Smoky Wok

I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I saw some passionfruit for pretty cheap here (Malaysia) so of course I bought some and have been mulling for a few days on what to do with it.  All of a sudden, my aunt calls and says she has a ton of passionfruit in her garden and if I wanted any :O.  Anyway, I decided on easy mini pound cakes after going between passionfruit curd, passionfruit cheesecake, passionfruit tarts and on and on.  My mom has also been asking me to make my go-to butter cake for a few days so I thought it would be a good idea to just incorporate some passionfruit into the recipe. 



The texture of this butter cake is a little coarse (the way we like it) and is not ultra-fine, so if you prefer fine cakes, you might want to take a look at these vanilla cupcakes I made earlier. I loved the results of incorporating the passionfruit - the tartness of the fruit blended in well with the buttery cake.  I added in a bit more sugar than usual into the cake batter to balance out the tart passionfruit.



In other news, I am impatiently counting down to early July when my little brother studying in the UK returns for the summer holidays.  I will be baking and cooking up a storm I suppose as he has already browsed through my blog and emailed me a list of dishes he wants to try when he's back.  I as the eldest sister will of course happily oblige.

Note: I had a lot of passionfruit left so I made passionfruit soda by simply combining the juice (I sieved out the seeds) with some ice cream soda which tasted simply delicious and refreshing.

La la clams are a type of bamboo clams that are uber popular with seafood lovers in Malaysia/ Singapore.  These shellfish are cooked in a variety of ways, spicy, sweet and sour and the list goes on.  For today's feature, I am returning to the basics and presenting a family favourite of mine - la la clams in a gingery and slightly spicy concoction of yellow bean sauce.  You can substitute these clams with other varieties like manila clams, bamboo clams and even razor clams.  As most of you may know, almost 90% of a good seafood dish is in the freshness of the seafood you bought - fresh seafood almost always never disappoints and needs little 'dressing up' in way of condiments although overcooking may be another issue.



We were lucky enough to find these plump la la clams today and just for your information, you should never buy dead la la clams, unlike say manila clams that still taste alright.  The flavours of this dish are clean and simple, an earthy savouriness from the yellow bean sauce, heat from some chilli peppers, fragrance from the ginger and of course an umami brininess from the clams.  All in all, a simple stir-fry dish that you can whip up in a matter of minutes which just happens to taste simply amazing.  Do note however that this dish is best served hot.  A little tip to get rid of any lingering 'fishiness', you can place them in boiling water containing a few slices of ginger and a stalk of smashed green onions, the traditional tip is to soak clams in salt water before cooking but we find that it reduces the flavours of the shellfish and with fresh good quality clams, the step is not absolutely necessary.  In addition, as yellow bean sauce is already really salty, do use a very light hand when adding the tiny bit of soya sauce that brings out the taste of the bean sauce.



As I was talking to my mom about this post since I will be featuring her recipe, she told me that in her childhood days, my late grandmother would save and clean the la la clam shells where the children would later challenge each other to see whose clam shell was the hardest and the one whose clam shell broke first would be the loser.  She often tells me stories of how the children in her neighbourhood would keep themselves entertained and I am always amazed at how creative they were at inventing little games, this was in part also a necessity of sorts since my mom spent her early childhood days in a rather poorer area of town.


This feature is a part of my series of Yuen Chun Recipes, an ongoing project on Tastes of Home.  The Yuen Chun brand is considered a 老字号 (a time-honoured brand) in Malaysia with a 100 year old history and has been used in our family kitchens since the time of my late maternal grandmother.

I seem to have a thing for making bread recently, eh? Well, apart from the fact that I love bread and flatbreads especially, there's also a practical reason that is I bought a whole box of active yeast packets and I really want to use the active yeast up before they become well, er inactive.  This is also in line with one of my culinary resolutions, that is I am going to strive to use up the ingredients I buy before I buy more different ingredients to save on storage space and also for my own peace of mind since seeing many half used up containers of ingredients is a little vexing to me.  Today's flatbread of choice is the ever-classic pita bread.  Making pita bread is really quite easy and does not require much more than flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt and a bit of oil, all pantry ingredients.  Now, I love pita bread served with hummus or as a wrap with savoury fillings and for today's feature I chose a roasted chicken in hoi sin sauce after much deliberation, to be honest thinking of what to feature next late at night before going to bed is definitely  not a good idea as it made me extremely hungry!  I love using the oven to cook as it makes minimal mess and for today's feature both the bread and the filling were made in the oven.



The chicken is simply coated with some 'hoi sin' sauce, thick caramel sauce, soy sauce and a pinch of sugar before baking to caramelized perfection.  So far, everything sounds easy right? There's a caveat though that is you do have to do some kneading for the pita bread dough but of course, there's always an option of store-bought pita bread.  It is however really fun and so much more rewarding to make your own.  Proofing time required is about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, depending on your local weather.  A warmer weather will of course speed up proofing time.  I used Yuen Chun's hoi sin sauce and thick caramel sauce for the chicken and I was extremely pleased with the results.  Today's feature is a part of my series of Yuen Chun Recipes, an ongoing project on this blog. 




Finally, I have a rather shameless proposition to make -, that is if you like this blog, I would really appreciate if you could take a few moments of your time to vote for me in this local internet contest held by DIGI in the foodie category.  Thank you very much in advance!

Growing up in Malaysia, there is a kind of lemon sandwich biscuits that I have loved since childhood.  These sandwich biscuits are nothing fancy and will most definitely not be found in any patisserie, but whenever I taste (more like see as the taste seems to have deteriorated) them, they transport me back to my carefree childhood days and it is probably for this feeling alone that I still buy them when I see them.  Another one of my favourite childhood sweets are Danish butter cookies, the ones sold in the round blue tins that I think most Malaysians grew up with, it was always fun for me to pick and eat each shape in the tin and I think the one shaped like the figure 8 was my favourite shape.  So, what do my  favourite childhood sweets have to do with today's feature?  I bet you have already guessed it - today's feature is simply a result of me combining these two 'child food' memories of mine into one neat little post.



Although sables are obviously French and not Danish, they share the same delicious buttery taste and although the textures differ a little I am equally fond of both.  These cookies are  incredibly easy to make with minimal mess- these are slice and bake cookies where you don't even have to break out your cookie cutters, so none of those rolling and 'oh no batter too soft', place in fridge, roll again issues that are just ugh-inducing for lack of a better term.   The batter is rolled up into logs, refrigerated to firm and then sliced into rounds for baking.  Then all that's left to do is to assemble the cookies to sandwich the lemon cream.  Easy and just a tad more sophiscated than plain (but just as good) sables.  Oh by the way, you will need to make the lemon cream too though which I promise is also a breeze to make.  The lemon filling I made has a very subtle lemon scent and that is how I like it but please do tailor it according to your preferences.



On friendship, I just saw three of my friends earlier whom I have not seen in ages - the longest one being a decade ago and yet when we met, it was just the same as always, not a tinge of awkwardness and just hanging out like there was no decade-long break in between.  I guess that it's true what they say of true friends, we don't have to always see each other physically to be friends and real friendships don't disappear with distance.  It was such fun to reminisce with friends I have not seen since we last studied together in London, oh how naive we were during those days (not that I am very sagely now) but you know what I mean, to see my old coworker from my first job ever and to be reminded of both the good and seemingly bad memories that seemed to have happened ages ago etc etc. With all that in mind, I would like to dedicate this post to my dear and true friends - you know who you are and that includes you my dear readers and twitter/ blogger friends.  You know, it has definitely happened more than once when on a day I am feeling inexplicably meh, your kind or totally hilarious comment or tweet totally brightens up my day so thank you very much and hope you'll all like these lemon sandwich sables. :-)

The sweltering hot weather in Malaysia right now is just clamouring for cold noodles! This bibim naengmyeon recipe I found in my latest favourite cook book totally fits the bill combining refreshing fruity flavours from the pear and an appetising heat from the spicy and slightly sweet dressing.  I started my love affair with Korean cuisine while still living in Southern California and as there is a large Korean American population relatively close to where I lived, I was spoilt for choice with delicious fare at many Korean restaurants and ingredients were also readily available with many Korean grocery stores in the vicinity.  Well, after I moved back to Malaysia, I guess I was am still not used to the fact that I had to literally hunt down Korean grocery stores and I have to say that I miss the large ones in the US, let's just say it took me a few trips to get gochugaru from a local Korean 'grocery store' - I was quite miffed when the attendant matter-of-factly informed me that the chilli powder has been out of stock "for a while", I mean this is such a basic ingredient in Korean cooking or am I just being a picky, irate (no longer) customer? 



Alright, rant complete - I can't sing enough praises of glorious cold noodles from all factions, I mean I love zaru soba, hiyashi chuka, and now there's another one to add to my list.  Bibim Naengmyeon is probably the easiest one to make yet, not much time at the stove is involved - you just need to boil the noodles and make the hard-boiled egg, in fact you can even skip the egg.  The spicy dressing is gochujang-based with fragrant toasted sesame seeds, minced garlic, sesame oil, soy, sugar and gochugaru.  The noodles need to be chilled for about 30 minutes and trust me, you will enjoy these refreshingly cool noodles but this is of course coming from a fan of cold noodles.  I know that some people are not fond of cold noodles (hello dear sister), but if you have not had cold noodles ever, I think you should give it one try before you dismiss it eh? Who knows, you may discover something new that you totally love.






I am also sending this to Presto Pasta Nights created by Ruth of Once Upon A Feast and hosted by Trish at Slap Happy Kitchen for this week.

Focaccia is one of my favourite breads or flat bread to be more exact - I love focaccia as a sandwich or on its' own simply dipped with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I have been itching to make this bread for a while and finally took the plunge.  I chose a pretty simple recipe and the results were satisfactory although a quick look on the web brings up so many different versions to choose from so I just stuck with an easy one for my first attempt.  Total proofing time required was only around 90 minutes and the bread was pillowy soft.  I topped my focaccia with some red onions, rosemary and a sprinkling of sea salt.






As usual, I had fun making the bread, do note that the dough is rather sticky but that's totally fine, just continue kneading until it becomes smooth before proofing it for the first time.  I like my focaccias slightly thick but if you prefer a thinner version, just use a larger tray or use half of the portions in the recipe.  This is also a recipe that lends itself to tons of interpretations, so be creative and make your own toppings.  I can't wait to use some sun-dried tomatoes and olives, hmm or maybe some mushrooms as well the next time I make these.  This is also the time to use your extra virgin olive oil as you can really taste the flavour of the olive oil used.




As always, I did a simple photo tutorial as well especially for those of you who are new to bread-making to show you just how easy it is to make bread at home, if a newbie like me can do it, so can anyone and if you have kids, I am sure they will enjoy being your little assistants in the kitchen.  I hope you will find bread-making at home as enjoyable as I do!

I am also sending this to Susan of Wild Yeast for her weekly fun Yeastspotting event.

If you think of chicken chow mein, healthy is probably not one of the first words you will use to describe this rather infamous 'Chinese' dish.  I have to admit though that when I first started living in California, curiousity got the better of me and I actually bought chow mein from, of all places - Panda Express.  Needless to say, I was not impressed, nevertheless I thought it could be a delicious dish with some tweaks and that was that at the time.  Now, a few years later while looking around for easy recipes to use up the one remaining boneless chicken thigh I had, I found Ken Hom's chicken chow mein and I thought it would be a good idea to replace the usual Chinese egg noodles with some healthier whole wheat spaghetti.  The results were very delicious and also almost guilt-free plus easy although do note that cooking this in a Chinese wok is almost vital since this dish really tastes so much better with 'wok breath'.




The chicken cubes are marinated in some soy sauce, Chinese rice wine and sesame oil.  You can use any vegetables of your choice, like spinach, carrots (which I used), beansprouts as your accompaniment.  You can also make this dish vegetarian by simply skipping the chicken and if you do that, I would recommend for you to add in some fresh or dried shitake mushrooms for more texture.  All in all, a perfect weeknight one-dish meal and a healthier alternative to 'regular' chow mein!



This recipe is part of my series of Yuen Chun Recipes, an ongoing project on this blog.

The star ingredient of today's feature is one of my absolute favourites, egg tofu or 玉子豆腐.  Egg tofu is a more flavourful version of tofu due to the addition of egg (of course!) and makes for a more delicious dish as plain tofu is rather bland to me most of the time, although this is just my personal preference.  In today's feature, egg tofu slices are lightly dusted with corn flour then pan-fried until golden and slightly crispy and served on top of lightly sauteed broccoli.  Finally, a savoury and umami-filled concoction of the shimeji mushrooms, ginger and garlic is spooned on top of the tofu as the finishing touch.  For a touch of luxury, I used Yuen Chun's abalone sauce to cook the shimeji mushrooms.  In a lot of Chinese cooking, the quality of the sauces used are of utmost importance and the Yuen Chun brand of cooking sauces has not disappointed us since the days of my beloved late maternal grandmother. The flavours in this dish are savoury, slightly sweet from the abalone sauce while the pan-fried egg tofu offers a crispy exterior with a luscious creamy interior while the shimeji mushrooms and broccoli provide refreshing crunchiness.



On a side note, food served atop a bed of broccoli or other kinds of vegetables seem to be a favourite Chinese way of food styling but there is also a practical reason (I think) why it is traditionally done in such a way.  Usually the food with the sauce will be served on top of lightly cooked vegetables as the sauce from the 'star ingredient' will inadvertently drip a little onto the vegetables and guess who always goes for the 'decorative' vegetables at the table? Yes, yours truly does.  Sometimes, it is my way of refreshing my palate especially if I find the sauces too heavy or too msg-filled.



This dish was a hit with my guests and was not too difficult to whip up either, although pan-frying the tofu does require a bit of patience, if you want, simply deep-fry the tofu which will be quicker.  I do hope you will give this a try and let me know what you think if you do.

This feature is a part of my Yuen Chun Recipes, an ongoing project on this blog.

Making bread at home is extremely therapeutic and not to mention, rewarding to me.  There is just something about well risen dough and the bread-shaping process that pleases me immensely, the delicious smell wafting out of the oven does not hurt either of course.  I have always been a big fan of the soft and buttery brioche and have actually been wanting to make this for a while.  They say inspiration is found everywhere and well, I agree - little did I expect that the catalyst for this post would come from leafing through Gwyneth Paltrow's new cook book while waiting for my friend at a local bookstore last weekend.  One of the recipes in her book that caught my eye was a challah bread French toast, once I saw that I was immediately reminded of my talented blogger friend, Xiaolu's (of 6 Bittersweets) chocolate challah braid and French Toast post some time back.  I guess the two factors were enough to inspire me to make my own version of homemade brioche French toast today.  I am not attempting to do a review of Paltrow's book but the photography is definitely pretty -you may like it though I am still undecided if I will purchase it.



The brioche recipe I used today is extremely simple and does not require waiting overnight although proofing (is of course) required where the total proofing time is about 3 hours.  With making bread, you must adjust the proofing times and the baking times/ temperature according to your weather and your oven.  Although general guidelines are given, it is also up to one to be able to improvise accordingly.  I actually oscillated back and forth when the time came for bread-shaping from either making the little brioche buns with the little 'heads' or braiding the bread.  As you can see, I opted for braids as I wanted to make French toasts out of the brioche as well.  If you like, you can divide the dough into 6 balls instead of 3 balls and make mini braids instead of my medium-sized braids.  As I have mentioned earlier in my tangzhong bread posts, my favourite part is the bread-shaping as you can be as creative as you want and plus, it's just really fun to play with dough.



I am also submitting this to the weekly YeastSpotting event created by Susan of Wild Yeast.

It was not very long ago that I 'discovered' the classic French breakfast of baked eggs or otherwise known as oeufs en cocotte - ever since then, I've been totally hooked.  This is easy, quick and delicious - what more can I ask for?  This really suits me to a tee as I am not a big cereal person, and I am also getting a little tired of the typical heavy Asian breakfasts (think noodles, rice etc) and since I love eggs in almost all its' forms, baked eggs are my current breakfast favourite since there is no need to break out the frying pan (hence getting the kitchen messy) - as you can see, the pitches I can make for this classic dish can go on and on, so I shall spare you and stop right here!  There are a variety of methods to create this rustic French classic, the method I've used today is extremely simple, butter up your ramekins or any oven-safe dish you prefer, heat in the oven until the butter melts, add some cream, the eggs (of course!), and other ingredients of your choice, finally sprinkle with some herbs and cheese before placing in the oven.  Sounds so simple right?



Today's feature is a vegetarian version where I added spinach and shimeji mushrooms as my accompanying ingredients.  You can make this dish more substantial by adding bacon or sausages like what I did here.  Apart from regular eggs, you can use quail eggs for this dish as well.  I also love that this dish is wide open to one's creativity and you can literally create so many personalised versions of this breakfast classic entirely tailored to your own taste buds.



So, if you have not given this a try yet, do give it a go soon, I promise you will have a great breakfast idea to use on lazy mornings.

I am very excited today to present something I've been wanting to cook (and eat!) for a while, Korean spicy crab soup or also known as 'kkot geh tang'.  As with other Korean soups I have featured like maeuntang and soondubu jigae, the basic ingredients are the same, you will need gochugaru (Korean chilli powder), although instead of gochujang (Korean spicy bean paste), doenjang is used instead for today and of course a variety of vibrant vegetables.  The crabs add such excellent umami flavours while the daikon and zucchini add some crunch and the watercress coupled with the chrysanthemum garland ('tong hoe') provides unique fragrance to the soup.



Live crabs are said to be the best kind for this dish but me being as squemish as ever, I still cannot bear to kill live crabs so I bought flower crabs that were still very fresh from the local grocery store.  The fishmonger of course looked a little puzzled when I pointedly asked for 'crabs that are not alive' and of course broke into a grin when I explained my er, predicament with cooking anything still alive.  Anyhow, the flavours of this dish are very appetising - spicy, savoury, earthy and refreshingly sweet from the crabs.



These soups are usually served with steamed rice and a variety of banchan (side dishes) but I can just have this dish as a full meal.

I am in a jubilant mood today, why? I have been quite worried over the past two days as my family's beloved shih tzu, Yaki was limping just a tiny bit and I was so glad to discover that he merely sprained his leg and is now back to his bubbly (and rather mischievious) self after a visit to the vet.  You know how it is when you're worried or not too happy, it shows up in your cooking or it probably even affects your desire to cook altogether.  Well, today I am happy to present chicken katsu nuggets - chicken katsu or tonkatsu (pork) are usually fried and then sliced but I thought I would do something different and make miniature versions or rather little nuggets.  This is an extremely easy to make dish and requires little seasoning, only salt and pepper for the chicken and of course the dipping sauce which is also very simple and consists of just worcestershire sauce, ketchup and shoyu (soy sauce).




Katsu is usually served with rice and there are entire restaurants dedicated to just this dish in Japan.  For my feature today, I used bright coloured breadcrumbs but you can go ahead and just use white breadcrumbs or panko.  Another reason I used nuggets was because it shortens the frying time significantly and there is more crunch to each bite, albeit probably not the healthiest dish around but I felt like indulging today so there you go.  Also, shredded cabbage is usually served with this crunchy fried dish but as I did not have any on hand, I garnished the chicken katsu with some toasted sesame seeds for some added crunch.


Finally, I could not resist posting this picture of a behind-the-scenes shot of my photoshoot when a cute little guest came prancing out to join me in the porch.  I usually take my blog photos at a Northern window in the kitchen but the light today was pretty bad so I proceeded to the porch and of course Suki (the girl shih tzu) got a whiff of the chicken katsu and followed me out, in the hopes of possibly getting a bite or two - she did not get any by the way!

The lighting was still not very good even outside, yes I am always at the mercy of natural light!

I hope all of you had an enjoyable Mother's Day celebration, whether with your mothers or as a mother yourself, as for me, it was especially meaningful as it was my first time celebrating with my mom after living away from home for a few years.  If you notice, I have been dabbling my hands in fusion dishes, I love trying to create new (or at least new to me) twists with classic dishes, most of the time incorporating some Eastern elements into classic Western favourites like my lamb chops with wasabi butter.  Today's feature is the classic pork chop dish where I used some classic Chinese condiments in the sauce.  Although I am not a lover of mustard in its' pure form, cue burgers/ sandwiches, I do like using mustard together with other ingredients in a creamy, tangy sauce.  So, if you don't like mustard like me, you may still like this sauce.



I used some light soy sauce and rice vinegar as the Asian elements in this dish that blended really well with the other 'classic' ingredients in this savoury and creamy sauce.  I also added some English parsley for a hint of light fragrance and squeezed in some lemon juice for an additional refreshing tang. 

This is an extremely popular Hong Kong homestyled dish but I only recently 'discovered' it, while watching one of my TVB series, a character mentioned it and since I am always looking for inspiration I set about doing my research on this dish.  Today's feature is essentially spareribs steamed in a spicy, sweet and sour concoction made out of plum sauce, daobanjiang (spicy bean sauce), garlic, shallots, chilli peppers and ginger.  The flavours of this dish are simple yet every bite is an explosion of appetizing flavours and as you may have guessed, goes extremely well with steamed rice.  What I love about this dish apart from the flavours is the simplicity as the spareribs need only be steamed and not much work (or mess) is involved, typical when one has to fry meat.  What's more - you can double or triple the amount of the ingredients for the sauce and save the sauce for future cooking use if you store it in an air-tight container in the fridge.  The sauce can keep for about 1 week.



If you have noticed, I may have been deviating from this blog's very own tagline "Easy Asian Homecooking Recipes" for a bit as I have been indulging in baking some Western desserts lately so today's feature marks a return to the basic tenet of this blog.  This is a popular home cooked dish and is a favourite for both the cook and the guests possibly due to its' 'low-maintenance' nature where very little effort produces extremely delicious results.  I actually chopped up the garlic, ginger, chilli peppers and shallots very finely with a cleaver but you can use a blender or a food processor to make the work even easier.  As always, do a taste test after you make the sauce and you can adapt it to make it spicier, more sour or sweeter.  I hope you will give this easy steamed dish a try and do let me know if you like it!



This feature is a part of my Yuen Chun recipes, an ongoing project on this blog.  Yuen Chun's plum sauce is one of my favourite cooking products - I like it for its' authentic taste and flavouring that is neither too sweet nor too sour. 

Here I am baking again and yet I still claim I don't have much of a sweet tooth - oh well whenever I bake I will only eat very little of what I baked for a taste and the rest are given to family and friends.  So I guess that makes my earlier claim not too conflicting with my recent posts.  Today's recipe is an extremely easy and quick one I adapted from the ever-inspiring Donna Hay - I really wish I could visit her store in Australia but I guess I have to be content with ordering some items she has online for now.  A quick peek in my fridge showed me some chocolate bars that were bought from the UK that have been sitting around for a while (but not expired yet) so I thought including Cadbury's French Vanilla chocolate bar into these little muffins would be in order.



I really love trying out new recipes and the like but I am also trying to incorporate my concept of maximising what I already have to minimise wastage and of course to clear up space.  I seem to have a lot of opened bags of ingredients of which I have used just a little of sitting around in the pantry which is quite vexing when I think about it, so I hope I can stick to this concept for a while.  The muffins rose well, have good texture and the combination of cranberries and chocolate was a pretty good idea, I must say.  Do note that depending on the kind of chocolate you use (or if you do use), make sure to adjust the quantity of sugar in the recipe as it might be overly sweet.



Finally, I made some little 'flags' with toothpicks and pieces of ribbon as muffin toppers since I felt a little celebratory as Mother's Day is coming up this Sunday and this year is extra special since this will be my first year celebrating mother's day with my mom together after 5 years of living away from home.  Happy Mother's Day in advance!

It's been awhile since I have frosted a cake and I thought cupcakes would be the perfect choice to start again since frosting a whole cake right now seems a little intimidating (and tiring) to me.  For my cupcakes, I chose a simple vanilla version and of course I could not resist making a small batch of orange ones as well.  These cupcakes were very moist and had a rather fine texture, I actually prefer slightly drier cakes and a rougher texture but if you like moist and fine-textured cupcakes, you will love these.  As this is such a simple cupcake, do try to use high-quality butter and I actually went against the grain and used salted butter as I love the slight tinge of saltiness in a cake. 



If you have never frosted a cake before, frosting can be rather tricky.  While I was in secondary school (high school), I tried frosting cupcakes before and I still remember what a mess I got into, firstly I did not know the correct way to fill a pastry/ icing bag and of course got all the sticky and messy icing all over my hands (and the counter top).  I finally discovered that the easiest way to fill up a pastry bag is to roll the bag down like you would do to a sock and spoon the frosting into the bag and then roll it up again, so do take note if this is your first time.



Note:  These cupcakes should really be served as soon as you frost as the buttercream is a little fussy especially in hot weather.  Alternatively, place in the fridge after frosting before serving.  As I was photographing the cupcakes, the frosting started to melt a little, also because I worked pretty slow today (due to lethargy) :D

If you have been following this blog for a bit, you may notice that I am a big fan of Cantonese slow-fire soups or 老火汤.  The latter basically refers to soup that has been boiled or rather simmered for at least 5-6 hours with various nutritious ingredients that are regarded as almost health tonics to the Chinese depending on the ingredients of choice.  Old cucumber soup is a classic ingredient for slow-fire soups and is believed to have heat-reducing properties so this is especially good in hot weather.  Chinese soups essentially try to balance one's equilibrium and when there's too much yang (heat) in one's body, this soup is really ideal.  As for the accompanying ingredients, I added dried squid, Chinese Yunnan ham and a small handful of red dates.  Since the soup was boiled long enough, there was no need to add salt which I think is even better for this genre of soups.



I prefer to boil my Chinese soups in a claypot and I like to boil them for the stipulated time of usually 5-6 hours instead of resorting to a pressure cooker - it just feels more nutritious that way and to me more comforting when I finally get to taste the soup.  However, this is totally up to you of course.  If you can't find Yunnan ham, you can substitute with Virginia smoked ham.  The dried squid, old cucumber and red dates can be found at most Asian grocery stores.