Lotus Root Soup with Red Dates & Peanuts

It’s amazing what people can find to make delicious food. Who would have thought that the root or rhizomes of the lotus plant which is submerged in muddy-like waters in ponds or lakes can be very delicious indeed? Some have used it in stir-fries with sweet peas and baby corns. Some cook soup with it.

One popular chinese-style soup is the Lotus Root Soup with Red Dates and Peanuts. You can even add dried cuttlefish for added flavour. After hours of simmering, it tastes robust and is apparently good for your body. It tastes even better if it is cooked using charcoal fire.

This is my recipe for Lotus Root Soup with Red Dates and Peanuts.

Ingredients

• 300 grammes of lotus root (wash thoroughly, gently scrape the skin and slice not more than 5 mm thick. Discard the points between the sections)
• 300 grammes of pork ribs (ask butcher for ribs suitable for stewing soup)
• 10 - 15 Red Dates
• 100 grammes peanuts (uncooked)
• 4 pieces dried cuttlefish (optional. Cut into halves)
• 2 1/2 soup bowls of water

Seasoning

• Salt to taste

Method

Boil water in pot. Upon boiling, add pork ribs. Remove layer of scum on surface of boiling water.

After about 2 minutes of rapid boiling and having removed scum, add the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil again for 2 minutes.

Cover lid, reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 hours. Add salt to taste before serving.

There are many variants of fried rice. In fact, it is only limited by the chef’s imagination. One of the most popular is Egg Fried Rice, a recipe which I previously shared in this site. Another way of frying rice is to add meat to it and this gives the fried rice a good dose of flavour.

Sometimes, I will buy char siew (barbecued pork) from the market and use it as an ingredient in my fried rice. Most of the “tai chaus” (restaurants) also fry their rice this way though I must qualify myself and say that my recipe is more home-style and perhaps, different in some ways. Whilst the list of ingredients may seem long, it is actually not too complicated a recipe if you actually put your hand to it and try it for yourself.

This is my recipe for Char Siew Fried Rice.

Ingredients

• 3 bowls of cooked rice (preferably overnight cooked rice) [bowl denoting rice bowl]
• 1/2 bowl of french beans (cut into tiny cubes)
• 1/2 bowl of carrots (cut into tiny cubes)
• 3/4 bowl of char siew (cut into tiny cubes)
• 5 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 3 bulbs garlic (chopped)
• 3 eggs
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• 3 teaspoons of salt
• White pepper powder to taste
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 pinch of msg (optional)

Method

Heat oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots and set aside.

With remaining oil in wok and at high heat, add garlic, french beans and carrots and stir fry for 1 minute. Add salt and pepper.

Make a “well” in the wok by pushing the french beans and carrots aside. Break eggs into the “well” and fry it till cooked. Mix with french beans and carrots followed by char siew. Fry and mix well for another 1 minute.

Add rice and stir fry the rice for 2 to 3 minutes whilst adding oyster sauce and light soya sauce. If wish to, add a pinch of msg. (The amount of salt, oyster sauce and light soya sauce can be adjusted to your prefered taste)

Serve hot and sprinkle fried shallots over the fried rice before serving.

I like beancurd (aka. Tofu). It is so versatile and many recipes can be created out of it. You can fry it, steam it, boil it, mash it with ingredients etc. And the best thing is, it is relatively cheap and highly nutritious.

There are many types of tofu. Some are hard in texture and some soft. Just click on the Tofu link on the right hand side of this site for other tofu recipes. In this recipe, however, I use the soft type of tofu which is measures approximately 6cm x 6cm x 2cm (W x D x H) and more ingredients are used.

This is my recipe for Beancurd with Minced Pork. Though it suggests minced pork, I have added other ingredients to give it some colour. Feel free to experiment!

Ingredients

• 3 pieces soft beancurd. Alternatively, you can use Japanese Beancurd.
• 100 grammes minced pork (season with 1 tsp soya sauce and a dash of white pepper)
• Carrot (cut to strips. Amount up to your liking)
• Chinese dried mushroom (pre-soaked and cut to strips) or other button mushrooms. In fact, any type of mushroom will do or you can omit it altogether.
• Spring onions (cut to 2 inch lengths)
• 2 bulbs garlic (chopped)
• 2 bulbs shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup corn starch (add 1/2 cup water to 3 teaspoons of corn flour)

Seasoning

• 1 - 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• White pepper powder (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon chinese cooking wine

Method

Fry shallots in cooking oil till brown. Remove shallots. Heat up the remaining oil and fry the garlic till beginning to brown. Add minced meat and stir fry for about 30 seconds.

Add carrots and mushrooms and continue stir frying for a minute. Add seasoning (minus the chinese cooking wine). Add water till it completely covers the ingredients and let it boil.

Once the water boils, place beancurd gently on top of the sauce / meat and cover the lid (in a way, you are steaming the beancurd whilst cooking the rest of the ingredients / gravy) for 2 to 3 minutes. Ensure that the gravy does not dry out.

Open lid, remove beancurd gently and place on a plate. Add chinese cooking wine to the meat sauce and stir to mix well. Add corn flour to the meat sauce to to thicken sauce to your liking. Add spring onions, give it a good stir and pour the meat sauce over the beancurd. Sprinkle fried shallots over the dish.

Serve hot with rice.

Lately, there has been a number of recipes on pork ribs on this site. Pork ribs can be cooked in many different ways and mum cooks pork ribs by steaming it in taucheo sauce once a while.

The trick to this dish is to include salted plums as this actually give the pork ribs a good “zing” to taste as well as tenderises the meat. Some add this salted plums to steamed fish ala Teochew style.

This is the recipe:-

Ingredients

• 300 grammes of pork ribs
• 2 tablespoons of taucheo (fermented soya beans sold in bottles)
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 salted plums (sold in bottles. Remove excess water)
• 4 bulbs garlic (chopped or minced)
• 1 teaspoon cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Method

To prepare marinade, heat oil in pan / wok and stir fry garlic with taucheo for 1 1/2 minutes on medium heat. Add sugar. Remove and let cool.

Add the salted plums to the marinade and marinate the pork ribs evenly for at least 30 minutes.

Steam the pork ribs for at least 30 minutes and serve.

Super simple, isn’t it?