Making this nutritious soup - Old cucumber soup 老黄瓜汤 is good for body detox, cooling & good for a your skin complexion.
Just like most other soup recipes, Old Cucumber Soup is VERY easy to cook and tastes great when paired with other great tasting ingredients like dried cuttlefish, dried scallops, dried abalone, dried mushroom, red dates, etc. Prepare all the ingredients and put them all into the pot. Bring to a boil & simmer over low heat for 1-2 hours (depending how much you are boiling) and you’ll get a hearty soup to drink for your family.
This humble vegetable with dried-out, dark yellow/brown wrinkly hardskin which look much fatter from the green cucumbers. Old cucumber is actually a matured cucumber. It’s a Yin ingredient, used to help cool down your body when it’s ‘heaty’.
When it’s ready to be served, the soup is thick, hearty and slightly mushy from the flesh of old cucumber. I don’t usually add in salt to my soup as the ingredients itself give so much flavour to the soup. If you’d like, you can add a bit of salt before serving.
Usually other recipes will suggest to add whole dried cuttlefish into the soup but I use less of it. Dried cuttlefish is very high in cholestrol level. Not only dried cuttlefish, also applies to fresh cuttlefish/squid/sotong. Therefore, those with health concern should reduce the intake of cuttlefish. Once the market seller recommends me to replace with 明目鱼 (picture below), (a type of shellfish) is similar to that of dried cuttlefish but minus the cholestrol. I didn't put in for this time because mine finished.
Ingredients
1 old cucumber, medium size about 500g
260g pork ribs (can replace with chicken)
2 mushrooms
2 big Red Dates, seed removed
2 small Red Dates, seed removed
2 Preserved Honey Dates
2 slice Dried Abalone
some shredded dried Cuttlefish
1200ml Water
Salt to taste (optional)
Step by Step:
1. Blanch pork ribs in a pot of hot water. Blanching is necessary for a clear soup. Remove pork & set aside. Pour away blanching water.
2. Keep the cucumber skin on, wash and scrub the skin. Slice half, length-wise. Use a teaspoon to remove the seeds and slice it into 1 inch chunks.
3. Bring 1.2L water to boil. Add in all the ingredients (except salt).
4. Bring to boil again and reduce heat, let it simmer slowly for 1 1/2 hours with lid covered.
5. Add salt (if necessary)
6. Ready to serve.
This dish prepared by using Queen's Xense Casserole Marble Coated Anodised Coating. Non stick 5 layer marble coating. Durable & Long Lasting. High heat efficiency. Easy cleaning & maintenance.
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