Pork Tongue Soup with Lettuce

Purpose:

To improve spleen and enhance appetite; to clear heat and remove stagnancy; to pacify liver and lower blood pressure; to remove obstruction in the intestines, and reduce eruption of hemorrhoid.  This soup can be used as food therapy for many problems due to deprivation of sleep or eating too much oil fried or fatty food: red eyes, excessive sleep, headache, excessive phlegm, uncomfortable stomach and intestines, abnormal bowel movement, or bad breath.     

Material:

Pork tongue （猪舌）                               1 piece

Lettuce （生菜）                                      500 g

Fresh ginger （姜）                                   10 g

Salt                                                         some

Note:

Pork tongues are available from Chinese grocery stores.  The mossy layer on the tongue surface needs to be removed before the tongue is cut into slices for cooking.  Lettuce is cooked enough when water starts to boil - do not overcook it.

Procedure:

a.     Rinse clean ginger and lettuce.  Skin ginger and cut to slices.  Cut lettuce leaves to abut 3-4 inches pieces.

b.     Heat enough water to cover the pork tongue.  Put in the tongue when water starts to boil.  Let remain for 5 minutes.  Pour away hot water.  Rinse the tongue with cold water.  The mossy layer on the tongue now turns into a white visible layer.  Scrape the white layer away.  Rinse and cut the tongue into slices of about 1 to 1.5 inches long and about 0.5 cm thick. 

c.     Put the pork tongue and ginger slices into a pot.  Add about 6 cups of water.  Bring to boil with high heat.  Reduce to low heat and cook for about 2 hours.  

d.     Bring the heating back to high.  Add lettuce, and wait until boil.  Add salt to taste.  Ready to serve.

        

Comment:

This is a delicious soup that is simple to prepare.  After cooking, the soup is slightly milky and has a light yellow color; the tongue slices are pink, while the lettuce leaves are light green.  The combination gives the soup a pleasing look, in addition to a clean and fresh smell of a lettuce soup.  The lettuce leaves are crunchy and tasty.  The tongue has a taste of ham; it is as soft, but less fibrous. I highly recommend this soup for its low cost, good taste, and many benefits.

Lettuce （生菜）

Pork tongue （猪舌）

Pork Bone Soup with Carrots and Red Dates

Purpose:

To improve spleen and benefit stomach.  To stimulate fluids and lubricate dryness.  To nourish blood and strengthen the body.  This soup can be used as food therapy for patients of leukemia with symptoms of low fever, night sweat, dizziness and blurry eyes, dry mouth and sore throat, tiredness and irritability.     

Material:

Pork bones for soup （煲汤骨）                    600 g
Carrots （胡萝卜）                                        500 g 
Dried red dates （红枣）                                10 
Salt                                                              some
          

Note:

Pork bones for soups are available from Chinese grocery stores.  These are bones (neck bones, shoulder bones, or spinal cords) with plenty of meat still attached.  You can ask the butcher to cut them into about 2 to 3 inches pieces if it is not already done.  Check to see if other grocery stores have this kind of pork bones, as I am not quite aware of them.  The bones need to be boiled first in order to remove white foam and scum.  Dried red dates are quite common in Chinese cooking and are available in almost all Chinese grocery stores.

Procedure:

a.   Rinse to clean dried red dates. Skin the carrots and cut to about 1 inch pieces.

b.   Boil about 8 cups of water.  Add pork bones and boil for about 5 minutes.  Remove and rinse clean the bones.  Pour away the water.  Boil another 9-10 cups of water with high heat.  Add bones, carrots, and dates.  

c.   Bring to boil and then reduce to low heat and let simmer for about 3 hours. 

d.   Add some salt to taste.  Ready to serve. 

        

Comment:

This is a tasty pork bone soup with an amber color and a lightly sweet taste.  The meat is ready to fall off the bones after cooking.  Carrots are very soft and almost melting in the mouth.  You can eat the soup right after cooking, or keep it in the refrigerator and eat later.  If you need to reduce fat intake, remember to leave the soup in the refrigerator for a few hours, and then take it out and see if there is any solid fat that can be removed from the top layer.  From my experience, these bones are usually quite lean, and there is little fat to be removed.  Microwave to warm up before serving.  Meat and bone soups always taste better when they are hot.

Carrots （胡萝卜）

Pork bones for soup （煲汤骨）

Dried red dates （红枣）

Tilapia Soup with Sharen

Purpose:

To expel wet, enhance appetite and stop vomiting.  

Material:

Tilapia （鲫鱼）                                      500 g

Sharen （砂仁）                                      8 g

Fresh ginger （姜）                                 20 g
Cooking oil                                           1.5 tbs     

Green onion （葱）                                 some
Salt                                                       some

Note:

Use whole tilapia - better freshly killed and cleaned; cut into three segments: head, tail, and center.  Fresh tilapia can be purchased from Chinese grocery stores.  If you do not have access to one, you might want to find substitutes.  Some supermarkets do supply daily fresh tilapia filets.  Whole dried sharen fruits (not powder) can be obtained from Chinese herb shops.  Sharen are aromatic fruits produced in Guangdong and Hainan of China, as well as in countries of south east Asia.  The fruits from Guangdong have better medicinal effects.

Procedure:

a.     Rinse clean ginger and sharen.  Skin ginger and cut to slices.  Clean green onion and cut to small pieces.

b.     Add cooking oil to a pot, and slightly fry each side of the tilapia segments.  (You can use less oil or skip frying altogether if you need to watch out for oil intake.)  Insert sharen fruits into the abdominal cavity of the fish.  Add ginger to the pot.

c.     Add about 6 cups of water to the pot.  Bring to boil with high heat.  Reduce to low heat and cook for another 15 minutes.  Flip the fish segments once or twice during cooking.

d.     Sprinkle green onion into the soup.  Boil for 1 min.  Add salt to flavor.  Ready to serve.

        

Comment:

This is delicious soup that is simple and quick to prepare.  After cooking, the soup has a slightly milky color and the tilapia has a delicate texture and flavor.  A fish soup always tastes better when it is hot. 

Sharen （砂仁）

Tilapia (鲫鱼)

Pork Rib Soup with Shanyao and Honey Dates

Purpose:

To improve lungs and benefit qi.  To enhance spleen and strengthen stomach.  To nourish kidney and fortify essence.  To improve yin and benefit marrow.     

Material:

Pork ribs (back or country)                           400 g
Shanyao （山药）                                           50 g 
Honey dates （蜜枣）                                     6 
Salt                                                               some
          

Note:

Baby ribs or country ribs are both good for this soup.  The ribs need to be boiled first in order to remove the white foam and scum before adding shanyao and honey dates.  Use dried shanyao for this soup.  Both shanyao and honey dates are quite common in Chinese cooking, so they are available in most Chinese grocery stores.  However, you might want to obtain shanyao from a Chinese herb shop if you want the full therapeutic benefit.  The therapeutic effects of many herbs depend on the locality from where they are gathered.  This is also true for shanyao (refer to a previous post).  Honey dates are made of large green dates that are cut by a machine with a metal comb so that there are many fine lines nicely spaced on the surface.  The cut dates are then cooked with sugar, followed by honey or malt, and then sun-dried or oven-dried until white frost appears on the surface.

Procedure:

a.   Rinse to clean shanyao and honey dates. Cut ribs into about 1 inch pieces.

b.   Boil about 8 cups of water with pork ribs.  When the water starts to boil, use strainer(s) to remove white foam and scum.  After the soup becomes clear, add shanyao and honey dates.  

c.   Bring to boil and then let simmer for about 3 hours. 

d.   Add some salt to taste.  Ready to serve. 

        

Comment:

This is a tasty pork rib soup with an amber color and a sweet twist.  The meat is ready to fall off the bones after cooking.  Both the meat and shaoyao taste great.  You can eat the soup right after cooking, or keep it in the refrigerator and eat later.  If you need to reduce fat intake, remember to leave the soup in the refrigerator for a few hours, and then take it out and remove the top layer of solid fat while it is still cold.  Microwave to warm up before serving.  Meat soups always taste better when they are hot.  With its sweat taste, this one is also good to serve as a snack soup.

 

Honey dates (蜜枣）

Shaoyao （山药）

 


 

Pork ribs ready to cook （排骨）

Shrimp Soup with Sea Cucumber

Purpose:

To warm the kidney and raise yang； to benefit essence and nourish blood.

Material:

Shrimp (peeled and deveined)                       150 g

sea cucumber (cleaned)                                150 g

Ginger                                                         10 g
Cooking oil                                                  some     

Green onion                                                 some         

Note:

Refer to a previous post for notes on shrimps.  Sea cucumbers are available in dried or frozen forms.  Frozen sea cucumbers are what I prefer to use; they are usually available from Chinese grocers.  They need to be cleaned of insides (the digestion track).  Dried sea cucumbers are available from Chinese nutrition supplement stores; they need to be soaked before use.  They are usually cleaned of insides already.  

Procedure:

a.   Behead, peel and devein shrimps.  Desalt shrimps if you use the peeled and deveined raw shrimps from supermarkets.  Defreeze, clean, and cut sea cucumbers into shreds (one inch long and 1/4 inch thick).  Skin and cut fresh ginger to thin shreds.  Clean and cut green onion to small pieces. 

b.   Add cooking oil to a pot.  Add about 5-6 cups of water.  Bring to boil with high heat.  Add sea cucumbers.  Bring to boil.  Reduce to low heat and cook for about 1 hour.  At this point, most of the sea cucumbers have disintegrated into small gelly pieces.  Add ginger shreds and cook for about 15 minutes.  Then, add shrimps.  Cook at high heat and boil for about 5 minutes.  

c.   Add green onion and cooked for about one minute.

d.   Add salt to taste.  Ready to serve.

        

Comment:

The amount of water for the soup can be more or less, depending on how much liquid you like to have.  At the end of cooking, what you have is shrimps in a creamy soup of almost completely liquified sea cucumbers.  The soup tastes delicious when you serve right after cooking or after being stored in the refrigerator.  Microwave to warm up before serving.  Remember shrimps taste better if they are not overcooked.  Kidney in traditional Chinese medicine implies not just the organ, but also the vitality of the body and the reproductive system.  So, this soup is able to enhance functions of the reproductive system. 

Shrimps （虾）

Sea cucumbers （海参）

Pork Rib Soup with Peanuts and Tangerine Peels

Purpose:

To strengthen spleen and enhance appetite.  To nourish blood and stop bleeding.  To prevent hemophilia and bleeding problems.  This soup can be used as food therapy for patients who feel a general weakness and low spirit, patients with swollen feet, weak feet and legs, patients with vitamin B1 deficiency symptoms, and patients with diseases such as thrombocytopenic purpura and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasis.     

Material:

Pork ribs (back or country)                           600 g
Peanuts （花生）                                            200 g 
Dried tangerine peel                                       10 g (about 1 peel of 1 tangerine)
Salt                                                               some
          

Note:

Baby ribs or country ribs are both good for this soup.  The ribs need to be boiled first in order to remove the white foam and scum before adding peanuts and tangerine peels.  Tangerine peels (not orange peels) should be available from some specialty stores for spices or Chinese grocery stores.  You can prepare your own dried tangerine peel by sun-drying or air-drying the tangerine peel after you have eaten the fruit.  Collect them in an air-tight jar. Peanuts with skins are to be used for full therapeutic effects.  If you just want the good taste of the soup, you can use peanuts without skins.  Fresh peanuts sometimes are available from grocery stores, but they are usually more expensive and take more time to remove the shells.  Peanuts taste best in soup when they are cooked enough to become loose and soft, so expect to cook for about 3 hours.

Procedure:

a.   Soak to soften tangerine peels, and then rinse to clean. Cut ribs into about 1 inch pieces.

b.   Boil about 10 cups of water with pork ribs.  When the water starts to boil, use strainer(s) to remove white foam and scum.  After the soup becomes clear, add peanuts and tangerine peels.  

c.   Bring to boil and cook at medium heat for about 3 hours.  Remember to check the water level during cooking and add water as necessary, since boiling at medium heat could evaporate some water away.  Start to check the softness of peanuts after 2.5 hours. 

d.   Add some salt to flavor when cooking is done.  Ready to serve. 

        

Comment:

When I cooked peanuts without skin in the soup, the soup has a pleasing, very light amber color, a special fragrant smell of peanuts, and a fresh taste of rib soups.  The meat is ready to fall off the bones after cooking.  Both the meat and peanuts taste great.  The most important part of the cooking is to make sure that peanuts are thoroughly cooked.  You can eat the soup right after cooking, or keep it in the refrigerator and eat later.  If you need to reduce fat intake, remember to do the following: keep the soup in the refrigerator for a few hours; take it out and remove the top layer of solid fat while it is still cold.  Microwave to warm up before serving.  Meat soups always taste better when they are hot.  This soup is great as a snack soup when you get home after a day's work.  Spleen in traditional Chinese medicine implies not just the organ, but also the digestive system, and the body's ability to generate healthy blood, i.e. to have right stuff in the blood.

Peanuts（花生）

Chenpi （陈皮）

Ribs ready to cook （排骨）

 

Pork Rib Soup with Lotus Roots

Purpose:

To clear heat and detoxify; to lubricate lungs and stop cough.  This soup is good for patients with lung diseases and problems of the respiratory system.

Material:

Lotus roots (莲藕）                                       500 g

Pork ribs (back or country)                           250 g
Salt                                                               some
          

Note:

Baby ribs or country ribs are both good for this soup.  The ribs need to be boiled first in order to remove the white foam and scum before adding lotus roots.  Fresh, frozen or dried lotus roots are available from Chinese grocers.  Dried lotus roots need to be soaked before cooking.  Lotus roots taste best in soup when they are cooked enough to become loose and soft, so expect to cook for more than 3 hours.

Procedure:

a.   Peel lotus roots.  Rinse clean, and cut into small segments.  Cut ribs into about 1 inch pieces.

b.   Boil about 10 cups of water with pork ribs.  When the water starts to boil, use strainer(s) to remove white foam and scum.  After the soup becomes clear, add lotus roots.  

c.   Bring to boil and the cook at low heat for at least 3 hours.  Remember to check the water level during cooking and add water as necessary, since prolonged cooking could evaporate some water away.  Start to check the softness of lotus roots after 3 hours. 

d.   Add some salt to flavor when cooking is done.  Ready to serve.        

Comment:

The soup has a pleasing, very light brown color and a fresh, slightly sweet taste.  The meat is ready to fall off the bones after cooking.  Both the meat and lotus roots taste great.  The most important part of the cooking is to make sure that lotus roots are thoroughly cooked.  You can eat the soup right after cooking, or keep it in the refrigerator and eat later.  If you need to reduce fat intake, remember to do the following: keep the soup in the refrigerator for a few hours; take it out and remove the top layer of solid fat while it is still cold.  Microwave to warm up before serving.  Meat soups always taste better when they are hot.  Lungs in traditional Chinese medicine implies not just the organ, but also the respiratory system, and the body's ability to disperse liquid downward.

Lotus plants in a pond （莲花）

Lotus roots （莲藕）

Ribs ready to cook （排骨）

 

Sweet Egg Soup with Xueer, Lianzi, and Baihe

Purpose:

To lubricate lungs and nourish yin.  To increase body fluids (saliva, tears, etc.) and retain essence.

Material:

Chicken eggs                                              6

Rock sugar (冰糖）                                     250 g (or more to taste)

Xueer (雪耳）                                             20 g  

Lianzi （莲子）                                            100 g 

Baihe （百合）                                             50 g

         

  
Note:

Chicken eggs from cage-free chickens are recommended.  They are better not only because they taste better, but also there are reasons based on the yin-yang balance theory of traditional Chinese medicine (details later).  Rock sugar, Xueer, Lianzi, and Baihe are common items in traditional Chinese cooking, so they are available in most Chinese grocery stores (see pictures below). Lianzi can be obtained with or without the green sprout inside (莲心）. For this soup, lianzi without the sprout should be used.  Refer to the footnote in one of my previous post  for explanation of yin, yang, and essence if you are not familiar with them.

Procedure:

a.   Soak xueer, lianzi and baihe separately for about 20 minutes. Clean each one.  Remove the stem from xueer and tear it into small pieces.

b.   Boil the eggs：start cooking eggs with cold water.  Bring to boil and cook for about 10 minutes.  Remove eggs, and rinse with cold water.  Peel the eggs.

c.   Heat about 3 liters of water in one pot to boil.  Put in all the prepared material except rock sugar.  Use medium heat to boil for 90 minutes, then simmer at low heat for another 90 minutes.  Add rock sugar one hour before the end of cooking.   

d.   Ready to serve.

        

Comment:

The level of water for the soup should be checked from time to time during cooking.  Add more water when needed, since evaporation could reduce the amount of water.  This is a sweet soup.  It can be kept in the refrigerator as a snack soup.  One egg and a small bowl of soup makes one serving.  Microwave to warm up the soup before eating.  Lungs in traditional Chinese medicine implies not just the organ, but also the respiratory system.

 

 Rock Sugar

(冰糖）

 

Left: polycrystals   Right: single crystals

Xueer

（ 雪耳）

 

 Lianzi

(莲子）

Baihe

（百合）

Beef Bone Soup with Radish and Carrot

Purpose:

To strengthen spleen and improve appetite; to nourish skin and darken hair; to clear heat and benefit yin.  This soup can help building a strong frame for children who eat it often.  It can nourish and strengthen the body without causing too much dry and heat, so it is suitable for people who are too weak to benefit from many other nourishing food.  This is an excellent food therapy for people who are emaciated, worried, insomniac, or have sleepless dreams, or people who have weak and sore back and legs, or young people who have early gray hair.

Material:

Beef bones                                                  750 g

Green radish                                                250 g
Carrot                                                         250 g  
Dried honey dates (ziziphus jujuba mill)        6     
Dried tangerine peel                                     10 g (1 peel of 1 tangerine)
Salt                                                             some
          

Note:

Beef bones are available from super markets or Chinese grocers, the same as those you might use for making stocks.  Most of them are large bones from the legs, so expect to cook a lot of bone marrows into the soup.  Green radish is available from some Chinese grocers.  You could replace them with white radish if the green variety is not available (see pictures below).  I have seen the white variety is some supermarkets, and sometimes it is called "Taikou".  Dried honey dates (蜜枣）are available from Chinese grocery stores or herb shops.  These are very sweet dates, and six of them are enough to produce a sweet soup.

Procedure:

a.   Peel green radish and carrots.  Rinse clean, and cut into thick chunks.  Soak to soften the tangerine peel, and then rinse to clean.   Also, rinse clean the honey dates.

b.   Boil about 10 cups of water.  Put the beef bones in to boil for 10 minutes.  Discard the water.  Wash the bones and the pot clean.  

c.   Put the cleaned bones back to the pot.  Add tangerine peel, honey dates and about 9-10 cups of water.  Let boil at medium heat for about 1.5 hours.  Add radish and carrots.  Bring to boil.  Let boil at medium heat for another 1.5 hours.  Remember to check the water level and add water as necessary, since boiling at medium heat could evaporate some water away.   

d.   Add some salt to flavor.  Ready to serve (see note below for the way to reduce oil in the soup).

        

Comment:

The honey dates and the carrots together give the soup a very pleasing color and sweet taste.  If you keep the soup in the refrigerator overnight, you will see a layer of white solid fat on the surface, which can be removed while cold.  In this way, you can greatly reduce the intake of fat and still enjoy the good taste and benefits of the soup.  The radish and carrot are very soft after the long cooking time.  Some meat and tendons originally attached to the bones could have fallen apart; they also taste sweet too.  Microwave to warm up the soup before serving.  When it comes to finish off the bones, help yourself with both hands and jaws too if needed.   

Green radish （青萝卜）

White radish （白萝卜）

Honey dates （蜜枣）