Chinese soup - Dang Shen, Huai Shan, Lily Bulbs and Dried Longans

Experiment: Dang Shen, Huai Shan, Lily Bulbs and Dried Longans Soup

Introduction:　 Last night when I was searching for something in the freezer, I saw 2 big chunks of pork by accidents.  (I don't know what I have in the freezer... I always find things that surprise mysel) I then realized that I haven't made soup for a while now. So I flipped through a soup recipe book and made this soup.

Materials:

Dang Shen - about 3 sticks, cut into small pieces (top left pic)

Huai Shan - about 8 pieces (bottom right pic)

Lily Bulbs - a handful (top right pic)

Dried Longans - a handful (bottom left pic)

Ginger - 2 to 3 slices

Pork - 2 big chunks

Water - 6 to 8 litres

Procedure:
1) Put the pork in boiling water.  Let it boil for 3 to 5 minutes to get rid of the dirty stuff inside the meat.  Take the pork out of the pot.  Do NOT reuse the water for the soup.
 (I don't know if it really gets rid of the dirty stuff, but that's what Hong Kong families do to prepare the meat for soup)
2) Wash all the ingredients
3) Boil water, and then put all the ingredients in.  Let it boil for 20 minutes, then turn the heat to medium-low, and boil for 2 hours.


Result:

Discussions:
1) I think it's a pretty good soup.  Hmm... acutally I like all kinds of soup.  Hahaha! So ok not much for discussion today.

Steamed minced pork with salty egg

Experiment: Steamed minced pork with salty egg

Introduction:

Another experiment to prove that I can't cook Chinese food. 

I made the preserved salty eggs a while ago, and I thought it's time to somehow finish the eggs.  I thought, "Maybe I can try to make the steamed minced pork with it."  Ok so I gave it a try, and it was a total disaster.  The minced pork turned out to be SOOOO hard... I pretty much had to use fork and knife to pick it up instead of using chopsticks.

Sigh... I guess no more Chinese food for a while... >.<

Materials: (Please do NOT follow this unless you want a meat cake)

1 lb extra lean ground pork

4 dried shitake mushrooms

1 salty egg

Marinade:

Soy sauce (as you like)

Brown sugar (as you like)

Sake/wine (as you like)

White pepper (as you like)

Corn starch (as you like)

Procedure:

1) Soak the dried shitake mushrooms until soft (it usually takes about an hour).  Cut into small pieces.

2) Mix all the ingredients of the marinade together, then mix it with the ground pork.

3) Mix in the cut mushroom

4) Crack the salty egg

5) Put the salty egg at the centre of the minced pork.  Steam it for roughly 10 minutes, or until cooked.

Result:

Discussions:
I talked with my co-worker at work to find out why I totally failed this dish... and here's what she told me:
1) Use half regular ground prok and half lean ground pork.  The fat in the pork makes the meat not as hard.
2) Add water when you mix the ground pork with the marinade.  Not sure why though.
3) This is from me: 4 dried mushroom is not enough for 1 lb of pork.  So next time I'll make it 6.

Conclusion:
Ok I think I'll stay away from cooking Chinese for a while now... I ALWAYS fail... it's sorta frustrating... >.<

Reference:
There's no reference... it's a dish that almost all moms in Hong Kong know how to cook... Fine, my excuse for not able to make it is that 1)I'm not in HK and 2)I'm not a mom!

Zakkushi on Denman

Mr. Clam and I went Downtown on Saturday, and we walked along Robson Street to look for food.  Both of us felt like Asian food that night.  For a moment, I was half jokingly telling him that if we couldn't find anything we wanted by Denman street, we'd go to Hon's.  Of course, he didn't like that idea.  (Nothing wrong with Hon's Wun-Tun, it's just that if we wanna have Chinese food, we'd go somewhere else.) So! We were at the end of Robson and Denman, and we still couldn't find anything we wanted.  In the end, he decided to try a restaurant on Denman St. - Zakkushi.

It was our first time at this restaurant.  We took a look at the menu... it has LOTS of grilled skewers.  It took us a while to decide what to eat. In the end, we ordered:
(sorry the pictures are taken from cell phone, so the quality is not good)

Asahi Black.  Mr. Clam it's hard to find in other restaurants.

Assorted Oden:

Ume Shiso Tsukune (Chicken meat balls with ume and shiso leaf):

Omochi maki:

Kushi set:

Chicken Gyoza:

Banana Gyoza:

Mr. Clam and I liked all the dishes!!!  I could eat the tofu pocket with mochi (もち巾 in Japanese, not sure what that's called in English) in the Oden dish, which made me SOOOO HAPPY!  I was surprised that the plum sauce (ume and shiso) tasted so well with chicken meat!  I'm definitely going to buy a bottle of plum sauce now!  The mochi was really crunchy on the outside - loved it!  Chicken Gyoza... I thought it was just regular gyoza, but it turned out to be chicken wings deboned and then stuffed with chicken meat.  Hmm... I"m thinking maybe I'll try it some time (when I'm really bored and have nothing to do).  Banana Gyoza... the idea is very new, but to be honest, it's just ok.  

We paid about $60 for 2 people, which is not bad for Japanese food downtown.  We also knew that they have 2 other stores in Vancouver.  I guess we'll try those 2 restaurants later! :)

Preserved Kumquats with Salt

Experiment: Preserved Kumquats with Salt

Introduction:

I never really liked preserved kumquats when I was young, because... they're REALLY salty.  Little did I know that preserved kumquats with salt is actually REALLY good for your throat.  When my co-worker decided to make her own preserved kumquats last year, I thought... "Oh maybe I should make my own too!"  Yet... when I finally made up my mind to make it, the kumquat season was over.  This year when I saw kumquats in a produce store, I bought it right away to make my own preserved kumquats.

Materials:
Kumquats
Salt (I use sea salt)
Glass jar

Procedure:
1) Wash the glass jar and the kumquats, air dry the kumquats.
2) Cover the bottom of the glass jar with salt, then put a few kumquats in.
3) Pour salt over the first layer of kumquats, then put the second layer of kumquats in.
4) Just keep on layering salt and kumquats until you reach the top of the jar.  Make sure that the top layer of kumquats is completely covered with salt. 
5) Close the lid and put it in a dark and cool place.  It'll be ready in a few years.  (Yes!  A few years!)

Result:

Discussions:

1) I used coarse sea salt and fine sea salt for this jar... Well... it's because I ran out of coarse sea salt! :P  But I think you can use either coarse or fine for preserving kumquats.  (You can sorta see the difference of the course and fine sea salt in the picture above)
2) You can use table salt for this.
3) People say, "The longer you preserve them, the better they'll be."  Apprently there are some 50+ years kumquats out there and they're still edible.  But... do you dare try?
4) Keep an eye on the preserved kumquats.  My other co-worker made a jar, but then later since the kumquats shrank, and the kumquats were exposed to the air... they molded. 

Conclusion:
There's no conclusion yet... since the preserved kumquats won't be ready til a few years later...

Reference:
- I think most Hong Kong families have at least a jar at home... so I'm just trying this out.

Nikujaga (肉じゃが)

Experiment: Nikujaga (肉じゃが)

Introduction:

Ok technically this dish is not an experiment for me anymore, since I make it quite often.  But evertime I make it I could change something.  So this time, the new things are:  nugget potatoes and beef slices.

Materials:

150g sliced beef

1 big carrot, cut into bite size

12 nugget potatoes

1 white onion, cut into slices

1/4 cup frozen edamame

1 pack konnyaku

1 to 1.5 cups of water

Oil

Sauce:

3 tbs brown sugar

3 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs mirin

2 tbs sake

Procedure:

1) Boil water in a small pot.  When water boils, put the konnyaku in, and let it boil for a minute.  Turn off the heat and take the konnyaku out.  Cut it into small pieces.  (Or if you have time, you can curl the konnyaku like I did)

2) Heat up a medium/large frying pan.  Put some oil in, then put the onions, beef and konnyaku in.  When the beef changes colour, put the carrots and nugget potatoes in.  Stir.

3)  Put the water in. (water should just be enough to cover the food)

4)  Mix the sauce together and pour it into the frying pan.

5)  When it boils, turn the heat to medium.  Cover the lid and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. 

6)  Put the edamame in.  When the edamame is ready, serve.

Result:

Discussions:

1) It's my first time trying nugget potatoes.  I actually like it better than the regular potatoes! :)

2) You can substitue sweet potato with potato, chicken with beef, green peas with edamame... basically, any vegetables that you like!

3)  You can add some Dashi Stock powder in as well.  I'm thinking next time maybe I'll use Dashi stock instead of water!  Not sure how it'll taste though.  Will post it up! :)

Conclusion:

It's one of the very first few Japanese dishes that I learned to make.  After trying it the first time, Ijust fell in love with it!  It's good because it's easy to make and it has lots of veggies in it!  Me love eating veggies! :)

Refernce:

Tomato tofu beef soup

Experiment: Tomato tofu beef soup

Introduction:

I haven't had soup for a while now... mainly because I'm too lazy to prepare the pork or chicken for soup.  So today I decided to make a quick soup. 

Materials:

4 tomatoes

100g sliced beef

1 pack of tofu

2 eggs

2tbs chopped green onion

2L water

Procedure:

1)  Cut up the tomatoes into wedges. Cut the tofu into small cubes.

2)  Boil the water.  When water boils, put the tomatoes and tofu in.  Boil for around 20-30 minutes.

3)  Put the beef in and let it boil for a few minutes.

4)  Beat the eggs in a small bowl.  Stir the soup with a big spoon and then slowly pour the eggs into the pot.  Keep stirring while slowly pouring the eggs in.

5)  Sprinkle the chopped green onion in.  Cover the lid and turn off the heat.  Let it sit for 2 minutes.  Serve.

Result:

Discussion:

1) You can add salt to taste. 

2)  I usually don't put beef in... but since beef was on sale... so I added the beef

Conclusion:

It's a quick soup, and it's a good way to cook tomatoes! :P

Bento - Jan 11, 10

I bring lunch to almost everyday, but I mostly have leftover for lunch.  When I have time AND when I feel like it (which is not very often), I make bento boxes. 

For today's bento box, I have 6 items.  From clockwise from the left, I have potato salad, sausages, tamagoyaki, edamame, cherry tomato and fishballs. 

The only new thing that I tried was potato salad.  I have some leftover boiled small potatoes, I mashed them, and added 2 chopped crab sticks, mayonaise and black pepper. 

The rest of the food?  Well, they're mostly in their original form, so I guess I don't have to write too much.  :)

Coca-Cola wings

Experiment: Coca-Cola Wings

Introduction:

I have a big bottle of Coke sitting in my fridge for months... Yeah I know the coke is not good for drinking anymore... so I decided to finish the Coke with cooking.  What can I cook with Coke?  Chicken wings!

Matierals:
20 chicken wings
Few slices of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
Coca-Cola
Oil

Procedure:
1)  Boil a pot of water.  When it boils, put a few slices of ginger in, and then put the chicken wings in.  When water boils, cover the lid, turn off the heat and let it sit for a minute or two.  This step is to get rid of the "frozen taste."  Make sure you don't over cook the chicken wings.  This step should only make the outside sorta cooked; the inside should still be raw.

2)  Put the chicken wings in a bowl of ice water.  Let it soak for about 10 minutes.  This step makes the chicken wings "crunchier/chewier." 

3)  Of course, you can skip the above two steps... I someitmes skip them when I'm lazy... anyways!  Step 3 is, heat a frying pan.  Put some oil in the pan, and then put in the ginger and garlic.  Put then chicken wings skin down in the frying pan.

4)  When it's half cooked, pour the coke it.  Pour in just enough to cover the wings.  Bring to boil, then trun to medium heat.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.  Serve.

Results:

Discussions:
1)  You can add a few slices of lemon, and/or green onions as well.  It will taste better! :)  But of course, if you happen to have no ginger, no garlic, no lemon or green onions at home, just using coke is fine.
2)  I like to put the chicken wings skin down in the pan.  As you simmer the wings, some black stuff will form, and it'll be stuck on the no-skin side.  When you serve the wings skin up, no black stuff is seen and the wings look prettier.
3)  You can add some soy sauce to make the wings' colour darker.

Conclusion:
Mr. Clam likes the taste to be richer.  I think next time I'll marinate the chicken wings with soy sauce, sugar, black pepper and mirin overnight. 

Reference:
Online recipes.
When I was young, I always heard people talking about Coca-Cola Wings, but I had never tasted it before, as my mom never made it. A few years ago while I was thinking of what to cook, this dish came to my mind. I searched for the recipe online and tried making Coca-Cola wings that I had always wanted. I expected it to taste like pop... but actually it tasted just like "sugar chicken wings." Well I heard that there are 8 spoons of sugar in each can of coke.... go figure!

Red date, Goji, Black Sweet Rice Sweet Soup (紅棗杞子紫米露)

Experiment: Red date, Goji, Black Sweet Rice Sweet Soup

Introduction: I found this recipe online... and I wanna give it a try as I have all the ingredients at home.  The red dates, goji and black sweet rice are good for your boday, especially for female.  It's a pretty good soup for after menstruration.

Materials:

1/2 cup black sweet rice

2 tbs goji

12 red dates

5 cups water

1 cup milk/coconut milk

rock sugar

Procedure:

1) Wash all the ingredients.

2) Boil the water.  When water boils, put the black sweet rice and red dates in. Let it boil, then reduce to medium-low heat.  Let it boil for 30 minutes, or until the black sweet rice is soft. 

3) Put the goji in and let it boil for another 15 minutes.

4) Put the milk or coconut milk and rock sugar in.  When the rock sugar is dissolved, it's ready.

Results:

Discussion:

1)  I didn't put lots of rock sugar in, as I wanna save it for breakfast too.  Yes!  It can be eaten as dessert or breakfast!  Of course, you'll need more sugar for dessert and less sugar for breakfast. 

2)  Today I put milk in instead of coconut mlik.  I think I'll try coconut milk later. 

Conclusion:

It's a very quick dessert or breakfast, and it's pretty good for your body! Give it a try! :)

Snow hot pot - 雪鍋

Experiment: Snow hot pot (雪鍋)

Introduction: I have leftover food from making Ozoni.  I flipped through a few Japanese cookbooks, and found that Snow hot pot has pretty much the same ingredients as the Ozoni! So I decided to give it a try.

Materials:
1/3 daikon/white radish
1/2 carrot
750g chicken thigh, cut into small pieces
1/2 Chinese cabbage
1 pack of Tofu
Chopped green onion
2 slices of ginger
1/2 tbs sesame oil
Oil

Soup:
2 cups dashi stock
2 cups water
2 tbs soy sauce
1 ts yuzu powder

Procedure:
1) Shred the daikon, and drain the water. 

2) Cut the carrot in thin slices, and the Chinese cabbage into small pieces.

3) Heat up the pot, put some oil in.  Put the ginger in, then add the chicken and sesame oil.

4) When the chicken changes colour, put all the soup ingredients in. 

5) Put the Chinese cabbage, tofu and carrots in. 

6) Bring to boil, then reduce to medium heat, and simmer for a few minutes.

7) Put the shredded daikon in the centre of the pot, then sprinkle the green onion on top of the daikon.


Results:

Rice with veggies and chicken:

Discussion:
1) 1ts of yuzu powder actually wasn't quite enough.  I couldn't really taste the yuzu.  I ended up adding some ponzu (yuzu vinegar) into my rice bowl... then it tasted SO MUCH BETTER!

Conclusion:
This snow hot pot is pretty good for winter!  It's quick and easy, and it's not much for clean up! Just one pot, 2 rice bowls and 2 pairs of chopsticks!  Love this!

Reference:

Ozoni (お雑煮)

Experiment: Ozoni (お雑煮)

Introduction:

Ozoni (お雑煮) is a dish that's usually eaten on New Year in Japan.  Usually this dish consists of mochi (Japanese rice cake), meat and vegetables.  I found this recipe in a book, so I decided to give it a try on New Year's day.

Materials:

Chicken, cut into cubes

Carrots, cut into rectangles
Daikon/white radish, cut into rectangles
Fish cake, cut into thin slices
A bunch of mitsuba
Mochi
Yuzu peel or yuzu powder
Soup - 2 cups of dashi stock, a bit of soy sauce and mirin

Procedure:

1) Preheat oven.  Put rice cake on aluminum foil and put into oven.  Watch it puff up.  (It's fun!)  Make sure that it doesn't burst.

2) Boil the dashi stock, put in the mirin and soy sauce.  When the soup boils, put the mochi, chicken, carrot, dashi and fish cake in.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium.  Simmer for a few minutes.

3) Put in the mitsuba and the yuzu peel/powder.  Turn off the heat.  Serve.

Results:

Discussion:

1) I was too excited watching the mochi puff up, and I was hoping that they'd grow bigger and bigger... then both the mochi bursted.  >.<  So when I boiled them, the shape didn't hold anymore.  So remember to WATCH the mochi and make sure that they don't BURST!

1) I totally forgot to put the soy sauce and mirin in... so the Ozoni was actually a bit blend.

2) In case you're wondering what Yuzu is... it's actually a citrus fruit... I wiki-ed it but there's no English name for this fruit.  >.<  Yuzu can be used for cooking or making drinks.  I got this package of powder in Kyoto, Japan. 

Conclusion:

It wasn't a successful experiment... Sigh... but I guess it's not bad for a first timer making Ozoni.  365 days later I'll give it a try again!   I'll remember not to let the mochi burst, and I'll make sure I put soy sauce and mirin in the soup!

Reference: