Stuffed Creamy Chicken & Vegetables Soup In Loaf

This is a very easy and quick to prepare meal. You can either use the it to stuff into a loaf or as a sauce for spaghetti or baked rice and it can be served in anytime of the day like breakfast or dinner.

The ingredients used can be varies from individual preference. Like you can choose any type of mushrooms like button mushroom, shiitaka mushroom or even can mushroom. You can add in celery if you prefer or change the soup base to corn, mushroom or pumpkin etc.....

For this meal, I stuffed all the cook ingredients into a pre-baked medium French loaf and serve with some extra fruits to make it more colourful and appetizing.

Ingredients:
3-4 Medium French Loaf
1/2 Chicken Breast
1/4 Broccoli
10-15 Baby Potato, cut into halves
1 Small Carrot, cut into cubes
1/2 Brown Onion, cut into small wedges
8-10 Mushroom, cut into quarter
500ml Instant Creamy Soup(2 packets or 1/2 can)
300ml Water

Methods:
1. Wash, trim and cut the chicken breast into small cubes. Marinate it with some white pepper, soy sauce and cornstarch and set aside in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. Wash, peel and cut the potato, carrot, mushroom and onion into small bite size.
3. Cut the broccoli into small florets and soaked in water for about 15 minutes, rinse and blanch in hot water, rinse and set aside.
4. Prepare the instant soup(I used Campbell instant cream of mushroom and chicken) according to the cooking instruction stated.
5. Preheat a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, saute the chicken pieces(coat with some extra cornstarch first) until golden brown then add in the brown onion and mushroom.
6. Keep on stirring until fragrant then add in the carrot and potato and saute for 1 - 2 minutes then add in the prepared soup and bring to boil.
7. When boiled, lower the heat and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes on low heat until the potatoes and carrots are tender. (stir the soup on and off to prevent it from sticking to the pot)
8. Lastly add in the blanch broccoli florets and stir till combined. Remove the pot from the stove and sprinkle some extra pepper on top.

Assemble The Loaf:
1. Put the loaf either in the oven or toast for 1 minutes to make it abit crisp and hard.
2. Use a sharp knife to cut the top 3/4 off so that it resemble like a box with opening, then dig out all the fresh to make it hollow. Repeat for the rest of the loaf.
3. Put hollow loaves into the toaster or oven again to bake for another 3-5 minutes until crispy and harden.
4. Remove, spread a thin layer of margarine on it then scoop the chicken & vegetables soup into it and serve immediately.

Thai-style Deep-fry Doufu

I had eaten this "Thai-style Deep-fry Doufu" twice from the Sembawang SAF Yacht Club restaurant. I love the crispness of the fried doufu with the sweet and spicy Thai sauce. It's really amazing how this simple doufu dish can be so appetizing.

Doufu(豆腐) or bean curd is a food of Chinese origin, made by coagulating soy milk, and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks. The making of doufu from soy milk is similar to the technique of making cheese from milk.


For soft silken doufu (嫩豆腐) or soy beancurd(豆花) the soy milk is curdled directly in the doufu's selling package. For standard firm Asian doufu, the soy curd is cut and strained of excess liquid using cheese cloth or muslin and then lightly pressed to produce a soft cake. Firmer doufu, such as Asian dry doufu(荳乾) are further pressed to remove even more liquid. The doufu curds are allowed to cool and become firm

Doufu is low in calories, contains beneficial amounts of iron (especially important for women of child bearing age) and has no cholesterol (a risk factor for heart disease). Depending on the coagulant used in manufacturing, the doufu may also be high in calcium (important for bone development and maintenance) and magnesium (especially important for athletes).

Ingredients:
1 Packet of Pressed Doufu,板豆腐
3-4 Tablespoon Cornstarch
1 Beaten Egg

Methods:
1. Soaked the whole box of doufu in water for about 1-2 hours(this is to harden to doufu for deep-frying purpose).
2. Remove the doufu from the packing then cut into 12 equal pieces then use kitchen paper towel to dry it well.
3. Next coat the doufu pieces with some cornstarch then dip in beaten egg and coat with cornstarch again.
4. Set it aside for 1-2 minutes before deep-frying it in hot oil for 2 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Drain and set aside.

Ingredients For Salad Base:
1 Japanese cucumber
1 Medium Carrot
1 Red Apple/Mango
1 Medium Tomato, cut into wedges
Rind Of 1 Lemon

Methods:
1. Wash all the above, shred them finely, mix well and place in a mixing bowl.
2. Set aside in the fridge while you prepare the doufu.

Sweet & Spicy Sauce:
2 Tablespoon Thai-style Sweet Chilli Sauce
2 Small Red Chilli, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Drinking Water
2 Tablespoons Thai Fish Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Cloves Of Garlic, finely grated
Juice Of Half Lemon
1/2 Tablespoon Finely Chopped Coriander

Methods:
1. Mix all the above ingredients together in a small bowl and stir till well combined.
2. Set aside for later use.(you can prepare it ahead and place in the fridge)

Assemble The Dish:
1. Remove the salad from the fridge, place it as a base on the serving plate.
2. Arrange the tomato wedges around the plate, drizzle 1/4 of the sweet & spicy sauce on the salad.
3. Place the fried doufu on top of the salad base, then drizzle the rest of the sauce evenly on the doufu and serve hot.

Notes:
You can use any vegetables for the salad base as you prefer.

If you don't like the garlic smell, you can omit it from the sauce. And if you prefer a hotter sauce, you can add more chopped chillies.

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)