Braised Chicken with Chestnuts🌰栗子燒雞🐔

Braised Chicken with Chestnuts is a traditional Shanghainese dish, and Fall is the best season for Chestnuts. Although fresh chestnuts used to be commonly used in this dish, frozen fresh chestnuts are more readily available in the States, you can get it from the frozen section of almost all the Asian supermarkets.

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken pieces (bite sizes)

1/2 frozen chestnuts

some ginger slices

chopped garlic

chopped scallions

dark soy sauce

cooking wine

Instructions:

1.Heat oil in a pot or pan, add ginger & garlic for about 3 mins.

2.Add chicken in it, and add a spoon of cooking wine, make sure you stir it. 

3.Add the chestnuts, and add 2-3 spoons of dark soy sauce (depends on how you like it), keep stirring it,  and add a bowl of water.

4.Put the lid on, use low heat to cook for another 25 mins.

5.Add some peppers if you like, and put the chopped scallions on top to decorate the dish!

Yum yum!!!

Coca-Cola Chicken Wings💟可樂雞翅🐔

Coke Chicken Wings is a popular home-style dish in southern China. Since Coca-cola has the sweet flavor and the sticky texture when it’s cooked, it’s an absolutely great/creative ingredient to use in this dish. This dish also requires many other ingredients, but it’s so worth it!!! You will definitely make it very delicious as long as you have the right ingredients 🙂 Just follow the steps!

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken wings

1 can coca-cola

some ginger in slices

3 star anise（八角）

some dried cumin （茴香）

3 bay leaves （香叶）

2 tea spoons of cooking wine （紹興酒）

3 tea spoons of dark soy sauce

salt

Instructions:

1.Boil a pot of water, clean the chicken wings in the boiling water for 5 mins.

2.Place a wok over heat until hot, add cooking oil, and stir-fry the chicken wings with star anise for about 8 mins till they look like this:

3.Add the coke, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, ginger and all the other ingredients that you prepared.

4.Let it boil using high heat, and stir it well.

5.Turn the heat to medium or low, and cook them for another 20 mins, you will see the chicken wings are already turn reddish.

6.You will know it’s ready when the cooked mixture is almost all absorbed by the chicken wings.

7.YUM YUM!!!!!! enjoy 😀

Peach Lemon Soda 🍋白桃檸檬汽水🍑

White peach is one of my favorite fruits, I LOVE all the drinks & desserts that are made of peach!! So here is one very simple peach drink that I recently discovered :p and it tastes so goooood!!

Ingredients:

1 can of soda

1 white peach (the soft ones)

1/2 lemon

some sugar

Instructions:

1.Cut the peach into tiny pieces and place them in a bowl.

2.Add 2 teaspoons of sugar

3.Add the lemon juice into the bowl, and stir well with the peach and sugar.

4.Soak the peach purees with the lemon juice and sugar for about 15 mins.

5.Mix with the Soda. Done !

Pig’s Feet Soup with Pear 🐷豬蹄雪梨燉湯🍐

Pig’s feet might not be common in the western dishes, (and it might sound weird), but it’s very popular in Chinese food. The pig’s feet contains lots of collagen, which is in the skin helps in firmness, suppleness and constant renewal of skin cells. It is vital for skin elasticity.

Pear is one of the best fruits for the dry season, it helps prevent the throat problem and nourishes the throat. Pear can really bring out the flavor of the soup, and make this soup thicker and flavorful. And I also think it’s incredible that pear and pig’s feet can be such a great combo for the soup!

Ingredients:

1 Pear

1 lb pig’s feet

1 teaspoon of dark vinegar

Instructions:

1.Prepare a pot of boiling water, Clean the pig’s feet by putting them in the boiling water for 5 mins.

2. Add oil in a pan, with median heat, fry the pig’s feet for about 10 mins. (This is the essential step which helps to make the soup thick and whiter later)

3.Prepare a pot of water, add a teaspoon of vinegar in the pot. Turn the heat to high, and put the pig’s feet in. Let it cook for at least 50 mins, so we can get the collagen in the soup. 

4.Meanwhile, prepare the pear, and cut it in slices.

5.Add the pear in the soup, and let it boil for another 20 mins. 

6.Add a bit of salt, and it’s ready!!!

You will definitely find relief on your throat after drinking the soup!

Enjoy 🙂

Taste of the Fall – Pomegranate Soda Drink 🍁秋天的味道－石榴蘇打💗

Fall is the best season for Pomegranate !

So today I’m going to make pomegranate soda drink, and I will also share some tips for getting the pomegranate seeds out! ^^

Ingredients:

1 Pomegranate

1 Club Soda

Instructions:

1.Cut the pomegranate as it shown in the picture

2.Once you cut the head part, you will see the “pattern” of the pomegranate, then you can just cut it and try to follow its “pattern”, so it will be easier when you get the seeds out.

3.Put the seeds in a bowl. (take a picture, of course. lol)

4.Use blender to get the juice out.

5.Filter out the seeds!!!(I didn’t do this step, so my drink was kind of thick)

6.Pour the soda with the pomegranate juice.

Enjoy this girly pink pomegranate drink! 😀

Braised Pork Ribs with Taro 紅燒芋頭排骨🐖

Braised Pork Ribs with Taro is easy to make (and easy to make it delicious), but requires many ingredients. It’s a good dish for dinner with a bowl of rice and some veggie soup!

Ingredients:

3 Taros

1 lb. Pork ribs

some ginger in slices

some rock candies

2 red octagonal （八角）

some dried cumin （茴香）

1 tea spoon cooking wine （紹興酒）

dark soy sauce

salt

Instructions:

1.Boil a pot of water, and put the ribs in it for 5 mins to clean.

2.Cut the taro in cubes

3.Put rock candies in the pan, and let it melt.

4.Put the ribs in the pan, make sure the ribs are covered with brown sugar (so they got the red color), add some dark soy sauce and some slices of ginger

5. Put dried cumin, red octagonal, and taro in the pan, add hot water to cover everything.

6.Use medium/high heat, let it cook for about 20 mins, you will know it’s ready when the water is almost absorbed. You can also taste the taro to make sure it’s fully cooked.

7.Done 🙂

Pear Goji Drink 雪梨枸杞茶🍐

Pear provides a very good source of fiber and also a good source of Vitamin B2, C, E, copper, etc. It nourishes the throat and helps prevent the throat problem. Autumn is coming soon with dry air, let’s have some Pear Goji Tea and get ready for this season! 🙂

Ingredients:

1 Asian pear

some Goji

some rock candies

Instructions:

1.Cut the pear in slices

2.Boil a pot of water, and put everything in it.

3.Let it boil for at least 15 mins to get the flavor out.

4.You can put it in the freezer for couple hours and drink it cold.

(actually it was still hot when I took the pic, can you tell? haha 😉 )

🍁Autumn Kitchen🍴 is Returning Soon!

In this coming season, I will be introducing many Chinese traditional herbal soup recipes since autumn is the best season for dietetic invigoration and nutrition supplementation!

Please look forward to it!! 🙂

Lavender Lemon Soda💜薰衣草檸檬汽水🍋

💜Love the dreamy color and wonderful scent of lavender?

This post will mark as the 24th post of my blog!!! (hurray🎉🎉🎉!!) And I want to announce that my Summer Kitchen will be closed for three weeks due to vacation, but I will coming back soon with my 🍁Autumn Kitchen🍴  Please come to visit me again 🙂

Ok now let’s get started to make this lovely summer drink!

Ingredients:

culinary lavender

soda or sparkling water

lemon

sugar

Instructions:

1.Boil the lavender for 15 mins and add sugar. Soak it in the pot for at least 20 mins

2.Meanwhile, squeeze the lemon juice out.

3.Filter out the lavender, mix it with lemon juice and sparkling water. You can decide the amount of each portion you put in according to your own preference (sour or sweet)

Remember to decorate it with some culinary lavender on the top!

Beautifully Done 🙂  Enjoy~

Red Bean Soup with handmade Rice balls🍡紅豆白玉麻糬🍨

Red bean, also known as adzuki bean in Asia, they’re a good source of magnesium, iron, potassium and zinc – in addition to the protein they contain. Red beans also help to lower cholesterol levels due to the large amount of soluble fiber they contain. The handmade rice balls, also called mochi, is very chewy and quite filling.

Ingredients:

125 g red beans

75 g rice flour

some rock candies

Instructions:

1.Wash the red beans and soak them with boiling water for at least 2-3 hours, so it is easier for them to get cooked.

2.As I mentioned in my past blog, pour the flour into a big bowl, add room temperature water little by little (you don’t want the dough to be too sticky).

3.Press the dough for at least 10 mins till it form the shape and become very soft but not too sticky.

4.Now separate the dough to 3 parts, make each part into a roll, and then separate the roll into smaller pieces to make the rice ball.

5.Cook the red beans with soaking water in a rice cooker, add rock candies.

6.When the red beans turn to soft, you can add the rice balls into the rice cooker. (or you can cook the rice balls separately and put them into the rice cooker if it’s easier for you.)

7.It’s ready when everything is soft and chewy!

8. Enjoy~