Our Recipe #5: Chinese Soup by Betty

This recipe is posted by a member, Betty, who is originally from Hong Kong.
Betty, thank you very much for sharing this yummy recipe!

"Unfortunately, as my work takes too much of my energy, I usually don't even cook much at home. I would do my once a week cooking, and that pretty much sets the tone for the entire week (or at least the majority of the week).

For example, I'd cook a big pot of Chinese soup on the weekend, when I have more time. My Chinese soup is the Cantonese style, where you'd have simple ingredients like meat, some herbs, and some other dried ingredients, and you'd cook it for more than 3 hours to make the soup really tasty. Of course, the end result is usually that, you only drink the soup and eat nothing from it, as everything's flavor has been transferred into the soup itself. Anyways, that pretty much serve as the base. I'd have some of the soup for one day, plus noodles and vegetables for a simple dinner. Or I'd cook congee with the soup, to make congee really flavorful. I sometimes put Korean rice cake in the soup too. Basically it's like a starting point, I just add vegetables and starch, and that's a healthy meal right there.

I have to confess, for someone very lazy like me, I usually try to do things quick, that doesn't involve a lot of washing and chopping. Especially, after a whole day at work, dinner really a lot of times becomes just a meal to fill the stomach, instead of something to enjoy. (How sad.....)

Betty"

Yes, to have the base of food like good stock or soup like this is not only convenient, but heartwarming, too. Betty, what is "congee"?! And do you usually have the soup with yourself, or do you have someone to share it with?! Sorry, I got too nosy...

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I originally posted this recipe on 4-11-08 at "What to Cook Tonight?" Meetup site under "About Us" section as follows.

http://cooking.meetup.com/540/pages/Our_Recipes_%234%3A__Chinese_Soup_by_Betty/

Now it's 5-10-08 and I googled "congee" and found out it's rice porridge. In Chinese, also called ccho, and in Japanese it's "Okayu."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congee

When I visited Hong Kong long time ago, I was so happy to visit many dim sum and congee places. It's usually very good for breakfast, and yes, if you add it to the Chinese soup, it tastes really good. I should try it soon!

Sally