Spinach is a fast-cooking vegetable and packed with nutrients. That’s why Popeye loves ‘em. It can be stir-fried and it can be cooked in soup. Recently, my dear wife told me that she wanted to try cooking spinach soup with wolfberries (a.k.a. kei chee / goji).

Imagine all the goodness from the spinach doubled up with the circulatory benefits of wolfberries (get the good quality berries which are slightly plummer and sweeter in taste). It is definitely a power-packed soup. Oh yes, the stock is made from ikan bilis soup. So, there you go. My daughter of 3 1/2 years old loved it. I think you will too!

This is my wife’s recipe for Spinach Soup with Wolfberries

Ingredients

• 300 grammes of spinach (rinsed and plucked at the stems. Discard old or thick stems)
• 10 grammes of wolfberries (about 20 to 30 pieces)
• 100 grammes of minced meat (we use pork)
• 50 grammes of ikan bilis
• 3 soup bowls

Marinade (for minced meat)

• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce
• a dash of white pepper powder

Seasoning

• Salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce

Method

Boil ikan bilis in water for 30 minutes to make stock. Remove ikan bilis when done. Meanwhile, marinade minced meat.

Bring stock to boil again after removing ikan bilis. Scoop minced meat into meat balls using a teaspoon and add into the stock. Cook till all meat balls float to surface. Add spinach and wolfberries and bring back soup to boil. Add seasoning to taste and serve immediately.

Mee Hoon Kueh (Flour Cake Soup)

Contrary to the word Mee Hoon being rice vermicelli, the Mee Hoon here is actually a Hokkien word which means flour. This is a soupy dish made using flour dough which has been flatten pancaked-style to small pieces. Some may even identify it as Pan Mee, but this is a home-cooked version and the flour cake is torn into pieces rather than machine-rolled to noodle form.

It is actually quite a healthy dish combining carbohydrates (flour), protein (pork) and fat (little oil is used), fibre (vegetables) and calcium (ikan bilis / dried anchovies). The most important part of this dish is the ikan bilis stock as it gives much flavour to the overall dish. I like to have this for lunch.

This is my recipe for Mee Hoon Kueh (Flour Cake Soup)

Ingredients

• 200 grammes of flour (add some water and knead into a dough, allow dough to stand for 30 minutes and then separate them into balls about half the size of an egg)
• 3/4 bowls of ikan bilis (boil in 5 soup bowls of water for 30 minutes to make ikan bilis stock. Discard ikan bilis thereafter)
• 1/2 bowls of ikan bilis (rinsed)
• 50 to 100 grammes of sliced pork tenderloin (marinate with 2 teaspoons light soya sauce)
• 200 grammes or more of chinese mustard leaves (choy sum / sawi) (washed and cut to bite sizes)
• 5 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked in 1 bowl of water till soft and cut into strips discarding the stalk / stem. Retain water for cooking)
• 5 cloves of shallots (sliced thinly)
• Oil for frying (preferably palm oil)
• 2 pinches of chinese salted vegetable (tung choy)

Seasoning

• Light soya sauce
• Salt to taste

Method

Fry the 1/2 bowls of rinsed ikan bilis in sufficient oil till crispy. Remove and set aside. Discard oil.

Heat up wok and fry the shallots in about 3 tablespoons of oil till golden brown. Remove fried shallots and set aside. With remaining oil, saute pre-soaked mushrooms for 1 minute (add 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce whilst you saute the mushrooms). Add sliced pork tenderloins and stir-fry till almost cooked.

Add ikan bilis stock and water (used to soak mushrooms) and bring to boil. Meanwhile, using a rolling pin or bare hands, flatten the balls of dough invidually to make flour cake.

When soup is boiling (and keep it boiling throughout), tear flour cake to bite sizes (say approximately 5cm x 3cm) and throw them into the soup. Stir occasionally. Once you’ve finished with the flour cakes and with soup boiling, chuck in the chinese mustard leaves and stir for about 30 seconds whilst adding seasoning and salted chinese vegetables to taste.

Dish up in bowls (you’ll get about 4 bowls here) and sprinkle fried shallots and fried ikan bilis over the soup prior to serving.

A B C D Soup

There is a famous soup called ABC Soup which is essentially a combination of cubed potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and onions cooked in meat stock (usually pork or chicken). After my posting on Hot and Sour Szechuan Vegetable Soup recently, Tummythoz, girlgirl and tekko informed me that they add carrots and even corn into the soup. That was new to me.

So, when I went home to my mum’s place last night, I was most surprised to see a bowl of Szechuan Vegetable Soup which has carrots, onions and potatoes in it! It is indeed a marriage of the Hot and Spicy Szechuan Vegetable Soup with the famed ABC Soup! And true enough, it has the hot and sourness of the szechuan vegetables and the sweetness of the ABC soup. I shall call it the A B C D Soup then!

It is another one of those simple-to-cook yet appetising and nutritious soup which is great on a cold weathered day!

This is the recipe for A B C D Soup.

Ingredients

• 200 to 300 grammes of meat (pork ribs or suitable cuts or chicken parts)
• 2 medium sized potatoes (washed, skin removed and cubed in big chunks)
• 1 carrot (cut in big pieces)
• 2 large tomatoes (quartered)
• 2 large onions (quartered)
• 1 piece szechuan vegetable (washed and sliced)
• 2 bowls of water (approximately 800 ml to 1 litre)

Method

Bring water to boil. Add meat and let water reboil. Remove layer of scum from surface of water.

Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to boil again for 5 minutes and then lower heat to simmer for at least 1 hour or longer.

You don’t really need to add any seasoning to this soup as the various ingredients will impart its taste.

Got szechuan vegetable in your kitchen? Why not cook soup with it? Szechuan vegetable which is preserved with chilli and salt imparts a distinct flavour when cooked in soup. The soup will be spicy hot and salty. When you add a couple of tomatoes into the soup, it’s be hot and sour. Definitely appetising especially when eaten with long bean rice or even cabbage rice.

Depending on how hot or salty you want your soup to end up, you can actually wash or even soak the preserved szechuan vegetable prior to cooking. I usually just wash the szechuan vegetable rather than soaking as I like the original taste of the preserved vegetable. My mum adds a couple of cloves of garlic for added taste but I don’t really fancy that. You can try it if you want.

This recipe is simple and not intimidating for first timers!

This is my recipe for Hot and Sour Szechuan Vegetable Soup.

Ingredients

• 1 piece szechuan vegetable larger than the size of an egg (washed and sliced)
• 3 - 4 large tomatoes (quartered)
• 50 to 100 grammes of minced pork or pork ribs or chicken parts
• 2 soup bowls or 600 ml of water

Method

Bring water to boil and add sliced szechuan vegetables and tomatoes. If you are using pork ribs or chicken parts, add them now. Simmer for 1 hour or more till water reduced to approximately 1 soup bowl.

If using minced pork, 3 minutes before intended serving, bring back to boil and add minced pork shaped into small balls.

Serve steaming hot.