Cantonese-Style Carrot, Corn, Watercress and Pork Bones Broth Soup

For those of you have chinese friends, you may have encountered this staple. It's also one of my favourite chinese dishes (can soups be described as a dish?). It is so easy to make, the hardest part is waiting for it to become rich with favour! I like buying my bones and watercress from the monthly Farmer's Market, so it's nice and fresh!

Step 1: Pre-cook the bones so that the icky red bits can be cooked and rinsed off. My Mum likes to look it all the way through. We don't want floaters messing up our clear broth. I am not as fussed.

Step 2: Wash veggies, taking extra care with any dirt still attached to the watercress. Cut up carrot (peel if you like, it depends on how lazy I am feeling) and corn cob into smaller pieces.

Step 3: Put everything in pot. You may want to start with the bones and carrots first, and then add the corn and watercress. Don't add the watercress until the water is boiled (that's what my Mum tells me!)

Step 4: Once boiled, turn heat to low and let it simmer away for at least 4 hours! This is the hardest part, but the longer it simmers, the richer the favours are!

Almond Butter Brownies!

So one of my favourite past time is looking through blogs and bookmarking recipes that look tasty. One that I came across was from This Primal Life for Almond Butter Brownies. Like, seriously now, anything with the words Butter and Brownies is going to get my attention.

My first ever batch came up a little undercooked, and I actually had the mix in the oven before realising I'd forgotten to add the egg and hastily pulling up to add. The middle sank and the outside and edges were burnt while the middle was very soggy.

So no surprise then, I've been meaning to re-do these. Which I do so today. I even do so ethically, with organic pumpkin, an organic egg, honey from the farmer's market and even greasing the tray with organic butter!

I had a quick look at it just then, at the 25 minutes mark. It's looking nice and golden, I think another 5 minutes should suffice!

Highly recommended if you are looking for a low(er)-carb, grain-free treat!

*Edit: Above is a picture of my delicious brownies!

Quick and Tasty Snack Idea

So I was in The Chocolate Box (there's one on-site at work, so I can't help but fall for the siren call sometimes), feeding my Vienna Almonds addiction, when the girl who works there asked why I didn't get the Cinnamon Coated ones. She let me have a piece, and they were indeed very tasty.

But then I thought? That's like, $7 a bag. I already have raw almonds and cinnamon at my desk. Surely, I can concoct something like this myself?

So I pull out my little bag of almonds, dump a little of the cinnamon that I also have stored at work, sealed and shake. Worked a treat!

Found: Organic Chicken Wings

It's always been a puzzle to me, why when I go to the supermarkets chicken section, why there's be whole organic chicken, organic chicken breast and organic chicken thighs, but no wings. What happens to all the wings that goes with those other bits?

At Woolworth's, some, at least, do occasionally get sold labeled as organic wings.




Now, the packet didn't come cheap, but I had to try them. That one packet was less than half a kilo, 4 whole wings. That's not a lot of wings. So I decided to eat them at whole and complete as possible. I want to taste as much of the natural flavour as possible.

Marinade with some macadamia nut oil, dried mixed herbs, pepper, salt and basil. Grill each side till done. Results below.


I added a touch of Tabasco sauce when serving for extra kick. Delicious!

What is Kale?

Ah, Kale. If you're already a regular blog reader of Food and/or health sites, you've probably seen recipes with this and read about the many wonderful qualities of this vegetable. But how many have actually seen this mysterious Kale? Certainly, the pictures does not show anything that I've seen in the markets. So I hit good, ol' Google in search of an answer.

So back to the question, What is Kale? Is it known as something else here? Well, it seems that it's part of the cabbage family and very similar to Collard Greens. Apparently it's also called Borecole. (For more information, I suggest you go to the Kale wiki page.)

Not that the above information has helped me find Kale. The word on the interweb is that sometimes they can be found and the greengrocers, possibly as a special order if you ask nicely.

Either way, right now it's supposed to be planting season. Maybe someone can grow me some instead?

So what made me go on this Kale hunt? Well, Kale chips (via fitsugar.com)!

I'm always on a lookout for a nice, crunchy replacement for chips. No matter, how fit and healthy I get, I still drool when I think about chips. Or I could experiment. Anyone know if I can buy Collard Greens in Oz?

For further, related reading, try this link to about specialty vegetables in Australia.