Chinese Recipes | Cooking Tips | Good Eats

I am a slow cooker. Sometimes I get panicky if the recipe has a whole list of ingredients. And especially for Chinese stir-fry, you got to be fast. All your ingredients need to be ready before you start frying. If you missed something, things may get out of control. And I mean out of control!

So… for days that I do not want to spend too much time in the kitchen, I make Chinese soup and use the slow cooker. Slow cookers (pun intended, get the joke?) make great meals.

Dried Shrimp, Dried Scallops, Dried Peanuts, My RIVAL crock pot… … these are a few of my favorite things.

Ingredients:

- 500g of lean pork*
- 1 tsp, dried medium shrimp
- 1 tsp, dried mini scallops
- 1 small piece of ginger, sliced
- 1/2 cup, dried skin peanuts (for soup)
- 1 bunch of watercress*
- salt
- pepper

Method:

Put the pork, dried shrimp, dried scallops, ginger and peanuts into the slow cooker.

Pour 6 cups of boiling water into the slow cooker. Let the meat cook for 5-8 hours on low heat or 4-5 hours on high heat. I prefer the low heat setting because my crock pot lid tends to tremor (I am serious!) at high heat because of the more aggressive pressure from within.

When ready to eat, cut the watercress into smaller pieces and mix into the soup and simmer for 5 minutes (or longer, if you prefer soft mushy vegetables)

To serve:

Use a pair of chopsticks to dish out the watercress into your bowl.

As you transfer the soup into the bowl, use a sieve to filter out the little bits of meat left in the soup. This is done so that you soup looks clear.

*Substitute ingredients:

Pork bone can be used instead of lean pork. Pork bone is cheaper, but has a higher cholesterol content.

If using pork bone, put them in a big bowl and pour boiling hot water over it (This process called blanching, will remove some of the blood from the bones). After about 10 seconds, with a pair of tongs, transfer the pork bone to the slow cooker.

For vegetables, you can use other chinese vegetables like ‘youchoy’, or even broccoli.