Black fungus and egg drop soup [quick soup]

That day I came home did not really feel like to cook but my boy asked to eat at home. I did not have enough time to prepare our usual soup so decided to make something easy and simple so that he can have some soup for dinner. The ingredients in the soup are black fungus, dried mushrooms and eggs which are normally stocked in my kitchen. I only prepared a very small portion so the measurements are all estimated.

Ingredients

5 to 6 pcs dried black fungus 

3 to 4 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms 

1 beaten egg 

chopped spring onions (garnish)

chicken stock powder (you can replace with fresh stock if you have) 

water 

dark soy sauce 

light soy sauce

pepper 

Cornstarch solution 

Recipe

1. Soak the black fungus and shiitake mushrooms till softened and cut them into thin shreds. Discard the soaking water for black fungus, you can keep the soaking water for mushrooms. 

2. Add the soaking water for mushrooms in a pot and top up with water. Heat till it is boiling then add chicken stock powder.

3. Add in the black fungus and mushrooms. Let the soup boil for 10 to 15 minutes. 

4. Add a bit of dark soy sauce for the colour. Season with light soy sauce and pepper to your liking.

5. Thicken the soup with cornstarch solution. When the soup has thickened, turn off the fire and add in the beaten egg while stirring. 

6. Put the soup in a bowl and put some chopped spring onions for garnish. 

Note: you can add in some tofu and carrots if you happened to have them. Chilli oil and vinegar to make it hot and sour. For kids, I guess simple and plain will be good. 

Stir fry celery with scallops

I happened to have some celery in my fridge so I decided to combine it with scallops to make a stir fry. My favourite scallops go well with anything. :)

Ingredients
Approx. 15 scallops
3 celery sticks (cut into slices)
some chopped carrot slices
chopped garlic
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
salt
pepper

Recipe
1. Season the scallops with salt and pepper then pat dry with kitchen towel.
2. In a heated pan with oil, add in the scallops in a clockwise direction. Let it cook for 2 minutes till you see the juice oozing and slightly turning brown then flip over to the other side and let it cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from the pan both the scallops and the juice. Do NOT discard the juice.
3. In the wok, heat up the oil and add in chopped garlic. When the garlic is fragrant, add in the carrot and celery to stir fry. As you can see the celery is sliced thin, there is no need to cook too long as we do not want to lose the crispy texture.
4. Add in oyster sauce and stir fry to mix before adding the cooked scallops and the juice. Again the scallops are already cooked, we just want to give it a good mix. (Taste test the sauce, it might get a bit salty cuz of the natural salt in the scallop juices. You can dilute with a little water if you like.)Remove from the wok and serve.

Baked chicken in mandarin orange sauce

Every Chinese New year, I will end up with mandarin oranges and nobody eats them except me. To reduce wastage, I would try to add them in my cooking. This year I tried something new with chicken wings and my boy loves it. Sorry I am unable to provide very accurate measurements because I estimated while I was cooking.

Ingredients
7 chicken wings
1 tsp white sesame (garnish)
Shredded lettuce (garnish)

Marinate
Salt
White pepper
Cornstarch
Baking powder
Oil (I used extra light olive oil)

Sauce
2 Mandarin oranges (juiced)
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
garlic powder
1 tsp vinegar
sugar

Recipe
1. Marinate the chicken wings with the ingredients stated above. For the baking powder, I only added slightly less than half a tsp. Added some oil so that it is easier to coat the wings. Leave it for at least 30 minutes.
2. Arrange the wings neatly on the baking tray and make sure no overlapping so that they can get baked evenly for 180 degree 25 to 30 minutes. Depending on your oven, you can stop baking when you see the wings turn golden brown. See the picture above.
3. For the sauce, you can juice 2 mandarin oranges which yield about 1 small bowl for myself. Add oyster sauce, garlic powder, vinegar and a little sugar. Heat up the sauce mixture in the wok till it is boiling. Adjust the taste to your liking. i.e. if your oranges are not sweet, you need to add a little more sugar to balance the sweet sour taste.
4. Once you are happy with the sauce, add in the white sesame. Give it a good stir before adding in the baked wings. Coat the wings with the sauce then remove from wok. Serve the wings on a bed of shredded lettuce.

Note: if you do not like the sauce, you can always make the marinate more flavourful by adding in spices before baking them.