Ginseng Chicken Soup 参鸡汤

Weekends always go by faster than you can imagine. We need to charge up for the beginning of next week’s battle. Since I have finished review, I would go for a more natural way.)

Traditional Chinese soup is very nutritious and thin in texture. I always feel more comforting and satisfied after having a bowl of soup and don’t feel like my stomach dragged down by heavy food. Plus, it is so easy to make — the pot made the most of the efforts, not me!
Material: a small Cornish hen, 4 or 5 dried ginseng roots, dried red dates, dried Goji berries, dried, lotus seeds, dried shiitake mushrooms, a small apple (optional),  dried chestnuts (optional) and 1/4 cup of sweet rice (optional;  added to make the soup a bit thicker).

Tip: A small apple will give the soup more flavor and covers up the ginseng smell a little bit. I personally like ginseng smell but kids can’t take it too much.

1. Clean the chicken and rinse all the dry materials with water. Chop the small apple into pieces.

2. Put everything into a pot except the red dates (Tip: put red dates too early will give soup subtle sour taste).  Put plenty of water (at least 2 inch above the food) to cover the materials. Put the heat on.

Pot choices: clay pot is ideal and make the soup taste the best but require good skills on controlling the heat: high heat to boil and then reduce to low heat for 3 hours. I use an electronic pot called “instant pot” which is a multifunction pot  with options “soup/congee/stew/grains/steam/slow cook”. An ordinary soup pot will do the same, you just need to pay attention to and check constantly with the heat. A slow-cooker is also convenient in the sense that you don’t have to watch all the time.

3. Put red dates in the soup 15 minutes when the soup is ready before you plan to turn off the heat. For the instant pot I use, I need to wait it cool a bit and let the steam out to reduce the pressure inside in order to open the lid safely. Then transfer the soup into another pot, put the red dates in, cook another 15 minutes. Salt to taste before serving.

 

 

Emerald Golden Roll (翡翠黄金卷）

My kids won’t eat other vegetables voluntarily, except broccoli and spinach. Well, in fact I should say they wouldn’t refuse to eat these two kinds. As a Mom and veggie lovers, I need to do more tricks to hide the veggies. Here is one dish that they both love. And it is so simple that every one can make it. There is a big difference between Chinese cooking and Western cooking. Western recipes always specify the accurate measure of everything thing, including weight, volume, temperature and time. Although recent years Chinese recipes also tend to follow the  trend, but Chinese home cooking and old recipes won’t specify the accurate measure. Instead they usually use the words, such as “a little; some; proper amount “. You have to  decide how much to put in depending on your own preference. So Chinese cooking is more an art. There is no an exact same dish from different homes.

1. Mince any kind of vegetables that you wish to hide, such as kales, tulip green and spinach etc. Here I use spinach. Then mix with lean ground pork (chicken is fine too) . Add an egg white for tender texture. Keep the yolk for later use. Then spice with the mixture with salt, chick stock powder, ground black pepper. 切碎蔬菜，和瘦碎猪肉拌匀。加点油，盐，白胡椒和鸡精。想要肉更嫩的话。放一个蛋的蛋清。蛋黄留着备用。

2. Beat three or four eggs well, put the egg yolk from  step 1. and mix well. 打三到四个蛋，加上步骤1的蛋黄。

3. Heat a non-stick pan with medium heat. Add some grape seed oil and tilt your pan to ensure the oil cover the whole bottom or use oil spray. Add certain amount of beaten eggs, make sure the mixture spread nicely to form a thing layer. Once this thin egg layer is not running and forms a wrap, turn off the heat. 中火烧热不粘锅，加油。我用的葡萄籽油。加适量蛋液，左右摇摇锅让蛋液形成一层薄薄的蛋皮即可关火。

4. Wait the egg wrap cool down a little, spoon some meat/veggie mixture from step 1. and spread well on the egg wrap. Roll the egg wrap and cut into 3/4 inch pieces. 蛋皮冷却后，把步骤1中的蔬菜肉末摊在蛋皮上卷起。切成小段码在碗中。

5. Put those pieces into a steamer and steam for 15 minutes until the meat is cooked. 放在蒸锅中蒸15分钟直到肉熟。

You are done! I spent 20 minutes before steaming. I have some extra meat/veggie mixture left, so I made two patties and fried them in the pan. Enjoy!