Spinach Soup

I'm a soup lover (though I'm not Cantonese) and my mum would always pamper me with my favourite soups when I go back for dinner at her place. This soup - spinach soup - is definitely one of my favourites (and my mum's too!). I cooked this tonight for our dinner and had an extra bowl of it! :)



Spinach soup

*Skip the dried scallop and dried shrimp for tots below 18mths*

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch spinach or baby spinach (heng cai in cantonese or xian cai in mandarin) - I prefer baby spinach coz it's easier to prepare and more tender
• fishballs
• 1 chicken carcass or 3 chicken breast bones
• pork ribs
• dried scallop
• dried shrimp
• ikan bilis
• 3 cloves garlic (keep the skin on)

Method:

1. Blanch chicken bones and pork ribs.
2. Wash the ikan bilis and dried shrimp thoroughly.
3. Rinse the garlic.
4. Rinse the dried scallop and place into a small soup bag.
5. Put the chicken bones, pork ribs, ikan bilis, dried shrimp, garlic and dried scallop to boil.
6. Boil on high heat for the first 45min then simmer on low heat for a few hours. (I usually simmer my soup for at least 3 hours coz the longer you boil the soup, the sweeter it is!)
7. Once the soup is ready, sieve out the chicken bones, ikan bilis and the dried shrimp.
8. Retain the pork ribs (if desired) and remove the dried scallop from the soup bag and return it to the soup.
9. Add the fishballs and spinach only when about to serve as they cook really fast.
10. Add salt/fish sauce to taste (only after adding the fishballs as fishballs also add to the saltiness of the soup).

For toddler's consumption:

• Skip the dried scallop and dried shrimp for tots below 18mths
• Cut the spinach into toddler bite-size before serving to prevent choking.
• Cut fishballs into small pieces - suitable for tots above 2 years.