🇨🇳 China and 🇭🇰 Hong Kong · Guangdong, Hong Kong and Chaoshan
Winter melon soup
A clear soup of winter melon simmered with lean pork, dried scallops and dried shiitake, or with pork ribs, honey dates and beans, or the carved-melon form in which a hollowed winter melon holds diced chicken, ham, scallop, shrimp and mushroom and is steamed whole.
Origin and history
Sources give no origin date for winter melon soup. In Hong Kong and Guangdong it is a family soup, served clear and light, and belongs with the slow-simmered soups (lo foh tong) of the Cantonese table, in which soup is regarded as nourishment and a natural medicine. Chaoshan cooking serves winter melon as a carved melon, with the filling inside the melon.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 45 min
- Hands-on
- 25 min
Ingredients
- 500 g1.1 lb winter melon, peeled, seeds removed, diced
- 7 to 8 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked until soft, stems cut off, caps diced
- to taste dried scallops (conpoy), soaked until soft; keep the soaking water (the source gives no amount; a few pieces)
- 200 g7 oz lean pork, diced
- 1.2 L5 cups water, plus the scallop soaking water
- 1/2 tsp salt, for the pork marinade, plus more to taste
- a little white pepper, for the pork
- 1/2 tsp sugar, for the pork
- a little light soy sauce, for the pork
- a little sesame oil, for the pork
- 1/2 tsp cornstarch, for the pork; plus a little to scrub the mushrooms
Method
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1. Soak the dried scallops and shiitake in water until soft, usually overnight (a quick soak in hot water also works). Keep the scallop water.
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2. Cut the stems off the shiitake, rub the caps with a little cornstarch, rinse and dice. Shred the scallops by hand.
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3. Mix the diced pork with the salt, pepper, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch and leave for 20 minutes.
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4. Put the water and the scallop soaking water in a pot with the mushrooms and scallops. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil for 10 minutes.
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5. Add the winter melon and cook until it turns translucent and tender when pressed with a spoon, about 15 minutes.
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6. Add the pork, stirring so it does not clump, and simmer for 10 minutes more until it is cooked through. Season with salt and serve.
Notes
- This is the quick family soup: clear and light. The Hong Kong article it follows suggests it for hot, sweaty days, with advice from a Chinese medicine practitioner to leave out ginger if the aim is to cool; add a couple of slices if you dislike any fishy smell, or more if you tend to feel cold.
- A slow-simmered Cantonese version replaces the pork and scallops with 300 g (10 1/2 oz) of pork spare ribs (blanched), 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) of winter melon in big chunks with the skin and seeds left on, 3 slices of ginger and 2 honey dates, and simmers about 1 hour 30 minutes. Cantonese rib soups also appear with beans (mei dou) and dried octopus, or with lotus leaf and adzuki beans.
- In the carved-melon version (dong gua zhong), described for Chaoshan, the melon is hollowed and filled with diced chicken, ham, dried scallop, shrimp and shiitake, covered and steamed. A Hong Kong recipe for a mini melon pot fills it with scallop, pork, shrimp and lotus seeds in broth and steams it over high heat for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes. It is the same soup in another presentation.
- Add a bowl of cooked rice to turn the soup into a one-pot meal.
Adapted from HK01 recipe, winter melon, dried scallop and shiitake lean pork soup, Bowtie, winter melon soup recipes (ribs, honey dates; mini winter melon pot), and The Paper, regional winter melon dishes (carved melon).
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.