Apart from the Tofu with Ridged Gourd 胜瓜豆腐, this is another way of how I like the ridged gourd served. With just the ridged gourd and the eggs as the key ingredients, this is a dish meant to be light and easy, sumptuous and simply delicious. To have a good serving size of this, make sure that you have a good amount of ridged gourds to begin with - a medium sized ridged gourd for an individual serving will be good.
Be sure to have them cut into chunks of some relatively larger pieces. With a good absorbing nature, they will shrink considerably with cooking. So having large chunks to begin with makes sure that the soft yet spongy texture these ridged gourds have will not be lost. I have always preferred to have them separately managed; the ridged gourds are lightly stir fried with some minced garlic and eggs scrambled next before they are both brought together for a quick mix-up. This makes a simple dish with a promising taste good for everyday meals. Do give this a try!
It was barely a month ago when I first came upon the Chilean sea bass. And that was all that is needed to get me all so head over heels with this sea treasure. In Bellagio Hotel where we stayed throughout our trip to the Vegas, this Chilean sea bass was one of the many other upscale high quality items that they served in their dinner buffet line. I don't quite remember how exactly the fish was done then, pan-roasted maybe or plainly steamed even. But I do remember going all "ooooh and aaahhh"s with each bite I took. That naturally became the center of attention to my dinner that night. Even the Kobe beef and the Alaskan king crab seemed to come second behind this. Yea, that was how crazy I got over this lol. Unlike the many fish dishes commonly seen in a buffet line, this was nowhere close to those that tend to get overcooked in some manners. This Chilean sea bass literally melts in your mouth! But of course that has got to be attributed to the great team of chef behind its making.
Returning home, that experience had made hubby and I a better observer these days especially in the fish markets lol. Little did we know that the Chilean sea bass (not really a bass) can actually fetch a real premium price in the market, let alone in those high end restaurants where they can be found in their menus. The highest I have noted to date marks a good $37 a pound in a local market here near where we live. It is almost at the same time that I also started noticing how it has always been a debated issue if the Chilean sea bass is an endangered species. Turn out they are not. The problem with them has all along been one coming from the large, unreported catches coming from illegal fishing that makes keeping track and managing this valuable fish population difficult. But as far as the fact goes, they are not listed as an endangered species.
With that, I got our first piece of the Chilean sea bass home. I chose to have it steamed, pretty much resembling the Chinese way of doing it. Topped with some minced garlic fried to perfect golden brown, I had it served with a soy sauce specially concocted to include a tad of sweetness. Sweet and salty yes, but not too overwhelming on the whole that it may mask the exquisite flavor of the fish. And to finish up, I drizzled some hot fried garlic oil along the the center line of the fish. This is a tip I learned from my mom who has in turn learned from my nanny decades ago. The smoky hot oil plays a role in locking and binding all the different flavors together. And with that it adds a touch of richness in taste to the dish, especially coming from the spring onion curls and the cilantro leaves that lined the top. An amazing source of protein naturally rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, this piece of sea treasure simply makes a sublime meal!
What a truly encouraging piece of news to make my day having just found out that my post on the Lobster Stew had been featured on the Bon Appétit magazine online! Totally unexpected, this came as a real pleasant surprise to keep me going! Unbeknownst to me, the Bloggers Cooks BA column in the online magazine has been choosing a recipe of theirs weekly and feature the dish as it gets recreated at home, blogged about and eventually submitted to them by bloggers from all around the world.
In the December issue where I got my inspiration from however, the recipes had got a little more personal than usual. They had all come from the families of their very own magazine editors! "Holiday Heirlooms", as how they aptly named them. It also looked like this time they have gone out to search for blog posts featuring these recipes. I guess that's how they found mine! Imagine my surprise when I chanced upon that first ever link to my blog on a magazine website. It feels... simply honored!
If you have a second, check the page out right here. The many other posts featured there may just be the perfect encouragement to you as they did to me.
One of the few favorite soups of mine, this has been one that shows up rather regularly on our dining table ever since I started in the kitchen. Making Chinese soup has always been something relatively easy needing little skill. Some past dining experiences or a little imagination with how and which ingredient will go well with what others will surely help a big deal however. That little bit plus I have in me has got to be attributed to the many years of my mom's home cooked food I have had growing up at home. Likewise, this has been one of mom's regular too. Over the years whenever we had this served as part of our meals, mom would naturally start reminding us of how this particular white radish soup works exceptionally well in cleansing and detoxifying our digestive system, just exactly what we needed every now and then. Where and when has she got this piece of information from, I have little idea really lol. But despite having not a fact check done on it ever, I have always loved this soup for how simply tasty and refreshing it is nonetheless.
While I have never really tried studying the nutritional values these radishes have in the past, I do find myself accepting the claim mom has always had more than alright. One thing that I have never failed to notice myself each time I happily dig into the mounts of white radish chunks in the soup will be how extensive the mesh of fine lines within the radishes is. These lines are made visible to the naked eyes and I supposed they do get more prominent the longer the get cooked, turning translucent. Whether they are the digestible or indigestible fiber or both, they must be the very contributors to whatever digestive system facilitation these radishes have on us. That aside, taking a brief look on the white radish introduction anywhere will reveal that they come packed with a considerable good amount of the immune booster we all need, the Vitamin C. Low in calories with virtually no cholesterol, they naturally present themselves as a very good dietary option for many.
Commonly boiled with the pork ribs, mom's version always comes with a handful of white peppercorns in a wire mesh - a little heat to balance the cooling nature white radishes have. This is definitely one particular addition that I have always accepted happily for the extra kick and spice coming from these peppercorns. With a touch of sweetness coming from the presence of red dates and an extra flavor coming from the dried oysters or the dried cuttlefish, they collectively make a hearty bowl of soup so comforting and nutritious anyone will easily appreciate on any days.
As a kid, I used to have this perception that naturally linked these boiled peanuts straight to the elderly. No offense intended! lol. But that was me growing up witnessing and yet not fully understanding how my dad and mom could have such an enthusiasm towards these boiled peanuts over the years. Never once could I remember them passing by a stall selling these mushy soft peanuts without grabbing themselves a good-sized pack of these popular street food in Malaysia. To say that to be appreciating these boiled peanuts is an acquired taste would not be totally true either. Personally, I do think that this is either one that you simply love at your very first try or you simply don't, at least not as much as you do with other peanuty stuff. While I have always found myself in the latter group not developing a particular adoration for these, I would still find myself nibbling away happily whenever I got hold of them, probably just not too overly so.
The reminder to this particularly nostalgic memory of mine was recently brought back when hubby out of the blue mentioned (or hinted maybe! lol) that he had not had these boiled peanuts for a while now (and well, that in our conversation context would actually equal a humble request put forth by him lol). So with that, the raw peanuts went listed in my grocery list. And when I finally managed to get hold of a pack of these green peanuts (green for being fresh from the ground unprocessed, not literally so), that marked my very first in making these boiled peanuts at home (my parents will be really proud of me! lol).
Simple basic ingredients - the peanuts, enough water and salt, making this is really all about the timing set aside to have them boiled and simmered away. It is this that determines how soft they eventually get with the flavor intensified proportionally to the overall time spent on heat. Different people will probably have a different liking in terms of how soft and salty they should get; taste preference has always been something ever so subjective after all. Likewise, there may not even be a standard rule as to how they should be done. The time needed to make a batch that tastes at their very best varies from batch to batch; different sizes and the freshness of these nuts are a few of the plenty other factors that make each batch of boiled peanuts uniquely different from another.
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The basics to making a batch, however, should be simple to grasp - have them thoroughly rinsed and lightly soaked for a short moment to especially get rid of the debris, transfer the nuts to a large stock pot, add in enough water to cover them followed by some salt for seasoning, boil and let simmer away. Depending on how you personally like them - firm with a tad of crunchiness retained still, soft but not totally so or one that is simple mushy and soft, you will have to go on the "sampling" mode to get to the right texture. Sample periodically so you know exactly when to stop. Just what can be better than sampling them away as they get cooked? lol. Give them a try if you have not; you may just find these totally likeable.
