Prawn Ball Soup

A bowl of piping hot soup on a raining day would certainly warm anyone's day. The base of these soups is derived from either meats (beef, pork, chicken), seafood or vegetable. These hot soups can be divided into thin or thick soups. One such thin soup is prawn ball soup. It is delicious and can be easily prepared. Most households would definitely have stock of prawns. the vegetable that goes into this soup can be varied; I have used yau mak. Other vegetables that can be used are Napa cabbage, spinach, cai xin and so on.

Ingredients:

For the prawn balls:

• 200 prawn meat
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp wheat flour
• 1 tbsp tapioca flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 chili padi (optional)

For the soup:

• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 750 ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 6 leaves of yau mak

Method:

• Mince prawn meat with the minced garlic.

• Add wheat flour and tapioca flour to the minced prawn meat. Mix well.

• Add salt, pepper and chili padi. Mix well.

• Roll the batter into balls (6 pieces). Set aside.

• Saute minced garlic in sesame oil in a soup pot.

• Once the garlic is fragrant, add water to the pot.

• Let the water boil.

• Once the water boils, add the prawn balls.

• Add the seasonings once the prawn balls cook, .

• Add the yau mak and let the soup boil for a further 2 minutes.

• Turn off the fire. The soup is ready for serving.

• (Note: You may add noodles, especially glass noodles, to the soup if you like.)

Claypot Tofu with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

Sequence of Cooking:

I have seen this dish being cooked on Instagram and Facebook. Looking at the ingredients, I was sure that the dish would be appreciated by my husband and children. True enough, all of them love it. It is also suitable for vegetarians.

Although no measurement is given, the dish looks easy enough to cook. Since then I had cooked this dish a few times to try out with different quantities of the various ingredients. The recipe below is the result of these trials.

Ingredients:

• 400 g tomatoes, cubed
• 1 packet enoki mushroom (2 would have been better), remove ends
• 4 pcs of large brown button mushroom, sliced
• 1 box of tofu, cut into pcs
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tbsp black vinegar
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• Cornflour slurry (2 tbsp cornflour + 4 tbsp water)
• Garnishing - green onion

Method:

• Add cooking oil to claypot. Let it heat up.

• Add tomatoes to the claypot. Fry.

• Add salt.

• Add water. Let boil.

• Add enoki mushroom to 1 side and button mushroom to the other. Add tofu either on top of the mushrooms or to one side next to the mushrooms.

• Beat egg and add it to the claypot.

• Add pepper, black vinegar and sesame oil. (Dont hv to stir.)

• Thicken the sauce with corn flour slurry and garnish the tofu with tomatoes and mushrooms with green onion.

• Serve hot with white rice.

Seafood Chowder

According to Wikipedia, Chowder is a type of soup or stew often prepared with milk or cream and thickened with broken crackers, crushed ship biscuit, or a roux. Variations of chowder can be seafood or vegetable. Seafood lovers like me will definitely loves this type of soup. It is versatile as you can add any type of seafood to it. You can serve your chowder with crackers. However, I love to dunk my baguette into it.

Ingredients:

• 25 g butter
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 50 g yellow onion, cubed
• 50 g potatoes, cubed
• 40 g celery, cubed
• 30 g carrots, cubed
• 30 g green peas
• 30 g corn
• 8 pcs blue mussels
• 6 pcs scallops
• 2 squid tubes (30 g)
• 2 big prawns (30 g meat only)
• 50 g salmon, cubed
• 250 g seafood broth
• 300 g cream
• 1 pc bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme, or more
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder, or more
• 1/2 tsp black pepper powder, or more
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 4 tbsp water

Method:

• Add butter to a pot. 

• When butter has melted, add onions and fry till they are translucent.

• Add garlic and saute till fragrant.

• Add potato, celery, carrot and sweet corn. Stir fry for a while.

• Add seafood broth.

• When the broth is boiling, add bay leaf and thyme.

• Add seafood - black mussel, prawns, scallops, squids and salmon.

• Add cream.

• Add seasonings of salt, white and black pepper powder

• Mix corn flour with water. When the chowder is boiling, add the corn flour mixture to thicken it.

• Serve it hot.

Tomato Egg Drop Soup

 

My elder daughter has mentioned many times about the Tomato Egg Drop Soup. She loves tomatoes and wanted to cook this soup herself. However, she is very busy with her work. So, I took it upon myself to cook it for her. After all, it is one of the simplest soups to make. The ingredients are simple and are available at home. I am sure these ingredients can be easily found in most kitchens too. Furthermore, it only takes about 10-15 minutes to cook up this soup. So if you are hard for time, this is the soup to go for.

Ingredients:

• 3 tomatoes, about 340 g
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 6 inches of spring onion, cut into 0.5 cm length, separating the green part from the white
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 1/2 cups water or chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder

Method:

• Cut the tomatoes into small cubes.

• Heat up a pan with cooking oil.

• Saute the garlic till fragrant.

• Add tomatoes and white part of spring onion to the pot.

• Fry the tomatoes till they are soft and mushy.

• Add water or chicken stock to the pot.

• Let the water or chicken stock boil.

• When the water or chicken stock is boiling, stir it round and round.

• Add the beaten eggs to the pot, stirring the soup gently it round and round 

• Season the soup with salt, light soy sauce and pepper.

• Sprinkle the green onion on top.

• The egg drop soup is ready to be served.

Clear Fish Soup

Clear Fish Soup is definitely one of the most delicious soups that we can easily cook in our kitchen. I usually use red snapper (jenahak), grouper (kerapu) or threadfin (senangin) to make my Clear Fish Soup. My family and I usually eat this with rice although at times I do serve it with the Penang laksa noodles. We will slurp up every bit of the noodles and the ingredients in eat and pick clean the fish meat from the bones. I like my soup to be a bit spicy. So I usually add some cut chili padi when I am boiling the soup.

Ingredients:

• 400 g of fish (either fillets or whole with head and tail)
• 6 big napa cabbage leaves
• 1 1/2 inch carrot
• 4 pcs Shiitake mushrooms
• 1 box of white tofu
• 1 inch ginger
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 cups water
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Frying the fish.
• Wash the fish fillets and use a kitchen towel to dry them.
• Rub them with salt.
• Heat cooking oil in a wok.
• When the oil is hot, add the fish to the oil and fry them till golden brown.
• Remove and set aside.

• Handling the ingredients.
• Wash the napa cabbage and cut them into 1 1/2-inch length. Transfer them to a colander to drain away any water.
• Peel, wash and cut the carrot into rings or any shapes that you desire.
• Soak the mushroom and when softened, slice them up as you wish.
• Remove the tofu from the box. To ensure that it is not broken up in the process, follow the following steps:
• Remove the plastic on top.
• Turn the tofu box onto a plate.
• Use a scissors to cut off the four corners of the box to let air into the box.
• Slowly tap on the box and remove the box.
• Cut the tofu into sizes that you wish.
• Remove skin of ginger and slice it thinly.
• Chop up the garlic.

• Heat up sesame oil in a wok.

• Saute the mushroom slices followed by the chopped garlic.

• When they are fragrant, add water to the wok.

• Let the water boil.

• Once it has boiled, add ginger and fish fillets to the wok. Cover the wok and let the fillets simmer for about 10 minutes.

• Remove the cover and add napa cabbage and carrot to the soup.

• Let the cabbage and carrot soften.

• Season the soup with salt, light soy sauce and pepper.

• Add tofu and let the soup boil to heat up the tofu.

• The soup is ready to be served.

Stuffed Bitter Gourd - Deepfried or In Soup

Bitter gourd is also known as bitter melon or Momordica Charantia. Many people do not like the bitter taste in this gourd; it is an acquired taste. However, some bitter gourd are milder in bitterness than others. The bitterness is due to the presence of a compound momordicin. 

Most of the time we will just stir fry or braise it with meat. At times we will make omelette with it. Stuffed Bitter Gourd can be found very easily at stalls selling Yong Tau Foo. But most of the time the paste is made up of fish and pork. Some housewives make their own Stuffed Bitter Gourd similar to those sold by Yong Tau Foo stalls. After stuffing the bitter gourd with fish or pork paste, they are then deep fried or cooked in soup.


Ingredients:

• 6 pcs of bitter gourd rings (1 cm thickness)
• 150 g minced meat
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 pc shallot
• 2 tsp corn flour
• Cooking oil

• For Soup:
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder

Method:

• Remove the seeds from the bitter gourd rings. Remove as much of the white part from these rings as possible.

• Soak bitter gourd rings in salt water for 10 to 15 minutes to get rid of some of the bitterness.

• Chop garlic and shallot and add them to the minced meat.

• Add the seasonings - light soy sauce, salt, pepper and sesame oil - to the minced meat.

• Add corn flour to the minced meat.

• Mix the minced meat with all the ingredients till they are well-combined.

• Stuff the bitter gourd rings with the minced meat. Pack it 

• For deep fry: 

• Heat up a kuali with cooking oil.
• When the oil is hot, place the stuffed bitter gourd into the kuali.
• Fry till the bottom is golden brown.
• Flip the bitter gourd to the other side.
• Fry till this side is golden brown.
• Remove them onto kitchen towel to soak up excess oil.
• Transfer the Stuffed Bitter Gourd to a serving plate.

• For soup:

• Heat up a hot with sesame oil.
• Saute the garlic till fragrant.
• Add water to the pot.
• Let the water boil.
• Add the stuffed bitter gourd to the pot.
• Add seasonings - light soy sauce, salt, dark soy sauce and pepper to the soup.
• Turn off the fire when the bitter gourd is cooked..
• You may add blanched bihun to the Stuff Bitter Gourd soup.

Broccoli Soup

Do you know that broccoli is an edible green plant in the cabbage family? Well, it is and its large flowering head and stalk is eaten as a vegetable. The word broccoli comes from the Italian plural of broccolo, which means "the flowering crest of a cabbage". Broccoli is, according to many health reports, a nutritional source of vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants. It can keep you healthy by improving your blood sugar control, boosting your immunity, reducing inflammation and promoting heart health.

Broccoli can be enjoyed either raw or cooked. For the former, it can be used as one of the ingredients in salads. For the latter, it can be steamed (quick steaming is the best way to retain its nutrients), stir-fried, roasted or made into soups. Broccoli soups are easy to make with the ingredients easily available in our fridges or larder.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 yellow onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 big potato
• 3 tbsp cream (or more)
• cooking oil
• salt
• pepper
• water
• butter (optional)

Method:

• Cut the broccoli head from the stem. Cut the head into florets. Peel off the hard exterior of the stem and slice it.

• Remove the skin of the yellow onion and slice it thinly.

• Chop up the garlic.

• Skin the potato and cut into smaller pieces.

• Heat up 2 spoonfuls of cooking oil in a pot.

• Saute the onion till it is fragrant.

• Add the chopped garlic and continue to saute till garlic is fragrant.

• Add the sliced broccoli stem and potato.

• Add water into the pot till it covers the ingredients. Let the water boil till the onion, broccoli stem and potato are soft.

• Add the florets and boil till they soften.

• Turn off the fire and let the pot of ingredients cool down.

• Once they have cooled down, blend them either with a hand-held blender or a blender. If using a blender, blend the ingredients in about 3-4 batches.

• Return the soup to the pot.

• Heat up the soup and add cream.

• (Optional) Add a dollop of butter.

• Add salt and pepper according to taste.

• Serve hot with baguette or garlic bread.

Healthy Vegetable Soup

During cold rainy days it is always good to cook some delicious and healthy soup to warm the body. It can be thick soup - bisques and chowder or clear soup. Bisque is generally smooth (for example, lobster bisque) while chowder is chunky (for example, seafood chowder). Clear soup can be meat soup or just pure vegetable soup or a combination of both.

Vegetable soup is usually made with onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, chopped tomatoes, green beans and corn and seasoned with salt and pepper. Sometimes bay leaf and thyme are added to make the soup even more flavourful.


Ingredients:

• 1 ear of corn
• 2-inch thick of yam
• 2-inch thick of pumpkin
• 1 small orange sweet potato
• 1 small carrot
• 4 leaves of napa cabbage
• 6 pieces of straw mushroom (can be replaced with Enoki mushroom)
• 4 pieces of dried Shiitake mushroom
• 2 1/2 lit of water
• Seasonings - salt and pepper
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Remove the green husk and silk of the corn. Wash and cut it into 3 portions.

• Peel and wash the yam. Slice it into 1/2 inch thick.

• Peel and wash the pumpkin. Slice it into 1/2 inch thick.

• Peel and wash the orange sweet potato. Cut it into 1/2 inch thick.

• Peel and wash the carrot. Cut it into small wedges.

• Wash and cut the napa cabbage into 1 1/2 inch length.

• Wash and half the straw mushroom.

• Wash, soak till soft and quarter the Shiitake mushroom.

• Heat up wok with cooking oil.

• When oil is hot, deep fry the yam, pumpkin and orange sweet potato. This is to prevent them from becoming mushy and clouding the soup during boiling.

• Scoop them up into a bowl when they are a bit brown. Pour hot water over them to remove the oil. Pour away the water and set aside the fried yam, pumpkin and orange sweet potato.

• In a pot, bring the water to a boil. Add corn, carrot and Shiitake and straw mushrooms and let the water simmer for 30 minutes.

• Then add the yam, pumpkin and sweet potato. Continue to simmer till they are soft. you may scoop them up into a serving bowl when they are soft.

• Add the napa cabbage.

• Add the seasonings (according to taste).

• Let the soup boil. Then turn off the fire and cover the pot. (The napa cabbage will become tender without further boiling.)

• Serve the soup piping hot. 

Assam Belai Soup

Assam Belai Soup is a sourish and spicy soup somewhat similar to Assam Laksa Soup. However, in the former, usually the fish is cooked whole (i.e. it is not mashed up), the soup is lighter in colour and it is usually eaten with rice. However, I prefer to mash up the fish so that it can be eaten together with the soup. This is because from experience, my family will just drink the soup leaving the fish untouched.


Ingredients:

• 6 pieces of fish (I like to use ikan kembung)
• 3 litres water
• 2 stalks lemongrass
• 1 big onion
• 1 bunch of kesum leaves (daun kesum)
• 1 torch ginger flower (bunga kantan)
• 4-5 pcs assam keping
• 3 tbsp ground sambal (See my post on Sambal under Condiments - 24 Feb 2018.)
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Remove the entrails from the fish and then wash the fish.

• Boil a pot of water (3 litres).

• When the water is boiling, add the fish and let it boil till the fish is cooked.

• Remove the fish from the pot and let it cool down.

• Smash the lemongrass and put them into the pot.

• Slice the onion and add to the pot.

• Add the kesum leaves together with the stalks to the pot.

• Quarter the torch ginger flower and add to the pot together with the stalk which must also be quartered.

• Add the assam keping and sambal to the pot.

• Let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes over low fire.

• While the soup is simmering, carefully remove all the bones from the fish. Use your thumb and pointer to test for the presence of any small bones. Once this is completed, mash up the fish meat and add to the soup.

• Let the soup boil for another 10 minutes.

• Add salt to taste.

• The soup is ready to be served - with rice or rice noodles.

Chicken Stew with Vegetables

It is good to have some stews on cold days or nights to warm up our bodies. We can use either beef, poultry or seafood in the stews. As for vegetables, usually a combination of carrots, potatoes, onions and tomatoes is used.  We may also add mushroom to the stew.

Ingredients:

• 300 g chicken, cut into small pieces (2 servings)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 potato, cubed
• 1 carrot, cubed
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 stalk of celery, cubed
• 3 tsp corn flour + 1 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp Angel Light Soy Sauce
• A dash of pepper
• A pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• Parsley for garnishing

Method:

• Heat a sauce pan with cooking oil & fry chicken pieces till slightly brown.

• Remove excess oil when the chicken is done.

• Add garlic & saute till fragrant.

• Add broth & let it simmer for 1 hr.

• Add potato, carrot, onion & celery.

• Add light soy sauce, pepper & salt.

• Cover & let it simmer for another 1/2 hr.

• Stir in corn flour solution to thicken the stew.

• Scoop it into a bowl & garnish with parsley.

• Serve with rice or bread.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

We normally drink thin clear soups at home like chicken soup, tom yum soup, tofu soup, seaweed soup and so on. It is only when we patronise western restaurants that we drink thick soup like mushroom soup, lobster bisques or thick vegetable soups. Of the so many thick and creamy soups available, our favourites are the pumpkin soup (which I have already posted in my blog) and the mushroom soup.

When I first wanted to make the mushroom soup, I kept staring at the many types of mushrooms available in the supermarket. I managed to ask an English lady which type of mushrooms that she uses in her mushroom soup. She told me that she preferred the white button mushroom as she did not like the dull colour of the brown mushrooms. I searched the World Wide Web and found that a good mushroom soup will contain a variety of mushrooms to take advantage of the qualities of each.

 Ingredients:

• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 big onion
• 500 g white button mushroom
• 300 g baby Portobello mushroom
• 25 g baby Portobello mushroom, optional (if you like to have bits of mushroom in your soup)
• 30 g butter
• 250 ml whipping cream
• 125 g wheat flour
• 250 ml water
• 1250 ml chicken stock
• 1 tsp black pepper

Method:

• Peel, wash and chop the garlic.

• Peel, wash and dice the onion.

• Wash the 500 g of white button and 300 g of baby Portobello mushrooms and slice them thinly.

• Wash and chop the 25 g of baby Portobello mushrooms.

• Melt butter in a pot. Swirl the butter so that the bottom of the pot is covered by the melted butter. 

• Add the garlic and saute it till fragrant.

• Add the onion and mushrooms (except the 25 g chopped mushrooms) into the pot. Stir until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are fragrant.

• Add the chicken stock. (If you do not have fresh chicken stock, you may use the cubed ones. Just take 1 - 1 1/2 cubes and add water to make up 1250 ml.) Stir to mix everything together. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes or more to bring out the flavour of the soup.

• Let the soup cool down before pouring it into the blender. (This is important. If you try to blend the soup while it is still very hot, it will splash all over the minute you switch on the blender.)

• Blend till the garlic, onion and mushrooms are fine.

• Pour the blended soup back into the pot and let it boil again. (Optional. Put the 25 g of chopped mushrooms into your soup. Boil the soup for another 10 to 15 minutes.)

• Add the whipping cream into the soup. Stir.

• Mix water with the all-purpose flour. Add the flour mixture, tablespoon by tablespoon, into the soup slowly until you reach a nice consistency i.e. not too thin nor too thick.

• Add black pepper into the soup and stir.

• Turn off the fire and serve hot with bread if you like.

Pumpkin Soup

According to some people, pumpkin is a "superfood". Eating pumpkin helps to reduce the risk of cancer, regulate blood pressure, combat diabetes, provide our daily fiber requirement, boost our immune system and many more. There are many ways of eating pumpkin, for example, smoothie, pie, soup, bread, pasta, pancakes, chips....the list goes on.

My family, especially my husband, loves the pumpkin soup as it is sweet and very tasty. When I am not making soup with it, I will just steam it only for him to eat with rice (without fail for every meal). So, I usually keep stock of a few pumpkins at home.

To make soup, I will usually choose a pumpkin of about 1.2 kg to 1.5 kg in weight to ensure that everyone has more than enough to drink. I use the following method to make the soup:

Ingredients:

• 1.2 - 1.5 kg of pumpkin, skinned, remove the seeds and cut into cubes. Then, give them a good rinse.
• 2 big onions, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 litre of chicken stock (or use 1 1/2 chicken stock cube and dissolve in water to make up 1 litre of stock)
• generous amount of black pepper
• butter
• double cream (optional)
• cheese (optional)

Method:

• Put a dollop of butter into your frying pan.
• Saute the garlic until fragrant.
• Add in the onions and fry them till they are soft.
• Add in the pumpkin.
• Then, add in chicken stock. Let it boil until the pumpkin becomes mushy.
• Add in a generous amt of black pepper.
• Leave the soup aside to cool down. (This step is important to prevent the soup from splashing all over when the ingredients in the soup are being blended.)
• Once it has cooled down, use a hand-held liquidizer or normal blender to blend the ingredients.
• Then return the soup to the pot to be heated up. The soup is ready to be served.

You may serve by:

• adding cream (optional) on top.
• sprinkling some cheese (optional) on top.
• adding even more black pepper into it.