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.

Bone Broth

Bone Broth Recipe

Bone broth is mineral rich soup stock from boiling bones of healthy animals.
It contains high calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus content making it good for bone and teeth health. With its high collagen content, it supports joints, hair, skin, and nail growth.

A good broth can be used as a base for most of your cooking needs.  I'll use it for simple soup noodle dishes or even to stewing and stir frying of dishes giving it the flavourful taste but reducing the need for salt to minimal amount.

A good bone broth is best to be boiled for 24hours or longer,  economically I prefer using thermal pot to cook so that I can save on electrical bills and yet have a good broth without having to worry about unattended stove or drying pot in a slow cooker.

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 Large pork bones
2 Chicken carcass
20+ chicken feets
1 Large onion (roughly chopped)
2 carrots (roughly chopped)
4 celery (roughly chopped)
1 sprig of parsley
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
2.5 litre of water

Method:

1) Heat up a full wok of water and parboil the pork bones, chicken carcass and chicken feet.

2) Rinse the bones and chicken feet

3) I'm using a 7litre endo thermal pot, I'll place all the bones and ingredients except the parsley into the pot and fill up with water(estimated 2.5litre) and boil over the stove for 15mins. Usually I'll cook over the stove at night around 10pm when my girl has slept.

4) After boiling over the stove for about 15mins, sieve the scum that floats up to the top. I'll put it into the outer pot and let it continue cooking on its own till next morning around 9am and take it out to reheat on the stove for another 15mins.

5) Cooking time over the stove will usually be like this:
Day 1: 10pm
Day 2: 9am
Day 2: 6pm
Day 2: 10pm
Day 3: 9am
Day 3: 6pm

6) On the third day when I heat up after work around 6pm, I'll add in a sprig of parsley and boil for another 30mins.

7) Sieve through all the ingredients and store.  I'll usually keep some in the fridge to store if I need it the next 2days.  Balance of the broth will be frozen and can be kept for another month.

Note:
Feel free to change the vegetables to your preferred ones.
Try to keep parsley as it helps to seal the mineral in the broth
Adding apple cider vinegar or any forms of acid like lemon juice will help in extracting the minerals from the soup.

Oden 关东煮

Ingredients:

- 1500ml of water
- 2 strips of konbu
- 1 pack of dashi
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon sugar

- 1 daikon, skin and cut into slices
- 4 eggs, hard boil and shell
- 1 carrot, skin and slice
- 1 packet of konnyaku, cut into chunks
- 1 packet of japanese fish cakes from supermarket

Method:

1) Put the daikon into a saucepan and cook in low heat till the center of the daikon is soft.
2) Bring the konnyaku jelly into the saucepan and bring to boil, drain after boiling for a min.
3) Bring the pot of water to boil, blanch the japanese fish cakes, to remove the oil.
4) Rinse the konbu and tie a knot.
5) Put the konbu, dashi, mirin, sugar, and water to make the stock.
6) Place the daikon, eggs, carrot, konnyaku to cook at low heat for about 2-3hours
7) Add the fish cakes and cook at low heat for another half an hr.

Si En's Weaning Diary: Vegetable Soup Stock

Everytime I'm cooking this, I feel like I'm a witch brewing a cauldron of potions away. Haha!!!
Anyway, I simply love to stock vegetable stock in the house as Si en's always coughing and she has to abstain from chicken.  So I thought I'll just let her have double boiled chicken soup on days that she's not coughing instead. 

I find soup stock very useful in weaning kids, especially cooking porridge or using for stir fries.  I guess not many kids would reject a much more flavorful soup?

Here's my recipe for the stock:

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 Leeks(white part)- Slice into chunks
2 Stalks of celery- cut the stems into chunks
1 Large white onion- Cut into slices
2 Large Carrots- cut into slices
2 Corns- I like to slice of the corn kernels from the kob as I find it much sweeter
10 dried mushrooms- pre-soak
4 Tomatoes- cut into chunks and remove seeds
2 Litres of water

Method:
- Heat oil, saute the onion, celery, carrot, leek.  
- Place the remaining ingredients into the pot and boil for 2hours
- Sieve the soup and set aside for cooling
- After cooling, u can place in stock bags or ice cube trays to freeze and store. 

Here's how I keep my soup stock:

 

After I've discovered the thermal pot, I've changed to using a thermal pot to boil the soup stock instead.

For thermal pot, usually I'll boil over the stove for about 20mins at night and place it in the outer pot to let it boil overnight. 
Wake up the next morning and boil it for another 20mins. 
About noon time, when my girl naps then I'll take it out to cool and store.
Maybe you might want to consider working around that timeline if you're usually busy with work or handling the child alone like I do. :p

Cordyceps Militaris with Chicken Soup (虫草花鸡汤)

Ingredients

1 Chicken
15grams cordyceps militaris
8 pieces of mushrooms (presoaked)
2 tablespoon wolfberries
Few slices of ginger
8 seedless red dates
2 honey dates
1500ml water
salt

Method

1) Remove chicken skin, trim fats.  Wash and cut into chunks.
2) Blanch chicken
3) Bring water to boil.  Put chicken, cordyceps militaris, ginger, red dates and honey dates, and mushrooms 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) Heat thermal pot soup, or switch on high for slow cooker and add wolfberries and boil for another 5mins.
6) Add salt to taste if desired.

Was told by doctor that when you're coughing, dont eat chicken as it causes phlegm.  So do take note when not to drink this soup. 

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (about 1 kg) (I used free range chicken/ 甘榜鸡)
12g cordyceps militaris/ chong cao hua (虫草花)
5 sticks dang shen (党参)
2 tbsp wolfberries (杞子)
2 slices of ginger (姜)
12-15 red dates (红枣)
1200-1500 ml water (adjust accordingly)
- See more at: http://food-4tots.com/2009/08/14/chicken-and-cordyceps-militaris-soup/#sthash.QGjyzjlJ.dpuf

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (about 1 kg) (I used free range chicken/ 甘榜鸡)
12g cordyceps militaris/ chong cao hua (虫草花)
5 sticks dang shen (党参)
2 tbsp wolfberries (杞子)
2 slices of ginger (姜)
12-15 red dates (红枣)
1200-1500 ml water (adjust accordingly)
- See more at: http://food-4tots.com/2009/08/14/chicken-and-cordyceps-militaris-soup/#sthash.QGjyzjlJ.dpuf

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (about 1 kg) (I used free range chicken/ 甘榜鸡)
12g cordyceps militaris/ chong cao hua (虫草花)
5 sticks dang shen (党参)
2 tbsp wolfberries (杞子)
2 slices of ginger (姜)
12-15 red dates (红枣)
1200-1500 ml water (adjust accordingly)
- See more at: http://food-4tots.com/2009/08/14/chicken-and-cordyceps-militaris-soup/#sthash.QGjyzjlJ.dpuf

Cordyceps Militaris soup with Shark's fin Melon 虫草花和鱼翅瓜汤

Ingredients:

500grams Shark's fin melon (about half melon)
1- carrots
250grams pork ribs
1.5 litres water
20 grams cordyceps militaris
2 tablespoon wolfberries
8 dried seedless red dates
2 honey dates
Salt to taste ( I usually skip )

Method:

1. Remove the skin and seeds of the shark's fin melon, cut the carrots & melon into chunks
2. Blanch the pork ribs
3. Put the pork ribs, cordyceps militaris, red dates, honey dates, shark's fin melon and carrot to boil in the thermal pot or slow cooker.

 4)   a) -Thermal Pot: Boil over the stove for about 15mins, then place the inner pot into the thermal cooker.  I'll usually either let it cook overnight or from morning till dinner time.
           -Just before meal, heat up the soup.  Add wolfberries and boil for 5mins.
           -Add salt to taste if desired

4)   b) - Slow cooker: Switch on high and bring to boil for about 10mins then switch to low and simmer for about 2hours.
          - Add wolfberries 5 mins before serving
          - Add salt to taste if desired