Old Cucumber Soup Recipe, A Soothing and Nourishing Cantonese Dish

Old Cucumber Soup (老黄瓜汤) is another slow cooked yet very popular Cantonese Dish. It is common to find this soup in Chinese restaurants. If you plan to cook one, Old Cucumber Soup Recipe is also very versatile, you can add Seafood such as scallops or Anchovies, Vegetables such as Corn or Carrot, and you can even cook the Halal version using Chicken Bones instead of Pork Ribs. 

What makes this Old Cucumber Soup Recipe unique is it uses a Candied Date as one of the ingredients which enhance the sweet flavours of the soup. Old Cucumber Soup itself is a nutritional, comforting, and a hearty meal. It helps to cool the body, lower cholesterol concentration and aids in detoxification. By drinking it regularly, it can promote the elimination of stool in the intestines since it contains high dietary fiber with very low calories. Many people also use it as a home remedy to help soothe sore throats and coughs.

EQUIPMENTS:

• Knife
• Cutting Board
• Strainer
• 2 Stewpan
• Bowl
• Spoon 

INGREDIENTS:

• 800g Old Cucumber
• 800g Pork Ribs
• 1 pcs Carrot
• 1 pcs Corn
• 1 pcs Dried Squid
• 13 pcs Red Dates
• 10g Goji Berries
• 10g Yu Zhu
• 1 pcs Candied Date
• ¼ inch Ginger
• Salt

OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS:

1½ tbsp Rice Wine

HOW TO COOK OLD CUCUMBER SOUP:

1. Peel the Ginger skin, then slice it thin
2. Wash and rinse the Pork Ribs
3. Pour Hot Water into a Stewpan then add Pork Ribs, add in few slices of Ginger
4. [Optional]
   Add Rice Wine to remove the Pork smell
5. Blanch the Pork Ribs for about 5 mins to remove the impurities
6. Cut Corn into pieces, if you find it difficult use the heel of the Knife
7. Peel the Carrot skin, remove top and bottom part, then cut into smaller pieces
8. Take the Pork Ribs out with a Strainer and rinse it with Cold Water, discard leftover Water in the Stewpan
9. Rinse the Dried Squid, Carrot and Corn
10. Put some Salt into your hand then rub the Old Cucumber skin with it to remove the dirt
11. Rinse it well with Water afterward
12. Remove the top and bottom part of Old Cucumber, then cut it into half
13. Scrape the Old Cucumber seeds with a Spoon, then cut it into thick, smaller pieces
14. Cut the Dried Squid into pieces, remove the eyes, beak and the bone if there is any
15. Wash the Red Dates, Yu Zhu and Goji Berries with Warm Water
16. [Optional]
    Wash the Candied Date with Warm Water, take out the seed if you want to use it
    Remove the Red Dates seed or use the seedless ones 
17. Fill some Water enough to submerge all the ingredients into the Stewpan, turn on the heat until it’s boiling
18. Add all ingredients except Goji Berries into Stewpan
19. Simmer it for 75 mins and keep the lid on to enable heat distribution among ingredients as this aids the build up good flavour
20. Check the water level every 20 minutes, make sure the soup did not dry up, if you need to add Water use Hot Water to keep the Heat constant
21. After 75 mins, open the lid then taste the soup 
22. [Optional]
    Season it with Salt 
23. Add in Goji Berries then simmer for another 15 mins with minimum heat
24. it’s ready to be served

PRO TIP:

• Choose Old Cucumber that has more wrinkles and darker skin which feels heavy in your hands. Those Old Cucumber are ripe, very sweet and will give you better aroma to your soup
• Ensure the Corn Kernels are plump ad not dried as it will enhance the sweetness of the soup
• Do not peel the Old Cucumber skin, it helps preventing it from disintegrating into the soup during long simmering
• Use of Boiling Water to reduce Simmer time.
• If a woman is menstruating or just got pregnant in the first trimester, it would be better not to drink this soup as it could be too cooling for the body.

Recipe inspired from Fundamental Made channel, want to know the original video? watch the video