Radish and Carrot Soup

I am sure this soup is quite common in many Chinese households.  This is one of our family's favourite soup which is easy to make. Most of the time we don't really need a recipe for soup; just put in your favourite ingredients and some meat or bones, and viola, you'll have a bowl of tasty soup!  I usually cook my soup for at least 2-3 hours because the longer you cooked it, the more flavoursome the soup becomes. If you have leftover soup, keep it in the refrigerator.  It tastes even better the next day as the flavour continues to develop.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized radish (Chinese daikon) about 500g
1 carrot (about 300g)
1 kg pork bones (or chicken)
4 dried scallops, washed
10 red dates, washed
a thumb-sized ginger, smashed
1/2 tbsp white peppercorns, washed and crushed
about 4 litre water
salt, to taste

• Peel radish and carrot; cut into chunks.
• Bring a large pot of water to the boil; put in pork bones and blanched for about 5 minutes (to remove the impurities).  Drain and discard water. Wash the bones and set aside.
• Fill the pot with 4 litre of water and bring to the boil.
• Add in all the ingredients except salt.  Bring back the water to a rapid boil and cook for 10 minutes over high heat. Then reduce to low heat and let it simmer for about 3 hours.
• Season with salt and serve hot.

Vegetarian Sambal Petai

Petai or stinky beans - you either love it or loathe it.  Despite the pungent odour that lingered in your breath and toilet after consuming these, this is one dish that you wouldn't want to miss if you are a fan of petai.  It is commonly cooked with sambal prawns or ikan bilis with brinjal, okra, long beans or winged beans (aka four angled beans) in the mix.  

One word of caution, before you cook, make sure you split the petai into halves to make sure there are no worms hidden inside.

sambal mushroom stems

Ingredients:

petai
brinjal
long beans
winged beans
your favourite sambal (I used the sambal mushroom stems I cooked the other day)
oil
salt & sugar, to taste
3 - 4 tbsp water
lime juice (optional), to taste

• Heat a little oil in the frying pan and add in sambal and water.
• Toss in brinjal, long beans and winged beans.  Stir until all vegetables are coated with sambal. Add in more water if too dry. 
• Lastly add in petai and toss well.  Season with salt and sugar and lime juice.

Sambal Mushroom Stems

Dried shiitake mushrooms

Do you discard dried shiitake mushrooms stems after using the caps for cooking? Some people used the tough and fibrous stems to flavour their soup and then discard them before serving. However, I love to save and freeze them for making vegetarian sambal.  Building up my collection of mushroom stems takes several months, but it's worth the wait. 

Before cooking, blitz the mushroom stems in the food processor or crush them with mortar and pestle.  I prefer using the latter to achieve the 'floss-like' texture.  Cook your favourite sambal recipe and just add in the pounded mushroom stems and you'll have a bowl of delicious sambal! 

Ingredients:

About 3 cups of mushroom stems (soaked in water overnight) 

salt & sugar, to taste

4 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded

2 tbsp light soy sauce

enough oil

Sambal paste:

200g shallots

100g garlic

4 stalk lemon grass (use the white parts only)

a knob of galangal

a small knob of turmeric

6 candlenuts

2 tbsp chopped bunga kantan

5 tbsp chili powder

some water 

• Blend all the sambal ingredients into paste.  Set aside.
• Pound the mushroom stems using mortar and pestle until you achieved 'floss-like' texture.  Set aside.
• Heat enough oil to fry the pounded mushroom stems under low heat until dry. Remove from pan and set aside.
• Heat enough oil to stir fry the pounded ingredients until aromatic.  Add in the mushroom stems and shredded kaffir lime leaves and stir to combine.  Add in light soy sauce, salt and sugar. Continue to fry until dry.