Soup the Catonese Way

I am Hainanese and the type of soup my family members boil are very basic with just meat or seafood and vegetables.  My mother-in-law (MIL) was a Hakka but she often boiled soup the Cantonese way.  So, her soups were more flavourful compared to what were served by my side of the family.  You will understand by looking at the additional ingredients she used in boiling her ABC soup compared to only the basic ingredients we use to boil ours.

When I boiled the ABC soup my MIL way, my sister who is the cook in the family, said that it is too fishy for her taste.

My MIL was also very good at boiling herbal soups which my family do not fancy drinking.  These are some of the ingredients she used in her herbal soups.

So, I am expected to be able to take care of my family's health by boiling nutritious and nourishing soups.  But instead of buying the herbs in large quantities separately, I tend to buy prepackaged Chinese herbal soup mix from herbal shops or from the grocery. 

When my children were younger, my favourite soup to make was Bak Kut Teh because it is herbal and a great all-in-one meal.  I will serve it with rice and fresh lettuce.  If I boil it the way my MIL boiled it, it will take 2 to 4 hours and require about 15 herbal ingredients.  You can see how it is done by watching this video by Grace of Nonya Cooking.

I tend to use pre-packaged Bak Kut Teh sachets.  One of the brands I use is A1.  All prepackaged Chinese herbal soup mix comes with cooking instructions printed on the packaging. This one is from A1 Bak Kut Teh. 

Ten bowls of water is about 1.8L but I would rather use less and add accordingly after tasting the soup.  It is suggested that the soup be left to simmer for 30 minutes after the water is boiling.  This is because the herbs in the pack have been grinded into powder form. The other brand I prefer is from Mo Sang Kor as not all the herbs in the pack have been grinded. You do not have to follow the instructions to a tee.  You can boil it further if it is not tasty enough or if the meat is not cooked tender enough.  You can also add water if you think that the soup flavour is too herbal for your liking. You can apply this principle to any soup you boil. 

You can refer to the list of ingredients and useful tips shared by Grace on her website for boiling Bak Kut Teh.  These are the ingredients I like to add when I use the pre-packed herbs.  

I was taught to use a whole garlic to clean the intestine but I prefer to smash it first before inserting it through.  You can watch this video to see the cleaning process.

The intestine boiled in the soup, can be removed to cook another dish.  My favourite way to cook it is with:

-garlic oil
-soya sauce
-dark soya sauce

-sugar
-white pepper

I cook it with 2-3 tablespoon of water till the sauce is reduced and thickened, because the sugar has  caramelized, to coat the intestine. 

As I made the soup to serve 4 in the family, I added 4 boiled eggs to it.  You can add as many as you want as it will not affect the flavour of the soup.  Just make sure that there is enough liquid to boil the additional ingredients you added to the soup.  Take note that too much liquid added will reduce the flavour of the herbal soup mix.

There are many ways to boil Chinese soup.  You can find many more techniques and useful tips from The Chinese Soup Lady.  Their information are very clear as shown in this chart the Tong sisters shared.