Fish Maw Soup (Kra-Paw Pla)

This soup is very similar to shark fin soup in texture, but it has a sweet and sour tasted that like hot and sour soup. Although, it a very popular street vendor soup, but you will not be able to find it in your Thai restaurant menu. I guess it the time consuming part and all the ingredients can be pretty costly. Even I don’t make it often, but when I do, it never fails to get lots of compliment and satisfaction from both parties. I like mine very sour and spicy. Of course, I tried many versions and after much experimenting I find that this is the most tasteful one thus far. Great for that cold winter day where you need a good soup to comfort your taste bud and soul.

Ingredients:

1 Small chicken (cook, save the broth and pull the meat into shredded pieces)
5 Dried shitake mushrooms (soak in hot water for 1 hours or so, cut into thin slices)
1 Package of dried dish maw (soak in warm water until soften then cut into small bite size)
1 Cup bamboo shoots
1 Cup of slice Jacama (adding this gives it a nice crunchy texture)
1 Can quail eggs
½ Cup vinegar
3 Tbsp of corn starch add about 3 tbsp of water to it
1 Tbsp of soy sauce
2 Tbsp of fish sauce
3 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
1 Tsp of white pepper
1 Bunch of cilantro cut into 1’ section
1 Tbsp of sugar
6 Cup of chicken broth
1 Scope or cube of chicken flavor soup base

Topping sauce

1 Tbsp of rice vinegar
1 Soy sauce

Fresh ground chili paste to taste

Methods:

1. In a medium pot pour about 7 cups of water, chicken soup base in with the chicken. Bring to boil and shimmer it for at least an hours or so for better flavoring.
2. When it fully cooked remove the chicken and strain the broth to remove all fat and scum.
3. Then pull the chicken meat into shredded pieces and set aside.
4. Now to prepare the fish maw, after it soaked, boil it for 5 minutes removed and cut into small pieces. This is optional, but in doing this it remove the smell and soften it further.
5. In a medium pot, pour the chicken broth, fish maw, mushroom, soy sauce, sweet soy, fish sauce, sugar, vinegar, bamboo shoots quail eggs and sliced jacama and bring to boil.
6. Now slowly add the liquid corn starch and let it boil and thicken.
7. Turn off and add the white pepper and cilantro.

Serve hot with or with it topping sauce and chili sauce.

Seafood Wonton Soup

The best soup are the one that are home made and from the heart, but with so many things to do and catch up, who has time for home made right? That is the sad part of today busy mom world. Having a meal on the table at all is a task to itself. Although I find that this to be true for me before in a bigger city and more demanding job, but now in a lazy slower pace town, I find time to make what is good for my family. It is not always completely from scratch, but always from the heart and it home cooked.
In Chinese culture, the most meaningful food to make for someone is soup. For soup is believed to be essential to balance energy and bring them back to health from sickness.
Beside from that fact it also time consuming to make soup, for you have to cook it at a medium to low heat to get the best flavor and benefit out of it.

Ingredients:

1 Package of dumping wrapper
12 Shrimps
6 Scallops
1 Tsp of minced ginger
1 Tbsp of minced scallion
1 Tsp of sesame oil
½ Salt
A couple of dash of white pepper
1 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 Tsp of rice wine
1 Tbsp of baking soda
1 Egg white
1 Package of fish balls or shrimp balls
5 Pieces of bak choy cut in halves

Soup:

1 Package chicken bone
1 Package pork neck bone
1 Dried turnip
6 dried shrimps
2 Inches ginger
1 Onion
1 Tsp of kosher salt
2 Tbsp of fish sauce
2 Tbsp of chicken soup base

Or use the ready made wonton powder soup base to taste.

Methods:

1. Make the soup by using ready made wonton soup base or boiling some pork neck bone and chicken bone for 2 hours with some ginger, onion, dried turnip and dried shrimp. Add kosher salt and fish sauce to taste.
2. Clean the shrimps and scallops and chop them into small desire size.
3. In a bowl add the baking soda and enough water to cover the shrimp and scallop and let sit for 30 minutes.
4. When it done rinse the baking soda out completely. Then mix the egg white and a couple dash of salt and message into the shrimps and scallops. Let it sit for another 15 minutes.
5. After the 15 minutes up, add the sesame oil, rice wine, salt, soy sauce, ginger, scallion, white pepper and mix well.
6. In a small pot pour enough water and bring to boil.
7. Placing the dumpling wrapper in your palm, scope a teaspoon size filling and place it in the middle. Now wrap it up by simply twisting into a small pouch with wet water finger or using some oil.
8. When all the wonton is ready, slowly lower into the boiling water and cook for a good 8 minutes. You can also blanch the bak choy at this time too.
9. Remove and place in the serving bowl adding the soup and some scallion.
10. Serve hot and enjoy!

Sa lor Ma Chiu Karung

I am not going to write a lot about this soup only that it is an exceptional Cambodian dish that I have ever learn to make. In the Khmer culture if you can cook this soup, then it meant you can cook! The reason being that it require some time to prepared the herbs and spices to get ready for this soup. Of course, once you got the basic herbs and spices down, you can most certainly cook most Khmer dishes due to it similar ingredients and methods.
Also I would like to add that even though the taste should be very sharp with it perfect harmony of sweet and sour, every family will have their version of meat and vegetable preferences. I do mine version by observing and trying many different kind before deciding that this is the flavor I set out to accomplished.
Overall, I like mine thick and with lots of chewy texture meat and tendon. Sometime I would add beef tripe too, to make it taste super yummy. Mostly importantly bold and sharp is the word to best describe the flavor of this soup.



Ingredients:

1 Lb beef stew meat cut into cube
½ Lb beef tendon cut into thumb size pieces
½ Cup grind lemon grass (about 6 to 8 whole)
½ Tsp of turemic powder or small thumb size fresh one, grind
¼ Cup fish sauce
1 Tbsp of vegetable oil
1 Tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
2 Tbsp of chicken soup flavor powder
4 Clove garlic
4 Jalapeno
1 Handful of morning glory cut three time.
1/2 Cup kaffir lime leaves grind
2 Tbsp of tamarind soup flavor powder
1 Winter melon gourd
6 Round Asian egg plants
1 Cup celery sliced diagonally
Water

Methods:

1. Clean and cut the beef and tendon, set aside in refrigerator.
2. Finely cut the lemon grass, lime leaves, fresh galaga, garlic, fresh termine and put in the grinder and grind until fine and almost paste like. If using the dry version, put in the grinder to blend too.
3. Heat a 5 quarts pot to hot. Add the vegetable oil to hot. Add the herb mixture, oyster sauce, fish sauce, salt and stir until lightly golden.
4. Add the meat and tendon and enough water to cover the meat.
5. Bring it to boil and turn to heat to medium and let it shimmer until tender. I let mine sit for 1 hour and 20 minutes, because you want the tendon to tender but not over cook the meat.
6. Ten minutes before it done, add the whole jalapeno, slice celery, melon and egg plant and shimmer.
7. When the vegetable is semi, add the morning glory and turn off and remove from the stove. Don’t overcooked the vegetable, because it will continue to cook even if remove from heat when it in soup form.

Jumbo Prawn Sweet and Sour Soup

Ok, I am sure everyone Asian family has their family recipe for this soup. I for one, like to experiment with different version of this soup. In every Asian culture there is a similarity with only a slight difference, but the taste is all but one.

I love this refreshing soup with a perfect balance of sweet and sour, not one flavor too over powering of the other. It has to be or it won’t taste right.



Ingredients:


1 Lb of jumbo shrimps or prawn
3 Stalk of lotus steam, cut diagonally or/and Asian Rhubard
1 Handful of morning glory cut into three section
2 Red tomato, slice into to four pieces
1 Bunch of ma om (rice paddy herbs) chopped
5 -6 Chilies chopped
3 Garlic cloves finely chopped
2 Tbsp of tamarind soup based powder
3 Tbsp Fish sauce
1 Tbsp of vegetable oil
½ Tsp of kosher salt

Methods:

1. In a hot 5 quart pot, add the oil and bring to hot. Add the chopped garlic and stir until golden amber and aroma. Remove and set aside.
2. Fill enough water about up to ¾ way in the pot and bring to boil.
3. Add the prawns, lotus roots and tomato and let it cook for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the tamarind based, salt and fish sauce and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Now that the soup is fully cooked, add the morning glory and ma om and stir a couple of time.
6. Before serving, add the oil and garlic and some chilies to enhance the smell and taste.

Preserved Lime Chicken Soup

If you never heard or had this before, than this is the time to try it. It has a sour and tangy soup that is good for winter. Great for the common cold, cough and sore throat. I made
this soup when the ever changing and cold winter gave me a sore throat and chest congestion. As soon as I took a sip of this soup, I felt better right away. Maybe it just in my head, but it does feel great right away!



For the preserve lime:

8 to 10 limes
¼ Cup Salt
Water

Steam the lime for 5 minutes. Then take it out and put it on a strainer and lay flat to sun dried for 3 days. After 3 days, bring enough water to cover your glass or plastic jar to boil and add the salt. Let cool slightly and then pour in jar with the dried lime in there. Let it sit for at least 2 months or until color changes..the longer preserved, the more sour it become, the better it is. It also great as a drink for a hot Summer day.


Ingredients:

1 Small duck or chicken
1 Preserved lime
1 Tbsp of sugar
1 Tbsp of salt or to taste

Methods:

1. Place the chicken or duck in a pot and fill up with water to cover completely.
2. Add salt, and preserved lime and cook for at least 1 hour 45 minutes until the meat is so tender that it about to fall off.
3. Remove from stove and serve hot.

Shark Fin Soup

Shark Fin Soup

Beware animal lover, you might not have the stomach for this..

I have been contemplating for awhile now, about posting this dish. One I don’t want to offend anymore by writing this, but I feel that this is our way of life for thousand years. For Chinese’s culture shark fin is a delicacy that can only be indulge in on special occasions such as wedding, birthday, and New Year day. Often at wedding it would be served before the main entrée arrive. It is often the representation for all the dishes to serve after it, for it will be judge on how good the banquet is by the quality of the shark fin soup. The thickness, the flavor and the more shark fin the better. And so is the price tag. It also the most anticipated soup by almost everyone whom enjoyed it. Of courses, there would always accompany with whisper that it good for the women skin and good for the men strength. Then in Asian culture that are many things that does this!

With so much going on today on how the shark fin are obtained. I will make a note to try the imitation version. From what I heard that it is as good, but first I must find a place where they sell it online.

Ingredients:

1 Package of ready prepared dry shark fin (soak for an 1 hours in cold water)
1 Tbsp of minced ginger
1 Tbsp of scallion
1 Tbsp of sesame oil
¼ Cup of corn starch
¼ Cup of cold water
1 Cup of crab meat
8 Cup of chicken broth (cooked chicken overnight for the broth or use can version)
2 Tbsp of rice wine

Topping sauce:

White pepper to taste
2 Tbsp Cup red vinegar,
1 Tbsp cognac
1/8 Cup soy sauce

Methods:

1. In a hot wok put the sesame oil, minced ginger and scallion and cook until slightly golden.
2. Add the chicken broth and bring go boil.
3. Add the shark fin and crab meat. Cook for 10 minutes.
4. At the last 3 minutes stir the corn starch into the water and pour into the hot soup.
5. Stir until the soup until thicken for at least the remaining 3 to 5 minutes.
6. Remove and drizzle some of the red vinegar sauce with some white pepper and serve.