Sharksfin Melon Soup in Bone Broth

Benefits of sharksfin melon:
1) Its hypoglycemic effect helps treat diabetes. *source: wikipedia
2)  In tcm its known to expel heat  *source: 饮食本草


Ingredients

1) 1.5litres of bone broth
2) half of a sharksfin melon (de-skin, cube and remove the seeds)
3) 6-8 seedless red dates
4) 1 honey date or if your honey date is small size u can add 2pieces.

Method:

1) Sieve through the bone broth from the big thermal pot over.

2) Place the rest of the ingredients into the bone broth and boil over the stove for 10mins in the thermal inner pot.

3) Then place it back in the outer pot to continue boiling for at least 4hrs.

4) Add a bit of salt to taste if desired.  Usually I'll skip the salt for a healthier lifestyle.

*Usually I boil my soups at night after my girl turns in for the night, so I'll heat it up again in the morning to let it continue cooking throughout the day and its still hot enough for dinner.

Cordyceps militaris in chicken soup

Ingredients

1 Chicken
30grams cordyceps militaris
8 pieces of mushrooms (presoaked)
Handful of small scallops (presoaked)
2 tablespoon wolfberries
8 seedless red dates
2 honey dates
2 slices of jin hua ham
1500ml water
salt

Method

1) Remove chicken skin, trim fats.  Wash and cut into chunks.
2) Blanch chicken
3) Bring water to boil.  Put all the ingredients except wolfberries into 1500ml of water.
4) a) For thermal pot, let it boil for 15mins over stove before putting into outer pot.
    b) For slow cooker, let it boil for 10mins on high before simmering for 2hours.
5) For thermal pot cooking, let it boil for 4-6 hours, usually I'll boil the night before and heat it up in the morning again and have it for the 2nd day's dinner.
6) Heat thermal pot soup, or switch on high for slow cooker and add wolfberries and boil for another 5mins.
7) Add salt to taste if desired.