Beef Stew in chicken broth 清湯腩

My sis cooked this beef stew for one of the CNY gatherings in HK and it tasted great. So I asked for this recipe, copied below in Chinese.

She reminded me to use fresh and good quality beef and I have been hunting for it. Found this economical beef brisket while I was stocking up my regular frozen meat supply at QB @ Chee Bee Crescent. QB is a food factory selling frozen meat, freshly imported good quality beef (eg. Angus Steak, wagyu beef etc.). They also carry diary product like cheese, sausages. I've been visiting them regularly since last year to get my supply of frozen chicken wings/leg, pork ribs, steak, seaweed for sushi and cheese, and also the fresh cream for my ice-cream too. I save a lot as compared to shopping from supermarkets.

Not only that these beef are good quality, this shop also will cut the meat to the size and weight that you want eg. 200gm a slice of rib eye and vacuum packed for you. The price is 1/3 cheaper than supermarket. Not many wet markets sell fresh beef brisket in blocks and you need to cook this in one piece. Bought a kg and only cost me about S$13.

清湯腩

材料 (4人份量) :

1.牛腩 2.5 磅

2.蘿白 1.5 磅

3.薑 4 片

4.冰糖 1 湯匙

5.乾葱 2 粒 (切片)

6.八角 3 粒

7.芫茜/唐芹2 條

8.清雞湯 1 杯

做法:

1. 牛腩原塊洗淨，出水待用。
2. 鍋內注入8杯清水，下薑塊、八角及冰糖煲滾，加入牛腩用中小火煲１小時(用真空煲要2.5小時)，盛起牛腩，待冷，切塊，煮牛腩湯留用。
3. 蘿白洗淨去皮，切塊，放在滾水煮15分鐘
4. 燒熱砂鍋，下油1湯匙，下乾葱炒香，加入牛腩爆香，注入煮牛腩的湯及清雞湯，用中火燜至牛腩腍身，加入蘿白(約15分鐘)，下鹽調味，放上芫茜/唐芹，盛起。

Home Made Ice Cream

Home made ice cream is one of the recipe that I always want to master. Good quality ice cream cost so much a tub...

Found some good and thick fresh cream from New Zealand (it is good to make cream pasta sauce too) imported by one of the food factories @ Jurong West area. Also there's no better vanilla essence than using the actual vanilla bean pod. So I bought some and froze them in my freezer. It is quite costly if you buy only 1 or 2 pcs but if you buy in bulk (10 pcs per packet), it only cost a dollar a piece and it can make almost a liter vanilla ice-cream. It is also good to use for other pastry.







There's many flavour you can add into the vanilla based ice-cream like adding some freshly cooked mango puree and strawberry puree.

To my satisfaction, it turned out to be smooth and creamy just the way I like it. And the sweetness is controlled by you, also there's no added preservative. Need not watch the consumption amount whenever I crave for a big bowl from now on.

Yet to try out a classic chocolate ice-cream... will see

Ingredient:

a) 250ml Skimmed or full cream milk (I preferred full cream milk coz I still have young kids)

1 Vanilla bean pot

b) 4 egg yolks

75gm sugar

1 tsp corn starch

c) 300ml fresh cream

Method:

a) Slit vanilla bean open and scrap out the seed, cook it in a heavy sauce pan with milk. Bring it to just boiling and off fire and let is simmer for another 15mins.

b) Whisk egg yolks, sugar and corn starch until light and pale. Then pour (a) into the batter. Pour back into heavy sauce pan and cook it in low heat. Do not allow to bring it to boil and stir constantly until the batter coat the back of the wooden spoon. Cool and refrigerate until cold.

c) Whisk fresh cream and fold it into (b) then store in freeze proved container and freeze for 2-3 hours. Used a fork to break the batter until creamy. If you have a food processor pls use it and it'll give you a better/smoother result, (it is fine if you just use fork) freeze again. Repeat this step for 2 - 3 time.

Lastly, add whatever flavour you wanted. Like raisin soaked with rum... chopped chocolate. Such a sinful indulgent... at least it is a economical and healthier one.

Strawberry Jelly