Homemade Chawanmushi

I was having dinner with my girlfriends at Ebisboshi last weekend when we started talking about chawanmushi and I suddenly remembered that I know how to make chawanmushi. But it has been a long time since I made it at home. Its amazing how my mind gets clouded by all the work during term time. In fact, the last time I made this was during young adults fellowship (YAF), held at my place last November. Considering how simple this is, it has been a longggggg time. So when I came home early this week, I decided to make this for dinner since adrian likes it too.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

1 piece of chicken thigh meat

2 shitake mushroom

2 sticks of artificial crabmeat

2 eggs

A can of clear chicken stock

Cornstarch 1/2 tsp

Chinese Wine (Hua Diao Jiu) 3 tsp

Soya Sauce 1 tsp

Method:

1) Cut the chicken thigh meat into 1 cm thick slices and marinate it with cornstarch, chinese wine and soya sauce. Leave aside.

2) Slice the mushrooms into 1 cm thick slices and half the crabsticks. Leave aside.

3) Break the eggs into a large bowl. Be careful not to beat the eggs. This will form air bubbles which will appear as "pot holes" when steamed. Instead, stir gently with a chopstick until the eggs yolk and white are well mixed.

4) Add in chicken stock in the proportion of 1 portion egg mixture : 3 portion chicken stock and continue to stir gently until well mixed.

5) Line 2 japanese cups each with 2 strips of marinated chicken. Gently pour in the egg mixture.

6) Top the egg mixture with 1 piece of crabstick and 2 slices of mushroom.

7) Cover the cups with lids and let it steam for 8 minutes.

Chicken Soup (for the tired soul)

School has started and its simply hectic! I feel like that I'm running around like a headless chicken most of the time. So I came home one evening, after a long day in school, craving for chicken soup. Fortunately, I have some chicken bones sashed away in the freezer for emergencies like these and I got down to some work in the kitchen. That night, I went to bed fully satisfied.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)
1 pack of chicken bones (can be bought from NTUC)
1 medium size radish
2 medium carrots
1 quarter of golden pumpkin
5-6 cloves of garlic
2 litres of water
3 teaspoons of salt

Method:
1) Boil a pot of water and blanche the chicken bones in it to get rid of any traces of blood and impurities.
2) Drain chicken bones and set aside.
3) Peel the radish, carrot and pumpkin and slice them into smaller pieces of about 3cm.
4) Lightly smash the garlic cloves to release the favour.
5) Bring 2 litres of water to a boil in a middle size pot and add in the chicken bones, radish, carrots and garlic cloves and boil for 45 minutes.
6) Add in pumpkin and boil for another 30 minutes.
7) Season with salt and serve.