white radish

Arrowhead Radish Chicken Soup

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Arrowhead Radish Chicken Soup

Arrowhead Radish Chicken Soup

There comes a time in the journey of a home cook that you would have to experiment with what you have in the fridge, cooking out of necessity rather than as an art. That moment is today, as I stare down the vegetable cabinet and the emptiness seemed to resonate the treble and bass in my voice as I mumbled to myself.

Drats! That’s all I have, arrowheads and radish. I guess that will do. Time to make magic happen.

Everybody knows that arrowhead (the waterchestnut looking thing in the picture) goes well with the Chinese yam huai san, but desperate times call for desperate measures and the only other tubular vegetable that I have left in the fridge is the humble white radish. Any-hoo, that will do.

Recipe

Ingredients

6 Arrowheads
1 Radish
1 Baby Octopus
2 Chicken Drum (de-boned)
Sea Salt

Method

1. Boil a kettle of water. Once boiled, pour into the pot. Add chicken drum meat and octopus. Turn up the heat.

2. Quart the radish. Throw it in the pot. Shave the arrowheads (sharpen the arrows). Throw them in the pot. Add a pinch of salt.

3. Boil for about 15 minutes and then turn off the heat and throw the whole thermal pot into the thermal cooker. It will be beautiful by dinner time.

Bon Appetit!

Lotus and Radish Soup

Lotus and Radish Soup

They have become the unlikeliest of friends, meeting once a week every Saturday morning as they get jostled together and acquainted in the dirty and grimy vegetable stall baskets reserved only for customers. It’s always a bumpy and bruise-full meeting at first, as they are slotted into plastic bags and then heap together with other vegetables.

Then somewhere throughout the week, they are reacquainted again, this time washed and chopped, and all ready to be boiled in a pot with chicken bones and a slice of dried cuttlefish. The end result is often a thick beautiful broth of nutritious goodness.

The lotus root and the radish, uniquely different in their taste, but when brought together in a soup, just makes so much sense. It’s a great confinement soup as well for new mummies, if you wish, you can leave out the cuttlefish and even the sea salt. Just have it plain and it would still be full of flavour.

* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use in my recipes, so check them out if you wish to support me, but don’t feel obligated though.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 large or 2 medium tubes of Lotus Root *try getting short rounded cylinders*
1 pc Radish *medium size*
1 pc Chicken carcass *bones*
1 half dried Cuttlefish
Sea salt

Method

1. Wash then peel off the outer layers of the lotus root and radish. Then chop into smallish bite-sized pieces for the radish, and for the lotus root, just thin half a centimeter slices will do. This will ensure that the flavour is maximized.

2. Put the chicken carcass (whole) into the steel pot of the thermal cooker and a piece of cuttlefish *optional for newbie mummies* and sea salt to taste. We usually don’t take so much salt in our soups so maybe a teaspoon or less is sufficient. Also, if your chicken bones are frozen, you can either place it frozen in the pot or defrost it. I usually don’t bother defrosting if I am gonna boil it anyway.

3. After all the dry ingredients, vegetables and bones are placed in the pot, add about 1 litre of boiling water and turn on high heat for about 15-20 minutes and when that is done, place the pot into the thermal cooker. The soup should be delicious and ready by the time you get home from work. Just right for dinner.

Bon Appetit!