Dried Krill Seaweed Soup 銀蝦紫菜湯

Chinese soups are wonderfully healthy and yummy.  Did you know that there are all different sorts of Chinese soups?  There are the long cook kinds of soup where a lot of ingredients are slowly simmered over many hours to a rich, health enhancing and savoury perfection.  So good!  There are also the nourishing soups that are specific to tweaking the balance of your body.  And then there are the soups that you can make quick and easy, on a daily basis, to augment your daily meal and comfort your soul.

This soup one is one of the latter.  Fast, super healthy and yummilicious.  And so satisfying!  My hubby's crazy easy to make but oh so super delicious Dried Krill Seaweed Soup 銀蝦紫菜湯.  Total soup-iliciously nom nom territory!

Shallot Infused Oil 红葱油

This simple flavor infused oil is something that we happened upon accidentally as a consequence of making my favorite cold Chinese noodle dish, the deceptively simple yet delicious Shanghai Spring Onion Scallion Noodles 葱油拌面.  Omgosh, how I love, love, love these noodles!

Anyhoo, after making these noodles we were left with the oil used for frying the spring onions and shallots.  And discovered to our delight how utterly fragrant and yummilicious this infused oil was! 

Ever since then we've kept a jar of either spring onion or shallot infused oil in our kitchen at all times!  Today we're making Shallot Infused Oil 红葱油, a subtly sweet, garlicky and oniony fragrant oil that we use to drizzle over finished dishes to add that final extra flavor layer or simply to make the most delicious stir fry with.  Oh man, oh man what a game changer this shallot infused oil is!

Homemade Green Plum Wine 自制青梅酒

As a result of our recent food shenanigans into the making of homemade Huamei Preserved Plums 話梅, we were left with an extra mound of the little green plums 青梅 that inspired it all.  These are immature plums, plucked from the Chinese Plum Tree, also known as the Prunus Mume Tree, in their green and seriously sour stage.  

With this extra mound of green plums we decided to make our first ever plum wine!  Well, not really a wine, more like a fruit liqueur of sorts.  Based loosely on both the Chinese and Japanese style of making plum wine, this fruity concoction is super easy to make, requires a rather long waiting time, and results in a lusciously fruity and smooth wine/liqueur that captures the essence of spring and summer all in one!

Chinese Huamei Preserved Plums 話梅

Every Chinese kid has eaten these preserved fruit treats when they're little, I think, and puckered up with glee at the deliciously sweet, salty and sour taste.  These Chinese Huamei Preserved Plums 話梅 or 酸梅, and also known as Li Hing Mui 旅行梅, are usually found in a dried state but, since we made these fruit candies at home, we have left them swimming in their delectable syrup .  Same taste, with delicious syrup to boot! 

Chinese Ginger Milk Pudding 薑汁撞奶布丁

Recently we made the smooth and creamy Double Skin Milk Pudding 雙皮奶 and were so delighted with the lusciously milky results that we determined to further explore the "Milk-y Way"!  To that end we decided to make this traditional oh so easy to make treat that originates from Panyu 番禺, Guangzhou 廣州: the Chinese Ginger Milk Pudding 薑汁撞奶布丁, also known as Ginger Milk Curd.

This pudding is really magical because its puddingness is set thru the interaction of fresh ginger enzyme and hot milk!  And that's it!  Milk with a touch of sugar is heated in a pot and then poured, bang!, into the freshly squeezed ginger juice.  Then a wait and, tada, the pudding is made!  

Delicate, milky, ginger-ly spicy, smooth and oh so comforting is this super duper easy to make Chinese Ginger Milk Pudding.  Try it, you'll see!

Flounder Fish Soup Noodles 甫魚麵

Sometimes you just want to appreciate a little bit of something exquisite, a slurp of delirious deliciousness in a bowl, ya know what I mean?  Well, here's the perfect thing to satisfy that desire: Flounder Fish Soup Noodles 甫魚麵, a bowl of the most yummilicious noodles soaked up with stock and sprinkled with umami packed roasted flounder fish powder.  Ready to slurp down in a quarter of an hour!  Sounds simple, dear readers, but don't be deceived.  This seeming humble bowl of noodles packs a powerful punch of flavor and satisfaction!

Double Skin Milk Pudding 雙皮奶

This special treat is from my hubby's ancestral home town, Shunde 順德, a city located in Guangdong province.  Shunde is very famous for its food culture, known as the birthplace of Cantonese cuisine and now a Unesco designated City of Gastronomy.  One of the most famous of the dishes that originate from Shunde might be this traditional Chinese milk pudding!

Known as Double Skin Milk Pudding 雙皮奶 this pudding is distinctive for its lovely double layer of wrinkled milk skin on top, hiding a soft and oh! so lusciously creamy, milky pudding below.  Man oh man, when we go to Shunde we totally pig out on this amazing puddding!  Nom, nom, nom...  

Sometimes back home far away in HK, we do long for it so. Turns out this luscious pud is pretty straightforward to make at home!

Chinese Soy & Spice Braised Peanuts 水煮五香花生

This totally yummilicious little nutty snack was inspired by an appetizer that appeared briefly on the menu of a fav Sichuan restaurant of ours.  I think the most excellent chef there likes to try out different things which is great, except when you discover a new favorite dish only to have it disappear a month later. 😩

But, as even in that short time we became obsessed with these peanuts, we decided to make our own version of Chinese Soy & Spice Braised Peanuts 水煮五香花生.  Easy to make but oh man so yummy to nom, nom on, these cooked til soft and savory peanuts are soaked through and through with the most delicious Chinese spice flavored soy braising sauce.  Nom, nom, indeed...

Mala Spicy Chilled King Oyster Mushroom Salad 麻辣涼拌杏鮑菇

Hey hobbits out there, doncha just love, love, love mushrooms?  Then this is the dish for you!  Meaty mushrooms marinated in spicy mala sauce and a splash of numbing sichuan pepper oil, sprinkled with aromatics and then chilled to perfection.  This Mala Spicy Chilled King Oyster Mushroom Salad 麻辣涼拌杏鮑菇 is super easy to make and absolutely shroomy-licious!

Chicken Congee 生滾雞粥

Another classic congee dish: the comforting Chicken Congee 生滾雞粥, a creamy rice porridge infused through and through with yummilicious chickeny flavor and dotted with lusciously tender chicken pieces. 

Congee 粥 is a traditional Cantonese type of rice porridge, wherein the rice grains are cooked down until deliciously thick and creamy before being served with different meats and aromatics.  This congee is made with the 生滾 method, translated as "raw boiled" method.  Raw ingredients are cooked directly in the congee itself, allowing the flavors of the raw ingredients to permeate the congee.  

We've previously used this method with our fabulous Fish Congee 魚粥.  You'll find that it's an easy way to make a most yummilicious and comforting congee!

Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅

Oh chocolate, oh chocolate, how much do I love thee, let me count the ways...

So many ways amirite, fellow chocolate lovers?!  I love chocolate in everything, be it sweet or savory.  Nom, nom...can never get enough of that dark chocolately goodness...  So it was that this year for Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節 I decided that we needed some chocolate to celebrate the moon!

Thus was the birth of a new styled mooncake, a Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅, a concoction of moist chocolate flavored filling with a secret heart of molten chocolate ganache, all wrapped in a tender golden skin.  Wasn't too sure how it would turn out, with the lava center and all, but OMgosh it was fantastic.  We were tickled pink with this chocolatey mooncake!  And the center, it was all melty!  Yeah chocolate chocolate!!

Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥

Oh, so pretty, amirite?!  We've had lovely, lovely seafood on our minds after our recent trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 where we feasted, among other things, on marinated raw seafood of all kinds, omgosh, sooo good.  (We're still writing that amazing experience up so stay tuned.)  So yummilicious seafood been on our minds alot lately.  

Inspired by our trip and the wonderful food consumed we made this simple congee that is a delectable treat for all seafood lovers.  Just fresh crab and some rice and you're on your way to this authentic super duper Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥!

Pork Floss Cheung Fun 肉鬆腸粉

We’ve made this little dim sum treat before, once using fresh shrimp fillling and once using the dried shrimp and spring onions.  This version is a cheung fun rice roll twist that I discovered online and had to try as I love, love, love Chinese dried pork floss.  Oh it was as good as I hoped it would be, that deliciously intense meaty filling packed the slightest crunch, contrasting wonderfully with the slippery rice sheet wrapping.

These Pork Floss Cheung Fun rice rolls 肉鬆腸粉 are simple to make once you get the trick of making the rather delicate rice wrapping.  But no worries, we’ll show you how to do it!

Eight Treasures Winter Melon Soup 八寶冬瓜盅

This spectacular traditional Chinese soup Eight Treasures Winter Melon Soup 八寶冬瓜盅 is not only beautiful and decadently delicious but also most excellent for relieving of the summer heat.  The soup is made using all parts of the winter melon: the flesh as an ingredient in the soup and the hollowed out melon itself as the soup 'tureen'.  

With a large sized winter melon this soup makes for a knock your socks off presentation, soup served in a carved and hollowed out melon 'tureen', so cool!  For the home version you can nowadays find the mini winter melon at markets.  We used these to make individual soup tureens of winter melon soup.

Chinese Preserved Plum Lime Soda 話梅檸檬水

This homemade concoction has to be one of the most refreshing drinks ever!  One long slurp of this Chinese Preserved Plum Lime Soda 話梅檸檬水 and you'll be sighing out a long happy ahhhhhh...  It's sooo hot here in HK, endlessly hot, and I'll bet it's like that everywhere these days.  So try out this easy to make traditional southern Chinese summer drink and slough off some of that heat!

Sweet Tofu Skin Smoothie 腐竹糖水沙冰

This smooth, creamy, ice-ilicious Sweet Tofu Skin Smoothie 腐竹糖水沙冰 is the most unexpected delight.  Made with old style traditional Chinese ingredients, it is transformed with a modern method of treatment into a powerfully enjoyable and addictive treat.  

We discovered this neato drink at a local restaurant that serves HK traditional cha chaan teng 茶餐廳 foods.  But I'm pretty sure that this is no traditional HK treat.  But no matter, all is fair in love and food.  This smoothie was absolutely yummilicious, just the thing to cool off and soothe away a hot day.  We have recreated this Sweet Tofu Skin Smoothie at home for all our dear readers to enjoy as well.  Cold, sweetly creamy, tofu-y, this smoothie is really far out!

Mashed Tofu with Century Egg 涼拌皮蛋豆腐

Alright, I'll admit right off the bat that this ain't the most good looking dish.  The first time I beheld it at our neighborhood Taiwanese restaurant I was like "whaat the heck!"  But man, oh, man once we started eating this Mashed Tofu and Century Egg 涼拌皮蛋豆腐, it was baboom!  Flavor texture explosion!  Most favorite tofu dish ever, have to order it every time and everyone takes turns scraping the bottom of the glass serving jar.

This is a riff, if you will, on the traditional Tofu and Century Eggs 皮蛋豆腐 where the tofu and eggs are served arranged prettily but separately on a dish.  Which is how I've always eaten it and it sure is yummy.  But mash up this dish, chill it and somehow it turns the flavor up by a WOW factor as well as adding a lovely creaminess.  Once you get a taste you just can't stop, it's really that good!

Quick Basic Congee with Century Egg 皮蛋粥

This is another way to make basic congee, except waaay faster!  Basic Congee is Cantonese style of rice porridge, cooked down to a dreamy creaminess that beats every other rice porridge you'll ever have!  This basic congee is then mixed with other meat and veggie ingredients to make the final delectable congee-as-meal dish.

Congee is a wonderful comfort food, pleasing to both the tummy and the heart.  But basic congee such as our Basic Congee with Dried Scallops and Tofu Skin takes quite a while to cook.  My hubby discovered this alternative Basic Congee with Century Egg 皮蛋粥 that not only cuts the cooking time by two-thirds but also tastes just as if not more delicious.   

Sampan Congee 艇仔粥

Burrr….I’m still feeling a wee bit of the chill of winter nipping at my toes these days, how about y’all, dear readers?  When you’re a bit cold inside and out there’s nothing better than a warm soul soothing bowl of velvety congee chock full of all kinds of yummilicious bite sized edibles.  Comfort food all the way!

We’ve been on a kind of congee kick lately and our latest is this fabulous queen of congees, the Sampan Congee Tang Jai Jook 艇仔粥, a creamy congee filled with delectable treasures from the sea and the land and then some.  The name 'sampan congee' comes from the many small boats, called sampans 艇仔, that ply the many waterways of Guangzhou (Guangzhou is smack in the middle of a large delta area, FYI) from whence is congee first emerged.