Yin and Yang foods

This is an interesting link which classifies yin and yang foods.

From the link
Examples of cooling and heaty foods:
Cool (yin) Foods:
Bamboo shoot, banana, bitter gourd, clam, crab, grapefruit, lettuce, persimmon, salt, seaweed, star fruit, sugar cane, water chestnut, watermelon, lotus root, cucumber, barley, bean curd, chicken egg white, marjoram, oyster, pear, peppermint, radish, strawberry, tangerine, and yogurt, broccoli, cauliflower, zuccini, corn, tomatoes, pineapple, turmeric.
Neutral (balanced yin and yang) Foods:
Honey, corn, abalone, apricot, beef, beetroot, black fungus, carp, carrot, celery, chicken egg yolk, cuttlefish, duck, fig, kidney bean, lotus fruit and seed, milk, olive, oyster, papaya, pork, potato, pumpkin, radish leaf, red bean, plum, sunflower seed, sweet rice, sweet potato, white fungus, yellow soybean, brussels sprouts, snow peas, sweet potato, taro, dates, figs, raspberries, raisins, sage, rosemary, thyme, brown rice, apple.
Heaty (yang) Foods:
Pepper, cinnamon bark, ginger, soybean oil, red and green pepper, chicken, apricot seed, brown sugar, cherry, chestnut, chive, cinnamon twig, clove, coconut, coffee, coriander (Chinese parsley), date, dillseed, eel, garlic, grapefruit peel, green onion, guava, ham, leaf mustard, leek, longan, mutton, nutmeg, peach, raspberry, rosemary, shrimp, spearmint, sweet basil, tobacco, vinegar, walnut, jackfruit, durian, leek, shallots, spring onion, , apricots, blackberries, black currant, mangoes, peaches, cherry, mandarin orange, grape.
eaty/yang foods:
• grow under the hot sun;
• are sweet;
• have lots of fats;
• rich in sodium;
• are hard, dry or spicy.


Cold/yin foods:
• grow in little sunshine;
• are salty;
• are lean;
• rich in potassium;
• soft and wet;

Roast chicken with a tomato based pasta

Its been quite some time since I've had to cook, with the heat and all. Thankfully the weather has turned cooler so this is the most complicated (yes, it's kinda sad - this is considered complicated) dish that I've done in a long long time. Been inspired by all my pseudo cooking in Cafe World and I must say it has inspired me.

Ingredients
1 cup pasta (I used shells because they can retain the sauce better)

tomato sauce
1 tin canned stewed tomato - I have been told to use whole tomatoes and break them up, its tastier than pre-chopped ones
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp parsley

roast chicken
10 chicken wings (mid portion, not drumlet)
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp worchester sauce
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tsp dill
1 tbsp thyme
1/2 tsp mixed spice

Method
1) Marinade the chicken, preferably overnight. Preheat the oven to 220 deg C.
2) In a pot, lightly saute the garlic, be careful not to burn it. Pour in the tinned tomato, herbs and spices
3) Prepare the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.
4) Roast the chicken at 220 deg C for 5 minutes, turning down to 200 deg C for another 13 to 15 minutes or until cooked.
5) Assemble by plating up the pasta, then pouring on the sauce and finally topping off with roast chicken. If there are any drippings from the roast chicken, you can pour it on top.

Shui gao 水餃

I just had a hankering for dumplings, haven't had them in ages and somehow felt like doing all the wrapping. Saw the yellow skins which I bought, but saw a new product, white skins which they call 'shanghai 水餃 skins'. Might try that next time.

Ingredients (makes about 32 or serves 3 - 4 pax)
400 - 500g mince pork
50g prawns, devined and chopped into tiny bits (the bigger, the more prawn to bite into)
2 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
2 tbsp corn flour
1 packet 水餃 skins
A little dish of water
3 - 4 bowls prepared broth (chicken or pork is fine)

1) Marinate the pork and prawn with the soya sauce, wine and corn flour. Set aside for 10 - 30 minutes for the taste to develop.
2) Carefully peeling off 1 skin, place it in the centre of your palm. Place about 1 ping pong ball sized pork ball in the centre (it depends on the size of your dumpling skin, but should be no more than 1/3 filled. Don't over pack it otherwise it may burst during cooking.
3) Dot the edges of the skin and carefully fold into a semi circle. By this time, you would see the magically, the dumpling becomes 2/3 full.
4) Dot the semi-circular edge with more water and gather the edges.

5) Carefully slide into a pot of water on a rolling boil. Once it floats up (about 1 - 2 minutes), its done! But I was a bit 'kiasu' and let it cook for a further 30 seconds to make sure it was fully cooked.
6) Carefully place in a bowl and pour over the broth. Serve with egg noodles if desired.

Optional: If I wanted to make Shanghainese dumplings, I would replace prawns with chopped chives.

5-spice Tea Braised Ribs

My uni friend once told me that instead of cooking normal bak ku teh, you can substitute with tea for a change. That got me thinking - together with 5-spice like what they do with tea eggs, this is a tasty yet simple recipe. I actually used green tea (高山茶) but only because I didn't have any black or red tea at home but the tea taste wasn't strong enough. On the other hand, it had a nice 'gum gum' (sweetish tea) flavour. Black or red tea would also give it a slightly smokey flavour.

Ingredients (for 2)
750 ml freshly brewed red or black tea e.g. tie guan ying, oolong or pu er
500 g spare ribs
1 stick cinammon
1 star anise
1 tsp 5 spice power
2 tbsp black soya sauce
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 handful gei zi (boxthorn) (optional)
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp crushed garlic
1 small onion, chopped
1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced

Method
1) Marinate the spare ribs with dark and light soya sauce.
2) Brew the tea and set aside. The tea leaves should not be added to the pot and boiled otherwise they become bitter.
3) With a little oil, fry the aromatics (garlic, ginger and onions) until fragrant. Add the spare ribs and brown them.
4) Add the tea, and all the other ingredients. Bring to a boil before turning down the flame to a simmer and simmer down for 20 mins.
5) Serve with freshly boiled white rice.

Stewed beancurd in a King Oyster Mushroom Chicken Broth

I saw giant oyster mushrooms from Korea, considered a delicacy here. I was trying to recreate the toufu soup that I had in Korea and this is what I came up with.

The original stewed beancurd soup was vegetarian but my household are meat eaters, and would feel weird without meat, so I threw in chicken and chicken soup. In addition, being so huge, the mushroom slices had an almost abalone texture to them, very meaty and smooth. In addition, just because I'm too lazy too cook the rice separately, I put in brown rice to make it into a porridge. The result - a velvety creamy stock which reminds me of risotto texture.

In addition, I put in the beancurd whole at the beginning, and expected it to break up. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was still whole, and in fact, the taste of the stock had permeated into the beancurd, effectively 'marinating' it!

Ingredients
1 packet of king oyster mushrooms, sliced on the diagonal
1 tin of Swenson chicken stock
1 packet of silken toufu (suitable for soup)
1 cup brown rice
8 chicken wings
1 tbsp wine
1 tbsp light soya sauce
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 thumb sized ginger, thinly sliced
1 large red onion, diced
1 litre of water

Method
1) Marinate the wings with wine and soya sauce and set side to marinate for at least 1/2 hour.
2) Heat up a pot and fry the diced red onion and ginger.
3) Add the wings and briefly fry until the wings are lightly browned.
4) Briefly fry the mushroom slices.
5) Add the stock and water, and garlic.
6) Pour in the washed brown rice and stir.
7) Carefully place the toufu into the pot, making sure not to break it. Ensure its immersed in the stock.
8) Bring to a boil before turning it down to gently simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
9) Serve immediately.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Taken from http://magdalenestc.multiply.com/journal/item/68

Did some adaptation of my own - I doubled the proportions (makes 55 cookies) so I neatly used up a 28 oz jar (medium sized) of peanut butter, and used 1 cup of choc chips. As such, I used 3 eggs instead of 2, and also because my eggs are quite small.

Very fudgey rather than crispy.

Katherine Hepburn's Brownies

Source: http://www.survivingoz.com

Ingredients
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
250g unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp ground instant coffee
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
18 squares milk chocolate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C

2. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line the bottom and sides with wax paper

3. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon and salt together

4. In a heavy bottom saucepan placed over very low heat, put the butter in. When butter starts to melt, sift cocoa over it and add the instant coffee. Stir until mixture is well blended. Remove from heat and cool for about 3 minutes

5. Using a whisk, beat the eggs into the saucepan. Next, stir in the sugar and vanilla (don't beat anything too vigorously - you don't want to add air to the batter), followed by the dry ingredients, nuts and chopped chocolate. Scrap the batter into the baking pan

6. Bake for 35 minutes, at which point the brownies will still be gooey but the top will have a dry papery crust. Transfer pan to cooling rack and let it cool for 30 minutes. Turn the brownies out onto a rack, peel away the paper and transfer onto a cutting board. Cool completely before cutting into 16 squares.

Ondeh Ondeh

Had a hankering for this nonya dessert, which also happens to my dad's favourite, just nice for Father's Day today. Given the exorbitant rates you pay for this commercially and how easy it is to make (edit: easy to make doesn't mean its not tedious, esp when you're doing the 20th ball or so! ) and how well shops don't make it, I thought if I'm going to eat this standard and pay for it, I might as well make it at home! The difference however is that I'm eating it hot and we all know what a huge difference that makes to any food. Anything tastes better hot.

I did a lot of research beforehand, and here are my sources which I've adapted the final recipe from: Basic recipe which I mostly followed and reproduced below: http://www.mytasteheaven.com/2009/04/ondeh-ondeh-nyonya-kuih.html
Basic recipe which I like the 'method' of making the balls: http://fatboyrecipes.blogspot.com/2005/12/my-green-ondeh-ondeh-balls.html
Another simple recipe: http://www.mycookinghut.com/2008/04/06/onde-onde-malaysian-dessert/
Version with sweet potato: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=313655

Ingredients (makes 48 to 50 ping pong sized balls, only because I wanted to use up all the flour and grated coconut!

Skin

500g of glutinous rice flour
240ml of water (in the end I used a lot more than this, can't say the exact amount because i keep adding teaspoons of hot water in to get it moist enough)
2 tsps of pandan leave essence (which is why my balls are white in colour. The original receipe called for 2 tbsp of pandan leaves juice, which I was too lazy to follow, but I will next time! Taste of essence is just not the same!)

2 tablespoons of castor sugar

Filling:-

2 pieces of gula melaka (cut into small pieces)

Coating:-

200g grated coconut (I bought the steamed version from the fridge section of the supermarket, keeps longer)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method1) Pour the hot water into the glutinous rice and mix.

2) Add in the other ingredients for its skin until it forms a dough.

3) Form small balls into size and fill them with a little piece of gula melaka and seal them up.

4) Boil some water in a pot.

5) Put the sealed balls into the boiling water.

6) When the balls float on the water, take them out put into a freezer bag which has the grated coconut inside. Toss around until the balls are well coated.

7) The ondeh-ondehs are ready to be served. Some recipes recommend serving them cold (not chilled, but cold)

End note: I made enough to feed an army! Not an experience I think I'd want to repeat any time soon, my kitchen was like the aftermath of a typhoon afterwards, and no matter how much I cleaned, I still never seemed to get rid of all the grated coconut from everywhere! Next time, I'm going to bring a friend!

Almond Longan Jelly

Requested by my col because of today's BBQ and another (pregnant) colleague loves almond jelly and has a craving for it. This is my mom's receipe which uses fresh milk rather than the synthetic stuff you get in hawker centres.

Ingredients
1 to 1.5 tsp almond essence (depending on how much you like the almond taste)
2 cans of longan
1 packet of agar agar powder
(following instructions on agar agar packet)
250g of sugar (can cut down to 200g if you find it too sweet)
1 litre of liquid made up of 500ml of water, 500ml of fresh milk

Method
1) Bring out a jelly mould. Rinse it with water so that the agar agar will easily slide out. Do not to dry out the water.
2) Prepare the ingredients according to the agar agar packet:
a) Add the agar agar powder to the milk and water. Stir until partially dissolved.
b) Put on the stove and add the sugar. Bring to a boil.
c) Stir to ensure that the gelatine doesn't get caught on the bottom. Once it is boiling, turn off the flame.
d) Let it cool a minute or so and pour into the jelly mould.
e) Let cool 10 minutes before putting the mould in the fridge.
3) Let set and chill overnight. Next day, pour over the 2 cans of longan, longan water and all. Put in ice cubes. If its still too sweet, add a bit of cold water to taste.

Prawn mee

This is my mom's recipe which I've altered slightly but the basics are still the same. It really brings me back to my childhood!

Ingredients (feeds 2)
1 packet of medium sized prawns (approx 300-400g, I counted about 10 prawns in the packet)
1.5 litres pork bone stock (I used leftover bak ku teh soup from last night )
5 - 6 dried chilli
2 tbsp dried shrimp
1 large onions, or 3 shallots, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 bunch cai xin
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 packet of fishballs
2 fishcake, sliced (optional)
200g lean pork, sliced thinly (optional)
2 portions of cooked noodles (yellow mee, kway teow, whatever u prefer)

Method
1) Peel the prawns and set aside the heads and shells. Devein the prawns and set aside.
2) Heat up a pot and oil, and fry the onions or shallots until slightly brown. Add the prawn heads and shells and stir fry until fragrant and the shells and heads are pink. Add the garlic and briefly stir fry.
3) Add the dried chilli and shrimp and briefly fry.
4) Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Skim off the scum. Turn down the head to medium. Cover and simmer for 1/2 hour.
5) Prepare the noodles according to the packet's instructions and place the drained noodles into 2 bowls.
6) Strain the stock. Add the fishballs, followed by prawns and cai xin and cook for up to 5 minutes or until everything is cooked. Also cook the fishcake and lean pork if using.
7) Serve with soup poured on top of the of noodles.