Winter Melon, Sweetcorn & Pork Ribs Soup

The weather for the past few weeks had being so hot and humid that we really need to have some cooling soup to cool down our body system. While chatting with one of the mum of my boy classmate, she was sharing with us on some of her daily soup that she made for her family. One of the key ingredients that she often use for soup is "Winter Melon - 冬瓜", which we rarely cooked in our household.

Accordingly to some housewife myth, Winter Melon is used to boil soup with pork ribs or other herbs for cooling purpose such as quenches thirst and expel summer Heat. Whereas Huai Shan whets the appetite and strengthens the Spleen while Gou Qi Zi improves eyesight and promotes blood cell formation so these two mild herbs are suitable for the whole family. The use of carrots can also lower the blood glucose, invigorate the Spleen too. On the other hand, Corn is rich in many kinds of Vitamin B and C, thus preventing vascular sclerosis.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
1 Round Piece of Winter Melon(冬瓜), around 150 - 200g
300g of Pork Ribs
100g Fresh Huai Shan(淮山)
1 Small Carrot, cut into 1" thick
1 Corn(玉米), cut into 3 sections
5 Red Dates(红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon of Wolfberries(枸杞子)
1.5 Litre of Boiling Water

Method:
1. Roughly peel off the outer skin of the winter melon, scrap off the seed, rinse and cut into 2" rectangle cubes size.
2. Repeat the same procedure for the fresh huai shan and set aside.
3. Blanched the pork ribs in boiling water for about 30 seconds, rinse and set aside.
4. Bring the pot of water (1.5 litres) to boil, add in the pork ribs, winter melon, huai shan, carrot, corn and red dates to boil for about 5 minutes.
5. Transfer the pot of soup to slow cooker and cook on AUTO for at least 2 hrs. Add in wolfberries 30 minutes before cooking time.
6. Or if you don't have any slow-cooker at home, you can simmer the soup on the stove for about 45 minutes on low heat.


So why not try to whip out this cooling soup for your family during this hot and humid weather to quench their thirst as well as build up their immune system. I am sure this will be a great soup for kids as the adding of carrot and corn gives this soup it's nature sweetness as well as that extra flavour.

Happy Kampong Seafood

Happy Kampong Seafood located in a coffee shop somewhere near the road junction of 81 Jalan Malu-Malu where they are a lot of terrace/semi-detached house. This coffee shop had being there for more than a decade or so and other the "Zhi Char - 煮 炒", this coffee shop also has a very popular Prawn Noodles stall which opens from morning till lunch hours.

This coffee shop is always crowded with customers as early as 5.30pm during weekends. From a glance of it, they have rather about 25 tables range from 4 to 10 seats. And sometime during festive season such as Chinese New Years, they even have wide varieties of seafood which is available for your choice.

Today's dinner we bring mum to try their signature Nonya -style Fish Head Curry which is common dish found on each patronisers table. The fish is very fresh and sweet in taste which goes well with their special nonya sauce. The fish head is pre-steam till done before they braise it with some lady finger, tomato, pineapple cubes and special sauce. It costs about S$18.00 for half a fish head.

We also try one of their egg dish which is this "Furong Dan". The inner layer consists of shredded red onion, carrot and chilli and shrimp which is being covered by a layer of egg skin. Usually you can find different fillings for this egg dish, some stall even add in "Char Siu - Roasted Pork(叉烧)", capsicum, minced meat and etc.

This "Braised Homemade Doufu With Gingko Nut" is also one of their signature dish too. The doufu which they made into rectangle-block symbolised like a "gold bar" in this dish. We love the texture of the doufu which is so silky and smooth and it goes pretty well with the sauce which is made from their special broth. The combination spinach, gingko nut and doufu makes this a healthy dish to crave for.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATED: 22 November 2011
 
Happy Kampong Seafood has shifted from Sembawang to 164 Tagore Lane, Singapore 787572, Reservation: +65 6755 1018 .

Breakfast Delux @ McDonald

Recently, McDonald has extend their weekend/public holiday breakfast hour to 12pm instead of the usual 11am. So that means for those who wish to sleep late during weekends will still have a chance to grab some of their favourite McDonald breakfast before lunch.

And for those who can't decided on whether "Big Breakfast" Or "Hotcake" for Breakfast, this new "Breakfast Delux" with two hotcake, scramble egg, meat pattie and muffin will be a great combination for you.

Sakae Kid's Bento

This coming Sunday 28 February 2010 will mark the last day of Chinese New Year which lasted for 15 days. And according to Chinese Tradition, the 15th Day of Chinese New Year is also known as the "Yuan Xiao Jie - 元宵节" where all the family members will get together and have a bowl of sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in soup which is called "汤圆" to symbolise the harmony of the family. So before the ending of the Chinese New Year, Joyce and us decided to go for another round of our favourite "荣" Yu Sheng - 鱼生 at Sakae before it ends on Sunday.

While waiting for our "Yusheng - 鱼生" to be served, Rey ordered a set of Train Bento from the Kiddy Menu after much consideration on what to choose. This is the 2nd time we have tried their kid's bento since the 1st time in a few years back. The Train set that rey ordered consists of a Elmo Rice Ball that is filled with sandwich tuna, Fries, Tempura and Chicken Karaage. And all kiddy meals are served with a bottle of Yakult. But when the bento arrived, all of us were shocked on the outlook of the Elmo. It seems like the set shown on the menu is very different from what we get....... and the Chicken Karaage are also over cooked as it is sort of tough and cold to taste. End up, Rey didn't eat much of the bento instead he picked up two plate of his favourite Tamago Sushi to fill his tummy and leave the Train Set for me and Joyce to finish up.

Finally our STAR for today's lunch is here...... This is my either 5th or 6th "Rong Yusheng" for this year..... and today's ingredients are very fresh on look as well as taste. After this, we will have to wait till next year Chinese New Year in 2011 before we will have another chance to taste "Yu Sheng" again..........So once again, I wish everyone a Happy and Prosper Chinese New Year!!!! Huat ah!!!! Lastly I wish to thank Candice and Sakae Sushi for giving me a chance to be part of their e-journalist for the past 6 months too.

Double-Boiled Tian Qi With Pork Muscle

Mum's hand is still not recovering quiet well despite of the doctors/methods that she tried to speed up the recovery. She often felt that her right hand fingers are not as flexible as what they are before the injury. She has being visiting one of this famous Chinese Physician in Chinatown area and according to the Physician, she advised my mum to boil this "Tian Qi With Pork Muscle" soup to regulate the blood, heals bruises and alleviating pain.

Since Mum's hand is still not well to lift heavy things or doing the washing and etc, I volunteer to help her prepare the soup according to what the Chinese Physician suggested. Since "Tian Qi - 田七" is usually consumed by man instead of woman due to it's nature of medical value. And for my mum's age of 50+, the physician advised her to divide 38g( 一两) into 3 cooking portion.

"Tian Qi - 田七" is sweet in taste but with a hint of bitterness and it is also warm in nature. This herb helps to promotes blood circulation, stops bleeding, ease bruises and swelling while killing pain. It is commonly prescribed to cure external swelling, bruises or sprains which is just the correct symptom that my mum is facing at the moment.

This soup might contain a lot of side ingredients in order to neutralized the taste of the Tian Qi. According to the Medical Store owner where I bought the Tian Qi from, she advised me to add in around 1/2 Tablespoon of "American Ginseng/Pao Shen - 泡参片" in order to build up the "QI" regulation in her body.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
3 Pork Muscles
9g Tian Qi(田七片)
1/2 Tablespoon Pao Shen(泡参片)
5g YuZhu(玉竹)
5g Huai Shan(淮山)
4 Large Red Dates (红枣)
1 Tablespoon Dried Longan(龙眼干)
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞子)
750ml Water

Method:
1. Trim the pork muscles, rinse and blanched in boiling water for about 3 minutes, remove, rinse and set a side.
2. Rinse the herbs, except the wolfberries and set aside.
3. Next bring the 750ml water to boil in a small saucepan, add in the herbs(except wolfberries) and the pork muscles. When the water come to boil again, lower the heat and simmer for another 5 minutes.
4. Transfer all the ingredients and soup to a double-boiler which you have placed in the slow-cooker(remember to fill hot water in the inner-pot of the slow-cooker to at least 3/4 high, you can refer to the photos on how I placed the pot in the slow-cooker HERE).
5. Let the soup cooked in the slow-cooker on AUTO mode for about 3 hours, add in wolfberries in the last 20 minutes or so.
6. You can served this soup before meal or before bedtime.

Overall, this is a very flavour soup which can be consumed at least once a month or so. The adding of dried longan and red dates helps to lift up the tired soul and makes you more refreshing. By adding these two ingredients and wolfberries together they make this soup taste sweet from the hint of bitterness of the "Tian Qi" and "Pao Shen".

Preserved Sausage & Chicken Claypot Rice

Preparing "One Pot" dish is always the best and most convenient cooking method for working mum like me. Sometime when I am running out of ideas on what to cook or too lazy to do all the preparation/washing for cooking I will start thinking of my favourite one pot dish which is "Preserved Sausage & Chicken Claypot Rice".

This dish is preferred to be cooked in a claypot rather than rice-cooker or etc. Only with the claypot it will brings out the flavour and burning effect of the rice at the bottom of the pot which add on that special aroma to this dish.

Since now it is still within the Chinese New Year period (usually it last for 15 days), you can find all kinds of waxed meat/preserved sausages around some supermarket or those dried grocery stalls in the wet market. Out from the few range of "Preserved Sausage - 腊肠", I was attracted to this "XO Charcoal Sausage" which I wonder whether the sausage will have any "XO" liquor taste in it.

Ingredients: (serves 2 - 3)
1 1/2 Cup Uncooked Rice
3 Cup Water
3 Boneless Chicken Drumsticks with Thighs
1 Pair of Preserved Sausage
Some Shredded Ginger
A Few Section of Spring Onion

Marinade For Chicken:
1 Teaspoon of Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon of Corn Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Cooking Wine
1/2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
Dash of Pepper

For Garnish:
Spring Onion, cut diagonal rings
Chilli, cut into rings

Method:
1. Rinse the uncooked rice a few times and soak it with 3 cups of water (usually the amount of water is twice the amount of uncooked rice) in the claypot for about an hour or so.
2. Washed, trim away the fats and skin of the chicken, cut into bite-size pieces and marinate it with the above marinade for at least 20 minutes.
3. Cut off a little slice from the top of the preserved sausage, peel off the outer layer of the skin (we always removed the outer layer of the plastic skin before eating), cut the sausage into 0.5cm thin slices and set aside.
4. Preheat a small saucepan and saute the shredded ginger and spring onion with 1 teaspoon of oil till fragrance, add in the marinated chicken pieces and fry for about 30 second on each side or till it turn slightly brown in colour.
5. Removed and set aside for later use.
6. Cook the rice over medium heat, when the water begins to boil, lower the heat and let it cooked till the water level is almost the same as the rice, arrange the sausage on top of the rice with the half cooked chicken in the center. (you have to work fast so that the water will not dry out before you finished add the ingredients)
7. Cover the lid of the claypot and simmer the rice and meat over very low heat for about 5 - 7 minutes till the meat is cooked through.
8. When done, garnish it with extra spring onion, cut chilli and drizzle of dark soy sauce and served hot.

Note:-
~ The reason that I pan-fry the chicken pieces is to shorten the cooking time and at the same time enhance the flavour of the chicken.

For those who love one pot dish, I am sure this will be a quick and easy dish for you. And instead of having this all-time flavour at those stalls outside, why not try to grab some fresh ingredients and prepare this dish for you and your family instead.

Simmered Bitter Gourd & Chicken In Casserole

This "Simmer Bitter Gourd & Chicken In Casserole" is one of our favourite dish and I will be very excited whenever my mum told me that she is going to cook this for dinner. Every since my mum started to look after my boy while I was at work, she was very keen in experiment new dishes from the "Taiwan Cooking Series" which she will never missed an Episode from her Mio TV. So today, I am going to try cooking this dish with some guidelines and instructions from my mum......... :)

As you can see from the photos, you only required very basic ingredients which you can easily grab from the supermarket or some of them are even available in your fridge/pantry. The KEY ingredients for this dish are "Bitter gourd/Bitter Melon - 苦瓜" and "Fermented Black Beans - 豆豉" which both combined to bring out a cross between bitter and salty fragrance. For the meat portion, you can either used chicken wing/chicken pieces, pork ribs or even deep-fried fish slices. After all cooking is something that you can play around with the ingredients to come out with different varieties of dishes according to your liking. So for the above main ingredients and seasonings, you can whipped up at least 3 different dishes using pork, fish and chicken.

In order to have some extra flavour for the meat, it's always good to marinate it at least 20 - 30 minutes before cooking. For this simmered dish, I have pan-fried the chicken wings till slightly golden before adding them to simmer so as to pretend them from breaking up easily during simmering. The adding of chilli is to spice up and enhance the flavour of this dish, but if some of your family members cannot take spicy food, perhaps you can consider to leave chilli out or add less.

Ingredient: (serves 2 - 3)
6 Chicken Wings
1 Medium Bitter Gourd
1/2 Tablespoon Fermented Black Beans(豆豉)
1 Small Red Chilli, cut into rings
2 Slices Ginger
1 Clove Garlic, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Cooking Wine

Seasoning:
80ml Water
1 Teaspoon Oyster Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil

Method:
1. Trim the chicken wings, rinse and wipe dry. Marinate the chicken wings with 1 teaspoon each of light soy sauce, oyster sauce, corn flour and some pepper and sesame oil. (leave it in the fridge for at least 20 - 30 minutes before cooking)
2. Rinse bitter gourd, cut into vertical halves, scrape off the white pith and cut into about 2" long vertical pieces. (Rub the bitter gourd pieces with 1 teaspoon of salt for about 30 seconds and rinse off as the salt will help to reduce the bitterness)
3. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in the wok, pan-fry the marinated chicken wings on both side till slightly golden, removed and set aside.
4. Next add in the chopped garlic, ginger, chilli(optional) and fermented black bean, give it a quick stir and saute them till fragrance, add in the bitter gourd pieces.
5. Keep on stirring the bitter gourd mixture for a few seconds then add in the chicken and seasoning when the mixture comes to boil, lower the heat and let it simmer(remember to cover the pot) for about 10 minutes or so till then chicken wings are cook through.
6. Removed and serve warm with rice.


I must admit, this is a very tempting dish especially it's "Sauce". I can have two bowls of rice just with this dish alone whenever my mum cooked it. And now mum is kind of jealous that I can also whipped out the same dish as her :p

Bitter Gourds are very low in calories but rich with precious nutrients such as an excellent source of vitamins, folic acid, zinc and also it has high dietary fiber. This fruit is rich in iron which contains twice the beta-carotene of broccoli and twice the calcium of spinach. If you don't like to eat the fruit perhaps you can considering boiling some "Bitter Gourd Pork Ribs Soup - 苦瓜排骨汤" for this hot weather.....

Famous Crab King @ Marina South Pier

Time past really fast during festive season, last Sunday we just had our Reunion Dinner @ Si Chuan Dou Hua and today we are having another New Year lunch organised by Aunty Lily's family @ this "Famous Crab King Seafood Restaurant" which is located at "Marina South Pier - 滨海南码头".

"Famous Crab King - 强盛海鲜楼" has two branches in Singapore which is located in Toa Payoh Industrial Park and Marina South Pier. According to those who frequent these branches, they do have a solid reputation for providing fresh, quality food at reasonable prices. Marina South Pier branch is located on second storey of the pier and it's has an excellent view on the harbour despite you are dinning in the air-conditioning room or balcony view which you can enjoy the sea breeze/scenic while having your meal.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, we find that the dinning atmosphere was great with the harbour view clearly seen from the inside of the restaurant as well. Beside the that, they also have a few tanks of live seafood showcase at a corner near the kitchen area.

As usual, since it is still within the first 15 days of Chinese New Year, the custom of serving "Yusheng - 鱼生" as the starter of the meal still continued. The Yusheng here is quiet different from the usual one that we have, especially on their ingredients. From the name " Salmon Raw Fish Yu Sheng With Snow Pear - 水晶雪梨发财鱼生", you will be wondering how is the "Snow Pear - 雪梨" being incorporate into the Yusheng. To our surprised, they actually replace the white radish with shredded snow pear, and also some colourful "tadpole" eggs like sago which you don't really find in other Yusheng outside. So we give this dish about 8/10 for it's taste, colour and self-made crispy bites too...

While waiting for other dishes to be served, Rey and I went out to the balcony area where we can have a better view of the harbour. "Marina South Pier - 滨海南码头" is located in Marina South(used to be the place where people will gather around for steamboat, kite flying and etc during weekends) which is used as a terminal for tourists and day trippers who are boarding small boats and ferries heading for the Southern Islands. This pier was built to replace Clifford Pier since April 2006 to provide regular ferries to Kusu Island and Saint John's Island operate daily.

Em... This dish look sort of like "Pai Gu Wang - 排骨王" at first glance, but accordingly to my cousin, this is one of their famous signature dish known as " Pan Fried Pork Chop In Sweet & Sour Sauce - 翡翠香酥肉". The pork chop is very tender, juicy and fill with the aroma of the sauce. Most important, it does not taste/smell of those porky taste. This sure goes well with a bowl of steam rice.........

I love this " Braised Assorted Mushroom with Beancurd in Abalone Sauce - 鲍汁鲜菌豆腐". The outer layer of the doufu is crispy while the inner layer is soft and moist, accompany with the assorted mushroom and abalone sauce on top really enhance the flavour of the doufu. Other than these, this dish also served with some blanch "Spinach - 菠菜" on the side and the mushroom sauce goes really well with spinach.

Guess what, this is one of our all time favourite, "Deep Fried Prawns with Cereal - 麦片虾". Cousin was indeed very thoughtful that he actually give instruction to the chef to remove the shell of the prawns before stirring it through the cereal mixture. The cereal for this dish is nicely fried with that great aroma and the colour is still remains as light golden instead of over cooked/burnt. Overall, everyone of us give praise to this dish.

Em... this is the 4th Roast Chicken that I had for Chinese New Year dish. I still wondering why they must used roasted chicken instead of steam...........guess maybe is due to it's golden colour after deep-fried. I find this is rather a special dish that drizzle some combination of "Garlic, Spring Onion and White Onion" mixture on top of the roast chicken. But half of us still think that this combination should be placed on steam chicken instead of roast chicken so as to let the chicken absorb the fragrant and taste of the mixture.

Here comes the "Stars" of today's menu. We have two Crab dishes that is cooked in different method. First to come is their signature crab dish known as " Pumpkin Custard Crab - 金瓜奶黄蟹". I have read a few good review from magazine about this dish and today finally I got a chance to look and taste it. The pumpkin custard taste great with the deep-fried "Man Tou - 馒头", the sauce does not over powder by the pumpkin taste and they really combined well with the crab.

Next they served the "Fried Crab With Custard & Salted Yolk - 金沙奶油蟹" which is arranged in a very unique way that most of us have not seen before. They actually stacked up the pieces one by one on top of the crab shell to form a tall tower. This can be consider as one of the best Salted Egg Crab that I had tried before, the combination of the sauce is great, not too salty, not too sweet. Everything is just well combined and the crab pieces is nicely fried and overall we loved these two crab dishes. We do recommend you to give these a try if you do love crab too....

Lastly, cousin also ordered one of my brother's favourite dish which is this "Stewed Ee-Fu Noodle with Yellow Chives - 菲皇焖伊面". Accordingly to the dish, it supposed to be stewed with Yellow Chives, but when the dish is served we find there is a lot of assorted mushroom in it instead of yellow chives. I guess maybe they are out of stock for chives so they replaced it with mushroom instead....... The texture of the noodle is ok, but the taste of the sauce is not really good, still can have some room for improvement on this dish.

Finally, it's dessert time...... I have being waiting for dessert as usual. But I was kind of disappointed when they didn't served the "Chilled Mango Cream with Pomelo - 杨枝甘露" and replaced it with this "Red Bean Cream with Lotus Seeds - 莲子红豆沙". This red bean cream was kind of diluted rather than the creamy texture, and guess the serving waiter is either kind of new or he is simply not doing his job well as some of the bowl is only half filled and with too many lotus seeds while some bowls are empty with just the red bean soup instead.

Overall this place is still great for it's dish at a reasonable price if you wish to find some seaside view for dinning. Or if you are hanging around at "Marina Barrage - 滨海堤坝" area, perhaps you would also like to drop by for lunch/dinner which is less than 5 minutes drive from the Barrage. To get to Marina South Pier, you can either drive or travel by MRT to Marina Bay Station, and take bus service number 402 outside the station.