English Gourd and Carrot Soup

English gourd or chayote can be found at very reasonable price in hypermarket. I bought one less than MYR1. Besides using it for stir-frying, it's a good ingredients for soup boiling. Both cooking methods are  great with the natural sweetness of English gourd.

English Gourd and Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

1 English gourd, cored and cut into cubes

1 carrot, peeled and cut into bite-sized

8 red dates, pitted

250gm of pork ribs

1 liter water

Seasonings:

Light soy sauce or salt to taste

Steps:

1. Blanch the pork ribs in boiling water, drain and set aside.

2. Add English gourd, carrot, pork ribs and red dates into the inner pot of slow cooker. 

3. Bring 1 liter water to a boil. Pour it over the ingredients.

4.Simmer under high heat for 2 hours, and turn to low heat for the last few hours.

5. Add seasonings and serve hot. 

Cream of Mushroom

This is a shortcut of preparing the cream of mushroom using Campbell's instant soup with some fresh white button mushrooms. I was worried that preparing mushroom soup from scratch was time consuming, so I came up with this idea, a blend of both instant soup and fresh mushrooms :)

Cream of Mushroom
Serves 2


Ingredients:
5 fresh white button mushrooms, chopped
2 packet of Campbell's instant cream of mushroom
1tbsp of olive oil
400ml of boiling water

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a pan. Sauté mushroom for few minutes.
2. Pour the instant soup mixture in a bowl. Add the sautéed mushroom.
3. Add boiling water and stir.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Friends, what did you have for your Christmas eve dinner? Although both my family and hubby's family are not Christian, hubby and I took this opportunity to cook some special food at home. We had a merry and romantic Christmas celebration this year. We celebrated our wedding anniversary and Christmas together. Does it sound double happiness?

Instead of roasted chicken or turkey on the Christmas eve, I made up my mind to prepare Chicken Cordon Bleu with sauté vegetables, mashed potato, and creamy mushroom soup. We enjoyed our shopping to pick up the ingredients. The feeling was just so warm and happy. What's more joyful was the scrumptious home cooked meal for this special occasion. We had a peaceful Christmas eve dinner. :)

I'm trying very hard to dig from my memory something special regarding my previous Christmas celebration. Sadly, I couldn't recall a memorable Christmas. Perhaps, this year marked a memorable one. I'm sharing this dish with Sweet Spot's What's Your Favorite Christmas Dish Giveaway hosted by Swee San.

Chicken Cordon Bleu


Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
2 slices ham
2 slices Cheddar cheese
3 tbsp flour
dashes of black pepper powder
dashes of paprika powder
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp salted butter at room temp
cooking oil

Steps:

1. Debone and remove skin from the chicken breast. Cut the chicken breast into half. Pound the chicken meat.

2. Brush the top side of chicken breast with butter. Sprinkle paprika powder and black pepper powder on top of it. Place a slice of ham and a slice of cheese on each piece of breast. Roll up and secure ends with toothpicks.

3. Coat each chicken roll thoroughly with flour. Dip rolls into egg, then roll on bread crumbs.

4. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

5. Heat some oil in a wok. Shallow fry the chicken rolls until golden yellow.

6. Transfer it to baking pan. Remove the toothpicks. Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven.

Chocolate Cupcake

I made these chocolate cupcakes with reference to ncrazykitchen, but it was not as fluffy as her version. Her recipe measurement is by spoon and bowl. Perhaps if I have the right measurement for the milk, I would be able to have better cupcakes. Anyway, these chocolate cupcakes are suitable for the Christmas theme, which is 2 days away from now. Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Glutinous Rice Balls For Winter Solstice

Sharing a bowl of glutinous rice balls and wishing you Happy Winter Solstice! 冬至快乐!
Did you have your bowl of festival dessert already?