Watercress Pork Ribs soup

I am not very good in brewing soup. Since I am craving for soup and it is the easiest on the stomach. I decided to try cooking one of my favourite soup - Watercress Pork Ribs soup.

I didn't realise it is that easy to have a pot of good soup. The most important ingredient is time.

Ingredients
500g - 600g pork ribs (I usually use a combination of prime ribs/spare ribs & soup bone)
1 bunch of watercress
4 gigantic red dates, soaked (if you are using small dates, use about 10)
4 conpoy, soaked
Salt, to taste

Method
1. In a pot, parboil the pork ribs. Rinse and set aside.
2. Trim and soak the watercress. Rinse and set aside.
3. Using a large pot, add in the pork ribs, conpoy and red dates. Cover them with water till around an inch away from the ingredients.
4. Bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and add in the watercress.
5. Let it simmer for 2 hours or more under low heat.
6. Season with salt to taste, if necessary.

*Note: if you allow the soup to simmer for a longer time, the soup will be bursting with flavours and you can forget all about the salt.

Old Cucumber Soup 老黄瓜汤

The weather in Singapore is so crazily hot and I guess to brew a pot of soup to cool the body heat. 

It's a brownish colour wrinkled cucumber. It is known to help regulate the inner body temperature. And some believe it has anti-aging agent! 

So let's brew Old Cucumber Soup 老黄瓜汤. 

Note: Most people add dried cuttlefish or dried oyster to sweeten the soup but I didn't add them mainly because I was unable to get it. So I increase the amount of pork bones, dried scallops and hours of simmer, the soup is still very flavourful.

For those who likes some vegetables, you may add in chopped carrots or sweet corns.

Serves 4

Cook time at least 2 hours

Ingredients

- 1 old cucumber

- 2 litre of water

- 8 red dates

- 10 conpoy/dried scallops

- 500g pork soft bones

- 3 skinless chicken thighs

- salt to taste

Directions 

- Scrub the skin of the old cucumber clean and cut it in half. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and wash it clean. Cut it into wedges.

- In a small pot, parboil them. Rinse and set aside. 

- Remove the skin and excess fats of the chicken thighs. Rinse and set aside.

- Place the old cucumber wedges, red dates, conpoy, blanched pork soft bones in a 2 litre pot of water. 

- Bring it to a boil, lower the heat and add in the skinless chicken thighs. 

- Simmer the soup over low heat for 2 hours.

- Season it with salt to taste, if necessary.

- Serve hot.