Lotus Root, Pumpkin & Pearl Bean Soup

Look at these beans, they look beautiful right? I love to add some of these Pearl Beans while cooking soup for the family. It will add a nutty flavor and creamy texture to the soup but then since it will get cook and turn soft pretty fast, you can only add them into the soup 20 minutes before the soup is done. Do not add too early or else you won't be able to find the whole bean itself.


It had being a long time ever since I used this little jewels in my soup. So today, since I had found some fresh and lovely Pearl Bean Pods in the market, I decided to use it together with some Pumpkin and Lotus Roots to make this wonderful nutty and hearty soup.

Ingredients:
300g Pork Ribs
1 Medium Section of Lotus Roots, about 200g
10 - 15 Pearl Bean Pods (珍珠豆)
1/4 (200g) Wedge of Australia Pumpkin, cut into thick chunk
1 Medium Carrot, peel and cut into thick slices
5 Red Dates(红枣 )
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞子)
4 - 6 Cloves Of Garlic
2 Slices Of Ginger

Methods:
1. Wash and trim the pork ribs then scald in boiling water and rinse again.
2. Wash, peel and cut the lotus roots into thin slices.
3. Remove the beans from the pods and rinse well.
4. Heat up the a soup pot with some oil, then saute the ginger and garlic till fragrant then add in the pork ribs, lotus roots and carrot, stir and saute for another 2 - 3 minutes on very low heat.
5. Add about 1.5 litres of water and bring it to boil.
6. Simmer the soup for about 30 minuter then add in the pumpkin and pearl beans and continue to simmer for another 20 - 30 minutes
7. Season it with salt or stock cubes according to your preference.

Notes:
a) I use the Australia Pumpkin which is more Orange in colour and sweeter compare to the local pumpkin which is more towards the yellowish colour side.
b) You can replace pork ribs with lean meat or chicken according to your preference.

Cod Fish Rice

Reyon and I having this for our Mother's Day Dinner. This is one of Reyon's favourite "1 Dish Meal" despite that he is not really keen on fish. There is two different way that you can make this dish depend on which type you prefer?


As usual I cooked the rice using the soup base instead of water so that Reyon will get most of the nutrition from the soup. Then I coat the marinated fish fillet with cornflour then pan-fry in until golden brown and almost cooked through then I place it on top of the bubbling rice and let it continue to cook through so that the fish oil and fragrant will combine well with the rice.

Ingredients:
1 Or 2 pieces Of Cod Fish Fillet, without bone part
1/2 Tablespoon Of Cooking Wine
1 Teaspoon of Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Of Cornflour
3-4 Slices Of Ginger

Methods:
1. Wash and pat dry the fish fillet then marinate it with cooking wine, soy sauce and then coat it with cornflour.
2. Preheat a frying pan with some oil then saute the ginger slices until fragrant then add in the fish, skin side down.
3. Saute it for about 2 minutes till almost golden brown then turn over and repeat the same thing until both side are golden in colour.
4. Place the almost cook fish fillet on top of the bubbling rice which is half way through the cooking time.
5. Leave the fish fillet in the rice cooker until the rice is done.
6. Serve warm with some cucumber and tomato slices. (you can choose to drizzle it with extra BBQ sauce or tomato sauce on the fillet)

Note:
You can replace Cod Fish with Snapper or Salmon depend on your preference.

Our Pre-Mother's Day Dinner

Tomorrow is 11 May 2008 is once a year Mother's Day so my little Darling Reyon insists that we will have these for dinner today to celebrate Mother's Day. Early in the morning, he asked me to go market and buy some fresh prawns to make his favourite Deep-fry Breaded Prawns and some other ingredients to make the ABC Pork Ribs Soup.


ABC Pork Ribs Soup consists of carrot, potato, corn and pork ribs. Reyon loves this soup because of it's natural sweetness and fragrant taste. I purposely boiled extra amount of this soup and use it as a base to cook it with rice so that the white rice will taste even nicer.

Ingredient:
500g Pork Ribs
2 Medium Potato, cut into big chunks
1 Medium Carrot, cut into thick slices
1 Sweet Corn, cut into section
2 Garlic Cloves, lightly smashed
3 Shallots(small red onion), thinly sliced

Methods:
1. Wash and trim the pork ribs then blanch it in boiling water for about 5 minutes, removed and rinse with water then set aside.
2. Use a soup pot, add about 1/2 tablespoon of oil and saute the shallot and garlic for about 2 minutes then add in the carrot, potato and pork ribs and continue to saute till fragrant on low heat for about 5 minutes.
3. Add in about 1 litre of water and bring it to boil then add in the corns.
4. Let it simmer for about 25 - 30 minutes then season it with salt if prefer.(i add in 1/4 of the chicken stock cube)

Notes:

a) I replace the water for cooking rice with the above soup stock to make the rice more fragrant.

This is another one of Reyon's favourite deep-fry food other than chicken wing and nuggets. He loves either traditional Tempura Prawn or this type of Breaded Prawns. He can eat either 3 or 4 of this prawns for his usual meal.

Ingredients:
6 - 8 Medium Size Prawn, shell and devein
3 Tablespoons of Corn Flour
1 Beaten Egg
5 Tablespoons Dry Breadcrumbs(might need more)
Oil For Deep-frying

Methods:
1. Remove the shell from the prawns and keep the tail portion, try to snip two cuts at the base of the prawn so that the prawn will not curl up when deep-fry.
2. Next dry the prawns with kitchen paper towel well so that it will not have any water for safer frying.
3. Coat the prawn with cornflour then deep in beaten egg then coat with breadcrumbs and back to beaten egg then breadcrumbs again then set aside. (you can refer to a similar example here as in cornfour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs)
4. Make sure that the oil is hot before you drop in the coated prawns. Fry a few prawns at a time to avoid over crowded.
5. Fry the prawns till golden brown at medium heat for about 2 - 3 minutes.
6. Drained them well on kitchen paper towel and serve hot so that they will be crispy and nice.

Notes:
a) Select those with hard shell and firm meat type.
b) Remember to dry the prawn really well so that you can achieve a more crispy texture while deep-frying.

Lastly, I want to wish all my blog pals and reader especially those who are already mummy, I sincerely Wish You a HAPPY MOTHER's DAY............