Hong Kong Styled Russian Borscht Soup

Hong Kong Styled Russian Borscht Soup

by | Dec 1, 2023 | Fall Soups, Featured, Featured Articles, Headline, Soups for Children, Spring Soups, Summer Soups, Videos, Winter Soups | 0 comments

Hong Kong Styled Russian Borscht Soup

Soup Name:

Hong Kong Styled Russian Borscht (with oxtail)

Traditional Chinese Name:

羅宋湯 (luó sòng tāng)

Nature:  Warming

Taste: Savory, sweet, and slightly sour

For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

 

Did you know the secret ingredient to an HK-styled Russian Borscht is Worcestershire sauce (and some lemon juice)?

Falling off the bone oxtail?

Soft delicious veggies?

Savory and a hint of tart delicious broth?

Yes, the Hong Kong Styled Russian Borscht is a classically adopted fusion soup that is very different and uniquely different to the traditional European borscht (no beetroots or cream).  Instead, it’s a tomato based beef broth and a range of choice vegetables diced small. 

I love the subtle tart flavours of the soup, but yet incredibly savory and hearty.  This soup indeed eats like a meal!

What’s involved?

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 120 minutes 

Total time: 150 mins

Serves: 8 bowls

Ingredients

  • 1 full oxtail
  • Optional pieces of beef flank
  • 3 potatoes, peeled and largely cubed
  • 2 carrots, peeled and largely cubed
  • 2 celery stalks, peeled and largely cubed2 tomatoes, quartered
  • 1 onion, halved
  • 6 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 head of cabbage, slicked thin
  • 3 dried dates
  • Fresh green onions

Flavouring

  • 1 small can of tomato paste
  • 1 lemon
  • 5 dried bay leaves
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • 2 tablespoons or Worcestershire sauce
  • 11-12 cups of water
  • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

Cooking Instructions

  1. In your soup pot, with a bit of oil on med heat, pan fry the garlic cloves and oxtails until golden brown and fragrant (they smell so good!).  I don’t blanch and will do this instead.
  2. Add the cubed beef flanks and potatoes, allowing them to also brown nicely
  3. Add in your soup water, about 11-12 cups of water and turn on high heat
  4. I will then drop in my vegetables, tomatoes, celery, onion, carrots, and the dried dates
  5. Cover and let it come to a full boil, then reduce to med heat for another 1.5 hours
  6. Here you can now add in the flavouring of the soup (this is what really makes it distinct as a the HK-styled Russian Borscht)
  7. I will also throw in the cabbage
  8. Cover and let that simmer for another 30 minutes
  9. Garnish with fresh green onions, serve, and enjoy!

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Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

by | Nov 19, 2023 | Confinement Soups, Featured, Featured Articles, Headline, NEW 7, Postpartum Soups, Soups for Children, Winter Soups | 0 comments

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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Warming Chicken and Coconut Herbal (Healing) Chinese Soup

Warming Chicken and Coconut Herbal (Healing) Chinese Soup

by | Oct 13, 2023 | Fall Soups, Featured, Featured Articles, Headline, NEW 3, Soups for Children, Winter Soups | 0 comments

Warming Chicken and Coconut Herbal (Healing) Chinese Soup

Soup Name:

Warming chicken and coconut herbal (and healing) Chinese soup

Traditional Chinese Name:

椰子雞湯 (yē zi jī tāng)

Nature:  Warming

Taste: Slightly sweet and savory

For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

Oh!  This soup!  It delivered – and more!!

Warm with intense flavours of rich coconut and savory chicken, it really hits the spot when it’s cool (or cold) and you just want a warm blanket to hug you.

I made a rather large pot in the morning and grazed on it all day.  As it continued to sit in its own broth and stew away, the soup became more and more intense and became a rich, earthy tone at dinner.  You can tell this by the colour of the broth.  SUCCESS!

3 key things for this soup:

  • Don’t drink the coconut water!  Save it for the soup!
  • Use the smaller round coconuts  (brown fruit) instead of the traditional larger coconuts.  Their flesh is sweeter and so is the coconut water.
  • Pan fry the chicken thighs (rather than blanch) to give it a savory, toasted flavour to the soup. 
What’s involved?

Prep time: 45 mins

Cook time: min 2 hours

Total time: 2 hours 45 mins

Serves: 6 large bowls

Ingredients
    Cooking Instructions
    1. Prepare your coconut.  This means, poking holes at the top, drain the coconut water in a separate bowl.  Using a hammer, just smash smash smash the coconut to shreds.  Remove the outer shell from the coconut meat and cut into 2×2 inch pieces.
    2. Cut your chicken thighs into 3 pieces and in your soup pot (or a shallow pan), pan fry on medium heat until the skin and edges are crispy.
    3. Add in your water to your soup pot and set it on high until it completely boils
    4. Cut your cut into quarters and drop into the soup
    5. Drop in all the Chinese herbs
    6. Pour in the reserved coconut water
    7. Cover and boil for 20 minutes and then reduce boil to a medium simmer for another 1 hour and 40 minutes
    8. Taste, salt as needed, serve and enjoy!

    What I love about soup is that it doesn’t go from clear water to broth in the snap of a finger.  At what point does it make this transition?  Fascinating.

    Do you see how deep, dark, and rich that broth looks?

    The best thing about this soup post making is that you can eat it all!  The chicken thigh is falling off the bone, tender, and tastes like coconut.  I don’t even need to dip it in soy sauce like I do with pork shank.  The corn is bulbous and some of them are filled with soup.  I don’t even need to butter it!  And the coconut meat is soft, flaky and rich.  You can really taste the coconut flavours.  This soup was super nice.  I’ll need to make another batch.  The only downfall is that preparing a coconut is like going to battle – me vs the coconut.

    Here are some tips on using fresh coconut in Chinese soups! 

    • Reserve the coconut water (where possible!).  It’s delicious, sweet, and adds an amazing fragrance to the soup!  I ended up drinking one because I had 2.  LOL.
    • Use a hammer to smash it open.  I’ve seen people do it with a butcher’s knife (back side), but hammer works!  
    • Put a towel to absorb the impact of the smash underneath the coconut.
    • You can use a butter knife to cut out the flesh if it sticks to the shell.
    • Rinse the freed coconut flesh under water to remove debris, shell, dirt before adding to your soup.
    • Boil for at least 1 hour to soften slight, but coconut meat doesn’t really become that soft.  It’ll stay slightly crunchy and textured.
    • Don’t overcomplicate the soup with a lot of ingredients to allow the highlight of the soup (the coconut) to shine!

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    Warming Chinese herbal tea for cold days (post run hydration)

    Warming Chinese herbal tea for cold days (post run hydration)

    by | Sep 11, 2023 | Fall Soups, Featured, Featured Articles, Headline, Speciality Teas, Winter Soups | 0 comments

    Warming Chinese herbal tea for cold days (post run hydration)

    Tea Name:

    Warming red dates, longans, and red and black wolfberries Chinese herbal tea (which I use for post cold day runs).  In fact, I also add this into a thermal flask for the car post colder rides (which is like mid September in Toronto!).  Where’s Hong Kong weather?

    Traditional Chinese Name:

    红枣茶 (hóng zǎo chá)

    Nature:  Warming

    Taste: Sweet

    For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

    OK, honestly, I really feel the temperature variance in my lungs when it hits 13C or lower in Toronto.

    This means, I’m already going into yin excess (too much yin in the body thanks to both cold and wind into the lungs first… and then ultimately, if I don’t address it, it goes into the body).

    I think if it goes any lower in temperature, I’m taking out the base layers, the face buffs, the gloves, and ultimately, the thicker wear.

    Here’s my post cold run routine:

    1. Slow down the pace. The slower the air turnover, the less yin I bring into the body. This means running in zone 2 or slower. Save the intervals for the indoor treadmill or the bike trainer (also indoors).
      2. I will also carry warm water with me to sip in a small plastic holder.
      3. As soon as I’m home, I’ll make this herbal tea with boiling water.
      4. Take a hot shower and spend 5 extra minutes to breathe in warm steam to the lungs.
      5. Sip on my tea all day (adding boiling water to it 2-3 times until it runs flavorless).

    You can check this article that explains the balance of yin and yang in the body, AN INTRODUCTION TO YIN AND YANG IN OUR EVERYDAY SOUPS AND FOOD. 

    The tea is primarily warmed by the red dates and longans, offering a sweet yang enhancing experience that is delicious and soothing.  This is one of my favourite and easiest teas to make from your Chinese Soup Pantry!

    However, I love adding both the red and black goji berries to give it a little more sweetness and that tartness.  Goji berries are perfect for yin excess conditions (avoid if you’ve got patterns of excess heat) and are great for the eyes, liver, and kidneys.

    For those interested in the tea cup with infuser and lid, you can find it here through this link.

    Some or all of these links may contain Amazon product referral links; as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. If you decide to use them, I would be grateful. If not, I am always thankful for your continued support! ❤️❤️❤️

     

     

     

    What’s involved?

     Prep time: 2 mins

    Cook time: 3 mins (steep time)

    Total time: 5 mins

    Serves: 1 cup

    Ingredients
      Cooking Instructions
      1. You can put all the ingredients into an individual empty tea bag for easier management of the ingredients
      2. Drop all the ingredients into a ceramic or glass mug
      3. Add in boiling water to 1 cup full
      4. Cover and steep for 2 minutes
      5. No additional sweeteners needed for this tea!
      6. Serve and enjoy!
      Any benefits?
      • This Chinese herbal tea is warming and soothing
      • This tea tonifies and nourishes the blood and both red dates and longans calm the spirit, so this tea is perfect for taking some moments to yourself
      • Great for traveling, on the go, or in the office
      • Super easy to make

      For videos, visit us on YouTube.

      You can actually make these little tea bags or pouches yourself!  The ingredients are all part of my standard Chinese Soup kitchen pantry and then I use disposable and decomposable tea bags!

      Use disposable, environmentally friendly, degradable tea bags!

      There are various individual tea bags you can find out there!

      The two I’ve been using are these Japanese ones (sourced from Hong Kong) that fold over.  I’m not sure if they are degradable completely, but finishing up a batch I took back with me.

      I would recommend these disposable and environmentally friendly tea bags from amazon.  I also bought some and now have a pile of tea bag holders sitting in my drawer!  But I do love how convenient they are and will pre-make my own tea bags to bring to work or pre-fill in my thermal mug for drinking on the go!

      CHECK OUT OTHER SIMILAR RED DATES TEAS

      Ginger, Red Roses, and Red Dates Tea with Honey

      Wood Ear & Red Dates Tea

      Red Dates Hawthorn Tea

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      Papaya and Snow Fungus in a Pork Herbal Soup

      Papaya and Snow Fungus in a Pork Herbal Soup

      by | May 10, 2023 | Confinement Soups, Fall Soups, NEW 5, Soups for Children, Winter Soups | 0 comments

      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 gǔ 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.

       

      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!  

      Soup bag (fish bag, mesh bag)

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

      Thermal induction soup pot

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

      Fine mesh oil scooper

      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!

      Stove top safe tea pot (for herbal teas)

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

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      Korean dashi soup (base) for making any soups!

      Korean dashi soup (base) for making any soups!

      by | Apr 25, 2023 | Fall Soups, Featured, Featured Articles, Headline, Soups for Children, Winter Soups | 0 comments

      Korean dashi soup (base) for making any soups!

      Tea Name:

      Korean dashi soup (base) 

      Nature:  Cool

      Taste:  Sweet, Salty

      For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

      I learned this from a Korean Auntie that I have in Toronto, which has a huge and beautiful Korean community in the area I live in.  And even if you go to the Korean supermarkets nearby, you’ll find a lot of these aunties combing the fresh goodies and meats and ask them!!  The knowledge in there is amazing!

      I actually learned this because I wanted to learn how to make a Tofu Kimchi soup and Koreans will start with a soup base first and then span out to the various types of Korean soups available such as: spicy beef soup with vegetables, any kimchi soup, kimchi tofu soup, any tofu soups, rice soup cake, and more!

       

      There are also a few variations of this Korean dashi, but the key really is the anchovies and seaweed.  Some will add fresh onions, fresh white radish, fresh garlic, fresh scallions, or fresh ginger or dried shiitake mushrooms.  Dashi is actually a Japanese name for soup broth and is also recognized in Korean cuisine as dashi.  It’s so commonplace that it’s the equivalent to chicken broth in powdered and canned form.  You can also buy dashi in both prepared powdered and liquid form so you don’t have to prepare it yourself and have readily available soup at your disposal!

      What’s involved?

      Prep time: 10 mins

      Cook time: 30 mins

      Total time: 40 mins

      Serves: 10 bowls of dashi (soup broth)

      Ingredients
      • 5 L of fresh water
      • 25-30 dried anchovies, heads removed
      • 1 large sheet of dried kelp 
      • half fresh white radish, with skin peeled and thinly sliced
      • optional, 2-3 fresh slices of ginger (which can help remove some of the fishy flavours and scents from the soups – this is a Chinese trick that we use for fish soups, too!)

         

        Cooking Instructions
        1. Remove the heads from your dried anchovies and put them into your soup pot.  No washing or cleaning is needed, just simply remove from the bag.
        2. Remove the dried seaweed sheet from the packaging and snap into pieces to fit into the pot and put into the pot
        3. Peel your white radish (enough to remove all the skin if you plan to eat it, as the skin can be quite tough and unpleasant to eat) and slice into 1 cm thick slices (or any thickness you’d like)
        4. Put everything into your soup pot
        5. Add in the water
        6. Boil on high for 10 minutes, covered
        7. Reduce boil to another 20 minutes
        8. Strain all the ingredients, separating the liquid from the soup goodies 
        9. This strained soup is your dashi!  You can use directly as is into your soup of choice or put into mason jars and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.

        I made this kimchi and soft tofu soup served on rice for dinner after making my dashi and it was amazing! 

        There are so many soups now that you can extend from your dashi soup base, changing up the protein or vegetables or spice levels!

        The great thing with the dashi is that I made a small pot of this kimchi and soft tofu soup for 1 person (using this super cute ceramic pot) and customized the level of spicy, kimchi, and other ingredients.  So I basically made 3 of these little portions for the family to pick and choose from!

        For example, the kids didn’t want that much spice or cabbage, so I added some bak choy (OK, my Chinese fusion again), slice sausages, and some instant noodles!  You can totally get creative with these little pots!! 

         

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