Good evening, dear friends

On those days that I really don’t know what to cook, I would go for simple one-dish or one-pot type of meals. Hainanese Chicken Rice can be commonly found in almost every coffee shop and there is even a chain of restaurants specializing in selling Chicken Rice. So, I seldom cook this at home, unless I really ran out of ideas or motivation to plan a dinner menu.

Anyway, my kids love my home cooked version of Chicken Rice because mine is a bit different – they love the special black sauce and the green pea soup. I learned to cook this wonderful, yummy chicken rice from my late mother-in-law.

A plate of fragrant chicken rice with coriander leaves and green onion curls as garnishing, and some cucumber and tomato slices on the side

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A giant platter of perfectly cooked, moist “white cut chicken” or “pak cham gai” in Cantonese, garnished with some coriander leaves and green onion curls, and drizzled with ample fried golden shallot oil. Yummy!

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…with some homemade dark sauce and pounded ginger-garlic chilli as dips

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… and a bowl of delicious green pea and chicken soup, with a sprinkle of chopped green onions and a few generous shakes of white pepper

The is a Chinese style of Chicken Rice that has its origins to a group of Hainanese migrants to South East Asia about 100 years ago. Hainan is an island located in the southern part of China. In Malaysia, most Hainanese ended up opening coffee shops which were popular due to their Hainanese style of brewing coffee and for their “yin-yeong” toasts. In addition to their famous Chicken Rice, Hainanese are very good cooks, often specializing in a fusion of Eastern and Western cuisine.

Here are the recipes to my version of Hainanese Chicken Rice. Please note that the portions here are huge as I like to cook ample servings of food. The leftovers can be eaten for lunch the following day. Alternative, the extra chicken pieces can be turned into “Salted Chicken” or “Harm Gai” for the next day.

It is very tricky to get the timing just right for cooking the chicken for this dish. I have tried many methods such as steaming, boiling and in this recipe, I had used a combination of “dunking,” boiling and poaching to get the perfect texture and moistness of the chicken meat.

For this, you need a really fresh chicken (I bought mine from the wet market in the morning), the bird should be mature enough for full flavour (my chicken was about 2.3 kilos), and it should be at room temperature when cooking.

Poached White Chicken or “White Cut Chicken” or “Pak Cham Gai” (serves 10 persons)

1 whole chicken & 3 whole chicken legs (cleaned and rubbed with 3 tbsps of salt)

Some chicken necks and bones (skin and fat removed) for stock

Enough water to immerse chicken in a fitting pot

* 2 tbsps salt

* 2 tbsps of sesame oil

5 tbsps of fried shallot oil

Some coriander leaves and green onion curls for garnishing

Method -

1) Boil the chicken bones in water to prepare the stock -  simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes long.

2) Meanwhile, tie a twine or thick string around the wings and body of the chicken.

3) Remove chicken bones, and bring heat back to high.

4) Holding the string, lower the chicken gently into the water, making sure that the whole chicken is well immersed into the stock.

5) After 1 minute, use the string to pull the chicken out of the chicken stock and wait for the stock to come to a boil again.

6) Repeat the chicken “dunking” steps 4 and 5 for 6 times. The reason this is done is to ensure that the inside cavity of the chicken gets heated up properly by the hot stock. Else, we will end up with the inner thigh and backbone area sill partially uncooked while the rest of the chicken gets overdone.

7) Place the whole chicken into the stock together with the 3 whole chicken legs. Cover the pot.

8 ) Wait for the stock to come to a boil again. Be sure to check frequently for this. We don’t want to boil the chicken.

9) Immediately turn off the fire.

10) Leave the chicken to poach for 1 hour.

11) After one hour, gently remove whole chicken and chicken legs and immerse them into a large bowl of cold water. This step will produce a very smooth and silky texture to the chicken skin and meat. Yummy!

12) Remove chicken after 10 minutes. Let dry for 3 minutes.

13) Rub the sesame oil and salt all over chicken. Leave chicken for about 30 minutes to 1 hour (depending on how long you can wait before wanting to eat it!) for it to cool down completely for easy chopping/cutting. Else, the meat will get “smashed up” or break apart.

14) Cut chicken up into bite sizes, drizzle with fried shallot oil and garnish with the coriander leaves and green onion curls.

Voila! Your very own homecooked “white cut” chicken, Hainese style!

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How to cook Hainanese Chicken Rice (for 10 persons)

6 cups fragrant or jasmine rice, rinsed clean

2 tbsps salt

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp white pepper

3 pandan leaves, tied into a know (or 1/2 tsp of bottled pandan essence)

Enough chicken stock to cook rice (skim off the layer of oil in the chicken stock for use in cooking the rice – this makes the rice more yummy. I know, it is oily but just drink ample cups of Chinese tea after this meal to wash the fats away!

Method -

1) Put all ingredients into an automatic rice cooker to cook.

2) Be sure to stir the ingredients at least 2 to 3 times during cooking.

3) Cook chicken rice while the chicken is poaching.

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Green Pea Chicken Soup

Using the leftover chicken stock (reserve 2 cups for making homemade black dipping sauce), add one can of Ayam brand canned Green Peas and bring to a boil for about 10 minutes. Season to taste and garnish with  chopped green onions and lots of white pepper. Yummy!

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Homemade Black Sauce for dipping chicken

In a pan, heat up 2 tbsps of oil, and then fry 2 tbsps of chopped garlic. Add in the 2 cups of reserved chicken stock, 5 to 6 tbsps of thick black soy sauce and bring to a boil for about 2 minutes. Add in 2 tbsps of sugar (this sauce is sweetish) and then thicken with a cornstarch-water mixture.

Put into a bowl for serving. One of my kids love to pour this sauce over his rice.

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Garlic-Ginger Chilli Sauce

10 red chilli

3-inch knob of fresh, young ginger, skin scrapped off

6 pips of garlic, skin removed

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Juice of 6 to 8 calamansi limes (limau kasturi)

Pound chili, garlic and ginger in a peststle and mortar untul fine. Don’t blend – it just doesn’t taste as good as pounded chili. Add in salt, sugar and lime juice and you are now ready to eat your very own Hainanese Chicken Rice!

Hope you will give this recipe a try and once you have tried your own homecooked Chicken Rice, you will find those sold outside somewhat lacking in taste!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!

choesf

Good morning, dear friends

Ah, this is my husband’s favourite comfort food from his childhood – every time I cook this, he will rush home immediately from work for dinner and have one big serving of freshly, cooked rice to go with it. Just this one dish is enough for him and he doesn’t even go for the other dishes that I had cooked.

For a slow-cooker version of this recipe, visit my dear blogger friend, sweetrosie’s, site HERE .

Freshly cooked, hot, steamy Onion Cinnamon Chicken Stew – yummy!

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Now, this dish is extremely easy to cook – it is the simplest of all my recipes – there are just a few ingredients required, but the chicken stew is so full of flavour and tender. Best is, there is only one pot to wash if you are cooking it in a Corningware casserole like I did. Usually on those days when I really don’t feel like spending a long time cooking in the kitchen, I would cook a large batch of this chicken stew and have a simple vegetable stirfry on the side, and of course, a bowl of nourishing soup. Fortunately, all my kids go crazy over this dish, too.

This recipe is dedicated to Nic and her 2-year old son and I hope this yummy stew will whet her son’s appetite!

Here is a pictorial recipe to make it easier for you to cook this dish.

Simple Delicious Onion Cinnamon Chicken Stew

Ingredients and Method -

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3 large, whole chicken legs (they are more tender, but you can use 1/2 a large chicken also) -

chopped into bite sizes….marinate with 2 tbsps of oyster sauce, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, 1 to 2 tbsps of black soy sauce, 1 tsp salt, a few shakes of white pepper

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1 large cinnamon stick (smashed into smaller pieces), 4 large potatoes (cut into wedges or chunks), 5 large onions (peeled and sliced). The more onions, the better!

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I like to use a Corningware casserole to cook this dish so, there is one thing less to wash.

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Heat up about 2 tbsps of vegetable or olive oil. Pour in the chicken together with the marinate and ctir for about 3 minutes. This step is to seal in the chicken juices to make the chicken tender. There will be some browning at the edges of the casserole and you have to be careful to scrape the sides down to prevent burning.

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Tip in the plate of potatoes, onions and cinnamon stick. Add in 1 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp oyster sauce and mix all the ingredients thoroughly, about 3 minutes.

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Add in about 2 cups of water – until the water level reached half the chicken and potatoes….stir to mix thoroughly and bring to a boil.

Lower heat to low and simmer chicken stew for about 40 minutes….be sure to stir every few minutes for even cooking as the water does not cover everything.

At the end of the cooking time, check the gravy to see if it is thick enough. If not, then use a cornstarch-water mixture to thicken it further.

Check the taste of the stew and adjust with more salt or soy sauce to your preference.

Voila! Your simple yummy onion cinnamon chicken stew is ready. If your family can hang on a bit longer before you serve this (because the smell of this stew is so aromatic and appetising while you are cooking it), let the stew stand for about 30 minutes to 1 hour, so that the flavours are all totally infused.

I hope your family will love this chicken stew as mine does!

Bon Appetit!

Good morning, dear friend

Most of the time, I cook really simple dishes for dinner..sometimes, we just want to eat something light as in “ching tam” in Cantonese, and not too rich. Last Friday, we had these dishes for dinner and I thought I would take some pictures to show you how my typical dinner on a weekday is like….or rather, when I am not in an adventurous cooking mood, this is what I’ll turn out in the kitchen!

To me, I feel that the most important part of a meal is a bowl of nourishing soup….as this is crucial for one’s health and balancing of yin and yang in our body. A nourishing soup is a soup that has usually been simmered for 3 to 4 hours (herbal soups need only 1 1/2 hours so as not to turn it into a heaty soup), which does wonders to rejuvenate the body. I notice that if I don’t make these soups for 2 weeks, my family members would start to complain of sore throats or some form of ailments starting. …..and then, it;s quickly off to boiling some soothing, cooling herbal drinks for them!

My simple dinner (clockwise from top) -

1) Fresh white tofu (known as “sui tau foo” in Cantonese) with some oyster sauce, soy sauce, fried shallot oil, and chopped green onions as topping. This is a no-cook dish. Recipe HERE

2) A large Black Pomfret (Ikan Bawal Hitam) panfried with some whole garlic, served with some soy sauce over the fish

3) Onion & Egg omelette, my eldest son ‘s favourite.

4) A local vegetables stirfried with some garlic and seasoned with a bit of oyster sauce. Recipe for my basic vegetable stirfry is HERE

Cooking these dishes took me less than one hour in the kitchen.

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Here’s the “star” of the meal – a Nutritious & Detoxifying Burdock Root Soup. I would make this soup twice a month for detoxification. The health information and recipe for this soup is HERE

Have a lovely day today, and Happy Cooking!

Happy Winter Solstice Festival to you, dear friends from all over the world!

My children made 2 odd Tong Yuen -  a giant ball in the left bowl, and a green “mushroom” in the right bowl!

My family and I have had a great feast today with ample helpings of Tong Yuen or glutinous rice balls in sugar syrup – the symbol of this happy festival. I had cooked so much food that there was enough to serve 7 persons for lunch and dinner, with some leftovers for tomorrow, too!

Preparations for our Winter Solstice Lunch began the day before with the rolling of Tong Yuen…as usual, my kids like to make odd-shaped rice balls and since it was all in the joyous spirit of this festival, I let them do what they wanted. Henced, you can see 2 abnormal Tong Yuen in the picture above!

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I bought the Tong Yuen dough from the market…there were many stalls selling this dough made from groundingpre-soaked glutinous rice into a wet paste and the liquid is removed by putting the “paste” into a muslin bag and hanging it up to dry.   Traditionally, there are only 2 colours, with the much larger portion being white. I had added in other colours for the fun of it.

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A tray of multi coloured Tong Yuen freshly rolled out…to be kept in the fridge and cooked the next morning

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A pot of freshly cooked Tong Yuen in sugar syrup, flavoured with a few Pandan Leaves. Most people would use a few slices of ginger instead of Pandan Leaves, but my kids don’t like the ginger taste

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Because it was going to be a lunch feast instead of dinner, I prepared and marinated the meats the day before and put them in the fridge. As in all meals in celebration of Chinese Festivals, it is essential to have at least on the menu a Roast Pork or Siew Yoke dish, steamed “white cut” chicken, a noodle, a vegetable sitfry, and the popular Pig Stomach White Pepper Soup.  All the food cooked were then offered with prayers to our “ancestors” to celebrate with them the Tung Jut festival, say our thanks for a bountiful year (during ancient times in China, it was for a bountiful harvest instead), and have a reason to be merry on this longest night in the year!

Below are the dishes that I had cooked for my family…today (Monday), I am just going to sit back and relax and buy some takeouts for dinner because I am tired with 2 days of preparation and cooking of this feast. Moreover, I am taking a breather now as tomorrow I will be busy buying stuff to cook my family’s Christmas Eve Roast Turkey Dinner!  

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Longevity Noodles – dried flat egg noodles cooked in boiling water for 5 minutes, drained and then stirfried with Chinese cabbage, Mustard Greens, julienned carrot, slices of Shitake mushrooms and pork slices. Oyster sauce and some chicken stock left from steaming the chicken are used to flavour this noodle.

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A platter of fresh, homemade yummy crispy Roast Pork Belly or Siew Yoke

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Instead of using a whole chicken, I used 3 whole legs instead to make “Steamed White Cut Salted Chicken”

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A colourful medley of assorted vegetables stirfried with some “Tau Kan” or wheat gluten – a “Chap Chye” or “Mixed Vegetables”, flavoured with oyster sauce

Malaysian Chinese style of Chicken Potato Curry, very tasty when eaten with the noodles. I cooked this because it has been a tradition in my husband’s family to have Curry Chicken on all festive occasions.

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A very delicious, peppery, spicy pork ribs and pig stomach soup…another popular dish or soup to be had during festivals.Only thing was this was the first time that I had cooked this – I will write about this famous soup in another post.

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Now, I am planning my Roast Turkey menu and will write about it in a few days time!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With peace and joy,

choesf

Good evening, dear friends

During the last Winter Solstice Festival (Tung Jit), I had made some Siew Yoke (Crispy Roast Pork). I took some photos to show you how easy it is to prepare your pork for roasting. I was taught this method by my pork lady butcher at the market.

How to prepare your Siew Yoke for roasting Method 2

** (Method 1 was posted HERE. Also  do read comment # 204  there  for the 3rd technique of preparing the roast pork)

Step 1 – After your slab of pork belly is cleaned, scald the skin side in boiling water for 3 – 5 minutes. This is to make the skin slightly cooked so that it is easier to be pricked with a fork or sharp point of knife

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Step 2 – Drain off liquid in a colander and pat dry with paper kitchen towels

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Step 3 – Prick all over with the tines of a fork

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Step 4 – Use a sharp knife to make shallow cuts about 1-cm apart

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Step 5 – Mix the following into a marinade (for 1 1/2 kg of pork belly) – 1 cube Nam Yee (fermented red beancurd), 2 tbsps 5-spice powder, 2 tbsps salt, 1 tbsp pounded garlic, 1 tbsp sugar. Rub this thoroughly into the meat side of the pork…

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Step 6 – Get ready 2 tbsps of white vinegar and 1 tbsp salt … *

Step 7 – Brush the vinegar onto the skin

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Step 8 – Brush on the salt

Then, keep the marinated pork belly uncovered in the refrigerator overnight, and bring it to room temperature before roasting.

For roasting instructions, please READ HERE. (Homemade Yummy Crispy Roast Pork/Siew Yoke Recipe)

Bon Appetit and enjoy your Siew Yoke!

Good evening, dear friends

On the eve of the Chinese New Year (CNY) , it is a long standing tradition that a Family Reunion Dinner is held, usually at the home of the oldest members of the family. In China, younger folks usually leave their villages in the country side to work in the larger cities.

They would return to their hometown to celebrate the CNYor Spring Festival with their parents or grandparents. So, the older folks back home would prepare a huge lavish meal in joyous anticipation of seeing their children or grandchildren come back home and having a big meal as one big, happy family.

In those days in the Chinese culture, all the extended families would live under one roof….but in the modern times these days, the trend is nuclear families living separately of each other and the parents usually stay with the eldest son and his family. So, on CNY eve, people would go home to their parents’s house and reunite there for dinner – hence, the “Family Reunion Dinner”.

My Family Reunion Dinner last year in 2008

Homemade Traditional Spring Rolls or Chun Kuen or “Gold Coins”
RECIPE HERE

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Steamed White Pomfret in Soy Sauce or “Nin Nin Yau Yue” or “Every Year There Is Over Abundance”
RECIPE HERE

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Treasure Soup

RECIPE HERE

I will post the photos and recipes for this dinner menu next week. I would like to wish you a happy Family Reunion Diner with your loved ones this Sunday!

With peace and joy,

choesf

Good afternoon, dear friends

Heheh, I am a Hakka by birth but grew up not speaking the Hakka dialect at all…as my late mother spoke only Cantonese, and I ended up speaking like a Cantonese!

Well, as the name of this dish goes, it is of Hakka origins and it is really easy to prepare. It tastes even better the next day and you can have this delicious dish with plain, hot rice or over some cooked egg noodles/kway teow/longevity noodles (that have some fragrant fried onion or shallot oil, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of thick soy sauce, and a good splash of sesame oil mixed into).

I usually make a double batch of this recipe – where half the fried pork can be served as a dish for dinner, and the other half is braised with the Wood’s Ears Fungus and Preserved Bean Curd (Nam Yue) to be eaten the next day for dinner.

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A bottle of Fermented Red Beancurd on the left

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Ingredients

1 Kg Pork Belly, divided into 2 portions (1 with skin on, the other without)

3 to 5 pieces of Wood’s Ear Fungus, soaked in water for 1 hour, cleaned and cut into 1-inch squares

2 tbsps oyster sauce

* optional – 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 cups water

cornstarch-water mixture for thickening the sauce

salt and sugar to taste

Marinade -

4 pieces fermented red beancurd cubes (Nam Yue)

Juice from pounding 8 shallots and 8 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp of white pepper

1 tbsp salt

6 tbsps of corn starch

* optional – juice from 3-inch knob of ginger

Enough oil for deepfrying pork

Method -

1) Divide the ingredients for marinating into 2 portions.

2) Wash pork and wipe dry. Put the pork with skin and without skin into separate bowls. Cut them into 1-inch cubes or bite sizes.

3) Add marinade and rub pork pieces thouroughly for a good 5 minutes. Set aside for 2 hours (keeping overnightin the fridge is even better).

4) Just prior to frying, rub the pork cubes to mix the marinade properly again.

4) In a wok heated with sufficient oil, deep fry in batches the pork cubes until they are golden brown and cooked through.Remove from oil. Set those without skin aside as they are to be served immediately and eaten just like that. Delicious and crispy.

5) For the other portion of fried pork with the skin, combine the pork with the Wood’s Ear Fungus, 2 cups water and the oyster sauce in a pot or casserole.

6) Bring the sauce to a boil, lower heat to small and simmer for about 40 minutes until the pork meat is soft enough. Be sure to stir in occasionally to prevent burning at the bottom.

7) Adjust the taste and colour of the sauce according. Thicken with the cornstarch solution.

8) Serve with hot cooked rice the next day.

Bon Appetit!

Good evening, dear friends

Ah, it has been some time since I last posted my recipes here and I thought you may like this one – I call it “Chinese Meat Patties”.

They are really easy to make and so delicious, you have got to try it. The meat patties are juicy, light and very flavourful, especially when dipped in some bottled sweet chili sauce and eaten with hot white rice. They will be a sure hit with young children, especially those with finicky appetites!

I always make a large batch of these and they are usually all finished in one sitting, with none leftover.

The ingredients are all versatile and there is no need for fixed measurements of anything. Use my recipe below as a rough guideline, okay?

All you need are some minced meat (like pork or chicken), minced prawns, eggs, green onions, coriander leaves, dried mushrooms, carrots…..and you are all set to go.

Yummy Chinese Meat Patties (serves 6)

Ingredients :-

500 gm minced pork or chicken or both

250 gm minced prawns

1 medium onion, 1/2 small carrot, some green onions, some coriander leaves, 3 soaked mushrooms – all chopped finely

5 to 6 eggs, beaten

2 heaping tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp white pepper

2 tbsp soy sauce

Salt to taste

Some oil to panfry patties

Method :-

1) Put everything together in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. The mixture is supposed to berunny from the eggs…not dry and hold its shape like making hamburger patties.

2) Let stand for 1/2 hour (longer is better)

4) Heat up a non-stick pan at medium high fire with some oil to just coat the bottom

5) Drop in meat mixture with a small ladle or a Chinese soup spoon (the size of the patty is up to you)

6) When you notice that the edges of the patties are starting to turn whitish like in the picture above, it is time to flip them over gently.

7) Cook for another1 to 3 minutes until the patties are cooked through.

8 ) Tip – taste the first patty to see if there is enough salt…if too salty, add a little sugar to balance….if not salty enough, add salt or soy sauce

Voila! There you have it…yummy, really easy to cook, Chinese Meat Patties. See how your children or family members go at them … for children, dip the patties in some tomato ketchup.

Bon Appetit!

With best wishes,

choesf

A bowl of yummy Mint Leaves & Egg Soup for health benefits

Good evening, dear friends

Here is a really simple but effective Chinese soup that my healer lady taught me as a traditional method remove “wind” from our body. It is easy to prepare and yet so tasty as well. I now have a pot of mint growing in my garden and sometimes I make a bowl of this soup to go with some hot cooked rice as a simple lunch meal.

Sometimes, our stomach is not working effectively in digesting food, or we eat too much food that causes bloatedness like beans, cabbage and as a result there is a tight feeling or “wind” buildup in the stomach, all the way down our digestive tract. Even stress can lead to this problem when our  digestion gets affected.

Symptoms of this wind in our body are some funny sounds (not rumbling from hunger ) coming from our digestive system, mild cramping in stomach, or when you knock lightly on your abdomen, there is a hollow sound like playing a drum. In children, the sign of them having a lot of wind in their body is when the whites of their eyes are bluish in colour.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), if left untreated, the “wind” can even spread to other parts of our body and cause other illnesses, like joint pains, headaches/migraines that won’t go away despite taking the right medication and even lethargy. Once this “wind” problem is removed, then a person would feel more energised and alert.

In my case, last year I kept having tension headaches and I thought I was feeling “heaty”, and despite taking a lot of “cooling” drinks/soups to balance my health, my headaches persisted. After having gone to consult this healer lady, she said that my headaches were due to “wind” in my body and she recommended that I make this easy Mint & Egg Soup to get rid of the wind. Wow, my headaches were gone the next day, when I made this soup to drink! This soup is good for maintaining the health of our body as well.

Mint Leaves & Egg Soup (for 1 person)

Ingredients -

2 cups of fresh mint leaves

2 eggs, beaten lightly

2 cups water (you can add in chicken or ikan bilis stock if you like)

1 tbsp chopped garlic, or sliced ginger (your preference)

salt and pepper to taste

Method -

1) Heat up 1 tbsp of oil in a wok or non-stick pan. Fry garlic or ginger until golden and fragrant.

2) Put in the mint leaves, stirfry for 1 minute and then put in the beaten eggs. Stir lightly until it becomes an omellete.

3) Add in the water or stock and break up the omellete.

4) Bring to boil for 2 minutes or so, then season to taste.

5) Serve immediately. You can have have this soup on its own for lunch (that’s what I did), or have a bowl of hot, white rice to go with that.

I will post next on other home remedies for stomach problems like indigestion, nausea, bloatedness, hunger despite just having a meal, etc.

With best wishes for good health,

choesf

A  bowl of hearty, delicious Chinese herbal lamb soup

Hi there, dear friends

A few weeks ago, some of my family members were suffering from different stomach ailments ranging from the occasional bouts of mild nausea to bloatedness and wind in the stomach.

I told my lady healer friend about the stomach ailments and she taught me some home remedies to counter those problems using soups and Chinese medicines.  She said the stomach is producing wind and once the wind  problem is addressed by taking the Chinese medicines (the easier method) or soups, then  the stomach is to be warmed up by consuming a bowl of Chinese herbal lamb soup.

The Chinese herbs used here are those that we commonly use to make soups and can be found easily at Chinese Medial Halls (shops) here in Malaysia and Singapore. However, I am not sure if those living overseas will be able to get them from their local Chinatown stores, but I think it will be helpful if you can show them a picture of the herbs required. These herbs are not very expensive. Just say that you are making soup for how many persons and they will prepare the right amount of herbs for you.

Ingredients (terms are in the Cantonese Chinese dialect) shown clockwise as per picture above (soup is for 6 persons) :-

Carrots

2 Honey Dates, halved

Chinese Red Dates, seeds removed

Wai San & Fook Sun

Yook Jook

Dried Longan

Goji or Wolfberries

Pak Kei

Tong Sum

1 Kati or 600 gms of of lamb shank (can use lamb ribs or chops)

2 litres water or 10 rice bowls of water

Method :-

1) Bring water to a boil in a claypot or soup pot.

2) Put all ingredients into the pot.

3) Bring water back to a boil. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface. Do this for about 5 minutes.

4) Lower fire down to small and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

5) Season to taste with a little salt. Serve hot on its own or with dinner. Yummy!

Note – this soup can be prepared with a slow cooker/crockpot  and simmered for a longer period.

A bowl of hearty, delicious Chinese herbal lamb soup

Other than the purpose of warming up our stomachs, the ingredients in this soup aids in nourishing our health, improving vitality and stamina, is good for eyesight and promoting good sleep.

By putting in 2 Honey Dates, this soup is rendered not too heaty for consumption.  On other occasions, we usually use chicken in place of lamb and it is good to have this yummy soup at least twice a month for health maintenance.

Other soups that I had posted previously in removing wind from the body and stomach :-

Mint Leaves & Egg Soup

Shallots & Old Chicken Soup

Bon Appetit!

With best wishes for good health,

choesf

P.S. I will post next on some Chinese medicine to be taken to address serious stomach problems