Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Herbal Soups

Although I grew up on herbal soups (according to my mother), I have never really missed a hot bowl of chicken ginseng soup, or whatever concoction there might be. Or so I thought. Until I visited my girlfriend's place in Colorado Springs recently, and saw her brewing a special concoction on her stovepot. She showed me her collection of different herbs and and I was intrigued. The aroma in her kitchen was comforting, and faguely familiar to those at mother's house, and it drew back memories of mother steaming and stewing some soup or other in a special bowl with a lit and there was usually some sort of meat (with bones) inside with herbs. I remembered my auntie saying '... and don't cook it for too short of a time, or too long in a crockpot, or else the beneficial properties would be cooked away...."

Now, after years of living in Colorado, and not craving these special soups, I'm now thinking that it'll be quite interesting to try them again. So, I bought some ready mix packs from the asian market over the weekend. I bought the ones that are 'safe' for both sexes to consume, as some herbal soups are only meant for women. I listened to my girlfriend's advice to use drumsticks, added the herbs to it, and made myself a bowl of chicken ginseng soup. And it's not bad... I even convinced Hubs to have a small bowl! Now I hope that it will give us more energy to cope with the tots. Ha!

3 comments:

Little Corner of Mine said...

Next time if we get to shop again, I will find you all the herbs to cook the dong quai, this is a delicious chicken soup. The ginseng chicken soup is the least tasty to me because it has the bitter taste. If you want other flavors, I can pick for you as well, just let me know. :)

East Meets West Kitchen said...

Yeah, I just made a dong quai one (I think) yesterday. It was Claypot brand. It's taste better than the ginseng one. But love to shop with you again!

Anonymous said...

Hi there, If you do make dong quai please do not have hubs take that, it will be to heaty for their body, dong quai is meant for women. If you can get sang yu it will be better.