Ka Poa Pla : Chinese style fish maw soup

                Last Sunday I had my daughters birthday party.  I wanted to make something special so I decided to make this dish.  For this food it is not actually Thai food but it is more like Chinese.  In Thailand we take culture from Chinese and food is one of them.  Chinese people in Thailand believe that soup will help the cycle of blood in your body to have a good circulation and keep you warm in winter.  This dish will be good to eat it when the weather changes from hot to cold. 

For this dish in Thailand we call it Ka Poa Pla meaning stomach of fish soup  (I know that sounds scary right!!!).  Actually they didn’t use the stomach but they used fish maw of fish (it is like the air bag of the fish) and the Ka Poa Pla maker will prepare it for easy storage and eat by taking the fish maw off from the fish then dry by air and deep fried until crunchy and sell it at this point.  So for me I will by the one that is already deep fried for making this soup.

                For the fish maw you can find it in a Chinese grocery or an Asian grocery.  It is a little bit pricy, but it is good for you so you might want to try one.

Ingredients

1 pack 2 oz. fish maw (already deep fried)

2 can of 14 oz. thin sliced bamboo shoot

10 hard boil quail eggs (optional)

 1 3-4 lb whole chicken

6 dry shitake mushrooms

3 cilantro roots

4 tbsp. Light soy sauce

4 tbsp. Oyster sauce

2 tbsp. Black soy sauce

3 tbsp. Sugar

Pepper

1/3 cup. Corn starch + 1/3 cup. water

¼ cup Chinese cooking wine (but If you cannot find it don’t worry about it.)

Cilantro

Cooking instructions

1.       In a large bowl add warm water then soak fish maw and let it sit for 1 hour, drain it out from water set aside

2.       Then wash it with water 2 times squeeze it very well each time.

Note : this process for cleaning fish maw is to take away the fishy smell of it.

3.       Large pot boiling 12 cups of water with chicken and cilantro root, pepper for about 1 hour. Meanwhile rehydrate mushroom by soak in the warm water for about 30 minutes

4.       After 1 hour take the chicken out and shred the chicken and set aside.

5.       In the soup pot add bamboo shoot, soy sauce, oyster sauce, black soy sauce, sugar, Chinese cooking wine when it boils again add the fish maw at last add corn starch mixture into the soup and keep stirring while adding the mixture (the soup will not be lumpy)

6.       When serving add hard boil quail eggs, shredded chicken in the bowl then add the soup and top with pepper, cilantro.

PS: I don't have too many picture because I've been busy with the party and this soup is gone so fast!!! 

Thai- Chinese noodle Stir fried : pad mee-suar

                2 weeks ago was the start of Thai-Chinese vegetarian festival call “Kin Jea” (I already talked about this in mung bean stir fried blog) that inspired me to make this menu.  This egg noodle stir fried is very popular in this festival, because it is tasty and fuels you up.  In Thailand we use this special kind of thin long egg noodle called Mee-Suar cooked in boiling water (you can also use angel hair pasta) then stir fried it with vegetables like cabbage, carrot and dried shitake mushroom.  In this case you can use ready to use coleslaw mix that will work too.  If you can’t find dried shitake mushroom you can use any kind of mushroom instead, but the best one is dried Shitake mushroom of course (Why dried not fresh shitake mushroom, because the dried one has more umami taste than the fresh one).  Now let’s get start cooking.

Ingredients

8 oz. thin long egg noodle or angel hair pasta

3 cup thin sliced cabbage and shredded carrot /or ready to use coleslaw

1 celery stock sliced thin

4-5 dried shitake mushrooms

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

3 tbsp. light soy sauce

1 tbsp. pepper

Cooking instructions

1.       Add noodle into boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes for egg noodles or follow directions to cook for angel hair pasta then drained and set aside.

2.       Rehydrate dried shitake mushroom by soaking them in warm water for about 4-5 minutes or until it becomes soft then cut it into strips.

3.       Preheat the large pan or wok in high heat add oil, when the oil is hot add shitake mushrooms and stir it about 30 seconds then add vegetables and stir it about 1 minute then add cooked egg noodle, soy sauce and pepper.  Keep stirring about 3-5 minutes, then turn the heat off.

4.       Serve as a main dish or as a side dish.

Stuffing bitter melon Soup

            After feeling sick for the whole week that’s why I couldn’t put up my blog. so I will make something to cheer myself up.  One of my favorite foods is bitter melon soup.

            Bitter melon?  What is that?  Ok this is not easy to find ingredients for like I usually say in every blog, but if you get to know it you might want to try it!!!  The bitter melon looks almost like cucumber, but it has the ugly bumps all over it.  For Thai cuisine we have 2 kinds one is smaller called” Ma-ra-ke-nok” we eat it with spicy dipping sauce.  For me this kind is not my favorite(too bitter), but the kind I will cook today we know as Chinese better melon which is bigger and the color is lighter too.  They both are good for you. 

Chinese bitter melon

In Thailand they always say “sweet taste is like a wind, bitter is a medicine”.  After I searched about the benefits of it I came out a lot more knowledgable than I was before.  Bitter Melons are rich in iron.  They have twice the beta carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, twice the potassium of bananas, and contain Vitamins A, C, B1 to B3, Phosphorus and good dietary fiber.  Bitter Melon – it can be a very powerful anti-diabetic!”; from The national bitter melon council.   According to this article bitter melon also has a lot more benefits in it.  That should be enough reason to make it, also I want to share the techniques that make this better melon taste less bitter so I will give you today the stuffing soup recipe and I have more recipes for bitter melon that some of the Thai folks don’t know!!!

Note: Technique to pick good Chinese bitter melon, pick the one that has a lighter color it will taste less bitter.

Ingredients

 2 Chinese bitter melons

½ lb ground pork

½ cup mung bean noodle, soften in the water about 5 minutes (optional)

1 glove minced garlic (optional)

5 tbsp. Soy sauce

Paper

Cooking instructions

1.      In the pot add 6 cups of water, bring it to a boil in medium high heat.

2.      Meanwhile cut bitter melon into 2 inch pieces (picture) then take the insides of the melon out.  Set aside.

3.      Mix ground pork and 2 tbsp. soy sauce, garlic, pepper and mung bean noodle till mixed well.

4.      Stuff the pork mixture into the bitter melon

5.      Add bitter melon stuffing into boiling water, add remaining soy sauce a: Don’t stir or cover it let it cook for about 1 hour.(Don’t touch them at all)

6.      Serve with rice now you will get bitter melon soup that is not too bitter, but good for you!!!