8 Treasure Chicken Soup - 八宝鸡汤

I am sure you heard of "8 Treasure Porridge-八宝粥", "8 Treasure Rice-八宝饭" or even "8 Treasure Chicken/Duck-八宝鸡". So for my 8 Treasure Chicken Soup-八宝鸡汤 is to add another collection to you treasure box......This soup is good to calms spirit and smooth the intestines function and clear constipation. It also promote and ease urine flow. It's a very good soup for the whole family especially for those who are suffering for minor stress. To know more information of each herbs, you can click on the Basic Chinese Herbs link.


Ingredients:
2-3 Chicken Drumsticks
20g Dried Lily Bulbs, 百合
20g Fox Nut,茨实
20g Lotus Seeds, 莲子/湘莲
20g Chinese Barley,中国薏米
10-12 Fresh Gingko Nuts,白果
3-4 Red Dates,红枣
1/2 Tablespoon Guo Qizi,枸杞子
150g Fresh Huai Shan,鲜淮山

Methods:
1. Wash, trim and blanch the chicken in boiling water, drain and set aside.
2. Wash and peel the fresh huai shan then cut into 3 thick sections.
3. Rinse and drain the rest of the dried herbs and set side.
4. Bring 1.5 litres of water to boil, add in all the herbs and chicken then bring to boil again.
5. Transfer to a slow cooker and simmer on low heat for about 2 hours.
6. Season with salt and serve.

Notes:
If you do not have fresh huai shan, then replace it with 4 - 5 slices of dried huai shan.

In this recipe, I used two types of dried lotus seeds, one with skin and one without.

Steam Rice Wine Chicken

I believed most of you had being to "Soup Restaurant- 三盅两件" and eaten their famous Samsui Ginger Chicken before. This steam chicken is debone and sliced up and the ginger is placed in the centre of the big plate along with a plate of fresh lettuce. The art of eating this dish is by dipping the piece of chicken meat into the ginger sauce and wrapping them with the lettuce. I love to eat this ginger chicken because of it's ginger dipping sauce. Although my "Steam Rice Wine Chicken" do come with the ginger dipping sauce, but the chicken style is a bit different. My chicken wings were marinated with some salt then drizzle with some glutinous rice wine and steam over medium heat till tender.


Ingredients:
1/2 Portion Of Chicken or 6 Chicken Wings
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
Some Sesame Oil
3-4 Slices Of Young Ginger
2 Stalk Spring Onion, cut into 5cm sections
2 Tablespoon Glutinous Rice Wine/Cooking Wine

Methods:
1. Wash and pat dry the chicken then rub it with some sesame oil and salt and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Arrange some ginger slices and spring onion on the base of the plate, place the chicken pieces on top then top with the remaining ginger and spring onion.
3. Drizzle the Rice wine on top and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes or until tender.
4. Remove from the steamer and serve with extra tomato or cucumber slices and the ginger dipping sauce.

Ginger Dipping Sauce
3" Piece Of Young Ginger
1/4 Teaspoon Of Salt
3 Tablespoon Of Cooking Oil
1 Tablespoon Finely Chopped Spring Onion, optional

Methods:
1. Wash and peel the young ginger then grate it finely and put into a small bowl.
2. Add in the chopped spring onion and salt.
3. Preheat a small pan with the oil till hot then pour into the grated ginger.
4. Stir well and set aside to cool, then transfer it to a glass bottle and put into the fridge till serve.(if you do not have any glass bottle then just cover the bowl with clingwrap)

Trio Carrot & Fish Paste Meatball Soup

Saw this original recipe from one of the cookbook call "Local Taiwan Food, 台湾小吃". In the recipe, it used pork strip instead of pork mince to coat with the fish paste. And for the soup base, they only use red and white carrot instead of the trio carrot that I used.

The process of making the fish paste meatballs is rather easy, it's sort of like the "Fuzhou Fishball, 福州鱼丸" that we had here. As you can see from the picture, I used the cookie cutter to cut out leaves and carrot shape from the carrots slices to make the soup look more appearling so that my dear son will find it interesting.


Ingredients:
200g Pork Mince/Pork Fillet
200g Fish Paste, 鱼浆
1 Medium Red Carrot, 红萝卜
1 Medium White Radish, 白萝卜
1 Medium Green Radish,清萝卜
4 Red Dates,红枣
1/2 Tablespoon Gou Qizi,枸杞子
1/4 Chinese Cabbage,白菜
1.5 Litres Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
Some White Pepper
Some Dried Shallot and Oil

Methods:
1. Marinate the pork mince with 1/2 Tablespoon Soy Sauce, 1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil, 1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine, 1/2 Tablespoon Cornstarch and 1/4 Teaspoon White Pepper for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
2. Wash and cut the carrots into small cubes or patterns that you prefer.
3. Wash the Chinese cabbage and cut into bite pieces.
4. Bring a pot with the 1.5 litres to boil, then add in the carrot pieces, red dates and gou qizi then bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes on low heat until carrot tender.
5. Roll the pork mince into small round shape then coat with the fish paste to form another round shape like the size of a fishball.(wet your hand with some water so that the fish paste won't stick to your hand)
6. Bring a small pot of water to boil, drop in the meatballs one at a time, and cook until all meatballs float up, dish and drained.
7. Bring the soup to boil again, add in the Chinese cabbage, simmer until tender then add in the meatballs and bring to boil again.
8. Season with salt and serve with some dried shallot and chopped spring onion.

Notes: If you are using pork fillet, just wash the pork, cut into thin strips then coat with fish paste and drop into the pot of boiling water and cooked until float then remove.

Steam Cod Fish With Crispy Bean

The very first time I had this similar dish is from Crystal Jade restaurant which is their famous "Steam Fish With Crispy Bean". It was very delicious to go with plain rice. But after searching almost all places for that "crispy bean,豆酥 " sauce, I finally gave up. Because I asked alot of places and they don't seems to know what is this crispy bean. Until recently, I saw one of my friend pamy's blog, she managed to find this bottle crispy bean paste in Cold Storage at Takashimaya. So without any delay, I quickly go and grab a bottle to try out this "Steam Cod Fish With Crispy Bean". Like what pamy mention, this small bottle can only used around 2 to 3 times and it's rather costly.


Ingredients:
1 Piece Of Cod Fillet, about 500g
50g Crispy Minced Bean
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Some Spring Onion and Chilli, finely chopped

Methods:
1. Rinse cod fish, pat dry and place on a plate.
2. Marinate it with salt for about 10 minutes.
3. Place cod into steamer, steam over high heat for about 10 minutes, remove.
4. Saute the crispy bean in a non-stick pan over low heat until golden and fragrant.
5. Remove and pour over onto the cod, sprinkle with some spring onion and chilli, serve hot.

Notes: Actually there is another type of crispy minced bean(豆酥) which is sold in a ball shape and needs to be ground before use. The finer it is ground the more flavourful the taste it. But too bad, we can't really find it in Singapore. For those who know where to get it, please kindly leave me a message. Thanks.