Chicken Herbal Soup 药材鸡汤

Let’s have a bowl of nourishing tonic soup

Chinese herbal soup is good for replenishing certain nutrients needed by our bodies; stimulating appetite and especially good for women either during pregnancy or post delivery. For post delivery, one of the key herbs to be added in is Dang Gui (当归), a common ingredient used during confinement period to speed up after birth recovery.

However, this nourishing tonic soup is not restricted to women only but it is also good as a supplement source of nutrients and energy in addition to boosting the immune system.  The following simple chicken herbal soup Auntie Lan used to prepare for us does not include Dang Gui. The herbs she used were general purposed Chinese chicken herbal soup combination for daily consumption. Apologies again for not giving the exact measurement of the ingredients used, however the portion I estimated she used for following was about: 1:0.5:0.5:0.25:0.25:0.125:0.125

Nowadays you can easily find this pre-packaged dry herbal soup ingredients at any Asian Grocery shop. All you need to do is just to add in water to cook and salt to taste. For working moms, even this may still be too much a hassle. Here’s a way to further make life easier. Read on.

The secret is to have a 24 hour 24 hour timer timer switch device  and a slow cooker (Crock-Pot).  Instead of cooking over stove and watching over the heat, all you need to do is to plug the slow cooker to the timer, add in boiling water to slow cooker, dump in the packaged herbals and chicken (you can wash chicken a night before) and set the timer on to cook it at high heat for 1.5 hours before you leave your house in the morning. With the timer, you can also set to warm the soup again by setting the timer to automatically switch on half an hour before you come back from work.

I bet when you come back from work, as soon as you open the door you will be overwhelmed by the nice strong tonic aroma coming from your kitchen! What you need to do next is to have another 30 minutes for you to cook the rice and you and your family will get to enjoy a healthy chicken herbal soup dinner. Now who said working moms do not have time to prepare healthy and nutritious meals for her family?  J

Chicken Herbal Soup 药材鸡汤

I extracted explanation of the herbs and medical effects from this site Complementary and Alternative Healing University:

Item	Herbs Name/药材名	Medical Functions/功效
1	red dates (Chinese dates or red jujube) 红枣	Treats weakness, shortness of breath, lassitude, lack of appetite, loose stools due to spleen deficient. 强筋壮骨，补血行气，滋颐润颜。
2	qi zi (Wolfberries or goji berries) 枸杞子	Nourishes and tonifies the liver and kidney, helps eyesight, improves blurred vision, alleviates sore back, strengthens the leg and stomach, improves circulation, boosts immune function, promotes longevity. 养肝，补肾，滋阴，明目，益气。
3	dang shen (Codonopsis Root) 党参	Corrects blood deficiency, invigorates Qi (lack of appetite, fatigue, thirst, diarrhea, vomiting, polapse of uterus, stomach, rectum due to spleen deficient), improves digestive system. 补中益气，养血补肺。
4	yu zhu (Rhizoma Polygonati Odorati) 玉竹	Nourishes Yin, promotes the production of body fluids and relieves dryness syndrome. 养阴，润燥，除烦，止渴。治热病阴伤，咳嗽烦渴，虚劳发热，消谷易饥，小便频数。
5	huai shan (Dioscoreae Oppositae) 淮山	Invigorates Qi, nourishes Yin, controls spermatorrhea and reduces urination. 补脾养胃，生津益肺，补肾涩精。
6	bǎi hé (Lily Bulb)百合	sweet and cooling in properties. The herb is also associated to the lung and heart meridians and help to relieve coughs, dry throats, clear heat, and moisten the lung. Dried lily bulb is also used as an herb to calm the spirit, promote restful sleep, and lessen irritability. 养阴润肺；清心安神。主阴虚久嗽；痰中带血；热病后期；余热未清，或情志不遂所致的虚烦惊悸、失眠多梦、精神恍惚；痈肿；湿疮
7	xing ren(Semen pruni armeniacae) 杏仁	for arresting coughing and asthma, expelling phlegm, help bowel movements. 降氣止咳平喘，潤腸通便。用於咳嗽氣喘，胸滿痰多，血虛津枯，腸燥便秘。

Spinach 苋菜

I made this dish for her funeral ceremony. I was sad I didn’t have the chance to cook this dish for her when she was alive as she was on tube for the last 3 years because she was not able to consume any solid food. However, as Chinese believe in after life, I hope her spirit got to appreciate what I had prepared for her.

In addition to stir frying, spinach is good to serve in soup or even in porridge. Spinach is a great veggie to introduce to children because it has no earthy smell. I used to blend in spinach in Ray’s porridge when he was a baby.  Popeye the sailor man turns into a strong guy after consuming a tin of spinach, you kids will be the same too! J

Salted Vegetables Duck Soup (Kiam Chai Ark) 咸菜鸭汤

Chinese New Year Dishes – Part 3（年菜之三）

This Nyonya dish is one of the must in traditional Teow Chew or Hokkien speaking families in the South East Asia during Chinese New Year celebration.

When Auntie Lan was staying with us, I requested her to teach me this grandma recipe. I bought quite a big duck (size 19) for the soup; we ended up using half of the duck only. I still have another half in my freezer that I'm planning to cook this coming Chap Goh Mei (15^th day of Lunar New Year) 元宵。

Chinese believe salted mustard green is great in clearing away internal body heat. This soup with salty and sour taste is a great appetizer too. A bowl of the soup instantly opens up one's appetite especially in the hot summer weather.

Salted Vegetables Duck Soup (Kiam Chai Ark) 咸菜鸭汤

咸菜鸭汤是娘惹菜系中的名汤也是潮洲和闵南人新年过节的必备之汤。它的味道咸中带酸，有清热去火之功效，天气热没胃口，一碗下肚马上胃口大开！

Too Thor Th'ng (Pig Maw Soup) 猪肚汤 - Featured in Group Recipes

Nyonya Cuisine – Part 4

I hope the title won't put you off straight away. I know not many people dare to consume animal offal. I shy away from most of the organ parts such as liver, intestines too. But for pig maw (pig stomach) it can be really nutritious especially for Chinese women after giving birth. During month long of confinement period, pig stomach soup a.k.a. "Too Thor Th'ng" in Hokkien is one of their main dishes to consume. As the Chinese believes eating different parts of animal will benefit the corresponding parts of our body (以形朴形). Hence, eating pig's stomach is supposed to 'replenish' the stomach of women who have just given birth. This pig maw soup is another Penang Nyonya delicacy. This soup is also one of the signature soups served during Chinese New Year.

Initially, I thought only Chinese eats pig stomach. In fact Chinese eats nearly every part of a pig! But after some Google searches, I was surprised to find out that pig maw (a.k.a. Hog maw) is also served in Western cuisine especially in Italian, Scottish and Pennsylvanian Dutch. Other than pig maw, the next most important ingredient of this soup is cracked peppercorns of white peppers; hence some call this soup peppered pig stomach soup. With the pepper in the soup it brings out the heat thus perfect to warm up your body to counter the cold weather. The Northern Hemisphere is currently in the winter months so it can be a great timing for the "Northern Hemisphereans" to try this out.



Too Thor Th'ng (Pig Maw Soup) 猪肚汤 Featured in Group Recipes 7/12/2010

 The making of the soup is easy but the preparation is a tricky one especially in the cleaning of pig maw. If you are not familiar with cleaning pig stomach, you will end up with a smelly soup. So, how to clean the stomach?

Below is my highly experienced cook- Chef Ah Lan demonstrating the correct way to wash the pig maw. I must warn you first, it may look gross to some of you. Don't watch it immediately after your meal J

WHITE FUNGUS WITH NASHI PEAR DESSERT SOUP 银耳雪梨糖水

Wanna a bowl of nourishing sweet soup ?

This winter, the nasty winter bugs had my two guys down one after another; JS suffered the most which later we suspected that it might be swine flu. I was pretty proud of myself for not catching the bugs back then and credited that to my regular jogging even under cold weather. But, too bad just when I thought the winter was over, JS had his second round of cough back last week and this time I was not spare. :-(

Other than taking medicines, I believe in food treatment. Hence, this week I made Chinese herbal soups more often and one of them is this White Fungus with Nashi Pear Dessert Soup. Chinese believed white fungus which also known as Snow Fungus is great in nourishing the lungs, healing dry cough and cooling our body system. This soup is great to serve hot during winter and chilled during summer. This dessert is very simple and easy to prepare.

Wanton Tofu Vegetables Soup 云吞豆腐塔菜汤

Back home we seldom appreciate hot soup, we tend to wait for it to get cold to drink it, but once we are here, nothing warms the chill of a cold winter's night as a hearty bowl of hot soup! Sipping a bowl of steaming hot soup is real treat on a cold weather like what we have now.

However, to have a nice soup you need to simmer at least 2-3 hours; it is not convenient to do that on daily basis. So, to have an easy way out, I used to cook a big pot of pork bone and chicken frames stock and then divide the stock into small packets and freezer them. I used one packet for one meal, I just need to heat it up and add in vegetables, dumpling, tofu or fish balls and viola a bowl of hot soup is ready within 10 min for dinner!

I like to add dumpling or wanton in my instant soup. Nowadays, making wanton or dumpling is much easy and simple. Off-the-shelf wanton wrappers are easily available, one just needs to add in mince or veggie filling and wrap them up. But, some of you might say, wrapping wanton/dumpling need skills too! I said not at all, see the photo below, nice?

There is a secret in it, the secret is….ok, I'll let you figure out yourself if you still can't leave me a comment I will review how:-P

Below is my version of 10 minutes (exclude the making of wanton) soup, you can throw in whatever veggie, seafood and meat that you can find from your fridge as you like, just be creative and dare to explore you will surprise to discover new flavor out from ordinary dish!