This is a pretty common Chinese sweet soup in Malaysia. I know I didn't like this soup when I was little or when I was back in Malaysia. It is just not my thing especially the lotus seeds and lily buds, not something that youngster would like. But as I got older, my taste bud changed as I am more into healthy food these days or food that would provide benefit to my body as to the opposite. I came into this soup again and the benefits of drinking this simple soup really changed my mind about this soup. This soup is said to be supporting heart, nourish kidney, fight memory loss, insomnia, loss of appetite, nourish brain especially for students or white collar workers who need to use brain to think a lot and anti-aging. I believed in Chinese medicinal soup for prevention and overall body wellness so I guess I will cook this sweet soup frequently from now on. Yeah, I thought my girls wouldn't like this soup but surprisingly they both loved it, even finishing all the lotus seeds, longan, wolfberries and lily buds I gave them. I seriously thought they wouldn't eat the lotus seeds and lily buds like when I was young.
We loved Vietnamese fried spring rolls (Cha Gio). I loved the texture and crispiness of fried rice paper, it added a touch of difference from the usual fried Chinese spring rolls or egg rolls. It was quite pricey to order it in a restaurant as it costs about $2 a piece. So, I decided to make it at home. I got to put more ingredients in my filling as usually what we got at a restaurant was filled with minimal ingredients. It was definitely a treat but I hated that my hair smelled of fried oil afterward.
I love this canned chickpeas, it provides such a convenient for me. I have since used it in stir-fried, my version of Japanese curry and baked it as snack. Sharing with you the crispy snack version. You can create your own seasoning mix for the chickpeas as well. A healthy and easy snack for your afternoon.
While shopping at the Asian market, I saw this interesting dried tofu knots. It looked like the dried beancurd sticks but tie in a knot. I wanted to buy but hesitated because I never eaten or cook with this before thus I passed it up. Then, months ago while spending a night at my friend's house, I was introduced to this by her mother in-law. I learned a few cooking tips from her MIL as well and she told me I only need to soften this with cold water and not the hot water. She made Bak Kut Teh (Malaysian Herbal Pork Ribs Soup) with this tofu knots and I had a chance to try it. Needless to say I loved it as I love anything made with tofu, as it is healthy! So, recently while shopping at the Asian market in Denver, I bought few packets of this to cook at home. This is good as a side dish for steamboat/hotpot too.
I bought some packets of fresh Pho rice noodle (the noodle that served in Pho soup, Vietnamese beef noodle soup) thinking I can serve it with chicken soup. But I don't normally like to serve the same thing often which brought me to think of another way to serve this fresh noodle. As my readers know, I love Korean drama and almost in all K-drama, there have this so-called Jajangmyeon (炸醬麵), homemade hand pull noodle with dark black bean sauce made by Korean Chinese. So, I had this idea of making my own Chinese version of Jajangmyeon with this Pho noodle. I didn't have the Korean black bean paste, chunjang so I made my own version of dark sauce. The end result, we totally loved it! Evy said it's so yummy, when are you going to make it again? Well, wait til I buy more noodle first, I told her. This is definitely a new noodle dish that I am going to make again for my family.
This green bean dish can be easily spotted at the Chinese buffet table. In fact, that was how I discovered this cooking method. Below is how I imagine this dish is prepared and I made it for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was very closed to the original except I needed more sauce.Ingredients:Green Beans
3-4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
Salt to taste
1 tsp. chicken stock granules
Cornstarch water
Method:
1. In a pot of boiling water, add a pinch of salt and a little oil. Blanch the green beans for a little while. Dish out and place in cold water.
2. In a wok, add in a little oil. Stir-fry the garlic until fragrant and golden brown. Add in some water. Season with chicken stock granules and salt. Thicken it with cornstarch water and add in the cooked green beans. Stir-fry until well coated with the sauce, dish out and serve.
TO ALL READERS, HAVE A GREAT AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010, MAY YOUR WISHES COME TRUE FOR YOU!!
