Posted by Eric.N
The Chinese Arrowroot Soup (粉葛湯), many people may not have heard of or taste of arrowroot or the soup. The Arrowroot is a type of root plant similar to yucca, taro or potato root plants. So you can find it in the produce sections with the potato, yucca or taro. However the arrowroot is harder in texture and it is extensively starchy than potato. When it is cut up, it has patterns on surface that looks like the ages of a tree trunk.
The arrowroot is high in protein and fiber which is very beneficial to our body. Since the arrowroot is very fulfilling, sometimes we will make good old pot of soup as substitution of our meals as well. I like to drink the soup more than eating the arrowroot actually as the soup is really sweet and tasty. We cook the soup by adding in seafood ingredients such as dried oysters and dried squids, this makes the soup so refreshing sweet with the natural sweetness from dried seafood. You can omit if you don’t like seafood, just add in more pork ribs or pork bones.
For more information of arrowroot, search in wikipedia.
Posted by Bel.C
Eric forwarded me an email with even more bitter gourd or bitter melon recipes. We are really not big fans, however it’s summer time, the weather is getting really hot. We know bitter melon is definitely one of the vegetables that could help to cool down your internal body heat. In fact it is very beneficial to your liver and stomach digestion, as well as high level of vitamin C. My coworker even taught me to blend bitter melon juice with honey for a nice cooling drink which is pretty good. I was thinking to make the drink but Eric doesn’t like it, so instead I tried one of the recipe he requested, which is the Steamed Stuffed Minced Pork with Bitter Melon (蒸苦瓜釀肉).
This recipe is similar to one of the Chinese Hakka recipe of Stuffed Tofu and other vegetables (釀豆腐), except this recipe uses only minced pork and it is steamed to cook. Basically this is an easy recipe, just mix and marinate the minced pork, then stuff it into the melon pieces and steam. The bitter melon are crisp, bitter yet so refreshing with just the natural sweet broth from the minced pork itself, no other seasoning is added. If you like, you can always make a dipping sauce with soy sauce or soy sauce paste, sugar and few drips of sesame oil, add some chili and minced garlic if desired.
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Posted by Patrick.C
I got to know more about the Thai cuisine after I came over to United States and I was fortunate enough to work as an assistant chef in a local Thai restaurant when I was in college for a summer. It was pleasant by learning to cook a lot of typical Thai food especially Thai curries! Talk about curries, I heart them. I grew up by eating a lot of curries in Malaysia – Chinese, Nyonya, Malay and Indian.
Panang curry is my big time favorite whenever I dine at the Thai restaurants. I love its flavor for being not too spicy with the aromatic coconut taste. Cooking the Panang curry isn’t as complicated as you think. In fact it’s simple! A variety of imported Panang curry pastes can be found in the Asian markets, which save you a lot of times and work. So you don’t need to make the paste from scratch.
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Posted by Bel.C
I was looking for some easy recipes that don’t require a lot of efforts and works, maybe even some magical spells will make the food ready by itself in no time. Enough of imagination. The truth is it’s summer and fun time, I just got lazy to cook :p. But I found some recipes that would help out — steaming using a rice cooker or on the stove. Bah, this is just an easy way to cook the food and you can be off to do your stuff. In fact there are many recipes that can be cooked by using the rice cooker, which it is an efficient cooking style for more nutritious and healthy meals.
Steamed tofu with pork ribs provides you an excellent source of calcium and protein. Plus steaming makes it less oily and super fresh, the sweet broth absorbs the nature juiciness from the pork. You can steam it with your rice cooker, or on stove top. Preferably for 30 up to 40 minutes, then the pork ribs will be much softer and tender.
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Posted by Eric.N
We went to the market and wanted to get some fresh fishes, somehow the fresh cuttlefish laying on the seafood ice counter looked so tempting that attracted us so much to get it. I picked up a whole nice and big cuttlefish. So it was for the dinner, Sambal Cuttlefish or so called Sambal Sotong.
The Sambal Sotong is usually served with Nasi Lemak (Malay Style Coconut fragrant steamed rice) or Nasi Bungkus (Pre-packed Coconut Rice) you can find in any Malay stalls. As previously mentioned, Sambal is a chili based paste used widely in cooking for Malay cuisine. Sambal is prepared from scratch with dried chilies, fresh chilies, garlic, ginger, shallots and other ingredients, grounded into paste. One important cooking tip is to cook the chili paste with oil on low heat until the oil oozes from the paste, or separated from each others. The chili will turn into deep red in color, add some seasoning to taste.
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