Wednesday 13 January 2010

Double-Boil Luo Han Guo With Pork Muscle Soup

Saw another version of this soup ..... 罗汉果瘦肉汤 on Channel 8, Wednesday TV variety show known as "3-Plus-1 II - 3菜1汤II". I think it's about 2 months ago, I saw one of the participating term preparing a soup using "Luo Han Guo - 罗汉果" and lean pork. I remember vividly that I had prepared a soup using Luo han Guo as one of the ingredients in a few years back.

"Luo Han Guo -
罗汉果" is a dried fruits that are ellipse or round, with a yellow-brownish or green-brownish colour, and is covered by fine hairs. The fruit has a hard but thin shell. When breaks open, you can see partially dried, soft substance which contains the juice and large quantity of seeds. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for colds, coughs, sore throats, gastrointestinal disorder, as well as a blood purifier. And in Asian country, this fruit is usually used to boil herbal tea or soup.

Before making this soup, I am actually kind of worry about its' taste as Luo Han Guo is mostly sweet is natural when used to boil herbal tea. But I was surprised with the result of the soup when it is ready to be consume......... I guess the key ingredient lays on the "Dried Tangerine Peel" which makes the soup taste great rather than "sweet".

Ingredients: (serves 4)
500g Pork Muscle
1 Large Luo Han Guo
1 Piece of Dried Tangerine Peel, 6 x 6 cm
6 Red Dates
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries
1 Litre of Water

Method:
1. Wash and trim the pork muscle, blanched it boiling water for about 3 minutes, removed and rinse well.
2. Soaked the dried tangerine peel in water for about 1 minute till soften, use a small teaspoon to scrape off the white pith on the inner skins as that will cause bitterness to the soup.
3. Break the Luo Han Guo into half, rinse and set aside.
4. Bring the pot of 1 litre of water to boil, add in all the ingredients except the wolfberries, bring to boil again and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.
5. Transfer the soup mixture to a slow cooker and cook on AUTO heat for about 2 hours or so, add in the wolfberries in the last 20 minutes of cooking time.
6. Serve warm with rice or you can drink before meal.

Note:
~ You can cook the soup over low heat for about 45 minutes on the stove if you don't have any slow cooker.


This is indeed a great soup for the warm weather recently as well as a keeper for coming Chinese New Year where the kids and adults will be busying munching their favourite goodies. This soup will helps to smooth their throat and prevent cough too..... So why not give this a try if you are comfortable with the taste of Luo Han Guo herbal tea.Posted by Picasa

4 comments:

  1. Sweet? Savoury? Sweet? Savoury?
    Sweet? Savoury?
    Sweet? Savoury?


    Ahhhh!!!! You got me so confused Ellena! Certainly worth trying though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahaha.. Sorry to confused you Quinn.... This soup is not really savoury too cos there is no salt added. It's it just full of natural taste from the LUO HAN GUO :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Ellena,

    can i find out what part of the pig is pork muscle? What do you call it in Chinese?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Carol,

    I am not sure what is it called in Chinese, but you can always find it in local supermarket or just tell the butcher you must muscle meat for double-boiled soup.

    ReplyDelete

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Regards
Ellena (Cuisine Paradise)

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