The Soup Queen

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!

This is a chinese style pumpkin soup with a medley of vegetables such as carrot, leek and button mushroom making it truly healthy. This combination of vegetables are also good for nourishing weak lungs. You will need: 2 fairly large carrots, cut into chunks some pumpkin, cut into chunks, skin removed some leek 1/2 can button mushrooms lean pork (scald pork) 2 slices ginger Put all the above ingredients into a pot of boiling water. Boil furiously for 10 minutes. Lower heat and simmer for 2 hours. Before serving, season with salt.

If you live in Asia, you would know what the sapodilla fruit or ciku fruit looks and tastes like. It is very sweet when ripe but it is also a haven for fruit worms. Many people dislike eating this as they worry they will accidentally eat the tiny white worms too! Besides eating them as they are, you can make a pretty easy soup with the sapodilla fruit. This soup helps clear the lungs. All you need are: 4 ripe ciku, de-skinned 1 medium papaya, peeled and sliced in chunks 2 tablespoons medlar seeds or boxthorn fruit, washed 4 candied dates, wash lean pork (blanch) In a pot, bring 1.5 liters to boil. Add all the above ingredients and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Cover pot, lower heat and simmer for 2 hours. Season to taste with 2-3 teaspoons salt. Serve.

Gan Cao is a useful herb to have in your home because it is cheap yet packs a punch when it comes to health benefits. Gan Cao is known as Liquorice which is sold mostly as thinly sliced roots. It is a sweet herb with a neutral character and it is helpful for the heart, lung, spleen and stomach meridians. It is also said that Gan Cao is a life prolonging herb. How true this is I don't know but I do know that I like the smooth taste of this herb. As it benefits the heart, lung, spleen and stomach, Gan Cao therefore helps with Qi. It also stops coughing and clears heat, with an ability to detox poisons. I usually use Gan Cao by steeping one piece (cut up into 3 pieces) in my hot Chinese tea (Ti Kuan Yin or a light mellow tea). This way I can taste the mouth-lingering taste of this herb. Another way is to pop one slice of the root and chew as if you are chewing gum! Chew for 10 minutes or until you have dehydrated the root of its juices. Spit out the chewed root. (This method is great ...

This is a simple cordycep soup. Cordyceps or dong chong xia chao is also called caterpillar fungus. As a sweet and warm herb, it benefits largely the kidney and lung. That's why this soup is great for nourishing the lung and strengthening kidney and of course, helps with people who suffer from coughs. For this soup, I bought a ready packet of premix herbs from the herbalist for RM4. Inside the packet were dried cordyceps, red dates, medlar seeds, yuk chuk/solomon's seal and Dan Shen (chinese sage). As usual, bring a pot of water to boil. Again this is roughly 6 fairly large bowls of water or 1.5 liters. When boiling, add blanched pork or chicken together with the herbs and boil on high for 10 minutes, uncovered. Then cover the pot tightly and lower fire completely to a mere bubble and let it simmer for 2 hours. Season to taste after 2 hours with 2 teaspoons good quality salt (I use Himalayan salt). Let it rest for 30 minutes before serving warm. This is a deliciously nourishing...