Fish Maw Soup

When we were growing up, only during CNY festive season (or on wedding dinners) that this dish was served. So whenever the aroma of this fishy delicacy is detected, it triggers my brain cells to kicked into an overdrive of celebration gear. As I wasn't quite in a festive mood even a week before the CNY, I felt I had to self induce some. So I cooked the fish miaw soup and that did the trick because that same day I began to bring out the CNY deco for the house :-D.

 

Fish maw is the gas bladder of a fish that helps it to change depth without swimming.
I have always bought them ready to cook. Usually they come in the dried form and you would have to deep fry them first before they can be added to a dish.
This batch of fish maw we bought this year was from Hong Kong and was processed a little differently. They were not deep fried in oil but deep fried in a wok of tiny rock salt pebbles, I was told.
I prefer this method becouse I have always had doubts about the freshness of the deep frying oil used commercially. Also, when the maws are deep fried in oil they have to be consumed within a short time or the oil would turn rancid and rendered the maw inedible.

Two fish maws when soaked yield about 2 cups.

All you need for the soup are:

1 kampong chicken, cut into small pieces
2 carrots, peeled and sliced or diced
10 red dates, washed and stoned (flatten them with the side of a chopper and the stones can be easily remove)
some dried mushrooms, soaked until soft
a bowl of soaked fish maw
2-3 L water

salt and pepper 

~Bring water to boil.
~Add the chicken and when the water begins to boil again, lower heat and simmer for 1/2 hour.
~Add carrots, dates and mushroom and simmer for another 1/2 hour.
~Add fish maw, bring to boil and let it cook for about 3 - 5 minutes.

~Season to taste.
~Serve hot.

Beside making soup, fish maw can be cooked stuffed with minced meat like yong tau foo or braised with chicken and mushroom, all delicious.

Chicken Wine Soup

Thought the rainy season had passed but it has been so wet and cold the last two days that it got me thinking of the bottle of rice wine from Terri. What could be better than wong ziu gai (rice wine chicken) at this time? 

During confinement, twice a day I would have the wine soup consisting of only kampong chicken, old ginger (loads of it), sesame oil and wine (not even water to dilute the wine a little).  That worked out to almost 2 bottles of rice wine a day. It is a wonder I didn't turn alcoholic after 5 confinements and how did I manage to stay sober during the 30 days of imprisonment? Or maybe I wasn't after all, happy hour for a whole month! That certainly helped to keep the post-natal depression at bay.

This version is very much toned down. I opted for the Cantonese-style with black fungus and goji but omitted the mushroom as I find it overpowering (I like to taste the wine in my soup). 

1 kampong chicken, cleaned and chopped into pieces

2 thumb size old ginger root, wash off grits and flattened with side of chopper

1/2 cup black fungus, washed and soaked 

2 T goji (wolfberries), washed

3-4 cups rice wine

1 T sesame oil

3-4 cups water

Heat sesame oil in wok, fry ginger until fragrant and add chicken. 

Stir fry chicken pieces until color changed and aromatic, add in black fungus and water. 

Bring to boil, lower heat to simmer for about 15 minutes or until chicken meat is tender. 

Add in the rice wine, bring to boil and lastly, stir in the goji.

Dish out and enjoy with white rice and a simple stir-fried veg.

Note: The water and wine ratio is entirely flexible and so is the soupiness. My family like to drink the soup more than eat the meat and as there are still a few minors around I have to watered down the alcoholic content to a more legally acceptable level :-p. 

I still prefer mine 100% rice wine...  

David's Lotus Root Soup

Today we have a special guest blogger!
She is none other than my dearest sis. Mee Fung from the US of A. I have been bugging her for recipes as she and her hubby, David are great cooks.
Surprise! Surprise! She not only sent the recipe but with picture attachments and a write-up too! It took me a while to figure out how to transfer from the e-mail to the blog...totally techsavvy-less :)
Finally, here it is...a very appropriate dish too for this cny.

After a hard and tired day of shopping, my sisters and I came home to an aroma of good home cooking. Unexpectedly David had prepared a wonderful meal for us all. All five of my sisters were pleasantly surprised when the 1st course - Lotus Roots soup was served. Every single one of them was ranting, raving, indulging, having second and third until it was all gone. The rest of the courses were a blur. (Not a blur for me though, I still remember the steamed patin - a fresh water fish in light soy sauce. Sooo good! Jo.) So, on the eve of their departure, I bought them each a couple of bags dried sole fish to add to their jam-packed suitcases.

That was about ten years ago when they were all here in California for a visit. No, actually they were here to shop! No Disneyland, no Knott’s Berry Farms, no Universal Studio, no Hollywood, no Sea World…just good old fashion shopping and eating.

Ten years later, with the urging of my sister, Jo, I finally put this recipe together in writing. Although this special soup is David’s all time favorites and we have prepared it thousand of times, I never thought of writing it down. Yesterday was my chance when I found some soaked sole fish, octopus and peanuts sitting on the kitchen counter (guess who did it?). I thought, well, this is a good opportunity to get started. I grabbed a pen, a piece of paper and pulled out my tiny little camera and started working. When all is said and done, I have a written recipe and some pictures to share!
Believe me, not only this soup is easy to make but delicious and the aroma is incredible. No kidding, just ask any of my five sisters, they will tell you. (of course, they are not bias!! :P)

LOTUS ROOTS SOUP
1 lb pork meat
½ a dried sole fish
Handful of dried octopus (softened -about one rice bowl)
1/3 cup of dried red beans
1 cup of uncooked peanuts (with skin on)
2 sections lotus roots
Chicken feet (8) – optional
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 tbsp smashed ginger
Salt

Soak peanuts, sole fish and dried octopus separately in water for a couple of hours
Cut pork into small cubes, sprinkle some salt.
In a pot, bring water to a boil add pork and ginger.
Cook for about 10 minutes then add the rest of the ingredients (except salt).
Bring to boil and turn burner to low and simmer for 2 hours.
Add salt to taste.
Before serving, retrieve lotus roots, cut crosswise and return to soup.
Bon appetit.

Mee Fung and Jo

Tom Yum soup

Tom yum kung

Tom yum fish

K, when he first started to cook was obsessed with Thai food and this legendary soup has his total attention. Can't blame him, a whiff of the aromatic soup is enough to trigger off a major drooling session!
How many ways to prepare Tom yum? I don't know. How many not-quite-there Tom yums have we put our taste buds through? I don't know either, countless! K will order the soup wherever he sees one in the menu and most times, we walked away disappointed. In KK, there is a trend to add milk to tom yums, yikes! So, K was on a mission...and it was all for a good cause... He tried many recipes from newspaper cut-outs, magazines, cooking programmes on TV and books. He concluded that the key to a good tom yum soup is a good stock. No chicken stock cubes will suffice!

Today, I cooked and chose his easiest recipe which has a clear soup (me and my clear soup!). It is light and mild but with all the lovely fragrance and aroma guaranteed.

The essentials for a good tom yum

Lemongrass, kaffir leaves, lime, tomatoes, galangal, bird's eye chilli and chilli paste. Don't forget the coriander stems and roots (not in the pic but very essential).

A mild chilli paste from Thailand

Tom yum soup

Serve 4-6

Ingredients for stock:

300g pork bones or a small kampung chicken, chopped and parboiled*

1 bulb garlic

2-3 tomatoes, quartered

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

2L water

- Bring the 2L water to boil. Add all the ingredients. Bring it to boil again, quickly lower heat and let simmer for an hour or so. For the soup to be clear do not let the stock boil vigorously, just let it simmer with slight bubbling.
*If you like you can substitute the meat with prawn heads and shells for tom yum kung but I used the same stock for both fish and prawn.

Ingredients for the lovely fragrance:

4-5 stalks lemongrass, bruised

3-4 slices galangal

2-3 stalks coriander (stems and roots), washed off grits from roots

2-3 tomatoes, quartered

- Put all the above into the simmering stock. Boil for another 15-20 minutes.

- Strain and discard the roots and put the meat aside.

Ingredients when about to serve:

Fish slices, fish head, prawns, chicken slices, squid, mussels, clams or maybe even lobster's meat (need I go on?? No, think I'll leave it to your own creativity!).

2-3 tablespoon chilli paste (nam prik pao)

3-4 kaffir leaves, torn

2 tomatoes, quartered - optional

4-5 mushroom (oyster, enoki, shitake or button)

3-5 bird's eye chilli, crushed (leave them whole if can't deal with the heat)

2 tablespoon fish sauce, to taste

2-3 tablespoon lime juice, to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

cilantro, for garnishing

- Add chilli paste, tomatoes, kaffir leaves and fish, cook for 3-5 minutes.
(For the rest of the seafood mentioned above, if used, add in only at the last minute of cooking to avoid overcooking.)

- Add mushroom, chilli, sugar and fish sauce, cook for 2 minutes.

- Turn off heat; add lime juice - adjust to suit taste.

- Dish into individual bowls and sprinkle coriander leave to garnish.

Note: A cheats tom yum...

The chilli paste you see below is a real god-send for a quick home-cooked tomyum. As you can see from the ingredients listed on the label, it has most of the essentials covered. All you need now is the stock and ingredients to serve (prawns, chicken or fish etc..). This has been tried and proven with wonderful results. Can get it in most Asian supermarkets.

Tae-pee instant Tom yum paste

Ingredients listed

Jo

Winter melon soup

Winter melon soup

We like soup with our meals, especially so when feeling under the weather and have no appetite for solid food. That how K is feeling now and the soup of the day for him is none other than the wonderful winter melon. There are so many different version of cooking this soup and at most times, the ingredients used depend very much on what is available in one's fridge. The recipe below offers options.

Years ago, watched a neighbour in our former place cooked the melon without removing the skin. She just scrapped off the outer white and green layers, leaving the thick inner skin intact. The soup was infused with a much richer melon fragrance. Since then, that is how we always prepare the melon for soup.

Winter melon soup

Serve 4 - 6

500g winter melon, seeded, scrapped and cut chunks

300g pork bone (or chicken) chopped into chunks

2 L water

2-3 dried oysters (or dried scallop or dried squid), washed and soaked

3-4 dried mushroom, washed and soaked

1 tablespoon kee chee aka goji or wolfberries, washed

1 mi zhao (honey date) - can use red dates too but honey dates give a sweeter but more subtle taste

salt and pepper

honey date

1) Parboil the meat in boiling water. Drain.

2) Bring the 2l water to boil in a deep pot, put in the meat, melon, mushrooms, date and oysters. When it boils again turn down heat to low and simmer for about an hour. Add in the kee chee.

3) Season with salt and pepper. Serve piping hot.

Note: Roasted pork ribs will give a tastier and thicker soup.

Jo

Braised mushroom and Radish soup

After viewing Terri's post on Hainanese chicken rice - cannot tahan - went out and hunted(?) for a corn-fed, full-term bird.

Dinner is served...

Stir fried sawi, braised mushroom, radish soup and....the CHICKEN..

Served with brown rice so as not to feel so guilty when devouring the chicken skin...

ohlala...

ppc's braised shitake

Recipe: Braised Mushroom

Ingredients:

500g fresh shitake mushroom, trimmed and brushed with a clean cloth (do not wash)
1-2 tbs. chopped garlic (for us, garlic maniacs, 2 heaped tablespoonful)

1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. butter
2 tbs cooking wine (any white wine or Shao Hsing wine)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

(1) Heat pan. Stir in olive oil and garlic until aromatic but don't brown garlic.

(2) Toss in the mushroom and mix well. Cover and cook for 5-8 minutes on medium heat.

(3) Add the wine and butter. The gravy thickens at this stage, add salt and pepper to taste. Dish out.

radish soup

Recipe: Radish soup

Ingredients:

1 carrot, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 radish, peeled and chopped into chunks
2-3 tomatoes, quartered

Method:

Throw all the above into the stock after the chicken is done and taken out (unless you like your chicken to have the taste of carrot and radish!!) Bring to boil and lower heat to simmer for as long as your like ( for us, usually right until dinner is served--30 minutes to an hour). We like the veg. all soft and the aroma infused into the soup. No salt is needed - the soup is super sweet. Salt will actually mar the sweetness. Garnish with chopped spring onion.

Love, Jo

LeAnne's corn soup

one can of cream corn + one can of chicken stock into the pot and boil

give it a good stir

beat 2 eggs

pour into boiling corn soup, one stir and off the heat

season with salt and sprinkle chopped spring onion

yum yum.....

Love, LeAnne