All soups › Spleen-strengthening
Tomato, potato and carrot fish soup (or with lean pork)
“The pot she makes when someone needs looking after.”
Ingredientsone pot, serves 4
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.
- Bring water to the boil, add the ginger slices and potato and keep it at a rolling boil over high heat.
- Add the tomato and carrot, along with the corn if you are using it, and boil for 10 to 15 minutes.
- 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.
- Season with salt and it is ready.
- 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.