EXTRA*** Fish Ball Seaweed Soup

Here is a quick and easy recipe to celebrate the cooler weather we are experiencing! I'll have another easy soup recipe for you later this week. Enjoy!
**For those who aren't familiar with 'fishballs'. They are made the same way you'd expect a meatball to be made but with fish meat instead. My American friends always give me a weird look when I bring up how tasty these things are. lol

Ingredients

• 11/2qt chicken stock 
• 12-16 pcs fish ball (cut into half or quarter) (any type of fish ball should be fine） 
• 1/2 patty of dry round seaweed(soak with water and drained) -dry seaweed usually comes 4 with patty per a beg-
• 4 slices ginger
• 1 green onion(chopped)
• 11/2 - 2 ts salt
• 1/2 ts chicken bouillon 
• 1 ts sesame oil

At your local (or not so local) Chinese Market.

Split the fishballs in half and portion out the amount you desire.

Dried seaweed flakes. They almost look like tea leaves. This will rehydrate in the soup giving it extra flavor.

Defrost these enough to cut. It's dangerous trying to cut a frozen meatball. You may be lucky enough to find these NOT frozen in the market but for the most part, they come that way (unless you make them yourself *wink).

Direction

 In a soup pot bring the stock ginger and a ts of sesame oil to boil in high heat, then add fish ball, let it boil for about 10 mins in medium/low heat.

Then add seaweed and let it boil couple mins.

Then add salt, chicken bouillon and green onion. Bring it back to a small boil to incorporate the seasoning and then cut the heat.

That's it! Easy and tasty!  (You can also cook some noodles in the meantime and make a noodle soup if you're feeling hungry).

More soup for you!
~Hoby

Boiled Chicken with Ginger and Scallion Oil 薑蔥白切雞-

This dish is super easy to make at home. There are two ways to make chicken with ginger and scallion oil- steamed or boiled. I prefer boiled, bcz its much easier and I can save the broth for noodle soup the next day or to make steamed rice. There's another dish call Hainan Chicken- it's served with seasoned steamed rice in which the rice is cooked with the chicken broth and spice. But we are doing just boiled chicken for today.

To make boiled or steamed chicken, I highly recommend cage free chicken (or in Chinese, we call it "Running-Chicken", which you can get it at any Asian market). *Frozen or fresh is fine. The meat texture of the cage free chicken is much better and also more pricier but regular whole young chicken also works fine. If you don't like whole chicken, chicken quarters or legs/thighs work just fine too.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 4-5lbs whole young chicken or 4 chicken qt(cleaned)
• 1 big pc ginger, about 8 slices (peeled and finely chopped)
• 2 green onion (finely chopped)
• 1 ts ginger powder
• 11/2 ts salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil(should be enough oil for the whole chicken)

Ginger powder can be found all over the place. It helps enhance the fresh ginger in the recipe. 

So no matter what kind you choose, the flavors will be very similar. 

Boiling the Chicken

In a big pot, bring it to boiling in high heat with half pot of water. Make sure it has enough water to cover the chicken. Place the whole chicken into the pot slowly (be careful, don't hurt you self from the hot water or the hot sides of the pot). The water should be boiling again within 5 mins.

Then add a tbs of salt into the pot (the salt helps the chicken meat from getting to mushy from the water which is also why I prefer cage free chicken- the meat is a little tougher and it's perfect for steaming or boiling!)

Now turn the heat to medium-low for 45mins to an hour. If you make this dish with chicken quarters, it only need to be boiled for 30-40mins. To check if the chicken is cooked or not, use a chopstick and poke it in tight towards the bone. If there's pink or red liquid running out, let it cook for another 2-5 mins.

Now, use a tong to take out the chicken and place on a large plate and let it cool/rest for at least 30 minutes. In the restaurant, I would brush the cooked chicken with sesame oil. This will give it a nice aroma, pretty texture, and overall will taste better. But this is home cooking, so we will skip this part unless you want to.

After the chicken has cooled off a bit, use a chopping knife to chop it into small pieces and set it aside.

Making Ginger and Scallion Oil

On a cutting board, finely chop the ginger and green onion, put it in a bowl, then add 1 ts ginger powder and 11/2 ts salt. Mix it evenly. Set it aside!

Mince these as finely as you can. A food processor also helps with this. The finer chopped it is, the easier it is for the flavor to be extracted.

Add the rest of the seasonings to the bowl and mix it very evenly.

It should look something like this (no visible seasonings and fully incorporated).

Mixing the Hot Oil

In small pot, bring 1/2 cup of vegetables oil to burning hot then slowly pull it over the chopped ginger and scallion. Remember to mix the oil evenly with the ginger and scallion! The hot oil will bring out all the delicious flavors and aroma from the ginger and scallions.

**DO NOT be tempted to heat up sesame oil in replacement for vegetable oil because it will burn! If you haven't experienced this yourself, sesame oil isn't very resilient to heat and will burn before you're able to do anything with it. This is why it's used as a 'finishing oil' at the end of a dish instead of being cooked with for the beginning.

BE CAREFUL! It's hot oil and hot oil burns hardly ever go away! Slowly add this to your ginger/scallion mixture and it should look something like this. You'll hear a nice sizzle when you add the hot oil, and you'll almost immediately smell how delicious it is too.

What I've also done before is to put the scallions and ginger into a food processor and blend until it is finely chopped. Then I would the hot oil to the food processor carefully and slowly. I'd blend it again and let it become almost like a sauce. The presentation of this is a bit different but the flavors are the same. Experiment with your creativity and presentations!

That's it, Boiled Chicken with Ginger and Scallion Oil -薑蔥白切雞. The ginger oil is more of a sauce on the side so people can add that to their dish to their own liking. Some like to dip their food in it and others like to pour it on top. ENJOY!


Coming up next!
"Pork Ribs Lotus Roots and Red Bean Soup"
-排骨蓮藕红豆湯-
1 John 1:9

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

約翰壹書1:9

"我們若承認自己的罪，　神是信實的、公義的，必定赦免我們的罪，潔淨我們脫離一切不義."

Shrimp Balls in Jade Sauce 玉汁蝦球

This is another signature dish of mine. I have never cooked/showed this recipe to anyone else except my wife. But today l would love to share this recipe with my families and friends. This dish is simple in idea. A lot of its flavors derive from our star ingredient- the shrimp. You'll soon understand what I'm talking about when it all starts to come together. I hope you'll enjoy making it!! :)

LET'S COOK!

Ingredients

• 1lb white shrimp(any size)(peeled ,cleaned , dried and mashed)
• 2 egg white
• 4-5 small pcs Smoked ham(finely chopped)
• 1 clove garlic(finely chopped)
• 1 small slice ginger(finely chopped)
• 1 green onion(white part only and finely chopped)
• 1/4 cup of frozen peas and carrot/ mixed blend vegetables
• 1 head of broccoli(small and cut up)

Chopped ham, scallions, ginger and garlic minced.

Mashing the Shrimp

If you have a food processor, take the shrimp and blend/mince them for few seconds. If you don't have one, we can mash the shrimp in a traditional way by chopping the shrimps with a chopping knife.

I'm used to using my knife for mincing shrimp. It get's easier to chop fine once they shrimp gets cut into smaller pieces. You'll want the shrimp to be chopped fine enough to mold (in a similar fashion to meat for meat balls).

Seasoning the Shrimp

• 1/2ts salt
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 ts sesame oil
• 2 1/2 ts cornstarch
• 1/2 chopped green onion(white part)

In a big bowl mix the shrimp evenly with all the seasonings till you don't see any egg white showing. Let it sit and rest for about 10 mins.

Add everything into the bowl with the minced shrimp.

Use a spoon (or your hands) to incorporate all the ingredients until it has a consistent look.

Making the Shrimp Ball

Use your hand/spoon/scoop to make shrimp into a ball shape (ping pong ball size) and place it on a plate. Set it aside

I use a spoon and roll each shrimp ball by hand. Every piece is given good attention and love (because love makes the food taste better lol).

Here are all the pieces in comparison. You can see how the shrimp balls are sized up with the rest.  

Steaming the Shrimp ball

Bring 1/4 pan/pot of water to boil, place in the shrimp ball on a metal steam stand and steam it for 7-10 mins. Plate out the shrimp and set it aside (save the shrimp juice).

Same steaming procedure like before. Refer back to my older posts for a more in depth instruction on the steaming process if you have questions.

Place the shrimp balls into the steamer and let them steam for 7-10 minutes.

All done! Set this aside for now. Don't pour out the steam water from the shrimp because we are going to use it for....

In the same pan/pot threw in the cut up broccoli, blanch it with a ts salt and a ts oil for couple mins. Drain it and plate it with shrimp ball in the middle. Set it aside.

...the broccoli! This time the water will be seasoned like we usually do and you're going to blanch the broccoli till it's nice and bright green. SAVE THE WATER because we are using it for the sauce!

Plate like so. We will be constructing the sauce to go over the top of this next...

Jade sauce

• 1/2 ts salt
• 1/4 ts sugar
• 1/2 ts chicken bouillon
• 1/2 ts sesame oil
• 11/2 ts cornstarch (mix w/ 2 tbs of water)
• 1 egg white

In a another pan, heat it up with a tbs oil, threw in the chopped ham, peas and carrot/ mixed blend veggies, garlic, ginger, green onion, stir it for few secs, add the shrimp juice and a cup of water/chicken stock, then add 1/2ts salt, 1/2 ts chicken bouillon, 1/4 ts sugar,1/2 sesame oil, bring to boil then add your cornstarch solution a little at a time ( making sure the sauce is not too thick), now add the egg white slowly and let it cook for few seconds then pull the sauce over the shrimp ball.

Stir fry until these ingredients start to lightly brown or sear around their edges.

Add in the remaining shrimp water from the steaming process. This will continue the shrimp flavors into our dish. Also add the water/stock to this as well.

Add in your cornstarch mixture first! Wait until the sauce get's to a nice gravy like consistency. Do it little at a time so it doesn't get too thick. Then you will add your egg whites. Pour this in slowly and a little at a time. This will create little egg ribbons in the sauce for flavor and texture. Once the egg is cooked, cut off the heat (takes literally seconds).

That's it! Light and tasty Shrimp Balls in Jade Sauce! Enjoy it!

Pour your sauce over the shrimp balls like so.

Remnants of my wife's lunch. Mmmmmmm so delicious...

Coming up next!
Another familiar dish "Boiled Chicken with Ginger and Scallion Oil"
-薑蔥白切雞-

Psalm 145: 18-19

"The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them."

詩篇 145:18-19

"凡是求告耶和華的，耶和華都和他們接近， 就是和所有真誠求告他的人接近。 敬畏他的，他必成就他們的心願， 也必聽他們的呼求，拯救他們。"