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.

Parents World - July & August Issue

Wow.. just received my latest issue of Parents World for July & August. I was so busy these few weeks that I totally forgot about this bi-montly Parents' and Kids' magazine that I have contributed my recipes with. This month cover page mum is Cecilia Cheung, one of the beautiful Hong Kong Celebrities whom most of us known of.

In this issue you will find a lot of interesting stuffs and factors that might trigger your curiosity of grabbing a copy of it. And further more, my recipes for this issue will be "Buttermilk Pancakes With Strawberry Mint Sauce" which is great for breakfast or tea-time.

Follow by this "Claypot Ginseng Chicken Rice" which I come out with from the idea of Steam Herbal Chicken. And there is another kiddy porridge which is "Cod Porridge with Lotus Seeds & Wolfberries" which is not shown here. But if you are interested in these recipes do check out the copy in your kids' school bag which they might have a complimentary copy from school or you can grab at copy at most 7-11 stores and newsstands. Thank you for your support.

Double-Boiled Egg White & Milk In Coconut

I saw this fresh and beautiful Thai Young Coconut during my market trip this morning and on first sight, I told myself that I am going to make a new dessert from it. As I always heard from my mum who has tried the "Double-boiled hashima and egg whites in coconut" dessert Crystal Jade Kitchen. I decided to come out with my very own version of "Double-Boiled Egg White & Milk With In Coconut".

Coconuts are the fruit of the coconut palm, it has many food uses, including milk, meat, sugar and oil as well as functioning as its own dish and cup. From research, it shows that coconut water is also More Nutritious than whole milk as it contain Less fat and NO cholesterol! As you can see from the photo, the main ingredients that I used are Young Coconut Juice and Flesh, Egg White, Fresh Milk and some wolfberries for colour contrast and sweetness.

Ingredient:
1 Thai Young Coconut
Egg White From 2 Medium Egg
100ml Coconut Juice
70ml Fresh Milk
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries
1.5 Teaspoon Sugar
1/2 Red Date, for garnish

Method:
1. Dissolve the sugar in the coconut juice over low heat in a pot, then set aside to cool. (You can use microwave to cook on High 30 second)
2. Use a small knife to life the lip of the coconut, slow not to break it fully open, leave a small gape so the you will be able to cover it back while double-boiled.
3. Use a spoon carefully scrape the flesh from the inner shell and set aside for later use.
3. Whisk the egg whites briefly, then mix in the milk and pour in the cool coconut juice solution.
4. Strain into a bowl, then pour it back into the coconut shell.
5. Stir in 3/4 of the wolfberries and coconut flesh then cover the lip, place the coconut in a deep bowl or place it directly in the pot of boiling water and double-boiled for about 20 minutes.
6. Open the lid after 10 minutes, scatter the remaining 1/4 of wolfberies and coconut flesh and top with half of the red date in the middle.
7. Cover the lip back and continue to steam over medium heat for another 10 minutes. (Open the lip at a 5 minutes interval)
8. Remove the whole bowl from heat and remain cover for 2 minutes before serving.
9. You can either serve warm or cold.


Note:
a) I bought the Thai Young Coconut from Shop And Save or you can get it from most supermarket at less than $2.00 each. (Try to find the one with a nice lid so that u can cover it while double-boiled)
b) The texture of this dessert might not very pudding like, sometime it might be more on the soft or liquid side depend on the kind of milk you used and the steaming technique.


This is a very refreshing and fragrant dessert. The moment when I opened the lip, the aroma of the coconut essence is so wonderful. You should give this a try if you love coconut and it's a very good beauty dessert too... :p

Frog & Pumpkin Porridge

This is one of Rey's favourite weekend lunch that I always prepared for him either on Saturday or Sunday. The method is more or less the same but then I will rotate on the ingredients depend on what he prefer during that week. Our "little master" will tell me what he wants for the day before we headed for marketing. Today's menu might sounds a bit "yucky" to some of you because of the use of "Fresh Frog". But in Asian country like Singapore, Frog porridge is very commonly found in most household where the elderly will choose it to cook porridge for kids.

Since Rey is a picky eater who don't really eat meat or vegetable on it's own. We have to work on ways to get things into his mouth, so the most easier way that both me and my mum will do is to put everything into the porridge and serve it to him as one dish meal. This is a very nutritious porridge which consists of his favourite pumpkin and potato.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
3 Pieces of Pork Ribs
1 Fresh Frog(田鸡), skin removed
60g of Pumpkin, without skin
1 Medium Potato, cut into quarters
Some Red Dates & Wolfberries
1/2 Cup Uncooked Rice
600ml - 800ml Water

Method:
1. Pre-wash the rice and soak with some water for about 30 minutes, this is enable the rice to soften and cook faster.
2. Wash and clean the pork ribs and fresh frog then blanch them in boiling water for a about 3 minutes, rinse and set aside.
3. Next bring about 600ml of water to boil then add in the pork rib, frog meat, potato cubes, red dates and wolfberries and let it bring to boil again then simmer for about 15 minutes over low heat.
4. Add in the rice(drained well 1st) and pumpkin(don't cut into small pieces, leave it as it is) let it simmer accordingly until the rice is done to your liking.
5. Season it with some salt and sesame oil if you prefer then serve.


My boy love the pumpkin to be mashed together in the porridge and serve with the soft cooked potato. Usually I cooked this dish with Cod fish but for a change today, I replace the Cod fish with fresh frog meat.

Note:
a) I bought the fresh frog from the wet market which is already without the skin.
b) I use a small claypot to cook the porridge because we love that smooth texture compare to the normal pot.