Wantan Soup

Little girl and me love wantan very much, however, little girl is a weird one, she adores the skin but not the meat filling (o_O)!!!  Haha...

Since it is exam week coming next 2 weeks, we are not heading back to Sban and that means I get my chance to play around with new recipes.  Few days ago, little girl reminded me that we have not eaten home made wantan for a long time, thus I decided to take on the challenge on making the wantan skin from scratch!

I adapted the recipe from Sophia - a lady who married to Austria.  I like most of her recipes and enjoy reading her day to day life in Austria very much.  I altered the recipe to a smaller portion as we are small eaters here :)

Ingredients
200g all purpose flour
80g warm water
1/4 tsp salt

1. Mix flour and salt together, pour in water, give it a rough stir, let it rest for 10 minutes
2. Start kneading the dough til the dough turn smooth and soft
3. Cover with a wet cloth, let it rest for 20 minutes

Then u may start roll the dough thin and flat, cut into desire size and wrap in the meat fillings.

I was too hungry to snap a pic b4 gobbled up, this was taken half way during our dinner, stole the bowl from little girl :p

Little girl sat beside me while I was rolling & cutting the wantan skin, reading her text book, then joined me wrapping in the filling, that explained the different shapes of wantan you see in the pic :)

We enjoyed this wantan soup very much, the skin was smooth & slippery, the only down part is it was a bit thick cos I don have a machine to help me rolling it extremely thin.

Asam Fish Soup

Do u know the famous asam laksa stall selling in SS2 and SS3 night markets?  Hop over to masak-masak, it has a post regarding the stall.  Ok, correction, should be 'use to be famous' stall :p  Those day, if u wanna packed a bag of the asam laksa, u need to take the number token hanging at the truck and waited long for ur lucky number to be called.  I usually went there very early to 'tapau', in order to get rid of the crowd.  However, 1 or 2 yrs ago, the uncle had passed his business to a young chap, the taste of the asam laksa turned disappointing and now there r no longer big crowd surrounding the truck.  And since then, I seldom buy asam laksa from the night market anymore.

Last Thu, saw Ohbin posted a 'Asam Fish Soup' recipe, the ingredients and method are so simple that I decided to try.

Ingredients
1 bunch laksa mint (daun kesum)
4 kembong (I managed to get those cooked salted kembong only)
3 mackerel tails
0.8 - 1 liter water
20 shallots
8 dried chili, soaked and cut half
5 bird eye chili (used a red chili, cut)
3 pieces tamarind slice (asam gelugor) (added more for the sourness)
1 tsp belacan (shrimp paste), fry/grill til fragrant (I used about 1 tbsp)
2 tsp fish sauce (use only 1 tsp as the kembong was oledi salty and put too much belacan)
pinch of salt (skipped the salt)
1/2 ginger bud (pink bunga kantan), diced (didn't put this in as I couldn't find it)

1. Boil water, add in laksa mint, shallots, dried chili and chili, simmer for 30 minutes
2. Put in tamarind slices and belacan, boil for 10 minutes
3. Add in fish sauce, kembong and mackerel, boil til fish cook 
4. put in salt and sprinkle in ginger bud, serve while hot

Taste wise, nothing close to the uncle's but good as a beginner's.  Hubby said it was not spicy enough, but I found it ok, just lack of something, think by adding diced ginger bud and some 'har koh' may enhance the taste more.

Packed 2 kembong and a mackerel tail to dad & mum, will see what is their comment on the dish :p

Russian Borscht Soup 羅宋湯

I 1st heard of this soup from a HK friend Queenie during our university years at USQ, as a person who loves soup, I adore it immediately after the 1st spoonful into my mouth. Years later, there are more and more HK style restaurants mushrooming around SS2, I got to savor it whenever ordering their sets. However, when little girl comes along, I usually share the set with her, and most of the time she demanded the cream soup.

On Sunday, last day of the holiday, just staying at home and lazy to make heavy lunch, I recalled seeing this recipe at Carol's blog, decided to give it a try since I have most of the ingredients on hand.

Here is my version of the soup:

Ingredients

1 boneless whole chicken drumstick, diced

2 small onions, diced

2 small potatoes, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

1 carrot, diced

1/4 cauliflower, diced

Seasonings

4-5 bay leaves

2 tbsp ketchup

pinch of salt and pepper

1. Cut onions, potatoes, tomatoes, carrot and cauliflower into bite size
2. Cut chicken to small chunks
3. Heat pan, cook chicken with medium heat til pale (for about 3 minutes)
4. Boil a pot of water, pour cooked chicken into the boiling water, keep boiling for a minute or 2
5. Skim off any froth on surface of soup
6. Lightly fried all vegetables in the pan for 2 to 3 minutes
7. Pour the cooked vegetables into soup, add in seasoning ingredients, flavor to taste
8. Cover the lid, let it simmer for 40 - 60 minutes or til the vegetables turn soft

Ok, original recipe calls for beef, but I have chicken only, with no other choice, decided to continue the cooking.

Verdict: I love every single drops of the soup, had it for lunch and dinner yesterday, then lunch again this afternoon with rice, yum!

LG: Mummy! This is not ABC soup (Malaysian version of potato soup)

Me: Yeah, this is the English version ABC soup (should be Russian)

LG: ??? * showing a blur face *

Creamy Tofu & Squids Soup

Hubby went out dinner with friends, decided to cook something simple for dinner. Little girl requested the noodle she ate for her bento this afternoon again, thus decided to make this soup to go with it. I modified the recipe I saw from Yum Yum (61) magazine.

Ingredient

200g squids, washed, cut and drained well

1 box soft tofu, cut into shreds

300 ml water

1 egg, mix well

Seasoning

1 chicken stock cube (I used those without msg)

1 tbsp light soy sauce

4 tbsp starch water

dash of pepper

black vinegar for serving

spring onions for garnishing

Method:

1. Boil water in pot, blanch squids til cook, spoon squids out, drain well
2. Add in tofu and seasoning, bring to boil
3. Thicken soup with starch water and stir in egg
4. Dish up, add in cooked squids, pepper, black vinegar and spring onions, serve.

Simple, fast and delicious soup.

Watermelon Skins, Peas & Chicken Soup

Mum gave me half of a yellow watermelon on Tue, hubby helped me skinned the watermelon & kept those skins in the fridge reserved for boiling the leong soi next day.

I planned on boiling this pea soup on Wed, but since I bought very few of it, I decided to mix in those watermelon skins. Does anyone have any idea what is the name of this peas? They r in this pink color pod, I think this peas r used only for boiling soup and I heard they r good for eyes.

The watermelon skins tasted a bit like winter melon, I lied to little girl that this is the winter melon soup, but she said it tasted very different, ;p think was due to the lack of salted radish.

The soup is very 'ching' (清) or clear.

It tasted best a day later.

Chinese Yam & Barley Soup

Little girl don like barley water, but if I throw in barley into rice to cook into porridge or rice, she wouldn't reject at all, in fact she demand to have barley in rice every time. I thot this way should be another good way too to make her drink barley water, since she loves soup.

Ingredients

1 stick fresh Chinese yam, cut into bite size

1 handful barley

3 pieces chicken meat (for boiling soup)

1.5 liter hot water

1 honey date

salt to taste

1. Boil a pot of water, put in washed chicken meat, boil for 5 - 10 minutes, drained
2. Put meat and honey date into a deep pot, pour in hot water, bring to a boil, then simmer for half an hour
3. Place in Chinese yam and barley, simmer for another 1 hour. Put in some salt, ready.

I like the soup, having natural sweetness from the ingredients. Little girl dislike it at the beginning, however, after a few spoons, she had no trouble finishing her bowl of soup (except the barley & yam).

This post show the wonderful of Chinese Yam, but in Chinese, and here from Wikipedia, of course, in English. Also, from here (English) and here (Chinese) r regarding barley.

P/s When peeling the skin of Chinese yam, remember to handle it fast & careful, as it is very slippery with its mucus, it may slip out from ur hand, also, the mucus may cause itchiness, my hands were so itchy after peeling & cutting of the yam (very very itchy, trust me, u won't like this experience), next time must use glove when cooking it.

Salted Radish (aka Cai Po 菜脯) & Chicken Claws Soup

I remembered mum used to boil this soup very long time ago, tried out myself on Wed, the salted radish gave a natural sweetness & saltiness to the soup, I don have to add in any salt or sugar at all, yum!

Ingredients

200g   salted radish (cai po in Hokkien)

1          carrot

10        chicken claws

1/3       old chicken hen (for boiling soup)

2          honey date (蜜棗)

2 litre   water

1. Clean chicken claws and chicken meat, boil a pot of hot water, boil chicken and claws in hot water for 2 to 3 minutes to wash off the blood
   
2. Place chicken, claws and honey dates into soup pot, pour in 2 litre of hot water, bring to boil, then simmer
3. Cut salted radish and carrot into bite size
4. Place salted radish and carrot into soup, continue simmer for 2 hours

My bowl of soup and the claws, yummy!

Mash from ABC Soup

This was very popular in my house during our childhood, we - my younger sis, bro and me used to mash up the ingredients in ABC soup (usually consist of potatoes, carrots, onion, and tomatoes), stirred in a dash of soy sauce and bit of the soup and we'd eat bowls after bowls of this mashes.

I cooked ABC soup for little girl today as per her request, since I was not free to make her another surprise snack after her pre-school, I just filled up the container with some ABC soup, like below:

just the ingredients from soup without the liquid...

... mashed up coarsely with a fork, added a dash of soy sauce, pinch of pepper and bit of soup, done.

When little girl was in the car after school:

LG:  What is my surprise, mummy?

Me:  Remember I told u what I will cook for u this morning?

LG:  No...

Me:  Neh... ur favorite soup ah.

LG:  Ooh!  ABC soup!

She quickly opened up the container, and scooping non-stop to her little mouth, with her satisfying little voice: "Hmm... my favorite soup...."

Kinpira Gobo and Tomato with Egg Soup

Tried out this kinpira gobo recipe which is a Japanese version of braised burdock root.  Yummy!  I like the crunchiness and taste of burdock root but don think hubby and little girl like it.

Just afraid little girl wouldn't wanna touch the burdock root, I cooked her this tomato with egg soup, so that she don have to eat plain rice only.  I added some flower shaped carrots and sliced baby corns to attract her more.

LG:  Mummy, what r we having for dinner?

Me:  I cooked tomato and egg soup.

LG:  Anymore?

Me:  White rice!

LG:  Yeah!  I wanna eat it with furakake!

And there she go, dug out her Hello Kitty furakake to go with her rice.

Hot and Sour Soup 酸辣湯

I got the recipe from Sin Chew Daily (星洲日報) a few months ago.  The recipe:

Ingredients:

6 mushrooms, shredded (substituted with hijiki)

1/2 carrot, julienned

1/2 box tofu, shredded

200g pork, shredded (substituted with steamed shredded chicken)

1 packet preserved mustard (榨菜)

Corn starch, mixed with water

(1 egg, I added before scooping to bowl)

Seasoning:

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

soya sauce to taste

Cooking method:

1. Boil a pot of water, put in preserved mustard, simmer for a while

2. Gradually put in pork (i put in chicken last in my case as it was precooked), tofu, mushroom (hijiki in my case) and carrot

3. Stir in seasoning, then follow with corn starch water to thicken the soup

4. Scoop soup to bowl, put in bit of black vinegar, sesame oil and chili oil, served

This was my bowl of hot and sour soup, with spring onion?  No no, look closer, they r chili padi cos I don have chili oil at home :)

This was little girl's, with 4 pieces of Hello Kitty fish cake I bought at Jusco Midvalley this afternoon. Little girl said the hijiki looked like tadpoles, she was happy fishing the "tadpoles" from the soup!

Talking of soup, I'd a silly encounter with little girl, it happened last friday after her pre-school while driving to mum's place  She was savoring her left-over piece of pizza ....

LG:  We had red strawberry soap at school today, mummy!

Me:  Ooh!  Is it nice?  Did u eat it?

LG:  Mummy, it is strawberry soap, soap ah!

Me:  Ok, ok!  Did u drink the soup?

LG:  No, I didn't, mummy, it is strawberry soap!  * showing a funny look *

Me:  Why?  Why don u try the soup?

LG:  Mummy, it is strawberry soap!  * rubbing her hands *

Me:  * Slapped forehead *  Sorry, sorry!  What a silly mummy!

So, it's the red strawberry soap for washing hands!

ABC soup

Ok, this ABC soup is not those soup with alphabet pasta, it is potato and carrot soup.  I think it is widely known as ABC soup in S'pore and M'sia.  Of course everybody know how to cook this kids-friendly soup, what I would like to share today is cook with lots of onions and omit the meat or bone.  I heard from an uncle that it may help to prevent or cure cold.

Well, we'd a terrible cold over the weekend, luckily little girl recover fast with the help of medicines I'd always standby in the cabinet.  However, me and hubby were so sick that we'd to visit doctor. After taking medicines for 2 days, it is slightly better, but the sore-throat turned to bad coughing! Hubby and I didn't have appetite to eat, thus I decided to make this soup.  

The ingredients was 6 potatoes, 6 onions, a carrot and 3 tomatoes, peeled the skins off, cut them into big chunks and here was how I cooked the soup:

1. Boiled water in a pot, put in onions, let it boiled for 5 minutes

2. Threw in everything except tomatoes, turned fire to low and let it boiled for 15 min

3. Put in tomatoes, boiled for another 15 min

4. Add in pepper and salt to taste and done!

Yes, fast and simple.  This soup is clear and has it own natural sweetness from all the root vegetables and a hint of sourness from the tomatoes.

Believe it or not, after taking a bowl of the soup, I was sweated all over, and gave a few loud burps.  As for little girl, she dislike onion but she likes this soup, she even told me this: 

LG: I ate onion, mummy!

M: Good, do u like it?

LG: Yeah, but I want onion for this only ah, not other dish, ok?

M: Ok.

Isn't she sweet?

I found this information on goodness of onions thru the web.  It mentioned under the title of "Anti-Inflammatory and anti-bacterial activity" that it helps to prevent colds and flu and is beneficial to asthmatics.  It also mentioned that onion soups are good during cold seasons and when you are threatened with flu.