Cream of Mushroom Soup

Here is the Cream of Mushroom Soup requested by a pregnant woman and a mother of two (ladies, you know who you are.. ) This soup recipe is for approx. 8 servings.

Ingredients:
2 lbs of fresh mushroom diced finely ( I used button, crimini and portobello mushroom). Any kind of fresh mushroom will work.
1/2 cup diced yellow onion
Salt and Pepper to taste

For roux:
100 g of butter
8 tbs flour
4 cups whole milk or 2% milk
some water or vegetable stock

Directions:
1) Melted 100 g butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Saute the diced onion until they are soft then add in the mushroom. Contiue to saute the mushroom for about 5 minutes or until they are tender. Set the mushroom aside

2) Use the same sauce pan to make the roux. Melted the butter over medium heat, add in flour. Stir the mixture until they are well incorporated or no more raw flour taste.

3) Important step: Do not add hot water or hot milk into the roux. This will make the mixture very lumpy. Add small quantities of cold milk at a time to the roux while stiring. This will ensure smooth and creamy base.

4) Add mushroom into the creamy soup base. Add in salt and pepper to taste. Cook and stir until the soup is thickened (do not boiled the soup). If the soup is too thick, add in some water or vegetable stock. Reduce heat and let the soup simmer  (uncover) for 20 minutes.

5) Enjoy!!

Ginger Beef

Ginger Beef is one of my all time favorites. This dish is so easy and simple to make plus you only need a few ingredients only. So are you ready for this? Put on your apron and follow me to the kitchen and let’s cook.

Ingredients: (4 servings)
2 lbs (1kg) sirloin steak cut into strips, thinly
3 table spoons of light soy sauce
2 table spoons of dark soy sauce
2 table spoons of corn starch
1/4 cup of julienne fresh ginger
3 stalks of green onion cut into 1 1/2 inches long
3 table spoons cooking oil

1/4 cup water

1)Marinate the beef with cornstarch, dark and light soy sauce for 15 minutes.
2)Heat wok/frying pan. Add cooking oil into the pan.
3)Fry ginger until light golden brown.
4)Add beef into the pan. Stir fry for 2 minutes and add in the water. Cook the beef for a few minutes or until the beef is done.
5)Turn off the heat and add in the green onion. Serve with rice.

Because this dish is so easy to prepare, therefore, I'm submitting this recipe to September Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks to celebrate the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient. MomGateway is the host for this ingredient -- Ginger.

Enjoy!!

Refreshing Summer Corn Salad

Tired of pasta salad, potato salad or coleslaw for your summer picnic? Then you should try my new creation of this Summer Corn Salad.

Made this last weekend and I was suprised how good the salad was (Ok ok.. I am not trying to praise myself here but the salad is really really good... ;)

This is a super easy recipe. Fresh corn or frozen corn can be used in this recipe. However, always try your corn first before you add in all the sugar call for in this recipe. Why has to taste the corn first? Because fresh corn kernel is usually sweeter than the frozen corn.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs thawed frozen/fresh corn
1/2 lb diced cucumber
1/2 lb diced tomato
1/2 lb diced yellow onion
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup vinegar (I like to use sesoned rice vinegar)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tbs salt
1 tsp black pepper

Directions:
1) Combine corn, cucumber, tomato and onion in a mixing bowl.
2) In a separate bowl, combine sugar, vinegar, oilve oil, salt and pepper together and whsik it for a few minutes.
3) Pour the dressing into corn mixture and chill the corn salad in the frdge for a few hours before serving.
4) Enjoy your corn salad!!

Yumm...Yumm...

Vegetarian Tofu Pancake

What can you do to turn a plain and tasteless tofu into a wonderful dish? Here is a simple and easy solution to make that tasteless white tofu into a delicious pancake.

The ingredients are simple and the dish is even simplier to make. It only take approximate 30 minutes to make this dish.

Here is how I made my tofu pancake:

Ingredients:
1 box (1 lb) of firm tofu (if you are from Malaysia buy the small square one from the wet market)
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/4 cup finely diced shiitake mushroom
2 table spoon diced green onion
1 table spoon sesame oil
1 table spoon soy sauce or to taste

white pepper to taste
1 cup bread crumbs or tempura batter mix

Directions:

1) Scrambled tofu in a big bowl.
2) Add in all the ingredients into the bowl except bread crumbs and mix well.
3) Add bread crumbs into the tofu mixture.
4) Take approx. 1/4 cup mixture and form into paty.
5) Pan fry the patties until they are golden brown on both sides.
6) Served it over rice.

You can eat this with any kind of sauce you would like, I like to eat my tofu pancakes with chili sauce.

白糖糕 (Bak Tong Guo) Failed

Yesterday, I tried to make the 白糖糕 (Bak Tong Guo) but failed. I believed the website that I got the recipe was incorrect. Sometimes, I think people tend to hide a few of the important steps in their recipes.


Jomel is nice enough to give me the recipe that she copied from a Chinese cook book. I am giving the recipe a try right now. I only follow the step 1 in the recipe and then put everything in the bread machine and let the dough settinng does the job. Smart or stupid move? Will find out 1.5 hrs later .....


To be continue.....