排骨冬瓜湯與香煎午魚

Cantonese-style Asian soups are one of those foods that I prefer to cook and drink my own. I make very good soup. Most restaurants can't meet my standards. It can be too salty or too overpowering. I'm not interested in those fancy soups with pricey ingredients. I want basic nourishing goodness without the herbs and fish maw thingies.

Decided to boil up a simple pot of pork rib and winter melon soup, 排骨冬瓜湯. Thawed out a stash of frozen pork bones. Went to the supermarket and bought additional prime ribs for the base. The man would eat the meaty ribs. Got enoki mushrooms and komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach). I was pleased to find a small slab of winter melon for $1. Perfect.  

Marinated the pork first for a bit, and browned them before adding water. The larder holds all the soup-making ingredients. Dried oysters, dried squid, dried scallops and such. Soaked them and threw them all into the pot. Boiled it for 1.5 hours and threw in the mushrooms and vegetables just before serving. I do love still-crunchy vegetables in soups. 

I wasn't sure what other protein to add on to the meal till I looked at the supermarket shelves. Okay, a small piece of threadfin fillet would work. Marinated it in olive oil, ginger, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper. Then seared it. I wasn't in the mood for too much fish, so a small fillet like this would suffice. I'd take a little and the man could have the rest. Brown rice served as carbs for the meal.

Unexpectedly, tonight's dinner was balm for the man's weary work soul. It was a heavy work day for him. I didn't realize that he had calls and papers to churn out all the way till midnight. He didn't mention it, and he didn't ask me to cook. So he was very very glad when I said that I was cooking dinner. He didn't even have time for a proper lunch. Luckily there were gyozas. So a 6.45pm dinner was great before he jumped back on calls an hour later.

I usually don't bother to eat the contents of the soup. But the man loves it. Tonight, he added a dollop of XO sauce, and gnawed the giant pork bones (why?!!!!), and finished all the mushy pieces of winter melon. There was enough soup left to make a bowl for the next day. The man tends to like saving a bowl for the next day. He loves good bowls of Asian soups.