Chinese Egg Pudding

Great news on the blog: We are officially asianmamamia.com! This is big! I really feel that sense of ownership. Thank you so much for your love and support. I will continually make this site better and better.

Feeding toddler/baby is hard. First it's hard because they don't really have any teeth, then it's hard because their little appetite are starting to get picky! That's why I think this Chinese egg pudding is so wonderful! It's very soft and it's filled with protein. It's truly a classic. Jayden loves this egg pudding since we first introduced him to solids.

I have eaten this simple but yummy egg pudding growing up. This is a great recipe your whole family will enjoy.

Here's how to make it:

1. Crack an egg into a bowl.

2. Slowly add 1/4 Cup of water and mix it up with the egg. (Make sure you are very gentle so you don't create a lot of bubbles. The amount of water should be the same as the egg.)

3.Add some dried baby shrimp to the mixture. ( You can omit this step if you don't have dried baby shrimp. You can find them at any Asian store. They add a great flavor and it's a great source of calcium)

4. Cover the bowl with plastic food wrap. 

5.Put it on steamer for 12-13 minutes. (Our rice cooker is amazing! It's a rice cooker, slow cooker and food steamer!) 

6. Take the bowl out and add some soy sauce on top for a boost of flavor. Green onion is optional. 

Hope you and your family will enjoy this easy simple Chinese egg pudding as much as we do! 

Happy chopping!

XOXO, 

Mia

Classic Chinese Chicken Broth

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you had a better Memorial Day weekend than we did! My husband has been sick the whole weekend so that's a big bummer. I decided to make some classic Chinese chicken broth to help him get over the cold.

Chinese believes in the healing power of bone broth. Bone broth are full of nutrients. It helps with getting over cold, balancing diet, healing wounds and etc. My mom always makes bone broth on cold winter days to add some warmth and extra nutrients. Bone broths are often served as a dish in China along with rice and stirfrys. I also drank tons of bone broth for postpartum to recover from the birth.

Best part of the bone broth? It's super easy to make!

Here's how you make the classic Chinese chicken broth:


Ingredients:

• Cornish hen (Tip: It's better to use a whole chicken because you get nutrients from all part of the bird! Cornish Hen is the perfect size for our family of 3 so we don't get any waste. If you have a big family, use a bigger bird!) 
• Green onion (I mentioned in this post of the use of green onion and ginger)
• Ginger 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

•  Put defrosted Cornish hen to a pot filled with room tempreture water and bring it to boil.

•  When the water starting boiling and some meaty clumps are starting to form, dump the water out.  (These last two steps are calling "Flying Water" 飞水 in Chinese. Fly the bird in hot water haha. The purpose is to get rid of the clumpy things in the broth so the broth will be clear)
  

• Add some warm water to the pot with the chicken. Add green onion and ginger. Bring it to boil and transfer the whole thing into a slow cooker. 

• Set your slow cooker to 4-6 hours if it's on low. 2-4 hours if it's on high. 
  

Add salt and pepper to your broth and you are all done! You can either enjoy it just like this (the Chinese way) or use it in your chicken noodle soup(the American way)!

       

Happy chopping!

XOXO

Mia

The Best Sweet and Sour Shrimp

I love shrimp! This sweet and sour shrimp dish is seriously one of my favorite recipes! It's so good that my husband and I would fight for the last piece every time! The sweet and tangy sauce is so delicious and will win over your pickiest eater! 

We use ketchup as the base of the sauce. Ketchup was such a Western thing for us in China when I was little! The only place you could get ketchup back then  (about 15 years ago)  was at KFC. My mom always sent me to the counter several times so we could take some yummy ketchup pouches home. 

Here's how to make the Best Sweet and Sour Shrimp:

What you need:

• About 20-25 Shrimp
• Minced ginger and green onion ( for getting rid of the meaty smell) You can refer to my last blog post here
• 1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil 

        To marinate the shrimp: 

• 1 egg white
• 1/4 tsp  salt
• 1/4 tsp  pepper 
• 1 tsp cooking wine (optional)
• 2 Tbsp corn starch 
• 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil 

       For the sauce:

• 1/3 Cup ketchup
• 2 Tbsp sugar 
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar  (if you don't have it, use lemon juice instead) 
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/3 Cup water 

Directions

• Defrost the shrimp, Dry it with a paper towel so its easier to marinate.

• Marinate the shrimp with all the ingredients above and mix it well.

• While the shrimp is marinating, mince the ginger and green onion.

• Make the sauce with ingredients listed. 

I used powdered sugar here because I was out on regular sugar :)

• Heat 1 Tbsp oil in the skillet in medium high and stir in the shrimp. Make sure your shrimp is fully cooked and remove it from the skillet to a plate. Set aside. 

• Use the leftover oil in the skillet to heat up the minced ginger and green onion. 

• Pour the sauce into the skillet and let it bubble. 

• When the sauce is thickened, put the shrimp back in the skillet and make sure they are covered with sauce. 

• All done! You are ready to serve! 

I hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as I do. This dish is really kids/family friendly. It goes super well with rice. 

Happy a yummy day! 

XOXO, 

Mia 

Free One Day Red Box Rental

Did you get your free One-night DVD Rental from Red box yet? I sure did! There might still be time for you to get it ! Text Surprise to 727272 and you are in for a freebie!

The Red box texting system might be a little bit late. So if you haven't got it, be patient with it.


XOXO,

Mia

Chinese Cooking 101: Part I

Coming to America was such a challenge to my taste buds! Even though I have learned to love western food over the years, but according to my husband, I still have a Chinese stomach.

I LOVE making homemade Chinese food! It just tastes so much fresher and better! Shame on Chinese takeouts.

 I am going to talk about three important flavor boosters and the MOST ESSENTIAL condiments in authentic Chinese cooking : Green onion, Ginger and Garlic. You always always need these three for Chinese cooking!

These three condiments can be easily found at any grocery store. No need to go to an Asian food store!

Green onion ( My green onions are getting dry haha) 

Green onion: It's known for its robust flavor. It also adds a beautiful color to your dishes. I throw it in hot oil to add flavor to the stir fry and I often use it in pancake batter to make green onion pancakes. Green onions is super easy to plant. You can simply stuck the green onion you bought from grocery store in your garden and it will grow like there's no tomorrow! When you need to use it, just cut the top part (leave out the root) and the green onion will continue to grow from where you left it! Never ever have to buy them again!

Ginger

Ginger: Ginger is known to have warming properties. It's a Yang food. It's almost called in all stir fry dishes. I also love its healing properties.  According to Chinese Medicine, ginger warms your stomach/body. It helps to get rid of colds and balance yin and yang in your body. ( I drank a tons of ginger tea after giving birth because giving birth was considered as a very cold thing, the warming properties in ginger can help your body get back to balance and recover quickly. It works wonders!)

Green onion, ginger are often used together to get rid of the raw, meaty taste in meats. I use them for chicken/beef/pork rib broth.

Garlic

Garlic: Garlic has a spicy taste to it if it's eaten raw. So I always like to heat it up and then eat it. Garlic goes so well with almost everything: leafy greens, seafood, meat and veggies. Make sure you put in garlic last when you are doing a stir fry. Garlic tends to burn easily and will give your dish a bitter taste if you are not careful with it.

Happy chopping everyone!

XOXO,

Mia

How to make big beer company paying for your grocery

Getting married at a young age is hard financially. It's even harder when you decided to buy a house. So in our household, every penny counts.

I have learned to coupon during the last year and have benefited so much from it.  But couponing does take a lot of time and organizing skills. It can get really overwhelming. But do you still want to save money without all the couponing hassle ? Beer Rebate is the way to go!

Utah is one of the wonderful states that you don't have to BUY BEER to get beer rebate! Isn't that amazing? This really means you can totally buy the grocery you want and get money back from the beer company!Here are the steps on what you really should do:

1. Find Beer Rebate Forms in your local grocery store. It's always located by the beer isle. 

2. Read the Rebate carefully (It's always like Buy this much of beer and get this much of your produce/meat purchase. Remember, you don't have to buy the beer!)

3. Buy your grocery that's qualify for the rebates. Keep your receipt. 

4. After getting home from the store,  fill out the rebate from, circle the items and their prices on the receipt.

5. Mail rebate form and receipts out and waiting for some check in the mail in about 6-8 weeks!

Yes, it's that easy! Who doesn't want some extra money to spend!

List of 14 states that you don't have to buy beer to use beer rebates:

AL, AR, CT, HI, KY, ME, MD, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OK, UT, WV

Happy Mother's Day!

It's 12:04 am and I am still up and thinking how should I write my first blog post. I am really a night owl. But being a mom, who isn't? Night time is the only time when I can sit down at my kitchen counter, sitting on my favorite bar stool, just to think about MY life. Yes, that's right, not my kid, not my husband, not my chores. Well, that's not true, I am actually still thinking about how my son should eat more veggies and how my husband needs to work out more. So yea,  I don't have a life.

I thought being married has changed my life so much. But comparing to being a mom? Not even close. Jayden is our "accident baby" AKA "a blessing". I was a business student and ambitiously interning at a big investment bank when I first got pregnant . I wasn't planning on having a baby for least another 2 to 3 years. But  Jayden just can't wait to come to the earth and meet his mommy-ME! 

I still clearly remember the day we found out we were expecting. It was a beautiful summer morning. The moment that testing strip shows two stripes, my heart started pounding like its out of control. Then I saw my husband's hand shaking, he was so excited and so speechless the same time. Then we just went crazy and keep asking ourselves "Are we really having a kid?"

I had a OK pregnancy and a tough birth. I actually don't mind pregnancy because I think walking around with a huge belly is a kind of a fun and cute thing. I also gave myself the privilege to drive those cool handicap carts at the grocery store because my backache.( My husband thinks that's the most scary thing ever since he believes I don't have a "sense of direction" part build up in my brain)

My birth was so hard. I set my mind on doing a completely all natural birth at a local birthing center. So epidurals are out of the question. I was 9 centimeter dilated when I went into the birthing center, then 24 hours later I was still a 9! Plus I pushed for whole 4 hours. It turned out Jayden's widest part of head was coming out first-Military Position that gave me such a hard time. 

Jayden has been such a bundle of joy. He's as cute as a doll. He is seriously the sweetest baby! He's 14 month now. The last 14 months were definitely my craziest months ever! I am constantly worrying bout how well he's eating, how much does he sleep, does he have any teething pain, how can I do better to teach/entertain him, is he too hot/cold, how to DIY natural remedies to fight a cold and etc! I love waking up to his little body lays right next to mine. I love cuddling with him. I love to play peek-a-boo with him. I love to hold his little hand. Jayden has been my little motivator to become a better person- more patient, more loving, more giving. 

The same time, I also like to remind myself how much I love my baby and my family when I was buried with dirty laundry, messy house, and hungry husband. I constantly finding myself worry too much, stress too much and go crazy too much. I also finding myself doing thing like talking super loud in supermarket to myself saying things like "Should mommy get some wonton wraps so we could make wonton soup?" Even when Jayden is home with my husband Joseph. I am also  starting to look for good piano teacher and research about preschools knowing full well my baby is only 1-year-old. Sorry baby, you hit the lottery of getting a tiger mother(even though my zodiac is Sheep) !

Enough with the ranting. Thank you for making me a mom baby Jayden, I love you so so much. 

And Happy Mother's Day to all the fellow moms out there! You are doing great!