Bitter Gourd Pork Rib Soup (苦瓜排骨汤)

Chinese New Year just over and bet must have eaten lot of heaty stuffs.  Here one of the traditional Chinese soup can help to cool the heat inside the body.  This soup is Bitter Gourd Pork Rib soup, a pretty common soup whereby you can find selling in food centers.

Ingredients :-
苦瓜，排骨，蚝干，八爪鱼干，红枣(可无)
Bitter Gourd, Pork Rib, Dried Oyster, Dried Octopus and Red Dates are the ingredients for it.  1 Bitter Gourd, a packet of Pork Rib between 300g - 400g, a few of Dried Oysters and Octopus, and a small handful of Red Dates will do.  All these ingredients are easily found in Supermarket.  Red Dates are optional !

Cooking Instructions :-

1. Wash the Bitter Gourd thoroughly as not going to peel off the skin.  

2. Next cut the Bitter Gourd into small portions (roughly 4 to 5 portions will do) and remove all those seeds inside the Bitter Gourd.  Must remember to remove all those seeds if not the soup will be extremely bitter.

3. Wash the Pork Rib, Dried Oyster, Dried Octopus and Red Dates.

4. 85% fill up a mid-size pot with water and boil it.

5. Once the water boils, put in the Pork Rib and once those are cooked put in the remaining of the ingredients.

6. Cover up the pot and slow boil for at least 4 hours.

7. Once done ready to serve.

Kids might not like it as taste a bit the bitter but is good for them so try to encourage them to drink.  Also the Bitter Gourd and Pork Rib if you dip them in Soy Sauce and ate it, they taste nice !!!

Dried Vegetable Soup (菜干汤)

First of all, welcome to 2013 :)
The first dish I'm going to introduce in 2013 is a soup, a very typical Chinese soup which you can find selling outside.  Dried Vegetable soup is the name.  It is not different to make it too.  Well Dried Vegetable is basically Xiao Baicai that was soaked in salt and dried.

Ingredients :-
菜干，排骨，干蚝
Dried Vegetable, Pork Rib and Dried Oyster are the ingredients.  All can be brought from Supermarket easily.  A packet of Dried Vegetable will be enough for one big pot of the soup.  4 to 5 Dried Oyster will do and 1 packet of Pork Rib between 200g to 300g will do.

Cooking Instruction :-
1.  Wash all your ingredients.

2. Boil a medium pot of water which was 85% filled.

3. Once the water is boiled, put in the Pork Rib, followed by the Dried Oyster and the Dried Vegetable.

4. Cover up the pot and let it slow boil for at least 4 hours.

tata !!!!!  see Daddy, as easy as ABC and in 4 hours time you will have the Dried Vegetable soup ready for your family !!!

Red Vegetable Salted Egg Soup (红菜咸蛋汤)

If you happened to go to the supermarket or wet market and saw a vegetable with a red coloured stalk and you might be attracted to it and bought it.  Hey, daddy wait, before you get excited about it, I going to pour some cold water on you !  You would regret should you fry that vegetable.  Shock ?  Well, the fact is I have never ever came across anyone trying to fry that vegetable to eat.  Reason being, the taste !  (my 2 rabbits also not interested in eating this Red Vegetable) So you might ask, why still selling this vegetable and why people still buying it.   If you accidentally  brought it, no worry I have solution for you.  Use the vegetable to make soup.  It is perhaps the only way I know of in processing that Red Vegetable.

Ingredients :-
红菜，咸蛋
Red Vegetable and Salted Eggs are the only ingredients you need to make the soup.  A packet of the Red Vegetable coupling with 3 to 4 Salted Eggs ( supermarket come with a packet of 4 Salted Eggs, just nice ) will do.  It is a simple soup but not bad in drinking.

Cooking Instructions :-
1. Wash the Red Vegetable, plucked off the leaves from the stalks.  You have option whether you want to include the red coloured stalk inside the soup or not.

2. Boil a medium size pot of water that is 3/4 filled.

3. When the water boils, put in the Red Vegetable.  If you choose to include the red coloured stalk, put in the stalks first, cover up the pot and let it boils for 1 minute before putting in the leaves.  Once the leaves are in, cover up the pot and let it boils for 5 minutes.

4. Now for the Salted Eggs, you have to remove the black mud ( that how they usually come with ) first.  Might be a bit the dirty there if you are not careful.  What I did is while they are still pack in the little plastic bag, remove the black mud from there so that most of the black mud will in inside the little plastic bag and you just throw away the plastic bag later.  Might still have some mud sticking onto the Salted Egg so you have to rinse it under the tap.

5. Next cracks the Salted Egg into the boiling soup.  Once all the Salted Eggs are in, stir the soup constantly.  One thing about Salted Egg from the normal egg is that, the yolk still in a piece even after you stir the soup.

6. Through stirring, you can see the Salted Egg white floating on top of the soup and the Salted Egg yolk solidify into a ball.  Cover up the pot and let it boils for 15 to 20 minutes.

7. The soup should be done already by this time.  The leave of the Red Vegetable will be soften by now.

The Red Vegetable is not that awful to eat after boiling inside the soup.  The soup should taste salty due to the Salted Egg.  Try to mix the Salted Egg yolk with rice to eat it.  This is a very simple soup and takes not more than 30 minutes to do it.

Water Cress Pork Rib Soup (西洋菜排骨汤)

This is another those traditional Chinese soup which you can find selling in food court and it is not difficult to cook too.

Ingredients :-
西洋菜，排骨，红枣
Water Cress, Pork Rib and Red Dates are the ingredients.  Water Cress vegetable is quite common to find in supermarket but have to note nobody try to stir fry water cress as far I as known of.  Most people buy Water Cress is to boil soup.  Red Dates is to add some sweetness to the soup that all.  If you don't want, it is ok.

Cooking Instruction :-
1. Wash the Water Cress, Pork Ribs and Red Dates.

2. Boil a medium size pot with 85% of water at least.

3. When the water boils, put in the Pork Ribs, the Pork Ribs should get cook instantly.

4. Put in the branch of Water Cress and finally put in the Red Dates.

5. Cover up the pot, switch to SLOW FIRE and let the soup boil for at least 4 hours.

6. After 4 hours, you can see the color of the Water Cress turns from green to dark green in colour and the water level probably reduces to around 75%.  That will do and can get serve already.

While nobody stir fry Water Cress to eat but the boiled Water Cress taste not bad.  What you can do is pour a small dish of Soy Sauce and then dip the Water Cress and Pork Ribs in it and eat.  It is tasty !!!

Yellow Cucumber Pork Rib Soup (老黄瓜排骨汤)

Here is another those Chinese traditional soup where you can find selling in food court.  Well instead of paying to buy from others, why know make it yourself ?  It is not that difficult.

Ingredients :-
老黄瓜，排骨，干蚝，红枣，干八爪鱼
Yellow Cucumber, Pork Rib, Red Dates, Dried Oyster and Dried Octopus are all that is needed to make this soup.  Dried Octopus is optional as it might not be easily purchase from supermarket.  The rest of the ingredients can be found in supermarket without any doubts.  1 Yellow Cucumber, 1 packet of Pork Ribs, 4 to 5 Dried Oysters, 4 to 5 Red Dates and 3 to 4 Dried Octopus will be enough to boil a soup to serve 5 to 6 person.

Cooking Instruction :-
1. Wash the Yellow Cucumber, scrub it if required as we are not going to peel off the skin. Cut the Yellow Cucumber into 2 halves ( cut horizontally ) then remove those seeds inside it.  Next cut each half into mid-size slices ( roughly about 4 slices will do, so total you will have 8 slices for the whole Yellow Cucumber ).

2. Soak the Dried Oysters, Dried Octopus and Red Dates in bowl of water to soften them, roughly 15 to 30 minutes will do.

3. Wash the Pork Ribs.

4. Boil a medium size pot filled with 90% of water.

5. Once the water is boiled, put in the Pork Ribs.  When Pork Ribs cooked, put in the Dried Oysters, Dried Octopus and Red Dates.

6. Next, put in the slices of Yellow Cucumbers and cover up the pot, turn to SLOW FIRE and let it boil for at least 4 hours.  If you have a Slow Cooker, everything will be easy.

7.  After at least 4 hours, the 90% of water probably left about 70% to 75% and the slices of Yellow Cucumber mostly "dissolves" and that is done and ready to serve.

Apart from the tasty soup, the Yellow Cucumber ( less the skin ), the Dried Oysters, Dried Octopus and Pork Ribs are all very nice to eat also.  See Daddies, why paid outside to get this soup ( for not so much of ingredients inside ) while you can do it yourself so easily for your family ?

Lotus Root, Pork Rib Soup (莲藕排骨汤)

This is one of the most commonly Chinese tradition soup you can find selling in food courts and is not difficult to make.  All you need is the time to slowly boil the soup.  Hey, why need to pay that money to buy from outside when you can cook it yourself ?  Furthermore, you can put in more ingredients for yourself as compared to those small portion of ingredients when you buy outside !!!

Ingredients :-
莲藕，排骨，红枣，干蚝
Lotus Root, Pork Ribs, Red Dates and Dried Oysters.  Well some even put in Dried Octopus but Dried Octopus is not so easily bought from supermarket need to go those specialize shop to purchase ( like Chinatown ) so here I omitted out the Dried Octopus.  1 Lotus Root is enough, 1 packet of Pork Ribs also will do, a few Red Dates ( to make the soup taste a bit the sweet ) and a few Dried Oysters ( do not put too many Dried Oysters as it will affect the taste of the soup to the wrong side ) will do.

Cooking Instruction :-
1. Wash the Lotus Root thoroughly as we do not need to peel off the skin, if required scrub it to remove any soil or mud stuck at the Lotus Root.  Next cut it into slices as shown above.

2. Wash the Pork Ribs and rinse the Dried Oysters and Red Dates.

3. Boil a pot of water (85% filled with water) and a medium size pot will do enough for 5 person share.

4. When the pot of water boils, put in the Pork Ribs first.

5. Once the Pork Ribs are cooked, put in the Lotus Root, Dried Oysters and Red Dates.

6. Cover up the pot and switch the fire to small.  For those with Slow Cooker, put it to "Slow" will do.

7. Let the soup boils for at least 4 hours and it will be ready to serve.  After 4 hours of boiling under slow fire, the 85% of water probably left about 70% and if you instead use "strong fire" good luck to you, the soup probably left about 40% after 4 hours of boiling.  So remember use "SLOW FIRE" !!!

Look at the colour of the Lotus Root and if you put in too much Dried Oysters the strong smell will affect the taste of the soup.  Here you go Daddies, exactly the same as those selling outside !!!  So why need to pay that extra sum of money to buy when you can cook it for the family !!!

Potatoes, Carrots, Tomatoes and Pork Rib Soup (马铃薯萝卜蕃茄排骨汤)

This is one of the traditional Chinese soup and pretty easy to cook too.  Can ask your kids to help out in the preparation, so let get started !!!

Ingredients :-
马铃薯，萝卜，蕃茄，排骨，洋葱
Potatoes, Carrots, Tomatoes are the main essential ingredients.  The three of them can make soup already but to add further taste to the soup, I use Pork Ribs and Onions.  All these can be easily purchased in the supermarket.  The quantity will depend how big pot the soup you wish to cook.  For me, 3 Potatoes, 2 Carrots, 2 Tomatoes, 1 packet of Pork Ribs and a small bulb of Onion will be enough to make a soup to serve 5 to 6 persons.

Cooking instruction :- 
1. Peel off the skin of the Potatoes and Carrots and that the part whereby you could ask your kids to help out.  With those knife specifically used to peel off skins, it will be quite safe for your kids to use it.

2. Next wash the skinless Potatoes and Carrots and cut them into pieces.  1 Potatoes can be cut into 4 portions, 1 Carrot can be cut into 6 pieces and that are the just nice sizes for them.

3. Wash the Tomatoes and again cut them into pieces, 1 Tomatoes can be cut into 4 portions and that size is just nice.

4. For the Onions, peel off the skin, wash it and then cut into slices.  Well the purpose of the Onion is not to eat but to add some taste to the soup and in fact after boiled, the Onion probably dissolve into the soup already.

5. Wash the Pork Ribs and the boil a pot of water, a mid-size pot with 85% of the water filled and together with the above quantity of ingredients will be just nice for 5 to 6 person share and not diluting the taste away.

6.  When the pot of water boils, put in the Pork Ribs first and once you see the Pork Ribs are cooked, put in the rest of the ingredients.  Cover up the pot and lower down the fire and let it boils for minimum 3 hours.

7.  Once done, you can see the Potatoes and Carrots are soften, the Tomatoes and Onions look dissolve in the soup and the Pork Ribs is absolutely cooked. Get ready to serve !!!!

This soup will smell nice and a bit of the sweet taste and for this probably is the best method to let your kids to eat the Potatoes, Carrots and Tomatoes which they normally don't like to.  Ok Daddies, give yourself and the kids who helped out a Hi-5 for making this soup !!!

Broccoli & Ikan Bilis Soup (西兰花江鱼仔汤)

Lot of methods to prepare soup ranging from simple to traditional to herbal soups.  Let's just start off with simple soup so that Daddies can get a hold of it first then proceed to the more difficult and complicated one.  This one I'm going to introduce here is Vegetable Soup and need at most 15 minute and will be ready to serve.

Ingredients :-
西兰花，江鱼仔
 Broccoli and Ikan Bilis are the only ingredients needed and both of these can be easily purchased from supermarket and not to mention it is economical too.  One broccoli can roughly serve 2 person share and a small handful of ikan bilis is enough as the main purpose of the ikan bilis is to provide some taste to the soup though they can be eaten.

Cooking Instruction :-

1.  Fill up the pot with 80% of water, the size of pot depends on how many person you will be serving and boil the water.

2. While waiting for the water to boil, wash the Broccoli and then cut it to smaller pieces.  Smaller pieces can help it to get cook faster.  Wash the Ikan Bilis as well.

3. When the water is boiled, put in the Ikan Bilis first, put on the pot cover and let the Ikan Bilis to be boiled for about 1 minute, this is to extract the taste of the Ikan Bilis to the soup.

4. Put in the cut Broccoli next and cover up the pot to let the soup boil, that should take about 10 to 15 minutes.

5. When you can see the broccoli becomes soft ( especially the stalk portion ), the little flowers from the broccoli scattered all over the soup and the colour of the broccoli is like a bit greenish brown, the soup is ready to be served.

6. Can add a small pinch of salt if you wanted that extra "salty" taste and that is optional.

See Daddies, it just so simple to prepare this Broccoli & Ikan Bilis soup and take you at most 15 minutes.  Not to forget, broccoli is very nutritious to the kids !!!