Soup

Pork Meat Balls/貢丸

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Grounded Pork 650 g

Corn starch 45 g

Salt 10 g

Fish sauce 1 tbsp

Baking powder 1tsp

white pepper 1/2 tsp

Water 180ml

Direction:

Add everything to a stand mixer bowl and mix everything with speed 4 for 15 minutes.

Bring some water to warm ( not hot or boil) and turn the heat to the lowest.

Do as below then use a spoon to scope out the meat balls to the warm water.

Don’t let the water become boil, only slowly simmer for about 15 minutes. I made about 30 meat balls.

Take the meat balls out of the water and let them cool down.

You can bring the water to boil and cook the meat balls in it now, but I find them taste much better after you refrigerate them for a couple of hours. They will become more elastic and more flavorful.

Beef With Mixed Vegetable Soup/牛肉湯

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It is getting colder now, and soup comes to mind as one of my favorite dishes.

Today I made beef and mixed vegetable soup because I have so many vegetables at home.

Beef 12oz.

Celery 2 stalks

Carrot 3.5 oz.

Onion 1/2 (medium size)

Corn 1 medium size

Can red bean 7oz.

Cauliflower 5oz.

Potato 1 medium size

Home made chicken broth 1.5 quarts (no salt)

Shallot 1 big one

Garlic 2 cloves (minced)

Bay leave 2 pieces

Tomato paste 3 tbsps

Cut all the vegetable and beef to bite size.

Add 2 tables vegetable oil to a skillet, add onion, shallot and tomato paste and saute for a few minute until tender and aromatic, add the rest of vegetables except bean.

Saute the vegetables for a few minutes, add broth, 2/3 tsp salt and bay leaves. Turn the heat down to medium small and cook with a lid on for about 20 – 25 minutes.

Add bean and Beef and turn the heat to high and continue to cook about 5 minutes.

Season with more salt and black pepper to taste if needed.

Tips:

The reason I only cook bean and beef for 5 minutes is because I used can bean, it is cooked and I used really good quality beef which is very tender, I didn’t want to ruin it.

You can use any kind of vegetable you like.

 

Shrimp Balls/蝦丸

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This is super easy dish, I couldn’t believe how good it was!

Shrimp 180 g

Pork fat 40 g

Salt 1/2 tsp

Ginger 1/2 tbsp

Egg white 1/2

Scallion 2 tbsps

White pepper 1/2 tsp

Sugar 1 tsp

Put first 3 ingredients in a food processor to mix for about 2 minutes, then add the rest of ingredients and mix well.

In a cooking pot, add some water to it and turn the heat on.

Get some of the paste to your palm, add a tsp of  capelin roe to the center of the paste, use your thumb roll over the paste the cover the capelin roe, then fold your fingers together and squeeze the ball out of your your thumb and index finger. Use a spoon to spoon out the ball to the water.

Once the water is boiling, continue to cook for 2 minutes.

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You can use marinated meat to put in the center, or nothing at all. It is good regardless!

這是一道超級容易的菜,我簡直不敢相信它會這麼好吃!

蝦 180 克

豬肥肉 40 克

鹽 1⁄2 茶匙

生薑 1⁄2 茶匙

蛋清 1/2 個

葱 2 湯匙

白胡椒 1⁄2 茶匙

糖 1 茶匙

將前 3 種材料放入食品加工機中混合約 2 分鐘,然後加入其餘材料並混合均勻。

在一個鍋中加入一些水然後打開火。

放一些蝦漿到你的手上,加一茶匙的魚籽到蝦漿的中閒,用你的拇指把蝦槳蓋過來，蓋住魚籽，然後所有的手指圈起來把蝦球從拇指和食指中擠壓出來。用勺子把蝦球舀到水裡。

一旦水煮開繼續煮2分鐘。

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ShaXian Wonton & Noodles With Peanut Butter Sauce/沙县扁肉拌面

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These two are very famous Fujianese Snacks. We call them snack, but they look more like a meal. These two have to be eaten together. Shaxian is a small town in Fujian province that is very famous for different kind of snacks. Fuzhounese wonton is not nearly as good as this one because the way the meat is processed. The meat in Shaxian wonton is much bigger and much more elastic.

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ShaXian Wonton

Lean pork (meat from pig’s leg is preferred) 5oz.

Fuzhounese wonton skin 40- 50 pieces

Broth 4 cups

Cut pork into big thick slices, cut all the fascia off the meat, sprinkle 1/2 tsp baking soda over the meat, then use a hammer meat tenderizer to gently strike the meat for one hour. (Yes ONE hour)

Add 1/3 tsp salt, 1/3 tsp chicken bouillon, 2 pinches white pepper, 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce and 5 tbsps cold water to the meat and mix well.

Get 1 tsp of meat and wrap it with a piece of wonton skin. Since the wonton skin is super thin, all we need to do just pinch them together.

Bring a pot of water to boil, then cook the wontons in the boiling water for 3 minutes. Adjust the time according to your wonton’s meat size.

Divide the wontons to 3 different bowls, then add the broth (boil in a separated cookware. Add salt, white pepper, sesame oil and white vinegar to the broth) Then garnish with scallion.

瘦肉 (猪腿肉优先) 5 安司

福州扁肉皮 40-50 片

肉汤4杯

把猪肉切成大厚片, 切掉肉上的所有筋膜, 在肉上洒1/2 茶匙的苏打, 然后用锤肉的锤子轻轻地把肉锤打一小时。(是的一小时)

加入1/3 茶匙盐, 1/3 茶匙鸡肉精, 适量白胡椒, 1/2 茶匙老抽, 5 汤匙冷水, 拌匀。

拿1茶匙的肉, 用一块扁肉皮包起来。因为扁肉皮超薄, 我们需要做的只是轻轻捏一下就会粘在一起了。

煮沸一锅, 然后在沸水中煮扁肉3分钟。根据你扁肉的肉大小调整时间。

将扁肉分到3个碗里, 然后加入汤 ( 在另一个锅里煮开。将盐、白胡椒、芝麻油和白醋加入汤中, 然后用葱装饰。

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Noodles With Peanut Butter Sauce

Thick wonton Noodles 8 oz.
Pork fat 2tbsps

Light soy sauce 2tbsps

Shallot oil 2tsps

Chicken bouillon 1tsp

Scallion 2tbsps

Peanut butter 2tbsp

 

Cook the noodles in boiling water for about 7-8 minutes, then take them out of water and put them in a big bowl.

Add the rest of ingredients to the noodles and mix well. You may need to add some water that you use to cook the noodles because this kind of noodle will absorb a lot of liquid.

馄饨面8盎司。
猪油2汤匙

生抽2汤匙

葱油2汤匙

鸡精1茶匙

葱花2汤匙

花生酱2汤匙

 

面条在沸水中煮7-8 分钟, 然后把它们从水里捞出来放进一个大碗里。

将剩下的配料添加到面条中, 拌匀。你可能需要添加一些你用来煮面条的水, 因为这种面条会吸很多水。

 

Related image

 

Creamy Mushroom Soup/蘑菇浓汤

/ CaiQinChen / 2 Comments

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2 servings and $2.25 per serving

Mushroom 300g

Flour 3tbsps

Small Yellow onion 1

Broth 2 cups

White wine 1 cup

Garlic 1 clove

Cream cheese 2 oz.

Add 2 tbsps unsalted butter and one cube of herbed olive oil to a saute pan and heat it up.

Add Minced garlic and onion to it and saute for 4, 5 minutes or until the onion is soft and tender.

Add sliced mushroom and continue to saute for 4 minutes.

Add flour to the mushroom and mix everything together and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes with medium low heat.

Add broth and wine to the mushroom and simmer with a cover on for about 20 minutes.

Pour the mushroom soup to a blender and blend until smooth after it cools down a little . (be careful not to pour too much at a time, and make sure you press the blender’s lid down hard because you don’t want the soup to come out the blender and go everywhere, also it is still hot)

Pour the soup back to the cooking pan and cook for about 7-8 minutes.

Add the cream cheese at the end and stir until melt. Add salt and pepper to the taste.

I garnished it with a few pieces of sauteed mushroom, sour cream and parsley.

I used the big brown mushroom, so the soup looked kind of dark. I think If I had used the white ones, the color should look much lighter. If you don’t care about calories, use 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of broth instead of 2 cups of broth. And you don’t need to add cream cheese at the end. The soup should taste much richer. I think one of these day, I should try once, I’ve been too careful with calories! Lol… Hope you will like it.

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2份, 每份$2.25 元

蘑菇300克

面粉3汤匙

小黄洋葱1个

肉汤2杯

白葡萄酒1杯

大蒜1粒

奶油芝士2盎司。

添加2汤匙无盐黄油和一个粒的香草橄榄油到煎锅里加热它。

将大蒜剁碎和洋葱条加入炒4-5分钟, 直到洋葱变软。

加入蘑菇片, 并继续炒4分钟。

加面粉到蘑菇里并搅拌, 继续煮2-3 分钟。

在蘑菇里加入肉汤和酒, 盖上盖子小火煮20分钟。

在冷却一点后把蘑菇汤倒到搅拌机里, 然后搅拌均匀。(小心不要一次倒太多, 并确保你按下搅拌机的盖子, 因为你不希望汤从搅拌机里飞出来。)

把汤倒回锅里煮7-8 分钟。

在最后加入奶油芝士, 搅拌至融化。加入盐和黑胡椒粉调味。

我用几片蘑菇, 酸乳和欧芹装饰。

 

Thin Noodle Soup/面线糊

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This thin noodles soup has been my all time favorite. I had posted something similar before, but I did some changes to make it even better this time.

I braised the meat before hand. I used pork intestine, two different part of beef trips. Here is the recipe for braise meat:

https://caiqinchen.com/2017/08/31/braise-duck%e5%8d%a4%e9%b8%ad/

Here is the recipe how to make this noodles soup dish:

https://caiqinchen.com/2016/12/06/thin-noodles-soup%e5%8f%8c%e8%82%9a%e9%9d%a2%e7%ba%bf/

Basically I braised the meat first, then added some of the sauce used to braise the meat to the broth ( you can use any kind of broth or even just water). Precooked the thin noodles in a separated cooking pan, then added to the soup. I thickened my soup using water chestnut starch this time because it keeps the soup thick even if I heat it up the next day. Simply delicious!!!

我之前也煮过类似的面糊，我超级喜欢吃。 这次我改了一点点的做法让面糊更好吃。

我事先先把肉都卤过了。 我用了猪大肠，牛百叶，还有牛肚。做法看接连：

https://caiqinchen.com/2017/08/31/braise-duck%e5%8d%a4%e9%b8%ad/

这里是煮面的接连

https://caiqinchen.com/2016/12/06/thin-noodles-soup%e5%8f%8c%e8%82%9a%e9%9d%a2%e7%ba%bf/

我把要用的肉都事先卤过。 加一点卤肉的汤汁到肉汤里（你可以用自己喜欢的肉汤，用水也可以）。 面线在另外的锅里煮熟后加到肉汤里。我这次用马蹄粉勾芡因为用马蹄粉勾芡的汤就算第二天再回锅热一次吃还是很粘稠。总之就是很好吃就对了。

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Clam Chowder/蛤蜊浓汤

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I used to cook this dish very often, then I stopped for years not cooking it. ( I don’t know why) And just last week, I went to Costco and saw this beautiful little clams; I was thinking: ” this can make really good clam chowder” !!! So I bought a bag of it. And here is the soup I made, so rich, creamy and flavorful!

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4 servings $5.75 per serving.

5 pounds clam

6 cups water

2 stalks celery diced

One small carrot diced

One small yellow onion Diced

½ Leek thin sliced

2 small potatoes cubed

1 cup Half and half

1 cup whole milk

Butter 2 tbsps

Flour 1/3 cups

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Clean the clams well. Cook the clams in the water until the clams open (discard any that do not open). Pick the meat out and discard the shells. Collect all the juice in a separated container. Roughly chop the clams.

Add 2 cubes of herb olive oil and 2 tbsps. unsalted butter in a big skillet.

Add vegetables to the oil and sauté for 10 to 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender, sprinkle the flour to the vegetable and mix well.

Add clam juice to the vegetables cup by cup (don’t add all of the juice at once), add additional clam juice after you stir together vegetables with the clam juice.

Bring it to boil, then reduce the heat to small, continue cooking for 20 minutes.

Add half and half, milk and Clam meat to the soup then turn the heat to high and bring everything to boil.

Season with black pepper and little bit of salt (I don’t use more salt because the clam juice is salted naturally)

Garnish the dish with bacon and chives/parsley if you desire.

If you don’t have herb olive oil, just use 2 tbsps. olive oil with 2 pieces of bay leaves.

Home made herb cube:

  • I sometimes buy too much herbs, and I can’t use all of them.  So I am using this method to save them for later.
  • Pick all the leaves from the herb, then put them in the ice cube container, pour some good quality extra virgin olive oil over them, then freeze them.
  • Save all the herb cubes in a zip lock bag in the freezer, so when you need some herb for cooking later, you can always get one.

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5磅蛤蜊

6杯水

2柄芹菜 切丁

一个小胡萝卜切丁

一个小的黄洋葱 切丁

½条大蒜苗 切薄片

2个小土豆切丁

1杯咖啡奶

1杯全脂牛奶

黄油2汤匙

面粉1/3 杯

把蛤蜊洗干净。在水里煮 直到蛤开壳(丢弃不开的)。把肉挑出来扔掉壳。 把汁倒到一个容器里, 粗略地切一下蛤蜊。

在一个大锅加入2块香料橄榄油和2汤匙牛油。

把蔬菜加到油里炒10到15分钟, 或者等到蔬菜都软了, 把面粉洒到蔬菜上拌匀。

在蔬菜中加入蛤蜊汁 (不要一次把所有的汁都倒进去,一杯一杯的加), 将蛤蜊汁与蔬菜搅拌均匀后加入更多的汁。

煮开, 然后把火调小, 继续煮20 分钟。

添加咖啡奶,牛奶 和蛤蜊肉, 把火调高, 然后煮开。

加黑胡椒和少许盐 (我没加更多盐, 因为蛤汁自然带咸味的)

如果您喜欢加点煎过的熏肉和韭菜或欧芹装饰。

如果你没有香料橄榄油, 只需用2汤匙橄榄油与2片月桂叶。

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自己做的香料油

 

  • 在一個不粘鍋里煎培根直到脆。把它們放在廚房纸上, 以吸收多余的油。切成小塊備用。
  • 加入1汤匙 黃油和香料油放入鍋中, 加入洋蔥和大蒜炒2分鐘。
  • 加土豆繼續煮3分鐘
  • 加入雞湯 (幾乎覆蓋住就好了不需要太多的湯) 蓋上蓋子繼續煮 5-7 分鐘, 直到土豆软烂。
  • 用搅拌机把汤搅成泥好然後倒回鍋裡加入牛奶繼續小火煮到它再次煮开。加入黑胡椒和鹽來調味。
  • 用一些切達乾酪、熏肉、歐芹或蔥來裝飾湯。

Oxtail Borsch Soup/罗宋汤

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5 servings $1.85 per serving

Oxtail 1.5 pounds

Green cabbage 10 oz.

Beet 15 oz.

Carrot 6oz.

Garlic 2 cloves

2 small size Red skin potatoes

Tomato sauce 8 oz.

One small size Onion

Cut potatoes small cubes. Cut rest of vegetables thin shreds.

Cook oxtail with 6 cups of water in a pressure cooker for 5 minutes. (if you don’t have pressure cooker, then cook on the stove for at least 30 minutes. Adjust the time to your own preferences. Some people want their meat very tender, some don’t)

Add 2tbsps cooking oil in a skillet, sauté the vegetable except potato for 5 minutes or until tender, season with ½ tsp salt.

Add the vegetables and tomato sauce to the oxtail broth and bring to boil, reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook for 15 minutes.

Add potatoes to the soup and continue to cook for another 15 to 20 minutes depend on how tender do you want the vegetables to be. Season your soup with some more salt and black pepper.

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牛尾1.5 镑

包菜10盎司。

甜菜15盎司。

胡萝卜6盎司。

大蒜2粒

2个小红皮土豆

番茄酱8盎司。

一个小洋葱

土豆切粗粒。把剩下的蔬菜切成丝。

加6杯水在压力锅里煮牛尾5分钟。(如果你没有压力锅, 那么在炉子上煮至少30分钟。根据自己的喜好调整时间。有些人喜欢肉很烂, 有些人不喜欢烂)

在煎锅中加入2汤匙 烹调油,除马铃薯以外的蔬菜炒5分钟或直到软, 加½茶匙盐调味。

把蔬菜和番茄酱加到牛尾汤里, 煮开, 把火调到中小火, 继续煮15分钟。

把土豆加到汤里, 再继续煮15到20分钟, 取决于你想要蔬菜煮到多烂。加多一点盐和黑胡椒调味。

 

Noodles Soup/汤面

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It is about 3 servings and $5.5 per serving.

Pork bone 3 pounds

Beef neck bone 3 pounds

Shanghai thin noodle 16 oz.

Shrimp 9 pieces

Fish balls 9 pieces

Scallion 3 tbsps

Spinach some (optional)

Blanch the bones in cold water until it is boil, turn the heat off then rinse under the running water.

Bring 4 quarts of water to boil then add the bones. When the water is boiling again, turn the heat to low and simmer it for 4-5 hours.

Cook the noodle in boiling water for 5 minutes or until it reaches you prefer tenderness. Rinse the noodle under running water for 30 seconds.

If you like vegetable in your noodle, precook it in boiling water too.

Discard all the bones and meat in the broth. I precooked my shrimps and fish balls in my broth too. Add only a few pinches of white pepper and some fish sauce to your taste.

Place some noodle in a bowl, add fish balls, shrimp, spinach and scallion then pour some broth to it.

I cooked my broth for 4 hours with the lowest heat, and the broth turns milky white. Even though I used bones, but there were still whole lot of meat connected to the bones. So the finished product will have a lot of oil on the top, if you don’t want your noodle soup to be too oily, make sure you skim the oil off.

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猪骨3磅

牛颈骨3磅

上海细面条16盎司。

虾9只

鱼丸9只

葱3汤匙

菠菜一些 (可选)

将骨头在冷水中煮到沸, 把火关掉然后在自来水下冲洗干净。

把4夸脱的水煮开后加入骨头。当水再次沸时, 把火调小熬煮4-5 小时。

在滚水里煮面条大概5分钟或直到您喜欢的软度。用水冲洗面条 30秒。

如果你喜欢在你的面条里加蔬菜,事先放滚水里滚一下。

把汤里的骨头和肉都扔掉。我把我的虾和鱼丸在我的汤里先煮熟了。按你的口味在汤里加少量的白胡椒粉和鱼露。

把面条放在碗里, 加入鱼丸, 虾, 菠菜和葱, 然后倒一些汤。

我的汤熬煮了4个小时变成了奶白色的浓汤了，因为我是开最小的火煮所以也没有什么蒸发。 但是吃之前最好要滤一下那个油。

Lobster Egg Drop Soup/龙虾蛋花汤

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I always save lobster juice and fat for soup or something else. Today I used it to make egg drop soup. It sounds a little fancy and it tastes really good.

One egg

Juice and Fat from 2 lobster

3 cups water

Peas and carrot 4-5 tbsps

White pepper a few pinches

 

Break the egg in a small bowl

Bring water to boil, add the lobster juice & fat and peas & carrot. Cover and bring to boil again.

Add some starch water to thicken up the soup.

Add the egg to the soup and stir up a little.

Finish this dish with a few pinches of white pepper. ( No additional spices needed)

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我总是会把切龙虾的时候流的汁和脂肪拿来做汤或其他东西。今天我用它做蛋花汤。这听起来有点花哨, 味道还真的很好。

一个鸡蛋

2只龙虾的汁和脂肪

3杯水

豌豆和胡萝卜4-5 汤匙

白胡椒适量

在小碗里打碎鸡蛋

把水煮开, 加入龙虾汁、脂肪、豌豆和胡萝卜。盖上并再次煮开。

加入一些淀粉水, 使汤变稠。

把鸡蛋加到汤里搅拌一下。

用一点白胡椒来完成这道菜。(不需要额外的酱料)