ABC Soup and Cantonese style rice porridge

I've been having sore throat, cough and cold and feeling a bit feverish since Saturday. My throat is so sore that even swallowing saliva hurts a lot. I think soup is the best food for me now. I also made rice porridge (the recipe is after the soup's).

ABC soup is very common among Chinese Malaysian. The main ingredients usually used are potato, tomato and carrot. You can choose to make this a vegetarian version without adding any animal protein such as chicken, pork or beef.

To add some sweetness to this soup, I added corn. I also added some pork. I just got the inspiration to marinate the pork with some white pepper powder and soy sauce. This small tactic adds some depth to the soup, as well as removes the meaty flavour that I really dislike. I'm so happy I found the little secret!

ALAS! When the soup was done, I forgot to put the tomato in it. But it's ok, the soup is tasty nevertheless.

Let's have a look at the recipe.

Time needed:

• Preparation: 15 minutes
• Cooking: 20 minutes

Serving for 4

ABC Soup

Material:

• 2 potato
• a carrot
• a corn
• a big tomato (I forgot to add in. But no regrets! Hehe!)
• Half of a big onion
• 2 pinch of salt
• 3 cups of water
• Pork (You can replace with other protein such as chicken or beef, you can omit it as well to make a vegetarian ABC soup)
• a pinch of white pepper powder
• a tablespoon of soy sauce

Steps:

1. Cut the potato, carrot into cubes. Cut the onion into big slices. Cut the corn into halves or more if it is big. Put everything into a pot.
2. Pour 3 cups of water (I used hot water to shorten the cooking time) into the pot. 
3. While waiting for the soup to boil, marinate the pork with white pepper powder and soy sauce (I marinated it for about 10 minutes before as I used hot water)
4. When the soup boils, put the pork in the soup and turn to medium heat for about 10 minutes.
5. Add some salt to the taste of your liking.

Tadah! Done!

Note: 

You can adjust the quantity of potato and corn to your preference.

If you use a slow cooker, put everything inside the pot except the marinated pork, as the meat tends to be stiff if cooked too long. Add the meat and let the soup boil before serving.

Rice porridge with Cantonese style texture

I love the texture of Cantonese style rice porridge. It is silky smooth and incredibly soft. I dislike the perfect shape of rice grain in porridge. I guess that is the Teochew style rice porridge. 

Cantonese style rice porridge usually takes at least 2 hours of low heat simmering to generate the silky smooth, soft mushy texture. But who wants to cook so long and waste the gas. Gas is extremely expensive in Japan, for God sake! 

That's why I take the shortcut technique I learned from a Chinese online forum that name I don't remember. The theory is simple: when water freezes, it expands and break down the construction of the rice grain. And this makes it quicker to cook.

Time needed:

• Preparation: 5 minutes
• Cooking: 20 minutes

Material:

• a cup of rice
• 5 cups of hot water
• some scallop (you can omit it or put other ingredients you like, such as carrot, potato, corn or meat ball)
• suggested condiments: sesame, pickles, green onion, fried onion, soy sauce, white pepper

Steps:

1. Wash the rice and keep it with some water in the freezer unit in the fridge overnight. YES! You read it right!
2. Next morning, take out the washed rice and cook in a pot with 5 cups of hot water.
3. When the water boils, turn to low heat and continue cooking for 15 minutes.