“Flavoursome duck soup that helps to reduce body ‘heatiness’.”
Salted vegetable soup is what Chinese believed to help reducing feverish body or ‘body heat’ (降火). Moreover, salted vegetable and tofu soup is my favourite. I loved having the combination cooked with duck meat.
Duck meat yields more intense flavour in the soup, especially roast duck. Yes, I prefered the roasted option, but for healthier purpose, I wouldn’t mind using fresh duck instead. If you like to eat the duck meat, use meaty or drumkstick part. As for me, I would usually use those boney parts, such as, duck neck, wings and feet from the whole roast duck to cook this soup since we do not eat those parts. As such, no food go to waste. So, we have the hot and flavoursome veggie duck soup to go along with our duck rice meal. :)
Ingredients
200 grams of duck meat (may use both fleshy and boney parts), cut into bite-size
200 grams of salted vegetable (amount about size of your palm), steeped and sliced
1 packet of beancurd aka tofu, cut into chunk cubes
1 semi-ripe tomato, quartered
2 preserved salted plums (咸水梅 “xian shui mei”), lightly mashed
1 tablespoon of white peppercorns (whole pepper), coarsely mashed
1 thumb of ginger, thinly sliced (if cooking with fresh duck meat)
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500ml)
Method
1) Steep salted vegetable in large bowl of water for 1 – 2 hours. Drain and slice or cut into right size. Set aside.
2) Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add duck meat, salted vegetable and peppercorns. Reduce heat to low fire, or enough heat to keep the soup bubbling. Simmer for 2 hours.
3) Add preserved plum, tomato and tofu. Continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. Heat off, and serve hot.
Making good salted vegetable & tofu soup, steeping of the salted vegetables with right length of time is essential. 1 to 3 hours of steeping for a handful of amount should be just right. You may taste to check, its saltiness should be slightly over brine to your tastebud.
My salted vegetable, tofu & duck soup yields about 180kcal per regular bowl.
Tips: Check the taste of the soup when simmering. Reduce simmering time, if you find the soup is salty enough to taste. The longer the soup boils, the more salty it turns, usually.
* Do not stir the soup after placing tofu in order to retain the good shape of tofu.
* Adding peppercorn is optional, if you prefer some spicy peppery flavor. I loved that!
* Preserved salty plum comes in bottles which easily available at major supermarkets (condiments compartment), minimarts, neighborhood provision shops. This is good to use for steaming fish and ground meat, too.
