Chrysanthemun-Green Tea with Wolfberry

This drink has TCM properties that has healing properties. This drink is perfect for this sweltering heat! A glass cools you down immediately.

Ingredients

• 400ml of water
• 4 tbsp of wolfberries (枸杞)
• 4 tbsp of chrysanthemun flowers
• 2 tsp of powdered green tea (green tea leaves work well too)
• honey to taste (I use Manuka honey)
  

Method

1. Bring water to boil.
2. Add wolfberries, chrysanthemun flowers and powdered green tea to water and boil for 5 min.
3. Strain and let water to cool.
4. Add honey to taste to cooled drink.

Remark:

• You may want to place chrysanthemun flowers in a muslin/cheese cloth so that you may consume the wolfberries which are good to the eyes.
  
• You may use rock sugar in place of honey but I find honey healthier.

Properties:

• wolfberries - heals liver and kidney; clears heat and improves eye-sight
• chrysanthemun - balance liver function, improves eye-sight and clears heat
  

Dinner Tonight

You may find this strange. I only cook dinner on days when my dear hubby is on night-shift. Wonder why? Firstly, he does not like to stay home on his off-days; prefers "gallivanting" in the night. Secondly, it saves him trouble for buying food (all those unhealthy ones :P).

Menu for today

• Steamed mixed brown long grain rice & white short grain rice
  
• Egg-tofu omelette with sauteed mushrooms (vegetarian friendly)
  
• Peanut soup with pig's tails (has cooling properties; great for hot weather)
  
• chicken rendang (hubby's favourite)

Recipe for Egg-Tofu Omelette with Mushrooms
serves 2-3 persons as part of a 3-course Chinese dinner

Ingredients

• 3 small eggs or 2 large eggs
• 150g silken tofu (any soft tofu)
• 150g shitake mushrooms (button or portobello mushrooms work well too) - sliced
  
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Steps

1. Beat eggs well. Season with a pinch of sea salt and pepper.
2. Mash silken tofu and add to beaten eggs. It should look like this:
3. Heat a non-stick pan and fry the eggs-tofu mixture till it thickens up like scrambled eggs. You may like to add parmesan for added taste (skip salt if adding parmesan) or milk if you prefer something thicker.
4. Set aside.
5. Heat pan with a little extra virgin olive oil (or a tad of butter). Stir fry mushrooms.
6. Placed mushrooms on top of omelette.
7. Serve.

Difficulty level: Easy
Great as: Breakfast with a toast or bun; a dish for lunch or dinner
Modification: You may like to add some cherry tomatoes to the mushrooms for added crunch and colour; or scallions (spring onion)

Any other suggestions?

Finally

Finally got around to attempt cooking Ika no Saute. It's a really simple dish.

I scaled down the ingredients as I was cooking for one. :D Recipe as follows.

Ika no Saute (Japanese Sauteed Squid) - for one
adapted from Harumi's Japanese Cooking.

Ingredients

• 70g squid
• 6 tbsp mirin
• 6 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• Nahami Togarashi to taste

Note: Use equal parts of mirin and soy sauce as marinade. Use sufficient amount to cover squid totally. Thus, you can estimate the amount of mirin and soy sauce needed for the amount of squid.

Steps

1. Boil mirin, soy sauce and sugar over moderate heat till slightly thick. This is the marinade.
   
2. Allow marinade to cool (approximately 20 min). Or else, it will cook the squid.
3. Clean squid removing its outer "skin". DO NOT cut the squid at this point.
4. Once marinade is cooled, marinade squid for 30 min. Turn the squid once at 15 min to ensure that marinade is totally absorbed by squid.
   
5. Over a heated grill or pan, grilled the squid till it just turns opaque.
6. Cut and serve with Nahami Togarashi. Adjust the amount of Nahami Togarashi according to taste.

Diffulty Level: Easy-peasy Great as: A snack with beer; or as a side dish with rice

What's for lunch tomorrow

Ika no Saute (Saute Squid Japanese Style)

I'm finally got my hands on Nahami Togarashi (though the recipe calls for Shichimi togarashi) thus I can't wait to try this recipe from Harumi's Japanese Cooking.