Gingery Egg Drop Soup

Better than the Chinese restaurant egg drop soup!  Easy.  And Fast!

This is another 15 minute meal.  My “go to” soup recipe when I’m pressed for time or I’m simply being lazy but I want some soup.

The tiny strips of crunchy, tender ginger in every spoon are what make this soup.  This is absolutely perfect with fried rice. Another quick and easy dish… Or paired with egg rolls.  Sam’s club sells pretty decent egg rolls and is best warmed up in the oven.

Other than this is being tasty… it is very affordable.  This recipe serves 6 people and cost less than $3 provided you already have the other ingredients on hand.  And if not, the other ingredients are worth the upfront investment because you will be using them again, and again for this recipe and other Asian recipes.  This soup is of course a great break from Ramen noodles if you are a college student. 

You can split this recipe in half if you’re only serving 2 or 3 people…

Step by step instructions and recipe below:

Gather all your ingredients.  Remember the chicken granules.  I forgot to take a photo of it…

Sprinkle a pinch of ground black pepper over the cracked eggs and beat lightly. Set aside.

Mix cornstarch and water.  Sorry. This is not a good photo.

Combine chicken broth, water, ginger, wine, sesame and hot pepper oil and chicken granules in a 2 quart pot.

Bring to a boil.

Give the cornstarch another stir, and drizzle cornstarch mixture into the boiling chicken broth, while stirring with a long chopsticks or ladle.

Drizzle beaten eggs, in circular direction, over the broth.

Stir immediately three or four times.

Add chopped green onions.

Stir and taste to see if additional ground black pepper and or salt is needed.

Serve hot.

Gingery Egg Drop Soup

2 – 14 ounces low sodium can chicken broth

2 cups filtered water

1 ½ inch piece ginger – peeled and sliced into tiny strips

1 TBSP. white wine

1 tsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. hot pepper oil

1 tsp. chicken granules

4 TBSPs. cornstarch + 6 TBSPs. water

4 large eggs – lightly beaten

¼ 8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

3 stalks green onions – chopped

Crack the eggs into a medium size bowl and sprinkle ground black pepper.  Beat the eggs lightly and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with 6 tablespoons water.  Stir until cornstarch is dissolved.   Set aside

Combine chicken broth, water, ginger, wine, sesame and hot pepper oil and chicken granules in a 2 quart pot.

Bring these combined ingredients to a full boil over medium heat.

Give the cornstarch another stir, and drizzle cornstarch mixture into the boiling chicken broth, while stirring with a long chopsticks or ladle.  Boil chicken broth for another minute.

Reduce heat to low.

Drizzle beaten eggs, in circular direction, over the broth.  Stir immediately three or four times.

Add chopped green onions.  Stir and taste to see if additional ground black pepper and or salt is needed.

Serve hot.

Tess’ Kitchen Secrets:

1. Be sure to pick young, tender ginger.  I found that Wal-Mart sells the best ginger.  Whoever is their supplier… their ginger is always fresh, young and tender.  How can you tell a young ginger from the mature ones?  Young ginger has a light yellowish skin, plump and tender to the crunch.  The skin is most definitely not dry and the flesh not stringy.
2. As for the wine, you may use white wine, medium dry sherry and or rice wine.  I used white wine because that’s what I had on hand.
3. When I was still on the experimenting stage for soup, the soup was good but it tasted as if something was missing… And I found that adding a teaspoon of chicken kicked this soup to another notch.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!

Tess

P.S.  I wanted to leave you a photo showing you the difference between young and mature ginger.  I know most you already knows… so this is for those who don’t and would appreciate the information…

Texas Country Turnip Green Soup

My husband ate several bowls of this soup.  A testament of how much he liked it…

He doesn’t always like every dish that I cook.  And when he does… when there’s a dish that he really likes, he’ll eat it until it’s gone.  And if there is some left over, he’ll eat it the next day.

He’s afraid I’m not going to cook it as good.  So he wants to enjoy the moment.  Savor every spoonful.

My poor husband.  I am to blame for his behavior.  I have a bad habit of tinkering with recipes I have already perfected.  And he doesn’t like it one bit.  Because when he likes a dish, he likes it exactly the same way as he has tasted it the very first time…

And with me tinkering with recipes all the time… he’s never sure if he’s going to have the same dish ever again!

I’ve successfully tested several recipes last week.  All dishes came out good.

And this soup was one of the dishes that stood out.  Even I was amazed on how tasty it was.  Considering how simple were the ingredients…

Anyway…

I wanted to share this soup with you.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did.

Here’s what you need…

12 ounces salt pork. Chopped.

Onion, garlic, celery, cubed ham, frozen chopped turnip greens…

Potatoes, chopped…

3 cans great northern beans, 2 cans low sodium chicken broth + 2 cups water…

herbs and spices…

What to do…?

Heat a large pot over medium heat.  Cook salt pork until it has rendered most of its fat… Remove all but 3 tablespoon of the fat.

Add onions and garlic.  Saute until onions are translucent.

Add the celery.  And saute a few minutes.

Add the beans and the ham…

Add the potatoes…

And the chicken broth.  And water…

Stir.

Add the frozen chopped turnip greens.  Stir to combine.

Cover pot and bring soup to a boil over medium heat.

Once boiling, reduce heat.

Simmer soup for 1 hour.  Stirring occasionally while simmering…

After 1 hours, soup should be lightly creamy.   Taste before adding coarse sea salt and MSG if desired…

Serve with your favorite bread or corn bread.

The RECIPE:

Texas Country Turnip Green Soup

12 ounces salt pork – chopped

1 large onion – chopped

4 garlic cloves – smashed, peeled and chopped

3 sticks celery – chopped

5 medium size potatoes

1 pound cubed ham

3 cans (14.5 ounces each) Great Northern Beans – drained and rinsed

2 cans (14 ounces each) Low Sodium chicken broth + 2 cups water

1 (16 ounce) package frozen chopped turnip greens

1 tsp. dried chives

½ tsp. dried marjoram leaves

½ tsp. ground black pepper

½ tsp. ground hot pepper (optional)

1 tsp. coarse ground sea salt – if needed

Pinch of MSG (optional)

NOTE:  If you can’t find salt pork, you can use pancetta or thick slices bacon.

Rinse salt pork under cold running water.  Pat dry with paper towels.  Slice salt pork into ½ inches.

Heat a large pot and sauté salt pork until slightly crispy and it has rendered most of its fat.  Remove most of the fat except 3 tablespoons.

Sauté onions until translucent.  Add garlic and sauté until light golden brown.

Add the celery and sauté a few minutes.

Add the cubed ham and potatoes.  Sauté a few minutes.  Add drained and rinsed Great Northern Beans.  Stir to combine.

Add chicken broth and 2 cups water.  Stir.

Add the frozen chopped turnip greens.  Stir.

Bring soup to a boil.

Once boiling, reduce heat and add the following:  dried chives, marjoram leaves, black pepper and ground hot pepper.

Simmer soup for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Taste the soup for additional salt.  And add a pinch of MSG to perk up the taste.

Serve warm with your favorite bread or corn bread.

Tess’ Kitchen Secrets:

#1 – Salt pork makes a big difference in taste when it comes to vegetable soups.  But you have to sauté it to get rid most of the fat.

#2 – Coarse sea salts are excellent in soups!

#3 – Draining and rinsing canned beans reduces gas.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!

Tess Harris

Kale: Amazingly Delicious Super Nutritious Soup

Super food.  Highly nutritious.  Rich in Vitamins.

These are just some of the praises this vegetable receives from nutrition experts and health foodies.

And they are all correct.

At the outset.  You look at this vegetable, and you see green leaves that are rough and rugged.  And they look dry too.  And you wonder… how can this possibly be good for me?  Let alone taste good?

I have ignored kale for so long.  Until about two years ago when my son, Ramon, was looking for vegetables he could eat and alternative ways of cooking them.  We decided on trying kale – roasted.  Roasted with olive oil, garlic, kosher salt and ground black pepper.  The result was crunchy and delicious.  I could eat them for snacks.  No kidding.  It was that good. Though, I’d had to be careful.  They burn easy if left too long in the oven.

Anyway…

Other than roasting the kale, I’ve not tried cooking it in soups.

I thought to myself… OK… kale is good roasted.  But how would it taste cooked in soup?  Can it even taste good in soup?

Skeptic.  Always.  I think I was born skeptic.  It takes awhile for me to come around and believe on something.  I have to see it to believe it.  And when it comes to food, I have to taste it and stomp down my skepticism.

I am one of those people…

You almost have to force me.  Or force something on me.  Shove it down my throat before I believe you.  And when I like it… I won’t stop having it.  Have it until I have so much of it.  Until I get sick of it.  And won’t have it again for a very long time.

I seem to live my life this way.

As for this kale soup.  I am on it’s beginning stage.  I can probably eat kale soup for the next six months.  Maybe longer.  Before I get tired of it.

Few days ago I want to make kale soup again so I went to the supermarket.  But they didn’t have it.

THEY DIDN’T HAVE IT!

I asked the produce guy…

“Excuse me! I am looking for kale.  They’re usually in this area, but I don’t see it.  Do you have any inside…?”

“No ma’am.  We received a shipment today, but they weren’t good.  Sort of moldy.  So we didn’t put it out…”

“Hmmm. OK… thanks!”

I can’t believe they didn’t have kale!

I’ll  have to go back today to see if they have it…

Kale.  They surely don’t look pretty.  And it is almost shocking how good they are in soups.

You need two or three bunches.  I used two bunches on my first try.  But they shrink once they’re cooked.  So I am going to use three bunches next time.

Wash them under cold running water to remove dirt and sand.  Tear leaves from the stems.  Discard stems.  Leaves should be torn into small chunks.

Once washed.  Shake off excess water and tear the leaves into chunks like these.  Place in a colander.

You need salt pork.  Or one pound of pancetta or thick sliced of bacon.

I always like to wash the salt pork under warm running water.  And pat dry with paper towel before slicing.

Thinly sliced.

Two large potatoes.

Peeled.  Washed and diced.

Large onion.

Peeled, chopped and diced.

I LOVE red onions.  It has more character than yellow. So pretty!

Garlic cloves

Peeled and chopped. (Sorry… this pic seems a little blurred.)

In all my recipes… I always say – smash, peeled and chopped.  That’s because it is so much easier to peel garlic cloves once they’re smashed or cracked.  The skins peel right off.

In the Philippines, when I was there.  People used garlic without peeling them.  I always wonder about that.  But the garlic cloves were so tiny that maybe that’s why people didn’t peel them.  It was simply troublesome to peel them.

I don’t know… maybe they’ve managed to grow fat garlic by now.  I don’t know.

3 cans of chicken broth or stock  – about 4 cups total. And 4 cups filtered water.

Heat a large, deep pot and add the sliced salt pork.

Cook over medium heat until until pork has rendered most of its fat.

I love salt pork.  Their beautiful! And tasty.

Remove the salt pork with a slotted spoon.  Set aside.

Also remove most of the rendered fat, but retain at least 3 tablespoons in the pot.

Saute onions and garlic in the pot.  Until onions are translucent.

Add the potatoes and saute for several minutes.

Add the cans of chicken broth or 4 cups chicken stock.  And 4 cups filtered water.

Cover pot and bring soup to a boil.

Once boiling.  Skim off the foam that rises to the top.

Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender.

Add the kale.

Stir and simmer until kale is tender.  About 20 minutes.

Season with 2  teaspoons coarse sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.

Cooked and ready to serve.

Taste to see if additional salt and black pepper is needed.

And yes.  This pot of soup doesn’t look inviting.  It looks plain and ordinary.

But you know… somethings are good – plain and ordinary.

You’re just gonna have to take my word on this.  And try this soup for yourself…

And remember this…?

This salt pork is what makes this soup taste extra ordinary!

Topping a bowl of kale soup with several pieces of cooked salt pork, cooked pancetta, or thick slices of crispy bacon is mandatory.

Here’s the recipe:

Super Kalecious Soup

Serve 4 – 6 people

2 – 3 bunches kale – washed; leaves strip from stems and torn into chunks

12 ounces salt pork – rinsed under warm running water and thinly sliced

2 large potatoes – peeled and chopped

1 large red or yellow onion – peeled and chopped

4 large cloves garlic – smashed, peeled and chopped

3 cans (14.5 ounces each) chicken broth or 4 cups chicken stock

4 cups filtered water

2 ½ tsps. coarse celtic sea salt

½ tsp. ground black pepper

Wash kale under cold running water to remove dirt and sand.  Tear leaves from the stems.  Discard stems.  Leaves should be torn into small chunks.

Heat a large, deep pot and add the sliced salt pork.

Stir and cook salt pork over medium heat until until pork has rendered most of its fat.

Remove the salt pork with a slotted spoon into a dish and set aside.

Also remove most of the rendered fat, but retain at least 3 tablespoons in the pot.

Sauté onions and garlic in the salt pork fat.  Until onions are translucent.

Add the potatoes and saute for several minutes.

Add the cans of chicken broth or 4 cups chicken stock.  And 4 cups filtered water.

Cover pot and bring soup to a boil over medium heat.  Once boiling.  Skim off the foam that rises to the top.

Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender.

Add the kale.  Stir and simmer until kale is tender.  About 20 minutes.

Season with 2½ teaspoons coarse sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.

Scope about 1½ cups of kale soup into a serving bowl.  Top each bowl with several pieces of salt pork.

Serve piping hot with good crusty bread.

Tess’ Kitchen Secrets:

#1 – Salt pork.  Topping each bowl of kale soup with several pieces of thinly sliced, cooked salt pork is mandatory.  It completes the soup.

#2 – Chicken broth is the very foundation of this soup.  If you have time to make homemade chicken stock, the better.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!

Tess Harris