The Soup Queen

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 ...

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

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