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 😀

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 🙂

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 😉 )

Hawthorn Berry Juice💛甘草山楂水🍸

Hawthorn berry is used to promote the health of the circulatory system, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure and has been found to strengthen the heart. And dried licorice is often used as cough remedies to soothe sore throats.

Ingredients:

dried hawthorn berries

dired licorice

rock candies

Instructions:

1.Soak the hawthorn berries and licorice in cold water for 10 mins to clean them.

2.Throw them in a pot with 1/2 liter of water and some rock candies, let it boil for at least 20 mins, and then turn to low heat for another 30 mins.

3. Cool it down, it tastes better when is cold !  🙂

Red Dates and Dried Longan with Egg 红枣桂圆糖吞蛋

Red Dates and Dried Longan with Egg is my childhood breakfast. My mom always makes it in the morning, because both red dates and dried longan help to generate energy for the body, and the egg supplies nutrition. So it’s especially good for kids.

Ingredients:

1 egg

2 red dates (big ones)

some dried longan

2 rock candies

Instructions:

1. Wash the red dates, and cut a little bit in the middle (easier to cook)
2. Throw red dates, dried longan, and rock candies in the pot.
3. Use high heat and let it boil for 15 mins
4. 
5. When the soup becomes darker, turn off the heat.
6. Beat an egg into it, cover the pot with the lid for another 15 mins.
7. 
8. You can adjust the time according to your own preferences for how you like the egg to be cooked.
9. Done 🙂  for a warm & sunny morning!
10. 

Grandma’s recipe – Chinese Steamed Eggs💚奶奶傳承的嫩膚水蒸蛋💛

Chinese steamed eggs or water egg is a Chinese home-style dish found all over China. Eggs are beaten to a consistency similar to that used for an omelette and then steamed. I learned to cook this from my grandma, and today I gonna share the secret tricks my grandma taught me. 🙂

Ingredients:

1 egg

salt

chopped scallion

soy sauce

Instructions:

1.Prepare everything. (Chop the scallion, boil a pot of water, put a steaming rack.

2.Beat the egg with room temperature water, scallion, and salt to a consistency.

3.Add a bit (about 1/5) of warm water

4.Put the container on the steaming rack, make sure you put a lid on it. Continue to boil the water for 12 mins.

5.Turn off the heat, leave it in there for another 12 mins

Perfectly done!!

It’s important to choose the right soy sauce, and this is the brand I used. 

Enjoy 🙂 Always feel loved when I make this!

Sour Prune Drink (SuanMeiTang) 傳統配方酸梅湯

Sour Prune Drink is a traditional Chinese beverage made from sour plums, rock sugar, and other ingredients. It has existed for over 1000 years. The drink is especially good for summer, it can help to prevent heatstroke and calm you down.

Ingredients:

20 dried prunes

3 red dates

5 pieces of liquorice

10 pieces of dried hawkthorn

1 small piece of dried tangerine

some rock sugar

Instructions:

1. Soak all the ingredients (of course except the sugar) in a bowl for 30 mins to clean.

2. Have a pot of water ready, and pour all the ingredients in it.

3. Use medium heat to cook until is boiling, and turn it to small heat to cook for another 30 mins. You will see the color is getting darker.

4. Cool it down, and put in the refrigerator for couple hours and drink it cold!

ENJOY~

(I was kinda bored that day so I made this setup for the prune drink photoshoot haha, and I was pretending that I’m on the beach, yayyy)

Chilled Soba Noodle with Salmon & Asparagus

Who doesn’t like some cold dishes for lunch during summertime? Today we are going to make Chilled Soba Noodle with Salmon & Asparagus！It can be done within 15 mins~ and you can even make it in the morning and take it to work for lunch 🙂

Ingredients:

2 slices of smoked salmon

organic soba noodle

asparagus cut in small piece

cucumber cut in slices

chopped onions

A bowl of icy water

for the sauce:

lemon, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, sesame

Instructions:

1. Prepare everything as it showed in the previous picture (chop & cut), put the soba in the boiling water, let it cook till it’s soft, and take it out. Cook the asparagus as well (just for about 2 mins)

2. Put soba and asparagus in a bowl of icy water to cool down.

3. Put everything in a bowl, and then prepare the sauce. Mix lemon, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, sesame together. (You can mix it according to your own preference, I didn’t measure it specifically.)

4. Pour the sauce in the bowl, and mix it well.

5. Ready to enjoy!