🇭🇰 Hong Kong and 🇨🇳 China · Guangdong and Hong Kong
Sai yeung choi tongCantonese watercress pork soup
A clear Cantonese slow-simmered soup of watercress boiled for one and a half to two hours with blanched pork bones (or pork hock), usually with honey dates, sweet and bitter almonds and dried tangerine peel.
Origin and history
Sources give no origin date for Cantonese watercress soup. A Netease feature lists it as a Guangdong soup of watercress and blanched pork bones with sweet dates and apricot kernels, simmered about 1 hour 30 minutes. It belongs to the Cantonese tradition of slow-simmered soups (lo foh tong) that China Daily says can simmer for as long as four hours and are regarded as nourishment and a natural medicine.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 to 6 servings
- Total time
- 2 h 30 min
- Hands-on
- 20 min
Ingredients
- 600 g1 lb 5 oz watercress (sai yeung choi), rinsed twice, then soaked in salted water and rinsed again
- 300 g10 1/2 oz pork hock, or pork bones for a lighter soup, skin scraped clean, rinsed
- 1/2 piece dried tangerine peel (chen pi), soaked until soft, white pith scraped out
- 3 honey dates (mi zao)
- 1/2 tbsp sweet and bitter almonds (nan bei xing) mixed
- 2 dried duck gizzards, optional
- 1/2 luo han guo (monk fruit), optional, for a sweeter, cooling note
- 4 L4 quarts water
- 1 tsp salt, for soaking the watercress, plus more to taste
Method
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1. Rinse the watercress twice. The third time, soak it for a while in water with 1 teaspoon of salt, then rinse and drain.
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2. Blanch the pork hock (or pork bones) in boiling water for a few minutes, then rinse off the scum.
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3. Soak the dried tangerine peel until soft and scrape off the inner white pith with a small knife. Rinse the dates, almonds, gizzards and luo han guo.
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4. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot and add everything, the watercress too.
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5. Boil over high heat for 15 minutes, then turn the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours. With pork bones instead of hock, 1 hour 30 minutes is enough.
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6. Season with salt to taste and serve the clear broth with the watercress. The pork is eaten with a little soy sauce if you like.
Notes
- The watercress goes into the pot at the start and cooks for the whole time, so it ends up very soft.
- With a pressure cooker, 30 to 45 minutes after the valve starts to rise is enough (the Hong Kong source gives this for the hock version).
- Variations are choices within one soup: pork bones for about 1 hour 30 minutes or hock for 2 hours, and extras such as dried duck gizzard or luo han guo. The Netease article adds two slices of ginger for people with a cold stomach, since watercress is considered cooling.
- Cantonese slow-simmered soups (lo foh tong) are clear broths, simmered for a long time over low heat.
Adapted from Ufood Hong Kong, pork hock soup with watercress, duck gizzard and luo han guo and Netease feature, Cantonese watercress and pork bone soup.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.