Double-Boiled Huai Shan Chicken Soup

A bowl of warm and hearty soup is always a great comfort food for rainy season like these few weeks. After a long day at work, having a bowl of homecook soup is always such a blessing in life. For me, I am very particular about soup and I must have soup at least thrice a week. I believed a bowl of homecook soup consists of all kind of nourtition and will helps strengthen our body and prevent diseases as well as common sickness.

Soups can be made in different ways such as double-steamed(double-boiled), slow boiled and quick boiled. In this modern society, most of the households are equipped with more advance availability of alternative cooking utensils that can shorten the cooking process but yet retain its natural flavour.

Like I have used to share in most of my "Soup Posts", Red Dates and Wolfberries are some very common Chinese Herbs ingredients that can be added to our daily soup as part of the ingredients for flavouring. Today's main ingredient is "Huai Shan - 淮山" or sometime which is also refer to as "Shan Yao - 山药". Fresh Huai Shan is mostly sold in supermarkets or wet markets which you might not recognise the fresh Huai Shan as the appearance looks very different from the dried type that are thinly slices and harden before packing. The fresh one will be found in long stick-like root form with skin intact. After peeling the outer skin, you will find it wet and excessively slimy. But don't worry, the sticky substances will disappear once it is boiled in water.

Fresh Huai Shan is nature and sweet in taste that is similar to sweet potato or potato texture when used as a soup ingredient. It benefits the Spleen, Lungs and the Kidneys and strength the health.

Ingredients: (serves 2 - 3)
2 Chicken Drumstick, with thigh attached
300g Fresh Huai Shan(淮山)
8 - 10 Big Red Dates(红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞子)
1 Honey Date (金丝蜜枣), optional
1 Litre of water

Method:
1. Wash, trim and blanched the chicken in boiling water for about 3 - 5 minutes, rinse with tap water and set aside.
2. Rinse the fresh huai shan to remove any dirt, peel the outer skin and cut the fresh into thick chunks. (fresh huai shan might feel sticky after removing the outer skin, just rinse with water and cook as per normal)
3. Bring the pot of water to boil, add in all the ingredients, except the wolfberries, when the water come to boil again, let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes on low heat.
4. Transfer the mixture to a slow cooker and cook on AUTO for about 2 hour. Add in the wolfberries on the last 30 minutes of cooking time. (or you can simmer the soup mixture over low heat on the stove for about 45 minutes to 1 hour)
5. Season with salt and serve with rice or you can use it as a soup base for noodles.

Winner For The Foodie Blogroll Contests

I was so shock and thrill to receive an email from Food Blogroll last Sunday, 14 November 09 informing me that my blog was selected as this week's winners for the Foodie Blogroll "Adaptable Feast Cookbook" giveaway!

You can get to read more about this contest at this LINK here. Now I am looking forward to receive my prize soon and that will give me the chance to share more about this book with you soon..... Once again, thank you Foodie Blogroll for this wonder Gift........

Orange Cocoa Macaron

I must sincerely apologise to all my readers and visitors from this Cuisine Paradise - Tea time blog. It had being a while since my last entry on baking or making a new items. Guess I don't really spent enough time on this "Tea-time" area. This afternoon upon my little baking pal request, I decided to bake his favour Chocolate Macaron...........

It has being really a long long time since my last baking on Macaron. I remember during year 2007, when Macaron started to be a "HOT" items on most leading cafe, a lot of food blogger or bakers started to experience on baking these "little gems". I was also one of those home baker who venture out into different flavour of Macarons (click HERE to read more) baking.

Today's flavour is a combination of Chocolate and Orange. Since my little darling requested for a Cocoa Shell, I used the Dutch Process Cocoa Powder which I got it from "Shermay Cooking School" from one of my friend who is working there. And since she wanted to make some Macaron and ask me for an easy recipe to follow, I decided to try my luck on making this "Gem" again after the years. And Thank God, this recipe still works well and the end products is still as lovely as before.

I was still quite nervous during the process of whisking the egg white and mixing of flour mixture. When the piped batter is ready to go into the oven, I was even more excited and I standby near the oven door to look at the "Feet" raising up slowly which really makes me so happy about it. I guess the process of making Macaron is to make sure that they have a nice "Feet" and most important the shell does not crack or sink. So overall I am very satisfy with this "Orange Cocoa Macaron" which sandwich with Orange scented Chocolate Ganache.

As requested by some of the readers who wants to try making their own macarons, you can refer to this link HERE. The blog author, Tartelette has a wide range of macarons recipes with great explanation on how to make the shell as well as the filling. I am sure those who are interested in this will be able to find some inspiration and help on making these beautiful gems.

Lobster Feast @ Sakae Sushi

It's another food venture time at Sakae Sushi. Today, we are going to have Seafood Melody at Sakae Sushi and everyone of us are so excited about it...... So, if you want to know more about what is going on at this Seafood feast........ Don't wait anymore, click on the Read More link now.......

Sakae Sushi at Sembawang, Sun Plaza Shopping mall is one the revamp outlet whereby they have this kids' corner which is like a small playground for kids to hang around while the parents can enjoy their meal and at the same time supervise their kids at a visible distance. Other than the kids' playground, this outlet also have a little conveyor belt corner especially cater for kids to enjoy their version of kids' sushi and bento.

As usual, we have to settle the kid first before our meal. Rey will always request for his favourite Tamago Nigiri to go with Ebi Tempura. And Ebi is the only item that he likes to eat as a finger food during our visit to Sakae. But sometime, he will reject this if the prawns are over-fried or the crumbs have soften by the time this dish is served to us.

This is the first time I ordered Warm Sake from Sakae Sushi. Since we are having seafood and the weather is pretty cooling due to the raining season, we thought maybe we can get a bottle of this to warm up our stomach before the meal. And according to their Beverages menu there are 3 different types of Sake that you can choose from. The taste of the Sake that is quite similar to the Chinese Rice Wine - 米酒 which is sweet and fragrance. But at a glance you might thought it look more like plain water than wine........

From their promotion pamphlet on the weekend Teppanyaki, whenever you order any set menu, you are entitled to purchase 1 Fresh Oyster which is direct air-flown from France at a special price of S$1.50 each. So with this great deal,on hand, we decided to get two. One which is raw while the other I choose to have it grill with white sauce. But whichever method it served, both are great for it's taste.

We ordered the special promotion on Boston Lobster Set for 2 which comes with these following dishes as well as salad, rice and miso soup. The first side-dish to set on the table is this 4 Half-shell Scallops that are cooked with special sauce and minced garlic.

A plate of Assorted Stir-fry Vegetables which consists of mushroom, assorted beansprouts, onion and minced garlic. We love the crunchiness of this stir-fry vegetable which is fresh and not over-cooked.

I am not sure how they prepared this chicken dishes, to me it taste sweet and somehow rather like honey chicken or maybe grill chicken pieces with Teriyaki Sauce. But this is another dish that goes well with their Japanese short-grain rice and miso soup.

Here comes the STAR of tonight's dish which is the Boston Lobster. The chef divides the lobster into a 3 different parts and served it in different cooking methods. First to be served on the table is these two huge Lobster Claws which they thoughtful crack the hard shell into easier breakable parts that allows us to eat the meat easily. I must confess that even at the claws part, the meat is sweet and tender.

The Lobster head is chop into smaller portion and simmered in an aluminum foil to cook into a savoury Lobster broth. The broth was fragrance and full of flavour and goodness that are released from the sweetness of the lobster meat.

Out of the 3 different cooking method and portion of the Lobster, I guess most of you will aim on this Lobster Tail which is cooked with a kind of creamy sauce that consists of butter, mayonnaise and herbs. The meat is so succulent and each bites is full of satisfactory from the combination of the sauce. Although this set costs around S$49.90, I guess it is still worth the price for the taste of the freshness of this Boston Lobster which you can eat from Head to Tail.

After a hearty meal, it will be great to end with something sweet and luxury..... So we decided to order a Tempura Ice-Cream which is hot on the outer skin but cold and creamy inside. This is absolutely a great dessert to accompany those wine, seafood, vegetable and meat.......