White Fungus & Wooden Ear Soup

This is a very soothing and nutritious soup which required very little ingredients such as either Lean Pork or Chicken Drumsticks together with some White Fungus, Wooden Ear and Red Dates. Due to the long hours of boiling, the texture of the soup will be sort of sticky rather than those normal clear soup. The texture is fragrant and refreshing due adding a few slices of ginger.


Wooden Ear(黑木耳): This contain much protein, carotene, vitamins A & B. It also improves blood circulation, benefits the spleen, moisturizes the lungs.

White Fungus(雪耳): It tastes slightly sweet and of neutral nature. It benefits the spleen, strengthens the stomach and expel Dryness. It calms the spirit, treats insomnia and is good for the body type that resists beneficial food.

Red Date(红枣): It is a blood tonic which can be widely used with other ingredients to nourish the body.

This soup helps to prevent blood vessel blockage, reduce cholesterol level, reduce blood pressure, avoids stroke and arteriosclerosis. Other then that it also helps reduce spot appearance, cleanse and moisturize the skin.

Ingredients:
2 Chicken Drumstick, removed skin
2 Pieces Of Wooden Ear(黑木耳), about 40g
1 Pieces Of White Fungus(雪耳), about 10g
10 – 12 Red Dates(红枣)
1 Tablespoon Ji Zi(枸杞子)
3 Slices Ginger(老姜)

Methods:
1. Soak white fungus and wooden ear in water until soft.
2. Remove the stems, rinse well and tear into small pieces and scald then set aside.
3. Rinse and scald the chicken.
4. Crush the red dates with flat side of knife, remove the seeds and rinse well.
5. Boil 1.5 – 2 Litres of water to boil, then add in all the ingredients and boil for 10 minutes.
6. Transfer to a slow cooker and simmer on low heat for about 3 – 4 hours.
7. Season with salt and serve.

Notes: You can either used Chicken or Lean Pork for this recipe.

Mini Buddha Jump Over Wall

Wanted to try cooking this soup for a very long time. Usually you can in different kinds of ingredients to into this soup. Some prefer to have some extra herbs into it while other might not so it all depend on what you prefer to eat.


Today what I had cooked is just the mini version because I had omitted things like Abalone, Fish Maw, Ham and etc. What I had is mainly on the dried ingredients and herbs, which is cheaper and easily found in your kitchen pantry.

Ingredients:
3 Dried Ginseng
2 Stalk Dang Shen(当参)
3 Dried Scallops
5 Dried Oysters
4 Slices Of Dang Gui(当归)
3 Slices Of Sea Conch(响螺片)
3 Slices Of Huai Shan(淮山)
5 Red Dates(红枣)
1 Tablespoon Jizi(枸杞子)
1 Dried Mushroom
2 Chicken Drumsticks
300g Pork Ribs
2 Medium Sea Cucumber

Methods:
1. Wash and soak dried oysters and scallop in hot water until soft, then rinse well.
2. Wash all the rest of the herbs and set aside for later use.
3. Wash and blanched the pork ribs and chicken in boiling water then rinse well.
4. Bring a pot of water(about 1.5 litres) to boil then add in all the herbs, chicken and pork ribs and bring to boil again.
5. Wash the sea cucumber and cut into thick section then set aside.
6. Transfer to a slow cooker and simmer on low heat for about 3 - 4 hours then add in the sea cucumber and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.
7. Season with salt to taste and serve.

Chicken Soup With Conch & Huai Shan

Have you heard or seen a Sea Conch before?  Do you know Sea Conch (响螺片): has a sweet taste and of cold nature. It helps to clear the liver, nourishes lungs and benefits the organs. And according to Chinese Physician those who suffer from weak QI energy and anaemia will benefit a lot from drinking sea conch soup.

Lotus, Black Bean & Peanut Soup

I always want to learn and cook those double-boiled soup sold in Chinese restaurant or herbal soup stall such as "Lotus and Pork Ribs Soup", old cucumber soup, ginseng chicken and etc. For this soup I added some black beans, peanut and cuttlefish which brings out more intense flavour and the cuttlefish definitely help to add bonus points to the soup. 

Fish Soup With Tian Ma

This Fish and  Tian Ma Soup (天麻生鱼汤) is a very nourishing soup for person with poor blood circulations and numbness in hands and legs. Besides the above, it can also cure coldness in the body with additional herbs such as Dang Gui, Red and Black Dates. So if you feel giddy and numb in certain parts of the body, you can try cooking this soup twice a week to see whether it works on you. And sometime certain people needs to take more frequent before they can see the effect.

Dang Gui Chicken Soup

Asian Chinese love to nourish their bodies with medicinal food but before you starts with any of these herbal soup or dish you have to know what you body is lack with. Just like our body is divided into Yin and Yang and where Yin further sub-divide into weak spirit, weak blood, infirm and nutritionally weak. For example: in cold season we need warm supplement food; summer and autumn require cooling stuffs to reduce body heat so we had to select the right supplement at the correct time or else it could backfire our health.

Lotus Root, Water Chestnut & Loquat Soup

After a long search, I manage to find Loquat which is also known as “枇杷果“ in Chinese. This fruit is very good as it helps to expel heat from the lungs, eliminate sputum and stop coughing due to Heat. As this is a seasonal fruit it might be slight difficult to get hold so do keep a look out for them in the supermarkets or fruit stalls. 

The taste of the soup is very smoothing and full of fragrant that is hard to describe. With the mixture of lotus roots, pear, water chestnut and loquat you have to try this soup on your end to justify the taste. But no worry it this is not those sweet soup taste. 

Herbal Watercress Soup

We often cook Watercress Soup at least once every two weeks. Sometime I will boil it with pork ribs and red dates but if the weather is hot and humid then I will add in some extra herbs to cool down the body as well as nourishing the lungs. For us we prefer to cook watercress with chicken instead of pork as we find it taste better in a way.

Lotus, Huai Shan & Pork Ribs Soup

Recently I have  being cooking this Lotus, Huai Shan & Pork Ribs Soup at least once a week. This soup is recommend by one of the Chinese Physician who I often visit, according to her this soup helps to improve the Qi in our body.

It consists of Fresh Huai Shan which taste sweet and helps to nourish our lungs and kidneys, strengthens the spleen, stops diarrhea, uplifts the spirit and benefits Qi. Besides that this soup can also helps to improve the appetite of young children and adults during hot weather. You can add about 2 slices of Bei Qi which helps to in strengthens the Heart, promotes urination, lowers blood pressure as well as boosts the immune system.

Pumpkins, Peanuts & Pork Ribs Soup

Got this recipe from one of the cooking forums and it a taste similar to red bean sweet soup because of the added kidney beans and pumpkin. Overall this soup is very nourishing and healthy and it is suitable for everyone in the family too.

Stew Papaya & Peanuts Soup

Tried this soup twice and find that it is worth sharing because it is very smoothing and nice to drink. According to the recipe this soup contains protein, minerals, vitamin A, B and C. It improves skin texture; heals coughing; expels sputum; improves eyesight; clears Heat inside the body; cleanse the digestive system and soothes constipation. So give this soup a try if have any digestive problems or etc.

Almond, Sea Coconut And Pumpkin Soup

When you first taste this soup, it will taste some how like you are drinking red bean soup. Because they do have the similar taste due to the dried tangerine peel and lily bubs. This soup helps to promote circulation of Qi, expel septum and aids digestion. The sweet and bitter almonds also clears the heat, moistens internal dryness and avoids coughing. It is a very good sweet soup to consume before or after dinner to smooth your throat. Do consider and give it a try.

Chicken & Sea Coconut Soup

Being wanting to cook this soup for quite sometime but since it was difficult to get hold of the fresh Sea Coconut I postpone it till now. From what I have read from books, Sea Coconut can expels sputum, heals coughing, reduces night-time urination as well as nourishes the lungs and skin. Furthermore it makes a refreshing, fragrant soup together with red dates and chicken.