Simple Cooking Ideas

Have you tried making yoghurt at home instead of buying in the supermarkets? Yoghurt can be prepared from all types of milk. If you make from skimmed milk, it is lower in fat and colories but weak in flavour. Beside its nutritious value, yoghurt is marvellously versatile and adaptable food. it adds richness, flavour and appetising to many dishes.It blends well with cheese,eggs, grains, meat,vegetables and fruits. It is delicious when you flavour with syrups, nuts, herbs and spices.

Ingredients:

2 litre milk
4 tablespoon plain yoghurt

Method:

Place milk in a pot and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for three minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool to lukewarm temperature. Pour the yoghurt into a thermal pot and screw tightly. Allow to stand for 8 hours. You can eat it on its own, flavour with syrup, nuts or herbs and spices or use it in the preparation of food.

Note: Always set aside part of the yoghurt for the next batch.

Cereal is the name given to those seeds used as food (wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, rice, etc.), which are produced by plants belonging to the vast order known as the grass family. They are used for food both in the unground state and in various forms of mill products.

The grains are pre-eminently nutritious, and when well prepared, easily digested foods. In composition they are all similar, but variations in their constituent elements and the relative amounts of these various elements, give them different degrees of alimentary value. They each contain one or more of the nitrogenous elements, gluten, albumen, caseine, and fibrin, together with starch, dextrine, sugar, and fatty matter, and also mineral elements and woody matter, or cellulose. The combined nutritive value of the grain foods is nearly three times that of beef, mutton, or poultry. As regards the proportion of the food elements necessary to meet the various requirements of the system, grains approach more nearly the proper standard than most other foods; indeed, wheat contains exactly the correct proportion of the food elements.

We frequently meet people who say they cannot use the grains, that they do not agree with them. With all deference to the opinion of such people, it may be stated that the difficulty often lies in the fact that the grain was either not properly cooked, not properly eaten, or not properly accompanied. A grain, simply because it is a grain, is by no means warranted to faithfully fulfil its mission unless properly treated. Like many another good thing excellent in itself, if found in bad company, it is prone to create mischief, and in many cases the root of the whole difficulty may be found in the excessive amount of sugar used with the grain.

This is a Thai dish which is popular in Thailand. It is basically ‘chilli hot’with the addition of locally grown aromatic herbs and grass. Here is a quick home-cooked tom yam for those who like a spicy taste of the soup.

Ingredients: serves 6

6 large fresh prawns, shelled and deveined, leaving the tail intact
2 stalk lemon grass
5 shallots
5 chill padi, seeded and cut into half
3 kaffir leaves or limau perut leaves
2 tablespoon oil
30 gm ready bought sambal belacan
freshly chopped coriander leaves
2 litres water

Method:

Shelled and deveined the prawns, leaving the tail intact. retain the heads. Cut the lemon grass into short lengths and pound alittle with the back of a knife. Cut the onions finely. Half the chilli padi. Heat the oil in a pot and stir-fry the onions, lemon grass, prawn heads for about 3 to 4 mins and add the water. Add in the limau perut leaves and sambal. Cover pot and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the prawns and cook till tender but still firm. Pour in the lime juice and add salt to taste. Throw in the chopped coriander leaves and serve immediately.

Chinese soups are prepared in the morning so that they are ready for lunch. After lunch the soup is boiled again once more to keep for dinner. For a tasty soup, it musst bring to the boil on high for a few minutes and lower the heat to simmer for about 2 to 3 hours.

Ingredients:

50 gm brow beans (mei tau)
50 gm peanuts
3oo gm pig’s bone
3 pairs chicken feet, removed nails
38 gm mussels, soaked in water till soft
5 red dates
a quarter piece tangerine peel, soaked in water till soft
2 slices ginger
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Clean chicken feet and blanch pig’s bone and chicken feetin boiled water. Rinse and put aside ready to be boiled. Rinsed and clean dried mussels, brow beans, peanuts, red dates and tangerine peels.

Bring suitable amount of water to the boil and add in all the ingredients. Bring to the boil for 5 minutes on high, lower heat and simmer for 2 hours. Season with salt, pepper and soya sauce. Serve while is hot.
`

This is a nourishing soup. Catfish can be available in the wet markets and super markets. The fish is very slimy. You have to scald with boiling water to clean it. Then rub with salt all over to clean again. Rinse and put aside for later use.

Ingredients:(serves 5 to 6 persons)

500 kg catfish, cleaned and cut into big pieces
500 gm black beans, rinsed and clean
1 piece dried tangerine peel
50 gm ‘tai tau choy’(pickled Chinese salted vegetable)
1 thumb-sized ginger, smashed
3 liter water

Method:

Add water and black beans, pickled vegetable, ginger and a piece of dried tangerine peel into a stainless steel pot and bring to boil. Add in fish and continue to simmer for 2 hours. Season with salt and serve.

Wood ear fungus is added for this soup. It has medicinal benefits. It can lower cholesterol and can prevent blood clotting. Sensitive individual should avoid consuming large amount as it may cause internal bleeding. Other scientific studies suggest that the wood ear fungus may also be valuable as a nutritional cancer fighting tool. Dried wood ear can be stored in dark, room temperature cupboard for up to one year.

Ingredients:

20 gm wood ear fungus
1/2 black-skinned chicken
20 red dates, cored
2 slices ginger

Method:

Wash chicken. Soak wood ear till soft. Cut off the harden stalk and cut wood ear into smaller pieces. Measure eight cups of water into a pot. Add all the ingredients. Bring to the boil over high heat. Turn to low and simmer 2 hours. Add salt to taste before searving.

Shark bones has been known for its cure on joints and as a good supplement for cartilage for the older folks. Drink more of this soup often may help those who are having arthritis.

Ingredients:

300 gm lotus root, peeled skin and sliced
300 gm carrot, peeled skin and cut into wedges
150 gm shark’s bones
1 chicken carcass
6 red dates, removed seeds
1 dry squid, grilled and washed clean

Method:

Shoak shark’s bones in water for 2 hours Blanch in hot water for 10 minutes. Chopped up chicken bones, blanch and drain. Add suitable amount of water in a pot and put in all the ingredients. Bring to the boil for 10 minutes and lower heat. Simmer for 3 hours. Add salt to taste and serve.