How to cook ABC soup using rice cooker?

Are you craving for any hot home-cooked soup? I am a big fan of diverse kinds of soup, because they are heart-warming. For Oriental soup, my mind is having fun remembering delicious lotus root soup, apple pear soup, meesua soup, chicken soup, fish maw soup, Tom Yum soup, kimchi soup, and the list goes on. For Western soup, my favourite ones include pumpkin soup (especially those as a starter in the Michaelmas formal halls), creamy mushroom soup, tomato soup (like the one I had in Cafe Carringtons on 20081025), clam chowder soup, etc.

Herein, I share how to cook ABC soup (also known as 罗宋汤) using rice cooker. The beauty of ABC soup is that it encompasses many nutrients in 1 single soup. Normally, I would recommend cooking oriental soups in slow cooker, but it can be heavy to manage, hence I start considering light rice cooker as a cooking utensil.

Materials and methods:

• blanched meat (1-2 chicken drumsticks/ parts of beef shanks/2-3pork ribs)
• 2-3 potatoes, peeled and cut to chunks
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut to chunks
• 1 large yellow onions/ 2 red onions, peeled and chopped
• 1 tomato, wedged
• 1 sweet corn, cut into large chunks
• 1-2 slices ginger (optional, if you like spicy flavour)
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp ground pepper
• throw all ingredients into boiling water that sufficiently covering all ingredients
• 2 stalks celery, sliced (optional)
• 1 tbsp anchovies/ikan bilis (optional), it’s a good substitute for meat
• dried scallops (optional) give sweetness taste
• Serve with chopped cilantro/coriander

Tips:

• Blanch meat for at least 5 minutes, rinse with cold water (to stop the cooking process), set aside.
• Bones make the soup tastier.
• Once the soup is boiled, open the lid of rice cooker to prevent overflowing and continue cooking for 10-15 minutes.
• Consider also using pre-cooked meat because the cooking time for the rice cooker may not be long enough to fully cook meat. If cooking using a slow cooker, put on high temperature for the first hour.
• I prefer to add red dates when I cook with a slow cooker, but not a rice cooker with a metal or non-stick pot. I cut the red dates to enhance release of nutrients and flavors, as I learned from mama.

20160130 I have not been feeling well for the past few days. Yes, I suffered from indigestion and morning sickness. It should be called whole-day sickness, because the term morning is pretty misleading. Please pray for me. Today, I cooked the ABC soup using 0.7L (mini) PowerPac slow cooker for 180 minutes. Since the potatoes, meat, etc have become relatively bland, I dip them in a sauce of light soy sauce and sesame (made in 2:1 ratio) and tasted delicious.

***

For 20170814, I used 4 chicken drumsticks as they were produced on 20170812 and had to be consumed within 3 days. Tomorrow, I am not cooking much as I would stay at work longer. I am happy that I am generous to myself today.

In a nutshell: 4 blanched deskin chicken drumsticks + 2 potatoes + 2 carrots + 1 yellow onion + 2 cloves garlic + a thumb of ginger + a pinch of sea salt (after boiling).

For future, I intend to exclude onion from the ingredients as I don’t really like the strong onion flavor. The exclusion will also save my tears from chopping onion.

***

20170820 version (cooked using a rice cooker): 3 skinless drumsticks (more expensive, but save my time) + 3 potatoes + 2 carrots + 1 tomato + 2 garlic cloves.

***

20170821 version (I cooked it at late night (11pm) using a slow cooker for my meals, including breakfast, on 20170822): 3 skinless drumsticks + 4 potatoes + 2 carrots + 1 tomato + 3 garlic cloves + Chinese medicine herbs [6 red dates/jujube + 2 Codonopsis pilosula (党参 [1], dangshen) + Dioscorea opposita (淮山, huaishan) + few Polygonatum odoratum (玉竹) + wolfberries] + 1l water.

Some notes:

1. My Russell Hobb slow cooker was almost full! I think these ingredients and 1l of water are the max I could add to it.
2. Mama advised to cook Chinese medicine herbs with meat/chicken only, not with potatoes and carrots.  I don’t have to add Chinese medicine herbs when I cook ABC soup.
3. For 20170821 version, I cooked using the high heat of a slow cooker from ~11 pm to 8 am. The Lebanese potatoes and Australian carrots were too soft and not as tasty as when I cooked them using a rice cooker. It seemed that I need to experiment more with the cooking duration.
4. Since our flat (in autumn 2017) was of a studio type, the aroma was pretty strong when I woke up in the morning of 2017822. When (i) Little Prince sleeps with me and (ii) I could work from home, I will cook using a slow cooker in the morning after he goes to school, for our dinner.

***

20170825 version (I cooked this vegetarian version at late night (11pm) using a slow cooker for my meals, including breakfast, on 20170826): 4 potatoes + 2 carrots + 1 tomato + 2 garlic cloves + ~1 litre of water + a pinch of salt after it’s cooked.

On 20170826, I woke up ~ 3 am plus to urinate hence I switched off the slow cooker cooking my ABC soup. It seemed that cooking using high heat for 5 hrs was good as the potatoes were less soggy. I also thought of an idea of adding the remaining millet to the ABC soup in the future.

***

20170906 version (for 20170907 meals), I cooked ABC soup for Little Prince and me using a slow cooker starting from 10.30 pm (high heat): 4 skinless chicken thighs + 3 carrots + 3 potatoes + 2 gempal millet + 1 small thumb of ginger + 2 cloves of garlic + a pinch of salt after it’s cooked. It ended up as a millet porridge!

***

For 20170925 version, I cooked ABC soup using my favorite Russel Hobbs slow cooker with these ingredients: 3 Australian carrots + 2 Cyprus potatoes (it took longer to wash at the washroom instead of the kitchen basin, as soils stick to the skin) + a little ginger + 2 cloves garlic. Remember to add a pinch of salt after it is well cooked and stir it.

***

[1] Its functions include 补中益气，健脾益肺, 增强免疫力, 扩张血管, 降压, 改善微循环,增强造血功能.

Tags: Australia, China, cook, Cyprus, drink, eat, food, generous, happygreenpanda, health, Indonesia, Lebanon, love, Malaysia, millet, recipe, Singapore, soup