Sharksfin Melon Soup in Bone Broth

Benefits of sharksfin melon:
1) Its hypoglycemic effect helps treat diabetes. *source: wikipedia
2)  In tcm its known to expel heat  *source: 饮食本草


Ingredients

1) 1.5litres of bone broth
2) half of a sharksfin melon (de-skin, cube and remove the seeds)
3) 6-8 seedless red dates
4) 1 honey date or if your honey date is small size u can add 2pieces.

Method:

1) Sieve through the bone broth from the big thermal pot over.

2) Place the rest of the ingredients into the bone broth and boil over the stove for 10mins in the thermal inner pot.

3) Then place it back in the outer pot to continue boiling for at least 4hrs.

4) Add a bit of salt to taste if desired.  Usually I'll skip the salt for a healthier lifestyle.

*Usually I boil my soups at night after my girl turns in for the night, so I'll heat it up again in the morning to let it continue cooking throughout the day and its still hot enough for dinner.

Si En's Weaning Diary: Vegetable Soup Stock

Everytime I'm cooking this, I feel like I'm a witch brewing a cauldron of potions away. Haha!!!
Anyway, I simply love to stock vegetable stock in the house as Si en's always coughing and she has to abstain from chicken.  So I thought I'll just let her have double boiled chicken soup on days that she's not coughing instead. 

I find soup stock very useful in weaning kids, especially cooking porridge or using for stir fries.  I guess not many kids would reject a much more flavorful soup?

Here's my recipe for the stock:

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 Leeks(white part)- Slice into chunks
2 Stalks of celery- cut the stems into chunks
1 Large white onion- Cut into slices
2 Large Carrots- cut into slices
2 Corns- I like to slice of the corn kernels from the kob as I find it much sweeter
10 dried mushrooms- pre-soak
4 Tomatoes- cut into chunks and remove seeds
2 Litres of water

Method:
- Heat oil, saute the onion, celery, carrot, leek.  
- Place the remaining ingredients into the pot and boil for 2hours
- Sieve the soup and set aside for cooling
- After cooling, u can place in stock bags or ice cube trays to freeze and store. 

Here's how I keep my soup stock:

 

After I've discovered the thermal pot, I've changed to using a thermal pot to boil the soup stock instead.

For thermal pot, usually I'll boil over the stove for about 20mins at night and place it in the outer pot to let it boil overnight. 
Wake up the next morning and boil it for another 20mins. 
About noon time, when my girl naps then I'll take it out to cool and store.
Maybe you might want to consider working around that timeline if you're usually busy with work or handling the child alone like I do. :p

Si En's Weaning Diary: Butternut Squash Puree

I've never taste butternut squash before and was to amazed to have stumbled upon it when I was looking for suitable food ingredients to wean Si En when she was 7months old. 

If you are as puzzled as I was to how it looks like, here's a picture for you:
 

After cooking I realised that it tastes as similar as a pumpkin because, it comes from the family of pumpkins. Haha!

The nutrient value of a butternut squash exceeds the pumpkin though. 

• Butternut squash contains many vital poly-phenolic anti-oxidants and vitamins. Similar to other Cucurbitaceae members, this too is one of the low-calorie vegetables, which provides just 45 calories per 100 g. It contains no saturated fats or cholesterol; however, is rich source of dietary fiber and phyto-nutrients. Squash is one of the common vegetables that often recommended by dieticians in the cholesterol controlling and weight reduction programs.
  
• It has more vitamin A than that in pumpkin. At 10630 IU per 100 g, it is perhaps the single vegetable source in the Cucurbitaceae family with the highest levels of vitamin-A, providing about 354% of RDA. Vitamin A is a powerful natural anti-oxidant and is required by the body for maintaining the integrity of skin and mucus membranes. It is also an essential vitamin for good eye-sight. Research studies suggest that natural foods rich in vitamin A help the body protected against lung and oral cavity cancers.
  
• Furthermore, butternut squash has plenty of natural poly-phenolic flavonoid compounds like α and ß-carotenes, cryptoxanthin-ß, and lutein. These compounds convert to vitamin A inside the body and deliver same protective functions of vitamin A on the body.
  
• It is rich in B-complex group of vitamins like folates, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), thiamin, and pantothenic acid.
  
• It has similar mineral profile as that in pumpkin, containing adequate levels of minerals like iron, zinc, copper, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus.
  
• Butternut squash seeds are a good source of dietary fiber and mono-unsaturated fatty acids that benefit for heart health. In addition, they are rich in protein, minerals, and numerous health-benefiting vitamins. The seeds are an excellent source of health promoting amino acid, tryptophan. Tryptophan converts to health benefiting GABA neuro-chemical in the brain.
  

The upper part of the tray contains the butternut squash puree.

How to do:
- Peel the skin and remove the seeds
- Dice into small cubes and steam for 7mins
- Remove the water and blend/mash it into puree.
- If you would like to freeze it, wait for it to cool down before spooning it into the ice cube trays to freeze.  Try to finish the frozen food by a week if possible.

Stir fried nai bai with double eggs (双蛋奶白菜）

Ingredients:

500gms of Nai Bai

1 salted egg ( separate yolk and white)

1 century egg (cut into small pieces)

2 cloves of chopped garlic

200ml stock

100ml of water

1tsp of vegetable seasoning

A pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

1/2 tablespoon hua tiao cooking wine

Dash of pepper

Method:

1- Cut the salted egg yolk and century egg into small pieces

2- heat the oil and sit fry the garlic until fragrant 

3- Add nai bai and stir fry till half cooked. Dish out and set aside.

4- Bring stock and water to boil. Add vegetable seasoning, salt, sugar, sesame oil, cooking wine. 

5- Add back nai bai and stir fry till cooked.

6- Add a dash of pepper before serving.