My filing cabinet

Elsie and I cooked up a small storm of wontons and pork dumplings over the weekend.

As usual, I met her at Square 2 after work on Friday for dinner and some shopping. We went up to the MMMM store on the 4th floor. This place sells different types of meat and fish. The other time we bought some brazilian beef cut bulgogi-style and had some wonderful meals with them.

This time, I caught sight of the frozen minced pork…on offer. Time for some wontons and pork dumplings (aka siew mai)!

Homemade wontons

Ideal for the basic pork wonton recipe on my website.

A trip to the supermarket yielded the ginger and the wonton wrappers. The packaging of the wonton wrappers claimed that they are non-alkaline and are shanghainese. (^-_^).

I couldn’t find the spring onion and buy some fresh shrimps instead.

After defrosting the minced pork, I processed the ginger and 3/4 cup water in a food processor, add to the pork and mix like crazy. Salt, pepper and a little stock powder to taste and I’m ready to make the wontons.

Shell the shrimps and cut into small pieces.

I decided to go minimalist with the wonton folding style and went with just the samosa style. Quick and easy.

With water and a little oil boiling in a pot, I wrapped the wontons and placed them in the hot boiling water directly. Elsie, spoon in hand, made sure they do not stick together and scooped them up when they are done.

Pork dumplings

The filing is basically the same as the wontons. We just wrapped them differently and steamed them. Like I said in my website, I am a minimalist cook.

Pork dumplings waiting for steaming

Pork dumplings waiting to be eaten

I had a lot of fun doing this.

My chinese definitely improved after I started my website on chinese soups. (^_^)

Bream fish is 鲷鱼. Pronounced “diao yu” (hanyu pinyin)

Incidentally, I found a nice fish soup recipe using bream fish.

The supermarket has been selling fresh chinese yam (山药) and grandma has been buying them and cooking soups with them. They are crunchy and provides good alternative carbohydrates.

I posted a new recipe for a shrimp soup using fresh chinese yam and snow peashoots. It is a quick soup using konbu knots and dashi powder to flavour the liquid.

The quantity stated is, in my opinion, for one but then, I don’t usually take rice with my soup so I tend to drink more soup than average.

Omit the shrimp heads if the people you are feeding suffer from high cholesterol.

I had been working hard to gather new materials for my website. I came across this cod fish soup recipe and thought it would be a great addition.

When I was staying in Melbourne, my room-mate loves to buy cod fish and make congee with it. My grandmother also likes to steam cod fish steaks. She tends to over-steam them but they still taste quite good.

Egg tofu is an interesting food product. It looks like silken tofu but it is not really tofu.

A couple of weeks ago, I created a brief page for gluten-free soups. I planned to go through my recipe index to identify the soups that are gluten-free. It was more time-consuming than I imagine.

Although it took me quite a while to check through the ingredients (and I’m not done yet) but I managed to identified some chinese soup recipes that should be considered gluten-free. I’m not done yet but I thought I would just put some up first.

I am not an expert in the gluten-free diet and I’m sure there are mistakes in my selection. I hope those who are more familiar with the diet than me will help me to check.

I think the price of 小笼包 (xiao long bao) in restaurants like 鼎泰丰， 南祥 and Crystal Jade goes for more than $1.50 each.

Some people think that this is a reasonable price. I guess.

But I know a place where it goes for S$0.50 cents each. And they are good.

They are juicy. The skin held up well but wasn’t thick.

The filling was fresh. It is predominantly pork and nothing fanciful. A good 小笼包 does not need to be fanciful.

This is the way I eat it:

1. I pick one up with my chopsticks and place it in my soup spoon.
2. I take a small bite off the top and give it a good suck to get the juice inside.
3. I take some shredded ginger and place them on top of my bao.
4. I put the whole combi in my mouth and munch away.

What can I say? Yummy!! and CHEAP!!

Cheap yummy 小笼包 can be found at #02-135 Kreta Ayer Food Market

The story of how we ended up making a steamed egg custard, recipe included.

The advantage of buying eggs at the wet market…we can choose the eggs we want.

Elsie liked the tanned ones while I like the speckled ones. But whatever color preference we have, we always go for the bigger ones in the lot. We are bargain hunters after all. Or at least we try.

We find the yolks firmer and yellower than the ones we usually get from the supermarkets. Fresher that is.

With so many eggs in the fridge, we fell back on a food we ate so often as children. That night, we steamed an egg custard.

1. 2 eggs, lightly beaten.
2. Add water or soup stock, about half part of the beaten eggs.
3. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
4. Steamed gently in a steamer for about 15 minutes.
5. Drizzle sesame seed oil before serving.

Ooh, it was fabulicious! Silky smooth and refreshing. We were so eager to eat it I forgot to take photos.

Never mind, I am sure I’m making this again.

Oh, did I mention that this is a child-friendly recipe?

Elsie and I have been making it a point of visiting the Kreta Ayer Wet Market to buy fresh produce to cook our weekend meals.

We were re-discovering the pleasure of shopping in a wet market. Something that we hadn’t done for a long time.

I used to accompany my grandma to the market and helped her carry our “spoils” home.

Pleasant memories surfaced as we strolled pass aisles of stalls. There are fewer stalls and it is less bustling now. But surprises still abound.

Like this…

2 recycled cardboard molded egg trays tied together with raffia string with 10 eggs snuggled tightly within. Safe from hard knocks and breakage.

The last time Elsie bought eggs, they were placed in a plastic bag. She was so worried about breaking them. This time, she was swinging them.

With green living and green packaging coming back in style, maybe we will see more of these cardboard egg trays.

I hope so.

Last saturday, my sister and I went to the Kreta Ayer Market for breakfast. We then headed to the basement for some grocery. We knew we wanted to make some home-cooked food and take a break from eating out.

We were actually looking for some fresh salmon fillet to make salmon sashimi, but there weren’t any good ones on sale.

I caught sight of some fresh watercress (西洋菜) and was seized by a craving for homemade watercress soup.

I thought through the ingredients needed and they are not hard to find. The wet market should everything I need. Sure enough, I found everything I needed and at reasonable prices.

The detailed ingredient list and directions can be found at my website: http://www.homemade-chinese-soups.com/homemade-watercress-soup.html

Unlike the astragalus pork soup, I did not have time to cook this in the thermal magic pot. So I merely simmered it on the stove-top. And it was a wonderful decision (you will know why later).

First, I parboiled the pork ribs. Always parboil the meat for soup.

Then I brought a pot of water to a boil and added the pork ribs, chinese herbs and lastly the watercress. At first, the watercress was a big bulky bunch but they will cook down and shrink.

I brought the soup back to a boil and lower heat to a bare simmer. That is, slow bubbling.

Then I covered the pot partially and left it to cook.

About 2.5 hours later, the aroma of the watercress filled the room. It was a comforting smell. A promise of something good later at dinner.

This is how my watercress soup turned out.

Although I used plain water, the soup was flavoursome. That’s the magic of watercress.

I added a little salt for seasoning and served it hot.