Old Cucumber Soup (Lou Wong Kua tong)

Weather seems to be super hot for the pass few days.The chinese believe a body should have a balance of yin and yang . That means with hot weather, our body kind of heaty, best to consume food that will not trigger us of getting fever, sore throat...avoiding deep fried stuff and chilli also. Take some herbal drink...best is not the cold icy water but take warm drinks. Simple drinks can be made at home are barley , chrysanthemum or even Honey.

Well, I decided to make a simple cooling soup..."lou wong kua"...old cucumber soup.Is a cantonese soup.Pretty easy n not complicated. By the way, pregnant moms & ladies having mentrual should avoid this. Pregnant moms should keep the womb warm like u cant take watermelon.

So here's the ingredient for the soup

1 old cucumber. Choose the one that feels heavy in your hand n not the weighing machine. Do a comparison while choosing. Remove the seeds by using a spoon to scrap it. It is believe the seeds will give a bitter & sour taste when u cook it.Wash the skin with a good rub of rough salt.

Some dry scallops. Bought a medium size. Some Yuk Chook  (from chinese medicine shop), red dates without seeds (10 - 15 pcs)

2 Australian carrot as they are sweeter. Chinese carrot are not sweet.

400g of pork's bone "Pai kuat"..wash d bone with salt water. Then boil some water, blanch the bone with boiling water for a minute. You can see dirty scums will float on d water. Drain away the water.Rinse the bone with tap water.





I have also added to piece of chinese pork ham "Kam wah foh tui金华火腿 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinhua_ham " which is salty and fragrant. Great ingredient for making stocks or broth. You may find some people don't add  it cos is hard to find it in M'sia.And only restaurant will use it. Well, I do travel to China and was introduced to this by my ex  boss's wife who is a Shanghainese. Managed to buy from Shanghai, Guangzhou  & Hangzhou also. I don't buy the whole leg but just a cut of it which last me for sometime.

Some people will use dried cuttlefish instead.

Used 1.5 L of water (pls adjust according to the ingredients you have) and add all ingredient inside cold water before boiling them. I use thermal cooker. When I see the water boiling I switch to simmer for 20 - 30 mins. Then put them in the thermal pot. If you dont have, boil them for just 2 hours.

The reason I used thermal pot is less cooking time on the stove and nutrients will retain more with less cooking time and healthier too.

After one hour in the thermal , you may now serve. Add some salt to taste. Anyway, since i add in chinese ham, no salt or sugar needed.As it is.Bon Apetite!