Dang Shen (Codonopsis Pilosulae) Soup

I don't boil herbal soup that often but PiggyBeng loves this 'dang-shen' or 'yu-chai' (in Hokkien) soup very much so to make him happy I bought all the neccesary ingredients to prepare his favourite soup. I am very caution when I take herbal soup these days as I am still nursing Darrius. Not too sure which herbs are suitable to be consumed for nursing mothers... I will avoid taking any unless I know of their attributes as I am afraid it will affects my milk production.

One thing good about preparing herbal soup is... you can just dump everything in and after 3 hours... bowls of hearty soup on the table. For those who do not have time to boil it over the stove can actually boil it using slow cooker... just boil it longer... about 5-6 hours.

The following recipe is to serves about 4 person. The lesser the water, the thicker the soup... so it's tastier... :) When purchasing the herbs, just tell the medical hall person that you are preparing the soup for 4 and they will weight the appropriate amount of the ingredient for you.

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Ingredients

• Pork ribs or 1/2 lao-mu-ji (old hen)


• 3L Water (or depending on how many pax you are preparing for)


• Dang Shen - the ginseng look-alike


• Shan Yao (Chinese Yam /Dioscorea Opposita) - the white pieces


• Yuk Chok (Solomon's Seal /Polygonatum Officinale) - the thin yellowish slices


• Red dates (seedless)


• Dried longans - the brown looking stuff


• Chinese Wolfberry (Fructus Lycii) - the tiny red stuff

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Method

1. When water boiled, add in the ribs and boil for 5 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.

*All herbs' scientific names taken from www.foodnherbs.com

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Pork in Worchestershire Sauce

Ok... my apologies to fellow Muslims readers that this has to be another non-halal dish. The market I always patronised do not have quality fresh chicken so I normally don't buy chicken there. Hence, I seldom cook chicken dishes. (Not sure if some of you heard before that feeding too much chicken to kids will make their breast grow bigger due to the 'growth jabs' that was injected to the chicken :|)

I will usually buy fish or lean meat or 'yuk ngan' to cook porridge for Darrius as these have the least fat content. 'Yuk ngan' is the best part to cook Chinese Style Pork Chop too. However, you will need to tenderise the meat before you marinade so it will be tender and not tough as rubber when you bite!

I saw a bottle of Lea and Perrins Worchestershire sauce sitting in my fridge so decided to try cooking a dish with it. It turned out quite ok.

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Ingredients

• 400gm Lean pork meat


• 1pc Bombay onion/big onion


• 1pc Red tomato


• 2tbsp Corn flour (1tbsp for marinade & 1tbsp to thicken sauce)


• 1tsp Soy sauce


• 1tsp Black sauce


• 1tbsp Lea and Perrins Worchestershire sauce


• 1tbsp Tomato ketchup


• Pepper


• Water


• Cooking oil


• Sugar

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Method

1. Sliced pork into about 3 or 5 mm in thickness by using the back of the clever and lightly chop it in a criss-cross pattern. Tenderise/marinade it with soy sauce, black sauce, pepper, some cooking oil and corn flour.


2. Heat up wok and fry the marinaded meat on a slow fire. Removed and put aside.


3. Mix 1tbsp corn flour with water (put more if you wanted a more diluted sauce), sugar, tomato ketchup, Worchestershire sauce and a dash of pepper.


4. Fry cut onion and red tomato until it started to turn brown and pour in the mixture.


5. When the mixture comes to a boil, pour in the meat and stir for a while. Served.

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Silky Smooth Tofu with Shredded Chicken

Another easy to prepare and healthy dish for tofu lover. I love tofu regardless of its texture, shape and taste. I have tried many types including those imported from Japan. Of course our local tofu can't be compared to the Japanese tofu but they are still edible. I especially like the silky (silken) smooth tofu which we normally used in steaming or soup.

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Ingredients

• 1 box Silky smooth tofu


• 100 gm Chicken breast meat (shredded)


• 1 pc Dried Chinese mushroom (soak in hot water till soft, diced)


• 1/4 cup Carrot (coarsely chopped)


• 2 cloves Garlic


• 1 Chili padi


• 1tbsp Corn flour


• 1tbsp Light soy sauce


• Pepper to taste

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Method

1. Steam tofu for 5 minutes and removed any water after the steaming.


2. Heat wok with about 2 tbsp of oil and sauteed the garlic and chili padi. Add in carrot and mushroom and continue to stir for 2-3 minutes.


3. Add in the shredded chicken and stir till about 80% cook.


4. Dash in the light soy sauce and pepper before adding corn flour which is mixed with 30ml of water to thicken the sauce.


5. Scoop up and lay on top of steamed tofu and served.

Tom Yam Style Steamed Siakap

We normally see the small siakap fish sold at the market but not those really big type which were from deep sea. Last year, we went to dine at one of the restaurant near by our house and was introduced to this deep sea siakap fillet which was really big and juicy. So, we went around hunting for this fish in the wet markets around our area and was lucky we found them!

I will usually make simple steaming with just ginger and chillies but as I like hot and sour stuff so went on to try this tom yum style instead. The siakap fillets goes well with this style too....

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Ingredients

• 2 pcs Siakap fillets


• 2cm Lengkuas (blue ginger)


• 1 stick Lemongrass


• Kaffir lime leaves (use the young sprouted leaves)


• 4 cloves Garlic (chopped)


• 2-3 Chili padi (if you preffer hot stuff...put more!)


• 2pcs Kaffir lime or normal lime juice


• Light soy sauce

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Method

1. Cut/chop all the ingredients and sprinkle on the fish fillets, a few dash of light soy sauce, all the lime juice and add a little water and steam! It is that easy! :)


2. Remember to check the fish before serving.

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Fried Nestum Chicken

I bought a big tin of Nestum recently as I heard that drinking milk with Nestum can help to increase milk production... not sure how true is that but no harm trying. :) Actually, Nestum is really tasty due to its crispiness. Normally we can order Nestum prawns from most 'Tai-choa' or Chinese Big Fry stalls. However, I did not buy any prawns this week so tilt the recipe a little and use chicken instead... :) All I can say is... it taste just as good!

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Ingredients

• 1 pair of Chicken thigh (drumstick + thigh)


• 2 Chili padi


• 2 strands Curry leaves


• 1 tblsp Brown sugar


• 4-5 tblsp Nestum


• Light soy sauce


• Corn flour


• Pepper

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Method

1. Cut chicken into smaller pieces and marinade with light soy sauce with sprinkles of corn four and pepper for about 1/2 hour.


2. Heat up wok with a little oil and fry the chicken pieces lightly on small fire until golden brown, lift up and put aside.


3. Heat wok with a little oil and fry the chopped chili padi and curry leaves. Once fragrant, put in the brown sugar and fry for a while until half melt and quickly pour in the Nestum and stir until the sugar is mixing well with the Nestum.


4. Add in chicken pieces and continue stirring for 20 seconds, lift up and serve.

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Fried Tofu with Silverfish & Dried Prawns

Some of you must be wondering why I'm using a type of pest for my cooking... don't get me wrong as this type of anchovy is commonly know as 'silvery-fish' or 'ngan-yee-jai' (silver-small-fish) by the Chinese, hence the name given. They are the smallest version of the common anchovy and we can't really see their bones. Normally we will cook the entire fish together with it head. It's salty at time but the level of saltiness is not so extreme as compared to the bigger anchovies. They are nice to eat when being fried till crispy.

The taste of tofu is bland so to add a little silverfish and dried prawns will make this dish a very appetizing starter.

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Ingredients

• 1pc Tofu (9x9 cm type)


• 30gm Silverfish


• 30gm Dried prawns


• 1pc Chili padi


• Light soy sauce

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Method

1. Cut tofu to small square (1 pc of tofu can cut up to 8 small square pcs). Heat up wok with some oil and fry the tofu lightly till golden brown. Lift up and put aside.


2. Wash and chop or grind dried prawns to tiny pieces. Fry dried prawns with some oil for 2 minutes and add in the silverfish and chopped chili padi and fry until golden crisp.


3. Dash some light soy sauce on tofu before topping with the fried dried prawns and silverfish.

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4 Heavenly King with Sambal Udang (Chili Shrimps)

I came to know about this dish just 2 years back. The way they named this dish gave me the impression that it's expensive but surprisingly it is not. In fact, they are all the common vegetable, legumes and bean. The 4 main items are lady's fingers (okra), winged beans, snake beans (or can use longbeans) and brinjal (egg-plant). When such items cooked together with chili shrimps... it's so appetizing that it make you want to eat more! :P

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Ingredients

• 150gm Snake beans


• 200gm Lady's fingers (okra)


• 200gm Winged beans (kacang botol)


• 1 or 2 pcs Brinjal (egg plant)


• 100gm Dried prawns


• 3 Red chilies


• 2 Chili padi


• 4-6 pcs Shallots


• 3 cloves Garlic


• 10gm Belacan (shrimp paste)


• Black soy sauce


• Light soy sauce


• Water

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Method

1. Grind the dried prawns, shallots, chilies, chili padi, garlic and belacan.


2. Cut snake beans to about 1.5" long and dry fried with some oil until half soft. Same proess for brinjal and winged beans. When done, lift them up and put aside.


3. Heat up wok with 3 tblsp of oil and fry the grinded item until fragrant then lift up and put aside.


4. Put in another 2 tblsp of oil and fry lady's fingers for about 2 minutes and put in the fried winged beans, brinjal and snake beans and continue to stir fry for another 2 minutes or so then put in the sambal udang which we fried earlier. Continue to stir and put in some black soy sauce (put more if you like a darker tone).


5. Add in some water, stir and cover for 2-3 minutes and continue stirring. Add in soy sauce (not too much as the saltiness may come from the dried prawns and belacan) and stir until the mixture starts to look a little sticky. Lift up and serve.

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Note: Should you prefer it to be spicier, do add in more chili padi. Alternatively, you can also chop some garlic and sauteed them before going to #4.

Tips: If you do not want to use too much oil to fry the brinjal (they absort lots of oil), you can steam them first before frying but of course it won't taste as good... :P

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