Delicious Chicken Ginseng Conch Chinese Soup

Been craving for some Chinese soup for a while now and thought today would be the perfect time to make it! My nearby grocery store had Conch for sale so I quickly pounced on some knowing exactly what to do with them! Conch can be very chewy and tricky to cook because it's all muscle but with a magical pot called the "Pressure Cooker", it'll turn any tough meat into pure tenderness! I bought some dried Ginseng some time back and thought it would be the perfect time to incorporate them into my soup. Ingredients are relatively straight forward, chicken bones/meat, Ginseng, water, and Conch!

Ingredients:

4 Conch
1.5 lbs of Chicken Bones/Meat
3-5 grams of Ginseng root
Salt
Pepper
Water

Instructions:

1) If you bought your Conch with the shell removed then you are set but I unfortunately had to remove the shell myself and it was rather tricky, I had to use a hammer to break the shell to get the Conch out.

 2) Be sure to remove the inedible items which are the bottom parts of the Conch as they are the digestive parts and the hard lid that's on top of the muscle! Be sure to rub salt on them and rinse very well with cold water to clean them.

After the Conch has been removed from the Shell

After removing the inedible portions of the Conch!

3) Now dice them into smaller pieces so all the natural flavors can get into the soup! Don't worry not all the flavor is lost into the soup.

4) Slice Ginseng roots into small slices (about 3-5 grams) worth. A little goes a long way!

5) Get your Pressure Cooker pot out and pour all the ingredients into the pot! Then pour enough water such that it reaches the height of the ingredients.

6) Close the lid and pressurize! Once it reaches pressure lower the heat to Medium-Low to Low. Just ensure it stays at pressure.  Set timer to 35 minutes!

7) And voila! The finished product! Add salt and pepper to your desired taste! Let me know what you think!

Five Flower Tea!

Lately it's been still really hot and I thought I'd share this awesome drink that is super cheap and super healthy. It's a Chinese tea called Five Flower Tea!

It consists of 5 different types of dried flowers but the two main flowers are the Chrysanthemum and the Honeysuckle which you'll probably be aware of.

This drink helps cools your body, strengthens your immune system, detoxifies and of course hydrates! It can be served hot or cold but I personally prefer it served chill. You can find it any Chinese Herbal stores and it's only about $4 or so for the bag. You can make over 24 cups! Some people throw out the leafs after it's been boiled but I have tried reboiling the same dried flowers with a fresh batch and water and was surprised to still get a lot of flavor from it.

Steps:

1) Bring a large pot of water (~ 4 quarts or 4L) to a boil
2) Pour in the contents of the Five Flower Tea
3) Lower heat to Medium - Medium Low and set timer to 35-40min
4) Let it chill and sweeten it with honey! (Sugar also work just fine)
5) Serve cold or hot!

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival!

It's that time again where you eat get to delicious traditional Chinese Moon Cakes because a woman decided to choose the moon as her residence after escaping from her own troubles on Earth on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese calendar.

For those that don't know what a Mooncake is, it's a Chinese round bakery dessert that's made of lotus seed paste that's surrounded by a thin crust that usually has a salted duck egg inside as the core. Usually the norm is to have one salted duck egg in each one but sometimes it can be either none or up to 3!

How many do you like to have? Personally, I like having none in mine, I think it's a waste of space and would much rather have more lotus seed paste than a salted duck egg.

Two reputable brands: Kee Wah and Maxim respectively

This one is White Lotus with one Salted Duck Egg in each

This one is regular Lotus with no Salted Duck Egg

Deliciousness

Cross Section

Maxim brand was better this year