Mixed Vegetables Miso Pumpkin Stew Soup

Ingredients:
Pumpkin 300g (without skin n seed cut into chunks)
Corn 1 (cut in 1.5 cm slices)
Carrot 1 Big or 2 Small (cut into chunks)
Baby Spinach 1 small bundle
White fungus 1 (soak and cut into big pieces)
Shimeiji mushroom 1 packets
Kombu Vegetables Stock 5 cups or 1.25L

Seasoning:
Fresh milk 1 cup (optional)
Miso 1.5 to 2 TBSP

Instructions:
1. Heat oil and fry pumpkin and 1 TBSP of miso.
2. Fry until fragrance is out. Remove half of pumpkin and put aside.
3. Blend the balance half of fried miso pumpkin into paste.
4. Add in Kombu soup and boil.
5. Add carrot and corn then boil till half cooked.
6. Pan fry mushroom without oil until fragrance and water release.
7. Before carrots and corns are too soft, add balance pumpkin, mushroom and white fungus into soup then bring to boil.
8. Add milk (optional), adjust flavour with additional miso then boil.
9. Add baby spinach just before turning off the fire.

Western Pumpkin Soup

Recipe adapted with variation from Raymond Blanc
(Serve 4)

Ingredients:
500g  Butternut Pumpkin outer skin removed & diced 200g Yellow Onions chopped finely,
40g or 2 tbsp  unsalted Butter
Sea salt
Ground white pepper
1/2 teaspn Sugar
600ml  vege or chicken stock
1 1/2 tablespoon of macasprone cheese

Steps:
1) On medium heat, soften the onions in the butter for approximately 5 minutes untill they are soft but not brown.
2) Add the diced pumpkin and soften for approximately 6-8 minutes (the softening with the butter will bring out the sweet flavor of the pumpkin) stirring from time to time then season with salt, pepper and caster sugar.
3) Add stock and bring to simmering point and simmer for 10 minutes.
4) Remove from heat and blend the content.
5) Bring the soup back to the boil and mix well with the macasprone cheese before serving.

Optional:
* To serve with a nice helping of crème fraiche or sour cream.
* Add a few teaspoons of Kirsch - cherry alcohol (I added one as I want to keep the original pumpkin taste) and boil for 2 seconds.
* Top with grilled croutons topped or roasted pumpkin seeds can also be added to this dish.

Bak Ku Teh

This Ba Ku Teh recipe was derived by "dissecting" the package of herbal soup that I bought from KL. It was freshly packed with herbs and came with a packet of seasoning which I suspect was nothing else except salt, pepper, sugar and MSG.

In case you are not aware, you can use Ba Ku Teh as one of the tonic soup for confinement which my 1st confinement lady served me.

Ingredients

• 玉竹 (Yu Zhu) x 1 handful
• 人参roots(ren shen xu) 或泡参片 (pao shen slices) x 8 small pieces
• 当归 (dang gui) x 3 slices
• 八角 (ba jiao) x 1 and 1/2
• 川弓 (chuan gong) x 1 tablespoon
• 枸杞子(gou qi zi) x 1 tablespoon
• 楜椒粒(peppercorn) x 2 and 1/2 to 3 tablespoon crushed and (reduce if don’t like too spicy)
• Garlic cloves x 2 whole fruits (around 20 pcs)
• Water x 4 litres
• Pork Rib x 1 to 3 Kg depend on how much you want to eat
• Pig Stomach (optional) x 1
• Canned Mushroom (optional) x 1
• Tau Pok (optional) x 5

Seasoning

• Dark Soy Sauce x 1 teaspoon (if u want it to be black color)
• Light Soy Sauce x 1 teaspoon \
• Pepper
• Salt
• Sugar (little bit)

Methods

1. Blanch pork ribs with hot water.
2. Put all ingredients into hot water and boil for 3 hours.
3. Season and taste to your preference.