Choy Sum And Salted Egg Soup

Hot and humid weather is always great to have a bowl of soup for dinner which will cool down and replenish the body with extra fluid. This soup can be eaten together with steam rice or you can add in been hoon or noodle to turn it into a one-pot dish.

This is a very quick soup where you can get everything done within 15 minutes or less and Choy Sum has an excellent source of vitamin C and fiber too. With more flexibility, you can replace the minced pork with fresh prawn, fish or pork slices that you have prepared ahead. And by switching the meat ingredients, you can served this with your favourite noodles or rice.

Ingredient: (serves 2)
1 Bunch of Choy Sum(菜心)
100g of Minced Pork
1 Salted Egg
2 Slices of Ginger
800ml Water
Salt to Taste

Method:
1. Rinse the choy sum and cut into long sections then soaked in water for a while to remove soil or dirt. Rinse well again and set aside.
2. Marinate the minced pork with some pepper, light soy sauce, sesame oil and cornflour. Stir well and leave it for a while.
3. Removed the soil of the salted egg, washed well and crack the shell to separate the yolk and white.
4. Slice or dice the yolk in a small bowl then keep the white for later use.
5. Heat up a pot with 1 teaspoon of oil, saute the ginger till fragrance then pour in water and bring it to boil.
6. When the water boil, add in the choy sum and minced pork and let it cooked for 30 seconds before adding the salted egg yolks and cook until done.
7. Turn off the heat and stir in the salted egg whites, keep stirring until the white set and season it with some extra salt to taste.

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Eggless Durian Tiramisu

It has being such a long time since my last making of Tiramisu. This yummy dessert is often one of my choices while dinning in most western restaurants if they have this dessert available in their menu section. Today’s recipe is specially made for one of my best friend, whom Rey and I wish to cheer her up by using one of her favorite fruit “Durian” as ingredient. So let’s take get ready and take a look at this Eggless & Sugarless East-West Fusion type of Tiramisu whereby Fresh Durian Paste is used in this recipe.

Tiramisu is one of the most popular Italian cakes whereby Savoiardi is dipped into Strong Coffee then layered with the whipped mixture of Egg Yolk and Mascarpone. But today our ingredients will be slightly different whereby we will use Durian and Chocolate Milk to replace the usual Strong Coffee and Egg Yolk. So I am sure this is a great recipe for durian lover as well as those who don't prefer using raw egg yolk as one of the ingredients.

This is a very simple recipe that you can prepare in the morning and served it as dessert after dinner or during gathering. I am sure everyone will be able to follow the steps and made your very own Tiramisu without any hiccups. If you don’t prefer Durian you can always exchange it with other fruits like mango, strawberry, raspberry or etc just let your imagination run wild……

Ingredients: serves 8
1 Packet of Sponge Fingers (24 savoiardi)
250g Mascarpone
300ml Whipping Cream
300g Fresh Durian Flesh
200ml Chocolate Milk
Dutch Cocoa, for dusting

Method:
1. Pour chocolate milk into a shallow dish. Set aside.
2. Beat the durian paste and whipping cream in a large bowl with electric beaters for about 15 seconds till thick and creamy.
3. Add in mascarpone and give it a quick whisk until just combined.
4. Dip Sponge Fingers biscuits, 1 at a time into the chocolate milk then arrange in a single layer over the base of the container. (do not dip the sponge fingers for too long or else it will be too soggy and spoilt the taste of the tiramisu)
5.Cover the biscuits with a layer of the mascarpone mixture and repeat another layer on top, ending with the cream.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Dust generously with cocoa and serve.

Note:
~ This recipe can make two 12 x 12 cm square plastic containers.
~ You can Thickened Cream instead of Whipping Cream if you prefer a more creamy texture.
~ Chocolate Milk can be replace with plain low-fat or full cream milk.


So by looking at this….. Are you interested to try out my combination of Tiramisu whereby you can have “Durian + Cheese + Cocoa” together in one dessert :) And most important it is without any trace of Raw Egg and extra Sugar…… And if you are interested in more chocolate and cheese dessert maybe you would like to take a look at this "Durian Cheesecake With Chocolate Fudge" too!

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2010 Singapore Blog Awards - Best Food Blog

Dear Readers,

I am so excited to share with you that this is the 2nd year my blog "Cuisine Paradise" has been shortlisted (out of more than 1000 other blogs) to be one of the 10 Finalists for the category under Singapore Blog Awards - Best Food Blog. Voting is open to public from 24 May 2010 till 30 June 2010. You can vote only ONCE for each category per day.

Just like previous year, if you like my blogs and recipes please help to cast your valuable votes for me, ok :) But proceeding, , you need to register an account as a member with the blog award organiser (OMY.sg) if you are not a member yet. So if it is not troublesome for you to help, please follow the steps below for your voting:-


Steps for voting my blog:-

1. Register as a member of OMY if you are not a member. You can find the online registration form here (click here to register). For overseas voter you can use your passport number for the "Nric/Fin" option.

2. Upon successful registration as a memeber, login onto the Singapore Blog Awards Category link @ http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/category/ where you will be directed to the Voting Page .

3. On the left side of the screen, you will see something similar to the photo shown belown, click on the Best Food Blog(最佳饮食部落格) category to display all the 10 finalists so as to cast your votes.



4. You will see a PINK label "VOTE" on the bottom right corner of my avatar . To cast your votes, you need to click on the word "VOTE" instead of the picture which will be re-direct you back onto my foodblog URL.

5. You will see this yellow confirmation box for you to verified your voting. Click on the word "Confirm" and upon successful voting, you will see a Yellow label showing "VOTED" on my avatar.

6. Other than supporting my blog with your votes, you can also participate in voting for other categories to stand a chance to win these fabulous prizes too (click HERE to view the prizes) . Good Luck Everyone!


And lastly, remember to help me cast your vote whenever you are free to login into the "Voting Page". Thank you everyone for your all support! Because of each of your valuable votes and time, Cuisine Paradise is able to be listed in the top 10 finalists or even stand a chance for this year winning award too :)

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Pineapple & Bitter Gourd Chicken Soup

I get the idea of cooking this soup from my recent Taiwan Trip which we have a similar soup during one of our lunch meal. From the soup ingredients that they served, I replicate a similar soup, which taste just as closed as what we had. I was delighted with the end result even though initially I was still worrying about the outcome due to the different type of Bitter Gourd that we have in Singapore.

During my trip at Taiwan, what we mostly saw is this White Bitter Gourd which is available at their supermarket or vegetable stall. It is kind of different from the Green Bitter Gourd that we have over here. This White Bitter Gourd is cultivates by Taiwan agriculture and is known as “白玉苦瓜” which is a very common vegetable used in most household or restaurants. It is very popular among the Taiwanese because of its colour and it does not have any bitter taste at all too. It is normally used to cook this soup dish known as “Pineapple & Bitter Gourd Chicken Soup -凤梨苦瓜鸡” which is what I am going to share today.

Since we cannot find any "White Bitter Gourd - 白玉苦瓜" in Singapore(if anyone of you know where we can get this in Singapore, please share with me) we have to focus on another key ingredient which is the "Pineapple - 凤梨". Try to get the good grade pineapple which is golden in colour and most important it must be sweet and fragrant so that your soup will be burst with that light and refreshing taste. And according to the fruit seller, what I got over here is known as the "Honey Pineapple" from Thailand which cost S$2.00 for half of the portion.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
4 Chicken Drumsticks
1 Medium Size Bitter Gourd, 500g
1/2 Thai Honey Pineapple, cut into big chunks
1 Medium Carrot, cut into chunks
8 - 10 Red Dates(红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞)
1.5 Litres of Water
1/2 Chicken Stock Cube, optional

Method:
1. Trim the fat and remove the skin from the drumsticks, rinse and set aside.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil, blanched the drumsticks for about 5 minutes in boiling water, removed and rinse again.
3. Add 1.5 Litres of water to the soup pot and bring it to boil.
3. While waiting for the water to boil, cut the bitter gourd length-wise into half, scraped off all the seeds and white pits in it then cut into 1"/1.5" thick slices.
4. Place the bitter gourd slices in a big mixing bowl or so, add in 1 teaspoon of salt briefly rub it/massage together with the bitter gourd slices for a few seconds. (this is helps to reduce the bitterness of the bitter gourd)
5. Next, rinse it well and drop it into the boiling water together with all the above ingredients except the wolfberries.
6. When the soup mixture comes to boil again, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer it for about 30 - 40 minutes.
7. Add in the wolfberries in the last 5 minutes and you can season the soup with some salt or chicken stock cube to taste if you prefer.


If you are curious with the taste of this soup, I can guarantee you that it is not bitter at all. And when cooking this soup, you will be delighted with the fragrance that is being release from the pineapple as it smell so wonderful. But a point to note:- as this is a very cooling soup due to the combination of bitter gourd and pineapple, for those who is weak, just recover from sickness or after menses perhaps you should avoid taking this soup or if you want just take it in small amount. If you do try out this soup, please leave me your feedback and share with me your opinion :)

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Teochew Ngoh Hiang

In the past, making "Ngoh Hiang - 五香" is always one of my late Dad speciality dish. During festive occasion such as Chinese New Year he and mum would make a huge quantity to distribute to the relatives or served it as one of the dish to those who visit us during New Year. But now when he is no long around, we don’t really get to eat this special treat as often as we do.

As the process of making Ngoh Hiang is rather tedious and time consuming due to the varieties of ingredients used, mum has not being making it for a long time. But finally today mum is in the mood of making this after much pestering from my brother as he is craving for it. While helping her to do the preparation, I decided to note down this recipe and share it with those who is interested.

From the photo you can see that making this dish requires a list of ingredients such as prawns, minced meat, water chestnut, yam and most important the dried beancurd sheet for wrapping the ingredients. And for this Teochew style of Ngoh Hiang, yam(taro) is actually added to enhance the flavour and texture of this dish.

There is another important item for making Ngoh Hiang which is this "Five Spice Powder - 五香粉". This spice is blended with 5 different kinds of spices such as "Cinnamon", "Cloves", "Peppercorns" and etc. By adding this five spice powder, it will give the Ngoh Hiang its special fragrant and taste. For more information and photo of this powder, click Here.

Ingredients: (makes 16, 4.5" long Ngoh Hiang)
1 Packet of Dried Beancurd Sheet - 豆腐皮
600g Minced Pork, with some fats
500g Prawn, roughly diced
1 Medium Size Carrot, finely diced
10 Water Chestnuts, finely diced
15 Shallots, thinly sliced
100g of Yam, cut into small cubes
2 Eggs
2 Stalks of Spring Onion & Coriander, roughly diced
3/4 Tablespoon of Fried Shallot Crisps
*3 Tablespoons of Plain Flour or
10 Pieces of Butter Crackers/Cream Crackers

Seasonings:
1 Tablespoon of Five Spice Powder
1 Tablespoon of Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Cooking Wine(花雕酒)
1/2 Tablespoon of Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Pepper

Method:
1. You can cook the diced yam either by microwave it on Medium High 3 minutes and give it a stir after each minute or steam it over the stove on medium heat for about 5 minutes till slightly soft to touch. Set it aside to cool off.
2. Next in a big pot or mixing bowl, add in the minced pork, diced prawns, carrot, water chestnuts, cooked yam, shallot, spring onion, coriander, egg, dried shallot crisps and flour/ground butter crackers.
3. Mixed all the ingredients together with the above-mentioned seasonings preferably by hand to bind everything together. (the final mixture will be a bit sticky and dry, if it is too wet, add in more flour/butter crackers to bind it)
4. Leave the combined ingredients in the fridge for about 20 to 30 minutes to rest the ingredients and let it developed a better flavour before wrapping.
5. After settling the ingredients, use a damp cloth to slowly wipe off all the surface of the dried beancurd sheet to remove excess salt and oil on it so that the end products will not taste too salty.
6. Next fold the clean beancurd sheet into quarter rectangles, then cut each long rectangle into another 4 small equal rectangle which makes a total of 16 small individual sheets of wrapper.
7. Spoon meat mixture into each beancurd sheet and wrapped tightly like a spring roll, leaving the seam side facing down.
8. While rolling half of the portion, heat up the steamer, brush a thin layer of cooking oil on the steamer rack before arranging the Ngoh Hiang on it so that they won't stick on the rack after steaming.
9. When the water boils, put in the steamer rack with the Ngoh Hiang and steam it over medium high heat for about 15 minutes for the 1st batch and 10 minutes for the subsequent batches if your steamer is not able to steam all the Ngoh Hiang at one go.
10. After steaming leave them to cool off before freezing them for later consumption if you are not going to finished all of them in a day or two.
11. When the Ngoh Hiang is cooled, heat up a pot with suitable amount of oil, deep-fry the Ngoh Hiang on medium low heat till both side turn golden colour then increase the heat to High and fry for a few second before removing it and drained well.
12. When it is slightly cooled off, slice them diagonally with a sharp knife into thick chunks then served it with some sliced century egg and pickled ginger to enhance the flavour.

Note:
1. You need to use a damp cloth to wipe off the salt and oily surface from the dried beancurd skin before wrapped so as to reduce the salty taste of the Ngoh Hiang.

2. You can use either plain flour or "Butter/Cream Crackers"(which gives more flavour to the dish) to bind the ingredients together before wrapping.
3. If you are using Butter Crackers, placed them in a ziplock bag and pound it with a rolling pin if you do not have any mortar and pestle at home.

Whenever we had this dish, it will always bring back some of our childhood memories and it reminds us of our dad and his special homecook dishes. We can never forget the taste of this homemade Ngoh Hiang which we love it so much because it is full of love from the one who prepares and makes it. Thank God that I have a chance to learn from my mum the ingredients and steps on making our favourite dish that might be vanish one of these day if she is no longer around. Furthermore I must admit cooking and learning from mum is actually another way of bonding our relationship too :)

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5 Minutes Tofu Dish

Tofu is always one of the best and versatile ingredient found in the kitchen pantry. Since Tofu has very little flavor or smell on its own, you can use it to create all kinds of sweet and savory dishes range from starter, soup, main course and dessert or even in cake and pastry. Today we are going to prepare a less than 5 minutes dish using Tofu and Pork Mince with Bean Paste (肉酱) as the main ingredients.

This is a very simple and yet presentable dish that doesn’t even require any cooking time but perhaps just a few seconds to a minute of re-heating in the microwave before serving. As you know Tofu is rather tasteless so by adding Pork Mince with Bean Paste (肉酱) to it, it actually acts as a seasoning to this dish too. In order to make this dish look and taste even better, I also add in some shimeji mushroom and "century egg - 皮蛋" in it.

Ingredients:
1 Box of Silken Tofu
3 Tablespoon of Pork Mince Paste(肉酱)
1 Century Egg(皮蛋), cut into small cubes
1 Packet of Shimeji Mushroom, optional

Garnish:
Some Spring Onion
Some Chilli

Method:
1. Remove the tofu from the packaging and place it on a big serving plate and try to pad dry both side with some kitchen paper towel.
2. Cut/plug the individual stalk off from the bunch of shimeji mushroom, and give it a quick 30 second stir in a lightly oil saucepan.
3. Removed and arrange on the side of the tofu.
4. Spread the pork mince paste on top of the tofu and scatter the century eggs all over it.
5. Before serving, reheat the tofu in microwave for 30 second to a minute high depending on the voltage of your microwave.
6. To serve, top with some chopped spring onion and chiili as garnish.


So you see, this is a very quick and easy dish that can be served in about 5 minutes time. And if you don't prefer to do any extra washing after stir-frying the mushroom then perhaps you can replace the mushroom by some shredded lettuce, which can blend well with the bean paste too.

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Hearts ‘IN’ Hearts

This coming Sunday 9 of May - "Mother's Day", will be a great day for every mothers' or mum to be. I am sure no matter which categories you fall into you are bound to enjoy this wonder moment with your love one. So for this post, daddy and little one can help to prepare this hearty breakfast to reward mummy for all her handwork.

Western breakfast is always the most easier to prepare as most of the ingredients such as Ham, Cheese, Bread and Egg can be easily found in the supermarket. Since this is prepared to reward all the lovely mummies, we use assorted hearts shape cookie cutters to stamp out different sizes of hearts using bread and cheese.

Ingredients:
2 Slices of Thick Bread
Butter
1 Egg
30g Shaved Ham
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese, optional
Assorted Size Heart shape Cutters

Method:
1. Use a Medium heart shape cutter or knife to cut out a heart shape from the center of each slice of thick bread. (In this recipe, I use the thick bread with cranberry, which can be easily found in most local bakery)
2. Spread some butter on the surface of the cutout bread then pop them in the toaster oven together with the 2 heart-shaped cutout and toast for about 5 – 7 minutes till their slightly golden in colour.
3. Remove and set aside.
4. Heat up a small frying pan or saucepan with some oil, saute the shaved ham for a few second, removed and set aside.
5. With the same pan, add in 1 teaspoon of oil, swirl the oil around the pan, place one of the toast bread in the pan, slowly break the egg into the heart-shaped hole, cover the pan and cook the egg over low heat until the egg white turns opaque, about 3 minutes or so.
6. When done, slowly transfer the bread to the serving plate (careful not to break the egg) along with the heart-shaped pieces of cutout bread, which is prefect for dipping into the yolk.
7. Lastly, fill the 2nd piece of hollow heart-shaped bread with shaved ham and top with heart-shaped cheese cutout.

Serve this hearty breakfast with mum’s favourite beverage during this Mother's Day weekend to pamper her sight and taste bubs. I am sure she will be overwhelm by these Hearts...... Here I wish all the mothers and mother to be a Happy and heartwarming Mother's Day!!!

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Black Chicken Porridge

Come and pamper mum with this healthy and nutritious porridge this coming Mother's Day that is falls on the 9 of May. I am sure most of us are more familiar on using “Black Chicken -乌骨鸡” to cook with herbal soup rather than porridge. The idea of this porridge comes from the similar concept of Korean Ginseng Chicken where they use glutinous rice as one of the ingredients. So I thought maybe I can turn the herbal soup into something light and yet nutritious for the whole family.

The ingredients used can be easily found in most Chinese Medical Hall and you can also get the black chicken from most of the supermarket too. The use of Lotus Seeds, Yu Zhu and Dried Longan can nourishes Ying and quenches thirst, benefits bloods and clams the spirit and as well for treating tensions and forgetfulness too. Whereas Black Chicken nourishes the Yin and strengthens the kidney.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 Black Chicken, 乌骨鸡
10g Dried Longan, 桂圆
10g Lotus Seeds, 莲子
5g Huai Shan, 淮山
5g Yu Zhu, 玉竹
5g Wolfberries, 枸杞
10g Dried Scallop, optional
3/4 Cup of Uncooked Rice
1.5 Litre Of Water

Method:
1. Trim the fats and unwanted parts of the black chicken, cut it into 4 parts. (you can ask the stall owner to help you to remove the skin, fats and cut it into quarter, according to my mum some supermarkets also provide this trimming & cutter services)
2. Place the chicken pieces in boiling water for about 3 – 5 minutes to remove the odors then rinse it with tap water and set aside for later use.
3. Rinse the uncooked rices for a few times and soak it in water for about 20 – 30 minutes so that it will soften easily and shorten the cooking time.
4. Using a medium or big soup pot (I used a big claypot), bring the water to boil, add in all the ingredients except lotus seeds, wolfberries and uncooked rice.
5. When the water comes to boil, reduce the heat; simmer the herbs and chicken for about 20 minutes.
6. Next add in the uncooked rice(without the water) and soft lotus seeds to the soup mixture, when the soup comes to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes.
7. Remember to stir the porridge on and off (to prevent burning), if the soup tends to dry out, you can add in some hot water to dilute it.
8. Adjust the cooking time to the porridge texture according to your mum’s liking, stirring in the wolfberries about 3 minutes before you turn off the heat.
9. You can serve this as lunch or dinner with some extra spring onion or coriander as garnish.

Note:
~ When using dried scallop, soaked it in hot water till soft, rinse and set aside before adding to the soup with the rest of the ingredients.
~ Soak lotus seeds without pre-washing in hot water till soft, removed the green bitter dried germ of the lotus seeds before adding to the soup.


With all these benefits of the ingredients used, why not list down your shopping list and start preparing something for your mum this coming Mother’s Day. I am sure she will be delighted even it is just a simple dish that is out from your hand and heart.

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