It is the Double Ninth Festival, already deep autumn, the weather is getting cooler, it is the time for health and nourishment. In autumn, soups are most important for "preventing dryness". A delicious and nourishing soup will be the best gift for the Double Ninth Festival to show filial piety to the elderly and repay your family. Which soups can help nourish your lungs and moisturize your body in autumn?
Beauty Nourishing Duck Soup
To make a qualified duck soup, you need to use a local duck that is at least one year old. It should be simmered over low heat for at least 4 hours, becoming more fragrant the longer it simmers. The best supplementary ingredients for the duck soup are red dates, goji berries, Codonopsis pilosula, and ginger. There are two popular methods of making duck soup in Chengdu restaurants. The first is sour pickled cabbage stewed duck. The pickled cabbage should be of good quality, with a slightly yellowish appearance and a slightly chewy texture. Its taste should be sour and spicy, with a hint of sweetness. The aroma of pickled peppers unique to the pickling water from the old jar can be smelled at first glance. If it is too salty, it will taste bitter and overwhelm the freshness. The success of a pot of duck soup depends on this. The second method is to stew the duck with Chinese bellflower root. If you are making it at home, remember to use the stem of the Chinese bellflower root instead of the leaves, and it is best to add it to the duck soup after it has been simmered for more than half of the cooking time for the best texture.
Blood-nourishing and Qi-enhancing Pigeon Soup
Almost all stewed product stores have pigeon soup. After consulting with a Cantonese master specializing in nourishing soups, I got the answer: if you want to eat meat, use squab, if you want to drink soup, use mature pigeons. Squab is good for beauty, while mature pigeons combined with Chinese angelica, astragalus, and red dates have the strongest blood-nourishing function. It is understood that cooking various types of slow-cooked soups has always been a traditional strength of Cantonese cuisine, and even the somewhat daunting scorpions have been "thrown" into the pot. There is a dish called "Stewed Pigeon with Live Scorpion" that is completely made using traditional folk cooking techniques in Guangdong. It uses high-quality live scorpions, mature pigeons, lean meat, old chicken, Jinhua ham, and pork belly, and is stewed in a high broth for 5 hours. After being served, the scorpions are still lifelike and quite "stylish".
Calcium-enriched Pig's Trotters vs Bear's Paws
Pig's trotters are nicknamed "trotter flowers" by people from Sichuan, while people from Guangdong call them "pork hands". Pig's trotters are not only delicious but also rich in collagen and various amino acids. It is said that their nutritional composition is almost identical to the prohibited "bear's paws". Stewed pig's trotters can be found in almost any restaurant, even in "fly restaurants". The accompaniments are also quite diverse, including snow peas (white kidney beans), pickled cabbage, peanuts, kelp, etc. Snow pea stewed trotter soup is extremely exquisite. The preferred ingredient is the pig's "front trotter," and the hind trotter is generally not used. The ratio of pig's trotters to snow peas, the heat and time at each stage, the seasonings used, and the timing of adding them to the pot are all carefully controlled based on experience. The original soup is finally garnished with chopped green onions, and the thick and creamy milk soup, the tender and white trembling trotters, together with the green and white of the chopped green onions, make the soup delicious and aromatic. Eating meat and drinking soup, you will feel extremely satisfied!
