CNY - Traditional Soup-lotus root soup

Ingredient:
500g lotus roots (cut into 2 pieces)
100g dried chestnut (do not cut the chestnut)
60g peanut
20g dried mushroom
80g dried oyster
80g dried cuttlefish
1g dried laver (fa cai or black moss)*
30g red dates
5g ginger (sliced)

5 litres of water
600g pork ribs

Method:
1. Once water boil, put in the pork rib to go thru the hot water then bring to rinse at running tap water then drain dry and set aside.

2. Peanut and chestnut do not use cold water to wash, use hot water to soak them for 20 mins.

3. Dried oyster need to be soak in tap water for 10 mins then wash and clean them.

4. Big cuttlefish need to be wash and clean off the white powder then soak in water for a while abt 1 min.

5. Laver (fa cai) need to soak in tap water for 5 min until soft and add 1 tsp cooking oil, to let it prove, then use chopstick to split them, use strainer to drain them then rinse thru strainer. - after the soup is cooked, put this item last.

6. Remove the red dates seed and soak in hot water for 5 mins then wash with tap water.

7. Dried chestnut soak in hot water then use sataystick to remove the brown internal skin.

8. Dried mushroom soak in hot water for 30 mins then sieve the water. Later use the water for cooking soup. This will make the soup more tasty.

9. Put 5 litres of water to boil add in lotus root, ginger, red dates, cuttlefish, peanut (normally peanut takes abt 3 hours to be soft).

10. Once water is boiled, add in the treated pork rib too cook.

11. First half hr, use high fire then for 2 1/2 hr use medium fire to cook the soup.

12. After 1st half hour, take out the mushroom from the pot and put aside.

13. After 1 hour, put in chestnut to cook for another 2 hours. (chestnut take about 1 hour to cook)

14. After 1 1/2 hour, take out the lotus root and put aside, then let it continue to boil.

15. After 3 hour, put in fa cai to the soup, then off the fire.


Note: mushroom can be use to fry with sea-cucumber, lotus root can be use to deep fry with coated potato flour or made into cold dish.

http://www.asiafood.org/glossary_1.cfm?alpha=B&wordid=2405&startno=27&endno=51
Black Moss
Nostoc commune

This hair-like ingredient is always served at Chinese New Year. Its name is fat tsai ('hair vegetable') pronounced 'fat choy', as in the Cantonese words which denote prosperity in the new-year greeting 'Kung hei fat (Nostoc commune) This hair-like ingredient is always served at Chinese New Year. Its name is fat tsai ('hair vegetable') pronounced 'fat choy', as in the Cantonese words which denote prosperity in the new-year greeting 'Kung hei fat choy'. The common belief is that it is a seaweed, which is why it is often referred to as black seaweed. I am indebted to Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients for the surprising revelation that it is not in fact a seaweed, but an algae that grows in the Mongolian desert in water from mountain springs!

It is considered very cooling, and is prized in Chinese medicine for both its cooling and cleansing properties. It is expensive. It needs soaking and rinsing, and is simmered for 10 minutes in a light stock with a little salt, sugar and Chinese wine. Most often encountered in new year specialities or in the vegetarian dish, lo han chai.