Recipes |

Soups for winter

Chicken, ham and dried bamboo shoot soup

Dried bamboo shoots and Chinese ham are all products of Jiangnan (southern China) and this is a simplified of a famous soup from that region, yanduoxian. It is both a stew and soup and should be cooked just long enough for the flavors to be released but not so long that the meat is rendered tasteless.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):

2 whole chicken legs

100g Jinhua ham, cut into chunks

100g dried bamboo shoots, soaked

1 walnut-sized knob of ginger, bashed

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash, rinse and skin the chicken leg and chop into bite-sized pieces. Blanch the chicken and ham chunks with boiling water. Set aside.

2. Rinse the soaked bamboo shoots and snip them into smaller pieces.

3. Heat up a large pot of water, about 3 liters, and add all the ingredients at once.

4. As the pot comes to a boil, froth and scum will float. Skim off the froth patiently and then turn the heat down to low.

5. Allow the soup to simmer for another 45 minutes to an hour.

6. Season to taste, but remember that the ham is salty, so go easy with the salt.

Mongolian lamb soup

This recipe is really simple and was given to me by a true-blue Mongolian lady who still lives in the foothills of the Great Green Mountain tending her flocks of organic lamb. She says this is how her people has always eaten lamb in winter, and probably always will.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):

500g lamb ribs, or lamb chops

2 stalks Shandong green onions

4-6 slices of ginger

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash, rinse and chop the lamb into bite-sized pieces. Lamb on the bone is best for soup. Blanch the meat with boiling water. Set aside.

2. Strip the outer layers from the green onions and use only the white bases. Cut into large sections.

3. Heat up a large pot of water, about 3 liters, and drop all the ingredients into the boiling water.

4. As the pot comes to a boil, skim off the froth patiently and then turn the heat down to low.

5. Allow the soup to simmer for another 45 minutes to an hour.

6. Season to taste. Finish off with some freshly cracked pepper.

Fresh Walnut and chicken soup

Using walnuts in cooking was a novelty when I first came to Beijing after I discovered fresh local walnuts. These are milky and sweet, with none of the slight bitterness of dried nuts. Fresh walnuts are also very good in stir-fries, but probably needs to be skinned.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):

1 chicken breast (abt 400g)

100g fresh walnut meat, soaked in boiling water

2-3 slices ginger

2 tbsp wolfberries (gouji zi)

2-3 Chinese dates or jujubes, seeded

1 small piece rock sugar

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Using a soft brush, scrub the soaked walnuts to get as much of the brown skin off as possible.

2. Rinse and dry the chicken breast, and cut it into 2 cm cubes.

3. Heat up a large pot of water, about 3 liters, and add the chicken cubes and walnut meat, with the ginger slices and Chinese dates.

4. As the pot comes to a boil, skim off any froth. There should be very little.

5. Turn down the heat and allow the soup to simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

6. Remove the ginger slices and add the wolfberries and rock sugar just before serving. Adding the wolfberries too early will discolor the soup, and also remove much of the high vitamin content in the berries. The rock sugar offsets the slight bitterness of the walnuts.