Braised Mushrooms with Sea Cucumber

Posted by Vivian in Chinese, Mushroom

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Ingredients:

• 300 gm sea cucumber (pre-soaked and sliced thickly)
• 10 dried mushroom (soaked overnight)
• 2 pieces of scallops (pre-soaked)
• 5 slices of ginger
• 3 gm fatt choy (pre-soaked, snipped a few times to break up the clump)
• 2 stalks of spring onion)
• 1 ltr of chicken stock
• 1 tbsp potato flour mixed with 1 tbsp of water

Seasoning:

• 2 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
• 1 tsp of sesame oil
• 1 tsp of sugar 
• Dash of pepper
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine

Preparation:

• Heat oil and fry ginger until fragrant.
• Add in mushroom and stir well.
• Add in dried scallops and sea cucumber.  Fry for a minute or two.
• Mix in seasoning.
• Pour in chicken stock and let it boil.
• Reduce heat and let simmer for 45 minutes until sea cucumber is slightly softened.
• Add in fatt choy and spring onion.
• Simmer for another 3 to 4 minutes and thicken with potato starch.

Number of servings: 4 to 5

Chicken and Mushroom Baked Rice

Posted by Vivian in Chicken, Mushroom, Rice

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Recipe adapted from NoobCook.

Ingredients: 

• 4 chicken thigh (skin removed and cut into cubes)
• 1 can of button mushrooms (diced) 
• 3 to 4 florets of broccoli (cut into smaller florets)
• 2 cups of short grain / Japanese rice (based on measuring cup for rice cooker)
• 3 to 5 cloves of garlic (skin removed)
• Chicken stock
• Grated mozzarella cheese
• 1 can of Campbell cream of mushroom soup
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Butter
• 1 tablespoon cooking Sake
• Parsley flakes

Preparation:

• Wash rice till water runs clear and pour rice into rice cooker.
• Add chicken stock till slightly below water level as indicated on rice cooker for 2 cups of rice.
• Melt butter in pan and par-cook chicken with mushroom.  Season with salt, black pepper, and Sake. Give a quick stir and turn off the heat, ensuring that chicken remains partially cooked. 
• Transfer chicken and mushroom into rice cooker and mix well with rice. Top with garlic and set the rice to cook.
• In the meantime, boil broccoli over a pot of boiling water and season with some salt. Remove broccoli and drain off excess water. Set aside for later use.
• Once the rice is cooked, remove garlic.
• Add in broccoli to rice and stir to combine.
• Scoop rice into baking dish, spread the top evenly with cream of mushroom soup, followed by mozzarella cheese.
• Sprinkle with parsley flakes.
• Bake in oven at 200 degree Celsius on top rack until the top turns golden brown.

Number of Servings: 4

Creamy Mushroom Soup

Posted by Vivian in Mushroom, Soup

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When it comes to a penchant for accepting any food samples that supermarket promoters hand out, nobody in the family can beat Elaina to it. She takes anything and everything that comes her way. There was once she questioned why I had turned down trying the pasta sample and my explanation that I had no intention to buy that brand after a bad experience of opening up a bag of pasta filled with weevils wasn’t good enough. She retorted that trying doesn’t equate to buying.

A couple of weeks ago, she was offered a small sampling of mushroom soup. She claimed that it was nice and bugged me to make it for her after the promoter handed me the recipe. I admit that it sounded odd initially to add Philly spreadable to soup since I really only use it on toast and sliced bread. I wasn’t so sure about the taste just looking at the recipe. But she was right, the soup did turn out pretty good. In fact better than the version I tried years ago which was diluted and lacking in flavor despite using proper cooking cream.

Feedback I got from the first attempt were a little varied. The adults agreed that it can be a little more creamier, though the consistency is still acceptable as it is. Elaina thought that the consistency is good for her, pretty good for a first try but prefers the promoter’s cooking. What a politically correct answer! I suspect it was because the mushrooms were diced a little too small to her liking whereas the promoter simply sliced it as indicated on the original recipe, and I switched out the brown capped mushrooms to Portobello for a better flavor (or so I think). So much for wanting to achieve the wild mushroom soup texture as opposed to that of an instant soup. For the next try I will need to experiment a little by reducing the stock from 3 cups to 2 or 2½ for a slightly thicker consistency (since it really is a bit too much anyway if soup is served as an entrée) and leave mushroom a little more chunky. Oh yes… and not forgetting that we need croutons next time to bring the soup to another whole new level!

 

Ingredients:

• 500 gm Portobello mushrooms (can be mixed with Swiss Brown mushroom or other varieties) 
• 1 onion
• 3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
• ½ teaspoon of grounded nutmeg
• 1½ tablespoon of plain flour
• 1 tub of 250g Philadelphia Cream Cheese Spreadable (soften)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil (or butter)

Preparation:

• Dice up onion and mushrooms using a knife (or alternatively with a food processor or food chopper to speed up the work). 
• Heat up oil in a pot and add in onion. Cook till the onion turns translucent.
• Throw in mushrooms and allow to cook for 10 minutes or when juices start to run.
• Add in plain flour and mix well.
• Pour in stock and nutmeg, bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and leave it to simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add in cream cheese (by the spoons rather in one big blob for easy stir through) and stir well making sure that the cream cheese dissolves completely.
• Serve with bread or croutons if desired.

Number of Servings: 4

Braised Ee-Fu Noodles (干烧伊府面)

Posted by Vivian in Chinese, Mushroom, Noodles

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I need to declare that there is a shortage for chives in the market right now because it took me 2 trips to 2 supermarkets before I laid my hands on a bunch... and it was the last packet left on the shelf.  Tough luck to the person who came after me... whoever he or she is.  I can't believe that this is happening to me even after lowering my expectations and willing to settle for chives instead of yellow chives (which is really what this recipe calls for).

Despite replacing the yellow chives with chives, the taste is still close enough and I really couldn't tell the difference.  At least to me... I didn't think it was a great deal even though I had deviated from the original recipe.


Ingredients:

• 3 pieces of Ee-Fu noodles
• 100 gm bean sprouts (head and tail removed)
• 2 packets of enoki mushrooms (pulled and separated apart)
• 8 pieces of fresh shitake mushrooms (stalk removed and sliced thinly)
• 5 stalks of yellow chives (julienned diagonally across about 1 inch long)
• 3 to 4 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 4 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon of Shaoxing Wine
•  2 cups of chicken broth
• Dark soy sauce

Preparation:

• Combine oyster sauce, sugar, Shaoxing wine and chicken broth to make braising sauce.
• Heat wok with 3 tablespoons of oil and 1/2 tablespoon of sesame seed oil.
• Add garlic to wok and fry briefly.
• Add in bean sprouts, chives and mushrooms and fry for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Pour in braising sauce and let simmer for another 1 to 2 minutes.
• Add Ee-Fu noodles into mixture.  The noodles will start to soften due to soaking in the braising sauce.
• Slowly drizzle some dark soy sauce (about 2 to 3 tablespoons) over the noodles and stir to combine well.
• Continue to stir occasionally to ensure that noodles are evenly coated with braising sauce.  Once done, there will not be much sauce left.
• Top with more chives as garnish before serving.

Number of Servings: 4

"Braised Ee-Fu noodles is a typical noodle dish served towards the end of a Chinese wedding banquet."

Japanese-Style Mushroom Rice (Kinoko Takikomi Gohan)

Posted by Vivian in Japanese, Mushroom, Rice

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I was very excited when I first chanced upon www.justhungry.com. It was the answer to my thirst for Japanese recipes. The author of the site is a Japanese and I believe that the recipes are very authentic.

Here's a recipe picked up from justhungry.com. I had reduced the proportion of dashi to rice, as opposed to what was stated in the original recipe because the rice was way too mushy.

Ingredients:

• 320ml of Japanese rice 
• 200ml dashi stock 
• 300gm of mixed mushrooms (shiitake, oyster mushroom or Shimeji) 
• 2 tablespoon of mirin 
• 2 tablespoon of light soya sauce 
• 1 fried bean curd (aburaage) (optional) 

Preparation:

• Wash the rice until water runs clear and drain 
• Slice the mushrooms or shred with hands 
• Cut aburaage into small pieces 
• Marinate mushrooms and aburaage with light soya sauce and mirin for at least an hour 
• Put rice in a rice cooker, add dashi and mushroom mixture 
• Cook the rice as per normal 

Number of Servings: 4

Chicken can be added as a variation to this recipe

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Mushroom, Pasta

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This is one of the dishes that I attempted when I first started trying my hands on cooking. The recipe came from Wokking Mum (http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com/) and I have to admit that it is indeed idiot-proof - minimal skills required and the dish will never taste horrible. Most importantly everyone in the family loves it.

I can’t quite remember how many times I have cooked this but it will always show up in the menu if I am feeling lazy, tired and or when I don’t have much time to waste in the kitchen for whatever reason. The unfortunate part is that this dish must be consumed within the same day and do not keep well… or else the cream sauce will turn into a pool of oil slick whether you warm it up using the microwave oven or over the stove.

To make the meal a little more "rounded", I will usually add in some shredded ham. Loads of freshly grounded black pepper gives this pasta dish that added kick!


Ingredients:

• 2 palm-sized portobello mushroom, diced 
• 8 brown cap button mushroom, sliced 
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic 
• 200ml whipping cream 
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese 
• 1 tablespoon butter or olive Oil 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• Pasta for two, pre-cooked 

Preparation:

• Heat wok and add olive oil or butter. 
• Add garlic and saute . 
• Add portobello mushroom and saute till well-cooked. 
• Add button mushroom and saute well. 
• Add in the cream and bring to a simmer. 
• Add half of the Parmesan cheese, cooked pasta, salt and pepper to taste. 
• Simmer till sauce thickens. 
• Dish and top with remaining Parmesan cheese. 

Number of Servings: 2