Scrumptious Seafood Soup

My own creation. Sorta. In Malaysia, there's this soup called Sea cucumber soup, which is expensive and not home-made usually. I love sea cucumber soup so super much and everytime I eat it at the restaurant, I would be paying attention to what ingredients the chefs used. I would try to cook the soup at home, substituting sea cucumber for other seafood, such as crab meat and shrimp. I love it so much I can eat it everyday! Now, let's see you have a try.

Ingredients:

-- 2 sticks of artificial crab meat (usually in a packet, it comes in 8 sticks), chopped finely.

--6 to 8 large shrimps, deveined and peeled, cut into small pieces.

--2-3 shiitake mushroom, soaked in a bowl of water til softened. Then, cut them into small pieces.

--About a cup of ground pork.

--2 cloves of garlic, diced.

--4 cups of water or more depending on how much soup you want to cook

--1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

--1 teaspoon of salt, or more, to taste.

--Some black pepper (optional)

--1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoon of water, mixed.

--1 egg, beaten.

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil on medium-high fire in a non-stick pot.

2. When the oil is warm (put your hand over the pot and if you can feel the heat, it's warm enough), stir in the garlic til they turn slightly brown.

3. Then, stir in the ground pork and stir-fry it til it's no longer pink.

4. Stir in the artificial crab meat, shrimp, and mushroom. Stir fry them for about 30 seconds.

5. Pour in the water and turn the heat up to high.

6. When the soup starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium and pour in the cornstarch mixture. Stir lightly and you will see that the soup has thickened.

7. Pour in the beaten egg and stir immediately and vigorously for a few seconds. Be careful not to spill or burn yourself.

8. Turn off the heat and season the soup with salt and pepper. If you use chicken granule, it's okay too.

Tips: 1. This soup needs your attention almost constantly. You have to be careful of the heat so as to not let the soup boil over. I had to remove my pot from the heat a few times because the soup was boiling over. to prevent that from happening, try cooking it at medium or medium-high fire and not let it boil too long after you pour in the cornstarch mixture.

Feedback and questions are always welcome. Happy Cooking!

Sharon ~

Mapo Tofu

So I tried to write about a dish on my iphone just the other day but for some reason iblogger quit on me and I didn't get to save what I was typing! Sorry for taking so long to blog about the things I cooked recently but I had been quite busy with school and had not been very diligent in cooking. Anyways, I have a few more posts coming up soon.

A couple of years ago I tried cooking a Sze Chuan (a province in China) dish called Mapo Tofu. I failed horribly. The tofu and ground pork turned out tasting pretty nasty for whatever reason I can't recall now. I ended up throwing the whole dish away because just the smell of it was enough to cause nausea. I never tried cooking it ever since, that is, until a few weeks ago I came across the Mapo tofu paste in a chinese shop in Provo, Utah. I decided since my cooking skill has improved since the failed attempt two years ago, I should redeem myself this time.

A couple of days ago, I finally took out the paste sitting in my pantry and used it. I was pretty nervous about it but it turned out to be DELICIOUS! My jaw dropped when I tried a tiny piece of tofu. It was a miracle!! My husband and mother-in-law loved it too.

On the side note, Mapo tofu is a great way to take away the blandness of the tofu. It's so worth the try.

Ingredients:

--A packet of Mapo tofu paste (there are many kinds. It doesn't matter which kind you use).

--A packet of extra firm tofu, drained and cut into 1 inch cubes.

--4 oz or a cup (if you must know the exact measurement, check the converter on the side) of ground pork.

--Some spring onion, chopped.

--A teaspoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoon of warm water. (If the paste that you buy has already included a small bag of potato starch, then skip this).

--2 teaspoon of vegetable oil/ cooking oil

Instructions:

1. Heat the non-stick pan with the oil on medium-high fire.

2. Stir fry the ground pork til it starts to turn from red to brown.

3. Stir in the tofu and the packet of Mapo Tofu paste.

4. Stir fry for about 3 minutes.

5. Pour in the cornstarch (or potato starch) and stir the mixture.

6. Throw in the spring onion and stir fry for about 30 seconds.

7. When the paste is boiling, remove from heat.

Happy Cooking!! This is a must try!