Sesame Oil Chicken Rice with Organic Pumpkin & Red Dates Soup

This is another of my all-time faves - "one-pot" chicken rice imparted by my mummy! The usual ingredients include Chinese sausages & dried shiitake mushrooms but we're all aware that sausages are not exactly a very healthy option due to high sodium levels & the addition of preservatives. Thus, they've been omitted. As for dried shiitake mushrooms, i've asked my mummy where I could buy good ones but she told me she also can't really find them nowadays & advised me to use fresh ones instead. That was quite a dampening news as I've always like their richer flavours as compared to the fresh ones. To compensate for the missing aromas, I subsituted normal oil with sesame oil instead & the results were great!

Ingredients (serve 1 toddler & 1 adult):

1 chicken leg + 1 small drumstick

1/2 cup of organic 10 multi-grains

4 tbsps of sesame oil

1 tbsp of Bob's Red Mill All Natural Cornstarch

1/2 cup water

50g of white bunashimeiji mushrooms

8 stalks of organic French beans, diced

Directions:

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with the cornstarch & half the sesame oil, and marinate the rice with the remaining sesame oil for at least 1 hour.

2. Add water to rice, top off with the chicken pieces & mushrooms then steam for 30 minutes (I'm using my Techno 3-Tiers Electric Steamer but rice cooker would do too).

3. Add the French beans & steam for another 5 minutes. Remove chicken pieces & give it a good stir to mix the ingredients evenly. Serve warm.

We both love the fragrance of the sesame oil in the rice. Be warned though that the rice is kinda wet & sticky partly due to the fact that it was cooked in my steamer where more moisture is added during the steaming process. Think along the lines of mui fan (which I happened to like too). Cooking it in the cooker should give you the usual rice texture if you're not a big fan of rice with lotsa gravy.

Ingredients:

240g of organic pumpkin

6 red dates, seeds removed

750ml of water

Directions:

1. Add all the ingredients to a pot & bring to boil. Then, simmer in low fire for 2 hours.

Nothing fanciful but just a bowl of comforting sweet-tasting soup.

Beneficial Combination:

Pumpkin + Red date = Invigorating spleen & replenishing qi as well as restraining & inhibiting qi of lungs

My 3 Dishes & Arrowroot with Black-Eyed Peas Soup for Dinner

Arrowroot with black-eyed peas soup: Skin & cut 1 arrowroot into big chunks. Add them with 280g of blanched pork bone meat & 50g of black-eyed peas to 2 litres of water & bring to boil. Then, simmer in low fire for 3 hours.

The following were cooked simultaneously in my Techno 3-Tiers Electric Steamer.

Organic brown rice: 1 cup of organic brown rice soaked for at least 7 hours in water to remove the phytic acid. Pour away the soaked water & rinse a couple of times before adding 1.5 cups of water. Steam for 35 minutes.

Steamed fish with red dates & wolfberries: Top fish with 6 red dates (seeds removed & diced), 3 tbsps of wolfberries & some ginger strips then pour 1 tbsp of organic extra virgin coconut oil over it (Optional: add 2-3 tbsps of water for more 'broth'). Steam for 10 minutes.

Steamed probiotics fed chicken with organic green kiwi: Peel off the kiwi's skin & dice it. Top 1 chicken thigh & 1 drumstick with the kiwi & steam for 25 minutes.

Steamed organic ladies' fingers (okra) & tomato: Top 5 lady's fingers & 15 organic cherry tomatoes (cut into quarters) with 1 tbsp of organic extra virgin coconut oil & 1/8 tsp of dried basil. Steam for 10 minutes.

Slurpilicious soup! Another addition to my small growing collection \(~.^)/ First try using kiwi in my cooking as my mummy told me that it'll help to tenderise meat. Very refreshing taste when eaten with the chicken but the gravy is a tad too sour for me. I think golden kiwis will be the way to go as they're sweeter in nature. My husband, on the other hand, finds it 'just nice'. He also gave thumbs up for the fish as he likes the combined sweetness from both the red dates & wolfberries. Added a mental note to myself to add a bit of water next time so that there'll be more of the light 'broth'. As usual, my lit' food lover happily gobbled everything up..lolz!

Beneficial Combinations:

Ginger + Kiwi = Clear heatiness & stop vomiting

Pork + Tomato = For healthier stomach & digestion as well as invigorate spleen & replenish qi

Organic Vege Macaroni in Organic Pumpkin & Red Dates Soup with Organic Beef Balls

Yet another addition of a simplicious soup recipe. I realised that one of the key factors to achieving a pot of good soup is, time. My mum has been following a Hong Kong cooking program recently & thus shared with me that time is of the essence, literally: it is recommended that double-boiled soups be brewed for 4 hours & 2 hours for brewing normal soups. I've put that to test & am pleased with the results so far. For working mummies who do not have the luxury of time, I'll strongly recommend that you invest in a slow cooker where you can throw in the ingredients before you go to work in the morning & come home to a pot of comforting soup. Alternatively, you can opt for a pressure cooker which will significantly reduce your cooking time (you may want to check out another mummy blogger's post on Buffalo Pressure Cooker Review).

Ingredients (serve 1 toddler & 1 adult):

200g organic pumpkin, cut into 1-inch chunks

10 red dates, seeds removed

1 litre of water

100g of organic minced beef

1 tsp of sesame oil

1 tsp of Bob's Red Mill All Natural Cornstarch

Freshly ground pepper

1 cup of Bellamy's Organic Vege Macaroni

Directions:

1. Marinate beef with sesame oil, cornstarch & pepper for at least 30 minutes.

2. Place pumpkin & dates into a big pot filled with water, bring to boil & simmer for 2 hours.

3. After 1 hour & 40 minutes, roll the beef into small balls & put into the soup.

4. Cook pasta in a pot of simmering water till al dente. Drain & leave aside.

5. Once the time is up, pour the soup over the pasta & serve warm.

This soup has a more subtle sweetness to it & a slight peppery taste from the marinated beef. But overall I still enjoy it. As for BB, he finished almost 2/3 of the macaroni, requested for more beef balls & red dates as well as his usual top up of another bowl of soup upon finishing his meal.

On a seperate note, while feeding him the dates from the papaya soup previously, I also taught him how to articulate the name of the fruit (as per our usually practice during mealtimes) which he mastered almost immediately. &, he actually still remembered it & kept saying dates to ask for more. 

His list of vocabulary now includes the following:

Papa, Mama (which means me & all his grandparents), GorGor, JieJie, DiDi, MeiMei, Uncle, Aunty, apple, nana = banana, tar tar = star, bird, ball, bus (corrected from butt & collectively means all vehicles to him), eyes, onion, girara = giraffe, an-mal = elephant, toup toup = soup, sit, bear, buckle, date, up & ABs = ABC.

Not only is he picking up more & more words recently, he seems to be able to pronounce after us in a much shorter time. Thus, don't despair if your lil' ones can't seem to do what you're teaching them now. Just keep repeating to them & you'll never know when they'll give you a pleasant surprise ~.^

Beneficial Combinations:

Beef + Pumpkin = Tonifying spleen & replenishing qi as well as detoxify & alleviate pain

Pumpkin + Red date = Invigorating spleen & replenishing qi as well as restraining & inhibiting qi of lungs

Vermicelli in Papaya Chicken Soup with Red Dates & Wolfberries

While this is not my first attempt at cooking papaya soup it certainly was without a doubt, THE best! I usually cook it with fish & the result is a very sweet-tasting soup. Armed with the intention to enhance the nutritional value of the soup, I decided to add in some red dates & wolfberries.

Ingredients (serve 2 adults + 1 toddler)

1 small green papaya, cut into 1 inch chunks

2 big + 12 small red dates, seeds removed

50g of wolfberries

1.5 litres of water

1 chicken leg + 1 small drumstick

150g of Origins brown rice vermicelli, soaked in water for 15 minutes

Directions:

1. Place papaya & dates into a big pot filled with water, bring to boil & simmer for 2 hours.

2. After 45 minutes, blanch the chicken first by placing it in a small pot with just enough water to cover it. Bring the water to a boil then remove the chicken from the heat, drain, rinse before adding it into the big pot.

3. 15 minutes before the time is up, add in the wolfberries.

4. Lastly, add in the vermicelli to warm it up for 2 minutes, then serve immediately.

I scooped up two bowls of soup before adding the vermicelli as it usually causes the soup to become more bland. To my astonishment, the soup still tasted extremely sweet even after the addition of the vermicelli. My BB finished one big bowl of the vermicelli & even requested excitedly for the small bowl of soup which I've set aside for him. Daddy-O came home early unexpectedly & luckily there was enough for the both of us. It's always such a joy to see my loved ones eating healthily & enjoying themselves in the process <3