If you are doing a traditional Cantonese style of Old Cucumber Pork Ribs soup, there will be a lot more ingredients to be included in this soup. Dried seafood such as dried squids or dried scallops will be included along with some other vegetables liked corn, carrots, etc to make it really comprehensive. However for some reason, I do not really liked dried squids in soup nor do my family. We usually like to keep our home-cooked soups really simple by including the core vegetable along with a poultry such as pork ribs or chicken and with a touch of salt and pepper as light seasoning.
Old cucumber is good as soups as they have a cooling effect which is especially useful now after all the CNY goodies indulgence. And coupled with its natural sweetness, just a little seasoning of salt and pepper is good enough to complete the soup as a dish on its own. I added in some honey red dates as well to give it a little more “colour” to the soup and top it with some wolfberries as well at the end of the cooking. But these are really optional.
The old cucumber was even sold really cheaply at 10 cents a piece around my hood just before the CNY which makes it really worthwhile to prepare this soup too.
Old Cucumber Pork Ribs Soup
Course: MainCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Easy2
servings15
minutes1
hour30
minutesIngredients
3 slabs of prime ribs
1 old cucumber
3 red dates, cut into halves
800ml water
Salt and pepper to taste
Handful of wolfberries (for garnish)
Directions
- Cut the old cucumber lengthwise and remove the seeds by scraping them away with a small metal teaspoon. Cut them diagonally into smaller pieces.
- Heat up some water and blanch pork ribs till the surface of the water turns foamy or appear cloudy from the impurities.
- Drain the pork ribs and rinse them over running water to flush out the impurities in the pork ribs.
- Add the pork ribs to soup pot with old cucumber slices and add water.
- Add red dates and once the soup boils, cover pot and allow it to continue simmering on low heat till done. Allow the soup to cook for a further 1.5 to 2 hrs.
- Season with salt and pepper accordingly to taste and sprinkle wolfberries over.
- Mix well and serve hot immediately to enjoy !
