Archive for 'recipe'

Recipe: Shio Koji Chicken Ball Soup

I got this recipe from Hero Material's friend. We tried it twice, and both times it came out well, so we wanted to share.

Ingredients

4-5 tbsp of shio koji
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking sake
200 g of minced chicken (or ground chicken)
1 tbsp of finely chopped or minced ginger
10 cm of green onion, finely chopped
2 heads of bok choy
1/2 carrot (peeled)
1 pack of enoki
1 Asian leek (you can just use western leek or green onion if you can't find the Asian leek)
5 cups of water

Instructions

  1. Chop up bok choy into bite-size chunks. Make sure to separate out the head part and the leafy part. Set aside.
  2. Cut carrot into 5mm-thick half-moons. Set aside.
  3. Cut the root of enoki and throw it away. Then cut the enoki in half. Set aside.
  4. Slice the leek into thin diagonals.
  5. Put the ground chicken into a bowl and add 2 tbsp of shio koji, 1 tbsp of minced ginger and 10 cm of finely chopped green onion. Mix them well and make them into small chicken balls.
  6. Pour 5 cups of water into a deep pan and bring it to boil. Dump the chicken balls one-by-one into the boiling water and let them cook through.
  7. Put the vegetables in the following order: carrot pieces, leek, enoki, head part of bok choy, then the leafy part of bok choy. When you add the vegetables, make sure that the carrot is soft enough for you before adding the rest.
  8. Once the vegetables are cooked, add 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of sake and 2-3 tbsp of shio koji. Makes 2-3 servings. You can serve it with steamed rice on the side if you'd like.

Note

You can add more chicken balls without adding more broth. If you do, make sure to adjust the amount of shio koji, ginger and green onion for the chicken ball mixture.

Metric conversion for Americans

200g = 7oz
10cm = 4″
5mm = 0.2″

I hope you enjoy this soup!


Ginger Tea Recipe

I love drinking ginger tea regularly. It gives me a little perk-me-up, plus soothes my throat.

Ginger tea is super easy to make, though you need to do a little preparation first. Here's how I make mine.

What you need:

  • fresh ginger roots
  • honey and sugar (brown or white) mixture — I prefer a 1:1 ratio
  • a glass jar big enough for the roots and honey and sugar mixture
  • a mandolin slicer (or a knife)
  • a mixing bowl
  1. Wash the ginger roots and scrape off any dark spots and/or bruises, etc. You may peel the ginger if you want.
  2. Slice the ginger very thinly. I use a mandolin slicer for this. (Collect the ginger juice during this process if you can, but don't worry about it too much.)
  3. Dump the ginger slices into a mixing bowl.
  4. Pour the honey and sugar mixture over the ginger. You should have enough to cover the ginger slices completely. Mix well. (FYI — Ginger to honey/sugar is about a 1:1 ratio, volume-wise.)
  5. Put everything in the jar and store it in the fridge.

This mixture will last, like, forever so long as you keep it in fridge air-tight. The flavor's the best after about one week, but you can make tea with the mixture almost immediately if you don't want to wait that long.

To make the tea (a 1-person portion) —

In a pot, put enough water for one person and 1 tablespoonful of the ginger roots from the jar. You may add some of the sweet liquid from the jar into the pot if you want. This will make the tea sweeter. Bring the water to boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes. Toss the ginger roots away and serve immediately.

If you want your tea stronger, add more ginger roots next time.

Enjoy!

P.S. The honey / sugar / ginger slices mixture in the jar can be used to make a ginger glaze when you cook. :)