The Love for Soups

Old Man Winter has finally arrived.

The ground was covered with a thin layer of snow this morning. Temperature, with the chill factor, was at 10 degrees Celsius below zero. The welcomed warmth for the past few weeks was replaced by layering, snow shoes, snow pants, beanies and mittens.

I rekindled my love for soup two weeks ago. Since I was learning to cook them, the thought of cooking up a pot of Apple Soup immediately warmed me up! These days, soups have been showing their presence at the dinning table ..... So far, we have had Apple Soup with Porkribs, Peanut Soup, ABC Soup, Chicken Soup (using ready-packed ingredients) and Bak Kuet Teh. Tonight, we will be having Apple Soup ... again ... but with a different recipe =)

The Apple and Porkribs Soup which I cooked last week required some chinese herbs, like sweet and bitter almonds, dried figs and Yuzhu (Rhizoma Polygonati Odorati). It can be frustrating when the supply of chinese herbs run low when you intend to use them in cooking and you realize that you have no time to go out to get it. While surfing the internet last night, I finally found a substitute recipe from NoobCook. I made some changes to the amount of ingredients used though ...

Apple Soup

1.2 lb Pork Spareribs

1.2 litres Water

4 Gala Apples, Peeled and cut into chunks

10 Red Dates

1 Yellow Onions, Peeled and cut into chunks

• Remove fats from the pork spareribs.
• Wash and blanch the spareribs in boiling water.
• Rinse the blanched spareribs in cold water.
• Fill a pot with 1.2 litres of water.
• Add the apples and onion chunks into the pot.
• Add the red dates into the pot.
• Add the pork spareribs.
• Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil.
• Lower heat and let simmer for another 2 hours.
• Serve the soup warm.

Yummy Sweet Soup! The yellow onion added sweetness to the soup, while the apples added a refreshing taste to it. This is a indeed a good substitute recipe!

Now I know what soup I will be cooking frequently in Fall next year. A good way to use up the many extra apples we get from apple picking!