Fuzzy Melon Soup
Down home Cantonese Soup, Fuzzy Melon Soup is quick and easy
Ingredients
- 1 fuzzy melon Scraped and cut into slices, 1/4 inch thick
- 1 salted turnip Separate pieces, you will have a center chunk wrapped with a slice of root and leaves. Use 1 piece, either the slice, or leaves or the center chunk, rinse the piece you are going to use lightly with cold water to remove salt. Return remainder to bag for later use.
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms Soaked in hot water to soften (20 minutes)
- 8 cups water or 1:1 chicken stock:water or add 1 heaping T Better Than Boullion Chicken base to water.
- 1-2 slices fresh ginger Smash slices with the flat of a cleaver or knife to help release flavors
- 1 block tofu (1/2 carton tofu) soft, medium, or firm, diced to 1/2-3/4 inch cubes if using firm tofu.
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1 stalk green onion diced
- 2-3 springs cilantro garnish
- 1 tsp soy sauce
Marinade for Pork
- 3/4 cup ground pork
- 1 tsp rice wine
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt and a dash of white pepper
Instructions
- Combine marinade ingredients with ground pork. You can use chicken or turkey if you like. Let sit for 10-15 minutes
- Scrape fuzzy melon with a knife to remove fuzz and top layer of melon. Once scraped it should still be light green in color. You can use a peeler but it will take more of the squash than necessary and the pale green layer will be removed. It's NBD. Cut melon in half lengthwise and then cut each half lengthwise to create quarters. Cut each quarter crosswise into ~1/4 inch thick slices. Set aside.
- Heat 2 tsp of vegetable or peanut oil in a medium saucepan (3-4 qt). Add ginger and pork. Saute' until pork loses pinkness.
- Add water/stock, mushrooms, and turnip to saucepan. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a low boil for 15 minutes. You can add soy sauce at this point or before tasting for salt in the next step.
- Add squash to stock, bring back to a boil and immediately reduce heat again to a low boil. Cook until squash looks opaque rather than white and has softened but still retains its shape (about 10-15 minutes). Taste and season with salt if needed.
- Add tofu and heat through. Once soup is hot again, lower heat to a gentle simmer or turn it off. Stir soup with chopsticks or spoon in one direction, add egg in a slow steady stream to create egg ribbons in soup (like egg drop soup). Or crack the egg into soup and let it poach without breaking the egg up. My dad always let me have the egg, lol. Daddy's little girl.
- Garnish with green onions or cilantro, serve immediately.
Notes
Remove mushrooms from soup, thinly slice mushrooms and add them back to the soup.
The egg is optional if you don't want to add it, fine. My dad would crack the egg into the soup and let it poach, the winner gets the egg (or whoever whined enough to get it).
Salted Turnip-here is a link to a description of the one I use. Found in most Asian markets, in particular Chinese Markets