Not tea but Bak Ku (肉 骨) soup

Got this clay pot for half the price at one of the closing down sale.















Ingredients
1 big clove of garlic
300g of soft bone pork (you can use any cut of pork like spare ribs)
8 cloves of dried mushroom soaked until soft
1 packet of sweet young corn
1 packet of straw mushroom
Asparagus cut into short strips
Soya sauce to taste
Water-enough to cover the meat


Methods
1. Add 3 bowl of water and clove of garlic in clay pot at low heat.
2. Boil water in another pot. Put in pork once water is boiled. Let it boil for 3 minutes.
3. Pour water in pot and soak pork in cold water for a short while and pour water away.
4. Transfer pork together with mushroom to clay pot and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Add young corn, asparagus and straw mushroom and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Add soya sauce to taste. Serve hot with rice.

This is a great dish for those who don't like the herb taste of Bak Ku Teh (肉 骨茶). The broth is light and has the sweetness of the vegetables and meat.

Chicken and pork soup

I gave up since I tried to take the photo for the nth times and just could not get a clear picture. However, the soup was super duper delicious which kinda made up for my lousy photography skills.


Ingredients

200g of pork fillet
200g of chicken fillet
3 stalk of celery cut into about the same size
1 piece of carrot slice skin and cut into about the same size
4 spoons of Mirin
3 spoons of soya sauce
1 egg beaten
add water to 1/4 teaspoon of corn starch to made a diluted paste

Methods
1) Bring water to boil and put pork and chicken fillet in and boil for 2 minutes.
2) Pour away water and run pork and chicken fillet under the tap briefly.
3) Bring water to boil and put back the pork and chicken fillet.
4) Add carrot and celery and continue to boil at small heat for 30 minutes.
5) Add mirin and soya sauce and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Taste the soup and add mirin or soya sauce to your taste.
6) Take out the pork and chicken and put into bite size. Return both to the pot.
7) Add corn starch solution into soup and continue to boil for another 2 minutes.
8) Turn off the heat. Gently pour in the beaten egg and stir to create a swirl of egg flower. Serve hot.

Crab and Mussels Soup

I have been wanting to try cooking flower crab for a long time. Then, when I went shopping in the supermarket and came across this rather large flower crabs. Plus also I have a recipe that I can try out. As usual, I have change the recipe a bit to suit our taste.

Ingredients (Serve 2)
1 flower crab cleaned and chopped into 2
2 hairy gourd (节瓜）peel and cut into smaller pieces
handful of dry prawn
6 Mussels
1 garlic flatten and chopped
2 spoons of shaoxing wine
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking oil
2 bowls of water

Method
1) Heat the cooking oil and sauteed the garlic and dry prawns until fragrant.
2) Add in hairy gourd and stir fry until soften.
3) Pour in water and bring to boil for 5 minutes.
4) Add crabs and mussels into soup and boil for further 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5) Add shaoxing wine and remove from heat. Serve hot.















This photo was taken by using the colour accent function. I did not know camera has this function too until K try it. Nice?

Nothing bit a hearty soup that warm the stomach

It's seem like the raining season has finally arrived. Gone were those hazy days.Yes... clear sky once more.

What to eat in this kind of weather?

We only have this dish during special occasion and I kind of miss it, so here goes. Chicken cooked in Chinese wine soup. My recipe is slightly different from my mum. I used sake and mirin instead of Chinese wine cause I ran out of it.

Ingredients
1/2 chicken
4 knob of ginger (If you don't like the taste too strong, then 2 should be OK.)
some dried mushroom soaked in water
some "wan yee" and "mok yee" (Black fungus)
4 spoons of sake
4 spoons of mirin (this will give you some sweetness to the soup)
water
Salt to taste

Method
1) Boil water in a pot and put in chicken.
2) Boil for 3 minutes then drain the hot water and set aside the chicken.
3) Bring to boil 4 bowl of water, ginger, sake and mirin.
4) Add the chicken into the pot and boil for 20 min in slow heat.
5) Add mushroom, "wan yee", "mok yee" and boil for another 10 minutes.
6) Add salt to taste.
7) You can add more sake or mirin if you like your soup to have that extra kick or a bit more sweetness. Leave it to boil for another 5 minutes.
8) Serve hot with rice.

This is my first time trying the soup and it came out delicious and the aroma of the wine is heaven. Do try it.