Cozy and Quick Soups
For cold days or stay-in-bed days: two yummy soups that will warm you right up 🥘
As they say, March comes in like a lion - or in this year’s case, a slightly confused lion brings snow storms to California 🥶 and only light flurries to NYC. Wherever you are though, there are always days when only soup will do, and we’ve got two great recipes for you 🥰.
Chicken & Ginseng Porridge
In China, there are many different types of porridge: five-grain red bean porridge, mung bean yellow millet porridge, lotus seed rice porridge, pumpkin porridge - basically a porridge for every color #tastetherainbow. Among all the different tastes and textures, our favorite is Chicken & Ginseng Porridge.
Because this porridge is so easy to make, many people jokingly call it a “lazy person’s quick porridge.” And because it’s so easy, it’s a favorite for people across all regions, with different families making small variations according to their tastes, adding carrots, cabbage, bamboo shoots, celery, corn, snow peas, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, tofu, soybeans, yams, egg, or anything else you might have a hankering for.
So live your life to the fullest - add literally anything you want for the porridge of your dreams 🌟.
Food Lore
Making porridge can be traced back to 4000 years ago during the era of 黄帝 - Huáng Dì (Yellow Emperor), a legendary ancestor of China. Then around 2500 years ago, people discovered that adding different herbs to porridge could provide various medicinal benefits. By the time we entered the 宋朝 - Sòng Cháo (Song Dynasty) in A.D. 960-1279, porridge had become a popular dish for both health and dietary reasons among intellectual circles.
Famous writers and poets like 苏东坡 - Sū Dōng Pō and 陆游 - Lù Yóu even wrote poems about their enjoyment of porridge. To summarize one such ode, Su described porridge as being so quick and tasty that having a bowl of it and then taking a nap was the most wonderful experience in the world. A wise man of culture, indeed 😁.
Notes
Don’t be tempted to add soy sauce or vinegar for extra flavor - porridge is best when flavored with spices like salt, pepper, ginger, and green onion.
You can make porridge in a regular pot, slow cooker, instant pot, rice cooker, or pressure cooker. But using a clay or ceramic pot will give you a particularly good-tasting porridge!
Pork Ribs & Winter Melon Soup
While porridge is often served as part of breakfast and dinner, soup is often the first dish served for lunch. For people back then (and also for some of us now 😏), lunch was the first major meal of the day, so soup was a star opener. This probably explains why there are so many varied and luxurious Chinese soup recipes, like seafood soup, lamb and yam soup, and our favorite, pork ribs & winter melon soup.
If you’ve never tried it, winter melon is an A Tier melon (with watermelon being the only S Tier melon). It’s a vegetable originating from Southern China and is mainly grown in China, India, and countries in southeastern Asia. Funnily enough, despite its name, winter melon is actually grown in the summer and early fall. And although it pops up across Chinese cuisine in many different dishes, its soft texture and subtle taste particularly favor it towards soups.
Food Lore
In Chinese culture, winter melons are viewed as a symbol of good luck. According to the historical book 《神农本草经- Shén Nóng Bén Cǎo Jīng》or《Shen Nong‘s Herbal Classic》, Chinese people began to grow winter melons as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties (B.C. 221 - A.D. 8). And the very first agricultural encyclopedia in China (published around A.D. 533-544),《齐民要术 - Qí Mín Yào Shù》or《Essential Techniques for People's Welfare》, has recorded recipes of using soybean jam to preserve winter melon, which we found pretty cool.
We don’t have much lore, but one fun fact is that because winter melon doesn’t have an overwhelming taste, it’s used in all kinds of foods. Candied winter melon is a special holiday treat in southern China, winter melon tea is a refreshing summer drink, and sweet pastries filled with winter melon paste are a popular tea-time treat!
Notes
If you can’t find winter melon, you can replace it with potatoes for an equally delicious soup! Also, if you want to just eat the spareribs with rice, that is 100% a valid option that Lisa often opts for.
And similarly to our porridge recipe, don’t be tempted to add soy sauce or vinegar! Flavor with our recommended spices as much as possible.