One of my 2013 resolutions (I rarely made them in my life so when I made it for this year, I'm trying to stick by it!) is to learn to cook for the family.
Shocking?
I guess you should be. You see, I only cook for my kiddos. The rest of the mealtimes are pretty much handled by my MIL and sometimes my hubby when he is free from his ever busy work or when he's into one of his food making craze.
So, yeah, back to my resolutions. To learn to cook for the family.
Now my first soup experiment is the: Szechuan Vegetable Soup. A close buddy of mine shared this recipe with me and the ingredients are so simple and the steps are easy to follow that I decided to make this soup my first attempt in soup making journey. Do note that I deviated a bit from the original recipe:
Ingredients:
* 1 Szechuan vegetable (palm size) (soaked in water for 30 minutes and then sliced) (** My notes: I used 2 small size Szechuan vegetable which is about my 4 years old boy's palm size and sliced them up and soaked in water for 30 minutes - very worried that it will turn out salty and spicy that I did the other way round, which is sliced and soaked :P)
* 4 tomatoes (** My notes: I used 2 tomatoes and quartered them up)
pork ribs (rinsed and scalded with boiling water) (** My notes: I used about 250gms of pork ribs, rinsed and boiled for a few minutes)
* 3 soup bowls of water (** My notes: I used 2l of boiled water)
Methods:
1. Bring water to boil.
2. Add pork ribs, sliced Szechuan vegetables and tomatoes.
3. Simmer for 1 hour or more until the ribs are tender. Serve hot. (** My notes: I used slow cooker instead of gas stove to cook this soup, so I put on high for about 1 hour, followed by low settings about 4 hours)
Outcome:
This soup I made is too diluted, maybe I added too much water as I didn't factor in that I'm using slow cooker instead of gas stove. Also because I chose to slice and then soak the Szechuan veggies for half hour instead of the other way round, I think I have made the soup less salty and NON spicy. Whoopsss.... Nevertheless, I told myself, first attempt. Try to do better next time!
To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!
