Bee’s Kitchen

This is L’s lovely chicken soup, made with a whole chicken, and heaps of fresh vegetables.

I love this dish, it’s so spicy and tasty!

Preparation Time – 15 minutes
Cooking Time -15 minutes

Serves – 4

Ingredients

500 g prawns (shelled & deveined)
1 egg white (beaten till white & frothy)
1/4 cup cornflour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp szechuan pepper
4 cloves garlic (sliced)
2 tbsp shallots (sliced)
2 chillies (sliced)
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Method

1. Combine cornflour, salt, five spice, szechuan pepper in medium bowl.  Dip prawns into egg white followed by the flour mixture.
2. Heat olive oil in medium non stick pan on high heat, adding in garlic, shallots and chilli, once fragrant remove from heat and toss in prawns.
3. Once prawns turn pink and start to curl, combine with the garlic, shallots and chilli. Serve with rice.

With an overstock of mushrooms, I tried to figure out what to do with a full bag. So I sliced them up and started to pan fry them. Thinking this was oh so very boring I whipped up some batter and turned them into Herb & Mushroom Fritters.

And here they are ta da!

Preparation Time – 5 minutes
Cooking Time – 15 minutes

Serves – 4

Ingredients

500g button mushrooms
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt & pepper
1 tbsp shallots, sliced
1 tbsp parsley, chopped

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a non stick frying pan, then add mushrooms and cook till tender.
2. In large bowl combine flour, salt and pepper, and stir through milk, eggs, mushrooms, shallots and parsley.
3. Using non stick frying pan on medium heat, cook both sides till golden brown.

This recipe requires minimal preparation and cooking time, and is another favourite dish. The secret is in the marinate, the combination of soy flavour goes so well with the sweetness of honey. I prefer to use chicken wings, as they’re easy to cook and come out juicy and tender. A healthier alternative is using skinless chicken breast or thigh fillets instead.

After marinating for a few hours or overnight, the chicken can be cooked in a number of ways, grilled, oven baked, BBQ, pan fried, deep fried. Its perfect for lunch time wraps or sliced up into cubes and skewered for the bbq. Tonight we are having the wings with steamed rice.

Preparation Time – 15 minutes
Cooking Time – 30 minutes

Serves – 4

Ingredients
1 kg chicken wings
Marinate
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp raw sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper

Method

1. Cut chicken wings into 3 segments, removing the tip and discarding, combine soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, honey, salt and pepper in a medium bowl place in chicken coat in sauce, then cover and marinate over night. If you have limited space in your fridge like me, instead of using a bowl, use a zip lock plastic bag.
2. Line the wings up on a baking tray, and grill for about 30 minutes on medium heat or until cooked through.

The good thing about Chinese dishes is that you can estimated the quantities used and this is what i’ve done here with this fried chicken.

The healthy rating on this dish wont win any stars but this is a favourite that we have once in a while. A more healthier alternative is pan frying the chicken instead of deep frying, it still turns out well. And if you like having it more lighter in flavour cut down on the salt and chicken powder.

Ingredients

500 g chicken pieces
vegetable oil for frying
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dry sherry/cooking wine
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup corn flour
2 tbsp five spice powder
1 tbsp chicken stock powder

Method

Mix together soy sauce, dry sherry, sugar, salt and pepper. Then marinate chicken pieces for 30 minutes.

Combine the cornflour, five spice and chicken stock powder, then coat marinated chicken pieces in mix.

Heat oil then deep fry chicken pieces for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown and cooked inside. Serve hot with sweet chilli sauce.

Perfect when you want to clear out all the vege’s in the fridge, just a matter of grabbing some chicken stock from the fridge, chopping up the vege’s and meat, and chucking it into one pot and adding your favourite pasta. Beats canned soup anyday.

I use to put potato in my recipe but i’ve taken it out this time, it seems to dilutes the colours of the vege’s, and i wanted to go for the healthy green look tonight. Thanks for the tip B!

3 chicken thigh fillets (skinless)
2 tbsp oil
6 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
100g pasta shells
1 zucchini (diced)
1 cup broccoli (chopped)
1 carrot (diced)
1 stalk celery (diced)
1 brown onion (chopped)
1 cup mushrooms (chopped)
Salt & pepper

Slice the chicken up into bite sized chunks then heat some oil in the pot and cook till nearly done.

In a frypan saute all vegetables until soft then transfer to food processor and pulse until paste like then add to pot.

Pour in chicken stock and water and season with salt and pepper. Bring to boil, add pasta, cover then reduce heat to simmer and cook till pasta is al dente.

Season to taste and serve with fresh crusty bread.

How Many Tones Would You Like Tonight?

A nice light meal or a fantastic hot, tasty entr�e. �The Man� loves eating this dish, especially now it�s autumn in Sydney and starting to cool down.

Dad makes this a lot for Sunday lunch, when mum goes visiting my grandparents. I�ve since modified it a bit and incorporated Szechuan preserved vegetable which my friend Flo likes to add, giving the Won Ton’s a bit of a crunch and light spicy flavouring. The good thing about this is any extra you make, can be frozen and kept until needed. So impress your friends and make them some Chinese Won Ton Soup, its heaps nicer then buying the frozen boxed variety from Asian Supermarkets, and usually serves 6-8.

You can also add egg noodles too which is a very popular combination with Won Ton’s, Visit your local Chinese BBQ Stores which offers BBQ Pork, Roast Pork or Roast Duck as they are great additions on top.

Even though Won Ton’s are great and something I make on a regular basis, putting it down in writing took me longer then the whole preparing, and cooking process. I hope you enjoy it as much as The Man.

And thanks to the Chin’s for the lovely red dinnerware Christmas present!

Ingredients

1 packet won ton wrappers

Filling
500 g pork (mince)
200 g fresh prawns (shell, devein, chopped)
4 dried mushrooms (re-hydrate, de-stem, thinly sliced)
2 leaves of Chinese cabbage (thinly sliced)
2 tbsp szechuan preserved vegetable (finely minced)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1 egg (beaten)
pinch of salt & pepper

Glue
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water

Soup
1 litre chicken stock
2 tbsp tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Greens
2 tbsp shallots (chopped)
1 bunch baby bok choy (roughly sliced)

Method

Combine all the filling ingredients together in a bowl with a large spoon, making sure everything is mixed through evenly.

Combine cornstarch and water in small bowl to make the glue.

On a flat surface using one sheet of Won Ton wrapper at a time, scoop one teaspoon of filling into the centre. Line the edges with the glue and fold the wrapper into a triangle. Overlap and press the edges all the way around to seal.

Prepare the soup then leave on slow simmer.

Bring a large pot of water to rapid bowl, cooking the baby boy choy, then setting aside for later. Using the same pot of hot water place two dozen Won Ton’s into the pot, these will float to the top once they are ready, cook for another minute or two then strain away water and place in two serving bowls, repeat process until you have desired amount of bowls filled.

Garnish with shallots and baby bok choy. Pour hot soup on top, serve and enjoy.

This is one of my favourite snacks, which is really easy to make and tasty to eat. They’re pretty to look at too with a pattern on the whites that reminds me of the crackle glaze found on some Japanese tableware. All you need is a few simple ingredients readily available from the Asian isle of the supermarket or your local Asian food grocer. I usually go by instincts with this one. Roughly here are the ingredients for those that are interested.

Ingredients

12 eggs

Marinate
4 cups water (cold)
2 star anise (crushed)
2 tsp tea leaves (oolong)
2 tbsp five spice (powder)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp salt

Method

Cover eggs with water in a pot and bring to boil, next reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes, and then remove from heat.

Place eggs into ice water and once cool enough to touch, lightly crack with a spoon, making sure not to remove the shell.

In a saucepan combine together the mixture of water, star anise, tea leaves, five spice, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and salt and bring to a simmer.

Place eggs gently into the saucepan and simmer for 2 hours, if liquid does not cover eggs, add water.

Leave to cool in saucepan, then place in fridge overnight.

Peel and dry with paper towel, these are great served whole, sliced in half or quarters.