Sweet Corn Soup

I think this soup is kind of originated from Chinese takeaway in UK. I hardly remembered having this soup back home except in MOS burger outlets. It is actually quite simple to prepare and nice as well.

Sweet Corn Soup
Ingredients (served 2)

• 500ml chicken stock
• 1/2 chicken breast meat - diced to small cube
• 300 gm sweet corn kernel from can
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 1 tbsp corn starch added with 2 tbsp water
• white pepper
• 1/2 tsp of sugar
• 1 tbsp soya sauce or salt to taste
  
• spring onion for garnishing (optional)

1. Bring to boil the chicken stock, add in sweet corn kernel and chicken meat.
2. Once chicken meat is cook, quickly add in the sugar, soya sauce, sesame oil and mix well.
3. Then add the corn starch mix and stir. At this point your soup should be a little thicken.
4. Add in the beaten egg and stir quickly till egg is cook. Off heat.
5. Put in a bowl and drizzle some white pepper with spring onion. Served hot.

Here's my Dutch Iris blooming in late April.....

Saturday in the field

Tell you a secret, I just acquired a classic English bike - Pashley Princess Sovereign. She's such a classic, handbuild in Straford upon Avon. Me and my cycling buddy who happen to have a brand new slick mountain bike Giant R8, we decided to test drive our little new machine. Off we go for 30miles cycle ride through villages around north Cambridgeshire. This time of the year, one couldn't fail to notice the yellow field as far as your eyes could see. Rape seed oil field. Perfect setting for lovely photos. It was indeed splendid.

Tonite I made Oyakodon. This is a Japanese rice with chicken, eggs and onion cooked in dashi stock. Simple, healthy and deliciously in a bowl.



Oyakodon
Ingredients (for 2 persons)

• 2 chicken breast meat dices in 1 inch cube
  
• 1 large onion sliced
  
• 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
  
• 1 cup Dashi stock
• 1.5-2 tbsp Kikkoman soya sauce
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp sake (optional)
• 2 bowls of steam Japanese rice

1. In a pan, add in Dashi stock, soya sauce, mirin and sugar. Bring to a boil. Add in onion and let it simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.
2. Top the chicken on the onion and let it simmer for 3minutes, turn the chicken over and cook for a furthe 2-3minutes till just cook.
3. Add in the beaten egg and simmer for further 2 minutes. Don't overcook the eggs, a bit runny will be really nice on the hot steamed rice.
   
4. Pour them on top the rice in a bowl. Sprinkle with Japanese chilli flakes.
   

Salted Eggs

I just had a long weekend break, 4 days in total over the Easter. Really nice once in awhile to have a short break. Good for the body and mind :-).
It's been awhile I last posted any recipes. Fear not, infact about 3 weeks ago I anticipated it'll be Easter soon, so I thought egg dish would serve well, of course not the chocolate Easter egg but rather Chinese salted egg[quote: we don't serve salted eggs for Easter].
Salted egg is so easy to prepare, the harder part is to source for duck eggs. I seldom see duck eggs on Tesco egg shelf but somehow there are finest duck eggs in front of my eyes. I remembered my mom used to collect lots of duck eggs laid by our free range ducks, enough to start a batch of salted eggs.

Chinese Salted Duck Eggs
Ingredients

• 6 large duck eggs
  
• 400-500gm salt
• 700ml water
• 1 glass container for 6 eggs

1. Boil the water in a pan, once boiling add in 400gm of the salt and stir. Add salt until the solution reached saturation point (meaning any salt added will not dissolved).
2. Turn off heat and cool the salt solution.
3. Once cooled, pour the salt solution into the glass container. Add in the eggs. Note that due to the saltiness, the eggs will tend to float. It's important to cover all the eggs in the salt solution. You can leave in a clean cloth on top to immerse the eggs into the solution. Close the glass container and leave it for up to 18-25days.
   
4. After that period, you can hard boil the eggs and served with rice porridge.

Tulips and Magonolia

Begining of April, spring bulbs blossom here and there, especially tulips, one of my favorites. There are many to choose from, be it colors, height, petal's shape and early or late flowering. They're so easy to grow, so far I have yet to have any failures in growing tulips :-), One has to grow them in the autumn to get spectacular display in spring, hence my favorite plant. The only drawback is that one need to lift the bulb after 3years as the flowering quality degrades over the year. But that gives me more reason to buy more new bulbs every year :-) . And tulips make good cut flowers. For tulips lover, one should visit Kuekenhof garden in Holland .
Some of you may go over to Japan to chase cherry blossom, but I'm content with what we've got over here....spectacular Magnolia blossom with sweet fragant. I managed to photograph some magnolia tree in blossom (not in my garden but my neighbor's). :-)
Enjoy the color again from my garden................. oops (some of you may wonder, food blog turning into gardening blog, fear not....I still have lots of recipes to share....just that spring is the busiest month for me in the garden.....always nice to hear neighbors commenting on how nice one garden is :-).

Dwarf white tulips with apricot stripes

Tulips Queen of Night (Apparently not as black as I hoped)

Dwarf Tulips yellow and red stripes-look like a crown

Tulip White Dream
Tulip Red Apeldoorn with Tulip white dream
Giant Tulip Red Apeldoorn
My favorite border of Red Apeldoorn

Spectacular Magnolia

Whole tree full of blossom

Close up shot of Magnolia

Picture almost perfect :-)

Vietnamese Spring Roll

Whenever I fancy Vietnamese meal, this is one of my favorite. It's none other than rice paper spring roll. This little gem is easy to prepare, no cooking required, fresh herbs from garden and generally a really healthy meal.



Vietnamese Spring Roll
Ingredients (for 8 rolls)

• 8 large cooked prawn-peeled and cut into halves
• 50gm of rice vermicelli
  
• 1 cup of julienned carrot
• bunch of fresh mint leaves-shredded with hand
• bunch of fresh corriander leaves-shredded with hand
• bunch of chives-chopped
  
• 4 lettuce leaves-used the soft green leaves-shredded with hand
• 16 pieces of 6 inch diameter rice paper

SAUCE

• 2 tbsp fish sauce (Nam Phla)
• juice from 1 lime
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 2 bird eye chillis chopped
• 2 tbsp of caster sugar
• 3 tbsp of water

1. In a bowl, place the dry vermecilli, pour in hot boiling water to cover it for 5-10 minutes until it softens. Drained and set aside.
   
2. Prepare the sauce. Add all the sauce ingredients and set aside.
3. Immerse one rice paper at a time in warm water till soft(takes less than 30secs). Lay two soften rice paper overlay half of each other on a flat plate.
4. On one end of the rice paper lay the lettuce, top it with carrot, rice vermicelli and chives. On the other end lay 4 pieces of prawn. Roll paper up halfway, fold in the sides and continue to roll till the end.
5. With a knife sliced the roll into half.
   
6. Served with sauce.

A real good healthy snack for hot days. :-)

Spring into BST

Today we tuned our clock an hour forward, better known as British Summer Time(BST). So much to look forward to, as daylight is getting longer, weather is getting warmer and yes my spring bulb flowers are starting to take shape and showing off their vibrant colors. I love fresh cut flowers for display in my home, beauty and fragant, will definitely lift up your mood. Again enjoy the spring colors.

White Hyanciths, her perfume is so sweet . I planted them in the fall

Blue Delft hyancinths, so sweet they are in their almost dark blue purplish color

My hyancinths border in front garden, they filled me with lovely fragant

The versatile daffodils

Different varieties of daffodil cut flowers from my garden

Blue muscari, yellow primrose and white ranunculus

Early single white tulips in bloom

I think this is Queen of Night Tulips


My favorite white Ranunculus, look so beautiful with layer of petals

Also known as Persian buttercup-Ranunculus

So beautiful, isn't it?

Grilled cherry tomatoes on vine

Don't underestimate these little gems. So pretty they are on their vine, perfectly ripe, supple to the touch and perfectly sweet to the taste. I also learnt that tomatoes that ripen on their vine tasted so sweet compared to those that were loosely picked. Last year during summer I planted 2 cherry tomato bushes in pots and they yielded heavy crops throughout my summer months that I swore to be off from consuming tomatoes for awhile. I also learnt that if uneven ripen tomatoes on the vine, one can remove them from the tree and place them with banana to quicken the ripening process. Banana has a ripening agent.

I always try to eat them raw, use them in sweet & sour dish and one of my favorite is to simply grill them with lots of olive oil and drizzle of sea salt. Simple and nice to go with pasta dish or use them in salad.

Grilled cherry tomatoes on vine
Ingredients

• 10-12 cherry tomatoes on vine
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp of sea salt
  

1. Wash the tomatoes, pat and dry them with paper towel.
2. Place them in bakng dish. Drizzle with olive oil and coat. Sprinkle the sea salt.
3. On the oven grill to 190C and grill for 10-12mins, till the tomatoes just break off from skin.
4. Served.

Tender pork rib with yam

This is my hometown dish, only served as one of the dishes during wedding and birthday banquet. Me and my sis normally will aim for the yam(taro) that was perfectly steamed and moist, absorbing the savory sauce during steaming. I like this dish because the sauce is very well absorbed into the meat . It requires about 2-2.5hours to steam to perfection, the meat on the rib is so tender and lovely. Even my mum will be so envy of me now. :-)

Tender pork rib with yam(taro)
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• 300 gm pork rib (chopped into 1.5inches long)
• 2 tbsp of shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp of soya sauce
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• a dash of pepper

marinate the pork rib with the above ingredients overnite.

Sauce

• 2 tbsp tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp Maggi chiili sauce/ sweet Thai chilli sauce
  
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tsp dark soya sauce
• 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
  
• 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
  
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

• 3 slices of spicy Szechuan preserved vegetable (soak in water for 10mins to remove the chilli paste and the saltiness)
  
• 1/2 big onion (diced)
• 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 red pepper
• 50 gm yam cut into wedges of 1cm thick
• 1 red chilli (use more if you prefer it to be more spicy)
  

• oil for frying
• some corn flour
  
• some sesame seed, corriander for garnishing (optional)
  

1. In a wok/fryer, fry the yam till lightly brown and drained. Coat the marinated pork rib pieces with a little of corn flour and fry them till lightly brown.
2. In a wok, pour in a tbsp of oil, once hot, add in onion, chilli and stir fry till fragant. Add in green, red pepper and Szechuan preserved vegetable and stir fry for 2mins. Then add in the fried pork rib and yam. Pour in the sauces and coat well. Add in 4 tbsp of water and continue to stir. Let it simmer for 3mins until the sauce thickens. Then scoop the dish into a porcelain bowl and cover it with a flat plate. Ensure that it's compacted.
   
3. Prepare a steamer. Place the bowl with flat plate into the steamer and let it steam for 2hours or until the meat is soft. You can use a fork to prick the meat, at this time the fork could easily prick into the meat without any effort.
4. Once done, removed from heat and turn the plate over and remove the bowl. Garnish with sesame seed/corriander . Serve with rice.

It's nice indeed. All the essence of the flavor(vegetable & sauces) blended and absorbed nicely into the meat. What an enjoyment.

Char Siew Soh (Chinese roast pork puff)

Been awhile since I bake, mainly because my cranky oven make a hell lot of noise when in fan mode (luckily my neighbor has yet to complaint) and secondly it requires a long time even to bake muffins. So I decided to dismantle it and clean thoroughly the fan. With a little effort and some elbow grease, I managed to get the oven working less noisy and at least there is oven heat to bake :-).

I'm making char siew puff, yes I've make them many times before but never got the chance to upload them, either the photos were not up to my standard or rather the puffs were all long gone before I've the opportunity to shoot them. You decide :-).

Char Siew Puff is really nice to go with a cup of Chinese tea, my friend tend to go it with English tea. Whichever way, it is char siew puff that matters.

Char Siew Soh ( Chinese Roast Pork Puff)
Ingredients (make about 16 puffs)

Char Siew(Roast Pork)

• 300 gm pork fillet/ pork belly (nice with some fats)
• 1 big onion-diced
• 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
  

Marinating ingredient

• 4 tbsp honey/ 3 tbsp sugar
  
• 2 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 2 tsp five spice powder
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp white pepper
  
• Natural red coloring (optional)

alternatively you can buy Lee Kum Kee Char Siew Sauce (use 3 tbsp sauce to marinate 300gm of pork)

Delicious Roast Pork just out from oven

Puff

• 350gm Just Roll Pastry Puff
• some sesame seed
• 1 egg yolk for brushing
  
  
  

1. Marinate the pork with char siew marinating ingredient and leave for at least 2hrs.
2. In a oven roast the pork at 180-190C for about 25-30mins, basting the pork with the marinating juice. You can switch to grilling for the last 5mins to get that charred look on pork.
3. Removed and cooled. Diced the pork into small pieces.
4. In a pan, heat 2 tbsp cooking oil, brown the onion until fragant, add in the roast pork and stir fry for 2-3mins. Add hoisin sauce, sugar, sesame seed and water and let it simmer for 4-5mins on low heat. It should be moist but not wet. Remove and let it cool.
5. For the puff, roll it into thickness of about 1.5mm. Cut into 2.5in x 3.5in rectangular. You should get about 16 pieces.
6. Lay the pastry, scoop a tbsp of char siew and roll, press both edge flat to form a pillow. Use a fork to imprint the fork mark onto both edges. Also make fork holes on the top side of the puff. This allow the inside ingredients to breath while cooking, else the puff will expand and breaks.
7. Continue for the rest. Lay them on a baking tray that has been layered with baking sheet or tin foil. Brush with egg yoke and sprinkled with some sesame seed.
8. Bake for 20mins on 190C, or till it turn golden brown.....look like a golden pillow :-) .

Heavenly Char Siew Soh as I called it Char Siew Puff .......

Melon sago

This is a refreshing dessert that one can easily associated with good dim sum restaurant. I remembered back then, one of my favorite Chinese restaurant is non other than Crystal Jade.
Having bought, buy one get one free canteloupe melon from Tesco, I thought why not prepare this easy desserts for lovely spring day...ideally this desserts is superb for summer.

Melon Sago
Ingredients (good for 4 persons)

• 1 canteloupe melon/ honeydew melon
• 120 gm sago soaked
• 1/2 cup coconut milk + 1 cup of water
  
• pinch of salt
  
• sugar syrup to taste (this depend on how sweet your melon is)

1. Half the melon and scoop out the seeds.
   
2. Use a melon scoop to scoop out the flesh and form into melon balls from half a melon.
   
3. The other half, remove flesh and liquidize in a food processor. Chilled.
4. In a pot pour in some water to boil. When it is boiling, pour in the sago and let it cook. Continue to stir until all the sago white beads turned transparent(this will take approximately 15-20mins) . Drained under running tap water.
   
5. Add melon ball, sago, coconut milk, salt, sugar syrup into the melon puree and mixed. For those healthy option you can opt out coconut milk, can be replaced with millk, still taste as good.
   
6. Served chill.

I also make sago ball coated with desicated coconut to go with my melon desserts since I have leftover sago, nostalgic, as my mom used to make this sago ball for us to bring to our primary school party.

Cod in Thai Sweet Chiili sauce with bed of rocket grapefruit salad

I'm keen on creating a fusion dish tonite. I always like fusion food where there are element of different taste blended nicely together, just like east meet west.So I'm bringing this superb, easy to make dish for you all to try out.

Cod in Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce with bed of rocket grapefruit salad
Ingredients (good for 2 pesons)

• 2 cod fillets ( about 180-200gm)
• some sea salt
  
• 3 tbsp of Thai sweet chilli sauce
• 2 tbsp water
  
• some olive oil to grease cast iron grill pan
  

Salad

• 2 bunchful of rocket leaves
• 1/4 grapefruit sacs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• a pinch of sea salt

1. Rub sea salt on the fish fillet. Then marinate the fillet with thai sweet chilli sauce for alf an hour.
2. While the fish is left to marinate, prepare the salad. Add the grapefruit, olive oil and salt to rocket leaves, mixed well (I use my hand to mix them). Leave aside.
3. Grease the grill pan with some olive oil and heat till hot. Then brown the skin side of cod fish till brown and slightly cisp(takes about 4-mins), then turn over and drill the other side for another 4 minutes. Don't overcook as meat will flake off. Just cook it jus nicely and it will be so tender and lovely.
4. Do not throw away the marinating chilli sauce. Add in 2 tbsp of water to the sauce and cook it in another sauce pan. Simmer and remove, add in corriander if you like.
   
5. In a plate lay a handful of the salad, lay the cooked cod fillet on top of the salad and drizzle some sauce over the fish.
   

The peppery rocket salad goes really well with grapefruit, the tenderness of fish goes well with the marinating sauce, and the whole combination is pleasing to one tastebud. Enjoy this lovely, healthy meal.......I bet you'll love it.

Spaghetti with chargrilled vegetables and tuna flakes

Lately my weekends were mainly spend on tidying up my garden for spring display. That explains my lack of activities and updates on my blog. Another good reason is , weather has been of spring theme even we're still officially in winter. But nevertheless, I enjoyed the earlier spring anyway :-) and fresh air outside.

I also tend to cook easy meal for lunch so that I can maximize the time spend on daylight outside :-). Here's an easy recipes and quite healthy.

Spaghetti with chargrilled vegetables sauce and tuna flakes
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• half a bag of dry spaghetti
• half a bottle Bertolli chargrilled vegetables sauce
• 1 small can of tuna flakes
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• a bunch of corriander finely chopped
  
• 1/2 lemon juice
• some black pepper
• some grated parmesan cheese
  
• 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• a dash of sea salt

1. Cook the spaghetti till al-dante (this takes about 11-15mins). Drained in colander. Put in a bowl and pour in the olive oil and sea salt and toss.
2. Meanwhile the spaghetti is cooking, pepare the sauce. In a little of olive oil, fry the garlic till fragant. Add in the tuna flakes and stir fry for about a minute or so. Then pour in the vegetable sauce and simmer for about 3-4minutes, add the lemon juice. Remove from heat and add in the chopped corriander. Stir and mixed well.
3. Put the cooked pasta on a plate and dressed with the sauce. Drizzle with black pepper and grated parmesan cheese.

Quick yet tasty meal and I'm off to my garden :-).

Here are some flower pictures from my garden which I took yesterday. Enjoy the vibrant color :-).
Light purple crocuses in full bloom

Christmas rose or Hellebores

Dark purple iris

Hue of purple crocuses basking in the sunlight

white crocusses, don't they look like little chicks coming out from their shells

White daffodils blooming in the pot