Chinese Cabbage Soup

Ingredients (Serves 3)
- 250 pork ribs
- 1.5 litres water
- 1 corn on the cob, cut to large chunks
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut to chunks
- 3 dried scallops
- 200g cabbage, torn or sliced to smaller pieces
- salt

Directions
1. Blanch pork ribs in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes. Take out the pork ribs, rinse in cold water and set aside.
2. In a soup pot, add blanched pork ribs, carrots, dried scallops, 1.5 litres of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Add cabbage and boil for 10-15 minutes till cabbage leaves are soft and translucent. Season with salt if needed.

Tips
1. Anytime the soup dries out from evaporation during simmering, you can add a bit more hot water.
2. Sweet corn makes the soup really sweet but if you want a more distinct cabbage taste rather than corn taste, you may omit the corn or reduce it from one to half a corn cob.

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

Directions
1. 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.
2. If using minced pork, 3 minutes before intended serving, bring back to boil and add minced pork shaped into small balls.
3. Serve steaming hot.

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)

Directions
1. Bring water to boil. Add meat and let water reboil. Remove layer of scum from surface of water.
2. 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.
3. You don’t really need to add any seasoning to this soup as the various ingredients will impart its taste.

Salted Vegetables & Tofu Soup

Ingredients
- 300g firm tofu (or those that indicated on package as suitable for soups), cut to cubes
- 200g salted vegetables, cut to pieces (not too small)
- 2 sour plums
- 2 pieces of ginger
- 100g lean pork, sliced thinly
- 6 prawns, de-shelled & de-veined
- 100g squid, cut to rings
- 2 tomatoes, cut to wedges
- 80g carrot, peeled and cut
- 1200ml water

Methods
1. Boil water in pot. Add salted vegetables, carrots, sour plums and ginger to boiling water & simmer on medium-high heat for 10 minutes.
2. Add tofu & tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes.
3. Lastly, add the pork slices, squids and prawns and cook for 3-5 minutes. Serve hot with rice.

Notes
You can add 1/2tbsp Chinese cooking wine (aka Hua Tiao Jiu/Shao Xing Jiu) at step 3 if desired. I once ate at a zi char store and they added lots of Chinese cooking wine to their soup and it tastes great. But if it’s your first time trying out the soup, you may wanna skip this so that you can enjoy the original taste.