(Non-Halal) Old Cucumber Soup - 老黄瓜汤

Soup is a must dishes in most of chinese family. This soup is one of my favourite. Old cucumber is not only cooling for blistering hot days but is also good for the skin. I read in a magazine that it helps to prevent aging, it is also high in dietary fiber, calcium, iron and rich in vitamin A, B6 and C. In Chinese Herbology, we believe that all the food we take have the 'yin' and 'yang' properties. 'Yin' foods have the cooling properties while 'yang' foods, on the other hand have 'heaty' properties. Some foods are 'neutral'. Long time ago the chinese people believes firmly that our diet (along with factors like stress, climate and lifestyle) plays an important role in achieving balanced 'yin' and 'yang' for an individual. In a country like Malaysia, where it's humid & warm all the time. Once a while we consumed cooling foods to get rid the heat in our body and this old cucumber soup is definitely a must. I think this soup is also very beneficial for others in summer time.

Old cucumber is actually matured cucumber. It has a brownish hard skin on the outside. It looks like a melon because it is fat and squat. The picture above is how the old cucumber look like. The older the cucumber, the better it tastes!☻

Ingredients:
1 medium size old cucumber (老黄瓜)
500 g pork ribs
10-15 dried red dates - rinse with water
4 dried scallops - soaked & rinse with water
some dried octopus - rinse and cut into small pieces
1.5 litres of water
salt to taste

Method:

Blanch your meat - if you are using pork ribs, blanching is necessary for a clear soup.

Keep the cucumber skin on, wash and scrub the skin. Seeded and slice it into 1 inch chunks.

Bring the 2 litre water to boil. Add in the pork ribs, old cucumber chunks, dried octopus, dried scallops & red dates. Boil furiously for 10 minutes or so. Then simmer the soup in lower heat, cover the pot and let it simmer nicely for 2 hours. Get rid of the excess oil (which floats to the top) using a fine steel sieve.

Season with salt before serving.

Note: Dried octopus and scallops are added for the added flavour of this soup☻