Dual Fungus Sweet Soup

I have being coughing badly for the past one week which I think might be due to the bad weather or the amount of Durian that I consume during the previous week. So since my lady boss gave me a few packets of freeze dried black fungus. I decided to make this Dual Fungus Sweet Soup for this weekend.

As you can see from the photos, other than the dual fungus, I also added in some Ginkgo nuts, red dates, wolfberries and candidate tangerine which makes it a good and smoothing dessert for cough or cool down the body system from hot weather.

White Fungus(雪耳): tastes slightly sweet and of neutral nature. It benefits the spleen, strengthens the stomach and expel Dryness. It calms the spirit, treats insomnia and is good for the body type that resists beneficial food.

Black Fungus(黑木耳): has a reputation in Chinese herbal medicine for increasing the fluidity of the blood and improving circulation.

Ginkgo nuts(白果): are usually sold dried, or shelled and canned in brine. It is traditional Chinese food that nourishes lung energy and calms wheezing.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
10g Dried White Fungus
5g Dried Black Fungus
20 Fresh Ginkgo Nuts
8 Big Seedless Red Date, cut into halves
1 Tablespoon Wolfberries
1 Candied Tangerine, cut into halves
1 Litre of Water
Some Pandan Leaves
Rock Sugar to taste

Method:
1. Rinse and soaked the two type of fungus separately into two bowls of water till soft. Rinse well to remove any dirt, drained and set aside.
2. Bring the water to boil in a big pot then add in the drained fungus, red dates, ginkgo nut, candied tangerine and pandan leaves and simmer till it boils again.
3. Remove from heat, then transfer the mixture to a slow cooker and cook on auto for about 3 - 4 hrs, depend on the softness of the fungus to your liking. ( I let it cook for about 5 hrs because I like the fungus to be soft and the texture of the soup to be a bit sticky)
4. Add in the wolfberries during the last 1 hours of cooking time.
5. Sweeten it with rock sugar in the last 15 minutes in order to let the sugar melt completed and blend well with the fungus.

Notes:
a) I used the ration of 2: 1 white black to black fungus in portion.
b) I used those vacuum seal packed ginkgo nuts from supermarket.
c) According to my lady boss she told me that her Chinese Physician told her that it's best to consume this dessert early in the morning before breakfast or before noon time. Avoid taking this at night as it might cause clot in the blood vessels.

Bento #28 - Reyon & Buddy

It had being quiet a while since our last bento because Reyon is having a few weeks of mid year school holiday and I am kind of caught up at work so I don't have much time working around with those fancy stuffs. But Shoppingmum's website is a must to visit daily site due to cute and innovative bento for her two kids.

I love her latest design by using this dual cheese strips to cut out various cute figures. You can click on the link to have a better explanation on how she made the stripe cheese. Today our theme is base on my dear son and his favour pooh teddy bear. I use the face cutter and assorted mini food cutter for these design. I used the compartment divider to cut the shape out from the chocolate bun so that it will fix nicely. Next I place the cheese cut outs on top of it and serve the bento with some orange slices and mangosteen. Lastly Rey still use the Alphabets pasta to arrange his name on it.

Claypot Drunken Chicken

I have tried cooking a few kind of claypot chicken recipes and each one of it has it's own taste and speciality. Today this Claypot Drunken Chicken that I am going to share consists of Chicken pieces, mushroom, black fungs, wine and Egg. This can be serve as a one-pot dish meal which is full of nutritious source. We love the thick and creamy gravy which is great to be serve with steam rice.

Since this is called Drunken Chicken, it is bound to have some wine content. So if you are to share this dish with younger kid at home, you can either omit the wine content or reduce the amount used. This recipe call for Kampong Chicken which the meat is much sweeter and cooked resistance for stewing purposes.

Ingredients:
1/2 Portion of Kampong Chicken
10g Shredded Ginger
10g of Soaked Black Fungus
4 Medium Chinese Mushroom, soaked, cut into quarters
1 Egg
1 Stalk of Spring Onion, cut into section
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
1/2 Tablespoon of Oyster Sauce
1/2 Tablesppon Wolfberries
100ml Rice Wine
400 - 500ml Water
1 Tablespoon Corn Starch Solution

Method:
1. Wash and clean the chicken then cut into pieces then set aside for use.
2. Preheat the sesame oil in the claypot then saute the shredded ginger till fragrant then add in the chicken pieces and half of the spring onion sections then continue to fry for another 1 minutes.
3. Next stir in the oyster sauce to the chicken mixture till combined then add in the mushroom and black fungus.
4. Give them a quick stir then pour in the water and let the mixture simmer for about 15 - 20 minutes until chicken is well cooked.
5. Lastly, add in the rice wine and balance of the spring onion and wolfberries and bring it to boil then stir in the cornstarch solution to thick the sauce.
6. Remove the pot from heat and crack the egg in the middle, cover for 1 minute then serve with steam white rice.

Note:
a) You can replace the Kampong Chicken with 2 Large Drumstick with tight portion.
b) You can replace rice wine with Japanese Mirin or Sake but reduce the amount to 60ml.
c) You can add 1 tablespoon spoon water to 1/2 teaspoon of cornflour to make the cornstarch solution.


Related Post:
1) Claypot Chicken With Salted Fish
2) Claypot Minced Pork Rice
3) More Claypot Dish Link

Durian Fried Rice

I have heard about this Durian Fried Rice from one of the Hong Kong style cafe called "Central" where they have a few branches in Singapore, one of it located at the basement of Takashimaya. I guess not many of us will dare to take the risk on trying this dish on the combination of seafood fried rice with Durian. But to me, this is always an interesting dish to try on since from young I always love the combination of white rice serve with durian flesh.

As now is the Durian peak seasoning, I decided to grab a few from the fruit stall to test out some interesting recipe which I have keep in view for a long time. So based on the food review from some of the blogger who have tried this dish, I came out with my own version of Durian Fried Rice. Since I always fancy the idea of mixing rice with durian, I found this combination of fried rice is very special and the taste do blend in well with the fried, rice and egg. I didn't add any seasoning to this dish, and not even to the prawn as well.

Ingredients: (serve 1)
1 Small Rice Bowl Of Cooked Rice
3 Seeds Of Durian Flesh, 80g
5 Medium Prawns, devein
1 Egg, optional
1 Teaspoon Wolfberries
2 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Chopped Spring Onion

Method:
1. Pre-heat a frying pan with oil and saute the chopped garlic until fragrant then stir in the prawn and fry until cooked through.
2. Next stir in the cooked rice and give it a quick stir to separate each of the grain from sticking together.
3. Push the rice mixture to aside(refer to the picture above) then crack an egg into the pan and stir-it through to the rice mixture until combine then add in the wolfberries.
4. Lastly, push the rice mixture aside again and add in the Durian flesh and give it a quick stir to loosen the paste then stir it into the rice mixture till well combined.
5. Remove the pan from heat, and sprinkle chopped spring onion into rice mixture, dish up and serve warm with extra seeds of durian.

Note:
a) If you want it to be a bit savoury, you can add 1/4 teaspoon of salt or seasoning to stir-fry the fried before adding the durian.

Related Post:
1) Rice With Durian
2) Baked Durian Cake
3) Durian Chocolate Chiffon Cake
4) Green Bean With Durian
5) Thai Style Durian Sticky Rice

Durian Chocolate Chiffon Cake

This is 2nd Chiffon Cake recipe that I experiment and tested. I used the combination of Cocoa Powder + 70% Dark Chocolate + fresh DURIAN as main ingredients. So you can imagine having a bite on this slice of cake with such combination where you can actually smell and taste the baked durian in a rich cocoa content. Since this is a chiffon cake, you will find the texture of the cake to be light, spongy and fluffy rather than that greasy and dense compare to cake.

Sweet Potato & Sesame Chiffon Cake

Recently while blog hopping around, I saw a few of my favour food blogs will into chiffon cake making. So I thought maybe I would also like to join in the fun of chiffon cake making. After much selection I decided to settle on this Sweet Potato & Sesame Chiffon Cake rather than our usual local Pandan Chiffon Cake.

Wholemeal Pumpkin Mantou

This is a busy weekend for me as I suddenly have the urge to conquer a few recipes in my to-do-list. While waiting for my son to finish his Saturday enrichment class, I managed to stomp upon this Organic Wholemeal Flour from one of the local supermarket. It has a finer and right texture compare to another brand that I used to buy so I decided to get a packet to test out my new Steam Pumpkin Mantou recipe which I modify from the previous recipe that I made.

I modify the recipe a bit which made this rather simple and easy compare to previous one. And this Steam Mantou is full of texture when biting because of the use of the Wholemeal flour, Sesame seeds, Raisin and Wolfberries.

Ingredients:
230g Pumpkin, skin removed
250g Wholemeal Flour
1 Teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
5 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Black Sesame Seeds
1 Tablespoon White Sesame Seeds
2 Tablespoons Wolfberries, cut into halves
2 Tablespoons Golden Raisin, chopped
20 - 40ml water
1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil

Method:
1. Cut the pumpkin into small cubes, rinse it with water then place them into a microwave safe bowl and cook in Microwave High for about 5 - 6 minutes with a cup of water.(Stop 2 minutes in between to give a stir to the cubes to cook them evenly)
2. When the cubes became soft, mashed them using a fork and set side to cool to lukewarm temperature before adding to the flour to form a dough.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and yeast together then add in the sugar and stir till combine.
4. Next slowly add in the mashed pumpkin and stir using a pair of chopstick till combine, you might need to add some water in order to form a dough.
5. Moist your hand with some oil and give the dough a few knead to combine it then set it aside in a lightly flour/oil bowl to proof for about 20 - 30 minutes until double it size.
6. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 portions then on a lightly floured work surface, flatten each portion into a rectangular shape shown like that picture shown above, sprinkle some chopped wolfberries, golden raisin and sesame seeds then roll it up lengthwise into an oblong shape then cut them into equal portion.
7. Place each shaped portion on a piece of greaseproof paper, top with some extra wolfberries and sesame seeds then arrange on the steamer rack and steam over medium heat for about 8 - 10 minutes depend on the size.
8. Repeat for the rest of the portion of dough and steam accordingly. (I made about 12 Mantou with the size of about 2.5" before steaming)

Notes:
a) You might need to cook the pumpkin for about 3 - 5 minutes more before it will be soften depend on the power of your microwave.
b) You can also replace the brown sugar with caster sugar instead.
c) This is best to serve within the same day, if not you can keep in the freezer for a few weeks, and reheat it before serving.

Banana & Orange Cinnamon Jam

Remember the Banana and Passion fruit Jam that I posted in April? My mum really love the taste and fragrant of that jam so since she gave me some banana on Friday I decided to try out another type of Banana Jam. This round I use the combination of Banana and Orange together with a touch of Cinnamon Powder. So you can imagine the sweetness of banana, tangerine fragrant from the orange and a touch of Cinnamon spice................


As usual, you don't really need any fancy ingredients. All you required is about 2 medium size banana, 1 big orange and some cinnamon powder. And don't forget to get two glass jar for your jam. (you can use re-cycle jam bottle for this)

Ingredients:
2 Ripe Medium Banana, about 200g
1 Large Orange, without peel about 100g
Grated Rind of 1 Orange
Juice of Half Orange, 50ml
1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon Powder
200g Caster Sugar
2 Small Jam Bottles

Method:
1. Weight and pour the sugar into a small heavy duty saucepan, then add in the grated orange rind. (Washed, clean dry the orange and grate the rind)
2. Cut the orange into half, juice half of it to get about 50ml of juice then cut off the outer peel of the other half of the orange, remove the pith and membrane.
3. For each section, cut between the fruit and membrane on each side. Lift out each segment and drop it into the saucepan together with the sugar.
4. Next weight and mash the banana with a fork then add it into the saucepan together with the orange juice and cinnamon powder.
5. Stir all the mixture over medium low heat for about 10 - 15 minutes.
6. When the mixture begin to boil a lot of forms will form, do skim away those form and continue to cook until the mixture is clear and thicken.(refer to the above picture for details, the jam will continue to thicken further after it is cool to room temperature)
7. Pour the cooked jam into the sterilize glass bottle, covered and let it cool to room temperature before storing it in the fridge.

Note:
a) Bring a pot of water with jam bottle in it to a boil and boil them for 10 minutes or so to sterilize them, removed and invert for them to dry. (you can do this while cooking the jam)

Related Post:
1) Homemade Banana & Passion Fruit Jam
2) Homemade Mango Jam
3) Homemade Plum Jam
4) Homemade Strawberry Jam

Singapore Blog Awards - Best Food Blog

Dear Readers,

I am so excited to share with you that with your nomination, my blog "Cuisine Paradise" has been shortlisted as one of the 10 Finalist for the category under Singapore Blog Awards - Best Food Blog.Voting is open to public from 15 June 2009 till 31 July 2009. You can vote only ONCE a day.

So if you like my blogs and recipes please help to cast your valuable vote for me, ok :) But in order for me to receive your vote, you need to register an account as a member with the blog award organiser (OMY.sg). If it is not troublesome for you to help, you can find the online registration form here (click here to register).



Upon successful registration as a memeber, please click on the above VOTE ME icons and you will be directed to the Voting Page where you can see the Top 3 Leading Finalists of each categories. Next click on this green Voting link on the right side of your screen and click on the Best Food Blog(最佳饮食部落格) category shown below to cast your vote.



You will see a RED label VOTE on the top right corner of my avatar To cast your vote, you need to click on the word VOTE instead of the picture which will be direct you back into my foodblog URL.

You will see this 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 the avatar.


Thank you everyone for your all support! Because of each of your valuable vote and time, Cuisine Paradise is able to be listed in the top 10 finalists.

Steam Pumpkin Mantou - 金瓜馒头

Mantou(馒头) often referred to as "humbao" or Chinese steamed bun which is originating in China. It is made with wheat flour, water and leavening agents, they are similar in nutrition and eating qualities to the white bread of the West.

Recently, my mum has being into Mantou making with one of my son's kiddy's friend mummy. They will gather together at least once in a week to experiment with their Mantou making. So after tasting their delicious homemade Mantou, I am also interested in joining the fun of making it. For mine, I added some extra wolfberries to enhance the taste as well as a the texture.

Ingredients: (makes about 10)
250g Plain Flour
1 Teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
40ml Lukewarm Water
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
5 Tablespoons Caster Sugar
200g Pumpkin, skin removed
2 Tablespoon Wolfberries, cut into halves
1/2 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

Method:
1. Sift the plain flour and baking powder together in a big bowl, then stir in the caster sugar till combined.
2. Remove the outer skin of the pumpkin, cut into small cubes then rinse it with water and place in a microwave safe bowl and cook on High heat together with a cup of water for about 5 minutes. (Stop 2 minutes in between and give it a stir so that it will cook evenly)
3. Use a fork or food masher to mash the pumpkin cubes into paste form then set aside for later use.
4. Add the dry yeast into the lukewarm water and give it a quick stir then set aside for about 5 minutes till bubbles appeared(refer to the picutre above).
5. Next slowly add in the yeast water into the flour mixture and sitr using a pair of chopstick, then follow by the mashed pumpkin and stir till they form a soft dough.
6. Rub some oil on your hand then give the dough a quick knead till well combine.
7. Set the dough aside in a lightly flour/oil bowl and let it proof for about 20 - 30 minutes until it double in size.
8. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 portions then on a lightly floured work surface, flatten each portion into a rectangular shape shown like that picture below, sprinkle some chopped wolfberries then roll it up lengthwise into an oblong shape then cut them into equal portion.
9. Place each shaped portion on a piece of greaseproof paper, top with some extra wolfberries, then arrange on the steamer rack and steam over medium heat for about 8 - 10 minutes depend on the size.
10. Repeat for the rest of the portion of dough and steam accordingly. ( I made about 10 Mantou with the size of about 3" before steaming)

Note:
a) Lukewarm is about 40 degree Celsius
b) The pumpkin dough will be very stick when handling, so do not worry. You can wet your hand some oil before handling the dough for easy kneading.
c) You might need to cook the pumpkin for about 3 - 5 minutes more before it will be soften depend on the power of your microwave.

This is my homemade Steam Pumpkin & Wolfberries Mantou which is freshly out from the steamer. It really taste great and different for a chance in the usual Pandan or Plain Mantou that is sold in the supermarket.

Scramble Egg With Tomato

Are you one of those tomato lover who eats any kind of tomato that is on the shelf of the supermarket? Or you will just pick your choice of those that you love like cherry tomatoes or vineyard tomatoes or ?

Tomato fruit is classified as a berry. As a true fruit, it develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization, its flesh comprising the pericarp walls. Tomato is also an excellent source of Vitamin C and a good source of Vitamin A. So if you are trying to get one of your kids or love one to incorporate some tomato into their dish. You can try one of this Scramble Egg With Tomato serve in tomato cup as party food breakfast side dish.

Ingredients: (serve 2)
2 Medium Size Red Tomato
1 Medium Egg, lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon Milk/Water
1/2 Tablespoon of Chopped Tomato
1 Tablespoon of Chopped Spring Onion
1/2 Tablespoon of Thai Sweet Chili Sauce

Method:
1. Cut the tomatoes, horizontal into halve and carefully scoop out the seeds in it. Pat the inside dry with kitchen paper towel and set them aside.
2. Take 1 of the tomato cup and chopped them into cubes.
3. Whisk the egg with either water or milk until well combined.
4. Drizzle some Olive oil onto a small preheat non-stick pan and add in the chopped tomatoes, give it a few stir until fragrant then scatter in the chopped spring onion.
5. Next pour in the egg mixture and cook the scramble egg accordingly, using a spoon to stir the mixture occasionally.
6. Lastly stir in the Thai chili sauce mixture and give it a quick stir until it combined, fill the egg mixture into the prepared tomato cups and serve as together with some cut fruits as side dish.

Note:
a) You can replace the Thai Sweet Chili Sauce with Tomato Sauce for kid's version.
b) You can also scatter some extra shredded cheese onto the egg tomato cups and put it into the toaster oven of about 3 minutes or so until the cheese started to melt.

Baked Pasta With Bolognese Sauce & Cheese

Baked Pasta is always one of my favourite Quick and Easy dish in the list. Sometime I also baked this in in small foil tin shown above and packed it as lunch to work. It's very simple dish and yet full of vibrant texture and taste.

For this baked pasta, I prepared it with some seasoned mince meat, pre-cooked elbow macaroni, chopped brown onion and parsley, sliced assorted mushrooms and some shredded mozzarella cheese. In this recipe I use a few tablespoons of LEGGO'S PASTA SAUCE - BOLOGNESE (click on the LINK to see the sample and range of available sauce) to act as the sauce based for the pasta. If you don't prefer tomato base sauce, you can always swap it with white sauce like Carbonara.

Since I am sharing this baked pasta with my colleagues for lunch. I decided to fill the cooked pasta into individual small foil tin and top it with some extra chopped parsley and a generous amount of shredded cheese. (so sorry I won't be sharing the details of this recipe because it will be feature in the recipe column of Parents World which I am contributing the recipes on)

Pop them into a toaster oven for about 5 minutes or less to melt the cheese and you can served them hot or warm with some extra chili flake or parmesan cheese.......

Avocado ~ Egg ~ Tomato

This is my combination of appetiser meal, Avocado Vs Egg Vs Tomato. I simply just love the taste of Avocado, when this is in season I'll always have it in my fruit basket. I love to eat it with plain yogurt, or blend it with some fresh milk and honey and serve it as a health afternoon snack or after meal refreshment with a few ice cubes.

There are so many ways and ideas that you can eat your avocado with. And also high avocado intake has been shown to have an effect on blood serum cholesterol levels and it is also rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin E.

In this appetiser, I used 1 avocado, 1 hard boiled egg and 2 ripe medium size tomato to come out with 3 different taste and texture of the combination.

Mashed Avocado & Egg Salad
~ Mashed half of the hard-boiled egg with about 2 to 3 slices of avocado and serve it in a tomato cup.

Avocado Slices With Plain Yogurt
~ Arrange some avocado slices on plate and top with a dollar of plain Greek yogurt(or you can choose yogurt of your favour).

This is great to serve as a an presentable appetiser when you have guest around the house. You can top with with other fresh fruits of your choice or you can use tomato or cucumber or any combination that you prefer.

~ Cut the avocado into half, carefully scoop out the fruit and leave the shell in shape.
~ Place half of the hard-boiled egg in the middle and filled the space of the shelf with avocado & tomato cubes.
~ Drizzle with some BBQ or Thai Chilli sauce before serving.