About a year ago, I realised that I should start writing down recipes that I've learned.
There are nearly endless permutations for Chinese soup. They allegedly have different properties, from lowering cholesterol to curing `flu. I have no idea if there their reported effects are true (and if anyone could point me to some journals, that would be appreciated), but they are surely tasty. And I do know that drinking a hearty broth can be very invigorating (like when the British drink Bovril on a cold day). Some people drink the soup before a meal, some after. It doesn't really matter.
Here's one permutation of soup. I'll call it Apple and Wolfberry soup, for lack of anything better.
There are nearly endless permutations for Chinese soup. They allegedly have different properties, from lowering cholesterol to curing `flu. I have no idea if there their reported effects are true (and if anyone could point me to some journals, that would be appreciated), but they are surely tasty. And I do know that drinking a hearty broth can be very invigorating (like when the British drink Bovril on a cold day). Some people drink the soup before a meal, some after. It doesn't really matter.
Here's one permutation of soup. I'll call it Apple and Wolfberry soup, for lack of anything better.
Apple & Wolfberry Chinese Soup
This recipe is enough to serve 2 people.
Cooking time: 1 hour
You don't necessarily need to scale things up linearly for more people. Just add more water when you initially boil the soup. I would say that the raw ingredients will be good for up to 5 people, and more than that, add 2 more of the dried products (except for the longan, which is quite strong, so just 1 for every 2 more than 5 people...). Don't scale up the ginger as it's very strong.
You can prepare this soup hours before when you need it. Just let it cool after the initial 1 hour boil and boil it up 5 minutes before.
- Meat - Beef, Pork, Chicken (200 grammes)
- Dried longan (x2)
- Dried wolfberry (x10, also known as goji berries. I'm not sure which species, but I'd take a stab at Lycium Chinense)
- Dried jujube (x5 also known as jujuba, red date, Chinese date, Korean date, or Indian date)
- Apple (x3, medium sized. Any will do from your local supermarket. Probably not cooking apples. I used braeburn because I like eating these fresh.)
- Carrot (2 inches, optional)
- Ginger (chopped and heaped onto 1 table spoon)
- Water (x4 rice bowls or about 800ml)
- Salt (a 'pinch', to preference)
- Put everything except for the salt into an adequately sized pan with a lid. A lid is very important or you will be persistently topping up water during the boiling process.
- With the hob on maximum heat, and the lid on, wait until the whole mixture is boiling well.
- Move the pan to your smallest hob, with the smallest flame/heat source.
- Simmer this mixture for 1 hour with the lid on, stirring every 15 minutes if desired.
- If you want to drink the soup straight away, taste it and add salt to preference.
If you do not want to drink the soup straight away, wait until 5 minutes before you want to drink it and boil the mixture for 5 minutes. Add salt to preference after 5 minutes.
