Apples and Pears Soup – 南北杏果梨汤

Hot, hot and hot. I am not referring to the S-factors girls (they are not really hot anyway), but rather the weather. I do know Singapore’s weather is hottest starting from end March to April during the Qing Ming period, but the searing warm did not recede even at night. At times like this, one might not have appetite and can get sick very easily.

Fret not! Here’s a Chinese soup recipe to beat the heat! Light and Soothing - Apples and Pears Soup (南北杏果梨汤).

Ingredients

Apples – About 2. Cut into chunk
Pears – About 2. Cut into chunk
Lean Meat – 300 grams

Water

To measure water - One bowl of water per person and one bowl of water for the pot.

Herbs

Sweet and Bitter Apricot Kernels (南北杏) - About half a tablespoon

Dried Figs (无花果干) - 3 to 4 pieces

Condiment

Salt to taste

To Note:

You can use solely apples or pears for the soup. If you are following my recipe, the apples and pears ratio should be 1:1.

Instead of using fatty cuts, it is better to use leaner meats for this soup.

Sweet and Bitter Apricot Kernels or 南北杏 (pronounce as “nan bei xin” in Chinese) can be purchased from Chinese medicinal store. Dried Figs – 无花果干 can be purchased from Chinese medicinal store or dried provision store.

Medicinal Purpose:

Apples are good for expelling heat from body. It nourishes the lungs and aid digestion.

Pears also have cooling effect and are good to cure cough.

Sweet and Bitter Apricot Kernels or 南北杏 is good for cough. However do take cautious when using this. I wikied and found out that one should not used more than 10 grams of it as it contained mild poison.

Dried Figs also expels heats and has disintoxication properties. It dissipated phlegm and dehumidified the body.

Methods:

Refer to my first recipe on how to prepare the meat. It should slightly pre-boil to rid excess fats and drags.

Apples and pears should be cut up into large chunks. Dried figs should be halved so that the sweetness can be easily defused into the soup.

Boil water. When boiled, put in the meat first and wait for it to come to boil again. Then add in the dried figs and sweet and bitter apricot kernels. When it boils, add the apples and pears.

Let it simmers for about 2 hours before serving.


This is a perfect soup for hot weather. It has a slight sweet and sour taste. Very light, which is good for hot summer day. It cools your body down, nourishes your organ and also aid digestion.

Enjoy!

Huai Shan and Winter Melon Soup - 淮山冬瓜枸杞汤 Recipe

Soup is an important part of a meal to Chinese. Many of them, especially to the Cantonese, believed that having a bowl of good soup every day can help to improve one’s health. During meal time, soup is usually served first as starter. It is thought that the nutrition in soup will be best absorbed by body in empty stomach. Also, the soup which is usually served warm will wake your digestive system up and prepare it for more “complicated” food in time to come.

Soup making is an art. A lot of people will probably thought that soup being the simplest “dish” to prepare only required boiling the ingredients prepared. Actually not true. A lot of people can cook, but they might not make good soup. My mum is one of such person. Visa versa, there are people out there who make good soup, but cannot cook. There are details which one needs to pay attention to in order to make a pot of good soup. As long as the details are noted properly, I am sure everyone can make nutritious and enriching Chinese soup at home!

So, here is the first recipe of my favourite soup - Huai Shan and Winter Melon Soup - 淮山冬瓜枸杞汤.

To note: For this soup, you can omit the meat to make it vegetarian version. Feel free to adjust the portion according to your family size or the size of the pot. Soup-making unlike baking does not required exact measurement (unless you are making medicated soup), thus do not tear your hair out on the portion size.

Ingredients:

Meat* 肉类– about 300g
Fresh Huai Shan 新鲜淮山– One stick
Winter Melon 冬瓜– One sliced disc
Carrots 红萝卜– Two

Dried Herbs:

Red Dates 红枣–about 8 to 12, Slice them open, leave the pit in
Dried Longan 龙眼干– 4 to 5 pcs
Dried Wolfberies 枸杞子- a handful

Others:

Water – Usually half a pot or a decent-sized bowl of water for each person plus an extra bowl of water for the pot**
Salt to taste

Preparation:

For this recipe, I used Pig soup bones. I only got that at home. Usually, I would prefer to use lean meat, so that the soup will appear clearer. My mum prefered to use spare ribs, but I thought it was too expensive. In any case, lean meat and spare ribs should be cut up in large chunks.

The following step is very important preparation step for meats. After giving them a quick wash under the tap, meats that are to be used for soup haeve to be boiled for a few minutes in hot water known as the "Cleansing" process.

This process is not meant to cook the meat, but to force out excess fats, blood water and impurities in the meat itself. As you can see in the picture below, the brown coloured foam-like subtances are the impurities. If you did not do this extra step, the impurities would cloud up your soup giving it a unpleasant after-taste and the soup will tend to be too oily.

To cleanse the meat, simply boil a small pot of water. Add pepper, ginger or a bit of chinese wine in it to slightly flavour the water so that it will rid the unpleasent meat smell while boiling. Add in the meat only when the water is boiling. Continue to let it boil for a good 2 to 3 minutes. Then remove from heat, pour away the hot water and give it a quick rinse. Set a side for use later.

There are several varieties of winter melon. Some are smaller who are sold whole. Some can grow up to 10 to 20 kgs which are usually cut up in "disc" for sale. Remove the seeds and skin. Cut them into large chunks. Winter melon is thought to be good for cooling the body down and regulates blood sugar.

For those who do not know what is Huai Shan. Da daa~ It is a kind of root vegetable with many medicinal propertises like lowering blood sugar and pressure etc. Read here for more details. They are usually sold in vacuum pack like the above, or packed in wood dust. Either of them are good to use, but my mum said that wood dust packed are fresher. I suggest to use one stem for the soup.

Ok, Huai Shan is a bit strange. It produced a slippery sap when skin are peeled off. When comes in contact with water, it get even more slippery. If you left it under running water, it might just disappear into water. I usually peel them with dry hand. Then grab tightly under hand, give it a quick rinse. On a clean cutting board, cut them into chunks.


Here are the dried chinese herbs. They should be given a quick rinse to rid of any dust and dirt. Red dates has to be cut into half, but there is no need to remove the pits.

Noticed how the vegetables are cut up in large chunks? For boiling soup, they cannot be too small a size, otherwise they would just disappear.

Method:

Boil water in soup pot.

Add in the meat when water boils.

Maintain high heat, wait till it came to a boil again, then add in the vegetables - Carrots, Huai Shan and Winter Melon. Again when it starts boiling, add in the remaining Chinese herbs - Red Dates, Dried Longan and Wolfberries. At this stage, tone down the heat to medium low, and left it to simmer for at least one and half hour.

Hours later, you will noticed that colour of the soup become richer, almost to a beautiful golden colour. As you are about to serve, add in salt to taste. I do not like to season the soup from start as you might over doing it. Sometimes properly simmered soup does not required additional seasoning. Some more particular Chinese would only drink the soup and not eat the ingredients as they thought that the nutrients are all release in the soup.

Viola! Here is Huai Shan and Winter Melon Soup - 淮山冬瓜枸杞汤. An enriching soup that is quite simple to prepare and furthermore good for your body. It should be served hot.

*Slurp, AHhhhhhhh~