Rock Sugar Egg Syrup (冰糖鸡蛋糖水)

When I was younger, my mom used to make Rock Sugar Egg Syrup (冰糖鸡蛋糖水).  She used a double boiler to gently cook the raw eggs which she added one by one into the pot of rock sugar syrup that she had prepared. In that way the yolk will be cooked but the whites will not break away from it too much. They looked like poached eggs but the yolks are well cooked.

I found an image of the enamel double boiler, she used at What To Cook Today.  Marvellina is the publisher of this website.  She also develops her own recipes which she shares with clear instructions and lots of photos.  

If you do not have a double boiler, you can use a pot and a glass or metal bowl to do the job, as shown in the following video. However, the bowl must have a lid for it.

Drinking rock sugar water or syrup has a cooling effect on the body. I was told that it can become heaty to consume if it has been cooked over fire for a period of time. I guess that must be why my mom used the double boiler. Read the following articles if you are curious to know what I mean about cooling and heaty food and their effects on the body.

Heaty’ vs ‘Cooling

What Do ‘Heaty’ and ‘Cooling’ Really Mean?

These are the steps for making a bowl of 冰糖鸡蛋糖水 (Rock Sugar Egg Syrup) if you use the above makeshift double boiler:

-boil water in the pot.

-place a glass or metal bowl over the pot as shown in the video.

-the base of the bowl should not be touching the boiling water.

-place rock sugar (a small piece) in the glass or metal bowl.

-add a bowl and a 1/4 of boiling water to the rock sugar.

-stir till rock sugar has dissolved.

-cover the glass or metal bowl.

-lower heat and continue to boil.

-add a raw egg when the water in the bowl starts steaming up and is hot enough.

-cover the glass or metal bowl and continue heating.

-it is ready to be served once the egg looks like poached egg.

It is alright to add hot water to the syrup if it is too sweet for you. However, do not make it with too little rock sugar or the 糖水 (sugar syrup) will taste too bland.

You can read how rock sugar nourish the body from the following article:

糖水鸡蛋

From there, I picked up 3 other methods to prepare it without a double boiler:

I can even use a rice cooker to make it with red dates and brown sugar:

I also like eat my eggs with white fungus cooked as a dessert or soup. These are the ingredients for the dessert:

-White fungus

-Wolfberry

-Red dates or dried longan

-Hard boiled chicken eggs and/or quail eggs

You can see how it is made by watching this video:

However, when I use white fungus, especially, in my soup, I like it to have a more gelantin texture. Watch this video if you like it slimy too. The hard boiled eggs, if required, can be added to the dessert with the white fungus.

Though it is suggested that you leave the dessert overnight in the fridge for the gelantin texture, it can be eaten as soon as it is cooked.

These are the ingredients for making the soup:

-White fungus (wash and prepare as shown in video)

-Wolfberry (for me it’s optional)

-Red dates (I just soak them in water and rinse them out twice)

-Yok chok (soak in water till soften and clean)

-Chicken (my choice drumsticks cut into 3 sections)

-Hard boiled chicken eggs (1 for each person) or quail eggs (15 per pack)

-1 Soup bowl of water

-Salt to taste

When I use my slow cooker for boiling soup, I prefer to boil the meat (chicken or pork) in a pot of water (1 1/2 soup bowl) first. In that way, when I pour the water into the slow cooker, I can sieve out any impurities from the boiled meat. Then I will add the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker and cook it on low for 3 to 4 hours.

I made a nice discovery from reading, "5 Tricks That Make Your Slow Cooker Even More Useful, If That's Even Possible". You can also turn your slow cooker into a double boiler to brew herbal soup in this manner.

Useful Link from Quora

I enjoy reading postings on Quora.  I have also been active there by sharing information about bicycles and useful tips about parts and stuff that I sell at my bike shop.  I also enjoy collecting and sharing using tips I discovered at the site.  Some of the information I keep may not be relevant to me but I am sure someone I know will find them useful one day because I have shared or saved them on one of my Pinterest boards.  

This sums up my participation on Quora.

Today, I would like to share the following link to a collection of recipes used by the US Armed Force’s culinary professionals to serve up to 100 people.  You can check out their Index Of Recipes for a quick look to see if any of the recipes there will interest you.

Armed Forces Recipe Service 

I discovered this information from reading this question answered by Martin Bayer.

What is an example of a standard recipe card?

He said that they are all easy to prepare.  As each recipe is for 100 portions, you will have to convert them to cater to the number of people you will be serving.  He recommended trying out the Savory Baked Chicken.

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

When I do not have enough time to cook a meal for the following day, I will consider using a slow cooker to boil a soup or cook a dish the night before.  

I like the way this Teriyaki Chicken dish is cooked in a slow cooker.

These are the ingredients I need:

Baked Eggs with Cheese

I came across this TikTok's Baked Egg recipe reading a newsletter from Martha Stewart.

According to Martha, you need: 

-a baking dish
-12 eggs
-feta cheese or any soft, spreadable cheese, such as, cheddar or Gruyère
-salt, pepper and any other seasonings

After baking it in the oven at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes, mash the cheese and eggs together to create a scramble. You can then sprinkle chopped chives or chili flakes on top of the mixture as garnish.  You can then scoop the mixture out to roll it in a wrap to eat or serve it with your regular toast, bacon, tomatoes and avocado or other seasonal fruits.

Martha shared that the optional ingredients you can add to flavor this dish are:

-mushrooms
-onions
-spinach or peppers. 

You can learn to cook with the above optional ingredients by watching this video I found on YouTube.

Here is another variation I found on YouTube.  The cook added dry tomatoes, onions a handful of fresh herbs as garnish.

Tofu Patties

When I came across this recipe, it reminded me of the tofu patties a classmate from Indonesia taught me.   

These are the ingredients required to cook it.

This is how I cook this dish with marinated minced pork added:

Chopped srping onions or corriander can also be added to the tofu and meat mixture before frying.

About fats and oils

Do you know what the most healthy or the least healthy cooking oils are?  I used to think that vegetable cooking oils are healthy until I saw this cooking oil scorecard by Dr Steve.

I did a search online and came across a video by Dr Steve Ekberg.  I do not know if he is the same doctor mentioned on the scorecard.  This is his list of the worst cooking oils which I have extracted from his video.

I am glad to see that the worst cooking oils listed by him turned out to be the more expensive types of oil sold in Malaysia.

As the doctor said in his video, if you are extracting oil from vegetable, you would think that it should be edible throughout any part of the processes.  However, as hexane is used as a special-use solvent to extract edible oils from seeds and vegetables and also as a cleaning agent, the oil has to be refined before it is edible.  Hexane (C6H14) is a hydrocarbon extracted from crude oil.  I read that it has gasoline-like odor which is why it has to be deodorize so that its flavour will become mild.  Also, the oils may still contain trace amounts of hexane after the process.

He also shared the negative result of refined vegetable oils.

A cooking oil's smoke point refers to the temperature when the oil starts to smoke.  We tend to use high heat when we cook Chinese dishes. So, we should use oils with a high smoke point as they are ideal for frying, sautéing, stir-frying and searing.  So take note of the smoke point of cooking oils recommended by Dr Steve Ekberg because once an oil reaches its smoke point, it is an indication that the fat in the oil is breaking down. 

Overheating oils past their smoking point has been linked to the formation of carcinogens and can also create an off, burnt flavor.  So, if you need to cook a dish with high heat, the smoke point of 250 °C or 482 °F for ghee is a good choice. Palm oil is produced in Malaysia. It is noted on Wikipedia that its smoke point is 235 °C or 455 °F.  However, it has to be noted that it is expelled from the palm kernels via pressing or hexane extraction.

The doctor also suggested that we should not often deep fry our food with oil and to avoid repeatedly heating cooking oil which is often the case in restaurants where they reuse cooking oil over and over again.  I hope that by sharing his clips, you will take the time to watch his video and understand better how he came to his conclusion for all types of fats and oils.  You will also pick up some cooking tips from him.

Stir-fried Okra with Eggs

 I usually stir fry or steam okra with chilli paste.  This is an interesting way to cook it with eggs and onions.