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 localwalnuts. 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.

Turtle soup with angelica and dried longans

There is actually an area in Singapore that serves this soup all year round. That the shops selling this are in a rather naughty district probably testifies to its reputedly aphrodisiacal properties.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):

1 whole Chinese soft-shell turtle (abt 1 kg)

50g dried longan meat

50g wolfberries

30g sliced Chinese angelica root

3-4 slices ginger

Salt to taste

Thinly sliced ginger julienne

Method:

1. You can buy the turtle ready dressed from the seafood shops. All you have to do is to chop it into bite-sized pieces. Then blanch the turtle meat with boiling water. Set aside.

2. Heat up a large pot of water, about 3 liters, and add meat, ginger and herbs, reserving half the wolfberries.

3. Skim off any froth or scum as the pot comes to a boil. Turn the heat down to low.

4. Allow the soup to simmer for an hour and 15 minutes. Add the reserved wolfberries just before turning off the fire.

6. Season to taste. Garnish with plenty of very thinly sliced ginger julienne.

Conch and matsutake soup

This recipe comes from Ku Chi-fai, the executive Chinese chef of the Ritz Carlton Beijing. This fellow Cantonese is a maestro when it comes to making a winter soup, and this is one of his current best sellers.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):

500g frozen conch meat, thinly sliced

1 old mother hen, abt 1.5kg, chopped

50g dried Matsutake slices

4-6 dried Chinese dates or jujubes

4-6 slices of old ginger

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Rinse the blood off the chicken pieces and blanch with boiling water.

2. Divide the ingredients among 4 to 6 individual containers and cover with water up to the three-quarters mark. Tightly cover.

3. Steam the soup in a double-boiler for four to six hours or until the ingredients have given up all their flavor.

4. Cool slightly and serve in the original container, leaving the individual diners to salt to taste.

Bak kut the (Fujianese pork ribs soup)

This is a restorative for the hard-working coolies who used to work the docks of Singapore and Malaysia in the early days. The pork ribs were considered an off-cut then and cheap, and white pepper and garlic cloves could be had for a song. These days, of course, the soup has fallen victim to its own success.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):

1 kg pork ribs

40g white peppercorns, crushed

1 stick cinnamon

1 black cardamom pod

1 teaspoon salt

4 to 5 whole garlic bulbs

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp light soya sauce

Method:

1. Wash, rinse and dry the pork ribs. Blanch with boiling water.

2. Place the white peppercorns, cinnamon and black cardamom pod in a small muslin bag and tied tightly around the neck.

3. Scrub off the loose outer skin of the whole garlic and trim off the tops so a little of the cloves is exposed.

4. Heat up a large pot of water, about 3 liters, and add the pork ribs, garlic and the bag of seasoning.

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

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

7. Add the light and dark soya sauce and taste to adjust seasoning. Turn off the heat and serve hot with rice or youtiao, the Chinese dough fritters.

8. You may also prepare a pot of fragrant oolong tea to go with the meal, because that was what was done traditionally, as the Chinese believe tea cuts the grease on fatty meat.