Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Soup Name:

Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Traditional Chinese Name:

花膠雞湯 (huā jiāo jī tāng)

Nature:  Warming

Taste: Sweet and savory

For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

 

The star of this soup is FISH MAW.  This takes collagen to the next level! 

This soup is packed with natural collagens that help retain moisture, firmness, and bounce in the skin.

To make this soup, you’ll need to plan it a few days in advance because of the fish maw preparation.  I would suggest allowing 2-4 days to fully hydrate your dried fish maw.  This depends on the size and quality of the fish maw.

A few tips for preparing your fish maw:

  • I like soaking them in a glass bowl.  That way, I can see it in the fridge when I open and close the fridge door as it soaks.  You can check for murky water, spots on the fish maw, and generally that it’s soaking cleanly as it should.
  • I use tap water (in Canada), although some people recommend using cold boiled water as it’s cleaner
  • After they’ve soaked, I will also flash blanch them in boiling hot water (after the water boils with my blanching chicken since I’m blanching anyways)
  • Cut the fish maw after soaking them.  They’ll be sufficiently soft.

 

What makes this soup amazing?

  • For starters, it’s collagen packed!  Interesting fact though is that fish skin has more collagen than fish maw (according to this one study [source 1])!!!  I guess I’m going back to fish skin as an ingredient as it’s also way cheaper!
  • You don’t need salt or any other flavoring for this soup.  Don’t even think about adding chicken broth (I usually don’t for Chinese soups)!
  • This is a great soup base for other vegetables or additives should you choose to embark on this mission.
  • It’s a hearty soup which can double as a meal (just add rice!)
  • It’s PERFECT for postpartum, as it’s a warm soup with healing ingredients.

For videos, visit us on YouTube. 

What’s involved?

Pre-work: 2-4 days to soak & hydrate the fish maw

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 120 minutes 

Total time: 150 mins

Serves: 8 bowls

Ingredients

Cooking Instructions

  1. With the pre-soaked and re-hydrated fish maw, I will remove them from the fridge, strain out the water, and slice into 1-inch thick pieces (or however you’d like to eat them basically)
  2. At this time, you can prepare your chicken however you’d like.  I usually save the 2 breasts for a meal, keeping only the bones and thighs and feet.  
  3. In a separate blanching pot with cold water, add in as much water to fully cover the chicken and 2 slices of fresh ginger and add in your fresh chicken (there is much debate about whether to blanch in cold or hot water, but I have found it!  Incoming post!).  Use high heat to bring to a full boil.  You’ll begin to see the foam, debris, blood, and bones surface.  Just be careful it doesn’t overboil!
  4. As your blanching water comes to a boil, flash boil your sliced fish maw by dropping them in and fishing them out right away(just to be sure all the impurities are boiled out)
  5. At this point you can set your blanching pot aside and strain
  6. In your soup pot, add a teaspoon of oil and panfry a few slices of ginger with your fresh (or defrosted) abalone on med heat until they are golden brown.
  7. I will also throw in largely cut potatoes at this time and brown them a bit as well.
  8. Add your soup water and turn this on high heat
  9. Then add in the rest of the ingredients:  dried red dates, dried longans, dried sugar dates, dried Chinese Yam (or fresh), and dried scallops.  Cover and continue to boil on high heat for 30 minutes.  Once this is bubbling along nicely, I’ll reduce to a med high boil, still covered. 
  10. Boil for another 1.5 hours.
  11. At this point, you can drop in your prepared fish maw and let that boil for another 30 minutes on med high heat.
  12. Serve and enjoy!
  1. Cruz-López, Honorio et al. “Comparison of collagen characteristic from the skin and swim bladder of Gulf corvina (Cynoscion othonopterus).” Tissue & cell vol. 72 (2021): 101593. doi:10.1016/j.tice.2021.101593

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Fragrant Vegetables in Salmon Soup

Fragrant Vegetables in Salmon Soup

Fragrant Vegetables in Salmon Soup

Soup Name:

Fragrant vegetables in salmon soup (Cantonese-styled)

Traditional Chinese Name:

雜菜蕃茄三文魚湯 (zá cài fānjiā sānwènyú tāng)

Nature:  Slightly cooling

Taste: Sweet and savory

For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

Tomatoes in a fragrant fish broth is a very common soup in the Cantonese soup repertoire.  It is commonly found in household soups and restaurants in Hong Kong.  The vegetables are optional, but do add to the abundance of the soup.  And there are many variations of this soup available as each chef customizes to their creative juices!

You can essentially use any fish for this type of soup.  Generally though, the Chinese will use more commonly found and affordable fish and usually the heads and tails and bones, reserving the flesh for steaming or dishes.

 

TIP!

 

I would recommend using a soup bag for any fish soups, however for this one, salmon bones are quite large and I was lazy and wanted to fry everything in one shot, so opted for not using one.  A soup bag helps keep soup bone safe and allows you to remove the fish easily and keep all the disintegration together.  I’ve bought these ones from Amazon, which are amazing!

What’s involved?

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 2 hours

Total time: 2 hours and 30 mins

Serves: 10 bowls

Ingredients
Cooking Instructions
  1. Let’s start by frying the fish first in some ginger to seal the flavours and get it fragrant (and not fishy).  You can use a shallow pan or your soup pot (that’s what I’m doing in my cast iron pot because I was feeling lazy!).
  2. I’ll wash the fish in warm water first and then pat dry with paper towels.
  3. In your pot or pan on medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of oil (enough to cover the pan) and then gently lay your fish flat so as much surface area of the fish can cook
  4. At this time, I will also make space for the pork shank to fry (instead of blanch in boiling water).  This is also because I was feeling lazy and wanted that fried fragrant flavour!
  5. Fry for 5 minutes or until it begins to golden brown.  It doesn’t need to be fully cooked, but at least the skin is browned. 
  6. Turn the fish on the other side and fry for another 5 minutes.  
  7. You can also rotate the pork shank around as it browns.
  8. At this time, you can prepare your vegetables, cut into smaller pieces.
  9. If you want, you can now put your fish pieces into a soup bag to begin the soup boiling to prevent the bones to disintegrate and for easier removal from the pot.
  10. I will also use the pan or pot to brown some of the potatoes, but this step is optional
  11. Add in the water to the soup, be sure to leave a bit of space to allow for the all ingredients
  12. Then add in all your ingredients to the soup
  13. Cover and bring to a full boil (about 20 minutes on full boil)
  14. And reduce to a low boil for another 2 hours
  15. Serve and enjoy!

This soup is also packed full of collagen!  The fish heads are the key ingredients that really to release all this sticky goodness into the soup.  One of the amazing things of using fish heads is both to not waste any part of the fish and also the amount of amazing collagen that’s available in the soup!

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To answer your questions on what equipment I'm using, I've built a section here where you can find and explore what I'm using to make soups.  Ingredients are a little harder, but I will do my best as I source them around.  However, you can always message me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook, and I will reply and try to point you in some direction!  

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Papaya and Snow Fungus in a Pork Herbal Soup

Papaya and Snow Fungus in a Pork Herbal Soup

Papaya and Snow Fungus in a Pork Herbal Soup

Tea Name:

Papaya and Snow Fungus in a Pork Herbal Soup

Chinese Name: 

木瓜雪耳豬骨湯 (mù gua xuě ěr zhū tāng)

Nature:  Warm and ideal for moisturizing the body and lungs, supporting digestion and soothing the stomach.

Taste:  Sweet

For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

I simply love snow fungus!  And this combination is a beautiful one in that at times, you’ll find this a dessert and other times, a soup!  I know, super strange.  But the combination of papaya + snow fungus can swing both sweet and savory! Which makes it so amazingly diverse!

What makes this combination so amazing?  It’s a combination of nourishing and lubricating the lung, stomach, and spleen with the papaya and the snow fungus.  This soup can soothe and aid in digestion, heal the stomach and stomachaches, and support lung treatment in coughs and dryness.  And of course, the added benefits of the plant collagen that is found in snow fungus (which, by the way can hold 500 times its weight in water!).  Reference this interesting article in the National Library of Medicine regarding snow fungus and its composition of collagen.

This is an easy to make, nutritious soup that is packed full of Vitamin C and beta-carotene. It is deliciously sweet and refreshing and ideal for autumn or winter days. You can use chicken to make it more warm and also add a variety of other ingredients to make it a meal.

Regardless of weather, this soup is designed to be moisturizing (from the inside) and perfect if you’ve got dry skin, dry lips, dry tongue (this is one key indicator from a TCM perspective).  In fact, some Chinese people claim that it’s part of their skin care regime to be consuming foods of this nature.  Bird’s nest is another one of those delicacies that call into this category of “self care”.  And you will often here Chinese ladies (and mothers) tell you how great this recipe is to stay looking “young”!

 

What’s involved?
Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 45 mins

Serves: 8 bowls of soup

Ingredients
Cooking Instructions
  1. Rinse and soak dried snow fungus in a bowl of enough water to immerse it in for about an hour (or until soft)
  2. In a separate pot of boiling water, blanch pork bones for 5 minutes, set aside and cool
  3. Boil your soup water
  4. Wash and cut papaya into large edible cubes
  5. Using scissors, cut out the middle of the snow fungus (the hardest part) and cut the other portions into edibles pieces
  6. When your soup water boils, add in the pork bones, papaya and Chinese herbs.  I made this soup in the morning and set it into the thermal pot for the whole day, coming back to the soup in the afternoon and then dropping in the snow fungus to cook for another 2 hours.  Depending on how soft you want the snow fungus, I’d say at least an hour.
  7. Boil on high for 30 minutes and reduce to medium heat for another hour
  8. Serve and enjoy!
Tips and tricks:

  • Here’s a quick video on how to prepare snow fungus for Chinese soups
  • Be sure to cut out the hard middle, or buy snow fungus that doesn’t have the middle and is broken up
  • I like to use red papaya instead of green papaya for this version (green is more traditionally known to support milk production in post partum Chinese soups)
  • You can opt to keep the skin on the papaya during soup boil so it doesn’t disintegrate and break down into the soup
  • Snow fungus cooks and softens quite quickly.  Depending on how soft you’d like it, you can drop it in about 30 minutes before you serve, although I like it super soft and some of it dissolved into the soup (for that collagen benefit), so I drop it along with all the other ingredients.

 

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Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Soup Name:

Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Traditional Chinese Name:

北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng)

For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor circulation, relieve fatigue, or reduce pain and inflammation.

I call this my Healing Chinese Herbal soup and want give a shout out to Tash from SouperWell for this partnership!  Hi Tash!

What’s involved?
Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 3 hours

Total time: 3 hours and 20 mins

Serves: 4 bowls

Ingredients

     

    Cooking Instructions
    1. You can pre-soak your tangerine peel (to soften) and dried Chinese yam (to wash off any sulphur usually used in the drying process)
    2. Prepare the protein by quartering your chicken
    3. Prepare 2 pots, one is the soup pot (add your 2 L of water) and one pot is for blanching the chicken
    4. Once your blanching pot boils, drop in your chicken and boil on high for 5-7 minutes, allowing the foam, fat, and bones come to the surface
    5. You can turn off your blanching heat and once your soup water boils, transfer the blanched chicken over and let that boil on high
    6. Add in your sliced lotus root and dried ingredients
    7. Cover and boil on high for 30 minutes
    8. Reduce to a low boil for another 3 hours
    9. Salt as needed

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    Learn more about how these types of teas and soups can help improve your overall blood circulation and how you actually know that it's working?

    It's not a perfect science (still working to perfect it), but I'd say the methodology and thinking is sound 🙂

    Would love to hear your thoughts!

     

    EQUIPMENT USED

    To answer your questions on what equipment I'm using, I've built a section here where you can find and explore what I'm using to make soups.  Ingredients are a little harder, but I will do my best as I source them around.  However, you can always message me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook, and I will reply and try to point you in some direction!  

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    A MUST HAVE in the kitchen!  Energy saving, cost effective, and perfect for busy chefs!  Check out my article here that explains it.

    Another MUST HAVE in the kitchen for soups!  It's so fine that it will scoop off the top oil and foam layer when using meats in your soup!

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    FOLLOW US AND SHARE.

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    Ginger, Red Roses, and Red Dates Tea with Honey

    Ginger, Red Roses, and Red Dates Tea with Honey

    Ginger, Red Roses, and Red Dates Tea with Honey

    Tea Name:

    Ginger, Red Roses, and Red Dates Tea with Honey

    Traditional Chinese Name:

    玫瑰姜茶 (méiguī jiāng chá)

    This tea is sweet to taste and warming in nature and dispel wind and cold.

    Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.
    This is currently my go-to-tea post cold run or ride or any moments where I feel I’ve taken in too much cold-wind into my lungs.  This tea is designed to warm the body (and lungs) and dispel dampness.  This is what happens when you have too much yin.  I know this is happening because my run begins to dribble, my hands and feet become cold, and my complexion pales!  All signs of excess yin!
    What’s involved?
    Prep time: 5 mins

    Cook time: 5 mins

    Total time: 10 mins

    Serves: 2 cups of tea

    Ingredients
    Cooking Instructions
    1. Use sliced ginger to allow the flavours to really come out
    2. There are 2 ways you can make this:  Steeped or boiled
    3. If boiling, use a safe pot, add all the ingredients except the honey
    4. Boil on medium high for 2 minutes (or until bubbling) and reduce to a low simmer for another 3 minutes
    5. Set aside and let it cook for 2-3 minutes
    6. Add desired amount of honey, although try it first as the roses and dates are already naturally sweet!
    7. Serve and enjoy!
    Benefits
    • This tea is warming and helps relieve dampness and wind-cold in the body (excess yin)
    • I love how simple and readily accessible these ingredients are
    • Ginger is the key ingredient here to drive out wind and cold, while the other ingredients are also additionally warming
    • You can make this as a steeped tea or boiled 

    Learn more about how these types of teas and soups can help improve your overall blood circulation and how you actually know that it’s working?

    It’s not a perfect science (still working to perfect it), but I’d say the methodology and thinking is sound 🙂

    Would love to hear your thoughts!

     

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    Chinese Herbal Soup with Abalone

    Chinese Herbal Soup with Abalone

    Chinese Herbal Soup with Abalone

    Soup Name:

    Chicken Herbal Soup with Abalone
     

    Traditional Chinese Name:

    鮑魚清雞湯 (bào yú qīng jī tāng)

    This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste.

    Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.

    One of my favourite basic chicken Chinese soups – ever!  And it’s special when I add abalone because it’s delicious to eat as part of the meal and brings a special savory taste to the soup.  You can’t really taste the sea, but it does really accent the soup!  This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste.  I made this soup for my daughters post menstruation and it’s perfect for cold winter days or when you’d like to replenish qi or blood and have excess yin (feeling cold in the limbs, have a pale tongue, pale complexion).  

    I buy my abalone frozen from the local supermarkets.  These are a little smaller ones and are perfect for soups.  To use, you can thaw the night before or soak in cool water.  Remove from the shell gently, ensuring you don’t break any of it and then you can use a knife or your fingers to gently remove the bottom portion (also the stomach and reproduction parts of the abalone).  Be sure to also wash them.  I’ll use a toothbrush because it’s smaller and can get into the crevices of the abalone.  Some people use a brush as well.  You can also do this under running water.

    What’s involved?

    Prep time: 15 mins

    Cook time: 3 hours

    Total time: 3 hours 15 mins

    Serves: 4 bowls of soup

    Ingredients

    Cooking Instructions

    1. Begin to boil a separate pot to blanch your chicken in
    2. Prepare your chicken (I usually remove the legs and wings and quarter it)
    3. Prepare the abalone by removing it from it’s shell and removing its organs
    4. In the blanching pot, pre-boil the chicken and abalone to remove excess debris, blood, bones, and fat.  Once it boils again for 5 minutes, you can remove it from the hot water.  It doesn’t need to be fully cooked as that will happen in the soup.
    5. Begin to boil your soup water
    6. Once your soup water boils, add all the ingredients together
    7. Boil on high for 30 mins and reduce to a low boil for another 2.5 hours
    8. Serve and enjoy!  No salt needed – try it!  This soup is delicious!!

    Benefits

    Precautions

    • This is a warm soup, so not suggested for those who have yin deficiency (too much yang) in their bodies

    Learn more about how these types of teas and soups can help improve your overall blood circulation and how you actually know that it’s working?

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    Would love to hear your thoughts!

     

    EQUIPMENT USED

    To answer your questions on what equipment I'm using, I've built a section here where you can find and explore what I'm using to make soups.  Ingredients are a little harder, but I will do my best as I source them around.  However, you can always message me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook, and I will reply and try to point you in some direction!  

    A great help for fish or small bones in soups, including small ingredients such as barley, fox nuts, spices just to keep everything together.

    A MUST HAVE in the kitchen!  Energy saving, cost effective, and perfect for busy chefs!  Check out my article here that explains it.

    Another MUST HAVE in the kitchen for soups!  It's so fine that it will scoop off the top oil and foam layer when using meats in your soup!

    I use these types of stove top safe tea pots to make most of my herbal teas!

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