May 7, 2012

KY cooks – Mint and Egg Soup

This is one of the fastest soup to prepare that is perfect to clear up sinus problem – the mint and egg soup. Everything can be done in about 10-15 minutes, and makes a perfect companion to another dish, or even to be consumed just by itself.

I’ve always thought that making the mint and egg soup means chucking everything into the pot and just boil away. As it turns out, the process involves a few more steps in between, and here’s how you do it:

the two main ingredients – mint leaves and egg

Ingredients (for two as companion dish):

• a bunch of mint leaves – pluck and use only the leaves
• 1 egg – lightly beaten
• ginger – in strips
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon oil
• half a chicken cube (or soup stock if you have)
• salt and pepper for seasoning

with some oil, fry ginger, garlic, then the mint leaves

Cooking instructions:

• with a pot, heat up cooking oil then fry ginger as it takes longer to cook
• a minute or two later, add in garlic
• when garlic is fragrant, add mint leaves, stir till you can smell the mints, around 1-2 minutes
• add egg, and cook it to the consistency of soft scrambled egg
• add 1.5 bowl of water and chicken cube (or soup stock)
• bring to boil, add salt and pepper  according to taste

make a scramble egg, almost, then add water and chicken cube

So there you go, 2 small bowls of mint and egg soup ready to serve. The frying process, together with the addition of ginger and garlic really brings out the flavor of the soup. The only little tricky part with the mint soup is that mint leaves generally doesn’t last very long in the fridge before turning black and bad. You should always cook it at the lastest 1-2 days after purchasing for best results.

Get cooking! There are more recipes here.

and it’s ready to serve after boiling for a couple minutes

P/S: the recipe for prawn dish on the photo above is here.

June 3, 2010

Are your eggs.. safe?

Egg, telur,  蛋， easily one of the most important foods in our everyday diet. We gotta respect the first prehistoric human who looked at the egg and said “I’m gonna eat that liquid chicken!”

From that fateful day many thousands of years ago until very recently, the production, preparation, and consumption of eggs hasn’t really changed that much. Until now..

so when is an egg not an ordinary egg?

But before we get to that, here’re some trivia on eggs that you might find interesting:

• Malaysians eat an aeverage of 305 eggs per person per year
• The longest throw of a fresh egg without breaking it is 98.51 meters
• The older the hen, the larger the egg
• A fresh egg will sink in water while an older egg will stand up.
• The average hen will lay an average of 300-325 eggs a year, taking 24-26 hours to lay a single egg
• A raw egg will wobble and a cooked egg will spin freely if you spin it
• It is estimated that there are 4.93 billion egg-laying hens in the world. China is the world’s largest egg producer with approximately 20.25 million tonnes
• The only pasteurized eggs sold in Malaysia are “Safegg” from Safe Food Corporation, available now at all leading hypermarkets

Healthy Living talk show, and the launch of Safegg

Last week I was invited to attend the “Healthy Living” talk show with the launch and cooking demonstration of Safeegg, which brings us to the latest method of egg production and preparation – pasteurized shell eggs.

The talk show and speeches were given by YB Datuk Hajjah Rohani Haji Abdul Karim, the deputy minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry, Yong-Sik Cho, CEO of Safe Food Corporation (SFC), Professor Gulam Rusul Rahmat Ali, University Sains Malaysia, and Maverick Lee, MD of SFC, and Mr. Kong Vee Hong, GM of SFC (I went to uni with him back in the States!)

the nasty Salmonella bacteria

The picture above shows the nasty Salmonella bacteria under electron microscope, this is the very bacteria that infect 142,000 Americans and causes some 30 death yearly. Basically one of the major causes of food poisoning that leads to diarrhea, dehydration, and in more severe cases, death.

This nasty stuff can be found in contaminated egg whites, you don’t really want to mess with it.

Safegg live cooking demonstration

To be honest, before attending this event, I didn’t even know that pasteurization of shelled eggs even existed. The technology is actually from Korea to treat bacteria at low temperature, without the need of chemicals. During the process, the eggs are also coated with a protective layer of food grade mineral oil to prevent cross-contamination and keep the eggs fresh longer.

Through this method, harmful salmonella bacteria are killed but the nutritional value and tastes of the eggs remain.

The tell tale sign of a pasteurized egg is that the egg white appears to be slightly opaque instead of completely transparent.

the eggnog was absolutely fantastic

After the show, we proceeded to the Safegg cooking demonstration where I helped myself to a few omelete, “mata kerbau”, desserts, and that addictive eggnog. They were delish!

Safegg is now available at all major hypermarkets in the country.

October 15, 2009

Meng Kee Steamed Soup at Taman Paramount

Meng Kee Steamed Soup is one of those places where I’ve been to so many times that I had always thought that I wrote about it before. A quick search revealed that I haven’t, and there were actually at least a couple sets of pictures taken from this place from quite a while back.

more than half the menu consists of various steamed soup

Meng Kee is located by the Taman Paramount Giant Hypermarket and Post Office, right next door to one of my other favorite Chinese “tai chau” – Ming Heong.

There are a couple dozen tables sprawling around the area with about three quarter of them totally alfresco style. I wouldn’t go there when it’s raining or even just drizzling, however, on any other given night, you usually have to wait for a table. It is a very busy little corner.

various types of steamed soup and herbal soup, and other dishes

Once you’re seated, it is usually quite a challenge to get the attention of the waiters and secure a menu. Over half of the dishes offered here are steamed soup. You can find anything from “tung kwai”, chicken soup in coconut, peanut, pork tripes, ribs, ABC, black chicken, to ginseng soup.

Most soup come in a single-person serving, with a handful of them for twin sharing. I’ve tried at least half a dozen different types of soup here and for the most part, they’re rather awesome, but perhaps with the exception of pork tripe soup. For a good bowl of pork tripe soup, I’ll head to Weng Soon Jaya at USJ instead.

steamed chicken, 3 colored steamed egg, Mellissa

Other than soup, they serve a few steamed vegetables, tofu, pretty awesome lamb curry, steamed chicken with oyster sauce, and my favorite – three colored steamed egg (with normal egg, century egg, and salted egg).

With the exception of the curry, deep fried and asam fish, almost everything from Meng Kee is steamed or soup. If you’re looking for a healthy meal that is also easy on the wallet (most soup starts from RM 4 to RM 8, and other dishes not over RM 10) too, you know where to go now.

Address:
Jalan 20/22,
Taman Paramount, PJ,
Selangor
GPS: 3.107553,101.624141

In a not so related note:

I like the feel of the new Blackberry 8520 I got from XBerry party, it feels pretty good in my hand. Small, sleek, and rather light even if compared with the normal “dumb” phones.

I also think that the touch pad is actually pretty nifty. While others might prefer the more traditional BlackBerry trackball, I think the touch pad has more longevity and a lot less headache when you’re at a beach (fine grains of sand getting into the trackball can be quite a pita to clean)

If you missed buying the 8520 at RM 888 during the launch, Xpax is now selling the package at RM 998, completely unlocked. Get a unit and join the club yo!

Next up: updating BBM!