Soup Name: Monkey Head Mushroom with Chinese Yam in Pork Broth
Chinese Name: 猴頭菇豬湯 (hóu tóu gū zhū tāng)
Introduction:
Fresh monkey head mushrooms are a seasonal buy so you can imagine that when they are available, the veggie vendors all recommend this product. It is an extremely versatile product in that you can use it with a variety of vegetables, meats and additives. It is commonly found as a dried product for soup usage as well. This soup was made to help address cough and bugs in the family during the winter season. You can use a chicken soup base if you’d like it warmer, but I went with a pork base and threw in a good piece of dried tangerine peel to help with the cough. This soup is quite tasty, mildly sweet and savory, easy on the stomach, and perfect for the whole family!
In a separate smaller pot, boil some water and when the water boils, blanch your pork
Rinse all the herbs in warm water and set aside
Separately, use a small sharp-edged knife to scrape the dark (outer) side of the dried tangerine peel. This will help reduce the bitterness somewhat of the peel, but this is completely up to you on how pungent of a taste you’d like in the soup!
Wash and cut the corn
Using gloves, wash, peel, and cut the fresh Chinese Yam. You’ll need gloves because they tend to make your hands itchy if you touch them with bare hands.
When your soup water boils, add all the ingredients together
Boil on high heat for 30 minutes and reduce to a simmer for another 2.5 hours
Serve and enjoy!
Any benefits?
Excellent soup for the lungs to help relieve cough
Helps moisten the lungs and throat
This soup is said to help strengthen the lungs
Any precautions?
Mushrooms can irritate people with gout conditions, so take precaution when consuming
Be sure to buy dried mushrooms from a reputable source
Ginseng is optional as too much can actually be too cooling
My mother-in-law made this soup one day and it was so simply brilliant, that I tried it myself. I am a fan of boiled peanuts and papaya is a neutrally healthy fruit to add to soups. You can use either unripe red papayas or green papayas. The red papayas are definitely sweeter, but you need to use the unripe ones so they don’t disintegrate too badly in the soup. The green papayas aren’t as sweet, but have a lingering sweet taste that’s quite delicious in itself. I loaded in the peanuts and eat them as a meal – yum!
Soup Name: Papaya and Peanuts in Pork Broth
Traditional Chinese Name: 木瓜花生豬骨湯 (mù gua huā shēng zhū gǔ tāng)
Papaya and Peanuts in Pork Broth
Recipe Type: Soup
Cuisine: Chinese
Author: LadyTong
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Ingredients
100g raw [url href=”http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/peanuts/”]peanuts[/url]
2 raw [url href=”http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/papaya/”]green papayas[/url]
1 pound of fresh [url href=”http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/pork-shank/”]pork shank[/url]
10 large [url href=”http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/large-dried-dates/”]dried dates[/url]
2 L of water
Instructions
Start boiling your soup water in a large pot (thermal ideal)
In a smaller pot, bring enough water to cover the pork shank to a boil and blanch the pork for 5 minutes in the boiling water, remove when done
Cut the papayas into large cubes
When your soup water boils, add all the ingredients together
Boil on medium heat for 30 minutes (ensuring a constant boil)
Reduce heat to a low boil for another 1 hour (or place into thermal pot)
This interesting soup is mainly composed of round stuff (little nibbles of things) like nuts and beans. This soups excellent for “brain” and “memory” development (so says my herbalist) and great for kids. This soup does need something to punch up the taste because without additional veggies, it really does taste a bit bland and nutty, so I threw in a pumpkin (which still didn’t make it sweet enough, so maybe throw in some carrots and corn too). Next time.
Soup Name: Snow Pears, Chayotes and Seabed Coconut in Pork Broth
Traditional Chinese Name: 雪梨合掌瓜湯 (xuě lí hup jeung gwa tāng)
Introduction: A mildly cooling soup that helps relieve heatiness, assist in cough and is naturally sweet. It’s great for kids, easy to make and contains all natural ingredients. You can use chicken meat with this instead of pork bones (or pork shank). If you can’t get fresh (or frozen) seabed coconut, the dried version is sufficient (although not as sweet, so you can substitute additional snow pears).
Soup Name: Bok Choy with Chinese Ham in Pork Broth
Traditional Chinese Name: 菜乾火腿湯 (cài gān huǒ tuǐ tāng)
Introduction:
One of the best smelling Chinese soups I have ever made. It is deliciously sweet and extremely beneficial to the lungs with it’s perfect combination of Chinese herbs that target to moisturize, heal, cleanse the lungs. The dried bok choy and preserved Chinese ham are a great and common Cantonese combination for soups.
