Pumpkin Lemongrass Soup

Pumpkin is very healthy and nutritious.  It's very versatile as you can cook it in anyway you like besides turning it into healthy desserts, jam, bakes, etc.  When making it into soup, it's not necessary to add meat as pumpkin itself is already sweet.  All you have to do is wash the skin thoroughly.  Then cut it into your required sizes and put everything in including the seeds and the pulp.  No wastage!!!

More benefits of pumpkin can be found in the above Spicy Fragrant Japanese Pumpkin's post.

Ingredients :

- a quarter of pumpkin together with its seeds and pulp (cut into required size)

- 8 stalks of lemongrass (use the white stems, cut and crushed)

- 2 thumb sized ginger (crushed)

- 2 chicken carcass (blanched)

- water (enough for soup)

- 8 white peppercorns (crushed, optional)

- salt (to taste)

Method :

1)  Put pumpkin, lemongrass and ginger into a pot of water.
2)  Once the water is boiling, add chicken carcass to the boiling water.
3)  Boil at high heat for 15 minutes and add peppercorns.  Turn to low heat and boil for about 1.5 hours.  
4)  Season with salt.
5)  Serve hot.

I love to drink the soup HOT..

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (Oct 2014 Event: PUMPKIN) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Eileen (Eileen's Diary).

Also submitting this post to "My Treasured Recipes #3 - Taste of Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)" hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.

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Home Cooked Bak-Kut-Teh/Herbal Pork Ribs Soup (肉骨茶)

Home cooked or brewed bak-kut-teh is very easy and simple to prepare.  If you do not like to take the trouble to get the full prescription of the herbs from the Chinese Medical shop, there are pre-packed  bak-kut-teh herbs and spices available too.  

I never stick to a particular brand of pre-packed bak-kut-teh and would try whichever that catch my attention during our casual shopping.  Besides, I also like to stock up a few pre-packed of bak-kut-teh and it comes in handy when I run out of ideas what soup to cook for my family.   Sun Kee pre-packed is also one of our favorites.

Previously, when cooking bak-kut-teh using pre-packed herbs and spices, I just 'dumped'  the sachets into the pot without any additional herbs or spices.  However, when I came across Boon's Little Kitchen Cookbook, I learned something new!  I added pieces of dang gui (Radix Angelica) and wow... the soup definitely tastes so much better as dang gui itself  is sweet, pungent and bitter in taste.  One of the many advantages of dang gui is it benefits the digestive system by maintaining proper metabolism and improved immune functioning. By boosting immunity, the herb also helps to protect our body from various diseases and infections. However, men, be cautioned! Dang gui can be very 'heaty' for some men and have it moderately as 'overdosed' of dang gui will see you having fever and even nose bleeding!

(Recipe according to Boon's Little Kitchen Cookbook page 95, with minor modifications in red)

Ingredients (A) : 

-1kg shin (I omitted this)

- 2 spare ribs (1kg, blanched)

- 1 pc pork belly (I omitted)

Ingredients  (B) :

- 6 big bulbs smoked garlic (unpeeled)

- 2 sachets pre-packed bak-kut-teh

- 10gm sweet dang gui head (I used 4 thin slices only)

- 3 litres water

Seasonings : (to taste)

- 4 tbsp soy sauce

- 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce

- 60g rock sugar (I omitted)

- 1 tsp salt

Method :

1)  Bring water to a boil.  Add in ingredients (A) and (B). 

2)  Bring it to another boil. Lower heat and cook for 45 minutes.

3)  Add in seasonings and bring to a rapid boil.

4)  Turn to low heat and simmer for another 45 minutes.

5)  Serve hot with steamed rice.

Simple and nutritious soup

I'm sharing this post with : Cook-Your-Books #6 hosted by Kitchen Flavours

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Nutritious Chicken Soup with Dried Figs (无花果)

According to Tonic Soups for Vitality by Madam Choong Su Yin, dried figs is neutral in nature and tastes bitter sweet.  Figs from America possess better quality.  Figs helps in preventing cancer such as lung cancer and gastrointestinal cancer.  It improves digestion, increasing breast milk, relieves swelling and is anti-inflammatory. 

This soup is easy to prepare.  It's healthy and nutritious too.  

Ingredients :

- 1 whole chicken leg 

- 8 dried figs

- 3 red dates

- 1 tbsp Chinese Wolfberries

- 4 bowls of hot water

Seasonings : (to taste)

- a dash of salt

Method :

1)  To double-boil, first boil water in a big pot or wok.

2) Then put all the ingredients into a Chinese ceramic pot and cover.  I used vision pot.

3)  When the big pot of water is boiled, place the ceramic pot (vision pot) of ingredients into it and steamed over high heat for 1/2 hour.

4)  Lower the heat and steam for about 2 hours.

5)  Season with salt and serve hot. 

A very healthy and nutritious soup for the whole family

We usually finished all the soup and the ingredients but not the meat.

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Refreshing Kelp with Old Cucumber Soup

Sea Kelp has a lot of health benefits and when make into soup, it's very refreshing especially with extra ginger added to it.  To know more about kelp, do click here--> Yakon Kelp Soup and Kelp Chicken Soup for its benefits and recipes.

 Before--> Dried Sea Kelp

After--> Soaked and washed Sea Kelp ready to be used

Ingredients :

- 1/2 free range chicken (chopped into chunks, blanched)

- 2 small old cucumber (washed, discard the seeds and cut)

- 1 bowl of sliced kelp (washed, soaked and cut)

- 3 thumb sized ginger (crushed)

- salt (to taste)

Method :

1)  Fill water in a pot enough for the soup.

2)  Add old cucumber, sea kelp and ginger.  Bring to boil.

3)  Then, add chicken and continue to boil at high heat for about 30 minutes.

4)  Lower the heat and simmer for about 2 hours.

5)  Season with salt.

Serve hot.

This is a very refreshing, healthy and nutritious soup.

Enjoy this with your loved one :)

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Chinese Cabbage Egg Miso Soup (Meatless Recipe)

I like Chinese Cabbage, be it stir fried, braised or soup and will never get bored eating it everyday!  Chinese cabbage is very refreshing especially if you make it into soup.  For this recipe, it's a meatless soup and I omitted anchovies stock and meat.  Hence, I added miso into it.  It's very refreshing and I had it for lunch; just the soup only and without any rice or noodles.  You can add fish balls, prawns, meat or any ingredients that come to your mind.  

Ingredients :

- 1 small Chinese cabbage (washed and cut)

- 3 dried mushrooms (soaked and sliced)

- 1/2 carrot (shredded)

- 1/2 tbsp Chinese Wolfberries/goji berries (washed)

- 2 eggs (beaten)

- 1 thumbsized ginger (crushed)

- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)

- enough water for the soup

- 1 tbsp oil

Seasonings : (to taste)

- 1 tbsp miso

- a dash of salt

- soy sauce

- pepper

Method :

1)  Heat oil in a wok and saute ginger and garlic until aromatic.

2)  Add Chinese cabbage, mushrooms and carrots.  Stir and mix well.

3)  Add water.  Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.

4)  Pour in beaten egg.  Gently stir it.

5)  Lower the heat to medium low. Add miso and Chinese Wolfberries.  Stir and mix well.

6)  Season with salt, soy sauce and pepper.

7)  Serve hot.

Simple, healthy and refreshing soup for your family

Do enjoy :)

I am submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Egg" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out.

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Sitiawan Fuzhou Egg Noodles (Long Yan 蛋燕)

Has anyone tried Fuzhou egg noodles which is also called Fuzhou flat flour noodles (pan mien) from Ayer Tawar or Sitiawan in Perak? This is a traditional dish especially for folks in my hometown, Ayer Tawar.  My family members love this.  I remember the very first time when I cooked this for my own family (that was few years back), my girls and hubby love it so much. 

The batter can be varied according to your preference. I have seen others added rice flour and 5 to 6 eggs for the batter. I have tried the batter with added rice flour and 3 eggs but I just don't like the texture. Later, I got this recipe from a childhood friend and I just followed the measurement she gave me. Eh... I like it. Since then, I stick to this recipe. You can be flexible with the batter depending on your taste.

PART I :

Ingredients for Egg Noodles (batter) :

- 500g tapioca flour

- 190g plain flour 

- 710ml water

- 1 egg (add extra eggs if you want it to be more springy)

(if you do not like to add any egg, the water should be 750ml.  1 egg->reduce 40ml water)

 Method :

1)  Put all the batter ingredients into a big bowl.  Stir and mix well until the batter is smooth.

2)  Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan or wok.  Pour 1 ladle of batter into the wok and fry until both sides are cooked.  Repeat the whole process for the remaining batter.

3) It's not necessary to add oil to the pan anymore as the pancake will not stick to the pan or if you are using non-stick pan.  I used AMC pan and I only used 2 times of oil for the whole batch process.

4)  Roll the pancake individually and use scissors to cut it.  Place the freshly cut egg noodles into a serving bowl and add your choice of soup into it.

5)  The balance of egg noodles can be stored in the fridge or frozen for future use.  However, for refrigerated egg noodles, you need to add it into the soup to be cooked for a while before serving.

PART II : (you can use any of your preferred soup but I prefer anchovies/ikan bilis stock)

Ingredients for soup : (individual's preferences)

- prawns (shelled and marinated with salt)

- fish balls

- shredded mushrooms

- shredded black fungus/woodear

- shredded chicken meat (I used leftover from the previous evening doubled boiled ginseng chicken soup; just want to be thrifty, hehehe)

- fresh vegetables 

- anchovies/ikan bilis stock

- some chopped garlic

- cooking oil

Seasonings : (to taste)

- salt

- soy sauce

- a dash of pepper

Method :

1)  Heat oil in a wok or pot and saute garlic until fragrant.  Add all the ingredients except fish balls and vegetables.  Stir fry until aromatic and add anchovies stock.

2)  Cover and bring it to a boil.

3)  Add fish balls and vegetables and cook until vegetables and fish balls are cooked.

4)  Add seasonings and ladle the soup into a serving bowl filled with freshly cut egg noodles.

Make extra pancakes/egg noodles and refrigerate it.  You can have it anytime even for breakfast.

Isn't this homemade noodles anytime healthier than the commercial instant noodles???

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest Perak month hosted by WendyinKK of Table for Two….or more

I am also submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Egg" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out.

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