Stir fried green bean

For the past few months I was a bit overwhelmed with what's going on at work and everything else outside of work. But fortunately (or is it unfortunately? boy didn't I wish I have a fulltime maid who cooks and cleans, better yet works and brings money home for me) that doesn't mean I didn't cook, I was just behind in blogging.

Here's a simple recipe of green bean stirfried, another comfort food I cook pretty often. It's also easy to pack with rice for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

+ 1 lb of green beans

+ As much dried shrimps as you like, I used about 1/2 tbsp (subtract dried shrimps if you want the vegan version)

+ 1 to 2 stalks of green onions

+ Dab of salt (about 1/2 to 1 tsp)

+ Dab of sugar (just a sprinkle should be enough)

+ 1tbsp oil

+ Optional: 1 tsp soy sauce. Note that soy sauce can add, hence alter, favor to your stirfries depends on what type of soy sauce you use. I only used salt, didn't use soysauce b/c I didn't want the dark soy sauce to over powering the fresh bean's flavor.

Instructions:

+ Wash green onions, coursely chop into chunks about 1/4 inch long.

+ Wash green beans, remove the veins on the 2 sides (as much as possible, if not don't worry)

+ Cut greenbeans into wedges (see picture).

+ In a wok or pot, heat up oil.

+ Add the dried shrimps and stir for about 30 seconds. Then add chopped green onions, and stir for another 30 seconds.

+ Then add green beans and cook for 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally for even cooking of the bean.

+ You may want to add 1 tbsp water while the green bean is cooked so that it doesn't burn. Add more water if needed (only a little bit, like 1 tbsp, each time).

+ About 10 minutes in, you can sprinkle the salt and sugar over the bean, and mix it well.

+ Turn off the heat once the green beans are as cooked as desired.

I usually turn off the heat a couple minutes early, stir once more, and then let it sit in the heated pot for another few minutes. I like the bean's texture to be still a tiny bit firm, not too well cooked.

The day is already short enough that after a full-day at work I just don't really have time (or want to spend time) for a lengthy cooking episode in the kitchen; I think alot of you can relate. I hope this recipe is simple enough for you working wives/girlfriends/moms out there. And the nice thing that I like about this kind of simple home cooking dishes I make is that it doesn't trade convenience for healthy nutrition and quality.

Enjoy. And don't forget to pack the left over with rice for lunch the next day.

water crest soup

This isn't a Vietnamese soup since I never had it growing up, at least not being cooked this way. My Mom has made salads and other main dishes using water crest, even water crest soup cooked with ground pork, but the taste of the soup broth is remotely different. This is a Chinese (Cantonese?) version that was introduced to me by the hubbie back when we were still dating. The soup broth is a bit "sweet". I've very soon picked up this one of his favorite soups as my fav also. Come to think about it, the hubbie is pretty easy going at eating since he has a...lot... of favorites.

This soup is earthy, healthy, yummy, and easy to make.



Ingredients:
+ 2 bundles of water crest, washed.
+ 1 lb of pork ribs, cut into smaller pieces (remove the fat if you like)
+ (Optional) 20-30 dried almond seeds
+ 1 dried sweeten fig (see picture). This is usually sold in a plastic package at Asian grocery or herbal store like Wing Hop Fung
+ My "secret ingredient" :-) is a few small pieces of "tran bi`" (dried citrus peel). Some type of citrus peel is already sweeten, so you'll need to adjust the sweet-salty balance of your broth (for example: choose a smaller sized dried fig, add more water and salt to proportion out the extra sugar, etc.)
+ 2-3 tsp salt. Or to taste.


Cooking instruction:
+ Boil a pot of water
+ (Optional) if you have dried almond seeds, add them to the pot and cook from the beginning. These seeds are hard so it'll take a long time to cook them. By adding at the beginning, we give it more cooking time.
+ When boiled, add the pork ribs, 1 dried sweeten fig, and dried citrus peel into the pot
+ Let it cook in the broth for 1/2 hour. Scoop off the foam if any.

• *Note* The dried fig should be pretty sweet (sometimes I scoop it out after I think I've got enough sweet taste to my soup - and let the soup continue to cook without it)

+ Add the water crest, and lower the heat to medium. Let cook for another 1/2 hour (the vegetable appears all soft) or longer if you want.
+ Add salt and sugar to taste at the end, before turning off heat.

I used to ask the hubbie why they cook until the vegies all soft, presentation wise, it doesn't look as nice, taste wise you can't "eat" the vegetable it pretty much melt in your mouth. This is alot different from the Vietnamese way of cooking, because in Vietnamese cooking at least you want to be able to bite on or chew on the vegetable to savoy its taste and texture. So according to the hubbie, chinese "loo fo" soups (literally translated to "old fire") emphasize only on the broth. That's why they usually cook for a very long time (hence, loo fo) so that all the nutrition and flavor can yield into the broth. All the ingredients that go in a soup (meat, vegetables, etc.) are meant to give nutrition and flavor up the broth and people would mainly drink the broth, sometimes don't even bother about the rest. Interesting concept. But then again, I thought its a little bit wasteful.