Simple Cooking Ideas

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.
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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.

This soup is common in the Chinese family. The Chinese is so used to having soup with their meals. Especially when richly stewed soup is nourishing for health. Here are the eight types of Chinese herbs to boil with chicken bones or pork ribs.

Ingredients:

20 gm lotus seeds
15 gm dried longans
15 gm Huai Shan
15 gm Dang Sum
15 gm Yuk Chuk
10 gm Qi Zi
10 gm Fook Sun
10 red dates
600 gm chicken carcass or pork ribs
salt to taste

Method:

Wash all herbs and put in soup pot and add enough water to boil. Scald chicken bones or pork ribs in boiling water before putting in the pot to boil together with the herbs. Bring to boil over high heat. Turn to low heat and continue to boil for 2 to 3 hours. Season with salt and serve.

Tomato and pumpkin are bright colors of red and orange which are healthy and nutritious with Vitamin A and C, and a study says lycopene in tomatoes is a powerful antioxidant and may prevent prostate cancer and also some other forms of cancer. The pumpkin is versatile and widely used in both savoury and sweet dishes such as pumpkin pies, stews, stir-fries and soups. Pumpkin is also a powerful antioxidant and its seeds are rich in zinc.

Ingredients:

300 gm tomatoes cut into wedges
500 gm pumpkin, cut into cubes
1 big onion, cut into wedges
1.5 litre fresh chicken stock
1 small piece ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped spring onion and parsley

Method:

Bring chicken stock to boil. Add in big onion, ginger, pumpkin and tomatoes. Boil on high heat until soup is bubbling and lower heat to simmer for 25 minute or until pumpkin is soft. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in spring onion and parsley when serve.