easy zucchini soup with lotus root meatballs

Meatballs, also known as bakso in Indonesian, often bring back happy memories. A childhood song "Abang tukang bakso, mari mari sini, aku mau beli. Abang tukang bakso, cepat donk kemari, sudah tak tahan lagi" - echoes in my mind.

It literally means "meatballs seller brother, please come, please come here, I wanna buy! Meatball seller brother! Please come her quick, I cannot hold it anymore!"

A bowl of bakso was sold for Rp200 and later Rp500 when I was a primary school student! Today, a US$ is ~ about Rp11,400.

Listening to the song sung by Melisa inspired me to design a simple breakfast of easy zucchini soup with lotus root meatballs / 夏南瓜莲藕肉圆汤.



Serving: 1-2
Preparation time: 5* + 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

* I mix the meat ball ingredients the night before.

Ingredients:
♥ 1 zucchini (夏南瓜), sliced
♥ 1 tsp anchovies (凤尾鱼)
♥ 1 tsp wolfberries / Goji berries (枸杞子), washed & soaked
♥ 1 tbsp parsley (香菜), chopped
♥ 300 ml water, (水) filtered if possible
for meat balls / meat coins:
♥ 1 tbsp meat (肉), grounded & blanched
♥ 3 tbsp sweet potato flour (薯粉)
♥ 1 tsp lotus root powder (莲藕粉)
♥ 1 tsp oat (燕麦)
♥ 2 cloves garlic (大蒜), minced
♥ 1 tsp sesame oil (麻油)
♥ 0.5 tsp pepper (胡椒粉), grounded
♥ 0.5 tsp sugar (糖)
♥ 0.5 tsp light soy sauce / kecap asin


Directions:
1. Mix ingredients for meat balls in a bowl. Leave in a fridge overnight to marinade or you can use it immediately.
2. Boil anchovies in a pot of water.
3. Shape meat mixture into balls & dump into the anchovies stock when it boils.
4. Add zucchini & wolfberries.
5. Once cooked, turn off the heat & add parsley. Enjoy!



Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140327

Almost thick satay sauce for bread spread recipe

Good morning lovely people! Let us enjoy bread spread inspired by satay sauce, that tastes wonderful accompanying toasted bread. 

This recipe is easy and fast to prepare, hence ideal for a quick breakfast in the morning.

Traditional satay sauce takes more efforts and time to prepare. Its ingredients include roasted peanuts, sweet soy sauce (kecap manis), sugar, salt, oil, tamarind, red chilli, garlic, shallot, lemon grass, galangal / ginger, coriander / cilantro.

To prepare almost thick satay sauce for bread spread, we can use mainly peanut butter with red onion. 

Originated from the the Aztecs who ground roasted peanuts into a paste, peanut butter is a good source of proteins. It has been used as an ingredient to fight malnutrition in famine stricken countries.



Picky eaters - who are not allergic to peanut - can enjoy bread and cookies with peanut butter too.  Decorate with raisins to create crawling ants in a row. If your little ones love Teddy Bear (so does baby Ren!), create a face of Bear using banana slices and blueberries on top of peanut butter-spreaded wheat bread.

Since we are currently living in Singapore, I use locally made Spread Talk Creamy Peanut Butter produced by Sing Kee Kaya, that I bought from NTUC Fairprice. The ingredients include roasted peanuts, vegetable oil, sugar & salt. Thus, I no need to add any other ingredients to give salty flavor*. The label also indicates
♥ No cholesterol
♥ No preservatives
♥ No trans fat

Sometimes, I also add 1/2 slice of cheese to each bread. The cheese will give an additional salty taste.

Servings: 2
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 4 slices 5-grain bread (五谷面包)
♥ 1 tsp peanut butter (花生酱)
♥ 1 tsp honey (蜜糖)
♥ 1 red onion, finely chopped (红洋葱)

Directions:
1. Pan-toast* bread slices over low heat. Cover the pan with a lid.
2. Mix peanut butter, honey, red onion.
3. Spread on bread.
4. Keep bread on the pan until ready to eat.

You can also use bread toaster. I prefer our bread to be not too brown yet slightly crispy at the edges.

Tips:
♥ I prefer to use red onion / purple onion to white onion for the high flavonoids content of the former. Studies reveal that flavonoids have potential anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. (PMID: 19381780)
♥ While we love this almost thick satay sauce paste for our bread, we try to consume it moderately, perhaps at most once a week. We enjoy eating diversely, as the saying goes, "diversity spices up life!"

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140317