Old Cucumber Soup Recipe | Easy Asian Cooking

Old Cucumber Soup 老黄瓜汤

Soup does soothe the soul, doesn't it? And it does explained why soup has became an indispensable mainstay of our family. If you're a regular of this home-cooked blog, you probably have already sniffed it out.  :-) It realized me this morning that I have been posting consecutively seven soup recipes in the last few days and it's time to switch to other staple recipes for the next blog entry.

Before digress further, I am going to feature this ubiquitous old cucumber soup as soup of the day. Distinctly different from cucumber, old cucumber (老黄瓜) is an aged or matured cucumber with golden-hued skin. With cylindrical, elongated body and tapered ends, old cucumber has a very thick and rough dried-out skin with a fleshy interior and a pocket of seeds and air.

Old cucumber (老黄瓜) is an aged cucumber with golden-hued skin

Old cucumber soup is best served at blistering hot days to tone down body heat, attributable to its cooling properties. Therein the phrase "cool as a cucumber" and it is not without merit. Extremely high in dietary fibre, Calcium and Iron, it does not only have Vitamins A, B6 and C, it also has a diuretic effect. Women who are pregnant or menstruating should take caution when consuming this. Old cucumber is to be boiled into soup with its skin intact to prevent the flesh from turning mushy after long hours of simmering and to avoid disintegration. You can either have the pocket of seeds removed or remained. I used to leave the interior seeds unscrapped but it turned out to be sour and bitter, which kept hubby and I being occupied for sometimes to iron out what was going wrong on the soup before it eventually dawned on us that the culprit was the seeds.

Add this old cucumber soup to your cooking menus in dry, scorching days to stay cool as a cucumber. This is an easy-to-prepare Chinese-styled clear, nourishing soup that many Malaysian families familiar with.

Ingredients :

1 medium-sized old cucumber (老黄瓜)
300g of meaty pork ribs (排骨), rinsed
1 piece of dried cuttlefish (鱿鱼干), rinsed (optional)
4 dried scallops (干贝), soaked in warm water and shredded finely (optional)
8 red dates (Chinese red jujube 红枣), rinsed, cut into half and de-seeded (optional)
A pinch of salt to taste
1500ml water

Method :

1. Soak, scrub and wash the whole old cucumber in salted water for 10 minutes. Slice old cucumber into half (lengthwise), then cut across each half into big chunks. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds as depicted in photos below.

Slice old cucumber into half (lengthwise), then cut across each half into big chunks

Scoop out the seeds with a spoon

2. Blanch or parboil pork ribs in a pot of boiling water. Remove scum visibly floating on the water surface. This is to discard fat and to produce a clear soup. Then the blanched pork ribs drained up and set aside, with the pot of water discarded.

3. Bring a 1500ml-water-filled stockpot to a boil over high heat. When it boils furiously, add in blanched pork ribs, chucks of old cucumbers, dried cuttlefish (optional), pre-soaked and shredded scallops (optional) and de-seeded red dates (optional). Toss well with a ladle.  
(Alternatively, you can use crockpot (slow cooker) or double-boiler)

4. Cover the lid and reduce to low heat, simmer for 1 - 2 hours. Skim off any scum floating on the soup surface on and off using a fine steel sieve.

5. Add salt to taste 5 minutes before heat off. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Add in all the ingredients into a stockpot filled with rolling boil water

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Abalone with Chicken Soup | Easy Asian Cooking

Abalone with Chicken Soup 鲍鱼炖鸡汤

Groomy October started and continues with quirky rain, hence the meal that lurking in my mind seems to be something capable of exuding a nourishing smell to my soul. Naturally it revolves a bowl of warming soup, soup and again soup. As an advocate of herbal soup, it's not hard to find redolent of herbs keep wafting from my little kitchen. And it's the right time for abalone with chicken soup makes its appearance in my dining table.

Packed with some serious nutritional punch, abalone with chicken soup ("Uncle Sun" brand) comes in as commercially available all-in-one package comprises of Astragalia 黑芪, Rhizoma, Radix Codonopsis 党参, Diosoreae 淮山, Polygonathum 玉竹, Radix Glycymhizae 甘草, two pieces of dried abalone 鲍鱼干and a small bag encapsulating special grinded herbs, abalone powder 鲍鱼粉, Luo Pian 响螺片and seasoning. Copious amount of Polygonathum 玉竹 imparts a mesmerizing sweetness whilst Radix Glycymhizae 甘草 infuses an enticing licorice taste to the soup which make it an epicurean repast on its own. Savoring this comforting soup, I can feel the lingering heat which left me a feeling that carries me a long time until night, sated and fulfilled.

Preparing this healthy soup doesn't require you to exert much effort neither does it need an advance course in cooking to prepare. It's really easy to a noob cook like me. A slight difference to other pre-packed soup which is simmered together with pork ribs, I don't parboil or blanch the chicken but I skim off scum from the soup surface at the beginning and every now and then. In my opinion, chicken emanates less fatty scum and "bone marrow" flavor as compared to pork ribs, thus I don't want to lose any flavor in the parboil liquid.

Ingredients :

1 package of abalone with chicken soup pre-mixes (I use "Uncle Sun" brand herbs and spices mix 鲍鱼炖鸡汤料, photo as below)
1 whole chicken, cut into 4 pieces and rinse
3000ml water

Pre-mix package of abalone with chicken soup with its herbs and spices

Method :

1. In a stockpot or claypot, fill in 3000ml water and wait until it reaches rolling boil. Add in the chicken. When the scum floats to the surface, skim away the froth.  (Alternatively slow-cooker (or crockpot) or double-boiler can be used)

2. Add in a whole pack of abalone with chicken soup herbal and spices pre-mixes. Cover the lid and turn to low flame and simmer for 2-2.5 hours until the chicken becomes tender.

3. Season with salt to taste. Serve hot with steamed rice.

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Watercress and Red Dates Soup | Easy Asian Cooking

Watercress and Red Dates Soup 西洋菜红枣排骨汤

Watercress and red dates soup (西洋菜红枣排骨汤) is the usual and most-frequent soup that graces our dining table. It's perfectly suitable for novice cook who's always in the awe of the simplicity like me. I usually add dried cuttlefish or dried scallop for added taste but it's rather optional. Similar to other herbal soups, watercress and red dates soup can be simmered in stockpot (over stove top), in crockpot (slow-cooker) or in double-boiler. Just the water amount to be filled in for the latter two is lesser, as cooking technique of crockpot and double-boiler ensures there is no loss of liquid or moisture, and you'll get approximately the same amount of water as the initial water you have poured in. This is contrary to stove-top stockpot simmering which requires you to keep a watching eyes from time to time to prevent the soup from totally boiled off or evaporated.

Containing a superfluity of nutrients, watercress is chocked full of health benefits and is a cancer defence. Mom always claims that watercress is a powerful purifier and cleanser of the body especially the bloodstream. To those health-conscious, you may be interested in finding out more on medicinal uses and health benefits of watercress here. Despite the abundance of health benefits, watercress however should be eaten in moderation, some herbal writers warn that over-consumed may cause cystitis (膀胱炎) or other bladder (膀胱) problems due to its strong diuretic (利尿剂) properties. Some verbally claims that watercress should be avoided for postpartum woman. I can't verify this but I'd rather err on the side of caution.

Here's the simple how-to recipe for watercress and red dates soup (西洋菜红枣排骨汤).

Ingredients :
600g watercress
6 red dates
300g spare ribs, cut into pieces
1 carrot, cut into big chuck
1 potato, cut into 4 pieces
1 piece dried cuttlefish (optional, for added taste)
1200ml water
salt to taste

Method :

1. Rinse watercress, then pluck the tender shoots with its leaves intact, discard the main longish stems.

2. Blanch or scald spare ribs in a boiling water for a short while. Skim away scum from water surface. Remove blanched spare ribs and discard water. This is to reduce the scum and oiliness in the soup.

3. In a clean stockpot or claypot, pour in 1200ml water and when it reaches rolling boil, put in all the ingredients into the pot. Turn to low heat and simmer for 1-2 hours.

4. Char the dried cuttlefish over the fire (I usually use my stove top) and shred the charred cuttlefish into thin long threads using hands (You can pound it using pestle and mortar to ease shredding process). Add the shredded cuttlefish into stockpot with other ingredients to impart a unique "cuttlefish" flavor to the soup. (Alternatively, you can add some pre-soaked dried scallop substituting dried cuttlefish. If you do that, just soak the dried scallop into water and shred it into thin threads, without charring).

5. Add salt to taste 5 minutes prior to turning off the flame.

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Sharkfin's Melon Soup Recipe | Easy Asian Cooking

Shark’s Fin Melon Soup 鱼翅瓜汤

Honestly, I’ve never even heard of sharkfin's melon (鱼翅瓜) for the past 31 years in my life. Hence I was taken aback by the name of "sharfin's melon" when the affable vegetable-seller in Sunday wet market told me so. Touted and assured by the stall owner as an ingredient for soup with same simmering method as winter melon, I was intrigued to haul one back for I know it'll be something new on my culinary repertoire.

Using the same cooking technique as my other ordinary soups, the soup went over well. Upon lifting my ladle to adjust the taste after long hours of simmering, it suddenly dawned on me why the name spell so. The cooked flesh of the sharkfin's melon bears a strong resemblance with shark's fin as when it's cooked, the melon becomes pliable and crumbles into transparent threads. Also reminiscent of translucent glass noodles (a.k.a cellophane noodles or Chinese vermicelli 冬粉), the flavor of sharfin's melon as mild as its appearance suggests, which basically picks up the flavors from surrounding ingredients it's cooked with. Thus, I added some red dates, Chinese goji berries (枸杞子) and carrots to impart certain level of sweetness to the soup, in addition to the earthy flavors of the pork ribs. Besides imbuing sweetness to the soup, red dates and Chinese goji berries also have the propensity to boast such an astounding number of health benefits. You can find health benefits for TCM in my previous post on Chinese Herbal Black Chicken Soup.

Sharkfin's Melon (a.k.a spaghetti squash) with green-speckled skin

The name for the melon varies in regions, if you haven't figure out what it's about, sharkfin's melon is also known as spaghetti squash (or its binomial name Cucurbita ficifolia) in some countries. Wikipedia will allay your myth and scepticism about sharkfin's melon here.

If you have abundance of Chinese herbs (red dates and Chinese goji berries) in hand like I do and tired of going over and over again with the stereotype home-cooked soup, you may want to add sharkfin's melon soup into your realm of soup one day (if you haven't do so).

鱼翅瓜汤食谱

Ingredients :

1/8 of shark’s fin melon, cut into large chucks
300g pork ribs, cut into chucks, rinsed
8 red dates, halved and seeds removed
2 tbsp wolfberries, rinsed
1 carrot, skin peeled and cut into large chucks
1000ml water

Method :

1. Parboil or blanch the pork ribs in rolling boil water in a pot. Drain and set aside.

2. Discard the rind of shark’s fin melon, cut the melon to large chunks and scoop out the seeds using a spoon.
(Tips : If you find the process of prying the seed troublesome and time-consuming, you can try to boil the sharkfin's melon in a pot of water until it starts to soften and partially pull apart, then cool it down with ice water before using a spoon to scoop out the seeds.)

3. In a stockpot, pour in 1000ml water and bring to the boil. Place the blanched pork ribs, sharkfin's melon chunks and the rest of the ingredients (except goji berries) into the pot.

4. Reduce to low flame, put on the cover and let it simmers for about 45 minutes or longer if possible. Add goji berries 10 minutes prior to turn off the flame. Add salt to taste at the last 5 minutes of simmering.
(Tips : Alternatively slow cooker or double-boiler can be used but with longer time needed.)

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Double-boiled Ginseng Roots and Chicken Soup Recipe | Easy Asian Cooking

Ginseng roots and chicken soup provides the perfect meal-in-a-bowl at lunchtime. Taste of this tonic soup is pleasant and flavorsome with natural sweetness in the palate.

There's something supremely comforting about hot soup, especially when you prepare it yourself at home, the aroma ensures that the pleasure starts long before you lift the ladle. Soup, especially Chinese herbal tonic soup, is the most frequent dish serves our dining table maybe due to my tiredless advocacy of it as a dietary supplement and herbal remedy. Due to this, soup has become so entrenched in my life.

The recipe calls for double-boiling (炖/燉), which is a controlled heating technique that you place the chicken soup in a pot and then place that pot in boiling water in another larger pan or pot. This technique ensures there is no loss of essences from the food being cooked without scorching or drying it and it's often used to prepare delicate food and Chinese herbal medicines.  Alternatively, you might run into a stovetop apparatus called a double boiler, a specialized pot with two layers, the top vessel contains the food to be heated and is fitted into the lower pot which holds the boiling water. 

For the convenience of preparing the soup, my hubby has tweaked the technique from double boiling into stewing by using crockpot (or slow cooker). This allows unattended cooking overnight and will be ready in the next morning. Well, I should say there's some advantages of  this long slow crockpot cooking, besides leaving the gelatinised tissue in the meat without toughening the lean muscle fiber, cooking the soup in a crockpot keep the washing up minimal due to its low cooking temperature and also glazed ceramic or porcelain pot make cleaning very easy.

For those who think cooking dinner is a chore, this foolproof approach will transforms mealtime into a hassle-free experience yet enhances the flavors and taste of the entire soup. The chicken is so tender that it just slips off the bone and provides melt-in-your-mouth morsels.

Follow this simple tonic chicken soup recipe to impress your family and guests.

洋参须炖鸡汤食谱

Ingredients :

1 kampung chicken, cleaned, skin removed and cut into 4 pieces
50g ginseng roots (洋参须)
10 red dates (红枣), seeds discarded
2 tbsp Chinese Wolfberries or qi zi (杞子）
1000ml water
salt to taste

Method :

1. Blanch chicken in boiling water for a short while. Remove and set aside.

2. Put all ingredients into a double boiler and double-boil at high heat for 4 hours. Alternatively, you can use crockpot (slow cooker) and stewing it overnight (Or you can set to slow-cook before leaving for a day's work, and will be ready on return).

3. Add salt to taste. Serve hot.

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