Salmon Miso Hotpot 石狩鍋

Ingredients:

Soup Base:
Konby Kelp 昆布 x 2 pc
dried bonito flakes - around 25g
4 cups water

Hotpot:
Raw Salmon x 2-3pc - washed and dried and cut into pieces
Japanese Turnip - your desired portion and cut into chewable size
Carrots - your desired portion and cut into chewable size
Cabbage - your desired portion and cut into stripes
japanese tofu - cut into pieces
田舍 miso paste - approx 6 tbsp
白 miso paste - approx 3 tbsp
soya sauce - approx 2 tbsp
mirin - approx 2 tbsp
cooking sake - approx 2 tbsp


How to Make:

Soup Base:
1. Wipe Konebu Kelp with a clean cloth.

2. Pour 4 cups of water to a clay pot and add the kelp. Let stand for 20min.

3. Heat the claypot with water and kelp over medium heat. Once small bubbles appear near pot bottom, remove kelp immediately,

4. When liquid begins to boil, add all dried bonito flakes all at once. Turn down heat a little and simmer the liquid for a few minutes.

5. Turn off heat. Wait until all bonito flakes sink to pot bottom. Remove the bonito flakes from the soup.

Miso Hotpot with Salmon:
1. Add cut turnips and carrots to soup base and cook for around 15 min until softer.

2. Add soya sauce, mirin, sake and the 2 miso paste to the soup and stir to ensure all melted and mixed thoroughly in the soup. Taste and adjust which ingredients you need more.

3. Once soup is boiled, add cabbage, tofu, then the salmon pieces on top and cook for around 2 mintues in a medium heat.

4. Best served by presenting the clay pot on a bed/tray of candles to keep warm, but not to further boil the miso soup.

-> u can keep adding salmon, tofu and cabbage once the claypot is served!

Enjoy this hearty and healthy dish in this winter season~~

Water Chestnut Cake

Ingredients:

Water Chestnuts x 10 to 15 big pc

Water chestnut powder 250g 

Rock Sugar (1/2 a box or approx 300g)

How to make:
1. Brush a round tin with some corn oil. Leave aside.

2. Mix the 250 g water chestnut powder with 750ml water using the fingers. Ensure no lumps.

3. Clean and peel the water chestnuts and using the back of a chinese knife, break the water chestnuts into small pieces. Never "cut" them with the knife.

4. Boil 750ml water with almost 1/2 of a box of the Taikoo Rock Sugar until sugar all dissolved. To speed up the process, you can break the rock sugar into smaller pc by covering them in a cloth and use a hammer to break them on the kitchen floor!

5. Once boiled, taste if it's sweet enough. Remember that you will have to add starch solution into this sugar water afterwards. So it should be sufficiently sweet enough.

6. Then add the water chestnut pieces and cook until it change from white to beige color (only a few mins).

7. Add the starch solution to the pot and quickly mix well and stir all ingredients together in 1 direction, until all mix well.

8. Pour the mixture to the greased tin. Using a disposable glove, use your palms to press down the mixture and even the top. But don't press too hard though.

9. Cover tin with microwave cling wrap and steam for 30 min.

10. Cool down and cover with plastic and store in fridge.

* when you cut them into pieces for pan fry, pls remember to coat them with corn starch in a thin layer and shake off excess starch before frying.

Enjoy~

Turnip Cake 羅白糕

Ingredients:

Grated turnip (after draining the water from turnip) - approx 1300g (will most likely take 1 to 2 big turnips)
Thick sliced turnip - around 400-500g

李祥和 powder - 300 g (half a bag)

2 pc of canada sausage **

5 pc of dried scallops **

ginger and garlic

chicken powder **

fresh sesame

a round tin, brush with "ginger garlic" oil. See below

Big steamer (if possible)

** For Vegetarian version, just skip these ingredients.

How to make:
1. On the night before you cook this turnip cake, wash 5 pc of dried scallops and soak them in 2 cups of water overnight.

2. On the day you cook this turnip cake, drain the dried scallops and keep the water for later use. Steam the dried scallops for approx 60 min (or till soft). Then tear them into thread like pieces, discarding the hard bits. Keep aside.

4. Peel turnip skin, then grate the turnip until it reaches 1300g discarding the turnip water. Then cut some thick turnip slices around 400-500g. Then blanch in boiling water for around 10 minutes to make these thick slices softer first.

5. Prepare a 8-10 pc of ginger and a bunch of pressed garlic.

6. Steam the chinese sausage for 30 min, then cut into into small pieces but not too minced.

7. Mix the powder with 300ml water and use your fingers to mix them, making sure no lumps inside. Keep aside this starch solution.

8. When you are ready to cook, drain water from turnip slices. Check if there are 2 to 2.5 cups of water from the soaked scallops and if not, add the turnip water to make them to 2 to 2.5 cups together.

9. Heat up a big wok and add oil, then add ginger and garlic, till they are golden in color. Remove the ginger and garlic. Pour away most of this ginger garlic oil to a bowl and save just a little on the ok.

10. Add chinese sausage to the wok and stirred fried a bit, then remove to a bowl.

11. Add back a little bit of the ginger garlic oil to the wok, then add the dried scallops, stir fried a bit, then removed the dried scallops to a bowl.

12. Add some more ginger garlic oil to the wok and add the turnip thick slices, then the shredded slices (some at a time until) and stir fried until all is soft and evenly soaked with the oil, then add back all the chinese sausages and dried scallops and mix well.

13. Then add the 2 to 2.5 cups of the scallops/turnip water and mix well with all ingredients, then add 3 tsp of chicken powder and check taste. Cover the pan and let it boil for 2-3 minutes. Once boiled, remove cover, then add the powder solution and mix quickly with the turnip mixture in a one-direction quick movement, until all are mixed well. At first, you still need the big fire, after stirring a bit, you can reduce fire to medium. Ensure the whole mixture is evenly cooked and mixed well.

14. Pour the mixture to a round tin, then wear a disposable glove and use your palm to mix them well into the tin so that the top is flat and nice. But don't press too hard.

15. Cover the tin with microwave cling wrap and steam for 45 min (preferably in a big steamer as they are better to avoid the water condensation which will make the turnip cake too moist).

16. Once turnip cake is steamed, take out and cooled down. In the meantime, toast the fresh sesame seeds in a pan until golden, then sprinkle on top of turnip cake, wrap with plastic and store in fridge.

Best served with XO sauce and soy sauce with cooked oil!

* reason why ginger garlic oil is used to stir fried to grated turnip is to reduce the "coolness" of the turnip. But by so doing, it will reduce the fragrance or taste of the turnip itself as ginger/garlic taste is much stronger. If if you prefer stronger taste of turnip, you can opt out the garlic/ginger oil and just use normal corn oil.

* when you cut the turnip cake into small pieces for pan fry, pls remember to coat them with corn starch in a thin layer and shake off excess starch before frying.

Enjoy~

XO Sauce

Ingredients:

Dried Scallops x 1 catty (see preparation below)

Garlic x 1 catty - minced

Shallots x 1 catty - minced

Chinese Ham x 1 catty - minced (see preparation below)

Chilli x 400g approx.
3 bottles of corn oil (approx 900ml x 3)

Preparation of the Dried Scallops:
1. The night before you plan to make XO sauce, wash the dried scallops a few times, drain the water and then soak in a big bowl of filtered water and cover the bowl.

2. On the day you are cooking the XO sauce, drain the water from the scallops and put all scallops in a big plate and steam with some ginger sauce and chinese wine for 2 hours. 

3. After steaming, tear all the dried scallops into thread-like pieces, and discarding any hard parts. (this step takes at least 30 to 45 min. So better ask someone to help in this process to save time and back bone pain!)

* the water you drain from scallops can be used to make turnip cake, fried vegetables, etc. So, dont throw it away.
* the ginger sauce and chinese wine can eliminate some "seafood" smell of the dried scallop.

Preparation of the Chinese Ham:
1. On the day you make the XO sauce or the night before, wash the chinese ham, then boil in hot water with some puer tea leaves for 10 min. Then drain the water.

2. Cut the ham into smaller pieces, then minced in a food processor.

3. Put the minced ham into a bowl.

How to make the XO Sauce:
1. Peel all garlic and minced them in a food processor, then place them in  a bowl.

2. Peel all shallots and minced them in a food processor, then place them in a bowl (discard all juice from the food processor).

3. For the chilli, wash and pat dry and minced them. As the chilli is hot,remember not to use your finger to rub your eyes or face afterwards (even if you have washed your hands afterwards!). Better to wear gloves during cutting! Depending on how spicy you would like the XO sauce to be, for mild spiciness, I suggest mincing 2/3 of the chilli without seeds and 1/2 with seeds. 

4. Heat up a big wok. Add oil, then stir fried all the minced shallots using high heat. When the shallots are pretty fragrant, then add the minced garlic. Mix and stir-fried them until all soft and fragrant using high to medium heat. Please add enough oil from time to time to keep the garlic and shallots moist.

5. Then add the minced ham and mix them well with the minced garlic and shallots, then add the dried scallops using high to medium heat. Remember to top up with oil from time to time.

6. At first the scallops' color in the wok is beige-like, you need to keep mixing and stir-frying at medium to medium high heat with the rest of the ingredients until deeper in color. The total stir-fried time for the whole thing is approx 60-90 min! Ensure the fire is not too big to prevent the scallops becoming overcooked and dried but at the same time ensure the heat is not too low or else the flavour will not come out...

7. When the dried scallops and the rest of the ingredients are pretty well mixed and color getting nice, then add the minced chilli (those without seeds) and continue stir-fry for 5-10 min. The longer the time you cook the chilli, the hotter the sauce will become. So beware! So check taste and adjust cooking time depending on how spicy you prefer. Usually if just chilli without seeds, cooking them for 5-10 minutes will give a mild spiciness already. You can scoop up some of these mild spicy XO to certain jars first. Then you can add those minced chillis with seeds and cook for another 5-10 minutes. This is for sure hot and spicy!

8. Scoop them into various glass bottles (which has been disinfected in advance) and once cool down, then put them into fridge.

Enjoy~