Dang-gui and Egg Soup

Dang-gui and Egg Soup 

SYMPTOMS:

Deficient blood and qi, pale and dizziness for women especially after monthly menstruation or giving birth.

THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS:

Benefit qi and promote blood, moisturize skin.

INGREDIENTS:

• Egg -  (2 to 4)
• Angelica Sinensis (dang gui) 當歸 - 8gm
• Astragalus (huang qi) 黃耆 - 40gm
• Pitted red dates 去核紅棗 - 20gm

1.   Boil eggs and remove shell. 

2.   Rinse herbs and put all ingredients in a soup pot with about 4 cups of water. Bring to a slow boil and lower heat to simmer for 30 minutes to one cup of soup.

3.   Add salt or sugar to serve. Eat eggs with soup.  

USAGE:

Not suitable when having cold, fever or loose bowel.

Curry Cumin Potatoes

Place whole potatoes into a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until just tender. Drain, and cut potatoes into quarters. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Saute the cumin, turmeric, and curry powder for 1 minute. Add potatoes, and saute until toasted.

Soy Sauce Chicken

• medium size chicken
• 1-1.5 cups of dark soya sauce or caramelized dark soya sauce
• 1-1.5 cups of Chinese cooking wine preferably Rose cooking wine (玫瑰露酒）
• 2-3 medium size of rock sugar
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 4 cm of ginger cut into big slices
• Few sprig of spring onion
• 1-2 Anise seeds – optional
• 1-2 cloves – optional
• 1 small cinnamon stick – optional
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• Adequate water to at least half cover the chicken.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Heat up a pot with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. Add cloves, anise seeds, cinnamon stick, garlic and ginger. Sauté until fragrant.. Transfer all the spices and herbs in a soup bag, put the spring onion in the soup bag too. Add in adequate water to cover at least 1/4 of the chicken. Add the dark soya sauce/caramelized soya sauce, rock sugar and cooking wine. Bring to boil.

• Once it boils, submerge the chicken when the breast facing down. Adjust the water until it reaches at least 1/2 of the chicken. If you wish, you can adjust the colour of the solution by adding more soya sauce. Turn the heat to medium to low, let it simmer for at least 15 minutes. Turn the chicken around, add one tablespoon of sesame oil and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Once done, turn back the chicken with breast facing down for another 5-10 minutes. Test the doneness of the chicken by poking at the part with the thickest meat (suggested: drumstick) and ensure no blood water secreted. If done, transfer out and let it cool completely before cutting.

The above picture is from another illustration using a chicken of about 2 kg.

Note:

• Selection of pot – Pot must be big enough to house a whole chicken. It should not be overly big also as you will need a lot of solution to braise the chicken.

• Soup bag is optional. The main purpose is to ensure that the cooked herbs do not disintegrate and dirty the braised solution. It facilitates the removal of these herbs later. 

• The quantity of water and soya sauce very much depends on the size of your pot and chicken. You will need to exercise discretion to add a bit more or less of suggested water and soya sauce.

• Timing of braising also depend on size of your chicken. The timing is for the small chicken with about 1kg. 

• If you want to preserve the skin, once out from the pot, you can dip the chicken to some icy cold water to prevent the skin from breaking.

• If you have a lot of sauce left, you can keep it for your next braising. You will need to add additional seasoning and water to cover new chicken.
  
  

Bus from Boon Lay to JB – Causeway Link CW6

I arrived at Boon Lay MRT station with an aim to take Causeway Link Bus CW6 to the Tuas 2nd link immigration. However, there is no proper signage of the Causeway Link Boon Lay bus bay, I ended up spending 15 mins searching for it. I behaved like a ‘tourist’ who was not familiar with Singapore, went to Boon Lay Bus Interchange to be told that Causeway Link bus bay is actually nearby the taxi stand. 

After walking through the Xin foodcourt, I hit the dead end and saw the taxi stand. So you would nee to turn right and walk along the road for about 3 minutes, then you would find the CW6 Causewaylink bus bay and the bus captain. The bus fare is SGD2.00 per person for a 15-min ride and the interval time for the next CW6 bus is about 20-25 mins. Anyway, the bus left at 11.05am. 

Bus to Johor Premium Outlet – JPO2

After clearing Singapore custom, I hopped back to the same bus (CW6) and proceeded to Malaysia immigration. In less than 10 minutes, I cleared Malaysia immigration as well. I walked towards the bus bay and I soon found a signboard about Bus JPO2 and its staff. The staff advised that the next bus would be leaving at 12.30pm and the bus fare was MYR4.20 per pax. Okay, I cleared my first doubt – the shuttle bus service is not free! 

As I still have an hour to spare, I went to a canteen nearby for a delicious and economical lunch for MYR 5. At 12.30pm, the bus left nearly on time and I started my journey to Johor Premium Outlets. The ride was about 50 mins.

Johor Premium Outlet Bus – JPO1

After shopping for nearly 3 hours, I decided to call it a day by taking Bus JPO1 from Johor Premium Outlets to JB Sentral. It was scheduled to leave at 5.30pm but was delayed till 5.45pm to pick up more passengers. The bus fare is MYR5.00 per person and the ride is around 1 hour. As the bus was new & the seat was comfortable, plus I was tired after 3 hours of shopping, I quickly fell asleep and woke up just in time to alight at JB Sentral.

Bus from JB to Singapore – Causeway Link CW2

After clearing Malaysia Immigration at JB Sentral, I decided to take Bus CW2 to bring me to Queen Street (near Bugis MRT Station), a convenient drop-off point. The bus fare is very reasonable, at MYR2.50 per pax. Clearing Singapore immigration smoothly as usual, I quickly walked towards the CW2 bus bay to queue for the bus again. As I have already paid the bus fare at JB Sentral, I only need to show the ticket receipt to the bus driver to board the bus again. There wasn’t many passengers on the bus and the bus was traveling quite fast. At 7.30pm, I reached Queen Street.

Egg Salad Sandwiches

 

They sell these sandwiches at a store at our local train station. I wanted to be able to eat as many of them as I like, so I tried making them myself. I like the fact that they're looks so colorful. 
The foundation of this sandwich is the egg and nanohana. After that, you can add and combination of ham, lettuce, tomato, shrimp or bacon.

The sandwiches will have a nicer texture if you chill them in the fridge for a while, as the bread will absorb some of the filling. 
If you make the sandwiches at night, wrap up in plastic and chill in the refrigerator, then cut them and eat in the morning they will be really moist and delicious. Recipe by Koyokkoyo

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Ingredients

1. 1 loafworth Sandwich bread
2. 1Margarine and Japanese mustard (or western mustard)
3. 1/2 bunchNanohana
4. 1 tbspMayonnaise
5. 1 dashJapanese mustard
6. 4○Eggs
7. 1/2to 1 ○Onion
8. 4to 5 tablespoons ○Mayonnaise
9. 1 dash○Salt, pepper, and sugar
10. 1Tomato
11. 1Lettuce
12. 1pack Ham

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Method

1. Hard boil the eggs.

   
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2. Add salt in a pan of boiling water, and boil the nanohana. When cooked, drain and refresh in cold water to stop the cooking and preserve its colour. Cut into the same size as the bread slices.

   
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3. Put 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise and a small amount of mustard (Japanese or western) in a bowl and mix together. Add the blanched nanohana and mix.

   
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4. Soak about 1 tablespoon of very finely chopped onion in water.

   
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5. Mash up the egg yolks with a fork. Chop the whites finely.

   
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6. Drain the onion and mix with the egg. Season with a little salt and pepper and about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, add the mayonnaise and mix well.

   
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7. Cut the tomato in half and remove the seeds. Slice about 5 mm thick.

   
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8. Spread the butter and a little mustard on the bread. Top with the egg mixture, lettuce, nanohana and tomato.

   
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9. Tip: If you squeeze mayonnaise between the fillings, it will act like glue and hold the sandwich together.

   
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10. Add the ham. You can also add bacon or boiled shrimp!

    
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11. Wrap the sandwiches 2 at a time in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator.

    
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12. Tip: When cutting the sandwiches, cut them while they are still in the plastic wrap to prevent falling apart.

    
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13. Pack the cut sandwiches with the wrap still on in lunch boxes. The plastic will prevent them from drying out.

    
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14. You could serve these for your afternoon tea.

    
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15. Spring colored nanohana sandwiches!