Chicken Mushroom and Fish Maw Soup

What do you remember most about your mum's (or dad's) cooking? Besides some of the few favourite dishes that I would never get tired of eating, I remembered always enjoying the different delicious soups my mom boiled. Even till today, when we are back for dinner, she would (with the help of my dad now), boil a big pot of wholesome, heartwarming soup. Truly food for the soul if you ask me. It never fails to make me feel comforted and fortunate to be able to enjoy such homemade goodness from my parents for so many years! 

Often times I tell myself I must do this for my children too. To let them remember me this way. The kind of comfort they won't be able to find elsewhere. And I strongly believe having a bowl of wholesome soup is important during dinner time. For those that follow me on Instagram would know that I ALWAYS boil soup for my family during dinner. Truth be told, I am always looking for good soup recipes that is not too complicated to cook and yet will be well received by the children.

Today I am introducing a wholesome chicken fish maw soup. Perhaps your impression of fish maw soup are those that are served during the ten course dinners. Thick consistency, almost gooey like. But again, I have to admit I enjoyed it every time! They added crab meat, sometimes sharkskin (I doubt it), some stuff that made the soup ultra sweet and flavourful. 

My version perhaps will be on a lighter side (not that gooey thanks), simpler and with ingredients that we can source easily. Ultimately we want something good that we can prep easily for the family even on busy days.

Ingredients for Chicken Mushroom Fish Maw Soup (Serves 4-6 pax)

2 whole chicken leg or 4 chicken drums (I used 3 this time because the ones I used was huge!)

100-150  fish maw (try to get better quality ones, dried and fried) 

4-6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water

15-20 dried baby scallops

5-6 slices fresh ginger (3 slices for 2 different pots)

2 sprigs green onion, cut into segments

1000 ml water

salt, pepper sugar to taste

1 tbsp corn flour + 2 tbsp water (thickening agent)

Method:

• First, cut the stems of the soaked mushrooms. Then cut the mushrooms into half or quarters.

• In a small pot, bring some water to a boil. Add 3 slices of the finer and the green onion segments in. 

• Once it started boiling, add in the dried fish maw in. You can break the fish maw into smaller segments for easier cooking.

• Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes to remove the layer of oil and also the fishy smell if any. Cover the pot and leave it in there till needed.
• Next chop the chicken legs or drums into smaller segments. Then parboil them in a pot of boiling water for 1 couple minutes, drain and set aside for use later.

• Finally, heat up the pot that you will be using to cook the soup. Add in the 1 litre water, ginger slices, soaked mushrooms, baby scallops and the parboiled chicken pieces in.

(This is how the dried baby scallops look like incase you wonder which ones I am referring to. They are great additions to porridge and soup for flavouring and sweetening the mixture up)

• Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the fire to a simmer. Simmer for a good 15 minutes then add in the fish maw in.

(OMG my pot was so full! But it will slowly simmer down to less liquid.)

• Cook the soup at low fire for 40-45 minutes, leaving the pot slightly opened to let the steam escape. It should look like this after awhile.

• The soup has cooked down slightly, all the ingredients has released its essence while the fish maw has soaked up the goodness and soften up. You can now snip the fish maw slightly smaller so that your younger kids can enjoy them properly as well. Season well with salt, pepper and sugar to your liking.
• At this point you can choose to add in the thickening agent to make the soup gesture slightly more smooth. 

• Stir in well. Off the fire and keep warm. Serve the soup when diners are ready to eat! Enjoy!

Wholesome, delicious bowl of soup that I am sure the family will enjoy. 

If you're not a fan of chicken stock, you can also use pork ribs. But you will need at least 6-8 of them to make the soup flavourful. And remember to use baby back ribs.

You can also use more fish maw if you are a big fan of it. But since my kids are still getting "acquainted" to this soup, I shall keep it on the lighter side for now.

Do give this a try and perhaps save some for cooking noodles the next day! Check out my FB later for a video on how I used this left over flavourful soup to cook some simple stir fried noodles. :9

Have a great weekend all!

Happy cooking!

Gingko Beancurd Barley dessert ( 白果腐竹薏米糖水)

There are so many dessert soups out there. From highly popular red bean soup ”红豆汤“ to  Peanut Paste "花生糊“, to Glutinous rice ball in ginger tea “姜茶汤圆“, are just some of the family favourites we can find in most of our households. 

I remember having this really silky smooth sweet beancurd  dessert awhile back which really left me an impression, good one of course. I finally got to know that this Tong Shui "糖水" is mainly popular in Hong Kong which they even add hard boiled chicken eggs in it...what? Some may shudder at the thought of savoury ingredient found in desserts...beancurd and hardboiled eggs? I guess when people grow up eating something, there is really nothing awkward about it. 

However today, I won't be adding hardboiled eggs into this dessert soup. I prefer mine just with the usual ingredients and how I remembered it when I first tasted it.

This dessert is rather versatile, the amount of gingko and beancurd sheets you add in are really up to one's preference. If you prefer more, you can just add more. So the amount I written here is just a rough guideline, feel free to adjust as per how you like your dessert soup to be.

Recipe for Gingko Beancurd Barley dessert (Serves 5-6 pax)

1.5 litres water

100 g dried beancurd sheet (dessert type-see picture below) （ 腐竹 ）

150-200 g shelled, boiled, peeled gingko nuts (I bought the package ones) （ 白果 ）

100-120 g dried barley （ 薏米 ）

50-60 g dried Lily bulb （ 百合 ）

1 knotted pandan leaf （ 香兰叶 ）

120-140 g crystal sugar  （冰糖 ）

Method

• In a pot, pour in the water, dried barley, dried lily bulbs and knotted pandan leaf in. Bring the water to a boil, then lower fire and simmer, covered for a good 20-25 minutes.

• While the barley and dried lily bulbs are cooking, prepare the gingko nuts. Using the tip of a small paring knife, slit a small opening at the base and draw out the "bitter heart" of the nut. This is a VERY important step, so do not skip doing this, even though it can get a little tedious doing it. But if you don't remove the bitter hearts, it'll leave such a terrible bad aftertaste when having the dessert! 

• After all the gingko nuts have the hearts removed, place them in a small pot of water with 2 tbsp of crystal sugar added in. Bring it to a boil. This simple sugar syrup will slightly sweeten the gingko nuts and remove any traces of the bitter flavour that the hearts might have left behind. Again try not to skip this step.

• After the gingko nuts have been simmered in the sugar water for a good 15 minutes, off the fire and leave it there until its needed.
• When the barley is soften, drain and add in the ready gingko nuts to the barley pot. Continue to simmer the whole mixture. 

• In the meantime, weigh out 80-100 g of the dessert beancurd skin, breaking it up slightly.

• Soak the beancurd skin with some water to soften it a little. It should turn slightly more pale yellow then before, like so:

• Next add the beancurd skin to the pot of barley and gingko nuts. Bring it to a boil then lower the fire to a simmer.

• Bring to a boil, add in crystal sugar and then lower fire to simmer. 

• Cook for a good 30 minutes at low fire until the beancurd breaks up into tiny pieces. 

• At this point you can choose to cook it further to break down the beancurd more which some likes it or leave it like so. You can also adjust the level of sweetness or the thickness consistency by adding more water. 

I actually enjoy this dessert more when it is chilled whereas my husband likes it hot. Whichever ways you like it, I feel this is such a nice dessert to have which even the older folks can enjoy. With the addition of dried lily bulb makes this dessert a lot more wholesome which this wondrous dried flower is used for treating Chronic cough, insomnia, inability to concentrate, restlessness and irritability. How awesome is that?! But of course we all know Chinese medicine requires long term usage in order to see a more effective result.

Frankly speaking, I can't really find this dessert in any of the hawker stalls and rarely seen in restaurants as well. So it is definitely a plus to record this recipe down here so I can revisit it from time to time again. So do try it out yourself too!

I am thinking of cooking this again on the last day of Lunar New Year. This time I might just add in some homemade filled glutinous rice balls in...just to give it another dimension of yumminess! So excited!

Have a great week ahead folk!

Happy Cooking!