[Recipes] Sesame Chicken Mee Suah - 麻油鸡面线

Sesame oil and ginger are two of my favourite ingredients used in my daily cooking. As a huge fan of Sesame Oil Chicken; a popular confinement dish, I am also in love with the soup version by adding mee suah (mian xian - 面线) into it. All the while this dish has become one of my comfort food whenever I need to warm up or drive out the wind in my body.

There are a few ways in preparing Sesame Chicken Mee Suah depending on individual preference. Some might use full portion of rice wine instead of water (or mixture of water and rice wine) for the soup base. Below is a quick recipe for our version.

Recipes Using D.O.M Benedictine (法国廊酒)

D.O.M Benedictine is a herbal liqueur beverage which is commonly consumed or used as an cooking ingredients by Asian woman who is on confinement during the 1st month of labor. But even on normal days this herbal liqueur can also act as a beneficial health beverage for members in the family too. In this post I am sharing two quick dishes using D.O.M which might come in handy for those who has a bottle of two idling at home.

Between don't worry about the "strong" liquor taste of D.O.M because after cooking most of the alcohol content will be evaporated leaving it with a mild "sweet" taste and fragrance gravy that is great for rice or just on it's own.

Celebrate Mid-Autumn Reunion with Swanson

 

Finally after about 2 months of preparation such as drafting, cooking, tasting and photoshoot on the dishes, my 1st set of Recipes booklet with "Swanson Clear Chicken Broth" is available at major supermarkets island wide. The launch of this Quick Meals by Swanson recipes is to enable consumers to cook up something fast and yet nutritious for the family during Mid-Autumn Reunionor anytime of the day.

In this recipes booklet it consists of 2 soup and 2 noodle dishes whereby I would share with you two of the related recipes that are available in the booklet such are:-

Kau Kee Mee Suah - 九杞面线

Kau Kee - 九杞 (wolfberry leaves) is a kind of leafy vegetables that comes in long stalks and sharp thorns on it. You can get this from most local supermarkets or tradition wet markets near your area. I normally cook this vegetable together with minced meat and egg. But in this post I am sharing another version by  transforming it into a noodle dish.

Herbal Fish Mee Suah

After a day of hectic work in the office, what would you prefer to have as a comfort food for dinner? Some home cooked soup or simple home cooked dishes? Or what about having a bowl of hearty Herbal Fish Mee Suah that top with some fish slices, soft-boiled Egg and fried shredded ginger to go with?

Mee Suah, which is usually sold in dried form, is made from rice flour and is very brittle in uncooked form as the strands are really thin. We hardly have Mee Suah at home as I always thought that it is more for confinement food cooking or elder people. But on request today, I prepared this light herbal pork ribs soup to serve with the Fish Mee Suah with an additional Soft-boiled egg.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
150g of ShengYu Slices (生鱼片)
3 Bundles of Mee Suah (面线)
4 Pieces of Spare Ribs
2 Big Red Dates (红枣)
2 Slices of Dried Huai Shan(淮山)
5 Slices of Yuzhu (玉竹)
3 – 4 Slices of Dang Gui(当归)
1 Tablespoon Wolfberries (枸杞子)
600ml - 750ml Water
2 Soft Boiled Eggs
10g of Shredded Ginger
Chopped Coriander & Spring Onion for garnish

Method:
1. Clean and wash the spare ribs then blanched in boiling water for about 5 minutes, rinse, clean and set aside for later use.
2. Marinate the fish slices with some shredded ginger and a few drops of sesame oil and light soy sauce then set aside in the fridge.
3. Bring water to boil in a stockpot, add in spare ribs, rinse herbs and half of the wolfberries.
4. Lower the heat and let it simmer over low heat for about 20 – 30 minutes until the spare ribs are tender.
5. While boiling the soup base, pre-heat a small frying pan with about 1 tablespoon of boil, sauté the shredded ginger till fragrant and golden brown, removed and set aside for garnish.
6. Blanched the marinated fish slices in boiling water for about 1 minutes till cooked, remove and set aside.
7. Using the same saucepan, bring some fresh water to boil then cooked about 1½ bundle of the mee suah for about 30 seconds or so, stir occasionally.
8. Remove and place it in a big soup bowl top with some of the remaining wolfberries, 2 spare ribs and some blanched fish slices.
9. Scoop the hot herbal soup over it and serves with some extra garnish of shredded ginger, coriander, spring onion and soft-boiled egg.
10. If you prefer, you can drizzle a few drops of sesame oil over it for extra fragrant.


Methods For Soft-Boiled Egg:
1. To prepare a soft-boiled egg, bring egg and water to boil in a saucepan then low the heat to medium low and continue to boil for about 4 minutes(for runny egg yolk) or 6 minutes(for soft and moist yolk).
2. Remove the heat from heat, peel the shell and set aside.

Em... in order to get that brownish effect for my soft-boiled egg. I actually soaked the cooked egg without shell in a bowl of dark soy sauce water for about 30 minutes or so, but the effect is still not as good as cooking it in dark soy water. And even though this soft-boiled egg is to one of my preference, I still prefer to have it under cooked for maybe another 1 minutes or so less in order to achieve that slightly runny yolk effect. I will try cooking this soft-boiled egg again for 4 minutes instead of the 6 minutes that I have done.