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Ning Shen Soup

This is yet another herb soup packet mix which I got from Eu Yan Sang.

Ning Shen Soup is a traditional Chinese soup recipe for calming the mind and keeping the heart healthy.

Its ingredients are:
radix astragali
rhizoma dioscareae
rhizoma polygonati odorati
pericarpium citri reticulatae
bulbus lilii
arilllus longan
fructus lycii

If the above sounds like gibberish to you, it actually isn't. Of course it sounds like a bunch of sophisticated herbs but really, they're normal Chinese herbs.

radix astragali -- Huang Qi or Milk Vetch Root
rhizoma dioscareae -- Chinese yam or shanyao
rhizoma polygonati odorati -- Solomon's seal
pericarpium citri reticulatae -- dried tangerine peel
bulbus lilii -- dried lily bulb
arilllus longan -- dried longan
fructus lycii -- wolfberry


The herbs are clean so a quick rinse was just about it. Next I brought a pot of water (1.5 liters) to boil. Once the water was bubbling, I added in the Ning Shen herbs and blanched pork bones. Boil on high for 10 minutes before covering the pot and simmering on low heat for 2 hours. Season with salt when the soup is almost done.

I like to 'rest' my soups for at least 30 minutes before serving. This seems to make the flavours more rounded and robust.
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