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In Chinese saying, “three dishes and one soup”  (三菜1湯) completes a meal.  For those who are away from home like us who cannot enjoy Mum’s home cooking, or we will say no good meal or soup (沒湯水喝) to consume,  you can always try out our easy cooking or soup recipes. Pat has previously posted so many soup recipes that you can easily prepare at home. We always try to boil the soup at least once during the weekends to pamper ourselves for a nice complete meal. Plus the leftover soup tasted even better and it is great for simple weekday dinner.

The corn soup is sweet as it has infused the natural sweetness from the corns and pork ribs. Most importantly I get to eat the corn at the same time. I will never have enough of corns. This is a super easy yet delicious soup to have.

I have added some goji berries and dried Chinese yam root pieces or Dioscorea (huái shān 淮山, shān yào 山葯) to the soup just like my mum’s cooking. The Chinese yam root is claimed to tonify the Qi (氣) or energy, served to augment the spleen, stomach, lungs and kidney functions. Nowadays you can actually see more and more fresh Chinese Yam root available in the Asian market, they can be used in stir frying dishes, soups and so on. Also more and more recipes are available using these ingredients to treat weak digestion, weakness for rejuvenating the body.  I bought it in dried packet form for the purpose to be added in the soup sometimes. You can opt out the chinese herbs if you don’t like it and just cook a simple pot of corn soup to keep your body cool in hotter days.

Ingredients:

4 Corns (cut into 3)
1/2 lb baby back rib or rib (cut into chunks)
1/2 lb pork loin (cut into cubes)
A handful goji berries (杞子) optional
12 dried chinese yam root (淮山片 , 山葯片) optional
2 ½ gallons water
Salt to taste

Serve: 4 people

Cooking Method:

1. Blanch the pork ribs and pork loin in a pot of boiling water to remove its blood residues  and scums. Drain and rinse the ribs and pork with cold water.
2. Fill a big pot of water, bring to boil. Add in the pork ribs, pork loins, corn, goji berries and the dried Chinese yam root.
3. Bring to boil for 10-15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low simmer cover for 1 1/2 to 2 hours till the meat is tender and the soup is sweet.
4. Add salt to taste.

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The Cantonese watercress soup (西洋菜湯) is one of my favorite slow-cooked soups that I grew up with. Slow-cooked soup, or lo for tong (老火湯) is a Cantonese specialty which is a broth produced by simmering meats, bones, vegetables and other ingredients for 3 to 6 hours. Essentially, most of the Chinese soups are great for health benefits and the watercress soup is good for releasing heat in our bodies and clearing sputum in our lungs.

Watercress is normally used in sandwiches and salads in the States and interestingly, I also found out the watercress is one of the main ingredients in V8 Vegetable Juice few days ago before preparing this soup. For me, I just know how to utilize it for the soup and yes, nothing is more comforting than having a bowl of hot watercress soup in the winter.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb baby back rib or rib (cut into chunks)
1/2 lb pork loin (cut into cubes)
4 bunches of watercress (washed and drained)
2 honey dates (蜜枣)
12 red dates (红枣)
1 handful goji berries
2 ½ gallons water
Salt to taste

Serve size: 6-8 people

Cooking method:

1. Fill the big pot with the water and boil it with high heat.
2. Blanch the ribs and loin in another pot with boiling water for few minutes until the scum has come out. This will give you a clear soup.
3. Remove them from the pot and rinse the ribs and pork with cold water before putting them into the big pot.
4. Add watercress, honey dates, red dates and goji berries into the pot right after the ribs.
5. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 2-3 hours.
6. Add in salt to taste.

Serves hot.

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Daikon is a white East Asian radish that could be easily found in the Asian market. It looks like a giant carrot but in white color with roughly 10 to 14 inches long. In Chinese,  we called it bai luo bo (白萝卜). It can be cooked in a variety of methods but this time I’ve used it to make the daikon soup.

I remember I disliked this soup when I was small. Every time when my mom cooked it, I would try to find an excuse for not taking it. I thought the taste is weird but I guess my sense of taste changes as I mature and I love it now. One thing you might not like is the smell of it during simmering. Believe me, bear with the smell and enjoy it after.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb baby back rib or rib (cut into chunks)
1/2 lb pork loin (cut into cubes)
2 daikons (peeled, cut into chunks)
12 red dates
1 handful goji berries
2 ½ gallons water
Salt to taste

Cooking method:

1. Fill the big pot with the water and boil it with high heat.
2. Blanch the ribs and loin in another pot with boiling water for few minutes until the scum has come out. This will give you a clear soup.
3. Remove them from the pot and rinse the ribs and pork with cold water before putting them into the big pot.
4. Add daikons, red dates and goji berries into the pot right after the ribs.
5. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 2 hours.
6. Add in salt to taste.

Serves hot.