Tomato, potato and carrot fish soup (or with lean pork)

Ingredients

Method

Add the ingredients once the water boils. For the milky white version, start the wok with ginger, pan-fry the fish golden on both sides, put it in a fish bag, then add boiling water and keep it at a hard boil for 30 to 45 minutes until it turns milky. Never use cold water.

1. Bring water to the boil, add the ginger slices and potato and keep it at a rolling boil over high heat.
2. Add the tomato and carrot, along with the corn if you are using it, and boil for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Add the fish and boil until it is just cooked. For the pork version, blanch the sliced pork or drop it straight into the boiling water.
4. Season with salt and it is ready.
5. For the milky white version, pan-fry the fish until fragrant first and put it in a fish bag, add boiling water and hold a hard boil for 30 to 45 minutes until the soup turns milky, with the rest of the ingredients going in as above.

Who it suits

• young and old alike
• poor appetite
• breastfeeding mothers (the Ming Pao Chinese medicine column says it is traditionally used to help milk flow)

Who should take care

• People with a cold stomach should add onion to take the edge off the cooling nature (the HK01 花甲 clam variation lists 3 groups it does not suit)

Soup stories

One of the soups modern Hong Kong families boil most often, ranked seventh in HK01's readers' top ten and a new classic that children ask for by name. Made with pork bones or ribs it leans towards a long-boiled 老火湯, and made with fish or lean pork it is a quick-boiled 滾湯. Both 肥媽 Maria Cordero and hotel chefs have their own upgraded versions.

From the same family

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.