Siomai Soup

It’s been a busy week but son managed to make siomai a few days ago. We were able to buy fresh molo wrappers and thought of preparing one of our favorite Chinese recipes, siomai. Even my nine-year old niece knows how to prepare it (sans the cooking of course) because it is also her favorite.  I put half of it in the freezer  and thought of making siomai/molo soup but I could not find fresh noodles in the supermarket. When there is no expiry date attached to it, I ignore it no matter how fresh it looks unless you buy them in wet market from a suki.  And since I don’t want to reheat it and steam it again, I decided to make do  with vermicelli noodles, a lot cheaper than other noodles but taste good just  the same.  Using a few stalks of green onion from the garden, a bit of garlic and  chopped red onions, salt and pepper, it turned out yummy. And a hot soup is perfect for that unexpected rainy evening.

Siomai soup, anyone?

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It’s Kung Pao Chicken Pasta for Dinner

My daughter offered to cook dinner for tonight.  It’s comfort food  – pasta – but it was cooked in a different way.  Going Chinese for a change, surprisingly,  it turned out delish. If you are fond of a little bite in your pasta, you gotta try this one. The spicy feel of the chili and the nutty taste of the peanuts  give this simple dish a lovely twist.

Here are the basic ingredients for Kung Pao Chicken Pasta.

500 grams spaghetti noodles, cooked according to package instructions

2 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

300 grams diced chicken meat or 1 whole deboned chicken breast

1 tbsp salt

1/2 cup peanuts

2  packs Clara Ole Kung Pao Pasta sauce at 225 grams each

6 sprigs spring onions, cut into 1″ pieces

How to Cook:

– Saute chicken in olive oil, season with salt, add peanuts and cook for a few minutes

-Pour in Clara Ole Kung Pao Pasta Sauce and cook until heated through. Toss in pasta and spring onion, serve immediately.

 

I love Chinese cooking. Lots of our Filipino food were somehow adopted from Chinese recipes. Ingredients are easy to find so it’s quite fun to experiment in the kitchen.  Asian Food Channel was lately introduced to our cable network and  it’s so engrossing to watch Chef Wan, Martin Yan, and William Low (to name a few) do their thing in the kitchen, a welcome change from the European and American recipes of  the  American Iron chefs  Cat Cora, Bobby Flay and Mario Batali.  I’ve listed down some recipes which we would like to experiment on next time.

Care to join us for dinner? It’s Kung Pao Chicken Pasta!

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Siomai-Making, A Great Feat for A Six-Year Old

Move over Ming Tsai. Take a seat  Martha and let this little tyke  try her thing in the kitchen.  Obviously, siomai is one of her favorites, so last Christmas, she persuaded Nissa  and me to teach her how to make it.

Learning the ABCs of sioma-making is a  feat for her.  So after preparing the ingredients, we let her mix everything and  she was so happy doing it.  Let’s welcome our new chef, Bobic, my six-year old niece.

Look at her face, she is so intent in measuring the siomai  mix.   Even small children have that satisfaction  on learning an adult task. They feel important that you are giving them self-confidence in doing it.

“Am I doing it right Tita?” she asked.

Hmm, not bad for a beginner.

And here’s the end result….hmm…looks yummy!

“Yes, I made it!”

And here’s a simple recipe on how to make siomai.

Dough:  2/3 cup hot water

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

cornstarch for dredging

Substitute:  sioma/molo wrapper (100 pcs. per pack)

Filling:

1/2 kilo chuck meat (kasim), chopped finely  or ground pork

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. sesame oil

1/2 cup singkamas or Mexican turnip

2 pcs. chopped mushroom

1 pc. egg

1 tbsp. AA flour

2 tbsp water (beat egg into it)

1/2 cup shrimps (chopped) about 1/4 kilo

Procedure:

Mix all ingredients together, put the seasonings and place in molo wrapper.  Cook in a steamer for 15 minutes.  Be sure that the rack you use is greased with oil.

Back when I was learning Chinese Recipes under Sylvia Reynoso, she suggested that you put the  uncooked siomai first in the freezer for about 20 minutes before steaming so it would bind better.

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