Chinese Recipes | Cooking Tips | Good Eats

Broccoli is a versatile vegetable. It can be steamed, stir-fried or boiled. Crown broccoli was on sale ($0.99/lb) that day so I bought 4 large broccoli heads.

Because I like to drink soup, I decided to make broccoli soup.

I usually make Chinese soup with pork. The pork adds an abundance of flavour to the soup. And of course, I have my secret ingredients for making Chinese soup - dried shrimp and dried mini scallops.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 300g lean pork, pre-mixed with garlic (1 clove) and ginger (5 thin slices)
(I will talk more about this in my subsequent post)
- 1 tsp dried shrimp, pre-cooked
- 1 tsp dried mini scallops, pre-cooked
- 1 large broccoli head, cut into broccoli florets
- salt
- white pepper

Method:

Heat up oil in a saucepan, medium heat. While doing this, set 5 cups of water to boil.

When the oil is hot, transfer the pork, with the garlic and ginger, to the saucepan using a pair of tongs.

Add in the dried shrimp and dried mini scallops.

Let the pork cook on each side for about 5 minutes.

Add the 5 cups of boiling water into the saucepan and bring it to a boil.

When the water is boiling, reduce the heat to a low setting and allow to simmer for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, add in the broccoli florets and allow to cook for 3 mins. (3 mins if you want your broccoli to still be crunchy, else 4-5 mins for a softer bite)

Add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, use a sieve to filter out the pieces of garlic and ginger. You can choose to eat the dried shrimp and scallops. They still have flavor.