Pork Ribs Pear Soup

It is the air we breathe!

Cracked my head for some g o o d soup for cough. Did a Pumpkin Pork Ribs with Apricot Seeds (ya, I should post this)... Done Lotus Roots Pork Ribs (ya, post this too...)... Tri-Colour Carrot Pork Ribs (alright, and this too...). What else can I do?

Then I saw some pears lying idle in my fridge, wasting its life away. Such a sin.

So I chopped the pear up in big chunks, and dump them in my pork ribs soup, throw in a honey date, and some apricot seeds. And viola! A soup is born. Headache solved.

Amazingly, Boys love it!! Including my not-so-enthusiastic eater, Son3.

The soup is very refreshing I must say. And it taste just slightly on the sweet side, possibly coz of the honey date.

What pear did I use? This time, I used this called Yuan Huang Li (its big like Fuji apple, brown skin, pearly white flesh, and it's said to be cooling). It is important to put in some dates I heard, as the pear is cooling. Red dates will serve to 'warm it up' a bit. To non-Chinese readers, I'm sorry if you are a bit lost here. Chinese cuisines are divided broadly into Heaty and Cooling... yay, I know I know... I should explain... Some day some day, when my cough is better and I find my vocal back.

Till then...

Here's what you'd need:

* Pork Ribs (blanched)
* 1 pear (I used Yuan Huang Li)
* 1 honey date (or 6-8 red dates; I used both)
* Apricot seeds (Nan Bei Xin; handful)
* Wolfberry

This is what I did:

1. Prepare your pork ribs soup. Let it simmer for a while and throw in the date.

2. Keep pot in Magic Cooker and let it self-cook for as long as you are happy... (or if you are not using Magic Cooker, let pork ribs soup simmer over low fire for 2 hours or so till porky is soft and tender).

3. Cut pear into chunks and remove core and seeds. Keep the skin on.

4. Add in pear and wolfberries and salt to taste (to totally infuse the flavors together, I added the pear 4 hrs before serving time).

5. Serve

Cream of Corn Soup

The simplest soup. Real easy.

Boys love it because sweet corn is another of their favorite! Muahaahhahahahaaaaa...


Here's what you will need:

* Pork ribs soup (Brew pork ribs with peppercorn, use only the soup)
* Del Monte Sweet Corn Cream Style
* Del Monte Whole Kernel Corn (drained and discard water)
* Picnic Ham (2 - 3 slices, diced)
* Mushroom (I used Korean Enoki Mushroom, cut to stripes about 2" long)
* 2 Eggs
* 2tbsp of corn starch (mixed with water)
* Streaky bacon (fried whole and cut to bit size)

This is what I did:

1. In a pot of pork rib soup, add in Sweet Corn Cream and drained Kernel. Boil in low fire.

2. Add in picnic ham, enoki mushroom.

3. Beat egg on the side, and add in swirl-wise. Let it sit in the boiling soup for a while before you stir. Add corn starch mixture to thicken soup; adjust according to your desired consistency.

4. Serve warm with bacon garnish.


Psst psst... you can replace pork ribs soup with Chicken Stock. I didn't add in any seasoning in this soup. It's tasty enough as you can imagine with bacon and creamy corn pack. 

Pork Ribs Salmon Belly Soup

Another one of my boys' favorite soup, because 1) they love celery, 2) they love salmon, 3) they love porky,... basically, 4) they love soup.

This soup is power-packed with all imaginable goodness. Read the ingredients and you will know what I mean.

Ingredients:

Pork Ribs
Salmon Belly
Celery (diced, 2 stalks)
1 Carrot (diced)
1 Tomato (diced)
1 Potato (diced)
Pepper corn (handful, crushed slightly, packed into soup stock bag)
Ginger (sliced)
Salt to taste
Tofu (optional)

Here's what I did:

1. Blanch the pork ribs, and cook a pork rib soup (I cooked this early in the morning in my thermal pot, and set aside till ready to prepare dinner).

2. Rinse salmon belly and descale them. Cut away sections of salmon belly with fins / bones. Do not discard these. Put them into a soup stock bag with sliced ginger (This is prevent the bones from going into the soup during boiling).

3. Add diced celery, carrot, tomato, potato into soup. Add in the pepper corn stock bag, and salmon belly bones' stock bag.

4. When the soup is boiling, add in the salmon belly. Add salt to taste.

5. Bring soup to a boil and simmer in low fire for 15mins. Ready to serve.

Black Bean Pork Ribs Soup

One of the most hearty soups I love! Do you know black beans are an excellent source of protein, fiber and antioxidant properties - among many other benefits?

Particularly true when the weather has turned cool, this soup warms up the body due to the beans nutrition. Thank goodness my boys enjoy this soup very much (they are soup lovers)! So I had no problem making them finish their bowls. Often, they will have seconds! *wink*

Ingredients:

Pork ribs - blanched (depending on no of people at the table, I usually cook about 6-8pieces)
120gm black beans (rinsed)
Water - 6 soup bowls
1 Honey date
Wolfberry (handful) - optional
Salt to taste


Here's what I did:
1. In the Endo inner pot, bring half portion of the water to a boil.

2. Add in the blanched pork ribs and honey date. Boil for about 15-20mins. Remove pot from fire and place into the thermal pot to self-cook.

 3. Fry the rinsed black beans in a clean wok (do not use oil nor seasoning).





















4. Continue frying the beans till you see them 'crack open', ie. clear white line appears across the middle of the beans (this step helps to quicken the softening of the beans)

5. Transfer fried beans to slow cooker, pour in the remaining half portion of water and set on high.

6. Slow cook for about 2hrs.

7. Transfer slow-cooked beans soup into the pork ribs soup. Bring Soup to a boil, add wolfberry and salt to taste.

8. Return pot to thermal pot and let it self-cook further.









 







psst psst...
~ I have this habit of placing a porcelain soup spoon while boiling my beans. So I placed it in the slow cooker.
~ I use my 2L Thermal Pot to cook all my soups. For bigger portion, I use the 4.5L Tiger Thermal Pot. Hmmmm... I should blog about these pots! They are MAGIC! Bare with me while I gather photos and post them.
~ The longer the Soup stays in the thermal pot, the softer the ribs and beans will be. I let mine stay in there for at least 6hrs.