Ginseng Six-Flavour Soup

This ginseng soup is traditionally used to improve digestive functions, increase vitality and reduce dampness in our body. It can be cooked sweet with rock sugar and served as a dessert or cooling drink, or add in some meat to make it savoury, as a soup.

Clock wise - Polygonatum Root, dried Lotus seeds, white colour Dioscorea Root sliced, brown and white Euryale seeds, dried Lily bulbs or Baihe, Chinese Ginseng (sugar coated) in a bag and in the centre, dried Longan.
Polygonatum Root/Polygonatum Odoratum ~ 'Yuzhu' is good for wind and prevent dryness to nourish yin, promote the production of body fluid and relieve dryness syndromes.
Dioscorea Root ~ 'Huai Shan' literal name is 'Mountain medicine' has a neutral atmospheric energy, neither hot nor cold - ability to build qi in the lungs, improve lung functioning, helps relieve coough due to weak lung funtion, also good for diabetes.
Lily Bulbs ~ Baihe, slightly bitter in taste, helps to moisturise the lung and relieve cough.
Euryale Seeds (Qian Shi) ~ also known as Fox Nut is the fruit that comes from an annual type of water plant native to east Asia. These plants can be found throughout ponds and low-lying lakes of China, India and Japan. Taking these seeds is believed to retard aging.
Longan ~ also known as Dragon Eye is used as a remedy for stomachache, insomia and amnesia. The fruit is said to invigorate the heart and spleen, nourish the blood and have a calming effect on the nervous system.
Lotus Seeds ~ 'Lian Zi' in Chinese, is used mainly for the spleen, heart, kidney and also possess calming qualities.

I added rock sugar to make this as a dessert and as a cooling drink. It can also be taken hot or chilled, very refreshing indeed, especially on a hot and humid day.

Ingredients

40 gm Chinese Ginseng
20 gm Dioscorea root
20 gm Polygonatum root
20 gm dried Lotus seeds
10 gm Euryale seeds
10 gm dried Lily bulbs
10 gm dried Longan fruit
6 bowls of water
Rock sugar to taste

Preparation

Rinse all the herbs once.
Place them in a pot and add in 6 bowls of water.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for at least 2 hours or until the lotus seeds are soft and tender.
Add rock sugar to taste and serve warm or chilled as desired.
Makes 2 to 3 servings.

Note : The ingredients for this soup are all pre-packed and readily available in all Chinese medical shops.

Hakka Mee aka Hakka Noodles

This is yet another one dish meal, Hakka Mee/Hakka Noodles. These noodles are quite similar to Won Ton Noodles, except that they have less lye water and the noodles are a bit flat and thicker. They're served with bean sprouts with a generous serving of minced meat sauce. the noodles, ........... need to loosen them up before cooking serve with chilli sauce topped with chopped garlic ..... that will do the trick ..... yummy! Recipe for Hakka Mee aka Hakka Noodles Ingredients 180 gm Minced Pork 60 gm Garlic - chopped 200 gm Bean Sprouts 4 dried Chinese mushrooms - soaked and diced 3/4 cup water 1 Tsp cornflour + 3 Tbsp of water 3 servings of Hakka noodles Oil for frying. Garnishing - Chopped spring onions Seasoning for minced pork 1/2 Tsp Salt 1 Tsp sugar 1 Tbsp Fish sauce 1 Tsp dark soya sauce A dash of pepper Preparation Saute the chopped garlic with 1 Tbsp oil, fry till fragrant Add in the seasoned minced pork, diced mushroo

Double Boiled Herbal Chicken Soup

Double boiling is slow cooking ........ means to put a soup pot or any covered ceramic or steel pot inside a bigger pot, immerse in boiling water, and let the soup cook at a lower temperature. Hence the soup is cooked from heat generated from the boiling water and not from direct heat source. Double boiling lets the soup ingredients slowly release their nutrients into the soup, thus making it tasty and wholesome. It's a long cooking process, roughly averaging 2 to 4 hours. The tip is not to open the cover to check on the soup as it'll bring down the temperature and affect the cooking process. The plus point is there's little evaporation and the soup will not boil over. The only thing is to monitor that there's enough water in the bigger pot and not let it run dry. Of course, nowadays, the slow cooker is another alternative to double boiling, saves the hassle of checking the water level.

Read on for the Recipe

Herbal Jelly ~ Gui Ling Gao

H erbal Jelly ~ Gui Ling Ga o literally translated means 'Tortoise Jelly' is one of my family's favourite desserts. It's much more economical to prepare this at home for you'll need to fork out between Rm 9 to Rm 11 for a bowl of this cooling dessert in any of those herbal tea outlets. This soothing jelly, served chilled, is supposed to be able to help reduce our body heat, helps to get rid of toxins and is believed to be good for the skin thus culminating a healthier complexion.

Read on for the Recipe

Comments

Angie's RecipesJune 5, 2010 at 5:37 PM
A mouthwatering soup! I would like it chilled and eat them after a nap in the afternoon!
tinyskilletJune 5, 2010 at 8:34 PM
What an interesting soup. It sounds good! I have a hard time getting to use more ginseng (I don't care for just ginseng tea) so this is great!
My Little SpaceJune 5, 2010 at 9:55 PM
'lok mei tong sui' very yummy! I like it warm. I want three bowls lol! haha.... Have a pleasant evening.
Regards, Kristy
JeannieJune 5, 2010 at 10:07 PM
Mmmm..This sweet dessert is very refreshing indeed! I love to serve it with lots of crushed ice.
pigpigscornerJune 7, 2010 at 6:24 PM
yum..this would be great chilled!
penny aka jeroxieJune 7, 2010 at 7:37 PM
Can I please ta bao!
Sokehah cheahJune 8, 2010 at 7:04 AM
Angie, Yes I do too!

Yes, Lyndsey, now you have another way of making use of ginseng.

Kristy
I can gulp down a few bowls too in this weather!

Jeannie, yes that's what we need right now!

pigpigscorner
Yes, it's flexible, chilled in summer and hot in winter!

penny
Think opening up a 'tong sui' outlet in Melb. is not a bad idea. If I can recall, there's already one in the city.

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