Herbal Chicken Soup

炖鸡汤

This is a classic herbal soup which is nutritious and nourishing for the body. You can either buy the Chinese herbs individually and put them together or buy a packet of ready herbal mix from supermarkets. 

Ingredients (you can double the quantity of herbs for a stronger herbal taste)

1 chicken

1 litre water

2 dried ginseng roots

1 slice Indian bread

2 tablespoon lotus seeds

2-3 pieces Chuanxiong rhizome

2-3 pieces Chinese angelica root

4-5 pieces Liquorice root

1 tablespoon wolberry fruit (Goji Berry)

1 Honey date

1 Jujube

Method

1. Cut off the chicken feet, wing tips and tail. Remove excess fats around the chicken. Rub 1 tablespoon of salt all over the chicken to clean it and wash the salt away under running water. Blanch the whole chicken with water to remove impurities and scum. Rinse the chicken and set aside.

2. Put the chinese herbs except Goji Berry into a pot with 1 litre water. Add the chicken and bring the water to a boil. Then lower heat and simmer for 1 hour.

3. After 1 hour, take out the ginseng roots, slice and return them to the soup. Simmer for another 1 hour.

4. Add Goji Berry and season the soup with salt. Simmer for another 15 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and serve warm.

Three Cups Chicken

三杯鸡

This is a Taiwanese dish flavoured with equal proportions of Chinese rice wine, sesame oil and soy sauce.

Ingredients (serves 3-4 pax)

4 chicken thighs (de-boned and cut into bite size pieces)

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons Chinese wine (huatiaojiu)

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 inch ginger (cut into thin slices)

1 bunch of spring onions (cut into 5cm strips)

Method

1. Heat up sesame oil in a wok. Add the ginger slices into the oil and fry over low heat until the edges of ginger slices crisped up. Remove the ginger slices and set aside.

2. Heat up wok until smoking. Add the chicken pieces and sear/brown them over high heat.

3. Turn heat down and mix in the light soy sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Drizzle the Chinese wine onto the chicken and stir to mix in. Simmer for 5 minutes. 

5. Add the spring onions and fried ginger slices and mix in thoroughly.

Serve hot!

Pizza Crust (Improved)

Pizza 

This pizza dough will yield a pizza crust that is crispy on the outside and soft inside. As the amount of liquid is high, it is best made using a stand mixer with a dough hook. Of course you can knead by hand too.

Ingredients:

500g bread flour

10g semolina flour

1 tsp yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

15g olive oil

1 tsp salt

340g water (room temperature)

1. In the mixing bowl, combine the bread flour and semolina flour, add the salt on one side of the bowl and yeast and sugar on the other side. Pour water and olive oil into the bowl and start to knead on slow speed until the dough comes together. Then increase the mixer speed to medium and knead until the dough comes away cleanly from the sides of the mixing bowl.

2. Turn the dough onto the table. Use the scrapper to quickly gather the dough together, then work the dough by stretching and folding a few times to trap as much air as possible inside the dough. Use the dough scrapper to gather the dough into a ball.  Lightly oil the mixing bowl and place the dough ball into the mixing bowl, cover the bowl with a plastic/cloth and let the dough rest for 45minutes or until double in size. For better crust and flavor, rest the dough in the fridge and leave it overnight (or up to 48 hours - bring the dough to room temperature before using it). 

3. Mix a tablespoon of bread flour with a tablespoon of semolina flour. Turn the dough (weight, around 830g) onto the table. Divide into 4 (around 200g each), roll into a ball and lightly coat each ball with bread and semolina flour mixture. Cover the dough balls with cloth/plastic and rest the dough balls for up to 1 hour (or overnight in fridge - bring the dough to room temperature before using it). 

4. Preheat oven to 230 deg celcius (or as high as it will go).

5. Lightly dust the baking tray with bread and semolina flour mixture, and place one dough ball on it. Shape the dough by using your fingers to push/stretch the dough from the center towards the rim until you have a rough circle of about 20cm in diameter with a 1 cm rim.

6. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pizza and spread one tablespoon of tomato sauce evenly over the pizza. Bake the pizza for 5 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven and add toppings. Then continue to bake the pizza until the edges become golden brown and crispy.

Tea Leaf Egg

茶叶蛋

Missed Taiwan's tea leaf eggs so much! They are so delicious, we bought them from 7-11 convenience store everyday while we were holidaying in Taiwan in April 2024. I followed the recipe from this youtube and cooked 10 instead of 20 eggs.

Ingredients:

10 eggs

50ml soy sauce

20g rock sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 types of tea leaves (1 lipton tea bag and 1/2 teabag of wu long cha 乌龙茶 tea leaves)

2cm cinnamon stick

2 star anise

Method:

1. Put eggs in a pot and fill with sufficient water to cover the eggs. 

2. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to low and boil the eggs for 20 minutes. 

3. After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and set aside the eggs in the pot (do not drain the water) for 20 minutes.

4. After 20 minutes, drain the water and use a spoon to crack the eggs by giving each egg a light tap on the round end, followed by 3-4 taps on the side of the egg. This is to create the marbled effet and to allow the flavors from the tea soup to infuse the eggs. 

5. Put the cracked eggs into the same pot and add the tea soup ingredients (soy sauce, rock sugar, salt, tea leaves, cinnamon stick and star anise). Add water until it just covers the eggs.

6. Bring to a boil, then boil over low heat 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and let the eggs soak in the tea soup for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, boil the tea soup for a final 20 minutes. Turn off heat and the eggs are ready to be eaten!

How to cook steak on stovestop

 

Pan-searing in a cast iron pan is the easiest way to cook steak. 

Ingredients:

Steak (preferably ribeye or sirlion)

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon salt (not too much or your steak will be salty)

2 garlic cloves (smashed lightly, skin on)

Fresh herb e.g. rosemary or thyme (optional)

Method

1. Make sure the steak is at room temperature before you cook it, and pat dry on both sides so that there is no excess moisture.

2. Season with salt and dash of freshly ground black pepper. Then lightly coat the beef with bread flour (helps to get the brown crust).

3. Turn on exhaust fan and heat up the cast iron pan until it is smoking. Add a little cooking oil into the pan.

4. Set the steak into the pan and just leave it. You only need to turn once. After about 2 minutes, turn and you should get a nice golden brown crust.

5. Add butter, garlic and herb (if using) into the pan. Baste the steak with the garlic infused butter. Cook for another 2 minutes (to get medium rare steak).

6. Transfer the steak to a serving plate, cover with aluminum foil and rest it for 3 minutes (to get juicy steak). Once it’s properly rested, take a sharp knife and you should easily cut through the steak like butter. Enjoy!