Chinese mushroom with zucchini in soy sauce on meehoon 豉油冬菇‘菜’碎米粉

I am wondering how I should name this dish cos it's something I invented using whatever ingredients I found available in the fridge. I wanted to name it 冬菇肉碎, but it would be so wrong, cos it hasn't got any meat in it, so I just name it 冬菇‘菜’碎 (which means Chinese mushrooms with minced vege).

 

I really like cook or bake-along, cos it allows me to try different cooking method using something I am not familiar with. This month's theme ingredient for Little Thumbs Up is soybeans, hosted by Piece of Cake. When I first knew of the theme, I was at lost on what I can cook or bake with. All I can think of is just baking with soymilk. Shameful to say, I'm not a great Asian cook.

 

This afternoon, I was gonna cook an Asian delight for the lil' fella. The lil' fella is turning one end of this month. He has been eating mostly western culinary all this while (pasta bake, fish pie, fish cakes, oatmeal, bread and muffins), cos it's something I am familiar with. But I thought I'm gonna try something different today, let's intro something Chinesy- into his diet. I soaked 2 Chinese mushrooms, handful of gojiberries, a bundle of organic brown rice vermicelli (meehoon) and thought I would prepare him a soupy meehoon. I started cooking and ended up with a dry meehoon, but the end result was good! I seasoned it with this version of soya sauce (hahaa.. not sure if I'm gonna be disqualified from Little Thumbs Up, cos this is not a real soy sauce, but it's justifiable cos this is a super healthy alternative to soy sauce, and it's made from fermented soybean! The difference is, it has no salt as its ingredients, which is just perfect for moms cooking for their little one under two, who are still on a salt- and sugar-free diet).

 

 

 

I have learnt about liquid amino as an healthier alternative to soy sauce since my uni- years but I have not been keen on it, cos I have this impression that it's just an alternative (I love using authentic genuine ingredients when cooking or baking). But comes to my lil' one's diet, I got to factor in the health reason. So here's me, starting to use liquid amino cooking for the little baby.

 

Recipe:

*2 Chinese mushrooms, presoaked in water for about 2-4hours (keep the soaking water), after soaked, slice or finely mince them

*1tbsp goji berries (wolfberries) 枸杞, presoaked in water for about 30min

*bundle of organic brown rice meehoon, presoaked in water for about 30min

*1 clove garlic, finely minced

*a small chunks of zucchini (or any vege available in fridge), finely minced

*Seasoning: Liquid Amino and toasted sesame oil

 

Instructions:

1. Heat up about 1 tbsp. grapeseed oil (my choice of cooking oil for the lil' fella) in a wok.

2. Throw in finely minced garlic. Stir fry till fragrant.

3. Put in finely minced Chinese mushrooms, goji berries and zucchini. Gently stir fry for about 3-5min.

4. Add in the soaking water, about 1/2 cup, add more water if necessary.

5. Simmer the mushroom and vege mix for about 10-15min.

6. For toddlers above two, you may wanna thicken the sauce with cornflour in water. But I didn't do this for my lil' fella.

7. When mushroom is soft, season with liquid amino and toasted sesame oil.

8. In another pan, boil meehoon until soft. I scissor-cut the cooked-meehoon to bite-size for my lil' fella.

9. Serve the mushroom and vege sauce on top of meehoon.

 

 

I finished cooking and blogging about this (in about 2 hours) and the lil' fella is still in slumberland. Great! But I got to be prepared to deal with a super-charged lil' fella running / crawling around. Scary thoughts!  

 

I am submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Soy Beans" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Mich of Piece of Cake. You can link your soy recipes here.