Beat the Heat with Winter Melon Soup

Winter melon soup with seafood on top

Everyone's feeling the heat this summer, and a good way to cool down is by having winter melon soup.

Winter melons are like oval-shaped watermelons, but are far from sweet. The flesh is rather neutral-flavoured, which makes the taste of the soup broth vitally important.

A basic winter melon soup with mushrooms

Having this soup at this time of year helps remove the dampness from our bodies, and counteract heatiness or "yeet hay" (熱氣). If you've been eating too much fried food, lychees, or spicy dishes, winter melon soup will balance things out, ie prevent or lessen the chances of having a sore throat or breakout in pimples.

In fancy Chinese restaurants, the soup is served in the melon itself -- the top is carefully carved open like a pumpkin for Halloween, and then the flesh is scooped out and when the soup is ready, it's placed back into the melon, which is presented in large silverware shaped like the gourd.

The soup is also relatively easy to cook at home. First remove the hard skin of the winter melon and chop the flesh into cubes. Heat up some water in a large pot and when it's boiling, add the winter melon and some clear chicken stock or blanched pork bones.

A carefully carved winter lemon

Other ingredients that can be added include mushrooms, dried scallops, ginger, and barley, and let it simmer for about an hour or so. Towards the end add chopped seafood like shrimp or fish. Some restaurants include fresh crab meat.

Some recipes call for adding egg white and cornstarch to thicken the soup, while others keep the broth relatively clear.

The bowl of winter melon soup I had the other day had mushrooms and bits of pork, and it hit the spot.

Easy Way to Make Bak Kut Teh

Pork ribs floating in the broth with 25 cloves of garlic!

In Singapore and Malaysia one of the must-try foods is bak kut teh, or pork rib tea simmered in a medicinal broth that is meant to have a warming effect on the body.

Some of the spices in the broth include star anise, cinnamon, cloves, and pepper. Cloves of garlic are added along with pork ribs and simmered for hours.

A friend visiting from Singapore gave me a box with several packets of the bak kut teh soup base and I made it a few days ago. Thankfully this version from Song Fa does not have the strong medicinal taste!

Singaporean brand of bak kut teh

I followed the directions of putting 900g of pork ribs in a pot of boiling water and then rinsing them to get rid of the scum.

Then I cleaned the pot and added fresh water to boil again, and then put in the soup packet which contains two sachets of spices and 25 cloves of garlic! I boiled them together for 15 minutes. 

The broth started to have a slight white pepper taste, and I put the pork ribs back in along with one half teaspoon of dark soy sauce and one half teaspoon of light soy sauce and let the broth simmer for about an hour.

I periodically checked the broth's taste, and the directions said the sachets can be removed whenever you feel the spice level is enough, which I did after an hour.

The soup had a dominant peppery flavour, not too spicy and the pork ribs were very tender to eat. And yes the garlic gloves pretty much disintegrated by this point! The broth had a comforting effect and it's even better removing some of the oil accumulated.

This recipe worked really well and I have a few more packs to enjoy!

Jumping Over the Wall for this Soup

Abalone, sea cucumber and fish maw presented on a platter

Today is Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the Chinese like to mark the occasion with a dinner that could be equated to Thanksgiving. Family members get together around the table and have a feast that includes tong yuen, or glutinous rice dumplings filled with black sesame paste in a sweet soup.

This evening we were invited to a Christmas party that doubled as a Winter Solstice dinner at Grand Crystal Seafood Restaurant in Burnaby.

On the menu were dishes like lobster stir-fried with mung bean vermicelli, soy sauce chicken, sweet and sour deep-fried fish, bok choy with yuba, or tofu skin, and fried rice. We didn't have tong yuen, but baked sago pudding with red bean paste.

The highlight was Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, served in a massive tureen. The clear broth was so flavourful, soaking up the ingredients it had been cooked with -- abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw, Chinese ham, goose webs, shiitake mushrooms, and conpoy.

The soup was given this name with a tale that the smell of it was so tempting that a vegetarian Buddhist monk could not resist and would jump over the wall to try it.

This particular soup was delicious, the broth was clear and hardly oily; we ate the abalone, sea cucumber and fish maw separately with abalone sauce.

Whenever I get the opportunity to have Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, it reminds me of when I first tried it back in the late 1990s in Hong Kong.

I was a young journo at the time trying to learn as much as I could, and had one assignment to interview a chef about this dish. I went to a Chinese restaurant in a hotel and the chef explained all the different ingredients in the soup (at the time it included shark's fin), ginseng, and a curious slightly round disk about 1cm in diameter with a small hole in the middle.

The hotel public relations manager and I asked what this was.

"Deer penis," the chef sheepishly replied, adding it was supposed to be for men's virility.

We giggled and asked, does it have any effect on us women?

He didn't have an answer and went back to the kitchen.

We drank the soup and it was delicious, having been simmering for hours on the stove.

That evening I went home and could not sleep! I was tossing and turning for ages.

The next morning I called up the PR manager and asked her if she was able to get some shut eye.

"I couldn't sleep either!" she exclaimed and we wondered if it was because of the deer penis in the soup...

 

A Hearty Vegetarian Soup

A hearty bowl of cannellini and kale soup for lunch 

Earlier this week I made a simple soup for lunch, using a bunch of kale and an onion I received from Harvest Community Foods.

I chopped up the onion and stir-fried it before adding rinsed cannellini beans and chicken stock, let that simmer for a bit before adding the chopped kale.

For some umami flavour I put in parmesan rinds and that helped thicken the soup a bit too. You can also mash some of the beans, but after about 20 minutes the soup was thicker, as some of the beans had disintegrated. Took out the parmesan rinds, added some salt and pepper, and the soup was done.

It would have been good with some warm sourdough bread, but it was still delicious, and vegetarian!

Making Hot and Sour Soup

Hot and sour soup has many textures, from crunchy to soft

Hot and sour soup is one of those concoctions that is hearty and comforting. It's choc full of ingredients in every bite, and with a combination of sour and spice, you can't stop eating it. 

While it can be tedious to make with a lot of chopping involved, it's quite satisfying when it all comes together, and tastes like a hug in a bowl.

I watched a few different videos on how to make it, with variations on the step-by-step process, and then cobbled together my own version.

First I sliced up some pork that was then marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, water and cornstarch. Some recipes specify lean pork which in general is a good idea, but slightly fatty pork is fine too.

Some dry ingredients need to be rehydrated, such as black fungus and dried lily flower which I separately rinsed off and and then soaked in their own bowls of hot water.

Lots of ingredients for this soup

Then came the task of chopping. I chopped a few diagonal slices of a thick carrot into thin matchsticks, followed by some mushrooms; most recipes call for shiitake, but they can be any mushrooms you have, including enoki. Also chopped up the rehydrated black fungus and fresh bamboo shoots.

It can be a lot of work removing the thick fibrous leaves to get to the shoots, but it's so worth it in the end, as they give the soup a crunchy texture. Like an artichoke, remove the leaves until you get to the tender yellowish part and then slice into thin strips.

While recipes call for firm tofu to be sliced into thin strips, I only had silky tofu in the refrigerator and sliced it into thick strips to avoid too much breakage. 

Now it was time to make the soup. Unfortunately I didn't buy enough chicken stock (six cups), so I added more water and some chicken powder, and it worked fine in a pinch. Three tablespoons of soy sauce was added to the stock.

When it started simmering, I added the bamboo shoots, mushrooms, rehydrated lily flower and the black fungus. 

Before adding the pork, I mixed it in its own marinade and then carefully added it into the soup in small clumps and used chopsticks to make sure they didn't stick together. 

After a minute or two I gingerly added the tofu, trying not to break them. Afterwards I avoided stirring the soup vigorously.

I let the soup cook for a few more minutes and then added a small spoonful of chilli oil (add more if you prefer it to be more spicy), some pepper, and a slurry of 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, 3 tablespoons of water and 5 tablespoons of vinegar to thicken the soup.

The final step is taking the soup off the heat and adding a beaten egg to create "ribbons" in the soup. I watched one video that suggested placing the beaten egg into a ladle and then slightly submerging it in the middle of the pot and swirling it around to spread the egg mixture around the surface of the soup. It worked quite well in the end. Good tip!

It turned out to be a delicious soup that could use a bit more vinegar, which I'll add tomorrow when we finish the rest of the soup!

Palm Springs' Meal Deals

Olive Garden: Americanised Italian cuisine

Palm Springs used to be a fun place for seniors to eat, taking advantage of the early bird specials at various restaurants. But post-Covid those days are long gone... unless you are interested in eating dinner at 3pm and finish by 5pm at Pacifica in El Paseo, one of the glitziest shopping areas.

Nevertheless, we managed to find a few delicious deals. One was lunch at Olive Garden, where on weekdays they have the soup and salad and breadsticks deal for US$11.49 where you get unlimited servings of each. 

Fresh salads were the highlight at Olive Garden

My first bowl of soup was the pasta e fagioli, white and red beans, ground beef, fresh tomatoes and tubetti pasta. But then I made the rookie mistake of ordering the chicken and gnocchi, a creamy soup that filled me up quite quickly. I managed to squeeze in a third bowl of minestrone but was extremely full afterwards.

The unlimited salad is simple but very fresh, featuring chopped cabbage, slices of tomatoes, shredded carrots, black olives, pickled peppers, and chopped red onions in Italian dressing, while the breadsticks are more like pillowy soft wide sticks that are oily and sprinkled with salt.

Another weekday lunch deal is unlimited soup or salad with certain pasta dishes like shrimp scampi, chicken parmigiana, spaghetti or cheese ravioli for between US$12.49 or US$13.49, and the portions are just right.

Minestrone soup was choc full of vegetables

We also went to IHop for breakfast before heading to the airport. The menu looks like it offers a lot of dishes, but many are all combinations of eggs with either bacon or sausage, toast or pancakes. There's a section offering deals for 55+ diners, such as the 1x1x1 -- one egg, one sausage, one bacon and toast or pancakes. 

I had the 2 quick eggs -- two eggs, either sausage or bacon, hash browns and toast for about US$13. The eggs came perfectly cooked over easy, and a rectangular slab of hash browns that was decorated with two skinny (and fatty) slices of bacon, and two slices of wholewheat toast that were further sliced in half and buttered.

While IHop was good value, it was kind of sad to see the sign on the door explaining the hours had changed to Monday to Sunday, 6.30am until 3pm. When we went on a Sunday morning, the place was just over half full; it used to be bustling with customers, and sometimes we had to wait for a table.

IHop's 2 Quick Eggs breakfast

It seems Covid hit Palm Springs hard, and tourism is its biggest industry, other than healthcare services. Fewer tourists are coming, resulting in restaurants closing or downsizing, and the same with shops. Golf courses have noticeably fewer visiting golfers, which has resulted in fewer staff catering to them at the reception desk. Tee times need to be booked online instead of on the phone or in person.

Hard to say if the city will be bustling again... the people are still friendly, but out-of-town visitors are few and far between.

Picture of the Day: Mushroom Soup

Mushroom soup is very hearty and comforting

Last week I sampled some cream of mushroom soup at the annual Circle Craft Fair  and bought the packet to make at home.

The company is called Untamed Feast, where they forage wild mushrooms in British Columbia and Alberta, and then package them into various products. I not only bought the mushroom soup packet, but also one of large morels, and another with dried sliced porcini mushrooms too, and mushroom risotto.

The package from Untamed Feast

What caught everyone's interest was the thick soup was choc full of finely diced tubers and that it was really simple to make.

You just saute half a diced onion, and a garlic clove with either butter or olive oil. After a few minutes, add one-quarter cup of white wine, then add the packet of mushroom soup mix which is powder and dehydrated mushrooms. 

After that four cups of water are added, then wait for it to boil before turning down the heat and adding a cup of either cream or milk (or skip this step completely), and let it simmer for about 10 minutes and then the soup's ready to be eaten.

I used milk instead of cream and the soup still had a slight creaminess in flavour. The finely chopped mushrooms rehydrated and the combination of the various mushrooms made it delicious in flavour and texture.

Each packet is good for four people, and each bite is like snuggling up in a warm blanket.