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.
It is rather difficult to find a good rack of ribs at a reasonable price, so I decided to try one at home and it turned out to be surprising good. The dry rub on the ribs is important. You can find the ingredients for the dry rub here.
The picky Mr W likes the seasoning of the baby back and the only thing he thinks I ought to reduce is the amount of BBQ sauce I added, which I agreed.
*Update - 19 May 2020...
I have added honey into the BBQ sauce for a nicer glaze and not overpowering BBQ. Mr W said the taste is just right. I have a picky husband. Hard to please. This time I used St Louis Pork Ribs which are bigger compared to the last time (I used baby ribs). So the temperature and baking time defers. I will indicate in the Method.
Ingredients (Serves 4)
2 pounds of baby back ribs/1 rack of St Louis Pork Ribs
1/2 cup of BBQ sauce
1/4 cup of honey Dry Rub
Method
1. Using a butter knife to remove the membrane at the back of the ribs. *By doing so, you will definitely get tender ribs.
2. Apply the dry rub all over the ribs and wrap the rack in a non-stick baking sheet and then another layer of aluminium foil.
Foil below and baking sheet on top
3i. Here are my St Louis Pork Ribs after removing the membrane & applying of the rub.
St Louis Pork Ribs
St Louis Pork Ribs
3ii. This is the baby ribs.
Place the marinate dry rub baby ribs on the baking sheet
4. Wrap the ribs up with the baking sheet and then the aluminium foil like this.
Wrap it up! *This is not a baguette!
5. Place them in a ziplock bag before putting them in the fridge to be marinated for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight. *because the meat will "sweat".
6. Remove from the fridge.
7. Preheat oven at 150°C/160°C for 10 to 15 minutes. Bake the ribs (still in the foil) in the oven at
i) for baby ribs - 150°C for 2 hours
ii) for St Louis Pork Ribs - 160°C for 2.5 hours (this is due to the thicker bones & mass)
7. While they bake in the oven, stir in the honey to the BBQ sauce.
*Note: I made my bbq mixture based on our liking. So after stirring in the honey, do a taste test to see how you like it. You may add more BBQ sauce or honey to your own preference.
8. Remove the ribs and lay them on the tray.
9. Spread your BBQ mixture on the front and back of the ribs, continue to grill them (bones up) in the oven at 175°C.
9ii. Remove and turn over the ribs (this time meat up) and apply the mixture again. Grill for another 15 minutes.
*Note: you may also just apply the BBQ mixture and baked for a straight 30 minutes without removing it from the oven. I did this method with the baby ribs.
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.
