Ginseng Chicken Soup

I happened to be reading this recipe on Ginseng Chicken Soup. And I was wondering how on earth can I get fresh ginseng... Then, I saw it in the supermarket near my place. I was so happy upon finding this treasure. It was quite cheap, 3 for 25 HKD only. So, I immediately bought it and asked how long I can keep it. The auntie told me I can keep it for as long as I like, as long as they are stored in the refrigerator.

It also happened that my brother-in-law, Tim, was coming to visit us for the weekend. Hence, I made the soup for both him and Vin.

Cream of Chicken Soup

I'm finally back from all my travelling - Taiwan and Singapore. One of the first recipes I tried when I'm back in HK is this Cream of Chicken Soup. In general, I don't trust recipe books, it is more practical to learn from all the housewives' blogs since they are tried and tested and relatively simpler. However, I do buy those mini cookbooks. One of them is the "Chicken Favourites" and I decided to try this soup.

Ingredients

50g Butter

1/2 onion, finely dices

1 garlic cloves, crushed

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

100g chicken breast, diced into 1 cm cubes

1.5 tablespoons of plain flour

0.5 litres of chicken stock (If you are using the off the shelf chicken stock, do add water if you think it will be too salty and strong)

60ml cream plus 1 tablespoons to serve

Steps:

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add onions, then garlic, then celery over low heat. Stir frequently so the vegetables don't brown for 15 mins.

2. Add chicken and stir frequently for 5 mins.

3. Add the flour and stir for another 5 mins.
4. Add the chicken stock, a little at a time, stirring well so that lumps don't form.
5. Bring to simmering point, then cook uncovered for 30 mins.

6. Allow to cool then put them into the blender.

7. Pour the soup back into the saucepan and add the cream, simmer and season to taste.

8. Pour into bowls and add the extra cream to serve.

Low Cholesterol Diet

My hubby finally went for a health check to monitor his cholesterol levels. Although he is stick-thin, he has slightly high cholesterol. It could be due to his lifestyle or maybe inherited in his genes. The night before, I decided to cook some low cholesterol dishes for him.

It consists of celery soup, steamed fish, steamed tofu and red rice. For the celery soup, I used chicken breast (least fat content), celery, corn, carrots. For the steamed fish, I prepared it Cantonese-style i.e. steamed the fish plain, drain the fish then add hot oil, fried garlic, spring onions and soy sauce. For the steamed tofu, I steamed it, then add the black soya sauce fried together with the minced chicken breast, dried mushrooms and frozen vegetables.

When Vin came home that night, I told him about the low cholesterol dishes and he asked “Why must we cheat?!”… Hmmm… It got me thinking... Is this considered as cheating? Well, I guess it’s natural human behaviour to eat more healthy food before a health check. What do you think?

The celery soup, together with chicken breast, corn, carrot, celery. You will notice that I have removed the corn from the cobs as my hubby will only eat the corn like this...

The steamed tofu... I made too much sauce, so you can't see the tofu from this picture :p

Steamed fish with garlic... Really tastes yummy :)

According to the instructions, the red rice is to be soaked in water for 6 hours. I guess it is to soften it. But somehow, I feel that white rice is still the best. The rice rice doesn't absorb the gravy of the dishes.

Well... Healthy food often does not taste good.