Century Egg

Grandma bought a box of century eggs last week. Apparently she overheard my conversation with my sister that I wanted to make some congee and thought that century eggs would make a nice side dish. How nice of her.

I took the opportunity to take a picture of the egg and the snowflake-like patterns that sometimes appear on the “egg white”.

snowflake on century egg

Can you make out the pattern?

As a child, I was always fascinated by these patterns on the century egg. Why does these patterns appear on century eggs? It is a mysterious and beautiful question.

Planning to cook with century egg? Try these 2 century egg recipes.

Wontons and Pork Dumplings

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.

steamed pork dumplings

Shrimp Soup With Chinese Yam

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.

Where Can I Get 小笼包 At Recession Price?

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

Egg Carrier – Retro Style

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.

Sunday Dinner

I have been watching the Asian Food Channel for a couple of months when I spend the weekends at Elsie’s. I do not know when I was bitten by the cooking bug but I did remember thinking to myself, “I can do that” while watching a certain food programme.

I also made a point to cook a soup using the recipes on my soup website. So far I have already tried 2 recipes: shrimp balls soup with mushroom and tomato egg drop soup.

I have already posted about the cooking story for the shrimp balls soup. So here, I am posting the photos of the tomato egg drop soup.

We were supposed to have rice but Elsie added too much water and the rice became a thick porridge.

It is a good thing that the brinjal/eggplant with minced pork goes well with porridge. Can’t say the same for the soup but then…

…I want to drink soup.

A Simple Watercress Soup

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.

See them all lined up neatly here?

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.