Posted by Bel.C
If you ever visit a Hong Kong style western café, you will know once you are seated, the waiter or waitress will serve you with a hot cup of their daily special soup. This is a common practice in most Hong Kong style cafés, in fact Hong Kong people like to drink their soup before the meal. So don’t be surprise. The two popular soups that are usually serving are either the cream of corn (something like Campbell soup) or Luo Song Tong (羅宋湯) / Russian Borscht Soup, this is what I like the most.
I love the taste of Luo Song Tong (羅宋湯) , it is a hearty tomato based vegetable soup that is is quite similar to our ABC Soup actually (in Patrick’s previous post). The main difference is the Luo Song Tong is much more intense in flavor as the soup base is cooked with beef bones or beef stew with lots of tomatoes and all kind of vegetables such as carrot, onion, potato and celery. I always want to try to make this at home. So this has been a good timing since I removed my wisdom tooth and I couldn’t eat too much of solid food, I’ve made a pot of yummy Luo Song Tong for my weeknight dinners with some greens.
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Posted by Patrick.C
It has been more than half year I didn’t have the Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶). So I decided to boil it last weekend. I miss this! It is one of my favorite soups back home. Bak Kut Teh is actually a Hokkien name for this dish, literally translated as “meat bone tea”. It is a famous Chinese herbal soup cooked with pork meat served in Malaysia. You can find it almost everywhere especially in Klang, where it is believed to have the best Bak Kut Teh across the country.
Bak Kut Teh consists of meaty pork ribs simmered with herbs and spices such as Dong Quai (當歸), star anise, cinnamon, cloves (丁香) and garlic. Additionally, it is loaded with some other ingredients such as dried shitake mushrooms, golden needle mushrooms, button mushrooms, and fried tofu puffs. Normally, it requires a couple of hours for simmering. Just like those slow cooked soups I made previously.
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Posted by Bel.C
I went to the market to get breakfast and saw the asparagus was on sale, immediately I picked up a bunch home. On Sunday I was thinking to make the asparagus and shrimp combination with Sambal Belacan. Previously I’ve made the Stir Fry Asparagus with Clam in white sauce. If you want something more exotic, you definitely have to try this. But my roommate had reminded me I cannot eat spicy food because I just had my upper wisdom teeth removed last Friday. No spicy food, no solid food, no drinking from straw, no alcohol …. and so forth of restrictions from my dentist. I guess there is nothing but liquids, porridge and soup for me this week.
Anyway, I still ended up cooking the Malaysian style Sambal Belacan Asparagus with Shrimp as this looks far more tempting, so all of these go to Eric as he loves spicy food. I used a super easy and lazy way of making the Sambal Belacan and it came out just great. I used the pre-made Sambal Oelek bought from the Asian market, it is grounded red chili and garlic, stored in a clear round plastic bottle with a green lid, and a chicken symbol in the front. Don’t confuse with Siriracha which is a chili paste. This Sambal Oelek you can still see the chili seeds, sometimes I use it for dipping sauce too.
To make Sambal from scratch check on the Sambal Okra for the preparation of it.
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Posted by Patrick.C
We moved into the new apartment for a week. Everything is cool. I guess we are ready for serious cooking again.
As usual, I was looking for something fresh to try out. Again, I looked into the culinary book but then I remembered I had the taro rice recipe from mom a couple weeks ago. I customized the recipe by cooking it without the rice. Taro (芋頭) is commonly used in the Chinese cuisine in various ways, mostly for flavor enhancement. In the previous post, Bel had made the taro cake which was so good. This time I used it to make the taro chicken.
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Posted by Bel.C
Introducing another spicy dish from my favorite list, Kung Pao Chicken or 宮保雞丁. It is another classic hot and spicy dish originated from the Sze Chuan cuisine, which I had firstly introduced the Sze Chuan Style Spicy Eggplant with Minced Pork in my previous post. I believe many Americans are also familiar with this dish as it can be found in some American Chinese restaurants.
The primary ingredients for the Kung Pao Chicken are chicken in dice or cube size and roasted peanuts. The combination is perfectly proportionated for easy consuming. Some restaurants prepare the dish with cashew nuts, celery, green or red pepper. I guess the recipe changes to suit a variety of taste.
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