3 Plus 1 (Series 4) - Fresh lily bulb and flower crab soup 3菜1汤 (系列4) - 鲜百合蟹肉羹

This recipe was from Episode 4 (11 Oct 2013) of Channel 8 Cook Show 3 Plus 1 Series 4. (Check out my other attempts at this link.) I love this episode very much because all the dishes looked so appealing and in fact, I've already attempted 2 recipes. This is the 3rd one.

I think the most attractive part about this soup is the soup base; it's slow-boiled using duck bones, chicken feet, chicken bones, ikan bilis and blended carrot. You can imagine how "potent" it is! But having said that, each ingredient used in the soup plays an important role in making the soup so delicious. The fresh lily bulb added crunch; the flower crab provided freshness (taste of the ocean); the wolfberries added sweetness and colour; the asparagus contributed to the crunch and colour as well; and the egg helped thicken the soup, enhanced the sweetness and created a nice visual touch.

The preparation was a little tedious because I had to buy half a roast duck and spend time retrieving the bones to prepare soup base; and extract flesh from flower crabs. But I think it's worth the effort. Hubby gave thumbs up as well.

 

Fresh lily bulb and flower crab soup

(adapted from Channel 8 Cook Show 3 Plus 1 Series 4, and iWeekly magazine)

Ingredients

Soup base

• 1/2 Roast duck, separate bones from meat (I use bones only for this soup and keep the meat for stir fry)
• 200g Chicken feet
• 300g Chicken bones
• 200g Ikan bilis, washed and drained
• 1 slice ginger
• 50g Red carrot, blended with a little water
• 3.5L Water

Steps

1. Blanch roast duck bone, chicken feet and chicken bones with hot water to get rid of smell and dirt.
2. Pour 3.5L of water into a deep pot, place roast duck bone, chicken feet, chicken bone, ikan bilis and ginger into the pot. Bring to boil on medium high heat, then simmer on low heat.
3. After 30 mins, add the blended red carrot into the broth, and continue simmering till soup is reduced by about half quantity. Strain. I managed to get about 1.7L of broth.
4. For the soup, I used 800ml and freeze the remaining in the freezer for other soup bases.

Soup

• 800ml Soup base
• 70g Fresh lily bulb
• 2 flower crab (about 80g each)
• 2 eggs
• 30g Asparagus (about 2 stalks)
• 10g Wolfberries, washed and soaked for 10 mins
• 10g Corn or potato starch

Steps

1. Peel the petals of the fresh lily bulb, wash and set aside.
2. Peel the fibrous skin of the asparagus, cut into tiny discs and set aside.
3. Steam flower crab for 10 minutes, let cool slightly and extract the flesh. Set aside.
4. Bring the 800ml of soup base to boil on medium heat, add lily bulb petals, asparagus, crab meat and wolfberries. Boil for 5 mins, make slurry with corn/potato starch and add to the soup (thickness of soup depends on individual), mixing thoroughly.
5. Beat the eggs and stir into the soup. Serve immediately.

3 Plus 1 (Series 4) - Salmon Tofu 3菜1汤 (系列4) - 琵琶豆腐

So far, I've attempted a few recipes (some yet to blog) from the Channel 8 TV show 3 Plus 1 and bookmarked a dozen of recipes to attempt! I always feel a little intimidated to try new recipes because the result is unknown, whether it would be palatable or accepted by my family. Sometimes, the attempts were failures and unfortunately had to go into the garbage which meant waste of time, money and effort. And worse I have to quickly churn up a new dish to feed the family :p

These days, if I have the time, I may make a small test portion for lunch to see if the result turns out well, and also take proper "nice nice" photos. Natural lighting is better during day time, and seriously I have no time at all to take photos during dinner time.

Luckily this dish 琵琶豆腐 Salmon Tofu (from Episode 1) turned out fairly well. I had to watch that particular video segment several times on xinmsn.com catch-up TV as the recipe provided on iWeekly stated only the ingredients and steps but not the quantity.

I like this dish the moment I saw it because it's very healthy and nutritious, combining tofu, salmon and golden mushroom together. Presentation-wise, the dish is also very elegant. I have a slight phobia towards salmon due to overdose during pregnancy and postpartum days. The taste of tofu actually helps to musk a little bit of the salmon taste, and the water chestnut adds a natural sweetness and refreshing crunch to the soft texture of the salmon and tofu.

While I enjoyed the dish very much, hubby and son were more lukewarm towards it. Well, if I were to pan fry or deep fry it, perhaps it'll be a different story. Probably I'll try it next time to confirm my hypothesis. Ha!

Anyway, I thought this dish could be presented in two ways. By steaming the mashed tofu and salmon on ceramic spoons, it could already be a dish on its own and served directly using the spoon. The participants of the programme took a step further by cooking a golden mushroom gravy as base and serving the salmon and tofu on top.

As to why it's called "Pipa 琵琶" Tofu, from what I learnt from the programme, it's because the shape of the salmon tofu looks like the chinese instrument Pipa.

Salmon Tofu
Makes about 8-9 pieces of salmon tofu *quantity reduced by half compared to the original
(adapted from i Weekly and Channel 8 TV show 3 Plus 1 Series 4 - Episode 1)


Ingredients

Salmon Tofu

• 1/2 pc Silken Tofu
• 1/2 slice Salmon, cut into small cubes
• 3pc Water Chestnut, finely chopped
• 1/2 stalk Spring Onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 stalk Parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 Egg White
• 2 tsp Corn Starch
• Dash of pepper
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Gravy

• 1 clove Garlic, minced
• 1 packet Golden Mushroom, cut into 3 sections
• 1 tsp Light Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp Oyster Sauce
• Corn starch

Steps

1. Drain the tofu by putting it in a sieve till moisture drains off.
2. Gently mash the silken tofu, add salmon and water chestnut and mix well.
3. Add spring onion, parsley, egg white, corn starch, pepper and salt into the mixture and mix well.
4. Coat 8 ceramic spoons with oil and scoop the salmon tofu mixture into the spoons to form an oval and rounded shape.
5. Place in steamer (water already boiling) and steam for 8 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, heat about a tbsp of oil in a frying pan and stir fry the minced garlic till fragrant.
7. Add the golden mushroom and stir fry till slightly soften.
8. Add some water (just enough to cover the golden mushroom), and season with light soy sauce and oyster sauce (to taste). Then make a slurry with the corn starch to thicken the gravy.
9. Pour the golden mushroom gravy into a plate. Once the salmon tofu is ready, gently scoop the tofu out from the spoon and place onto the gravy.
10. Garnish with parsley and sliced chilli (optional) and serve hot.

3 Plus 1 (Series 4) - Steamed Chicken with Cordyceps Flower 3菜1汤 (系列4) - 虫草花蒸鸡

This is another dish which I attempted from the Channel 8 programme 3 Plus 1 (Series 4), 3菜1汤, episode 4 - Steamed Chicken with Cordyceps Flower 虫草花蒸鸡.

The dish seemed very easy to cook with light flavouring and supposedly nutritious as well due to the medicinal property of cordyceps flower. When the chefs introduced this ingredient, I was very intrigued and made a mental note to look for it when I pass by any chinese medicinal hall.

Initially I had no idea what Cordyceps Flower 虫草花 is. I thought it's related to Cordyceps Sinensis 冬虫草, which is high in medicinal value but rare and expensive. After a search on the net, found out that it's actual name is Cordyceps Militaris 冬虫草花. It's a cultured mushroom fungus with similar medicinal value as cordyceps Sinensis. It's rich in protein, zinc, vitamins A & E and helps protect and strengthen the lungs, kidney and liver. Interesting indeed! I thought that this could only be found at big chinese medicinal hall; but the other day when I saw a small neighbourhood medicinal hall, decided to try my luck and yes they have it! Cost $6.80 for a tub (about 38g).

Steamed Chicken with Cordyceps Flower

Ingredients

• 1/2 chicken (I use kampung chicken)
• 5g salt
• 10g cordyceps flower
• 4-5 pieces red dates
• Corn starch
• Green leafy vegetable

Steps

1. Marinate the chicken with salt for 15-20 mins.
2. Soak cordyceps flower in hot water for 15-20 mins (to reduce the red colouring), then drain the water.
3. Soak the red dates for 15-20 mins then slice.
4. Place the chicken in a steaming dish, scatter the cordyceps flower and sliced red dates on top and around. Steam the chicken for 25-30 mins (original time stated in recipe is 15 mins, but I find many parts of the chicken not cooked so I increased the timing).
5. After steaming the chicken, pour the chicken stock (juice from steaming) into another pot, heat and add some cornstarch to make into a slightly thickened gravy.
6. Blanch some green leafy vegetable (water added with some oil and salt).
7. Debone the chicken and arrange on serving plate. Scatter cordyceps flower and sliced red dates on the chicken, arrange the blanched vegetables around, and pour gravy all around. Best served warm.

虫草花蒸鸡
(source: no. 834 i-weekly supplement)

材料

• 鸡 (半只, 约700克)
• 虫草花 (10克)
• 红枣 (4颗)
• 小白菜 (50克)
• 盐 (5克)
• 生粉 (5克)
  

 做法

1. 先以盐腌制鸡只片刻.
2. 将鸡只放入蒸盘中, 铺上虫草花和切片红枣, 放入蒸锅蒸 15 分钟.
3. 取出蒸好的鸡只, 去骨取肉再切块, 与虫草花, 红枣和汆烫熟的小白菜一起摆盘.
4. 将剩余的汤汁稍微勾芡后淋在食才上即可.

贴士

• 用热水烫虫草花 , 降低色素.

The whole dish is quite light in flavouring. The cordyceps flower is crunchy in texture and quite tasteless. The natural juice from the chicken during the steaming process makes the meat very tasty and succulent. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I think I will also try cooking the cordyceps flower in soups and use this ingredient more often now.

3 Plus 1 (Series 4) - Crispy Chinese Yam 3菜1汤 (系列4) - 香酥淮山

I'm a big fan of Singapore's MediaCorp edutainment programme 3 Plus 1, 3菜1汤, hosted by Taiwanese show host 曾国城. After a long hiatus, the programme now into its fourth series is back again since a month ago!

In the past three series, the format was such that each week, there were two pairs of artistes (whether local or overseas) in each team who competed in cooking 3 dishes and 1 soup within 30 mins; the main ingredient for one of the dish was determined by the producer and the meal must be within budget of $20. The dishes cooked by all the teams were even compiled into three recipe books and I've bought all three :p 我可是这个节目的忠实粉丝哦! The reason why I like this programme is because most of the dishes are easy to prepare using practical ingredients and nothing too fanciful.

In this new series, there's a slight revision, budget has been increased to $25 and instead of two artistes in a team, one of the participant is a chef which makes the dishes made even more attractive! So for the past few Fridays, I'm been following the programme fervently unless I had to go out. For the dishes which caught my interest, I would even re-watch the segments on XINMSN catch-up TV to note the important points. LOL! Anyway, the recipes are currently featured on the i-weekly supplement so yes I've been buying the i-weekly magazine because of the recipes too!

So far, I've attempted a few of the recipes already and most of them were quite palatable lah. Will be sharing some of my attempts over a few posts. This is one of my favourite dish to-date, Crispy Chinese Yam with salted egg yolk and pork floss 香酥淮山, featured in Episode 4.

When the team introduced this dish, I immediately took an interest because Chinese Yam (淮山/山药) is a very nutritious root vegetable that has several health benefits. Other than cooking it in soup and blending it into egg mixture for steamed egg, I have no idea how else to cook it. This dish really offered a very good alternative to make my family eat more Chinese Yam since it's deep fried.

There are a few components to the dish, mixing the batter, deep frying the chinese yam, quick stir frying the battered chinese yam with salted egg yolk and finally topping with some pork floss.

Crispy Chinese Yam with Salted Egg Yolk and Pork Floss

Ingredients

• 250g Chinese Yam
• 2 Salted Egg Yolks
• 30g Chicken or Pork Floss

 Batter

• 100g Plain Flour
• 10g Glutinous Rice Flour *1
• 7g Corn Starch
• 8g Baking Powder
• 120-125g Water *2
• 20g Cooking Oil (any type, I use Canola) *3
• 5g Salt

 Steps

1. Prepare crispy batter: Mix all the ingredients for the batter until well blended. Set aside. Cut the chinese yam into 1cm slices and put them into the batter. Make sure each piece is well coated with the batter.
2. Steam the salted egg yolk for 7 minutes, mash and set aside.
3. Heat the cooking oil till hot, turn off the heat and drop the batter-coated chinese yam into the hot oil. Turn on heat again and deep fry at low heat till golden brown. Once golden brown, remove from oil and drain excess oil on kitchen towel.
4. Heat wok, add some oil and fry salted egg yolk till bubbles appear. Put all the battered chinese yam into the wok, stir fry quickly to ensure the pieces are coated with the salted egg yolk evenly. Place the chinese yam onto a serving plate and garnish with chicken/pork floss and parsley/coriander.

Note

1. Adding glutinous rice flour to the batter will allow deep fried food to stay crispy longer.
2. The original amount of water given in the recipe was 70ml (equivalent to 70g) but I found the batter to be too thick and in fact doughy, so I added water bit by bit till a smoother consistency, similar to thick cream.
3. Adding cooking oil to the batter will enhance the crispiness of deep fried food.

香酥淮山

材料

• 淮山 (250克)
• 咸蛋黄 (2个)
• 鸡/猪肉松 (30克)

脆浆粉

• 面粉 (100克)
• 糯米粉 (10克)
• 太白粉 (7克)
• 发粉 (8克)
• 水 (120克)
• 油 (20克)
• 盐 (5克)

 做法

1. 在大碗中混合脆浆粉材料调匀; 淮山切片 (约1公分厚), 放入脆浆粉中.
2. 将咸蛋蒸熟, 再压碎.
3. 先烧热油后熄火, 把沾满脆浆粉的淮山逐个放入油中, 再开小火继续油炸熟, 捞起沥干.
4. 热镬, 以少许油炒咸蛋至起泡, 倒入炸淮山,拌匀后盛盘, 再撒上鸡/猪肉松,以葱花点缀.

 贴士

• 在脆浆粉中加入糯米粉, 食材炸后能保持酥脆.

I love the overall texture and taste of this dish very much. The battered chinese yam is very crispy, with a tinge of saltiness from the salted egg yolk and a tad of sweetness from the pork floss. The texture of the chinese yam is a cross between potato and white radish and taste bland.

Hubby liked the dish, but the picky little one didn't seem to like it although it's deep fried food. Anyways, this recipe is a keeper for me but I think will only cook it occasionally as I don't really like to do deep frying at home.