Steamed chicken with dried mushrooms

Today I am suppose to cook chicken stew, but my son suggested and he wish to have steam chicken rather then the stew chicken.  I change my menu to steam chicken.  This is a very simple and olden way of steaming chicken.  I learned this recipe from my mom since I was young.  The ingredients are simple as well.  I need

500 grams of chicken, chopped into serving size,
1 tsp. salt,
1 tsp. pepper,
6 dried mushrooms (soaked and sliced),
1 piece of old ginger( 2 inches, sliced)
2 tbsp. rice wine /(shio heng)

Wash the chicken and drain.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper for at least 1/2 hour in a bowl.  Put in the freeze. The chickens will more tasty if I season for overnight.  For I am going to serve for dinner, I mange to season for 7 hours from the morning till evening 6pm.  I will remove the chicken from the freeze at 5.30pm before I steam it at 6 pm.

Boil some water in a steamer or a wok.  Meanwhile, put in the ginger, mushrooms and the wine into the seasoned chicken.  Steam the combined ingredients for 20 to 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.  Serve hot with rice.

The chicken meats are well cooked and tender, and the essence from the steaming of the ingredients really yummy!

Fish Soup

 have been cooking  many types of soup but never try cooking fish soup.  Today the fish monger recommended me to buy some sea eels but  I refuse because the fish has too much side bones and I do not know how to prepare and handle this type of fish.  She was so very persuasive and encouraging.  finally she cut 3 slices of about 6 inch long of the eels.  She gave me a simple fish soup recipe that I will never regret and sure will share with friends and relatives.  I shared with my relatives, but none of them had tried before.  Here I would also like to share out the recipe as well.

The ingredients are,

800 grams of eels,
 4 medium tomatoes,(cut into quarters)
1 piece 2 inches old ginger, (cut into slices)
1 medium size cha choy, (soak and cut into thin slices)
1.5 lt.  water.
chopped spring onions(garnishing)

Bring the water to boil in a soup pot.  Meanwhile wash and clean the fish.  Pour some hot water over the fish to get rid off some of the fishy smell. Prepare the tomatoes and the cha choy.

Put in all the ingredients when the water is boiled. Simmer for about 1 to 1 1/2 hour in low fire.  My fish is ready.  Serve hot and garnish with spring onions.

I can taste the sweetness from the fish, a little sourness mix with light  sweetness from the tomatoes and a little saltines with very little taste of chili from the cha choy, the soup is clear and taste good!  I like it very much.  Before cooking this soup , in my mind I was thinking that the soup may be taste fishy that I will not be able to drink it.  However, it turns out to be so good, I love this soup and will  cook this soup  more often as long as I can get the eels from the market.  This soup is very nutritious too.

Sweet and sour sauce with boiled pork.

 

I have been cooking pork, stew, braise, steam but today I going to prepare boil pork with sauce.  This is a very simple way of cooking.  I found this  recipe from a blog that I just happen browse through. I did some modification by using red chili instead of small hot chili because my whole family can't take the hotness of the small chili.

The ingredients are,

300 grams of pork tenderloin,
Some cherry tomatoes, for garnishing,
2 tbsp. chopped garlic,
5 -10 small chili, I used big red chili, chopped,
1 tbsp. chopped coriander/ basil leaves,
1 tbsp. sugar,
1 tbsp. light soy sauce,
2 tbsp. fish sauce,
3-5 tbsp. lime juice(kasturi)
1 tsp. salt,
1/2 tsp. pepper,
1 tsp. oil.

Wash and slice the pork into thin slices.  Season the pork slices with salt, pepper and oil for 10 to f20 minutes..

Meanwhile, combine chopped garlics, chili, sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce and the lime juice in a small bowl.  Taste to your own liking, some may like a bit sour and some may prefer a bit more sugar.  Se t the sauce aside.

Bring some water to boil in a sauce pan.  Put in the pork slices to boil until just cook, about 4 minutes. Drain and place the cooked pork on a serving plate decorate with halved cherry tomatoes.  Pour the well mixed sauce over the meat.  Garnish chopped coriander leaves.  Hey...my sweet and sour sauce pork is ready.  Serve with rice or also very appetizing to go with boiled noodle as well.