Tangy Green Papaya Soup

Once again, I would call this a base soup.
Once you get to know the flavour of different soup ingredients, you'll be able to play around mixing them up. Lots of soups are various of each other.

The reason why I call this the tangy green papaya soup is because of the use of green papaya and ginger. The ginger gives it a kick rather then focusing on the sweetness that usually comes with papaya soup.
Also, since green papaya is not ripe, it's not as sweet as a ripe papaya.

This is great for a smoothing soup with a bit of a kick.
It's pretty simple and easy to make too. :)

Tangy Green Papaya Soup

Ingredients

• 1 Green Papaya (4lbs)
• 1/2 cup red dates
• 1/4 cup apricot kernel (1:3 ratio for north 北杏 and south apricot 南杏 seeds)
• 1cm block of ginger
• 1 - 1.5 lbs of pork bone
• 4L of water
• Salt optional

Directions

1. Pre-treat the pork bone if it's not done already. Blanch the pork bone and then wash the bones.
2. Start heating the 4L of water while you prep the other items. 
3. Peel the papaya and cut it in half to remove all the seeds.
4. Cut it into 1 inch strips.
5. Rinse the red dates and the apricot seeds.
6. Wash the ginger and slice it up
7. Once the water is boiled, put all the ingredients in except the salt.
8. Bring it back up to a rolling boil and then turn down the heat to medium low so that it's at a soft boil.
9. Let it cook for 1.5 hours
10. Before you turn off the heat add salt and stir if you wish to add salt.

And there you have it. Simple green papaya soup with a kick.

Base White Fungus Soup

This is the base soup for white fungus. By adding in other veggies and fruits it'll modify the flavour and make it sweeter. Depending on the fruits/veggies you used, you can interchange figs with red dates and honey dates and pork bone vs chicken.
For the base soup, I specifically use pork neck bone because I found that pork back bone or chicken shell is not enough flavour. Since this is very basic with very little ingredients, the base is very important. Pork neck gives a lot of flavour and will help make your soup richer.
If you want to use chicken, you'll have to use several shells OR buy a mature chicken to use for the soup.

This is pretty much the bare minimum I would put into the white fungus soup. That's why I call this the Base White Fungus soup.

I'll post other variations of it later. :)

Base White Fungus Soup

Ingredients

• 1 White Fungus
• 5 - 7 Dried Fig
• 1/4 cup Apricot Seed mix (1:3 ratio for north 北杏 and south apricot 南杏 seeds)
• 1lbs of Pork Neck Bones
• 4L of water
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Soak the white fungus for half an hour to an hour to soften and wash.
2. Rinse the apricot seed and the figs.
3. Cut all the figs horizontally in half so more flavour can escape into the soup when you cook it.
4. Pre-treat your pork bone by blanching it for 5 mins and washing the bones after the blanch.
5. Once the white fungus is soft enough to wash, gently wash any dirty that may be trapped.
6. Use a knife to dig out connections.
7. You can cut the white fungus into 4 pieces before you boil it or cook it whole and break it into pieces to eat when you're about to drink the soup.
8. Bring the water to a boil.
9. Add in the pork bones and bring the water back to a boil.
10. Throw in the apricot seed, figs and white fungus.
11. Once the water is back up to a boil, bring the heat to low or medium low (depending on your stove) so that it's at a soft boil. Let it cook for 1.5 hrs.
12. Add your salt, stir and you're done :)

Green Bean, Lily Bulb and Red Date Soup

Here's another easy basic soup.
Honestly most soups will have 4-5 ingredients as base with lots of optional things you can add for flavour and other goodness.

This particular one is simple and pretty mellow tasting. The green bean is considered to be "cold" so for sweetness, instead of honey date or logan fruit, I use red dates to balance out the "cold".

Green Bean, Lily Bulb and Red Date Soup

Ingredients

• 40g Green Beans
• 30g Lily Bulb 百合
• 5 large or 10 small Red Dates 
• 1 Tangerine Peel 果皮
• 1 lbs of Pork Bone
• 4-5 L of water
• Salt to taste

Directions

1. If your pork bone is not pre-blanched and you like to have your soup clear, quickly blanch the pork bones in boiling water for 5 mins, then wash the pork bone.
2. Rinse the green beans, lily bulb and red dates.
3. Soak the tangerine peel in water and scrap off some of the whites when it's soft.
4. Heat 4 L of water in a large pot.
5. Once the water is boiling, add the pork bone.
6. When it comes back to a rolling boil, add the green beans, lily bulb, red dates and tangerine peel.
7. Drop the heat down to a soft boil and let it cook for 1.5 hours. Check the soup once in a while to make sure it's still softly boiling to make sure you're not over or under cooking the soup.
8. At the end of the 1.5 hours, add salt if you wish. Stir and turn off the heat.
9. Skim the fat and you're good to go.

Enjoy!

Grandma's General Health Soup

One of the benefits of growing up in a large family is the variety of food you get at dinner every day.
When my grandparents lived with us, my grandma would make a different soup every day just because we can finish 1 big pot of soup every day.
This was the one soup she should make at least once on a weekly basis because each of the 4 herbal ingredients in it is good for a different part of the body!
She refers to it as upkeep of the body.

The herbal ingredients in this soup are simple ingredients that do not require you to go to a Chinese Dr to get exact measurements. So no need to worry about that.
My grandma makes soup by eyeing the amount of ingredients, so I took that and put together some more precise measurements for this post. :)
It's actually quite easy to make once you get use to it. Essentially you through everything together, bring to a boil and simmer for 1.5 hrs and you have soup.

Of course, there's many variations of this. This is the most basic version that my grandma taught me how to make.

Fox nuts - High in anti oxidant (my grandma refers to this one as good for skin)
Lotus Seed - good for kidney and spleen
Lily Bulb - good for lungs and spirit
Dioscorea Opposita - spleen, stomach and lungs

Grandma's General Health Soup

Ingredients

• 56g Fox nuts 芡實
• 60g Lotus Seed 蓮子
• 56g Lily Bulb 百合
• 4 to 5 strips of Dioscorea Opposita 淮山
• 1 to 1.5 lbs of Pork Bones (the more you add the more flavourful the soup)
• 3-5 Honey Dates
• 1 dried Tangerine Peel 果皮 (it's not just any tangerine apparently...)
• 4 to 5 L of water depending how strong and condense do you want the flavour to be
• Salt to your preference

Directions

1. If you do not want cloudy soup, pre-treat your pork bones by blanching it in water and remove the "scum" from the water before you proceed forward.
2. Bring water to a boil. 
3. Add in the pork bones.
4. Let the water come back to a boil, then add in the rest of the ingredients.
5. Once the water is at a rolling boil, then turn the heat to low and cook it on low heat for half an hour. Depending on how much water you use, you might need to cook it at medium low heat to keep a very light boil. A little more then a simmer but not a full out boil.
6. Find the honey dates and squash them so it lets the flavour out! Continue to cook it for an hour other.
7. Add salt and you're ready

Notes: A little salt will help bring flavour out. My mother in law doesn't like to use add salt so she makes a very concentrated soup instead with lots of ingredients to make up for the lack of salt.

Dried Goods for Soup

This is my first post in my Chinese Soup series.
When you start making Chinese soup, you'll start collecting a lot of different types of dried goods.
Some items like Apricot Kernels and Honey Dates are more often used then others like Dried Octopus. You will start to accumulate lots of dried goods over time. I find it very convenient to be well stocked as it requires less planning when deciding what soup to make.
Couple of things to pay attention to when you get started with the dried ingredients:

Chinese vs English names

In my soup recipes, I'll always post both the Chinese and English name that you may find on the label. My advice is to copy Chinese words because I find that sometimes the English name may vary or the English name on the label actually refers to the family of the item and not the specific thing.

For example, Apricot Kernels in the picture above both have the same English name with 2 different Chinese names because they're different from one an other! The one that says "北杏" is bitter and actually considered "poisonous" in Chinese herbal cooking, you shouldn't be using a lot of it unlike the other one! The ratio of 南杏 and 北杏 should be about 3:1. My grandma says it's even ok to make soup without 北杏. So if your soup calls for Apricot Kernels and you relied on the English name, you could have grabbed the wrong bag if all you get is one type.

Supermarket vs Herbal Shops

There are many places you can buy the herbal ingredients. You can pretty much walk into any big Chinese supermarket and there will be an aisle or 2 of dried goods for soup and for cooking. What it really comes down to are 3 things, price, quality and trust. There are some items I will grab at the grocery store because it's convenient and they are labeled in Chinese and English. But there are others that I will go to the Chinese Herbal store to get due to the nature of the item so I want to ensure high quality. Also, grocery store doesn't necessarily equate to cheaper! I've found items there that are more expansive then at the herbal store!

Finding a good herbal store is very very important if you want to get into making Chinese soups. The first herbal store I went to was very impolite and not helpful at all, the second one was really aggressive trying to sell me everything they can get their hands on. The one I go to now is the one my grandma introduced me to. She likes that particular store because the items are good quality and the owner is honest. I'm very fortunate to have my grandma introduce me, but I know not everyone can get that introduction. If you're serious about trying the herbal soups, spend a little bit of time to check out a couple of stores. Compare items from store to store to check quality, price and honesty of the people there. Helpful but non-aggressive clerks are very important when you're new to herbal items. Dried goods are not cheap! It will pay off in the long run to do research before you buy.

The other nice thing about herbal stores is the personal touch. They can teach you how to use the ingredients you're buying! There's so many ways and so many variations of different soups and dishes you can make, so it's great to talk to them and learn new methods.

Set packages vs "loose" items

You can find set packages like the one you see on the left in supermarkets and herbal stores! There's always pros and cons to everything. Soup packages are set for 1 pot of soup. So it's great if you're trying out Chinese soup and you're unsure if you want to buy so much ingredients if you may not make it again. I find some packages of soup even have directions for type of meat and/or veggies to add and how long to cook. Some don't have much info, so you really need to know the ingredients in order to use it. Some supermarket even soup packages in the refrigerator section where they have the meat and veggies all cut up with combine with packages of herbal items ready for you to buy and throw into a pot to cook!

Why you will buy packages vs individual comes down to a couple of decisions. If you're in this for the long haul, it'll cost less to buy all the individual items then these packages. Also, quality of the goods is hard to judge in these packages. Some people argue it's fine and others will argue that you'll get better items if you go to the herbal store. It's really a toss up between the 2. If you know a good herbal store, then you'll probably get better quality for the same amount of money. 

Variety is another good reason to get individual packages. Once you start making herbal soup, you'll realize there can be may variations and mix and matches of items you can use for the soup.

How to store

Now that you've spent good money on the dried goods, you want to make sure it doesn't go bad when you're not using it. Soup packages are one time use, so as long as you don't open them until you're ready to use them, you're fine.

For all the loose items, you need to keep them in a cool dried area. A cool room is the best if you have one! I don't have one so when I open a package, I will put all the items in jars to try to keep moisture out.

Generally you will not need to keep things in the fridge as long as you can keep it cool and dried. If you put something in the fridge, then it has to stay there until it's all used up. The only thing I keep in the fridge are the dried figs. Everything else is bottled or sealed in bags. The first image in this post is a shelf in my dried goods cabinet. Thank goodness for food saver to reseal packages because I don't nearly have enough jars for everything.

And that's the basics of it to get started! If you currently have nothing at all for dried goods, don't try to go out and buy everything all at once. Your wallet will cry if you do that. When you're starting up, just buy as you need. Slowly build up your collection. Your wallet will thank you for it.

Homestyle Cream of Corn with Fish Maw Soup (魚肚)

This is a super fast soup that you can make in less then 30 mins.
It honestly only really needs the cream of corn, water and Fish Maw but at my house, we typically add a couple more items.

What is Fish Maw (魚肚)?
When I say the word in Chinese and translate it directly to English, it's "Fish Stomach". But it's not the stomach. It's actually part of the fish that allows it to float.
It has a spongy texture, sort of like tofu that you freeze and find it full of wholes after.
If I didn't tell you what Fish Maw is, you would probably think it's some sort of tofu product :)

Here's the package of Fish Maw that I usually get.

This will make enough soup for more than 10 bowls of soup.

Homestyle Cream of Corn with Fish Maw Soup (魚肚)

Makes 1 medium size pot Prep Time 10 mins cook time 15-20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 Cans of Cream of Corn
• 2 Cans of Water
• Half a package of defrosted Fish Maw (177g)
• Several Slices of Ginger
• 1/2 Tbsp of Salt
• 1 Egg (scrambled)
• 1 package of Firm or "Old" Tofu (Optional)

Direction

1. Open the 2 cans of Cream of Corn and pour it into a pot on top of the stove top.
2. Turn on the heat to high.
3. Use the Cans to measure out the 2 cans of water. Use a chopstick to stir the water in the can to get all remaining corn in the can loose. Pour it into the pot.
4. Rinse the Fish Maw under water and squeeze out all the water before cutting it to bite size pieces
5. If you are going to add Tofu, now is the time to open the package, rinse it and cut it into cubes.
6. Once the Corn mixture comes to a boil, add the Fish Maw and Tofu
7. Let the soup cook for ~5 mins or so once it comes to a boil.
8. Crack an egg and scramble it.
9. Add salt to the soup.
10. Use a ladle or chopsticks to stir the soup and pour in the egg.
11. By mixing the soup when you pour in the scramble egg, it will make 蛋花 ("Egg Flower"). The wisp of eggs add a nice look.
12. Make sure the soup is still at a boil and then turn off the heat because you're done!!

Super easy and super fast. :)
Enjoy!