Bittergourd with Spareribs Soup AKA 苦瓜排骨汤

Ingredients
300g of bittergourd
300g of spareribs
3-5 pitted chinese red dates
3-5 dried oysters

Preparation
Cut bittergourd into half and remove the pulp and seeds.
Cut it again into large chunks.
Parboil spareribs and set aside to drain.
Add bittergourd, red dates and dried oysters to 800ml of water.
Toss in the spareribs when the water starts to boil.
Boil for 15 minutes before switching to low heat and simmer for another 45 minutes.
Add salt to taste before serving.

Miso Clam Soup AKA 蛤蜊味噌汤

Miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus. The most typical miso being made with soy. Miso paste is used in spreads and sauces e.g. misoyaki. But it is most commonly used in soups.

My husband used to work in a Japanese restaurant as a kitchen helper during his school holidays when he was young. The Japanese chef there was very kind and taught him alot on Japanese culture and cuisines. And one of the most important lessons learnt was the Japanese culinary staple - Miso Soup. It should never be boiled. It is believed that full boiling destroys the fungus hence changing the flavor and nutritional value of the miso which is high in protein, rich in vitamins and minerals.

Ingredients
900g of clams
600ml of water
2 packets of pre-packed miso soup base (40g)

Preparation
Soak them in a bowl of water with a generous amount of salt added. This allows the clams to spit out the sand.
Remove the salt water after 30-45 minutes.
Repeat the procedure.
Scrub the clams with a brush to remove any sand or mud from the shells.
Bring 600ml of water to a boil and add in the clams.
Switch to low heat when the clams are cooked. Discard any unopened clams and skim off impurities if any.
Dissolve the miso paste in the water and leave to simmer for another minute or so. Do not boil.
Serve immediately.

Fishball Tang Hoon Soup

Ideally, a dinner should ideally consists of 3 main dishes and most importantly, a soup. Especially to Cantonese families, the soup is indispensable. Soups are very nourishing as they contain the essence of the ingredients used. And some even believe that soup is the key to a more youthful look.

Though not as good and nourishing as other soups, this is a clear soup that is simple and very easy to prepare - Fishball Cellophane Noodles Soup, or better known as Fishball Tang Hoon Soup. Fishball Tang Hoon Soup can be served as an accompaniment to rice or simply a light meal on its own.

Ingredients
1 chicken cube
25g of cellophane noodles (1 bundle)
200g of fishball
1 teaspoon of preserved radish (cleaned and chopped)
Spring onions

Preparation
Soften the cellophane noodles by soaking it in a bowl of hot water.
Pour 800ml of water into a pot and bring to a boil.
Dissolve the chicken cube in the boiling water.
Add in the preserved radish followed by the fishball.
When the fishballs are cooked/afloat, add the cellophane noodles into the pot.
Boil for another minute or till the cellophane noodles turns translucent.
Remove from heat.
Garnish with spring onions. (optional)
Serve immediately.

Spicy Hot & Sour Soup

Ingredients
1 chicken stock cube
100g of chicken (sliced into thin strips)
25g of chinese mushrooms (soaked in water, stem removed and cut into thin strips)
15g of black fungus (soaked in water and cut into thin strips)
1 firm beancurd aka tau kwa (cut into cubes)
1 egg (beaten)
1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce
6 tablespoons of chinese rice vinegar
4 teaspoons of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of pepper
2 teaspoon of chili oil

Marinate sauce for the chicken
1 teaspoon of light soya sauce
1 teaspoon of shaoxing wine
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon of cornflour
A pinch of salt
A pinch of sugar

Preparation
Add all the ingredients for the marinate sauce to the chicken.
Toss well and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
Fill a pot with 1 litre of water and bring to a boil.
Add in the marinated chicken and simmer for a few minutes.
Followed by the mushrooms, fungus and beancurd.
Leave to simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
Add 2 teaspoons of sesame oil to the beaten egg and pout the mixture into the stock in a thin steady stream.
Pull the egg into strands using a fork.
Remove the soup from the heat and add in the light and dark soya sauces, pepper and vinegar.
Stir well before adding the remaining 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and chili oil.
Stir again and serve hot.

Clam Chowder

Adapted the recipe here. It's a terrific recipe for clam chowder. But recently due to the email circulations of the experiments done and the scary facts on the use of microwave, I've cut down greatly on microwave cooking. Only use it to reheat some of my food occasionally.

And because microwave cooking freaks me out now, I decided to do this soup on my stove instead. Ingredients are the same. Changed only the quantity. By the way, you can also add in celery to the clam chowder. It tastes just as great.

Ingredients
100g of clams (chopped)
100g of onions (chopped)
200g of potatoes (diced)
500ml of low-fat milk (divided)
100ml of clam juice
1/2 teaspoon of butter
1 tablespoon of flour
Salt
Pepper
Bacon bits

Preparation
Melt butter in a pot.
Stir fry the onions till fragrant.
Stir flour into 50ml of milk. Pour into the pot.
Add in the clam juice.
Stir in the remaining milk.
Toss potatoes and clams into the mixture.
Simmer for an hour or till the potatoes turn soft.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Garnish with bacon bits before serving.

Winter Melon Soup AKA 冬瓜汤

Winter melon soup is said to help relieve water retention and prevent heatstroke. Not sure how true it is regarding the water retention. But after drinking the soup, I do find myself making trips to the restroom more often than I usually would. 

Ingredients
300g of spare ribs
800g of winter melon (with skin, seeds and pulp removed. cut into chunks)
4 dried scallops

Preparation
Parboil spareribs and set aside to drain.
Add winter melon, scallops and parboiled spareribs into 800ml of water.
Bring soup to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes.
Add salt to taste.

ABC Soup

This is my all-time favorite. My Mom used to cook this soup for me very often. I was told that this soup helps to detoxify our body system. And I love the name - ABC Soup. So cute! The reason behind this adorable name is simply because the soup contains vitamins A, B and C. 

Tomato contains natural antioxidants. And it's rich in vitamin C, vitamin A, iron and potassium. 
Potato contains vitamins and minerals vital to human nutrition. It supplies A and D but also contains vitamin C, potassium, vitamin B6, iron and zinc etc.
Carrot is rich in vitamin A, contains dietary fiber, antioxidants and minerals.
Onion contains protein, calcium, provitamin A, B, C and E.

My Mom enjoys playing around with this soup. Sometimes, she'll add corn to it, other times, celery or tomatoes. I prefer the tomatoes version myself. Find it rather refreshing, thus sharing this recipe.

Ingredients
1 carrot (abt 100g, remove skin, cut into small chunks)
1 potato (abt 100g, remove skin, cut into small chunks)
1 tomato (abt 100g, cut into small chunks)
1 large yellow onion (abt 150g, remove skin, cut into small chunks)
1/2 - 1 dried octopus
250g of spare ribs

Preparation
Parboil the ribs, set aside and drain.
Fill a pot with 800ml of water.
Toss all the remaining ingredients inside.
Return the parboiled ribs into the pot when the water starts to boil.
Simmer for an hour.
Add salt to taste.

Lotus Root Soup AKA 莲藕汤

Ingredients

300g of pork soup bones
1 lotus root (about 400g)
50g of shell fish slices
A dried octopus
4 pitted chinese red dates (lightly squashed)

Preparation
Wash and scrub the lotus root.
Make sure that it's free from any soil/mud. (you can remove the skin if you want)
Cut into slices and discard the ends.
Parboil the soup bones and set aside to drain.
Add the lotus root slices, octopus, shell fish slices and red dates to 1 litre of water.
Toss in the soup bones when the water starts to boil.
Boil for 5-10 minutes before switching to low heat and simmer for another 45 minutes.
Add salt to taste before serving.

* Note: The longer you cook the soup, the richer and sweeter it will taste.

Old Cucumber Soup AKA 老黄瓜汤

Another soup that has cooling properties. Perfect for the hot and humid weather in Singapore.

Ingredients
1 old cucumber (mine was slightly bigger than my palm size)
300g spareribs
5 pitted chinese red dates (lightly squashed)

Preparation
Scrub and wash the skin of the old cucumber. (make sure that it is really clean as we won't be removing it for the soup)
Cut the cucumber into half, remove the pulp and seeds.
Cut it again into large chunks.

Parboil the spareribs.
Toss in the red dates into 800ml of water and bring to a boil.
Add parboiled spareribs and old cucumber into the boiling water.
Simmer for at least 45 minutes.
Add salt to taste before serving.

Dumpling Soup AKA 水饺汤

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays! I did! I had so much fun and good food that I am suffering from a sore throat now. So, no more deep fried/baked food for me! At least, not for a while. 

This is a soup version of Deep Fried Wantons. Equally nice. Add some noodles and vegetables to it and it's a meal on its own. Ingredients and preparation remains pretty much the same except for tiny weeny bit of changes here and there.

Ingredients
1 packet of dumpling skin
300g of minced pork
5 water chestnuts (peeled and finely diced)
20 prawns (small sized)
1/2 stalk of spring onion (finely chopped)
1 egg (beaten)
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of cornflour
1 chicken stock cube

Preparation
Mix pork, water chestnuts, spring onions and egg together in a bowl.
Season with soya sauce, sesame oil, pepper and cornflour.
Set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Wrap a prawn together with the marinated ingredients for each dumpling.
Cook the dumplings for 5-10 minutes in a pot of boiling water over medium high heat.
For the broth, add the stock cube to 800ml of water and bring it to a boil in another pot.
Drain and drizzle some cooked oil before ladling soup over the dumplings .

Garnish with spring onions and serve hot.

Watercress Soup AKA 西洋菜汤

This soup is cooling and helps to cleanse our body system. Many benefits from eating watercress are claimed, such as being a source of antioxidants, acts as a mild stimulant and a digestive aid. It also appears to have cancer-suppressing properties. It is widely believed to help defend against lung cancer.

Not exactly sure how true it is, but watercress does contain significant amounts of iron, calcium and folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C.

Watercress Soup is recommended during warm weather or when feeling "heaty". But not advisable for pregnant women as it might be too cooling.

Ingredients
1 bunch of watercress
250g of spareribs
4 pitted chinese red dates (lightly squashed)

Preparation
Parboil the spareribs.
Toss in the red dates into 800ml of water and bring to a boil.
Add parboiled spareribs and watercress into the boiling water.
Simmer for at least 45 minutes.
Add salt to taste before serving.

Duck Soup with Preserved Mustard AKA 咸菜鸭汤

Ingredients
Bones from a whole duck
250g of preserved mustard (rinsed and cut into big pieces)
3 tomatoes (cut into wedges)
3-5 slices of ginger

Preparation
Parboil the duck bones and leave aside to strain.
Add the preserved mustard and ginger to 1200ml of water.
Bring everything to a boil before adding in the bones and tomatoes.
Simmer for at least 2 hours.
Serve hot.

Tom Yam Soup AKA 泰式酸辣虾汤

Wiki-ed this - This soup originated from Thailand. One of the most popular dishes in Thai cuisine. In Thailand, tom yum is usually made with prawns (tom yum goong), chicken (tom yum gai), fish (tom yum pla), or mixed seafood (tom yum talay or tom yum po taek) and mushrooms - usually straw or oyster mushrooms. The soup is often topped with generous sprinkling of fresh chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves.

Ingredients
1 tom yam stock cube
1/2 of a whole cuttlefish (cut into strips, about 1.5" wide)
1 squid (cut into strips, about 1.5" wide)
6 prawns
4 mussels
1 stalk of lemongrass (sliced diagonally)
2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice

Preparation
Toss in the sliced lemongrass and dissolve the stock cube in 800ml of boiling water.
Add in a tablespoon of chili paste to dissolve together with the stock cube if you prefer your soup to be spicier. (optional)
Add in all the seafood.

Bring everything to a boil over medium heat.
Pour in the lemon juice just before turning off the heat.
Stir well and serve hot.

Peanuts with Chicken Feet Soup AKA 花生鸡脚汤

Ingredients
1 packet of chicken feet (packed in 10s)
50g of raw peanuts
1 chicken stock cube

Preparation
Dissolve the chicken cube in 800ml of water.
Toss in the peanuts and bring to a boil.
Add in the cleaned chicken feet and simmer for at least an hour or more if you have the time to spare.

Cabbage Soup AKA 蔬菜汤

This is the one of the few soups that i can come up with, given a time frame of 30 minutes or less. (^.^)

Ingredients
1 chicken stock cube
1/3 of a whole small-sized cabbage (shredded)
3 dried scallops (soaked and shredded)

Preparation
Add 800ml of water to a pot.
Put in the stock cube and scallops. (optional: you may want to pour in the water used to soak the scallops as well)
Bring everything to a boil.
Add in the cabbage.
Remove from heat when cabbage softens.
Add pepper before serving.