Bitter gourd Pineapple Chicken Soup 苦瓜凤梨鸡汤

Bitter gourd pineapple chicken soup is a popular Taiwanese dish serves during summer as the soup has a cooling effect on the body.
Although the bitter gourd, as its name suggested is bitter, it complimented the sweet and a little tangy pineapple well in this soup. With the addition of the spicy bean paste, it helps to enhance the overall flavour of the entire pot of chicken soup 🍜


Servings : 4 persons

Ingredients

180~200g bitter gourd

100~130g honey pineapple chunks

3 slices ginger

8cm dried sole fish (about 1/2 fish)*

300ml water

2 tsp spicy bean paste

2 tbsp rice wine

1/2 cube chicken stock

Salt and sugar to taste

* I used dried sole fish to replace 丁香鱼 in the original recipe.  The small fish resemble small anchovy, or ikan bilis.

Seasoning ingredients

Directions

1. Toast dried sole fish in an oven toaster for about 3 minutes at 150°C, or till fragrant. Set aside.

2. Blanch chicken thighs in hot water for about 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Remove the seeds and pith from the bitter gourd. Cut into diagonal strips.

4. Cut pineapple into thick chunks

 5. Add bitter gourd, toasted sole fish, ginger and water into a rice cooker pot.

Just let the water reaches about 3/4 of the ingredients' height.  In order not to dilute the soup, try not to add too much water in the beginning as the ingredients would drain out juice during cooking.

7. Select "Soup" function and start the prrogram.

8. When the water starts to boil at about 10 to 15th minute,

add in the spicy bean paste,

rice wine,

chicken stock,

and finally the pineapple chunks.

Cover and let the cooking process contiune. Stir the ingredients twice or thrice to ensure even heating.

9. When the countdown timer reads "0:10" add in the sugar and salt to taste. I like it sweet so I added about 1~2 tbsp of raw sugar, and about 1/2 tsp of salt.

10. After the cooking process ends, let the ingredients simmer for about 1 hour in the pot.  This simmering process is optional.

1 hour after simmering

12. Serve with warm rice 🍚😋

The soup would be more oily if cooked with the chicken skin.

Recipe adapted from 健康好簡單-鳳梨苦瓜雞 with appreciation <3

Update: 7 May 2018

Use skinless chicken thighs for a slightly healthier soup :)

Garlic Chicken Soup 蒜头鸡汤

A clear garlic chicken soup with some carrot and celery slices in it. Easy to prepare in a rice cooker using the "Soup" function.

Love this ordinary soup that uses only simple ingredients but can brew a pot of great flavour soup 😋 Some bloggers commented that the soup can cure cold or flu if brew with unpeeled garlic cloves. 

Servings: 4 persons

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs, about 450~500g
10~12 cloves garlic*
2 slices ginger

2 stalks white scallion
8cm carrot, peeled and cut into thick slice
20cm celery, peeled and cut into thick slices

340~400g water

1 tbsp rice wine
Salt to taste

* You can increase the amount of garlic if you like a stronger flavour 😍

Directions

1. Cut away the hard end of the garlic cloves.

Wrap the garlic cloves with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Roast the garlic in an oven toaster for 3 to 5 minutes at 150°Celsius. 

After the garlics have slightly cool down, peeled off the skin without breaking the garlic. Set aside.

2. Rinse chicken thighs and soak in hot water for about 15 minutes.
Drain away the water.

3. Place all the ingredients, except the salt, into the inner pot of a rice cooker.

Pour water to a height of about 2 cm above the ingredients.

Add 1 tbsp of rice wine.

4. Close the lid and select "Soup function", and set the "Cooking Time" to 1 hour.

5. At the final 10 minutes, add salt according to your taste.

The soup is ready. If you don't stir the soup too frequently, you'll get a clearer soup. Or else, the broken garlics will turn the soup milky 😁

Enjoy it warm 😋💖

You can use drumsticks too :)

Rice Cooker Fish Maw Pork Rib Soup 电饭锅鱼鳔排骨汤

I love using rice cooler's "soup" function to brew my soup as I need not watch over the heat. The remnant heat after the cooking process ended, helps to simmer the meat to "fall-off-the bone" tender. 

A simple and yummy soup using fish maw 鱼鳔。

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 slice ginger
2 stalks spring onion

1 stub coriander root (optional)

250g baby wong bok 娃娃菜
1 carrot, cut into chunks
2 shiitake mushrooms, soaked and halved

20g fried fish maw

400g pork ribs
1/2 tsp rice wine 花雕酒
1/4 tsp low salt light soya sauce
1/2 tsp raw sugar

350-400m water
1 chicken stock cube
Sugar & salt to taste

Directions

1. Wash baby wong bak and cut. Set aside.

2. Rinse pork ribs and marinate with rice wine, light soya sauce and sugar for about 15 minutes.

3. Parboil the ribs by soaking in hot water for 15 minutes.

4. Rinse fish maw with hot water to soften it and to remove the oil.

Let them soak for about 15 minutes, then drain away the water. Set aside.

5. Select "steam" function and start.

The continuous high heat helps to stir-fry the ingredients to fragrant.

6. Pour about 2 tsp of olive oil into the inner pot of the rice cooker. Then drop in the ginger,  white scallions of the spring onions, and the coriander root. Stir-fry till the ingredients become fragrant.

7. Add in the carrot chunks and mushrooms.

8. Drain away the water, and add in the pork ribs, stir briefly.

9. Turn off the "steam" mode and turn on the "soup" function. Set cooking time as "1:15" hour.

Pour in about 300 to 400g of water, as well as the mushroom water, to cover about 3/4 the ingredients' height.

10. After about 30 minutes into cooking, add in the baby wong bok and soaked fish maw. Let the fish maw rest on the baby wong bok, to prevent it from over-cooking.

11.  At the final 10 minutes, add in chicken stock powder, salt and sugar to taste.

12. After the cooking program ends, let the ingredients continue to slow-cook using the remnant heat of the rice cooker.

I let the ingredients keep for about 2 hours, to get a very soft and flavourful pork ribs.

Serve warm with steamed rice :)