Sugar cane water 竹蔗水

The weather is very hot. Mum plan to cook sugar cane water which she get it from grandmother's house that day. It is very easy to cook but just the problem to get the sugar cane.

Ingredients:
1. Sugar cane
2. Pandan leaves

Method:
1. Wash the sugar cane thoroughly under clean running water.
2. Cut the sugar cane into small pieces and mash it few times.
3. Put in sugar cane and pandan leaves into a pot and cook with water.
4. Cook for about half an hour after it has boiled.

*Tips: There's no necessary to add sugar if you feel the natural sweetness is enough.

Homecook Hok-kien Mee

Sis was very desperate to eat Hok-kien mee. She has asked me to eat since first day I go back home during this semester break. On the last day of my semester break, we planned to have breakfast with Hok-kien mee, but very unfortunately the hawker that sells Hok-kien mee around our housing area are sold out (as we go very late in the morning), so we went home very disappointed. However, we found that mum has buy a packet of Hok-kien mee paste, thus we decided to cook ourselves.

By using the ready-to-cook paste, the preparation become very easy. We just need to prepare for the ingredients and cook the gravy with water.

Serving size: 6

Ingredients:

1. Hok-kien mee paste     1 packet 

2. Bihoon/mee                  6 cup

3. Taugeh                         1 cup

4. Swamp cabbage           1 cup

5. Egg                               3 whole 

Method:

1. Boil 1300ml water in a pot. Then, add in Hok-kien mee paste in the boiled water and stir well. Cook for 2 minutes. 

2. Blanch bihoon/mee, taugeh and swamp cabbage and put side. 

3. Boiled the egg, peel and cut into half.  

4. Put all ingredients in a bowl and pour in the gravy.

5. Serve immediately while it still hot. 

Bittergourd Soup 肉骨苦瓜汤

Well, this is just a simple home cook recipe that I think most Chinese friends are know how to cook or have been eaten. The cooking method is very simple and only few ingredients are needed.

Bittergourd is known to have benefit of "cooling the body" in Chinese' belief. But due to its bitter taste, not much people like to eat. In herbal medicine, bittergourd is used for controlling certain illness such as diabetes, coughs, skin diseases, anti-cancer, sterility in women and so on.
Well, there are scientific research done to prove the benefit of bitter gourd. Research has show that bitter gourd has the potential effect for reducing inflammatory response (Mariko Manabe et al, 2003) and controlling diabetes mellitus ( Jaipaul Singh et al, 2011).

Serving size: 4

Ingredients:
1. Pork bone/ pork rib         5 pieces
2. Bittergourd                      1/2 pieces
3. Chicken broth                  1 big bowl

Method:
1. Wash the bitter gourd under clean running water. Cut into small pieces ( about 1 inch thick).
2. Cook the pork bone/rib in a pot until it is cooked thouroughly.
3. Add in chicken broth and bittergourd into the cooked pork bone/rib. ( You may pour out the broth that used to cooked the pork bone if the broth is not clear or just leave it to cook with chicken broth.)
4. Cook until the bittergourd is soft enough.
5. Add in salt to taste.

*Tips: For those who does not eat pork, you can replace it with chicken. You may also add in goji berries to  the soup. By pouring out the broth used to cook the pork bone/rib, you may get a clearer soup.

Goji berries