:00.008+08:00

I've taken to keeping a bottle of Buddha Fruit Tea in my fridge these days after I realized how a simple tea like this can keep me in tip top condition even as I run about with my busiest of business days.

Buddha Fruit or Lo Han Guo (Momordica grosvenori) is one of those herbs I have stashed in my kitchen cupboard. It's a dried fruit, the size of a tennis ball, the colour of greenish gold. It's lightweight with a delicate taste that makes it a versatile herb used in sweet and savoury soups. (For savoury soups, you can boil Lo Han Guo with pork to cure pneumonia and cough. But it has a taste which some people cannot stomach. If you belong to the category of people who are used to drinking Lo Han Guo as a sweet tea, then stick to it.)

In the past I used to boil Lo Han Guo fruit (1 fruit per 1 - 2 liters water) with dried longan, dried red dates and dried lotus seeds. This made a good dessert when served warm or chilled.

Now I just boil 1 Lo Han Guo fruit (wash the fruit first then break it up into smaller pieces - the skin cracks open to reveal dried seeds and dried flesh) in 2 liters of water for 20 minutes on a medium fire. Once the water has turned the colour of tea, I add in 2 small pieces of brown stick sugar, which you can buy from any good Chinese herbal shop. Let it simmer for 10 minutes until the sugar melts. Then you can either drink it warm or store it in the fridge, to be drunk as regularly as you would drink water.

Here are 3 tips on choosing a good Lo Han Guo.

1. Colour - the colour of dried Lo Han Guo must be of a light greenish-gold. The skin must not be too dark. It should NOT look like black or almost black.

2. Bounce - Yes, bounce the Lo Han Guo fruit your kitchen counter top. If it bounces gently like a soft ball, it's fresh.

3. Shake - Finally, shake the Lo Han Guo fruit. You should not hear the seeds moving about inside the dried fruit. If you do, the fruit is not fresh.

Lo Han Guo helps with coughs and sore throats so everyone in the family should drink Lo Han Guo tea weekly.

It is tremendously useful for keeping lungs healthy and keeping your bowels in good shape (so it is good for those suffering from constipation).

What's more, it's also a longevity cure so more reason to make lots of this for essential daily imbibing. If you have a heaty body (due to too many late nights, or eating too much curry or fried foods) taking Lo Han Gua tea will help cool your body down.

Like I said, I've simplified the tea by just boiling it with brown sugar and the taste is just as good if not better. You can keep the tea chilled in the fridge for a week. Drink it daily and you'll never have a cold or cough problem. Plus it's safe for the whole family, from kids to adults.

And did I tell you the fruit is cheap? I get 3 Lo Han Gua fruit (medium-size, the size of small tennis balls) for RM2.

Herbal Teas for Good Health

2010-04-23T12:46:00.003+08:00

I was in Hong Kong in March and I was blown away by the easy accessibility of herbs, herbal drinks, herbal soups and healthy practices of the people of Hong Kong. I will share more of that with you once my business schedule has toned down a bit. Right now, I am stealing a bit of time out (from working on a client's website) to post this.

I saw this and thought it fantastic to share with all of you here.

As an aside, I've hardly been making soups. Sigh. What a pity huh. I've been involved in lots of committee work (from my own businesswomen group committee to my residential committee) and that plus business has taken me away from my fave pastime, making soups.

OK, enough of that.

This link is about Chinese herbal teas which promote sleep. Without proper sleep, one gets grouchy and ill-tempered. Sleep also allows your body to repair itself.

Lots of easy tea recipes on this Chinese herbal tea page. Do take a look and try them out!

New Year for New Soups

2010-01-04T18:35:00.003+08:00

Happy New Year to you, if you've just arrived at this blog. I call myself the Soup Queen, tongue-in-cheek style. I think this name has really stuck well. When I first got the idea for a soup blog, I was just planning on compiling soup recipes for myself. I figured, if I write them down in notebooks, I might never find them again (knowing how easy it is to lose papers and such). And I like the idea of a quick search to get my recipes. That's how the Soup Queen got started.

My niche is really Chinese style soups which to the Cantonese, is a big deal.

As Cantonese, we're especially proud of our elegant cuisine. Soups feature a lot in our cuisine too. A good soup is always flavourful, delicate and robust. It nourishes. It replenishes.

I'm still surprised I have lots of soup recipes despite blogging for so long about soups. I guess the more one learns, the more one needs to learn.

I'll try to share more this year as I was a bit slack last year due to business, moving home etc.

And if you've been a reader, thank you for sharing your comments and love!

4 Soup Recipes - All New!

2009-10-24T14:47:00.000+08:00

Here are some soup recipes you can try.

For all soups, remember to blanch the meat first to get rid of its oil and blood. Bring your pot of water to boil before you add the meat and herbs/vegetables. Simmer on high heat for 10 minutes (do not close the pot lid). After 10 minutes of rapid boiling, close the lid and lower heat so that your soup can simmer for 2 hours undisturbed. Lastly add salt for seasoning. Turn off heat and let soup mellow for 30 minutes before serving warm with rice.

Papaya Soup
Nourishes lungs and improves skin texture

1 cob sweet corn
19 gm dried white fungus, soaked and drained
1 papaya, 450 gm
shin of pork, 450 gm

Dang Gui Soup
Expels dampness, nourishes spleen and yin

1/4 slice dried tangerine peel
19gm dang gui
12 gm fox nuts
600gm shin of pork
1 slice ginger

Lotus Root Soup
Promotes blood cell regeneration, whitens skins and improves skin texture

600gm shin of pork
19 gm fox nuts
57 gm dried lotus seeds
38 gm small red beans
450 gm lotus root

Pork Tail Soup
Strengthens bones and sinews, improves skin texture and nourishes kidneys

225gm peanuts
2 pig tails, washed and chopped into chunks
15 gm dried wai san
4 slices ginger
2 stalks spring onion, chopped
12 gm keichi/medlar seeds

Good Business, Bad for Soups

2009-10-22T18:24:00.006+08:00

I've missed my soups and yes, my blog!

Business has been really good so much so that work, meetings, hiring, and the whole circle of stuff has taken me away from this blog. I've had guilt pangs!I've felt terribly guilty!

When work gets to me (and I get very stressed sometimes), we eat out although I can rightly say that cooking is therapy for me. When I cook, I get into this 'zone' of self-reflection and peace. I talk to myself sometimes when I cook. It actually makes me happy.

But when I get home too late (sometimes past 8pm), it's sometimes too late to thaw chicken or fish so cooking gets abandoned. I tried making lots of soup and freezing it but nothing tastes like freshly made soup.

When I move to our new place (which hopefully happens soon as I am practically living in an apartment full of cartons, ready for packing!), I have a brand new kitchen for more soup experimentation. Plus I get a brand new refrigerator too. So long to the old faithful clunker of a refrigerator I am using now. It had served me well over the years but I suspect it 'slurps' electricity too. Old fridges tend to do that.

On my list of appliances to buy is a bigger slow cooker so I can make soup more regularly. Right now I use the stove and with a stove, I need to watch the fire to ensure the soup does not boil over.

If you've missed me and my soup recipes, I've missed ya too. I've missed experimenting with soups in my kitchen.

The consolation is, I'll be back with a true vengeance once we move into our new apartment.

Here's a sneak peek at my new white-cream galley kitchen with sparkling white tiles amidst sunshiney yellow.

Porridge with Kei Chi, Wai San & Pork

2009-07-02T12:14:00.004+08:00

This is a quick variation of the wai san porridge which I make all the time. One of the reasons is that wai san porridge is a great recipe when you are strapped for time. Second of course is that wai san (I'm talking about fresh wai san in this case) is soothing for the stomach. Basically, you can find wai san (or hwai san or chinese wild yam) in the wet market or supermarket. I've seen it sold in Tesco too sometimes.

It is usually a long, brown root covered in soil. Once you peel off the brown exterior, you will find the inside white like a yam bean /jicama/ mengkuang. Be careful though when slicing the wai san. It emits goo so it gets slimy. I suggest you wash the wai san after you've peeled off the skin and start slicing as soon as you can.

The usual way of getting wai san is from your herbal shop where it is in dried form. It is usually white and dehydrated.

In both forms, either fresh or dried, wai san promotes urination, lowers blood pressure, lowers blood sugar, is anti-aging and good for digestive issues. It's a tonic for the kidney and vaginal infections. I've also seen it used fresh (uncooked) in salads. I don't know how it tastes in a salad but it would be crunchy and bland.

If you cook it in a soup with pork bones, your soup will be delicately sweet and very nourishing.

Anyway, I've written about cooking wai san porridge before so this one is a just a reiteration where I add in kei chi or chinese wolfberries, which are great for the eyes. Particularly if you, like me, work with computers all day! (Another way of getting kei chi or what Americans call 'goji' is just steep a tablespoon of the berries in hot water and drinking the kei chi tea warm.)

So the next time you see fresh wai san in the supermarket, go grab some. You can keep it fresh for almost 2 weeks by wrapping the whole root (dirt and all) with newspaper in the vegetable compartment.

Chinese Dumpling Festival

2009-05-19T14:02:00.002+08:00

I've been busy doing clients' stuff so my blogs get a bit neglected.Sigh! Such is the life of a person who runs too many blogs.

Even my soup life gets a backseat! (I have been making the same old soups again and again. My recent soup was the Sharkfin Melon Soup. Try it if you haven't done so. It's clear and sweet and just right for warm days.)

But I just wanted to tell you about a brilliant initiative on bak zhang.

By the way, the festival is coming right up. It's on the 5th day od the 5th lunar month.

I just blogged about zhang in my other blog so bear with me while I get my life in order and get back to the groove of things again.

Chinese Pear Dessert

2009-04-21T17:19:00.000+08:00

I got this recipe from The Family Herbal Cookbook by Cecilia Tan. It helps to soothe a heaty system.The pears used in this recipe are of the yellow round variety which when eaten fresh, are terribly juicy.

This recipe needs:

2 chinese pears, peeled, halved and cored
6 to 8 dried red dates, deseeded
some rock sugar
3 bowls water

Put all ingredients into a pot. Simmer for 3 hours. Top up with water if water's reduced. Drink warm.

Three Bean Soup

2009-04-19T17:00:00.005+08:00

I have not been making soup much as most days I come home late from work (though work is technically my own business). Well, for one, it means that we're doing really well in terms of getting new web design projects in.

The downside, I get to be home less and hence, less soup-making in the kitchen. I have been thinking of getting myself a bigger slow cooker or crockpot so I can put all the soup ingredients into the pot, switch it on and go off to the office. I can come home to a lovely, warm pot of soup. Currently I have a super tiny crockpot, inherited from my undergrad days. My dad bought it for me so I could make some soups for myself. I still have it but I only use it to boil 'ba zhen tang'. The pot is too small for making soups as it can only take 2 bowls of water.

Anyway, today I made some soup. (Actually the soup is merrily simmering away even as I blog this.) Today being a Sunday and typically Sundays are days where I try to catch up on my reading at home and cook some. I am baking some bread too so while the bread is rising and the soup is simmering, I am here, typing up this post.

So what have I concocted? I tried digging for some herbal soup packets (very handy to have for those emergency days when I don't feel very creative) but I wasn't very inspired by the 2 packets I saw in the fridge.

More digging about and I saw peanuts, black beans and soya beans on the shelf. So I am making a three-bean soup with chicken feet and pork bones and dried red dates.

I love putting chicken feet in soups though they tend to be oily. But, and this is a nice BUT, they contain collagen which is great for smooth skin. Just don't overdo the chicken feet. About 3 pairs will do. They're a nice addition to soups as once they're done, they're really tender and soft. Pig trotters also contain collagen and while they are also unhealthy in large amounts, pig trotters have lots of collagen too.

Ingredients:
3 pairs chicken feet
1 bowl pork bones
1/2 cup peanuts, washed
1/2 cup soya beans, washed
1/2 cup black beans
4-6 dried red dates, remove seeds
1.5 liter water

As always, blanch the chicken feet and pork bones first. Leave aside while you pan-fry the black beans till their skins pop at the seams and reveal the greenish beige insides. (Do not put oil to pan-fry the beans.) Only do this for black beans. The peanuts and soya beans don't need any extra treatment.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add in all ingredients. Let it boil furiously on high heat for 10 minutes. Cover and lower fire to a mere simmer. Simmer for 3 hours. Season to taste with salt. Serve hot.

Dried Scallop & Chicken Soup from Asian Kitchen

2009-03-09T19:02:00.002+08:00

Stumbled upon a good blog for Asian recipes recently.

My Asian Kitchen has lots of good stuff to offer, from lovely photos of food and soups to simple recipes. I love simple recipes.

This week, I'm pointing you to the Dried Scallop and Chicken Soup from My Asian Kitchen.

Go on over now!

Pumpkin Soup Chinese Style

2009-03-08T23:48:00.000+08:00

This is a chinese style pumpkin soup with a medley of vegetables such as carrot, leek and button mushroom making it truly healthy. This combination of vegetables are also good for nourishing weak lungs.

You will need:

2 fairly large carrots, cut into chunks
some pumpkin, cut into chunks, skin removed
some leek
1/2 can button mushrooms
lean pork (scald pork)
2 slices ginger

Put all the above ingredients into a pot of boiling water. Boil furiously for 10 minutes. Lower heat and simmer for 2 hours. Before serving, season with salt.

Papaya Soup with Medlar Seeds and Ciku Fruit

2009-03-05T11:41:00.000+08:00

If you live in Asia, you would know what the sapodilla fruit or ciku fruit looks and tastes like. It is very sweet when ripe but it is also a haven for fruit worms. Many people dislike eating this as they worry they will accidentally eat the tiny white worms too!

Besides eating them as they are, you can make a pretty easy soup with the sapodilla fruit.

This soup helps clear the lungs.

All you need are:

4 ripe ciku, de-skinned
1 medium papaya, peeled and sliced in chunks
2 tablespoons medlar seeds or boxthorn fruit, washed
4 candied dates, wash
lean pork (blanch)

In a pot, bring 1.5 liters to boil. Add all the above ingredients and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Cover pot, lower heat and simmer for 2 hours. Season to taste with 2-3 teaspoons salt. Serve.

Gan Cao with Tea

2009-03-04T12:33:00.000+08:00

Gan Cao is a useful herb to have in your home because it is cheap yet packs a punch when it comes to health benefits.

Gan Cao is known as Liquorice which is sold mostly as thinly sliced roots. It is a sweet herb with a neutral character and it is helpful for the heart, lung, spleen and stomach meridians.

It is also said that Gan Cao is a life prolonging herb. How true this is I don't know but I do know that I like the smooth taste of this herb.

As it benefits the heart, lung, spleen and stomach, Gan Cao therefore helps with Qi. It also stops coughing and clears heat, with an ability to detox poisons.

I usually use Gan Cao by steeping one piece (cut up into 3 pieces) in my hot Chinese tea (Ti Kuan Yin or a light mellow tea). This way I can taste the mouth-lingering taste of this herb.

Another way is to pop one slice of the root and chew as if you are chewing gum! Chew for 10 minutes or until you have dehydrated the root of its juices. Spit out the chewed root. (This method is great if you are always coughing).

Cordyceps Soup

2009-03-02T23:23:00.002+08:00

This is a simple cordycep soup. Cordyceps or dong chong xia chao is also called caterpillar fungus.

As a sweet and warm herb, it benefits largely the kidney and lung. That's why this soup is great for nourishing the lung and strengthening kidney and of course, helps with people who suffer from coughs.

For this soup, I bought a ready packet of premix herbs from the herbalist for RM4. Inside the packet were dried cordyceps, red dates, medlar seeds, yuk chuk/solomon's seal and Dan Shen (chinese sage).

As usual, bring a pot of water to boil. Again this is roughly 6 fairly large bowls of water or 1.5 liters. When boiling, add blanched pork or chicken together with the herbs and boil on high for 10 minutes, uncovered. Then cover the pot tightly and lower fire completely to a mere bubble and let it simmer for 2 hours. Season to taste after 2 hours with 2 teaspoons good quality salt (I use Himalayan salt). Let it rest
for 30 minutes before serving warm.

This is a deliciously nourishing soup for the whole family. I was having a bout of cough a few days ago and when I made this soup and drank it for 2 days consecutively, my cough is gone!

Have Not Fallen Off

2009-02-25T18:20:00.004+08:00

Yes, people, I am still around and I have not fallen off the face of this blog.

I have not been doing much soup stuff as I have been totally immersed in work from the moment we finished our Chinese New Year holidays.

Yes, what recession? I have been up to my ears in work and more work. The good thing is, I'm getting the green light to hire myself an assistant writer. For the company of course. Not for this blog, unfortunately. Otherwise, soup recipes will be a daily occurrence here!

But I will dig up some soup recipes this week. Actually I have been baking bread and making meatloaf and baking butter cakes but I have been so naughty in that I have not made much soup - unless you count instant tom yam soup as soup.

Nope, in my books, instant tom yum soup is just that - instant soup. Not worthy of mention.

I'll be back tomorrow with soup recipes. Hang in there!

Chinese New Year Food and Snacks

2009-01-29T12:26:00.002+08:00

I've compiled a list of my favourite Chinese New Year food and snacks over at my other blog.

Do check it out!

Kung Hei Fatt Choy to everyone! It's the 4th day of CNY and I'm still on a break. ;-)

Rootdown.us - Website for TCM

2009-01-24T14:13:00.000+08:00

I found this website by chance (don't we all sometimes stumble upon good stuff while aimlessly surfing?)

Rootdown.us is a website for TCM enthusiasts.

What I like most is that you can search for a herb in various ways: by meridian, by type of use, by temperature, by taste, by name (latin and non-latin) and lots more.

It really is a community website because you can join and contribute what you know about TCM.

Although right now it seems as if only TCM practitioners can offer tips and advice, I believe it will only be a matter of time before others start chipping in.

Another section that's worth a look is the Classes section where you can learn from TCM practitioners for a fee (in US Dollars). A great concept because interest in this field is growing!

The best part of all is the Acupuncture Chart which looks similar to how a Google Map works. You can learn about Meridians and AcuPoints and even embed the Acupuncture chart into your own blog or website.

Dessert for People Suffering from Wind Heat

2009-01-22T17:46:00.002+08:00

If you suffer from Wind Heat, here's a dessert you can make to alleviate those symptoms (coughing, colds etc as a result of Wind and Heat).

2 fresh lily bulbs
15 dried red dates, deseeded
1 cup dried lotus seeds
1 cup fresh wai san, diced
rock sugar to taste
1/4 cup mai men dong/Ophiopogon japonicus
1.5 liters water

Bring water to a boil and add in mai men dong, lotus seeds and red dates. Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Then add wai san and lily bulb - simmer again for another 10 minutes. Finally add rock sugar to taste. Turn off fire and serve warm.

Tempeh.... A Nutritious and Simple Snack

2009-01-16T15:55:00.004+08:00

Been travelling up and down the past few weeks so feel kind of guilty that no soup recipes are forthcoming! I have a few drafts but no nice photos so I thought I'd skip that and do a post on 'tempeh'.

To say that I love tempeh (fermented soya bean cake) is an understatement. I love it. I love it because it has a nutty texture with a good bite and lots of goodness too. Soya beans are much adored in Chinese cuisine but this Indonesian/Malay fermented soya bean cake is something most Chinese don't buy - which is unfortunate because it's easy to prepare.

Tempeh is sold in supermarkets and wet markets - either wrapped in traditional banana leaves and newspaper or in plastic. If wrapped in plastic, you can see the mossy growth on the soya bean which can turn off some people.

Tempeh is one of the most nutritious and cheapest sources of protein you can get. It is the kind of food you can buy for RM1 per packet.

But how do you eat tempeh? I slice the tempeh as thinly as I can, douse them well with some turmeric powder (1 tablespoon would do) and 1 tablespoon corn flour with half a teaspoon of fine salt. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.

Heat up some oil. Here you can either use a pot of oil (like deep frying) or a shallow pan with a little oil (if you're on a health conscious diet).

Fry the tempeh slices until done. If deep-frying, the tempeh will float up when done. If shallow pan-frying, fry for about 5 to 8 minutes on a medium heat or until it turns a golden colour. Drain on paper towels and serve hot with Linghams chili sauce, preferably.

You can eat it as a snack or you can eat it with rice.

If you have never had tempeh before, this is one of the best ways to get acquainted with this protein heavyweight.

Try it!

Beancurd Stick, Gingko & Barley Dessert

2008-12-26T14:09:00.001+08:00

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 that helps make my complexion smooth and silky.

Tip: Do not put too much of barley or your dessert will be too gooey and sticky (an oat-like or porridge-like texture). A small handful will do. Barley is added for a good chewy texture to the dessert. The star of this dessert is the milky goodness of the 'fu chuk'.

4-Star Vegetable Soup

2008-12-20T15:55:00.003+08:00

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 skin first as this makes the soup a bit too oily).

Here's to a 4-star soup!

(Super tip: If you want extra flavour in your stock, add a handful of soya beans. You don't have to soak the beans. Just put them in with your chicken/pork when you are making your stock and your stock will be ultra yummy. A tip I learnt from hawkers who use soya bean to add more oomph to their stock.)

Porridge with Minced Pork Balls

2008-12-17T15:22:00.002+08:00

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 porridge might just end up a mushy rice.

Put rice and water into your cooker and switch on the cooker. Tilt the lid so that the rice cooker isn't tightly covered. Let this bubble and boil for 30 minutes or more. Once in a while, stir the pot so you know the consistency of the porridge.

After 30 minutes, shape minced pork into tiny balls and drop into the cooking porridge. Add a teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper. Add 1 tbsp sesame seed oil and stir well.

Let it cook for another 10 minutes before switching off the heat. Let porridge stand for another 10 minutes before serving warm with good quality soya sauce.

UPDATE: A tip I learnt - if you mix your minced pork with egg and soya sauce, your minced pork ball will be smoother!

Seaweed Soup from Patrica

2008-12-11T17:34:00.000+08:00

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.

Black & Yummy Chicken Wing Recipe

2008-12-04T18:23:00.000+08:00

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 husband. ;-)

Aloe Vera and Chicken Soup

2008-11-17T19:58:00.001+08:00

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, red dates in the 1.2 liter water for 1.5 hours.

Add aloe vera and continue to boil for another 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and serve soup hot.

Eggplant with Spicy Minced Pork

2008-11-14T14:32:00.002+08:00

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 pinch of baking powder mixed with a little water. So if you use 2 tablespoons self raising flour, you need 1 tablespoon rice flour. (This is a good batter for frying fish slices so you can actually make a little more and keep it in the fridge. If you are keeping it, don't mix it with water. Just the flours in an airtight container. When you need to use it, add water.)

You should get a slightly runny batter. Dip brinjal into this batter and deep fry until golden brown. Drain and set aside on a serving plate.

Now for some wok action.

Heat up some oil in a pan and saute ginger and garlic. Add in minced pork and stirfry until almost cooked. Add all seasoning into the pork (Thai chilli sauce, soya sauce, salt etc).

Do not add water as the Thai chilli sauce contains enough liquid. Fry for another 3-5 minutes until pork is cooked through and the mixture is good and dry.

At this stage, you can add the red chillies if you want a good fiery kick to your dish (I add it when I fry the ginger and garlic to bring out extra spicyness! Don't try this if you cannot tolerate too much chillies though). Otherwise, leave it out. Mae Pranom chilli sauce is quite spicy as it is.

As you can see, I am high on spiciness. If you like chillies, I suggest you get the Vietnamese birds eye chillies.

Spoon over deepfried brinjal and serve immediately with steamed rice.

It's absolutely delicious if I may say so myself.

The Herbs Used in Nin Jiom

2008-11-11T09:36:00.001+08:00

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 cough and vomiting.

Indications: Cough and dyspnea caused by heat in the lung; vomiting, fever and thirst caused by heat in the stomach.

Poria cocos or Indian Bread is the dried sclerotium of the fungus, Poria cocos. Poria is collected mostly in July to September, removed from soil, piled up, spread, and air-dried. This is repeated until all water evaporates before it is dried in the shade. Normally it is known as Fu Ling (white slices you see sometimes in Chinese herb shops).

Fu Ling or Poria cocos helps invigorate the spleen and calms the mind. Useful for curing dizziness and palpitation caused by retained fluid; diminished function of the spleen marked by anorexia, loose stools or diarrhea; restlessness and insomnia.

Exocarpium citrus Grandis or Pomelo peel, another ingredient in Nin Jiom, acts to dispel cold, eliminate damp and phlegm, and arrest emesis or nausea. Good for cough, itchy throat and profuse expectoration in colds; nausea, vomiting and epigastric distension caused by improper diet or excessive drinking.

Platycodon Root or Radix Platycodon Grandiflorum helps relieve cough, soothes sore throat and promotes expectoration and discharge of pus. Usually used when there's cough with much phlegm and hoarseness.

Pinellia Tuber or Rhizoma Pinelliae Preparatum also helps to remove damp and phlegm.

Chinese Magnoliavine Fruit or Fructus Schisandra Chinensis replenishes qi, promotes fluid secretion, tonifies kidney. It is used for chronic cough and asthma; nocturnal emission, permatorrhea; enuresis, frequent urination; protracted diarrhea; spontaneous sweating, night sweating; impairment of body fluid with thirst, shortness of breath and feeble pulse; diabetes caused by internal heat; palpitation and insomnia.

Snakegourd Seed or Semen Trichosanthes Kirilowii resolves phlegm and is a laxative and as such is good for those with dry cough with sticky sputum and constipation.

Common Coltsfoot Flower or Flos Tussilago Farfara relieves cough and resolves phlegm, nourishes the lung to keep the adverse qi downward.

Thinleaf Milkwort Root or Radix Polygala Tenuifolia promotes sputum expectoration and reduces swelling. It is used for those suffering from insomnia,dream-disturbed sleep, forgetfulness,palpitation ,trance; cough with a difficulty in expectorating sputum; boils and sores as well as swelling and pain in the breasts.

Bitter Apricot Seed or Semen Prunus Armeniaca relieves cough and asthma, and helps relax bowels. It is often used for cough and asthma accompanied by stuffiness in the chest and profuse expectoration; constipation due to deficiency of blood and fluid.

Among all these herbs, there is of course, the well known Fresh Ginger or Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens. Fresh ginger promotes sweating, dispels cold, warms the stomach, relieves phlegm and cough.It is usually used if there's cough with thin whitish sputum.

Nin Jiom also contains Liquorice Root or Radiz Glycyrrhiza Glabra which improves the spleen and replenishes Qi. Liquorice root also removes heat and counters any toxicity in the body, dispels phlegm and cough. Chewing on a liquorice root (easily available at any Chinese herbal shop) as a quick remedy to alleviate cough helps! Just chew the root to get its juice (like chewing gum). Spit out the root once you've extracted all the juice of course.

Other ingredients include menthol which is a saturated, cyclic alcohol obtained from peppermint oil; honey or known as Mel which helps relieve dryness, replenishes the spleen and stomach and counteracts toxicity.

So you see, there's a bunch of herbs (roots, seeds, leaves) used in the preparation of the traditional Nin Jiom cough syrup.

It's amazing to know that more than 15 herbs/ingredients are used in such a simple yet effective remedy for coughs.

What's Inside King To Nin Jiom Pei Pa Kao?

2008-11-08T18:26:00.001+08:00

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 syrup is so good that children will take to it like they take to all sweet stuff.

Locally in Malaysia, we know it as Ubat Batuk Cap Ibu dan Anak. In my younger days, the TV ad for this syrup was a wayang kulit or shadow play where the son goes in search of a cough remedy for his mom and then finds this King To Nin Jiom. She takes it and hurray, is cured. I can still remember the ad!

Even if you are not coughing, you ought to keep a bottle of this Nin Jiom at home. If you are heaty (had too many late nights, eaten too much curries, sang too much at karaokes hence have a sore throat, or just plain grouchy which in TCM means you have too much 'heat' in the body), a teaspoon of this diluted in a glass of water is just the thing!

I went over to the official Nin Jiom website but it's done in Flash so half the info cannot be seen (and I am using the Google Chrome browser) and I didn't want to download Flash - too lazy lah. I wanted to find out what they use for this miraculous cough medicine.

In the end, I had to go on the Net and search for myself (coz remember I told you their Nin Jiom site sucked and I couldn't see a thing).

Inside this concoction, there's some 15 different herbs. They include:

chuan bei mu
loquat leaf
fourleaf ladybell root
indian bread extract
pomelo peel
platycodon root
pinellia tuber
chinese magnoliane fruit
snakegourd seed
common coltsfoot flower
thinleaf milkwort root
bitter apricot seed
fresh ginger
licorice root
peppermint oil
honey

In my next post, I will let you on the benefits of these ingredients. Even if you don't know much about TCM, you notice that much of the ingredients are generally used to prevent coughs such as bitter apricot seed and licorice root.

Quick Peppermint Soup

2008-10-29T19:37:00.003+08:00

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 before you add salt, sugar, pepper and soya sauce. No MSG, if you please.

Finally, beat an egg and slowly drizzle this into the soup. Let soup simmer for another minute before you turn off the fire and cover the pot.

The soup should "sit" for 20 minutes or so before you serve. I find that this helps gel the flavours and intensify the taste tremendously.

That's why soups kept overnight in the fridge tend to be a lot more tasty than the day before.

Bread Update - BG's Recipe Worked!

2008-10-29T19:24:00.003+08:00

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 concoction first. Dilute 1 tsp instant yeast into a cup of lukewarm water mixed with 1 tsp honey or sugar. Let it sit until it foams and smells like beer. Mine took about 15 minutes. I was getting edgier by the minute.

Put 4 cups plain flour into a bowl. Make a well and pour the yeasty stuff into this and mix well. It starts off a goooey mess but soon you will be able to knead it. I had to use more flour to coat my hands as I kneaded. Let it rest for 20 minutes. Then knead again until you feel you are getting an upper arm workout. About 10 minutes kneading will do or I feel my biceps forming. At this time, work in some salt. Kneading as you add 1 tsp salt.

Put into a bowl (I oiled it first), cover with a wet cloth and let it sit for 2 hours. I put it into my oven as I felt a warm place helps yeast work faster.

After 2 hours, take dough and punch down. Literally it means punch to release the air pockets. Not too much. Just a mild punching will do.

Shape it into a round and bake in oven for 30 minutes at 200 C. I would have liked to glaze it with a bit of olive oil! Oh yes, I oiled the pan too so that the dough won't stick.

Thanks to BG and his bread recipe!

A Bit of Bread Diversion

2008-10-27T20:40:00.004+08:00

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.

Steamed Tofu, Vegetarian Style

2008-10-13T16:23:00.000+08:00

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' some water during the steaming process. Drain away this water.

In a separate pan, heat up some vegetable oil. Saute some minced garlic and minced ginger for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and mix in 1 tbsp dark soya sauce, 1 tbsp light soya sauce and 1/2 tsp sugar. Combine well and pour over steamed tofu. Sprinkle chopped spring onions and serve warm with plain rice.

You can spice it up with a dollop of sambal. The sambal can be combined with the soya sauces and sugar.

This is my quick and easy version of Ma Poh Tofu, minus the minced pork meat!

This tofu dish is healthy and suitable for vegetarians.

5 Bean Soup with Green Love Mix

2008-10-11T12:02:00.004+08:00

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 medlar seeds, soaked and drained
2 slices of ginger
6 dried red dates, soaked and de-seeded

Bring a pot of water to boil (about 1.5 liter). Add in all ingredients. Boil on high and uncovered for 10 minutes. Cover pot and boil on low/simmer for 2 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste about 15 minutes before soup is ready. Let the soup 'rest' for 20 minutes before serving. I find this intensifies the taste!

Black Sesame with Milk

2008-10-01T11:38:00.000+08:00

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.

Dang Shen & Red Date Tea

2008-09-29T10:28:00.000+08:00

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 hypoglycemia.

Homemade Gui Ling Gao Herbal Jelly

2008-09-26T09:06:00.000+08:00

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 supposed to take this.

Here's how I prepared this easy dessert.

Gui Ling Gao

1 packet gui ling gao powder from Eu Yan Sang
250 ml water

Dissolve powder into water. Stir well to combine. This is (A).

In a pot, bring to boil 1 liter of water and 150 gm sugar. When water boils, turn heat down to a simmer. Quickly stir in (A). Keep stirring for 10 minutes.

Strain this gui ling gao mixture quickly once you turn off the heat. It solidifies rather fast so you have to be nimble. After straining, again quickly pour the mixture into smaller bowls or cups. Leave to cool in the open for 20 minutes before chilling them in the fridge. Serve cool.

You can also add a few teaspoons of honey if the gui ling gao is a bit bitter for your taste. I take mine as it is (since the sugar has been added).

So what's inside this herbal jelly which slithers smoothly down your throat?

Here's what I discovered...

Gelatin
Japanese honeysuckle
Chrysanthemum
Poria
Pearl

Can anyone vouch that these ingredients are what really go into a bowl of delightfully smooth gui ling gao? (It's a bit like our Malaysian grass jelly or 'cincau')

Let me know if you do!

Ning Shen Soup

2008-09-24T13:27:00.000+08:00

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 minutes before covering the pot and simmering on low heat for 2 hours. Season with salt when the soup is almost done.

I like to 'rest' my soups for at least 30 minutes before serving. This seems to make the flavours more rounded and robust.

Five Flower Tea

2008-09-22T20:53:00.000+08:00

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 stand to gain if I buy better herbs, so sometimes I do splurge a bit at EYS. (I still buy from the TCM stall at the wet market sometimes!)

I've been going to EYS mostly to get the Gold Label Bak Foong Pills which at RM88 for 6 bottles of tiny black pills aren't exactly cheap but after all this quality issues with China and what-not (tainted milk powder from the Sanlu brand which has now extended to other dairy products), I'd rather pay a bit more and rest easy that I am NOT ingesting some poison. And like I always say, EYS is a reputable brand and they are surely more careful of its products.

Anyway, I do go on a chinese herb buying spree whenever I step into EYS. Bad for my credit card though Jusco Card holders do get a 5% discount OFF EYS products.

OK, so back to my Five Flower Tea or Wu Hua Cha (RM8.90 per packet of 2 sachets). According to the packet, 1 sachet is to be boiled with 3 liters of water. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the honeycomb sugar (it's included in the packet) and that's it - serve warm or cold. Apparently this 3 liters can serve 4-5 people.

It's a delightfully light tea that's good both warm and cold. The flavours did remind me of spring - delicate, fragrant with flower aromas and not-too-sweet.

So what's inside this sachet? The Five Flower Tea has more than just five flowers; it contains:

chrysanthemum
pearl barley
licorice root
stir fried white bean
honeysuckle
pagoda tree flower
frangipani
cotton flower
peuraria flower

Madam Chin's Easy Soya Sauce Chicken

2008-09-16T08:17:00.002+08:00

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, do acknowledge that it came from Madam Chin from Penang, Malaysia. ;-) It's proper that she gets the accolades.

Soya Sauce Chicken

2 chicken thighs
1/2 bowl good quality soya sauce (Lee Kum Kee)
3 bowls water or enough to cover the chicken
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
dash of pepper
3-4 tbsp dark soya sauce
5 slices young ginger
1 stalk spring onion, cut into 2" lengths
3-4 cloves garlic, smashed, skin removed
3 tbsp butter

In a pot, put all ingredients except chicken and bring to a brisk simmer for 10 minutes. Add chicken and cover pot. Simmer for another 15 -20 minutes until the chicken is done.

Before you serve, bring the dish to boil again and thicken the gravy with some corn flour. That's it!

Try it and let me know if you like Madam Chin's easy chicken recipe.

Lemongrass Tea with Brown Sugar

2008-09-13T16:37:00.005+08:00

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 sea.

The sandwiches were palatable. But what I loved were the drinks. Made with spices and herbs, the drink menu attracted me, particularly the lemongrass drink.

I ordered that and it was the best thing that day.

Best of all, it was a thirst quencher and a mosquito repellant. I say repellant because no mozzie came near me throughout the time we were lounging at the open air cafe. This is tropical Malaysia and mozzies are everywhere, and it had just rained so my sis and cousin yelped in agony each time a mozzie bit them. Or the mozzie just buzzed around them, annoying them totally.

As I had just drunked my lemongrass tea, I was mozzie-free!

The aromatic and citrusy lemongrass shrub, if planted around your home, dispels mozzies. The oil extracted from lemongrass, citronella, is a key ingredient in most mosquite repellant sprays, candles and rubs.

But more than that, lemongrass tea is so easy to make. Its health benefits are plenty, According to a Buzzle article:

[It's] a good cleanser that helps to detoxify the Liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder and the digestive tract...cuts down uric acid, cholesterol, excess fats and other toxins in the body while stimulating digestion, blood circulation, and lactation...alleviates indigestion and gastroenteritis...helps improve the skin by reducing acne and pimples and acts as a muscle and tissue toner... reduce blood pressure.

This is my lemongrass tea recipe. I drink it warm but you can cool it and add ice.

2 stalks fresh lemongrass, washed and sliced thickly
1/2 stick of brown sugar (available from Chinese shops - this is brown sugar made from sugarcane and comes in flat sticks)
5 cups water

Put all ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve warm.

That's it.This is not a very sweet tea. If it is not sweet enough, you can add more brown sugar, perhaps a whole stick of it.

Your own fresh lemongrass tea, perfect for a Saturday afternoon as you read your favourite novel.

*** You might want to read this for more uses of lemongrass.

Cold Remedies, The TCM Way

2008-09-06T20:04:00.003+08:00

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 the new Spicy Crunch chicken. It wasn't very spicy but it was hot off the oven. I'm always fearful of anything fried or baked because of my tendency to get 'heaty'.

But cold or no cold, I made soup today too. Lotus Root soup. Yum. Can't wait for a bowl of warm goodness in a while. Did anyone try the Vegetarian Lotus Soup?

What I really wanted to share with you today is that I found a site which teaches you about the different types of Colds and Flus, according to TCM and the acupressure points you can press to lessen the awful effects of a cold.

Besides, the page also has a few folk remedies to cure a cold depending on what type of cold you have.

Green Papaya & Snow Fungus Dessert

2008-08-25T18:17:00.005+08:00

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 pieces
rock sugar to taste
1 litre water

Into a pot, bring to boil water. Add papaya chunks and red dates. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add rock sugar and snow fungus. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Serve warm.

A quick and easy dessert you can whip up any time!

This dessert soup is for smooth and clear complexion. Papaya has lots of nutrients while snow fungus nourishes the lungs.

Soups and Desserts and Dragon Too

2008-08-25T17:31:00.010+08:00

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. This new recipe book is a rework of some older book with an additional 20 recipes.

What I particularly liked about Terry's cookbook is his book is well organised. I like organised minds because I'm fastidious too. I don't like messy recipe books where the recipes have no particular order!

Terry groups this Chinese soups into various categories such as one-pot meals, sweet soups, etc. This would definitely help me decide what soup to create on any given day.

I would be testing out a few of his soups as the instructions are simple, clear and there's at most 4 to 5 ingredients for each soup. His personality shone through too in this cookbook - unlike some dry textbook recipe copy which doesn't inspire one at all.

Speaking of soups and sweet soups, I was in Pavilion KL's Dragon-i Restaurant with my parents and aunt for lunch last week. For those who don't know, Dragon-i is a chain of sumptuous Shanghainese restaurants started in 2004 by a smart Singaporean woman. Only 4 years but what a runaway success.

The decor is in dark red and brown with lots of mirrors and subdued lighting. It's classy and sensual. They probably made kitchen work sexy too judging by the crowds who peer into the glass kitchen, watching chefs in action, making pau and tiny dim sum! I wonder if these chefs feel like animals in a zoo!

It occurred to me that we have a Dragon-i here in Queensbay Penang but I was never tempted to go try its famous 'xiao long pau' (steamed meat dumplings). Maybe I got scared of the crowds outside the restaurant. People lined up outside the restaurant to get into Dragon-i here in Penang. The thing with me is, I get freaked out if I see crowds. I won't go where the masses go because it will be noisy and dining can be chaotic.

Anyway, their xiao long pau is indeed the most heavenly stuff money can buy. But that's not it... we ordered dessert soups right after we had our meal and those where really what I enjoyed, sweet though they were! (My Dad who is now extremely careful about the amount of sugar and sodium he consumes, asked the waitress to add more water to his sweet hasma dessert. It was THAT sweet.) I had the same dessert and yes, it was terribly sweet! The hasma came in generous portion though.At RM 12, it sure beat making this dessert on your own at home. Hasma comes from snow frogs and one has to pick out the grit and stuff from the hasma (shuet kap in Cantonese), aka cleaned properly before it can be double-boiled.

My aunt had a lovely stewed pear with bitter and sweet almonds, while Mom tried the water chestnut and sea coconut dessert.

Yum!

I'll be back soon with an easy papaya snow fungus dessert which I made for my mum the week that I was back home in Banting.

Kachama Chicken, A Confinement Dish for Sarawakians

2008-08-05T18:22:00.012+08:00

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.

As with most confinement dishes (we Chinese are good at this sort of dishes because I've been told that a good confinement or rest for the new mother prevents later health problems... later as in when a woman is in her 50s or 60s), this one contains ginger to alleviate wind too.

On a personal note, I've a friend who dislikes Chinese herbs (despite being Chinese). Ever since she gave birth 2 years ago, she has been suffering chills, incontinence and weakness. I advised her to take some Chinese ginseng tonic or at least drink a nightcap of Benedictine DOM (another must drink for Chinese moms) but she steadfastly refuses to.

Instead she relies on her vitamins. Sure, vitamins are good but I believe she needs to strengthen her body with herbs such as dang gui and ginseng. But she stubbornly refuses. If I weren't a friend, I'd tell her off sharply that all her health problems now are caused by NOT having a proper confinement with the proper confinement foods.

For this kachangma dish, you will need:

1/2 cup of dried kachangma
2 chicken thighs, chopped into bite-size pieces
1-2 tablespoon of pounded young ginger (squeeze and retain ginger juice)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
cooking oil
2-3 cups water

* As with all confinement foods, ginger and sesame oil are musts.

Method:
1. In a dry pan (no oil please), dry fry the kachangma for 2 minutes over a low fire.

Scoop into a mortar and pestle and pound lightly. Set aside.

2. Heat up pan, add 1 tablespoon cooking oil and sesame oil. Slowly fry the pounded ginger.
3. Add chicken pieces.
4. Add in the pounded kachangma. Coat evenly.
5. Pour in ginger juice (which you squeezed out earlier).
6. Add water to cover chicken pieces. Cover pan and simmer until chicken is tender.
7. Dish out and serve with a dark soya sauce.

Now in this dish, no salt is used as you will be dipping the chicken into dark soya sauce (try Lee Kum Kee Dark Soya Sauce for extra bite). This dish has a bit of gravy too so don't simmer the chicken too long.

It seems to taste better if you leave it overnight in the fridge.

Kachangma is widely available in Sarawak, sold as dried and chopped in packets. They are cheap at RM2.00 per packet.

Fresh Cordycep, Medlar Seeds & Honey Date Soup

2008-07-14T12:15:00.006+08:00

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 had some chicken feet, besides the basic pork bones so I blanched them too.

In a pot of boiling water, add the blanched pork bones and chicken feet together with some fresh cordyceps, a handful of medlar seeds (soaked to re-hydrate) and 3 honey dates. Someone once asked me how much of water is needed for soups and I go for at least 1.5 liters of water. This feeds me and my husband comfortably for 2 meals.

Clockwise from top: honey dates, medlar seeds & fresh cordyceps

Boil on high for 10 minutes, uncovered. Then cover with lid, turn heat down to very low and simmer for 2 hours. Season to taste with salt when it is almost done. Let the soup "sit" to develop flavour for about an hour before you serve. I usually boil the soup around mid-afternoon, 4pm or so and once it's ready by 6pm, I let it 'rest' until 7pm before dinner is served.

In some soups, I add a teaspoon of sugar to balance the saltiness but in this soup, I refrain because the honey dates lend a natural sweetness. Honey dates are sweet so don't go adding anything but salt.

If you cook soups with chicken feet (which is really a favourite with me), remember to scoop off the oil which floats to the top of the soup. Chicken feet are good for the skin as it contains collagen but it is also very oily.

I'll post another recipe on how to cook chicken feet as a main dish later on.... as you can see, I am a big fan of chicken feet (which are really cheap and nutritious). I'm Cantonese, what can I say! I like all those things which people look upon with horror such as pig liver, pig blood, duck blood, chicken feet, chicken intestines, duck tongues and etc. OK, maybe I'm old school but I do so love the dracula stuff!

Until then, try out this soup and let me know if you like it.

American Ginseng Soup

2008-07-09T18:26:00.005+08:00

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 not overconsume Korean ginseng.

But if you are looking for a mild ginseng which isn't too cooling or heaty, American Ginseng is good enough for weekly use.

I wrote about American Ginseng sometime back so check this post if you want to learn more.

This time, the soup recipe calls for American Ginseng, Dried Longan Flesh and Lotus Seeds.

It was supposed to be boiled with pig's heart and pork but I doubt anyone sells pig heart if it isn't ordered in advance. So I made do with pork bones.

You need:

2 tbsp American ginseng slices
1 handful of dried longan
1 handful of dried lotus seeds (soaked, split into 2 and remove the green pith)
1 bowl pork bones (blanched)
1.5 liter of water

Bring water to a boil. Add in all ingredients and bring to a furious boil for 10 minutes. Cover pot, lower heat to a mere simmer and simmer for 2 hours minimum. Season with salt to taste when soup is almost done. Serve warm.

That's it. I make it a point to boil a little more so I can freeze the rest for days when I need a good soup to warm the body!

Braised Chicken with Bitter gourd

2008-06-27T11:45:00.003+08:00

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, sliced thickly and with seeds removed (rub with a bit of salt when washing it under running water)
3-4 chilies, sliced thickly (remove seeds)
2 cloves garlic, minced fine
3 slices young ginger, minced fine
1 tablespoon fermented soya bean paste ('tau cheong' in Chinese)

1. Mix garlic, ginger and soya bean paste.
2. Heat up pan with oil. Fry this mix until fragrant.
3. Add in chicken. Coat well with soya bean paste.
4. Add bitter gourd and chillies.
5. Pour in enough water to cover chicken. Bring to a rolling boil, uncovered.
6. Cover pan, bring heat down to a simmer and simmer chicken until tender, about 20 minutes.
7. Season with a little sugar, pepper and soya sauce.
8. Before dishing up, thicken the gravy with 1 teaspoon cornflour mixed with a little water.

Get Me 2 Ways Now

2008-05-25T14:58:00.005+08:00

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 relax especially if I am cooking my favourite dishes.

I'm quite pleased that I am a true blue Cantonese at heart (and I am pretty sure Nic is happy he has a Cantonese wife too) because we Cantonese really take our gastronomy seriously. If food is about love and loving, then we Cantonese are the Casanovas of food!

But it's not automatic - this love of food may run in the genes but unless one has a passion for cooking and eating, nothing will come out of it.

So now, the big question is, would you mind if I introduced some recipes here in addition to my soup recipes?

I know it's the Soup Queen but I think sometimes we need more than soup to fill our tummies.

Would you like to learn how to cook a smashingly simple ginger sesame chicken?

Would you like to learn how to fry squid without it turning rubbery?

Would you like to know what's the best way to keep broccoli from turning yellow and unappetising?

Let me know if you want to see more recipes at Soup Queen. The reason I asked is, I want to share all my recipes but I really don't want to start yet another blog for home-cooked meals and such. As it is, running my business is taking up lots of time. I simply cannot do another blog, though blogging is what I love doing.

But I think, if I can cook quickly at home (give me an hour and I can give you a full meal), I am sure others can appreciate some tips and ideas on cooking. Plus nothing is more heavenly than sitting down to your own home-cooked meal, without MSG or additives. And you know it's hygienic. Best of all, it's also about sitting down to a good meal and bonding as a family.

Cooking isn't hard, no, not at all. You just need the right tools and of course, the right attitude towards food. And it helps if you are a scientist at heart. Because you need to try a bit of this, a bit of that, and if it fails, you note it down and proceed to test the damn recipe again. ;-)

(The reason I am not keen on starting another blog for sharing my home-cooked meal reicpes is that I'm actually working on an ebook version of my soups. I'm going to be just too zonked.)

Soups are more than just liquids, soups are about us and how we translate our love into something so easy to drink up, something that soothes at the end of a tough day, something that says 'I love you' in more than just words.

And mothers are good with soups. Drinking a bowl of painstakingly simmered soup made by our moms remind us that someone cares. And when you bring a bowl of homemade soup to your friend, she'll understand that warmth, goodness and kindness too.

So yeah, please let me know if you want more than just soup recipes. Your comments and feedback will be much appreciated!

Another Simple Vegetarian Soup

2008-05-25T14:42:00.004+08:00

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 from sugar or honey.)

Another ingredient that helps to add a touch of sweetness and harmony is of course dried red dates, a perennial favourite in every Chinese kitchen. Any herbal soup should have dried red dates as one of its harmonizers.

Last week, I was again at Than Hsiang Temple for lunch. This time, the soup was again truly lipsmackingly good. And it just contained mustard green and carrot!

The mustard green is what we Cantonese call "kai choy". "Kai choy" is the same mustard green with thick, hard stem used in making "chai boey". By itself, "kai choy" can taste bitter. It's usually used in stews and soups which reduces its bitter edge.

I have yet to try making this soup but you can....I peered into the pot of soup and saw this 2 core ingredients. Shouldn't be too hard. Just slice the "kai choy" and chunk the carrots. Put into a pot of water, bring to boil and then cover for a slow simmer of 2 hours. Salt to taste. I think sugar is not needed as the carrots give a natural sweetness to the soup. The more you boil the carrot, the better the soup will taste.

Related post:
If you want to try your hand at cooking 'chai boey', here's the recipe.

Chrysanthemum Dessert Soup

2008-05-11T19:37:00.003+08:00

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.

Watercress Soup for Vegetarians

2008-04-29T12:17:00.004+08:00

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 stems though.)

8-10 dried red dates, de-seeded
Buy unseeded dates and de-seed them yourself. I used to be lazy and thought that buying de-seeded dates would save me time but my mom-in-law said that de-seeded dates were de-seeded in unhygienic ways so it's back to regular dates for me.

1 whole carrot, peeled and cut into chunks

Method:
Bring a pot of water (approximately 1.5 litres) to boil.
Add in red dates, carrot and watercress stems.
Boil for 10 minutes on high fire, uncovered.
Lower fire to a simmer and cover pot with lid.
Simmer for 30 minutes. Then add the watercress leaves.
Simmer covered again for another 30 minutes.
Finally, add salt to taste.
Turn off fire and the soup 'rest' for another 10 minutes.(I found that this makes the soup a lot tastier. I wonder why.)
Dish into bowls and serve warm, with rice or on its own.

Yummy!

3 Minute Soup

2008-04-01T18:00:00.004+08:00

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 on the packaging.

You don't boil miso paste because that would get rid of its good bacteria (it's fermented bean paste, remember? There's live organisms in the paste which is soothing for the stomach and intestines.) In fact, there's a host of vitamins and minerals within miso.

Imagine, miso can help:
* detoxify radioactive substances
* help with anti-ageing
* aid digestion
* detoxification
* control blood pressure
* negate smoking effects and lots more.

Here's how miso is made.

Anyway, here's how you can make miso soup at home.

Bring water to boil. Portion out 1 bowl per person. When water has boiled, take it off the stove. Place 1 tablespoon of miso paste into bowl (1 tablespoon of miso for 1 person). Pour boiling water into the bowl. Mix thoroughly so that the miso paste is well mixed. Add cubed soft tofu and fresh kelp* if you like.

Serve hot. Great on its own or with rice. Oh ya, don't add salt as miso is naturally salty. Remember do not boil miso if you don't want to ruin its taste and destroy its nutrients.

* I was introduced to fresh kelp at the Lip Sin market. It's far pricier than dried kelp (dried kelp is RM1.90 but fresh kelp retails at RM5.50 for a small packet). Fresh kelp must be kept in the chiller or freezer. You can eat it raw or lightly boiled. Before you add into your miso soup, remember to rinse it under running water and slice into bite-size pieces.

I call this my 3-minute soup. Itadake mase!

Shark Fin Melon Soup

2008-03-15T17:43:00.008+08:00

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 said) or you can be a detailed freak (like me) and pry the seeds out one by one! I did that and it wasn't so bad. Consider it meditative! I plan to germinate the seeds and see what happens though I don't have much of a garden and space is a premium in my apartment.

As with my normal soups, I am using pork bones (blanched in boiling water). Into a pot of boiling water, I add these pork bones, 2 slices of ginger and the shark fin melon (cut into fairly large chunks because smaller chunks tend to disintegrate into the soup). Boil on high heat for 10 minutes, then close the pot tightly and simmer on the lowest fire for 2 hours. Season with salt, pepper and a little sugar. Serve hot.

For vegetarians or at least for people like my husband who doesn't eat real shark fin, this melon is a good substitute!

Braised Chicken with White Radish

2008-03-05T15:30:00.001+08:00

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 that's why the Japanese and Korean girls look so radiant and pretty.

This recipe comes from Karen Mok's recipe book. While I am not a big fan of Karen Mok, this recipe is a knockout success each time I've made it. And it has become my husband's favourite dish, among the other favourite dishes like ginger chicken.

You'll need:
2 chicken thighs (remove skin if you're on a lowfat diet, otherwise keep it on; chop into bite-size chunks)
1 medium size white radish, wash, peel skin and cut into chunks
2 slices young ginger
1 cup water
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 sliced red chili (for garnishing)

Bring a pot of water to boil. Put in the white radish. Simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and allow to cool.

In a separate pan, heat oil. Saute ginger until fragrant. Add chicken and radish. Stirfry for a few seconds before adding water. Add in the fish sauce, rice wine and soya sauce. Bring to a fast boil. Then turn the heat down so that chicken simmers gently for 25 minutes or so (don't let the gravy dry up, add more hot water if you find the gravy disappearing!). Once chicken is tender, dish up and garnish with red chili. You should have a bit of gravy with this dish.

That's it. A quick dish you can make even if you think you don't have time.

Try it and tell me how it went! And of course thanks to Karen Mok for such a simple, delicious dish.

By the way, radish soup is also really good and simple. Just throw some chicken carcasses into a pot of boiling water with some chunks of radish. Add a slice of ginger and some red dates if you want. Simmer 2 hours or so and season with salt at the end of the cooking time. I prefer to add some chicken feet to this soup as I am a chicken feet lover! Radish is also good for the lungs and clearing heat.

Kelp Soup

2008-02-04T18:51:00.001+08:00

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 mistake of not cutting them small enough and ended up with huge strips of kelp!

Soak and slice kelp into long strips.

For this kelp soup, I am using chicken carcasses as a base because it complements the lovely, light taste of kelp. If you use pork bones, the flavour might be a tad too heavy.

Use about 1 whole chicken carcass for a soup which feeds 4 persons comfortably. Blanch the carcass to get rid of scum.

Bring a stock pot of water to boil. Add in the chicken and pre-soaked kelp. Also to counter the 'cooling' properties of kelp, add in some smashed young ginger.

Bring to a furious boil for 10 minutes. Lower fire, cover tightly and simmer for 2 hours. Season with salt and let the soup 'rest' before you serve it hot.

Delicious and affordable and full of vitamins and minerals. What more can you ask for in a soup?!

NOTE: Just a note of warning, DO NOT OVERDO IT by eating too much kelp or seaweed. While it is good for health, overeating it (more than 2-3 times a week) can make you feel weak and cold (as seaweeds are cooling anyway). That is why seaweed, if needed, can be cooked with a slice of young ginger (ginger is warming). If you suffer from cold feet (usually happens to women more than men!), do not drink too much of seaweed soup.

Black Date Tea

2008-01-11T18:30:00.000+08:00

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

Soup for Breastfeeding Moms

2007-12-18T12:39:00.000+08:00

I got this recipe from somewhere but I cannot remember where but it was given as Maryann's recipe. So Maryann, thanks to you, I am sharing this soup recipe with everyone here. It's good for breastfeeding moms as papaya seems to increase lactation.

Maryann’s Papaya Soup

Ingredients
4 skinless chicken thighs
1 unripe hard papaya (about 400g)
4 shallots (sliced)
4 cloves garlic (sliced)
10 white peppercorns
1 piece of ginger (about 5cm long)
2 ½ litres of boiling water
½ Tbsp oil
Salt to taste
1 Tbsp chopped Chinese parsley or spring onion (optional)

Method
1. Clean and cut each chicken thighs into two.

2. Peel the papaya, take out the seeds and cut the fruit into big chunks.

3. Do not cut the ginger, but pound it slightly.

4. Heat the pot with oil, add ginger, fry for 3 minutes. Add shallots and garlic, fry for another minute, then add the chicken pieces and fry for 3 minutes. Add the boiling water.

5. Add the papaya and whole white peppercorns to the soup and boil it over low heat for at least 1 hour.

6. Add salt to taste just before serving. Sprinkle chopped Chinese parsley or spring onion on top of the soup.

Tips:

1. If you are using a slow cooker, put only 2 litres of boiling water and cook it for at least 3 hours.

2. Skim off oil on top of the soup before serving.

3. Pork ribs or fish can also be used instead of chicken.

4. Papaya soup is very nutritious and is especially good for breastfeeding mothers.

5. For vegetarians, take out the meat and substitute with 500g raw peanuts.

Kidney Tonic Soup

2007-12-12T10:39:00.000+08:00

The best part about blogging about soups is that I attract a lot of similar minded people and we become friends and then we start exchanging soup recipes and before you know it, we're diehard soup-lovers and soup recipe exchangers!

Maybe SoupQueen should start a Soup Club! Any takers?

Anyway, last week, I got a wonderful email from Grace Poon who lives in Australia. She was so kind to send me a soup recipe - a kidney tonic soup - to share with everyone here.

It's taken from www.asiaone.com.sg (I believe it's always honest to credit back the source) and it's a soup for those suffering from backaches.

According to the article accompanying the soup recipe, lower back pain is a result of not having enough Qi in the kidney and liver. Lower back pain could also result from stagnation of Qi in the blood.

The kidney tonic soup suggested contains a main ingredient of Eucommia Bark or Duzhong. Duzhong, I read in a TCM book, is actually the name of the man who ate the herb and got well. The things one learns!

Duzhong invigorates Qi and blood circulation. It is a bark of a tree but it resembles some scaly snake skin but don't let that put you off. There are stranger herbs in TCM and this is really a tree bark. Speaking of stranger stuff, there's frog hasma which actually comes from the oviduct of the female wood frog but that's another blog post for another day!.

Pregnant women should not take this soup. Invigorating blood and Qi might be rather harmful for foetuses.

Kidney Tonic Soup

300gm lean pork or chicken

11 gm Duzhong/Eucommia bark
9 gm Niuxi/Acyranthes Root
10 gm Baijitian/Morinda Root
10 gm Huangji/Astralagus Root
15 gm Dangshen/Conodopsis
10 gm Keichi/Medlar seeds
10 gm Dried Longan Flesh
5 bowls of water

* Apparently you can get the herbs in a packet from Eu Yan Sang medical shops if you can't be bothered to pick and combine them.

Bring water to a boil.

Scald meat (remove chicken skin if using chicken - otherwise you will need to skim oil off the soup once the soup's done and we busy ladies really have to be fast and effective sometimes so off with the chicken skin).

Put meat and herbs into pot and boil for 10 minutes on high heat.

Cover tightly, simmer on the slowest heat for 3-4 hours.

Season with salt and sugar if needed. Serve hot.

Grateful thanks to Grace Poon for this kidney tonic recipe!

One more thing, if you wonder what a certain herb looks like, just type the herb name into Google and then select IMAGES. You will find the photos of the herbs!

Wintermelon Soup With Chicken Feet

2007-11-23T12:52:00.001+08:00

Winter melon gives a sweetness to soups and can be a lovely warming soup on a cold night. The oysters lend the soup a delicate smokey taste too. Overall this is a soup which goes down well with many people.

According to Acupuncture.com, winter melon clears heat, detoxifies, quenches thirst, relieves irritability, dispels dampness and is particularly effective in regulating blood sugar.

Try this soup!

Winter melon Soup With Chicken Feet

1 wedge of medium sized winter melon ("tung kwa")
5 dried oysters, soaked
1 whole chicken thigh (remove skin)
3 pairs chicken feet (chop off claws)
3 red dates (pitted)
Salt to taste

Chop the chicken thigh into bite-sized pieces. Chop chicken feet into 2 sections. Scald chicken thighs and chicken feet.

Bring water to a boil. Put in all the ingredients into the pot. Boil furiously for 10 minutes and then cover pot to allow it to simmer for 2 hours. Season to taste with salt and sugar.

This is how winter melon looks like - in case you want to know.

Chicken Garlic Kei Chi Soup

2007-11-23T12:46:00.000+08:00

I was clearing off some old files of mine when I found this recipe! I have not tried it yet but I think it should be a delicious soup, as chicken and kei chi/medlar seeds/wolfberries lend a sweetness to the soup. Plus garlic too - I am a big user of garlic and I think this magic bulb does wonders to anything, be it soup or stew.

If you do try it, let me know how it tastes like. This is a quick soup which can be ready in 30 minutes.

Chicken Garlic Kei Chi Soup

Ingredient
2 chicken thighs (400g)
100g garlic (peeled)
25g kei chi (wolfberries)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soya sauce
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 Tbsp oil
1.2 litres boiling water
1 Tbsp chopped Chinese parsley

Method
1. Remove excess fat from the chicken thighs, wash and pat dry with kitchen paper. Cut each thigh into four pieces.

2. Heat the wok with the oil, add garlic, stir-fry for a minute and add chicken and white pepper. Continue to stir-fry for 3 minutes.

3. Lastly add boiling water, kei chi, salt and soya sauce, cover and boil on medium heat for 20 minutes.

4. Skim off excess oil before serving with chopped Chinese parsley.

Dried Fig, Apple and Almond Soup

2007-11-21T18:38:00.000+08:00

I got this link from a reader of this blog. And what a great link it was... it was linked to a soup recipe and of course a book by someone called Grace Young.

Grace's book is called "The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing". I hope to find this book at my local Borders Bookstore one of these days. It reads like one of those books I simply want in my TCM book collection!

Here's a recipe called Dried Fig, Apple and Almond Soup taken from Grace's book. There's more information about this soup/tonic from the Global Gourmet website, a link given by a reader, TC!

Dried Fig, Apple and Almond Soup
by Grace Young

According to Grace, this soup helps cure a persistent cough. I always think that it's better to take a tonic than to take cough medicine. A tonic tastes so much better too!

1/4 cup Chinese almonds (nom hung)
4 to 5 Chinese almonds (buck hung)
3 medium red Delicious apples, unpeeled
8 ounces pork loin, well trimmed
10 Chinese dried figs, rinsed

Rinse almonds in several changes of cold water. Soak almonds in 1/2 cup cold water overnight to soften almonds.

Core apples and cut into 1-inch-thick wedges.

In a 4-quart saucepan, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil over high heat. Add pork and return to a boil, skimming any scum that forms.

Add the apple wedges, dried figs, almonds and their soaking water. Return to a boil over high heat.

Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 3 hours. Serve piping hot (no more than 1-1/2 cups per person).

For more information, visit Grace Young's website at http://www.graceyoung.com

Melon, Kei Chi and Carrot Quick Soup

2007-11-21T18:15:00.000+08:00

Here's a quickie soup for those of you pressed for time (aren't we all? Sometimes I think we're like ants. Busy busy and busier!)

Melon, Kei Chi and Carrot Soup is my invention but it tastes pretty good I must say!

I made it two nights ago, after a long day at work. But the beauty of this soup is that it takes all of 30 minutes or less to boil and you can get instant soup (my other instant soup lifesaver is instant miso which I dump into hot water, add some tofu cubes and spring onions and I am ready to go. But that's another story for another day, ya?)

Melon, Kei Chi and Carrot Soup

You need:

1 small melon (you know the fat, green ones - peel skin and cube, with seeds on. Do not throw away the seeds.)
1/2 a carrot, cubed or sliced, up to you
1 tablespoon kei chi/wolfberries, soaked in water to hydrate
1/2 cup minced pork, marinated with 1 tsp cornflour, some salt and pepper and some sesame oil
1 liter water
2 cloves garlic, smashed with back of a cleaver
1 slice ginger, smashed with back of a cleaver

Bring water to boil in a pot. Once water is boiling, add in the ginger, melon cubes, carrot and kei chi. Boil for 10 minutes and then reduce fire, so that soup simmers.

In a pan, heat up some oil and saute garlic until almost brown. Stir this into the soup. This gives the soup a deeper flavour and a sheen of oil.

After 15 minutes of simmering, turn up the heat so that soup is boiling again. Form balls with the minced pork and add to the soup. When you drop the minced pork balls into the soup, a fast boiling soup makes the meat balls cook faster too.

Season soup with salt, sugar and pepper. Add a little soya sauce too if you like.

Turn down heat and slowly simmer for another 10 minutes. And voila, it's ready to be served.

(Before you serve, please remove the ginger slice. It's not fun to bite into ginger!). As for the garlic, it would have melted into the soup so there's no need to scoop it out.

Quick isn't it? Now you go try it and tell me how it goes!

See ya!

Tong Sum and Red Date Tea

2007-11-01T18:00:00.000+08:00

I caught an interesting cooking show on TV last night. On Astro's Asian Food Channel (Channel 703), I watched a show on TCM. It was a Taiwanese programme where the host and hostess spoke in Mandarin and sometimes a smattering of Taiwan Hokkien.

The show featured 3 recipes each segment, using TCM herbs with the herbalist host explaining about the uses of the specific herbs. Then the lady hostess would cook up a dish, usually a main course, using the herbs.

While I am not very interested in making dishes like prawn balls with Chinese herbs (it seemed just too much work!), I liked the 2 other recipes they showed.

One was a milk beverage with herbs (I can't recall what now). But the other one was easy. A tong sum and red date tea.

Tong sum or dang shen is a mild herb which resembles a dry, gnarled twig the size of a finger. It is called the poor man's ginseng in some instances because it shares similar properties with the more expensive ginseng. Dang shen is actually a root which benefits the spleen and lungs and is often used together with other herbs in soups.

This inexpensive herb helps to boost immunity, nourishes blood and lowers blood pressure. That's why it is suitable to restore health to the body, especially one that's been ill or unwell. It helps with restoring one's appettite too.

It is also a herb to use for promoting digestion especially if you have a sluggish digestion (indicated by bloating and indigestion).

To simmer this tea, you need some dried red dates (seeded) and some dang shen. Wash and put both into a pot with 2 bowls of water. Simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes or until water is reduced to one bowl. Drink warm.