Pumpkin Mee Hoon Kueh - 金瓜面粉粿

The photo above appears to be of wanton soup, but actually the yellow ingredients are not wanton skin! This dish is my own unique creation. Mee Hoon Kueh (面粉粿) has always been my family's favourite. Being of Cantonese descent, they love soup very much and always finish down to the last drop! The soup stock was my usual and today, I was feeling adventurous and added pumpkin puree into the dough for the kueh.

Recipe: serves 4 to 5

Ingredients:
(A) Dough:
500 g plain flour
100 g  pumpkin without skin (steamed and mashed)
1/2 egg (lightly beaten)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon corn flour
200 g tap water (if it is too dry add a little more water or if it is too wet add a little more of  flour).
1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil

Method:
Knead the above ingredient into a smooth and an  elastic dough. Divide them into a few small dough pieces. Put in a container or plastic bag and put them in the fridge for later use.

(B) Make the stock:
Vegetable (cai xin or mali vegetable)
50 g ikan bilis (lightly fried)
500 g pork ribs
2500 ml to 3000 ml water

(C) Prepare ingredients such as minced meat, fish ball, prawns, meat balls, fried ikan bilis, and others to your liking.

Method:
1) Boil the above stock ingredients for 1/2 hour or more. Add salt to taste.
2) Using your fingers, gently pull a corner of the dough into a thin, bite-sized piece. Peel off and place into the boiling stock.
3) Continue to peel and add pieces. Once in a while, lightly stir.
4) While the dough is 3/4 cooked, add in ingredients from (C).
5) Dish out when meat is cooked/soup has boiled.
6) Serve.  Garnish with fried shallots, fried ikan bilis etc

Lamp Soup with Chinese Herbs - 药材羊肉汤

第一次做这道汤，味道很香也带一点甜。不妨一试。

This is the first time we made this soup. We felt that the soup was quite sweet.   This is worth a shot as it is very simple  and delicious too. You can  tweak the recipe depending on your preference.

Recipe: source from ONE DAY ONE DISH

Ingredients:

500 g lamb

20 g astragalus (bei qi 北芪）

20 g codonopsis (dang shen, 党参）

20 g Chinese angelica root (dang gui, 当归）

25 g Chinese wolfberry ( 枸杞）

25 g dried longan (龙眼干）

1 small piece of dried tangerine peel (陈皮）

Method：

1）Wash lamb, scald in boiling water for a few minutes, rinse under running water. Drain and cut into big pieces.  ( I used leg of lamb as the bone enhances the flavour)

2)  Rinse the ingredients  (Herbs) and drain.

3)  Bring  1 litre of water in a claypot to a boil. add in the lamb and the ingredients .

Cook over low heat for about 3 hours.  Add salt to taste before serving it.   Add pepper and chopped fresh coriander leaves if desired. 

     Note :  if you find the soup is too concentrated at the end of cooking,  add some hot water.

               you can use a slow cooker  instead of claypot

Healthy Spinach Cream Soup - 健康菠菜浓汤

I am trying to perfect the 'drawing' of designs on the surface of cream soups. You should have seen my very noob attempt on the pumpkin soup; this time I think the hearts can be better made out on the spinach cream soup, yes? :)

This is another easy, fast, economic and nutritious soup. I know there are many children who do not like to eat their greens... By converting into a soup, it is a transformation from fresh vegetables. In order to encourage children to eat  more vegetables, you can even design some patterns or cartoons characters on top to attract them.

Recipe:

Ingredients: (serves 4 -5 pax)

225 g spinach,  washed, drained and cut into small pieces
30 g soft butter
1/2 large onion, diced
1 pip garlic, diced
1 small potato,  peeled, cut into small cubes
250 ml chicken stock or vegetable stock
300 ml UHT milk
1/4 teaspoon lemon rind
salt to taste

fresh cream  - optional

Method:

1) Heat up a wok, place butter, saute garlic and onions over medium until fragrant about 5 minutes.
add in potatao cook for 2 minutes.

2)  Pour stock into (1) cook over  medium heat for 10 minutes until potato is cooked.

3)  Then add in milk, 1/2 portion of spinach and lemon rind and cook for 10 minutes over low heat.

4)  Transfer to a blender, add in the remaining spinach and blend till fine.

5)  Transfer blended soup to a clean pot, and reheat over medium heat until it boils. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup (2) - 南瓜浓汤

Recipe:

Ingredients: 

1 potato

800 g orange-fleshed pumpkin  (without skin)

100 g large onion, peeled and cut

50 g celery, peeled and cut

150 g carrot , peeled and cut

2 pip garlic

30 g soft butter

1000 ml chicken stock or more, adjust to your liking and preference

Seasoning:

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

salt to taste

Garnishing:

100 ml fresh cream

Mixed herbs (optional)

Method:

1)  Peeled pumpkin, discard seeds and cut into pieces.  

2)  Melt butter in a large, deep pan over low heat. When hot, saute onion,  garlic until fragrant.  Add pumpkin, celery, carrot, potato cook for 5 to 10 minutes, then add stock.  Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat until vegetables are soft.

3)  When soup is done, let it cool  slightly, then transfer to a blender in 2 batches and blend until smooth and fine.

4)  Transfer blended soup to a clean pot and reheat over medium-low heat until  hot (keep stirring while cooking).  Add salt and pepper to taste.

5)  Add fresh cream and mixed herbs, serve.

ENJOY

Healthy Beancurd Balls soup

mushroom seasoning powder

If  you are on healthy diet programme, you can consider this recipe .

Recipe:


Ingredients:
~ 1 piece of beancurd (doufu) 300 g
~ 100g minced pork
~ 1/2 tsp mushroom seasoning powder
~ 30g green bean noodle or bean vermicelli (dongfen)

green bean noodle (dongfen)

~ some vegetable
~ 6 cups of stock
~ 1 tsp salt
~ 1 tsp sugar
~ 1 tablespoon corn flour
~  pepper to taste


Method::
1) Wrap beancurd into a piece of cloth, then squeeze out the water.
2) Soak green bean noodle (dongfen) in water until soft, drain and leave aside.  Wash vegetable and leave aside.
3)  Combine beancurd and minced pork into a bowl, add in sugar, salt, mushroom seasoning powder and corn flour, mix and stir at one direction till the mixture is firmed enough to shape into balls.
4) Bring stock to boil, over medium heat, add in beancurd balls till cooked.
5)  Add in green bean noodle (dongfen) and vegetable and cook for few minutes, remove from heat. Serve.

Radish Beef Soup 白萝卜牛筋汤

If you are planning to go Ipoh, I will recommend this place for a MUST-TRY famous dish at 文冬口@ 73,75 Jln Theatre (opposite junction with Jln Jubilee). Their signature dish is their white radish soup with beef. the taste is simply fantastic - you cannot find similar in Singapore.

Today I suddenly missed the taste so decided to try cooking by myself. See below for the result of a broth, only need 1 hour to prepare.

RECIPE:
Ingredients:
1 large radish (cut into portions the size u like)
800g beef brisket
50g ginger lightly mashed
1 pinch of crushed white pepper

Method:
1) Cook 2800ml of water, radish and beef tenderloin in pressure cooker. Cook for 40 mins. (Alternative: cook in slow cooker until meat is tender)

2) Add salt, pepper, light soya sauce to taste.

3) Serve hot with chinese parsley and spring onion.
_________
Very simple to cook but deliciously tasty.

CREAM OF PUMPKIN SOUP

I have had this recipe for some time and now I have finally decided to test it out. It turned out to be fabulous! Although it was desceptively viscous, it was very smooth and fine and surprisingly easy to flow down the gullet (ask any bio student). There was hardly any hint of the taste from the pumpkin and yet it just tasted so wonderful! Even non-pumpkin lover would enjoy this dish! Garnished with italian herbs, the result was a succulent piece of work! If I had added some seafood such as crabmeat or scallops, i'm sure this would be worthy of the jade emperor! Serve this soup hot for maximum enjoyment! The recipe was taken from CAROUSEL, which is an award-winning restaurant situated in Royal Plaza on Scotts.

Recipe

Makes 4 servings

Ingredents:

450g pumpkin

50 g onions (peeled and diced)

25 g carrots (peeled and diced)

25 g Leeks (diced)

10 g garlic

30 g butter (soft)

650 ml chicken stock

40 ml fresh cream

10 ml olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Wash, trim and deseed pumpin. Cut pumpkin flesh finely and set aside.

2. Saute onions, carrots, leeks and garlic in a stock pot with a little olive oil, then add the pumpkin. Cook for another 5 minutes till flavours are well incorporated.

3. Add in the chicken stock and cook till pumpkin is soft.

4. Next, blend the ingredients in a food processor to puree. Pour the puree mixture back into the stock pot, add the chicken stock and cook over fire.

5. Add fresh cream and season with salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in the butter.

6. Serve hot.