4 Soup Recipes - All New!

Here are some soup recipes you can try.

For all soups, remember to blanch the meat first to get rid of its oil and blood. Bring your pot of water to boil before you add the meat and herbs/vegetables. Simmer on high heat for 10 minutes (do not close the pot lid). After 10 minutes of rapid boiling, close the lid and lower heat so that your soup can simmer for 2 hours undisturbed. Lastly add salt for seasoning. Turn off heat and let soup mellow for 30 minutes before serving warm with rice.

Papaya Soup
Nourishes lungs and improves skin texture

1 cob sweet corn
19 gm dried white fungus, soaked and drained
1 papaya, 450 gm
shin of pork, 450 gm

Dang Gui Soup
Expels dampness, nourishes spleen and yin

1/4 slice dried tangerine peel
19gm dang gui
12 gm fox nuts
600gm shin of pork
1 slice ginger

Lotus Root Soup
Promotes blood cell regeneration, whitens skins and improves skin texture

600gm shin of pork
19 gm fox nuts
57 gm dried lotus seeds
38 gm small red beans
450 gm lotus root

Pork Tail Soup
Strengthens bones and sinews, improves skin texture and nourishes kidneys

225gm peanuts
2 pig tails, washed and chopped into chunks
15 gm dried wai san
4 slices ginger
2 stalks spring onion, chopped
12 gm keichi/medlar seeds

Good Business, Bad for Soups

I've missed my soups and yes, my blog!

Business has been really good so much so that work, meetings, hiring, and the whole circle of stuff has taken me away from this blog. I've had guilt pangs!I've felt terribly guilty!

When work gets to me (and I get very stressed sometimes), we eat out although I can rightly say that cooking is therapy for me. When I cook, I get into this 'zone' of self-reflection and peace. I talk to myself sometimes when I cook. It actually makes me happy.

But when I get home too late (sometimes past 8pm), it's sometimes too late to thaw chicken or fish so cooking gets abandoned. I tried making lots of soup and freezing it but nothing tastes like freshly made soup.

When I move to our new place (which hopefully happens soon as I am practically living in an apartment full of cartons, ready for packing!), I have a brand new kitchen for more soup experimentation. Plus I get a brand new refrigerator too. So long to the old faithful clunker of a refrigerator I am using now. It had served me well over the years but I suspect it 'slurps' electricity too. Old fridges tend to do that.

On my list of appliances to buy is a bigger slow cooker so I can make soup more regularly. Right now I use the stove and with a stove, I need to watch the fire to ensure the soup does not boil over.

If you've missed me and my soup recipes, I've missed ya too. I've missed experimenting with soups in my kitchen.

The consolation is, I'll be back with a true vengeance once we move into our new apartment.

Here's a sneak peek at my new white-cream galley kitchen with sparkling white tiles amidst sunshiney yellow.

Porridge with Kei Chi, Wai San & Pork

This is a quick variation of the wai san porridge which I make all the time. One of the reasons is that wai san porridge is a great recipe when you are strapped for time. Second of course is that wai san (I'm talking about fresh wai san in this case) is soothing for the stomach. Basically, you can find wai san (or hwai san or chinese wild yam) in the wet market or supermarket. I've seen it sold in Tesco too sometimes.

It is usually a long, brown root covered in soil. Once you peel off the brown exterior, you will find the inside white like a yam bean /jicama/ mengkuang. Be careful though when slicing the wai san. It emits goo so it gets slimy. I suggest you wash the wai san after you've peeled off the skin and start slicing as soon as you can.

The usual way of getting wai san is from your herbal shop where it is in dried form. It is usually white and dehydrated.

In both forms, either fresh or dried, wai san promotes urination, lowers blood pressure, lowers blood sugar, is anti-aging and good for digestive issues. It's a tonic for the kidney and vaginal infections. I've also seen it used fresh (uncooked) in salads. I don't know how it tastes in a salad but it would be crunchy and bland.

If you cook it in a soup with pork bones, your soup will be delicately sweet and very nourishing.

Anyway, I've written about cooking wai san porridge before so this one is a just a reiteration where I add in kei chi or chinese wolfberries, which are great for the eyes. Particularly if you, like me, work with computers all day! (Another way of getting kei chi or what Americans call 'goji' is just steep a tablespoon of the berries in hot water and drinking the kei chi tea warm.)

So the next time you see fresh wai san in the supermarket, go grab some. You can keep it fresh for almost 2 weeks by wrapping the whole root (dirt and all) with newspaper in the vegetable compartment.

Chinese Dumpling Festival

I've been busy doing clients' stuff so my blogs get a bit neglected.Sigh! Such is the life of a person who runs too many blogs.

Even my soup life gets a backseat! (I have been making the same old soups again and again. My recent soup was the Sharkfin Melon Soup. Try it if you haven't done so. It's clear and sweet and just right for warm days.)

But I just wanted to tell you about a brilliant initiative on bak zhang.

By the way, the festival is coming right up. It's on the 5th day od the 5th lunar month.

I just blogged about zhang in my other blog so bear with me while I get my life in order and get back to the groove of things again.

Chinese Pear Dessert

I got this recipe from The Family Herbal Cookbook by Cecilia Tan. It helps to soothe a heaty system.The pears used in this recipe are of the yellow round variety which when eaten fresh, are terribly juicy.

This recipe needs:

2 chinese pears, peeled, halved and cored
6 to 8 dried red dates, deseeded
some rock sugar
3 bowls water

Put all ingredients into a pot. Simmer for 3 hours. Top up with water if water's reduced. Drink warm.

Three Bean Soup

I have not been making soup much as most days I come home late from work (though work is technically my own business). Well, for one, it means that we're doing really well in terms of getting new web design projects in.

The downside, I get to be home less and hence, less soup-making in the kitchen. I have been thinking of getting myself a bigger slow cooker or crockpot so I can put all the soup ingredients into the pot, switch it on and go off to the office. I can come home to a lovely, warm pot of soup. Currently I have a super tiny crockpot, inherited from my undergrad days. My dad bought it for me so I could make some soups for myself. I still have it but I only use it to boil 'ba zhen tang'. The pot is too small for making soups as it can only take 2 bowls of water.

Anyway, today I made some soup. (Actually the soup is merrily simmering away even as I blog this.) Today being a Sunday and typically Sundays are days where I try to catch up on my reading at home and cook some. I am baking some bread too so while the bread is rising and the soup is simmering, I am here, typing up this post.

So what have I concocted? I tried digging for some herbal soup packets (very handy to have for those emergency days when I don't feel very creative) but I wasn't very inspired by the 2 packets I saw in the fridge.

More digging about and I saw peanuts, black beans and soya beans on the shelf. So I am making a three-bean soup with chicken feet and pork bones and dried red dates.

I love putting chicken feet in soups though they tend to be oily. But, and this is a nice BUT, they contain collagen which is great for smooth skin. Just don't overdo the chicken feet. About 3 pairs will do. They're a nice addition to soups as once they're done, they're really tender and soft. Pig trotters also contain collagen and while they are also unhealthy in large amounts, pig trotters have lots of collagen too.

Ingredients:
3 pairs chicken feet
1 bowl pork bones
1/2 cup peanuts, washed
1/2 cup soya beans, washed
1/2 cup black beans
4-6 dried red dates, remove seeds
1.5 liter water

As always, blanch the chicken feet and pork bones first. Leave aside while you pan-fry the black beans till their skins pop at the seams and reveal the greenish beige insides. (Do not put oil to pan-fry the beans.) Only do this for black beans. The peanuts and soya beans don't need any extra treatment.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add in all ingredients. Let it boil furiously on high heat for 10 minutes. Cover and lower fire to a mere simmer. Simmer for 3 hours. Season to taste with salt. Serve hot.

Dried Scallop & Chicken Soup from Asian Kitchen

Stumbled upon a good blog for Asian recipes recently.

My Asian Kitchen has lots of good stuff to offer, from lovely photos of food and soups to simple recipes. I love simple recipes.

This week, I'm pointing you to the Dried Scallop and Chicken Soup from My Asian Kitchen.

Go on over now!