MeeSua Soup

I love meesua for its simplicity and versatility. You can add in anything you like be it vege or meat and it will always turn out well. I cooked this for dinner some time back and absolutely love this especially on a rainy day. It's very comforting.


Ingredients:
MeeSua (soaked in water for a few minutes)
Meat (sliced pork/chicken)
Light Soy sauce
Dark Soy Sauce
Chinese Cooking Wine
Pepper
Sesame Oil
Vegetables (your choice)
Carrot
Tofu
Garlic
Onion
Oil
Water
Salt


Method:
1. Marinate the meat with the ingredients highlighted in yellow for at least 30min.
2. Heat some oil and saute garlic and onion till fragrant.
3. Pour in the meat and its sauce. Stir fry for 1min.
4. Add in carrot and stir fry for another min.
5. Pour in enough water to make the soup and cook till it boils.
6. Add in the meesua, tofu and vegetables. Cook for another min or till it boils.
7. Season with salt and it's ready to serve!

Old Cucumber Soup

Nice one, my mum said it has cooling properties. Not sure about that but a bowl of hot soup never fails to complete my meal.

Ingredients:
Old Cucumber (cut into chunks)
Dried Oyster (5-6pieces)
Red Dates (7-8 pieces)
Meat (chicken/pork bones is fine)
Salt
Water


Method:
1. Bring water to boil.
2. Add in all the ingrdients except salt. Simmer for at least 2 hours (use high heat for the first 30min, then turn to low heat). I used a slow cooker (used the "high" setting all the time). If using slow cooker, cook for at least 3 hours.
3. Season with salt.

Dried Vegetables Soup with Tofu

This is my brother's favourite soup and I remember whenever my mum asked him what soup to cook, this is the one he would choose. Hubby has not tried it before so I wanted to make this for him, to see if he likes it.
I love vege and soup, so this is quite a perfect combination for me. Good that hubby likes it too, especially the vegetables.

You can get the dried vege from supermarkets or even the wet market (same section where ikan bilis, dried shrimps, etc are sold).

Ingredients:
Dried Vegetables (soaked in hot water and washed clean, then chop them up)
Red Dates
Pork Ribs (best cooked with roasted pork ribs but couldn't get any from the market)
Tofu
Water
Salt

Method:
1. Bring a pot of water to boil.
2. Put in all the ingredients.
3. Cook for at least 2 hours. Season with salt and serve hot.

Carrot and Radish Soup with Tomatoes

We had these for lunch sometime last month. The Chinese sausage is from my mum since she bought some for us to bring back after CNY. I just steamed it and drizzled in some light soy sauce after it was cooked.

As for vege, I just blanched some lettuce, then fried some chopped garlic and use it to 'dress' the lettuce, with some oil and light soy sauce. It's simple and yummy!

As for the soup, I love it with tomatoes....

Ingredients:
Carrot
Radish
Tomatoes
Chicken
Salt
Water

Method:
1. Boil water, then put everything in and cook for 2 hours or so.
2. Season with salt before serving.

Lunch_30Jan10

Another backdated post....;p

For lunch, we had a simple stir fried lettuce, carrot and radish soup and pumpkin with mushroom in bean paste.

Carrot & Radish Soup

Ingredients:

Carrot

Radish

Onion

Chicken

Water

Salt

Method:

1. Boil water and pour in everything (except salt).

2. Cook for at least 2 hours.

3. Season with salt.

Pumpkin with Mushroom in Bean Paste

Ingredients:

Pumpkin (cut into cubes)

Chinese Mushroom (soaked till soft and cut into cubes)

Dried Shrimp (chopped)

Bean Paste

Garlic

Oil

Water

Method:

1. Heat oil and saute garlic.

2. Add in dried shrimp and bean paste and stir fry till fragrant.

3. Add in mushroom and stir fry for 1min.

4. Add in pumpkin. Stir fry for another min.

5. Add water. Cook till pumpkin is soft.

6. Goes well with rice!

Lotus Root Chicken Soup with Dried Oysters

This is one of my favourite soups! Each time my mum cooks this, I can finish the whole pot, no joke. I've been craving for this and when I saw some nice lotus root in Jusco, I just had to cook this.

Ingredients:

Lotus Root

Chicken or Pork Ribs (blanch for a while using boiling water)

Dried Oysters (you can substitute it with dried sotong too)

Red Dates (I omitted this cos don't have this in stock)

Salt

Water

Method:

1. Boil a pot of water and put everything in. Cook till lotus root is soft.

2. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy a bowl of piping hot tasty soup!

Black Bean Soup

This soup is very easy to prepare but full of nutritions. Black beans is a good source of protein and fibre and it may help to lower blood cholesterol and control blood sugar too!  I love this soup because the black beans make the soup smells really fragrant. I used chicken to make this soup but I think pork will be fine too.

Ingredients:
Chicken (cut into medium-sized pieces)
Black beans
Salt
Water


Method:
1. Boil a pot of water.
2. Put in chicken and black beans. Cook for at least 2 hours or until the beans turn soft.
3. Season with salt. Done!

Christmas Dinner

Yesterday was Christmas and hubby decided that we'd cook dinner instead of eating out. I do prefer to stay at home on public holiday because no matter where we go, it's always crowded. At first we thought of going to the mall but when we saw the long queue of cars waiting to get into the car park, we thought it'd be better to spend the afternoon at home taking an afternoon nap or watching tv. Hahaha....

We had a nice time preparing the dinner together. This time, hubby cooked ABC soup, vege and he even tried to cook pork in soy sauce! Very ambitious hor...but it was a nice meal and am very proud of him for his interest to learn :)

ABC Soup

Ingredients:

Pork Ribs (can use chicken also)

Tomato

Carrot

Potato

Onion

Water

Salt

Hot boiling water

Method:

1. Pour the hot boiling water onto the pork ribs and let it stand for 5min or so.

2. Boil a pot of water and throw in the ribs and all other ingredients except the salt.

3. Cook over high heat (soup will be boiling) for 1hour or so, then turn to medium or low heat for another 1-2 hours.

4. Season with salt and serve hot. Love this soup and very comforting on a rainy day!

Pork in Dark Soy Sauce

Ingredients:

Pork Meat (slice thinly)

Ginger (shred thinly)

Sesame Oil

Dark Soy Sauce

Light Soy Sauce

Sugar

Method:

1. Heat sesame oil and saute ginger till fragrant.

2. Put in pork and stir fry for 1/2min.

3. Add in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and sugar.

4. Stir fry for for another 1/2min and dish up. Goes well with rice..

Soy Noodles in Lotus Root Soup

This is another of those cook-the-soup-and-dump-in-the-noodles meal.

Ingredients:
Lotus Root
Pork Ribs
Honey Dates (you can use red dates, I ran out of these)
Salt
Soy Noodles (you can use mifen or other kinds of noodles as well)
Water
Salt


Method:
1. Cook a pot of boiling water.
2. When water boils, put in lotus root, honey dates and pork ribs.
3. Cook the soup for about 2hours (if you use a slow cooker, it’ll take probably 4 hours).
4. Season with salt.
5. Soak soy noodles in water until soft.
6. Then, add the noodles into the soup and boil it until noodles are cooked.

The meal is ready!

Noodles in Chicken Herbal Soup

Ingredients:
Chicken Meat
Wolfberries (gei ji)
Tong Sum
Pak Kei
Yoke Juk
Red Dates
Water
Salt
Soy Noodles (soaked till soft)
Tofu
Iceberg Lettuce


Method:
1. Place chicken, water and all the herbs into a slow cooker.
2. Use high heat and cook for at least 4-5 hours.
3. Season with salt when soup is done.
4. Scoop some soup into another pot, cook till it boils.
5. Add in tofu, noodles and lettuce.
6. Cook for 1min or so and it’s ready to be served.

Soy Noodles in Fish Soup

This is what we had for lunch today. Another simple and easy to prepare one-dish meal.


Ingredients:
Soy Noodles (soaked in water till soft)
Carrot
Tomatoes
Tofu
Ginger (cut into slices)
Fish Fillet
Garlic
Sesame Oil
Salt
Black Pepper
Sugar
Salt
Cooking Wine
Oil


Method:
1. Marinate fish with salt, black pepper and sesame oil for 30min.
2. Boil water and add in carrot, tomatoes, tofu and ginger.
3. Season with salt, sugar and cooking wine. Simmer for 30-40min.
4. While the soup is cooking, heat some oil in a non stick pan.
5. Saute garlic and ginger. Add in fish and pan fry fish until both sides are cooked.
6. Add the fish into the soup and let it cook for 10min.
7. Add in the noodles and cook for 1-2min.
8. Drizzle in some sesame oil. Serve hot.

You could also add in some green vegetables such as ‘siew pak choy’ and cook it together with the noodles.

Before serving, I tore the fish meat into small pieces and sprinkle it on top of the noodles.

Watercress Soup

If I could have it my way, I’d want to have soup for every meal. My mum is a Cantonese and they’re known for heart warming soup and it usually accompanies our meals at home. Watercress soup is one of my favourites and I cooked this for lunch last Saturday. The Chinese believe the vegetables has a cooling effect (I’m not too sure about that ;p).


Ingredients:
Watercress
Chicken
Dried Figs
Red Dates
Water
Salt

Method:
1. Bring a pot of water to boil.
2. Put in all the ingredients and let it boil for 2-3 hours. Season with salt.

I used a slow cooker, so I cooked it for 3 hours.

Normally, whenever I use a slow cooker, I’ll boil the water using the kettle first then pour it into the cooker and let it cook at high heat.

Whole Wheat Soba in Miso Soup

I usually cook in this way when I am feeling lazy to cook and yet don’t feel like eating out. Just dump everything into the pot and let it cook. Such is this recipe.

This packet of whole wheat soba is from Daiso and I have this phobia of cooking anything whole wheat be it soba or pasta. The texture of whole wheat noodles is tougher than the normal non whole wheat ones, so I wasn’t sure if this would turn out nice. To my surprise, this is delicious and best of all, it takes little effort in the preparation and cooking. Good for lazy people like me.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat soba (washed and soaked for 5min before cooking)
Carrot
Tomato
Onion
Chicken
Miso Bean Paste
Water
Sugar
Chinese Parsley


Method:
1. Bring water to boil in a pot.
2. Add in miso paste, chicken, carrot, tomato and onion.
3. Simmer for 20-30min. Season with a little sugar.
4. Add in soba and cook till noodles is soft/cooked.
5. Pour into a bowl and sprinkle some parsley before serving.

Noodles Soup with Chicken Mushroom

I usually let VIP choose what he would like to have for dinner, if I cook ;p It looks like he prefers to have noodles most of the time! I love this soup with the tofu, chicken and mushroom and VIP finished the whole bowl. Mind you, this is a salad bowl!!! Hahaha…


Ingredients:
Noodles (soaked for a while till it’s a little soft)
Chicken Meat (cut into small pieces –marinate with light soy sauce and a little sesame oil)
Chinese Mushroom
Carrot
Cabbage
Tofu
Shallots
Light soy sauce
Salt
Cooking wine
Oil
Water


Method:
1. Heat a little oil and saute the shallots until you smell the aroma.
2. Add in mushroom and stir fry for about 1 min.
3. Add in carrot and cabbage and continue to stir fry for 1min.
4. Season with salt, light soy sauce and cooking wine.
5. Add in enough water for the soup and let it cook till it boils.
6. Add in tofu and chicken meat. Simmer with low heat for 1min or so.
7. Add in noodles and cook till soft. Serve hot.

Soybean Noodles (Version 3)

Didn’t I say I love this noodles?? I cooked this last week or the week before last week but was too excited about all the cakes that I baked, so almost forgot about this ;p

This is oil-free. I just put in some shallot, carrot, Szechuan vegetables, tomatoes and chicken meat for the soup and then season it with sugar, black pepper and a little cooking wine. Cook the noodles in the soup till it’s soft and dinner is ready!

Soybean Noodles (Version 2)

Noodles is one of my favourite dish especially this soybean noodles. The smooth texture of the noodles even cooked in the simplest way makes a satisfying dinner for me.
The funny thing is, when we were small, my mum only cooked this for us when we fall sick….hahaha.


Ingredients:
Soybean Noodles
Cabbage
Carrot
Shallot
Egg (1)
Chicken Sausage (cut into bite size)
Salt
Light Soy Sauce
Chinese cooking wine
Pepper
Oil
Water


Method:
1. Heat a little oil and sauté the shallots.
2. Add in carrot and cabbages. Stir fry for 1min.
3. Add in chicken sausages. Season with salt, light soy sauce, pepper and cooking wine.
4. Add in water and cook till it boils.
5. Add in the noodles and let it simmer for a while.
6. Stir in the beaten egg and cook for another 1min and it’s done!

Vegetables Soup

Tonight's dinner is oil-free. Not a single drop of oil is used :)

I cooked vegetables and fish the usual way....blanched vege in boiling water for a minute or two, then toss with a mixture of light soy sauce & oyster sauce + steamed the fish with preserved bean with ginger and garlic.

Here's the soup:

I love this little pot. It's a gift from my Korean friend, In Soon. Coming to think of it, we're both kind of crazy. I asked if she could help me buy one and she really brought one back from Korea for me! Hahaha....I mean, come on...pots can be bought in any supermarkets ma. Anyway, I don't think we have such authentic one here. This is what the Koreans use to make their soup.

While I was cooking this, it reminds me of those good old times when we spend time cooking dinner together (OK, most of the time she cooks and I just eat la ;p) and complained about work, man, life....;p

Absolutely miss it! Thanks my friend, for the good times and the friendship :)

OK, here's what I had in the little pot, a simple vegetables soup...no kimchi ;p

Ingredients:

Carrot

Cabbage

Szechuan preserved vegetables

Garlic

Tofu

Egg

Black pepper

Sugar

Method:

1. Boil water in pot, put in all the ingredients, except the egg.

2. Cook for 30min or so. Season with black pepper and sugar.

3. Beat the egg, add into the soup. Cook for 1min. Serve hot.

Mifen Soup Version 3

Oh...you can't see the mifen right? Haha...ya lor...too much meat and vegetables already. This is really easy to cook and without any oil (if you omit the sesame oil), so kind of healthy.

Ingredients:
Fish meat
Black Pepper
Chicken meat
Ginger
Tofu
Carrots
Lettuce (clean and soak in water)
Mifen (soak in water)
Sugar
Salt
Cooking wine
Sesame Oil
Water


Method:
1. Marinate fish with salt and black pepper. Set aside.
2. In a pot, bring to boil chicken eat and ginger for ~30min.
3. Add in tofu and fish. Season with salt, sugar and cooking wine.
4. When fish meat is cooked, bring out the chicken meat, fish, carrot and tofu.
5. Put the mifen into the soup and cook till soft. Bring out the mifen and divide into serving bowls.
6. Cook lettuce in the soup for 1min with a few drops of sesame oil.
7. Shred the chicken meat and arrange it with tofu, fish, carrot and lettuce on top of the mifen.
8. Pour in the soup until it covers the mifen and serve.

Vegetarian Corn Soup

Ingredients:
Corn
Carrot
Potato
Chinese Cabbage
Red dates
Egg Tofu
Salt
Note: You may add some wolfberries and other Chinese herbs too.


Method:
1. Put all ingredients into a pot and bring to boil for ~1 hour.
2. Season with salt and serve hot.

Mifen Soup version 2

Ingredients:
Mifen (soaked till soft in water)
Tomato (2-3, cut into wedges)
Chicken meat (cut into small pieces)
Button Mushroom (sliced)
Carrot (sliced)
Chinese cabbage (cut into slices)
Chicken Frankfurters (sliced)
Egg Tofu (cut into thick slices)
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Pepper
Garlic (crushed lightly)
Salt
Water


Method:
1. Boil water in a pot.
2. Add in garlic, tomatoes, cabbage, carrot and mushroom. Simmer for 10min.
3. Add in chicken meat, frankfurters and tofu.
4. Season with salt, pepper, oyster sauce and soy sauce.
5. Add in mifen and cook for 3-4min.
6. Serve hot.