Bite On It!

During this confinement, I get to drink more soup than my previous one. I told my mom that I wish to try food that I did not get to eat the last time and was glad that my mom was so accommodating!

Besides the shallots and lemongrass soup I had, my mom also boiled some black beans with chicken feet soup. The great thing is, the whole family can enjoy this soup together!

One thing I like about KL is, some of the wet markets around my mom’s place has got good stuff selling. There is this poultry stall at the Yulek wet market which my mom frequent has really nice chickens. I like the size of their chicken wings and chicken feet… always in L or XL size as compared to those in Penang… always in S or M size!

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Ingredients

• 300g Black beans (you can put more if you like)
• 10sets Chicken feet
• 10pcs Red dates (optional)
• 2L Water
• Salt for taste

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Method

1. Dry pan fry the black beans until you can see the husk starting to break up. Lift up and set aside.
2. Boil water and put in all the ingredients and boil for at least 2 hours. Add salt for taste but if it is for confinement, usually we omit the salt.

I think more and more people are taking soupy dishes for their confinement these days as preparing soup is more convenient compared to other stir-fried dishes. However, many of the more traditional lots still believe that soup should only be taken earliest 7 days postpartum. That also depending on the types of ingredients used in the soup.

This time round, my mom prepared this simple and easy soup using shallots and lemongrass. She told me these two ingredients has the function of expelling ‘wind’ from the stomach so it is extremely good for me since I have a natural birth. I was lucky that my mom managed to buy some free range chickens for preparing this particular soup.

After taking this soup I can feel my tummy starts to work… yeah…. can feel the gas escaping!

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Ingredients
(2 meals)

• 1 Chicken (medium sized free range chicken)
• 10-12 bulbs Shallots
• 4-5 sticks Lemongrass (use the head and slightly smashed)
• 1L Water
• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Wash and cut chicken into  sections. Remove skin if you want a less oily soup but most free range chicken are never too fat…
2. Boil water and place shallots and lemongrass in and let it boil for 20 minutes before placing the chicken pieces in and let it boil for another hour. Alternatively, you can place everything into a double boil pot and double boil for about 2 hours.

One funny thing about pregnant women is they tend to have food cravings! It is one thing that no medical experts can explain why pregnant women have such needs. Well, this is one thing I could not dispute either as I do have different cravings at different time of my pregnancy.

Recently I started to have cravings too (you should be able to guess why!!!) and I just want to have my kind of ‘comfort’ food. Though the morning sickness has yet to kicks in but I have been thinking a lot about food that I will hardly want to cook or eat on normal days.

Besides craving for Asam Laksa this time, I just wanted to eat something ‘warm’ and with lots of ginger. I’m not too sure if it is good to consume too much ginger during the early stage of pregnancy since there are no proofs/evidences that they are. I don’t cook food with too much ginger everyday so guess it should be fine.

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Ingredients

• 200g Lean pork loin (Yuk-Ngan in Cantonese) - sliced thinly
• 50g Old ginger (you can use young ginger too so not that heaty) - sliced thinly
• 1 Tomato (optional) - remove seeds
• 1tsp Garlic (optional) - finely chopped
• 1.5L Water
• 1.5tsp Corn flour
• 1tbsp Fish sauce for marinade
• Pepper for marinade
• Oil for marinade (soften the meat)
• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Marinade pork slices with corn flour, fish sauce, pepper and oil and leave for at least 30 minutes prior to cooking.
2. Heat up wok/medium sized pot with a little oil and saute the sliced ginger till fragrant before adding in the chopped garlic as it gets burnt quicker. If you can’t stand the smell of garlic, you can omit it.
3. When both ginger and garlic are well sauteed, add in the water, cover and brings it to boil.
4. Add in the sliced pork and stir so they will not stick to each other before adding in the tomato.
5. When it started to boil, add in salt/fish sauce to taste.

It was the Lunar New Year a few weeks back and here in Penang, majority of the people will have steamboat for their reunion dinner which is the meal on the eve of the Lunar New Year. However, we did not have any steamboat this year as we went to celebrate the occasion with my parents in Ipoh.

Then we went to KL on the 9th Day of the Lunar New Year for almost 2 weeks. During our stay in KL, my mom managed to whip up a few meals for us to enjoy. During one of the meals she boiled this really yummy Chinese cabbage soup using a particular Chinese cabbage which is only available during this festive season… well, according to her lar!

So, upon returning to Penang, I have to do some marketing to stock up for the week and I found this particular cabbage selling in Tesco. Since the weather is extremely hot here, having cabbage soup is ideal since it has a cooling effect (according to the Chinese lar).

I bought some fish maw during our pre-CNY  groceries shopping and since we did not get to use them for reunion dinner I added them into the cabbage soup instead. These gave the soup more fragrance.

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This cabbage looks a little different as compared to the regular Chinese cabbage

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Ingredients

• 1 whole Chinese cabbage peel and cit into half
• 2 sticks Carrot (cut into small blocks)
• 250g Pork ribs
• 2L Water
• 10-12 Red dates (de-seed)
• 6-8 pcs Dried oysters
• Some Dried cuttlefish
• 50g Fish maw
• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up water in a pot and put in pork ribs when it boils. Let it boil for a while and remove all the scums.
2. Add in the red dates, dried cuttlefish, dried oysters and carrot and let them boil on slow heat for about 30 minutes. Add in the Chinese cabbage and continue to boil till it is soft… approximately for another hour.
3. In a separate saucepan, boil some water and blanch the pre-soaked fish maw for about 5 minutes. Don’t have to cook too long as the gelatin will melt away.
4. When the soup is done (around 1.5 to 2 hours) add in some salt for taste and toss in the the soften fish maw for another 10 minutes on high heat. Serve.

I guess I have been neglecting this blog big time! I have been extremely busy minding my  demanding ‘boss’ and also the long stay in KL plus my cupcakes e-shoppe as business was quite good when I was in KL.

This is a dish I concocted after our meal at one of these Hong Kong Char-Chan-Teng or eateries. Bosco soup is extremely popular among the Hong Kong people. From my understanding, this particular dish/soup has something to do with the European/Portuguese influence. It tasted very much like the minestrone soup.

Normally these eateries or restaurants where this soup is served, they will use macaroni but I am cooking for little boss so I used the Alphabets noodles instead.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Alphabets noodles (boil in a separate saucepan)
• 2.5 cups Water
• 1/2 stick Carrot (cubed)
• 1/2 stick Celery (cubed)
• 1 Onion (cubed)
• 1 Tomato (removed seeds and cubed)
• 15g Silveryfish
• 2tbsp Tomato puree/paste (NOT ketchup)
• Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

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Methods

1. In a medium saucepan, saute the onion first with some oil. Then saute the carrot, celery and tomato cubes till fragrant and add in the Silveryfish and stir for a while.
2. Pour in the water, stir till it starting to boil and add the tomato puree. Let it boil for a while.
3. Drain the alphabets noodles and pour into the tomato soup and continue to let it boil for a further 5 minutes or so. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
4. Sprinkle some dried herbs before serving.