Thursday 19 February 2015

Lotus Root Soup

My first attempt on one of those more traditional Chinese soup which I grew up eating. I'm no expert of making Chinese soup as it requires herbs and all and I never seem to understand what is needed but coming across someone on FB who actually took the time to take pictures prior to cooking and after cooking made it easier for me to copy. All I did was take the pictures to a herbal shop and ask for help. The rest I just stood very long at a supermarket, trying figure out which was what. Lol!!!!!

But truly, it was worth it and I'm amazed the soup turned out fantastic. No salt or sugar or pepper was needed. Just absolutely a healthy soup which can be taken just like that or taken with warm rice.


Ingredients:-

- 500g to 1kg of pork ribs and soft ribs (depending how many people you're cooking for)
- lotus roots, sliced thinly 
- 3 large bowls of water
- 1 small bowl of dry lotus seeds (white looking nuts)
- 10 dry Chinese red dates (makes the soup sweet)
- 6 small dry scallops (makes the soup absolutely yummilicious)

1. Boil some water over high heat first and then pour over the pork. This removes the murky looking stuff from the pork or else your soup will turn out murky. You may do it twice if you wish but make sure you have 2 rounds of boiling water with you then.
2. On a separate pot, boil the 3 large bowls of water.
3. Once boiled, throw in all the ingredients including the pork and allow to boil under high heat for about 20 to 30 mins.
4. Then, transfer the entire pot and pour it into a Slow Cooker to cook.

**NOTE**
If you've got someone to watch the Slow Cooker, cook under Low for about 3 hours and then switch to Auto for the rest of the time till you want to have it. Or, you can leave it under Auto for the next 6-8 hours and it will be fine. I actually boiled mine at 6.30am and transferred to Slow Cooker at 7am under Low till 10.30am and switched to Auto thereafter; and left it till I had it at 7pm. 

My daughter had a portion for lunch and it was alresy yummy and she had it for dinner, too. Talk about having something healthy.

So, there is sure going to be more soup coming up.