How to prepare dried sea cucumber

Hubby bought dried sea cucumber from Dalian China. A delicacy and supposing very expensive in Singapore as this is the spiky one. Costs around $10 each, but after proper treatment, i can see why its worth the money...

His Dalian colleagues recommended this brand and they went to carrefour Dalian to buy. Buy it anywhere else, beware of fakes! They have instructions on how to prepare the cucumbers and even recipes too!
http://www.xiaoqin.com.cn/service_info.asp?SId=28

Its amazing how much it can 'grow'...

Dried form

After soaking in water (in the fridge) for 3-4 days. Water needs to be changed daily.

 

Before cooking, cut open the tummy side of the sea cucmber, remove the intestines and the sandy dirt near the 'mouth'. Fairly simple. When in doubt, simply remove any suspicious looking stuff inside.

The cooking process is pretty tedious.
Place in pot with water covering the sea cucumber for at least 10 cm.

Cook for 40 mins, off heat and simmer for 30 mins.

Cook for 30 mins, off heat and simmer for 25 mins.

Press sea cucumber to ensure its soften throughout.

Cook and simmer again if u can feel hardness. The time can be adjusted accordingly.

its 70% done now.

Place in ice water, put into the fridge for 2-3 days. Change water daily.

This is the end product. Ready to be stored in the freezer if not consuming immediately.

Isnt it amazing?! This is almost ready to eat.

i cooked it 2 ways so far. First is in a soup. Double boil 2 sea cucumber with about 5 dried scallops, 2 dried oyster, 2 dried mushroom. Cook for 30-45 mins. The soup is starchy and rich but the sea cucumber is pretty much dissolved and we cant taste the crunch.

Second time, i had some soya sauce gravy from braised duck. So i added water to the gravy, again add  dried scallops, dried oyster and dried mushroom. Braise the sauce for 20-30 mins until the dried stuff are soft and all flavours released. Add sea cucumber and cook for another 5-10 mins. The sea cucumber will remain chewy to the bite and be infused with the savory sauce. Yum!

Soup bombs

My soup 'bombs'.

Isn't this is how we create water bombs during school days?

This is my way of stocking up soup / stock in my freezer. Packing in bags makes them easier to store, saves space and most importantly, it thaws easily too (dunk the bag in a bowl of water or remove from bag and place the giant 'ice' cube into a pot, place it over fire).

Garlic in olive oil (again)

This is my 3rd post on garlic in olive oil.
See 1st and 2nd post.

This time round, instead of chopped garlic, i sliced the garlic instead.

There is approximately 4 bulbs of garlic in this bottle, i sliced them in front of the TV in the living room.

:P This bottle will last me at least 2 mths.

However, according to Wikipedia 'Garlic is often kept in oil to produce flavoured oil; however the practice requires measures to be taken to prevent the garlic from spoiling. Untreated garlic kept in oil can support the growth of deadly Clostridium Botulinum. Refriguration will not assure the safety of garlic kept in oil.'

So, TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Safety measure i took include:
- having enough oil to cover the garlic
- always keep garlic refrigerated
- always use a clean and dry spoon when taking out the garlic from the bottle for use
- check the garlic for bad smell, moulds or turn of colour before using

Cooling tea

Crazy weather... hot and cold and hot and cold. Plus the H1N1, flu bug in the air...

Time to make cooling tea. Last 2 attempts i only use lou han guo and chrysanthemum. Today i added another ingredient. Total of 3 ingredients...

Ginseng roots (Yang shen xu) - 1 handful - boil for 45 mins in 1 big pot of water.


2 lou han gou - Wash whole - Crush the shell, separate the seeds... Add to pot after ginseng roots has boiled for 45 min... let it boil for 20 mins.


Chrysanthemum - there are many types, this one is recommended by Fock Hua medical hall. Cost $5, use 1/5 pack...

Add to pot, bring mixture to boil and immediately turn off heat.
Cover pot with lid for at least 30 mins... let the chrysanthemum soak.
You are not suppose to cook/boil chrysanthemum.


End product after 45min + 20 min + 20 secs...
Big pot of cooling tea.

Dont be fooled by the pitch black. its actually sweet (i didnt add sugar!).
Lou han gou and chrysanthemum has natural sweetness.
Ginseng root leaves the 'gan' bitter sweet after taste. Yummy.


Dont throw the leftovers, boil a pot of hot water, pour over and cover for 1 hr.
This is be batch 2. Colour wont be black cos didnt boil the lou han gou.
See how pretty the chrysanthemum is... and how much bigger it has expanded after soaking.

Garlic in olive oil

I previously posted Frozen garlic in oil, I realise later that there is no need to freeze the garlic. Makes the garlic lumpy and difficult to scoop out of the container for use.

As long as there is enough oil to cover the garlic, the garlic wont go bad. The oil, infused with garlic, is later used in the cooking as well. Just scoop out the galix with the oil. No need to pour extra oil when cooking... Save another step in my lazy cooking style.

Yeah!

Fried shallots

I bought a big packet of shallots from NTUC, after a few weeks they look like they are going to rot.

So i decide to make fried shallots. Saw my mum make this ten thousand times, but this is my first attempt.

1) Peel and wash shallots. The trick is to dry the whole shallots before cutting.
If you have no time to cut immediately, the whole shallots can be kept in the fridge for 1 week

2) Slice shallots thinly (my knife skills are not so good, so turn out to be pretty chunky)

3) Using a low heat, heat pan with oil.
Put shallots before the oil heats up. Pour oil until all shallots are submerged in oil.
Maintain low heat and about 5 mins later, the oil will bubble up nicely.



Maintain low heat and allow shallots to cook for 15-20 mins, stirring constantly.


When part of shallots starts to brown, keep a close watch.
From this...


To this... will take only another 2-3 mins

Turn off heat. Before scooping out the shallots, sprinkle 1 tspn of salt into the oil.

This will reduce the oil temperature and prevent it from further browning while you are scooping it out.

Place shallots on plate to cool... oil will cool in the pan.

You notice that the shallots turn darker brown after its removed from the pan.

Its because it continues to brown from the residue oil and from its own heat.

Once both the oil and shallots are cooled down to room temperature, put the fried shallots into a air tight container and you can use it to sprinkle over porridge, rice or noodle in future.

As for the oil, keep it for stir frying... will have the shallots fragrant if you are lazy to mince garlic.

I have another bottle that has fried shallots and oil combined. This is used to put into soupy dishes or porridge.

Frozen minced garlic in oil

This saves me the trouble of having to chop garlic each time i want to cook something.


Also keeps the garlic fresh.

:) smart right?



When you have time, spend time removing skin from garlic and chop them up.
Put garlic in clean container, pour olive oil to garlic (to cover garlic totally) and keep in freezer/fridge.
mix well so that garlic is coated with oil.
If you don’t add enough oil, the garlic will turn yellowish and will spoil (become watery, even moldy).
Don’t need to worry about too much oil because the oil will end up being the oil meant for cooking later.