Saturday, July 22, 2006

Lotus Root Soup
莲藕汤

 
Soup, Soup, Soup … my boy must have soup everyday. The thing is I have tried many types and he only like a few … Winter Melon, Sharkfin Melon, ABC and Lotus Roots Soups. He just loves Lotus Roots Soup! God, he can ask me to make it everyday! He doesn’t seem to get sick of drink it.

To me, making the soup my boy likes is very easy. Just throw in the ingredients and brew. I usually brew it for 4 to 5 hours. I used to double-boiled the soup using a small pot in a slow cooker but electricity bills when sky-high so I stopped. It’s cheaper to use gas.

Ingredients:
  • 250g Pork Ribs
  • 1 section of lotus roots, skinned and sliced
  • 1/2 Carrot, skinned and sliced
  • 1 piece Dried Octopus, cut into strips
  • 4 Red Dates
  • a handful Wolfberries (optional)
  • 1.5 litre Water
  • Salt to taste
How to do it:
  1. How to do it:
  2. Blanch the pork ribs in boiling water for 5 min then remove.
  3. In a new pot of water, add in the pork ribs, lotus roots, carrot red dates and dried octopus.
  4. Bring it to boil and turn down fire.
  5. Continue to brew for 4-5 hours.
  6. If you like to add wolfberries, add in 1/2 before you stop brewing.
  7. Add salt to taste.
  8. Serve.

Note:
To have a clearer soup, always blanch the pork ribs before using it to make soup.It helps remove the blood scum from the pork. Same for chicken too.

10 comments:

  1. Hi Wokking Mum, brewing it for four five hours... how to prevent the water from drying up?
    if you add more water, won't it be less tasty? Is it something to do with the pot you used?

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  2. Meowie,
    You dont add more water when brewing soup. There is a measurement to brew soup so at the end of the process everyone will have a bowl of the double boiled-like soup. I'm used to it so I dont measure anymore. I always use the measurement method when I first started cooking. I'll post it once I have finish writing it.

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  3. hi there, do u think i could replace the octopus with dried shrimps? i can't seem to find octopus in london. - eve

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  4. Anonymous,
    Dried shrimps and octopus are not quite the same. I wont use dried shrimps as an alternative for dried octopus. You can use dried cuttlefish instead. Otherwise, just like it out.

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  5. Hi, can I use dried oysters instead of the octopus? That is what I have on hand.

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  6. Anonymous, You can but it will taste slightly differently. For the amount of ingredients used here. 1-2 dried oyster is enough.

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  7. Hi, does the dried octopus tastes nicer than dried cutter fish?

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  8. HI
    i am a FTWM, cant afford to boil the soup for 3-4hr, can a 45mins do the job?
    if not, can i boil the soup for 1 hr on the night before and the keep in the thermal pot till the next evening and then i reboil again before dinner ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 45 mins is too short for this type of soup cos it takes time to bring out the taste.
      It will be must easier if you have the thermal pot. Yes, prepare it the night before but reboil it in the morning and again before serving and to season it. You can't boil it once and keep till evening. The thermal pot cant retain heat to continue cooking for that long. Hope this helps.

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