Xian torn bread with lamb soup ????

Yang Rou Pao Mo ????


The weather has suddenly turned cooler. I was craving for something filling and warm. I bought a piece of lamb shoulder last week, time to make some yang rou pao mo. I can eat some and store the rest in the freezer for later.

Yang Rou Pao Mo ???? is a famous xiao chi ?? (small eat or snack) from Xian, warm and comforting. Yang Rou ?? is lamb, Pao ? is soak and Mo ? is a

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CNY Day Seven Auspicious food (?? ???)

Most Chinese are very superstitious, I know we are a weird bunch, many of the things we do and eat around CNY can all relate to some meanings, mostly something to bring auspicious lucks. Any thing bad is usually avoided or not permitted like no sweeping around the house during the first few days of CNY, this will sweep away any lucks!. Bad luck food is stir fried squid ?? because another meaning

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ABC Soup (ABC ?)

This post is for u, Ai Yieng..

This can be said as the unofficial favourite soup of the Malaysian Chinese. It's like, people who won't or can't cook will at least know how to do this soup, cos they love it so much.

It's not Alphabet soup, it's like chicken broth... except with no celery, and it can be done with either pork bones/ribs or chicken.

Very easy

Ingredients

300gm pork ribs/bones or chicken breast with bones on

1 cup potato cubes (use boiling potatoes, never use Russet!!)

1 carrot, cut slanting

2 medium sized tomatoes, quartered

1 large red onion, or 2 med red onion, quartered

10 white peppercorns, smashed

2L water

1/2 tsp salt, or more

Method
1. Scald pork. If using chicken, leave it raw.

2. Boil water, put in pork/chicken, all the vegetables and peppercorns.

3. Simmer on med low heat for 2 hours. Turn off the heat and add salt in last.

**

This soup is very flavourful, therefore not much salt is needed. Do not add in salt too early, if not the potatoes will soak up the salt, and they will end up salty, and the soup tasting bland.

Don't cook this soup with a slow cooker, it's not tasty!!!

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Hyacinth Bean Soup

23/1/2017 : Correction:
The bean featured in this recipe was previously named wrongly as Lima bean. The actual name is Hyacinth Bean

I haven't been cooking much since June... most of the postings nowadays are back posts of what I've done in the previous weeks. Well, when one has a bun in the oven, there are always excuses that can be made at every corner, anytime, to be lazy.. kekekekeke...

Lima is five in Malay language.. This is not a Five Bean Soup..

In Cantonese it's called "pang mei dau". I think it's called lima bean, as that is the closest that I can get from the internet. It is a bean about 3-4 inches long, pale green colour with a matte surface in the shape of an eyebrow.

This is my grandaunt's favourite soup and she'll eat a lot of the beans because she believes this bean enhances our eyesight, and with that she claims the reason for her being able to thread a needle at 90.

1 1/2 cup lima beans (correction : Hyacinth Beans)

300gm pork ribs or just meat (scalded)

10 peppercorns

1.5L boiling water.

Salt to taste

Trim the beans by discarding the top bits and pull away the top ligament.

Boil water, put in everything to simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

the Lima Bean.. I think

The beans are out of the pod after being boiled...

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Watercress Soup ????

The Chinese boils watercress for soup or for a cooling drink (liang cha). While Westerners use raw watercress for salads and sandwiches.

Watercress in Malaysia is not suitable for use in salads or eaten raw. Because...... they are grown in water that is fertilized by sacks of chicken droppings soaked in the ponds they are grown in. This way... I don't think one will eat raw veg bathed in chicken s**t water.. hehehehe.. lots of bacteria, and they may have a few slugs stuck between the petioles..
But hey.. without those precious stuff from the chickens, u won't get those fat juicy watercress from Camerons..

Watercress Soup recipe
300gm soup bones or ribs
250 gm watercress
6 red dates, pitted
10 white peppercorns, crushed
1 tsp salt
1.5L water

1. Trim leaves and tip off the main stem of the water cress. Keep them seperately.
2. Scald soup bones or ribs.
3. Boil 1.5L water and put in the stems, bones, red dates and peppercorn and simmer on med low heat.
4. After and hour and a half of simmering, remove stems and put in the leaves and tips of watercress.
5. Simmer for another 30-45 minutes and season with salt.


***
Usually my grandaunt will throw the stems away after simmering, saying that they are tough to be chewed. But if I'm around, she'll leave them for me to eat.

I usually see other people cutting the water cress into 2 inches length and putting the whole watercress stems in to boil together with the leaves... hehehe.. but not the way my grandaunt taught me.. she just retained the leaves and tips to be put in at a later stage .

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Chinese Chives Soup ???

Chinese Chives (gow choy) sounds the same as nine veg.. and many people refrain from eating this after having measles or chicken pox because, they believe they�ll get 9 times of that disease if they consume this 9 veg.

When I was a kid, I hated Chinese Chives� the smell was urgh!!!!!

Then grandaunt made this soup.. that was when it changed my opinion about this member of the onion family. It became my next favourite veg.

From a smelly green thingy.. it became the sweetest veg to my tastebuds�

A very easy soup to make

Chinese Chives Soup
� cup dried anchovies, wash and drained
1 Tbsp oil
1L water
Salt to taste

10 fishballs
100gm Chinese chives cut into 3cm lengths)
1 egg , beaten

Heat a pot and put in oil. Stir fry anchovies until fragrant and pour in water. Let boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove anchovies and season with salt.

Put in fish balls and wait for them to float.
Put in Chinese chives and wait for soup to boil.
Drizzle in beaten egg while stirring continuously with a ladle.
Turn off the heat and serve.

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Cranberry Bean Soup

Cranberry Beans with Pork Soup

200 gm podded cranberry beans (300gm before they were podded)
300 gm pork (I used pork leg muscles, they looked pretty when I saw them at Tesco)
Half a medium sized dried cuttlefish ( washed & cut into smaller pieces)
1.5L boiling water
5 white peppercorns (smashed)
1 tsp salt

Just bring everything to a boil and simmer for 2-3 hours, and season with salt.




Cranberry beans in pods and podded

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Corn and Carrot Soup ??????

Corn and Carrot Soup Recipe

2 ears of corn, cut into 4 chunks
1 medium sized carrot, cut into slanting chunks
300 gm pork ribs (scalded)
1.5L boiling water
10 white peppercorns (smashed)
� tsp salt

Just bring everything to a boil and simmer for 2-3 hours, and season with salt.

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Chicken with Red Dates Soup ????

I have a grandaunt who lived til she was 96. She was the eldest sister of my paternal grandmother. My father and I were babysat by her, so were my father's siblings and my siblings. So, she was very much involved in our lives.

She cooked our daily meals until.. she was.... 90. Well, she was a healthy woman until that great power disruption of 1997. Imagine her running after us with a cane when she was 85. She could cross a busy road while on the way to church for Mother's day or Easter celebrations. Taking awards for being the oldest person in church for many many years.. **she was born on the same year Kampar Chinese Methodist Church was established, 1903.

She was a disciplinarian, taking over the role from my grandma who was busy making ends meet for the whole family. Everybody will turn up for her big birthday, her own grandchildren (lesser) and us her niece, nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews making up the majority. Her passing away brought much sorrow to our family... most of all to my small ku cheh.. hehehe.

Memories of her remain.. We miss her cooking a lot. She could cook many dishes that none of us could ever recreate.

This soup is one of it. My favourite soup from grandaunt.

Chicken and Red Dates Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 400gm chicken (abt 1 quarter bird)
• 15pcs red dates
• 1.5L water
• 1/2 tsp salt.

Method.

1. Boil water.
2. Remove skin from chicken.
3. Hit red dates with the side of a cleaver and remove seeds.
4. Place chicken and red dates into boiling water and simmer for 3 hours.
5. When ready, season with salt. Pepper is not necessary.

**

I made this with a slow cooker, 4 hours on high. Heating up slow cooker, put in chicken and pitted red dates, then pour in boiling water.

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Chicken and Oyster Mushroom Soup ????

This soup was created way back in 2001, when I was still staying with my buddies after graduation.

I never liked Chicken Rice Wine Soup, I like it before the wine is added, but not after the wine. So, my grandaunt will always ladle out one bowl for me before she adds the wine. That was when I was a child.

Many many years later, I wanted to do 'that pre wine chicken soup', and there were these mushrooms in the fridge almost going to go rotten if I don't cook it soon. So, in they went into the soup... and it made it even more delicious. The grey oyster mushrooms added an extra touch of sweetness to the soup..and it thickens the soup a bit.. lovely addition..

This soup has lots of ginger in it, and my hubby is no fan of ginger... yet, he says it is good! Best taken on a cold rainy day...

Chicken and Oyster Mushroom Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1 chicken whole leg or 2 thighs (cut small)

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup of ginger (roughly 6 inches), smashed with the back of a cleaver. (If u like to eat ginger, by all means, slice it or julienne it)

2 tbsp oil

4 cups water

200 gm grey oyster mushroom (torn to smaller pieces)

Method:

1. Marinate chicken pieces with salt for 15 minutes.

2. Heat wok, fry ginger with oil until slightly golden.

3. Put in marinated chicken and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.

4. At this point, if you want to discard some oil, you may do so.

5. Pour in water and bring to a boil. Simmer chicken soup on medium heat for 10 minutes.

6. Add in oyster mushrooms and simmer for another 3 minutes.

7. Taste and place onto a bowl.

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Amaranth Soup with Century Eggs ?????

What is amaranth? Some Malaysians may not know.

What is bayam? We know.

Bayam is edible Amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor, A. gangeticus, A. oleraceus, A. mangostanus ) lor! Hmmm..some may call it spinach, but spinach is Spinacia oleracea. Well, some call bayam as Chinese Spinach, but in Wikipedia, Chinese Spinach can also be Kangkung(Ipomoea aquatica) and Malabar Spinach or as Malaysian call it as Emperor's Shoots (Basella alba)

For those that can understand cantonese, what do u think is spinach then.....? In Cantonese Spinacia oleracea is Por Choy, and edible amaranth is Yeen Choy, Kangkung is Ong Choy and not forgetting Malabar Spinach is Charn Choy or Tai Wong Choy too.

For those that cannot understand cantonese, just a look at the scientific name and make ur verdict.

Ok, enough said about spinach. This page is about edible Amaranth.

So, here's a picture of my soup



It does look a bit murky, due to the century eggs. My hubby loves this soup.

Amaranth Soup with Century Eggs Recipe

Ingredients:
A bunch of Amaranth (about 150-200 gm before trimming)
A handful, abt half cup of cleaned anchovies (bilis, I used Terengganu large anchovies, really yummy)
1 tbsp oil
1 century egg (cut into 8 pcs)
3 cups water (water will be reduced when simmering bilis)
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Heat a saucepan, put in oil and saute the anchovies for a while and put in water. Boil, cover and turn low heat simmer for at least 15 minutes.
2. Take out the boiled anchovies. (U can retain them if u want, but they're rather tasteless already)
3. Put in trimmed Amaranth and boil for a minute or 2 depending on size of plant, baby bayam will need less time. Add salt and taste.
4. Put in century egg and boil for another minute. (this makes it murky, but it taste better)
5. Place soup in a bowl and serve.

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