Pork Soup with Qianshi and Tangerine Peels

Purpose:

To strengthen spleen and nourish kidney; to heal spermatorrhea and improve the essence; to nourish and strengthen the body .     

Material:

Pork shin （猪腱肉）                               250 g 

Qianshi （芡实）                                      120 g

Tangerine peels （陈皮）                          10 g

Salt                                                         some

Note:
 

Pork shin is the leg muscles of pork.  Qianshi and tangerine peels are available from Chinese grocery stores. You can prepare your own dried tangerine peels by sun-drying or air-drying the tangerine peels after you have eaten the fruit.  Collect them in an air-tight jar.  Refer to footnotes in a previous post for the concept of kidney and another post for essence in traditional Chinese medicine.

Procedure:

a.     Rinse clean qianshi and tangerine peels.  Soak tangerine peels in water to soften.  Wash clean pork shin and cut to bite-size slices. 

b.    Add pork slices and about 5 cups of water to a pot and bring to boil at high heat.  Remove white foam and scam.  Add qianshi and tangerine peels.  Bring to boil at high heat, then cook at medium heat for about 2 to 3 hours.  At this point, the meat is cooked to very soft and qianshi is opened like a  popped popcorn.     

c.    Add salt to taste.  Ready to serve.

Comment:

This is a delicious soup.  After cooking, the soup has a light amber color.  There is quite a bit of qianshi in this soup, but I know not everyone likes to eat qianshi as it is quite plain.  Qianshi is a revered grain (refer to a previous post) and is the ingredient in this soup to strengthen the kidney.  Therefore, I suggest that you try to like it.  If not, try other recipes.

Qianshi （芡实）

          Tangerine Peel （陈皮）

Pork shin （猪腱肉）