Pig Maw Soup 猪肚汤

A traditional soup that my family love to cook during Chinese New Year! To make a wholesome pot of soup, usually lots of good stuff are added though the star is pig maw (pig stomach). I enjoy this soup very much, especially the peppery broth is so tasty that instantly warm you up the first mouthful. This symbolise warm and love as the family gather together for reunion dinner!

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #15 - Auspicious Dishes for CNY (January 2012) hosted by me, Wen of Wen's Delight! 

[$20 Budget Meal] Steamed Tofu with Minced Pork Topping, Black Chicken Herbal Soup & Stir Fry Capsicum with Shitake Mushroom

I'm back from the Land of Kimchi! Will be updating my travel post soon after clearing some of my back logs. Prepared this meal on the weekend before my trip. A simple homecooked meal that cost less than $20, will be submitting this post to “May $20 Budget Meal - Specific Ingredient is "Tofu/Beancurd"” hosted by Ellena of Cuisine Paradise.

Total cost: S$14.55

S$20 Budget Meal - 2 Dishes Plus 1 Soup Blog Event

Another interesting Blog Event that I do not wish to miss which is hosted by Ellena of Cuisine Paradise, S$20 budget meal - 2 Dishes plus 1 Soup. With Aunt around, I will get at least 2 - 3 homecooking meal a week which usually make up of 2 dishes and sometimes a soup. This was one of our dinner last week... I told her about this event and she recorded the cost for me. Thank you Aunt! You are the best!

While preparing this post, I'm quite impressed that with less than S$20 you can actually prepare a good meal for a family of 4 easily! Usually we will buy fish from the market and the rest will be at NTUC or Shop n Save. Sometimes you can get pretty good buy for fish at NTUC too which are very fresh too. Let's take a look at the dinner menu...

S$20 Budget Meal Summary (Serves 4):Jacket Fish in Miso Sauce - S$7.40
Stir Fry Zucchini with Capscium & Shimeji Mushroom - S$5.60
Egg & Tomato soup - $1.00
Total spending: S$14.00

Jacket Fish in Miso Sauce

Ingredients: (Serves 4)
700g Jacket fish (cut into 4 pcs)
1 knob Ginger (Shredded)
2 stalks Spring Onion (cut lengthwise)
1 no Red chilli (sliced)
2 cloves Garlic (smashed)

Seasoning for Fish (Season for 1/2hr):
2tsp light sauce
1/2tsp sesame oil

Sauce (mix together):
200ml stock/water (if using water, add 1tsp Maggi concentrated chicken stock)
1tbsp miso paste
1/2tsp sugar
1tsp honey
1tsp light sauce
1tsp sesame oil
1tsp wine
Pepper
Thickening: 1 1/2tsp Cornflour mix w/1tbsp water

Method:
1. Use a non stick pan, lightly pan-fried the fish and set aside.
2. Heat oil & fry the shredded ginger till golden brown, dish out.
3. Use the balance oil in the wok to fry garlic and chilli till fragrant.
4. Add in sauce, stir well & add back the fried fish.
5. Simmer for 2 mins till sauce start boiling & add thickening.
6. Serve & garnish with fried ginger & spring onion.

Cost of Ingredients:
Jacket fish (approx 700g) - S$6.40
Ginger/Spring Onion/Red chilli/Garlic - S$1.00

Stir Fry Zucchini with Capscium & Shimeji Mushroom

Ingredients: (Serves 4)
2 nos Green Zucchini
1 no Yellow Capsicum
1 box Shimeji Mushroom
1 no Chilli
2 cloves Garlic (chopped finely)

Seasoning Sauce:
3 tbsp Stock/Water (if using water add 1/2 tsp of Maggi Concentrated Chicken stock)
1 tsp Sugar
2 tsp Light Sauce
2 tsp Fish Sauce
2 tsp Oyster Sauce
2 tsp Sesame Oil
2 tsp Huatiao Wine
1 tsp Cornflour
Pepper

Method:
1. Cut zucchini, capsicum & chilli into cubes.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil to fry garlic till fragrant. Add Zucchini & mushroom to fry for 1min, then add in capscium & chilli to stir fry for awhile.
3. Add in the seasoning sauce and stir fry for another min till the sauce heat through. (do not overcook as the vegetables will lose it's crisp)
4. Dish out and serve.

Cost of Ingredients:
2 nos Green Zucchini - S$3.00
1 no Yellow Capsicum - S$0.90
1 box Shimeji Mushroom - S$1.50
Chilli/Garlic - S$0.20

Egg & Tomato Soup

Ingredients:
500ml Stock/Water (if using water, add 2 tsp Maggi Concentrated Chicken Stock)
2 nos Egg (Beaten)
1 medium size Tomato (cut into wedges)
Spring onion
Fried onion oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:
1. Bring stock/water to boil in pot.
2. Whisk in beaten egg & tomato, heat through. Season with salt & pepper.
3. Dish out & garnish with spring onions and fried onion oil.

Cost of Ingredients:
2 nos Egg - S$0.50
1 medium size Tomato - S$0.30
Spring onion/Fried onion oil - S$0.20

Start cooking at home for a healthier yet economical meal!

Golden Pomfret Soup

My Aunt's cooking recipe requested by Angie Soh.

Recipe: Golden Pomfret Soup (Serve 2-3)
















Ingredients:
Golden Pomfret - 500g to 600g (debone and fillet it, set the head and bone aside)
Ginger - 3 slices (shredded)
Dried Flat Fish - 2 pcs (Fry till crispy & ground 2 tsp, balance set aside)
Stock - 900ml (Refer to: Premium Soup Stock recipe)
Tomato - 1/2 no (Optional) (cut into wedges)
Wine - 1tbsp

For garnish:
Fried Shallot oil
Spring onion - 2 stalks
Pepper

Method:
1. Bring stock to boil.
2. Add 2 tsp of fried ground flat fish.
3. Add fish head and bone, follow by fillet slices bring to boil for approx 2 min or till cooked.
4. Add in ginger, tomato, balance fried flat fish pcs & wine, mix well.
5. Transfer to serving dish.
6. Garnish with spring onion, pepper & fried shallots oil.

*Note: No salt is needed as the stock used is very rich and tasty. Usually we don't add vegetables as it will alter the taste. So my aunt will usually make a "You Cai" to compliment this soup.

Shark Fin Soup

Monday - 26th January 2009
Chinese New Year to me is all about food, good food. I'm only in charged of making my special prawn fritters, the rest was cooked by my aunt. She made shark fin soup for us. With her ready stock, this soup is easy to prepare. Here's her recipe:

Ingredients (Serve 8):
400g Shark fin (ready frozen type)
400g Crab meat
1 egg (beaten)
1.5L Stock(5 bowls)

Seasoning:
1tsp Salt
1tsp Chicken powder
1tsp Light sauce
1/2tsp Sugar
1tsp Sesame oil
1/2tbsp Wine
Pepper
Thickening - 5tbsp Cornflour mix with 5tbsp water

Method:
1. Heat up 3 tbsp oil till very hot, add stock.
2. Bring to boil, add shark fin & crab meat.
3. Add thickening and lastly slowly stir in egg.
4. Garnish with coriander & serve w/pepper & vinegar.

Mixed Veg & Fish Maw Soup

I was so busy on weekend that I didn't go marketing to top up my fridge for weekday cooking. However, I usually tend to buy more than what we need so my fridge still have balance bits & pieces of different type of veg. So my aunt whipped up a mixed veg & fish maw soup to use up all the balance veg in the fridge. With her ready frozen stock, anytime we can have nice soup...

Ingredient:
650ml Premium stock (see recipes) - This will make exactly one big bowl of soup
Assorted balance mixed veg
2 nos Fish maw (wash & cut into pcs)
Shallot oil

Method:
1. Boil the stock and fish maw till fish maw soften.
2. Add veg and stir well, add salt to taste.
3. Garnish with shallot oil & pepper before serving.

Alfafa Sprout Soup

Alfalfa sprouts derived from alfalfa seeds. They are white and thread-like, with tiny green tops.

This remarkable plant is very nutritious and is abundant in health benefits. We can use it in salad, sandwiches, as garnishing or even in soup. You will be surprise the sprout still remain crisp even after it is cooked.

One of the easiest & nutrious soup to make from the the premium stock (refer to recipe) is Alfafa Sprout Soup:

Recipes (serve 3-4):
600ml Premium Stock (refer to recipe)
1 box Alfafa sprout (standard size can be found in supermarkets around $2.30 per box)
1 tbsp Fried shallots with oil

Optional: Any other ingredients you like eg golden mushroom, shitake mushroom, fish maw (the pic shown fish maw added as I love to eat fish maw) - try to limit to 1 ingredient to keep the soup simple.

No seasoning needed as the stock is tasty and if you do not have stock, can use miso paste to make the soup instead (around 2 tbsp).

Method:
1. Bring the stock to boil
2. If you are adding other ingredient, add in now and once cooked off heat
3. Immediately add in alfafa sprout
4. Garnish with fried shallot and serve

Premium Soup Stock

This is my aunt's premium soup stock, she will prepare once a month and freeze into 100ml, 450ml & 600ml pack for weekdays cooking. Why we call it premium because we use meats only instead of bones to make the stock. By using meats, the soup will have a richer taste & less fat.



With this premium stock added, it will enhance and enrich the flavour of the dishes without adding much seasoning.

Here's the recipes:
Premium Stock - (1st round)
Fresh ingredients:
Chicken breast - 860g
Lean Pork - 1.7kg
Water - 5L

Dried Ingredients:
Chinese Ham - 100g
Dried Scallop - 40g
Dried Shellfish - 2 slices (40g)
Baby Abalone - 40g
Garlic - 5 to 6 cloves

Seasoning:
Salt 1 1/2 tsp
Sugar 2 tsp

Methods:
1. Cut meats into big cubes
2. Put everythings into a deep big pot
3. Add 5L of water, to extract 4L of stock
(Should put in 4L of water to note the mark of 4L. Then add 1L water or more to the maximum the pot can hold)

Note: 1st round to boil for 2 1/2 hrs, when the stock runs low, add boiling water in order to maintain & extract 4L of stock.
We call the above stock as 1st round stock, filtered the soup to another pot. As meats are used totally, it'll still have some flavor in it, we can make 2nd stock by adding 140g ikan bilis and 5L water to extract another 4L of stock which we name it as 2nd round stock.

2nd round stock:
Left over ingredients from 1st round stock
Add 140g Ikan bilis (intestine removed)
5L water
Seasoning: 1/2 tsp salt, sugar 2 tsp
Method: boil till 4L stock

Note: 2nd round to boil 1 1/2 hrs, same as 1st round's step

1st round stock (rich, smooth & sweet) - mainly use for steamboat, fish head soup, Shark fin soup, sukiyaki, fish maw soup, steam fish, stewed chicken feet etcs
2nd round stock (rich & with a tinge of saltiness) - for stir-fry dishes, fried/soup beehoon/noodles, steam egg, porridge etcs