Chinese Broth

"Worries go down better with soup"
-Jewish Proverb-


I know, I know, all I do lately is post recipes of soups and teas, teas and soups, but it's all my body's been craving these days, cold, rainy, and just kinda depressing really.

So I was feeling creative last sunday night and decided to give a try to this "recipe" my friend Priscilla roughly scribbled down for me when we met a few years ago. So I kinda made it up following her notes and it worked!  I don't want to lose this recipe so here it is. It may not be my favourite chinese soup but it tasted pretty good and is pretty chinese. 


Ingredients: 

•  2 litres of water.
• 2 chicken stock cubes.
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder.
• 4 teaspoons of rice wine.
• 2 teaspoons of soy sauce.
• A bunch of parsley.
• Optional: pasta, shiitake mushrooms and tofu or whatever you want.

1. So simple! just put the water and chicken stock and then add the parsely finely chopped and the garlic powder.
2. Once it boils add the rice wine and the soy sauce.
3. Now add the pasta if you want and mushrooms and finally add the cubes of tofu. 

Lemon, Cinnamon&Ginger Tea

Mountains of Ginger in  Jordan, Amman 

Been sick and sick and sick in January and February. And this week we have the worst cold spell of the whole winter. But honestly it was about time because it hasn't been cold at all.  Anyway, I've been drinking this tea in gallons these days. Ginger and lemon tea.

INGREDIENTS:

-2 lemons

-10 slices of ginger

-a stick of cinammon 

-2 litres of water

STEPS:

1. Bring to a boil it and then let it simmer for about an hour 

2. Add honey in each cup if you want.

It will do wonders to your throat. I love the way lemon kinda dries your throat, it feels like salt in your wounds, but in a good way, like it dries the inflammation so that you can stop coughing. Also the ginger gives it a superwarm flavour perfect for winter. PLUS your house will smell wonderful from the steam !!!!

Also! you can put some green tea into the combination and it tastes really good, I just didnt add it here because I'll be going to bed soon.
Another addition is to put a little whisky to give it some flavour. You can't go wrong really with this tea. It all tastes real good. Don't you think nature is amazing????  Blows my mind all the natural flavours God has created for us....
I read this quote thought it was quite cool.


“Perfume was first created to mask the stench of foul and offensive odors...
Spices and bold flavorings were created to mask the taste of putrid and rotting meat...
What then was music created for?Was it to drown out the voices of others, or the voices within ourselves? I think I know.”  ― Emilie Autumn, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

Chinese Egg Drop Soup

Singapore

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

(Just Kidding! it is a coincidence that I am writing this recipe right around this time of year)

AWFUL day at work but came home and did this soup that totally warmed me up. Amazing! And so easy! The only tough thing about this is soup is buying the ingredients and having them in your kitchen. But once you have them in your pantry, this soup is an easy one.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of water
• One and a half pieces of chicken stock. (1 pastilla y media)
• 1 tablespoon of grated ginger. (very important)
• 1 tablespoon of dry sherry (jerez seco).
• 6 shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced. (amazing this ingredient)
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground white pepper (so good this ingredient!)
• 1 large egg.
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch (maizena) to thicken up soup, dissolved in a little water.
• 1 handful of sliced green onion or a little parsley.

Very easy.

1. Put the water and the chicken stock and bring it to a boil.

2.To slice up the mushrooms you need to soak them in water for about an hour. I boiled the water and then sank the mushrooms. They do need to be in the water for about an hour because they are so dry and hard. Boiling water because them soften up much faster. Now, squeeze the water out and remove the stem, the stem is very hard and now slice them up.

3. Bring the heat down and add the shitaki mushroom sliced.

4. Now add the grated ginger. This is great because it spices it up and gives it this warm flavour.

5. Now add the little bit of dry sherry or chinese wine. I cold not find the chinese wine so I bought dry sherry, en español, jerez seco.

6. Now add cornstarch dissolved in a little water. This thickens up the soup.

7. Now add the white pepper, this makes it warm and spicy and gives it an awesome kick.

8. Now add the egg, beat it up in a bowl and slowly swirled it around.

9. Finally add the green onions or a little parsely (perejil). Parsley might be a little strong, but whatever, just a bit is good and makes it coulourful. 

Oh my. I loved this soup. PERFECT FOR WINTER. And so so so Chinese. Do you ever go to a Chinese restaurant and wonder, HOW DID THEY DO THIS?? Well, this how it is done, at least for this recipe is just awesome, the real deal. Thank you Jaden. 

Singapore