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)

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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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    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.

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    What’s involved?
    Prep time: 5 mins

    Cook time: 5 mins

    Total time: 10 mins

    Serves: 2 cups of tea

    Ingredients
    • 3-4 slices of fresh ginger
    • 6-7 dried rose buds
    • 5-6 dried red dates
    • 1 tablespoon of honey
    • 2.5 cups of water
    • Optional:  2 slices of dried tangerine peels
    Cooking Instructions
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    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 

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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)

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    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

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    Traditional Chinese Herbal Soup (as a Hot Pot Base)

    Traditional Chinese Herbal Soup (as a Hot Pot Base)

    Traditional Chinese Herbal Soup (as a Hot Pot Base)

    Soup Name:

    Traditional Chinese Herbal Soup

    Traditional Chinese Name:

    藥膳雞煲 (yàoshàn jī bāo)

    This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste.

     

    For videos, visit us on YouTube.

    This soup has a very distinctive smell and taste of a Chinese medicinal shop.  It’s definitely a love or hate initially, but can be acquired.  The key ingredient is the “dong quai” or “angelica root” that creates that fragrant (debatable?) scent.  I’ve learned to love it after so many years of being in Hong Kong and once you taste the soup, wow!

    This soup is the ultimate warming winter hot pot delight.  You literally feel yourself getting hot and sweaty after one bowl.  It’s literally a powerful tonic that replenishes blood and Qi, improves circulation, and detoxifies the body.

     

    What’s involved?
    Prep time: 30 mins

    Cook time: 2 hours 40 mins

    Total time: 3 hours 10 mins

    Serves: 6 bowls

    Ingredients
    Soup base:

    Hot pot ingredients:

     

    • fresh napa cabbage
    • assorted mushrooms
    • fresh hard tofu
    This powerhouse healing ingredient is the key ingredient to your Chinese herbal soup!  The dong quai is warm, slightly sweet and slightly bitter, and a common herb used to promote warmth, replenish blood, and replenish yang.  This is why it’s such a common ingredient used in post partum and confinement recipes.  It’s also commonly used in healing tonics.

    I will only use this ingredient for this type of herbal soup as it’s got a very distinct pungent scent and taste.  When combined with sweeter ingredients such as red dates and goji berries, it’s really quite delicious!

     

    Cooking Instructions
    1. Add your dried herbal base directly into a pot and add in 3L of cold water
    2. Cover and boil on high heat for 30 minutes.
    3. Cut your chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces
    4. In a shallow pan, put them skin side down to render the fat out of the chicken and crisp up the skin (no oil needed!)
    5. Add salt and garlic to flavour as needed
    6. Once the soup is boiled for 30 minutes, you can move your crispy chicken to the soup.  I will usually rinse in warm water first to get rid of the extra oil, bone bits, and debris
    7. Cover and boil on medium for 2 hours (checking that it doesn’t boil over)
    8. At this point your soup is done!  You can drink as is or prepare to add your hot pot ingredients
    9. Prepare your hot pot ingredients an add to your soup
    10. Boil on high for 10 minutes
    11. Serve and enjoy!
    12. Drink your soup first with some of the ingredients added.  I won’t even begin the hot pot yet and just enjoy a soup as is!
    Chef tips!
    • For your protein, use chicken (or pork).  This compliments the herbal base very well versus pork or red meats.
    • For your hotpot ingredients, use less intense flavor ingredients and ones that will absorb more the flavours of the soup such as leafy light coloured vegetables like napa cabbage or regular cabbage versus choy sum or gailan.  Tofu is a great additive as well and fresh mushrooms work well.
    • You can add udon or vermicelli as part of your meal
    • If you’re going to cook other meats or seafood, save that for the end as it will change the flavour of the herbal soup

    For videos, visit us on YouTube.

    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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    Basic Chicken Soup (Base)

    Basic Chicken Soup (Base)

    Basic Chicken Soup (Base)

    Soup Name

    Basic Chinese Chicken Soup Stock (Soup Base)

    Traditional Chinese Name:  

    清雞湯 (qīng jī tāng)

     

    Here is another version of the basic chicken soup.  I’ll make this so that it can serve as a base for noodles, macaroni, with rice, or for double-boiling soups.  You can mix and match the types of vegetables to bring out the types of flavours you like, but I will usually always use some chicken bones, legs, or carcass along with dried scallops (these are almost a must for the stock soup!).   

    The benefits:

    • Perfect for any soup base. You can simply add your favourite vegetables or even Chinese herbs.
    • This soup is perfect for cooler days as it’s slightly warming
    • Perfect for confinement, postpartum, and post period
    • Ideal for the whole family, including children
    • These ingredients are readily available in most Chinese supermarkets around the world, all you need is just a chicken!
    • Be sure to to consult your (Chinese) doctor first if you’re unsure of consumption or suitability
    • You can store this soup base in a plastic container (or jar with a wide mouth so it’s easier to use back later) for up to 6 months in the freezer
    • I’ve used this as a soup base for both noodles soups and even hotpot!  It’s very versatile in what you can do with it!

    What’s involved?

    Prep time: 30 mins

    Cook time: 3 hours

    Total time: 3 hours 30 mins

    Serves: 8 bowls 

    Ingredients

    Cooking Instructions

    1. Begin to boil a separate pot for blanching the meat
    2. Soak the dried conpoys and dried shiitake mushrooms in warm water for 10 minutes, the mushrooms may need longer, until they are soft, but since it’s for the soup base, it’s ok if they are still a bit hard.
    3. You can also begin to boil your soup water
    4. When your blanching water boils, add in the chicken bones and boil on high heat for 5 minutes. Make sure the water is boiling and you should see residue, fat, grim, and even foam come to the surface.
    5. In the meantime, you can prepare all your vegetable ingredients for the base.  I will cut the onion in half, keeping on the stem so it stays intact and cut the carrots and corn into large pieces so I can easily remove them from the pot.
    6. Once your soup water boils, remove the meat from the blanching pot and shake off any excess and slowly lower into your soup water
    7. Add in dried conpoys, dried mushrooms, and all the vegetables into the pot
    8. Boil on medium heat for 30 minutes
    9. Reduce heat to the lowest and cover and let it simmer like that for another 2-3 hours (or use a thermal pot). The soup should now be a rich, golden color after boiling for so long. Be sure to scoop out any oil, fat bits, or skin from the top with an oil scooper.
    10. And you can also remove all the ingredients with a strainer so that you’re left with a beautiful soup base which you can use for other soups or dishes!

    For video on “7 Basic Chinese Soup Pantry Ingredients”, visit us on YouTube.

    Here are some examples of other soups using a chicken soup base:

    The chicken soup base is a great soup to start with for so many dishes and soups!  Here are a few to get you started!

    This is a great and very simple chicken soup that I use as a base.  My kids love drinking this as plain chicken soup.  

      Using this chicken soup base for shabu shabu is the perfect solution to start your hot pot adventures! 

        This soup is using the base chicken soup recipe that is perfect for double-boiling.  For example, the only additional ingredient added here is the ginseng on top of the soup base.

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