Even Simpler Soup

Remember I introduced "Tomato with Cabbage (娃娃菜)" earlier? This cabbage is a versatile vegetable too, can be either stir-fried or cooked in soup (same as tomato, which I use quite often both in stir-fry and soup dishes). If you don't feel like heating up your wok, or want to have something light, try this!

Ingredients:

• one packet cabbage （娃娃菜）, about 300g
• water or soup stock, about 250ml

Seasoning:

• quarter teaspoon salt
• dash of sesame oil
• dash of pepper

Method:

• clean cabbage & cut into appropriate size
• when water is boiling, add seasoning
• add cabbage, cook for about 3 to 5 minutes

Simple? It's also good as a complement to other "heavier" dishes :-)

This is a very basic soup recipe. As usual, you could add other ingredients or seasoning sauces to make the dish more interesting.

Tomato with Cabbage (娃娃菜)

This is a fast-to-prepare stir-fry dish, which is also quite appetizing because of the tangy taste of tomato.

Ingredients:
- one packet of cabbage (娃娃菜), about 3 clusters or 300 g
- three tomatoes
- a clove of garlic, minced, approx 1 teaspoon
- one tablespoon of oil for stir-frying

Basic Seasoning:
- one tablespoon soy sauce
- one tablespoon oyster sauce

Method:
- wash & rinse cabbage, cut into appropriate length
- wash tomatoes, cut into thick slices (ie about 8 pieces per tomato)
- heat wok, add oil, add garlic, stir-fry till fragrant
- add tomatoes, stir-fry on high heat for a short while
- add cabbage, stir-fry on high heat
- add soy sauce to the side of the wok
- add oyster sauce to the centre, add about100ml water
- stir-fry till cabbage is cooked, cover it for a short while, then serve

Tips:
- seasoning suggested is the most basic. You could add a little salt, sugar, pepper, corn flour mixture according to your preference
- stir-fry carefully moving contents in the wok from the bottom to the top etc, and don't cook for too long. The tomatoes should still be "in shape" and not broken into a mess, haha.

Delicious Steamboat

This is an all-in-one dish that my mum usually cooks for Chinese New Year or at times when she doesn't feel like cooking so many dishes. It's versatile as any ingredients can be used, though I usually use cabbage & seafood. The amount of food can also be adjusted according to the number of persons. And you don't need to cook all ingredients, you can just prepare the raw ingredients and serve them on plates for guests to choose & cook for themselves. Of course you have to provide the necessary "tools" for them like colanders etc. I like its flexibility in variety & quantity. Fun too!

Ingredients:
- a pot of hot water or soup stock
- vegetables, suggest cabbage
- seafood, suggest fish & prawns (even abalone if it's for Chinese New Year)
- others, suggest fishballs, mushrooms, carrot, quail eggs
- 1 or 2 slices of ginger, optional, to mask "fishy" taste

Method:
- prepare vegetables beforehand, wash & cut
- cut fish into slices, marinate with salt, pepper, sesame oil & a little corn flour
- for tastier soup use whole prawns. For easy eating, remove heads & shells, then also marinate with salt, pepper, sesame oil & a little corn flour
- prepare quail eggs by separately boiling & shelling them, just like making hard boiled eggs
- prepare all other ingredients, washing, cutting etc
- put sufficient hot water or soup stock into the steamboat, wait for water to boil, add a little salt & sesame oil if desired
- add cabbage, carrot, mushrooms, fishballs
- add ginger, fish, prawns
- add fishballs, quail eggs

Tips:
- fish, prawns & abalone cook rather fast, only put them into the boiling soup when you want to eat & ladle them out immediately when done
- turn down heat when not cooking. Prepare a little more soup / hot water than you need as soup in the steamboat will dry out due to constant heating. Add when necessary
- raw fishballs are cooked if they "float" in the soup
- you can add any other ingredients that you like, for example "yong tau foo", meat balls, crabsticks, "tang hoon" (vermicelli) etc
- if you don't have a steamboat, just cook everything in a big pot and serve with rice. Tastes nice too :-)