Snakehead with Black Beans Soup ~ Remedial Effects药膳生鱼黑豆汤

Herbal Soup with remedial effects!

The main ingredients of this herbal is  fresh water Snakehead fish, the most sought carnivorous predatory fish in Malaysai as it is wedely believed by Malaysian  to have remedial effects. It is said to be speed up the healing process after operation.

Snakehead fish in Bahasa Malaysia is called Ikan Haruan and in Chinese is  called 生鱼.

 

Ingredients

Snakehead fish about 1 kg  (clean and cut into big pieces)

300 gm black beans

20gms pak kei  北茋

30gms Tong sum 党心

6 -8  pcs of red dates

1 litre of water

few slices of ginger

Method

1. In a wok, dry fry the black beans till skins open up.  Keep aside.
2. Boil water in a pot, add in the black beans, pak kei, tong sum and red dates
3. Boil to the black beans till soft that take about 1 hour or so.
4. Add in the fish and boil another 10 mins till fish is cooked.
5. Add salt to taste.  Serve hot.

Healthy Tomatoes Eggy Soup 番茄蛋花汤

Soup is almost a must in my family  daily meal during dinner time.  When I don't prepare any soup for the day.  My daughter will sure  make herself  a bowl of Marmite soup  or Campbell's mushroom soup, otherwise according to her  the meal is not complete!!  Spoiled Child hoh!?

Tomatoes Eggy Soup is a simple and healthy soup to prepare!

What you need-

Sliced meat (marinade with fish sauce, a bit of sugar, and cornflour)

2- 3 tomatoes - quartered

1 egg - slightly beaten with pepper and a pitch a salt 

some chopped spring for garnishing

Method

Boil some water in a pot, add in the meat and boil again, add in tomatoes and continue to boil a short while. lastly add in the beaten egg.  Off the fire,  wait  for a minute then stir the egg slightly to have  the 蛋花effect, serve hot!

Creamy Celery Soup (Western Style) 西芹浓汤

A celery soup can be as easy as complicated as you want it to be. There are many ways of preparing the soup. This is a good recipe for those

Mustard Soup 榨菜汤

This traditional chinese soup which was past down from my mom is simple and yummy love by all in the family. I believe many new wife and homemakers would like to try out the soup!

Ingredients are simple; 600gm meat bones (blanched with hot water), 2 pcs of taufu(cut into 12 pcs), 1 medium size of chinese mustard, 1 tbsp kei chi, 8 pcs of red dates (seeded) , enough boiling water.

Soak the mustard and wash clean cut into thick slices. Put all the ingredients in a soup pot of boiling water on high fire, once the soup starts to boils lower the fire and simmer for 2 - 3 hrs. The soup is ready to be served.

I used pressure cooker to save time and fuel for my soup, just put all the ingredients in boiling water in the slow cooker and cook for 20 mins, my soup is ready. You may invest for a pressure cooker to shorter cooking time and fuel like I do!

Simple Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Croutons 西式 南瓜羹

Elegant, delicious creamy pumpkin soup to goes with Croutons

There are many variation of pumpkin soups with no boundaries, from Asian version of chunky pumpkin to make the ABC style, or the elegant creamy type. I am sharing with the very basic creamy style of pumpkin soup. Once you have try the basic, maybe you would like to venture into more complicated and add different ingredients to create more flavor to your soup. You will definitely be pleased with the end result. There are many different type pumpkin soup recipes on the internet. You and your entire family will enjoy this simple home made pumpkin soup, as the soup has a wonderful and very special appeal to adults and kids alike. You can either enjoy the soup with croutons (French words, which are small cubed flavored bread) or you may prefer to have garlic bread as dipping, is all up to your preference.

If you have any esquires, please feel free to comment, I would, with my best abilities to share my knowledge with you. Happy cooking!

These home made croutons add more excitement to the soup. Children will definitely loved and enjoy it. Or you can use garlic bread or even crackers as dipping for the soup, to enhance and make the soup more interesting!

Simple and Basic Recipe for creamy pumpkin soup

Ingredients

1 big onion (peeled and quartered)
1 clove garlic (skinned )
1 tbsp olive oil or butter
500 gm pumpkin cubes
1 medium size carrot (skinned and cut in big pieces)
750gm chicken stock ( refer below for some tips)
3 tbsp fresh whipping cream (optional) - I omitted this
Basil to taste (chopped coarsely)
salt to taste (I omitted this)

Method

1. put oil/butter in a pot saute the garlic and big onion, add in carrot and pumpkin for about 2 mins.
2. Add in the chicken stock and bring a boil lower the fire to medium and slow boil for about 30 minutes. Off the fire.
3. Add cream (I did not use the cream) and blend till creamy.
4. Use cream to swirl pattern on top of the soup, and garnish with parley or basil.
5. Serve warm with croutons or garlic bread or ever crackers as dipping.

Making of croutons

1. 3 to 4 slices of preferable over-night bread (I use wholemeal bread) cut into small cubes.
2. Sprinkle and mix with 1/4 tsp of cinnamon powder, coat the bread with some soft butter.
3. Baked in the oven till golden brown and crispy. 
4. Store in airtight container.
5. Ideal for creamy soups/ salads and even eat it as snack.
6. Enjoy

Tips on preparing chicken stock

Boil 2 chicken carcass, 2 big quartered onion, 1 carrot (cut into big chucks) with 1.2 litre of water to get the chicken stock.

ABC Sweet Corn Soup

I will cooked less rice whenever I prepare this soup, everyone love to eat the sweet corn, carrot and potatoes; my children normally add some butter in the smashed potatoes, its yummy according to my children. So with all these "ABC", we eat less rice. We do not take the meat.

Ingredients

1 kg meat bones/1 skinned old chicken ( wash and clean)
1 carrots - skinned and cut into big pieces
3 pcs potatos - peeled and cut into chunks
3 tomatoes - quartered
2 big onion - quartered
1 sweet corn - cut into big chunks
1 level tablespoon of Peppercorn - smashed
2 litre water

Method

1. Blanched the bones/chicken with hot water, keep aside
2. Boiled the water in the pressure cooker.
3. Add in all the ingredients and cover the pressure cover
4. Pressure cook for 20 mins. Off the fire, wait for 5 mins, release the pressure before open the cover of the pressure cooker. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

Or

1. Boil water in a pot, add in the bones/chicken, sweet corn and peppercorn for 1/2 hours
2. Add in carrot, potatoes, onion continue to boil for another 1/2 hours on medium fire
3. Add in tomatoes and boil for and 10 mins.
4. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

Note: I did not add any salt in the soup as the taste as good.

Ginseng Roots Dry Abalone Chicken Soup

Ingredients :
2-3 pcs Dry sliced Abalone, (wash and soak in water for about an hour, retained the water to add in the soup later on)
50 gam Ginseng roots,
3 - 4 pcs white fungus,
10 gm yoke chuk,
1 tbsp kei zhi,
7-8 red dates,
1 - 2tbsp dry longan,
1 bird kampung chicken ( can used old chicken instead)(remove the skin and chopped in 4-6 pcs)

Method

1. Put boiling water and all the ingredients except white fungus and kei zhi in slow cooker and cook for 3-4 hrs.
2. Add in white fungus and kei zhi 1/2 an hr before the soup is ready to serve.

Note
I normally stored some chinese herbal in my refrigerator, and just hand picked the herbal at random whenever I want to prepare herbal soup. There is no exact measurement on the amount.

Nutritious Bitter Gourd Soup 苦瓜湯

 Bitter Gourd is said to be one of the best vegetable-fruit that helps improve diabetic and toxemia conditions.  Check out the nutrition information and facts about bitter gourd here and here.

Did anyone notice that there is no oil on the surface of the soup!  This is because I am using lean meat.   Hmmmm...... Best!