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.  :)