Asian Moon Scallop, Chinese Yam and Corn Soup | 日月魚淮山煲粟米蘿蔔湯

Before my mom told me those dried Chinese yam slices she brought me from Hong Kong were unbleached, I didn't know that some were bleached.  I always thought their white colour was natural.  Actually, the unbleached yams are a little off-white colour and are almost light grey.

Today it was a rather warm day so I decided to make some soup that was light and sweet.  The corn was in season.  four ears of corn sold for only one dollar.  Although they were small, it was good enough just to make soup.  I throw in the half bag of carrots that were left from the last weeks grocery, and a handful of lotus seeds and goji berries I always have on hand.  But when it came to the Asian moon scallops and Chinese Yam, I counted them like counting pearls before I put them into the soup pot.  Those were from my Mom who brought them from Hong Kong on her last visit.  They were memories and they are also expensive, I didn't want to finish them all too quickly.

Particularly the Asian moon scallops.  Mom said the taste of them are strong and the use of one bunch is already sufficient.  More than one is called a waste.  But I don't use them often, so I told myself two bunches was fine.  Since I didn't put any pork bone into the soup, the two bunches of scallops just brought the right taste to the soup.

You can always serve the soup with the ingredients inside.  Nothing should go to waste.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

2 bundles Asian Moon Scallops, about 10 pcs

7 pcs Chinese Yam, dried

3 Corn

4 Carrots

15-20 Lotus Seeds, dried, core removed

2 tablespoons Goji Berries

8 cups Water

Salt to taste

材料：

2 束  日月魚，若10條

7 塊  乾淮山

3 條  粟米

4 條  蘿蔔

15-20 粒  乾蓮子，去芯

2 湯匙  杞子

8 杯  水

鹽  調味

DIRECTION 做法:

1. Rinse all the ingredients.

2. In a deep pot, add all the ingredients and 8 cups of water.  Bring it to a boil over high heat. Then, reduce the heat to medium-high and continue to boil for another 40 minutes.  During the cooking process, add 1-2 cups of water if needed.  Season the soup with salt to taste.

1. 材料沖淨，加入湯鍋。

2. 加入8 杯水。用大火煮滾後再調至中大火，繼續煲若40分鐘。中途如需要可加1-2 杯水。最後下鹽調味。

Basic Whole Wheat Waffle | 基本全麥窩夫做法

Having planned to buy a waffle machine for a while, I finally found one on sale on Amazon, although it wasn't the Belgian waffle style I originally looked for.  It was okay.  The waffles still made my husband and my son so happy.

The waffle batter is very similar to the pancake one, but the waffle batter doesn't have milk and is slightly thicker.  Since I don't need to stand at the stove and wait to flip them, I would say making waffles are much less work than making pancakes.

It was a very nice day with blue sky and breezes.  We'd planned to go on a hike on the bruce trail near Milton.  But my son was throwing a big fit for a long time just because he did not want to brush his teeth.  After things settled, it was already too late to go.  He was so upset.

Luckily the next day also had fine weather, so we decided to go to the park nearby to fly a kite.  My son was beyond excited (because before I told him the consequence for his fit yesterday was staying home).  He didn't expect he could fly a kite.  But he apologized and behaved very well afterward.  He got changed at his highest speed and grabbed bubbles and a football to go with him.

I never knew that my husband was really good at flying a kite.  It seems that when he threw the kite, it automatically climbed up to the sky.  My son laughed loudly in excitement.  He kept running left to right along the wind as my husband told, and let the string go loose.  The kite became a small dot in the blue sky.  I was watching them while resting on a bench.  It was nice to just sit and enjoy the sun. It was all I needed after the whole week of hard work.

Yesterday I spent lots of time finally cleaning up our garden. I planted radishes, carrots, and potatoes and my husband helped me set up the nice flower planter.  My son picked this yellow cactus to add to our garden; he said yellow is his favourite colour and cactus is one of his favourite plant.  My son always has so many favourites of something.  But the cactus indeed looked special so I also got a pink one for my mother in-law as a belated Mother's Day gift.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy this little story and the waffle recipe.

INGREDIENTS：

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

pinch of Sea Salt

2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract

2 Eggs

1/3 cup Butter, melted

DIRECTION:

1. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, beat together the rest of the ingredients.  Then, add in the flour mixture; mix well until it becomes smooth batter.

3. Preheat the waffle machine and set it to medium-high heat.  Add two spoonfuls of batter and cook until it is well set and slightly crispy.  Serve it with maple syrup.

Cold Mushroom Cream Cheese Dip ｜蘑菇忌廉芝士沾醬

This long weekend my son was at my in-law's, so my husband and I got some of our own time together.  Since it was a rainy day, we decided to go to St. Lawrence Market to look for some fresh local vegetables and to stay dry.

Honestly, my husband is not the guy who enjoys looking at vegetables, so he suggested to find something to eat right after we entered the market.  It was bustling and filled with people's chatters and laughs, just like any Sunday markets.  My heart lifted, I felt alive.

There were a few seafood shops right beside the entrances, but one of the shops in particular offered dine-in service.  It brought out our excitement.  We have oysters once in a while, but we usually brought them home and shucked them ourselves, because that way was cheaper and more comfortable anyways.  It'd been a long time since we sat at the restaurant and enjoyed well prepared oysters that I didn't need to scrub and shuck.  We like creamy oysters so we ordered European flats and Blue point oysters, plus some seasonal clams.  Our mouths started to water.

Other than the variety of fresh seafood, they also had a pretty complete section of condiments for oysters and clams - rose vinaigrette, mignonette, cocktail sauce, Japanese soy sauce, and lemon wadges.  My husband and I tried each on the clams and we both agreed that the best condiment is just a few drop of fresh lemon juice.  They were good, but not as fresh as we expected.  And they were quite sandy around the edges.  Apparently the staff didn't scrub the clams and oysters well before shucking them.  We were a bit disappointed.  

After we finished the whole tray of seafood, we actually felt like more oysters.  The good quality oysters.  So we decided to drive to Diana's Seafood across town where we could always buy the best oysters.  I was hoping to get a case of sixty, but my husband insisted on just buying the fifteen for the two of us because we would have no way to finish them.  But I recalled last time when we bought the oysters, I ate nearly thirty just by myself.  I am not kidding.  I am truly an oyster craver and I have a very strong stomach for that.  We ended up settling on thirty of the European flats.  I carefully scrubbed them under running water with a toothbrush as always.  They tasted much creamier and fresher than the ones we had this morning, and they were sand free!

I learned how to shuck oysters long ago when I was working at a fine dining restaurant.  I used to be able to do it so fast, but now my skill was rusty.  And, I started to enjoy just sitting and eatting the shucked oysters rather than serving them.  I showed my husband how to do it.  He succeeded in one take, which took me nearly ten attempts back then.  He showed me a winner's smile and took the shucking knife from my hand.  I was delighted.  I immediately pulled the bowl of lemon wedges closer to myself and got ready to be served.  My husband patiently took on the role until all the oysters were down into our tummies.  For a man who rarely set foot in the kitchen, he was very sweet.

I also prepared this mushroom dip for our Entree.  You can use white mushrooms instead of the brown ones, but I like the contrasting colours on the dip.  Wrap it tightly, and it can keep well for at least 4 days.

INGREDIENTS:

7-9 Brown Button Mushrooms, rinsed

1 pack Cream Cheese, 250 gram

1/3 cup Coriander, leaves only, roughly chopped, squeeze out all the juice

1/2 Lemon of Juice

1/3 teaspoon Sea Salt

材料：

7-9 顆  蘑菇

1 盒  忌廉芝士，250克

1/3 杯  莞茜，葉部份，切碎，搾乾多餘水份

1/2 個 檸檬

1/3 茶匙  海鹽

DIRECTION 做法:

1. Roughly chop the mushrooms and place them in a bowl.  Add sea salt and lemon juice and mix well; leave them for about 10 minutes.  Squeeze out all the excess juice.

1. 蘑菇切碎，加入大碗內。下海鹽和搾入檸檬汁；拌勻。靜置10分鐘；搾乾水份。

2. In a clean bowl, combine the chopped mushroom, chopped coriander, and cream cheese.  With a spatula, mix everything until well combined.

2. 下莞茜和忌廉芝士；用力拌勻便成。

3. Serve it with tortilla chips or crackers.  This mushroom dip can be kept in the fridge up to four days.

3. 配以墨西哥玉米片或梳打餅食用。封好，可處存在雪櫃內若4天。

Garlicky Tomato Spinach Salad ｜蒜辣車厘茄菠菜沙律

The farmers market near my work has finally opened.  During the morning walk today with the children, we took the opportunity to visit the local farmers and showed the children those beautiful seasonal vegetables.  They were so excited when they saw the yummy fruits and tomatoes they always like.  I bought a small box of mixed cherry tomatoes to make salad for the dinner.  My husband loves to see those colourful vegetables.  To add some kick to the ordinary green salad, I added some minced garlic.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of Cherry tomatoes, halved

3 cups Baby spinach

2 sprigs of Basils, leaves only, thinly sliced

5-7 Garlic Cloves, minced

3 tablespoons Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

材料：

1 杯  車厘茄，切半

3 杯  菠菜

2 枝  九層塔，菜部份

5-7 顆  蒜頭，切幼粒

3 湯匙  橄欖油

2 湯匙  意大利黑醋

DIRECTION 做法:

1. In a large bowl, add all the ingredients.  Gently toss them with hands until they are evenly mixed.  Serve immediately.

1. 在一只大碗內，加入所有材料。用手小心地拌勻；上桌。

Basic Cornbread | 玉米麵包

Cornmeal is made of a type of corn called dent corn. Unlike the sweet corn we usually use for salad or barbecue, dent corn has little sweetness and contains higher starch. After drying and various grinding processes, dent corn becomes cornmeal that is fine to coarse in consistency, depending on the range of grinding. Cornmeal is widely used for making cornbread, polenta, or tortilla, and it comes in yellow or white colours.

Actually, cornbread originated with Native Americans. Before the European settlers set foot on America, the Natives had already had a long history of using the dried cornmeal to make cornbread as their staple.  But the original recipe is very basic, combining just cornmeal and water, or sometimes lard.  So the taste was rather bland. Later the Europeans adopted the recipe and added milk and butter to make it more flavourful.

We should really thank the Native Americans.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup Butter

1 cup Milk

2 Eggs, large

1.25 cups Yellow Cornmeal

1 cup All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tablespoons Baking Powder

pinch of Sea Salt

做法：

1/4 杯  牛油

1 杯  牛奶

2 隻  雞蛋，大

1.25 杯  黃玉米粉

1 杯  多用途麵粉

1/2 杯  糖

2 湯匙  泡打粉

小撮  海鹽

DIRECTION:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Melt butter in microwave; let it cool.

2. In a large bowl, whisk two eggs.  Add melted butter and milk; whisk again until it is combined.

3.  Add all the remaining ingredients.  Gently mix until it is incorporated.

4. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.  Pour the mixture into the tray and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.

5. Bake it for about 15-20 minutes, or until the corn bread rises up and is firm.  Let it cool completely on a rack before slicing them.

做法：

1. 預熱焗爐至350F 。 用微波爐熱溶牛油；放涼。

2. 在大碗內打勻兩隻雞蛋。下牛油和牛奶；攪打至均勻。

3. 加入剩餘材料；拌勻成麵糊。

4. 焗盤上舖上焗紙，倒入麵糊，用匙背舖平。

5. 焗15-20分鐘。取出，置架放涼。

Drunken Chicken Wing with Sour Plum | 話梅花雕雞翼

The first type of drunken chicken I ate was chicken feet.  My mom soaked the feet in Xhaoxing wine for two whole days before serving them to us.  We would eat them like drum sticks style.  The cold meat and the jelly like Xhaoxing wine jelly helped cool our body and beat the summer heat.

Making drunken chicken needs only a fair quality of Xhaoxing cooking wine.  The goji and sour plum is also just a surplus; you can totally skip them if they are not on hand.  I hope you will enjoy this summer treat.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lbs Chicken Wings, rinsed

2 cups Xhaoxing Cooking Wine

1/2 cup Water

1 tablespoon Goji or Wolfberries

5-7 pcs Sour Plums

2 teaspoons Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

材料：

1 磅  雞翼，沖淨

2 杯  紹興酒

1/2 杯 水

1 湯匙  杞子

5-7 粒  話梅

2 茶匙  糖

1/2 茶匙  鹽

METHODS 做法:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Add chicken wings; cook for about 15 minutes or until they are cooked through.  Drain and rinse them under running cold water to stop the cooking process. Set them aside.

2. In the same pot, add Xhaoing wine, 1/2 cup water, goji, sour plum, sugar, and salt.  Bring it to a boil and then continue to boil for another 5 minutes until the strong taste of the alcohol has evaporated.  Turn off the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature.  Pour the wine mixture over the chicken wings and make sure the wings are totally submerged.

3. Place them in the fridge to chill overnight before serving.

1. 燒熱一鍋水。下雞翼，煮若15分鐘或至其熟透。把水倒掉；雞翼用水沖涼備用。

2. 在同一只鍋內，下紹興、1/2杯水、杞子、話梅、糖和鹽。用大火熱滾，再繼續煮5分鐘讓大部份的酒精輝發。關火，把其放涼至室溫，然後倒入雞翼。雞翼要完全蓋過。

3. 放入雪櫃冷藏一晚至入味才食用。

Buttery Rosemary Bannock | 迷迭香無酵母班諾克麵包

Bannock is the staple food for Aboriginal people in Canada.  It is a form of unleavened bread that has a firmer texture.  Traditionally, bannock is made of lard, wheat flour, and water, but I replaced the lard for butter in this recipe since butter is more obtainable and healthier.

In this recipe, I will show you how to cook bannock in a kitchen with a non-stick pan.  In fact, you can apply this exact recipe to outdoor cooking and cook the bannock on a rock over an open fire. 

My husband and I enjoy cooking bannock when we go hiking.  It is the food that can be easily prepared ahead of time and pull it out to cook at the site.  All you need is to place the dough onto a rock (I assume you will set up a fire).  After the long hike, a hot meal composed of some nicely roasted bannock and hot soup is just so satisfying.  One time, we even got lucky enough to find some juniper berries growing right beside the fire, and we added it into our bannock dough.  The taste was remarkable.

  I hope you will enjoy this recipe.

Buttery Rosemary Bannock

班諾克無酵母麵包 

INGREDIENTS:

Rosemary Infused Brown Butter (recipe on the bottom; it takes only 15 minutes to make)

Bread Flour

Water

Salt

材料：

迷迭香牛油 (食譜在最下面；約時15分鐘)

高筋麵粉

鹽

水

METHODS:

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients.  Mix it to combine and roll it into a dough.  The dough should be slightly sticky but can be handled without sticking to your hand.  Add more flour if needed.

2. Heat up a non-stick pan over medium heat.  At the same time, pull out a piece of dough and roll it into a flat circle shape.  Place the dough in the pan carefully.  Fry both sides of the dough until slightly brown; about 4-5 minutes each side.  Transfer to a serving plate.

做法：

1. 在一只大碗中加入所有材料，拌勻揉成麵糰。麵糰應稍黏黏，但不需要用手粉。如麵糰太濕，加少許麵粉調節。

2. 用中火預熱易潔鍋；同時間取一小入麵糰搓成圓餅狀。把其小心放到預熱了的平底鍋中，烤至兩邊微金黃；每邊若4-5分鐘。

Rosemary Brown Butter 迷迭香焦化牛油

Brown butter is actually an intensified aromatic butter after a browning process.  Through melting, the water in the butter evaporates out and leaves the butter fat and milk solids behind.  It has a sweet and complex mix of nutty flavour that can be used in cooking and baking.  

There are three types of brown butter: golden brown, brown-brown, and nearly black.  The longer the browning time, the deeper the flavour and the darker the colour the butter will become.

The rosemary brown butter in this recipe belongs to golden brown. Increase the cooking time if more intense flavour is desired.

焦化牛油其實是以溶化的過程提高天然奶香和焦香的牛油。熱力把牛油內的水入蒸發掉，剩下全脂肪和凝固成顆粒狀的奶脂。

焦化牛油有三種：微金黃、啡色，和深啡。牛油越煮得久，味道越濃和色澤越變深色。

這個迷迭香焦化牛油是微金黃色；如想更濃口味，可增加烹煮時間。

INGREDIENTS:

1 tube Butter, unsalted

2 sprigs Rosemary

材料：

1 條 牛油，無鹽

2 束  迷迭香

METHODS:

1. In a sauce pan, add the butter and rosemary.  Melt the butter over medium-low heat.  It is normal if there is lots of foam at the beginning.  Reduce the heat if the butter bubbles too much.

2. When the bubbles subside, the brown butter basically is ready.  Remove the rosemary.  Then, pay attention to the butter.  You can choose to continue the browning until the butter reaches the desired colour and flavour.

Note that it can happen very quick, especially from "brown-brown" to "nearly black" stage. When the butter nearly reaches to the desired colour, remove it quickly from the heat and transfer the butter to another container.  The remaining heat in the butter will continue the browning process while cooling.

做法：

1. 在一小鍋內放入牛油和迷迭香，以中小火熱溶牛油。白色泡沫會開始形成。若牛油過熱，把火調底。

2. 當泡沫消失，焦化牛油基本上已完成。拿掉迷迭香。若想牛油更濃味，繼續烹煮牛油。

3. 要注意把牛油由"啡色"煮至"深啡"的過程很易焦掉。當牛油快變成理想顏色，迅速離火倒入另一器皿內。牛油內的高溫會繼續烹煮過程。