Paris Cooks! Herbal Chicken soup with rice vermicelli

Welcome to another edition of Paris Cooks!

This is where I chronicle my kitchen experiments for want of something better to write about. Haha… Actually no. Its more of an online recipe book for me so I know what works and what doesn’t. Also, its to tell you that yes, on top of being pretty flakey and having meltdowns and ranting at the world in general, I’m a pretty domesticated animal as well.

Today’s dish is Herbal chicken soup with rice vermicelli (mee suah as the Hokkiens say or meen seen as the Cantonese say it).

This one’s easy. I use a slow cooker.

In the mornings before I leave for work, I pop into the slow cooker about 1/4 of a chicken and some herbs from the Chinese medical shop. I like to use yok chok (I don’t know the English name, sorry!) for sweetness, some ginseng roots to cool the body, lots of red dates and wolfberries (kei chi) again for sweetness. Kei Chi is supposed to be good for the eyes too and since my Lasik, you can be sure I eat a lot of it.

I then add about 4-5 rice bowls of water, turn it on low and leave it to boil and simmer.

In the evenings when I get home, there’s a pot of steaming hot, tasty soup waiting for me! Great on cold rainy evenings or when you want something light for dinner. To make it more substantial, I blanch some rice vermicelli and add it in to the soup.

Ta-da!

I personally prefer using pork ribs to chicken for soup. I find it tastier and the soup clearer. I also prefer boiling the soup over a stove as again, its tastier, but I have to work, so beggers can’t be choosers. I also don’t add salt to my soups because I find the soup sweet and tasty enough by itself. If its too bland, its likely there was too much water.

And that brings us to the end of yet another edition of Paris Cooks! Stay tuned for upcoming reports.