Rice may be a pivitol part of Cantonese food, but every Cantonese mother worth her hoisin sauce knows that no meal is complete without soup. I got this drilled into me from an early age: a home-cooked lunch or dinner must must must start with a tang, or else you might as well be eating barbarian (Western) food. (Oh, Chinese parents.) According to my mother, a good soup – whether it was chicken & ginseng, pork & lotus, or fish bone – opens the appetite and provides as much nutrients as the rest of the meal. (That, and the Cantonese are sticklers for dinner rituals.)
Her biggest concern before I set off for college many years ago was how the heck I could survive without her tang every night. “I’ll be fine. They have food on campuses,” I would say, rolling my eyes. And every time I came home to visit and exhibited anything that remotely suggested I was not 100% healthy, like coughing to clear my throat or looking pale in the winter due to lack of sun, she would shake her head knowingly. “It’s the lack of tang.”
Now that I am much older and not forced to have soup at every meal, I do find myself making Cantonese soups every now and again, for nostalgia’s sake. Well, and because many are quite easy in terms of hands-on prep. And one of the easiest and most versatile ingredients to work with is winter melon. Called dong gua (冬瓜) in both Mandarin and Cantonese, winter melon is pretty mellow in taste and absorbs the flavor of anything it’s cooked with. According to TCM, winter melon aids in clearing “heat”, so it’s especially good to have when you’re sick. The most common ingredients in winter melon soups include shrimp, Chinesed dates, goji berries, chicken, pork, or my personal pricey favorite, dried scallops.
This latest winter melon soup I made is with shiitakes, speck ham, and a vegetable stock base, a east-west co-mingling in the bowl. (Winter melon would also pair quite well with prosciutto or regular deli ham.) To prepare the melon, just slice off the hard outer rind, remove the seeds, and cube the meat. Then simmer for half an hour or until the melon is translucent, and add your other side ingredients.
I made this last week when I was pretty ill, with a cold, sore throat, and congestion. While I’m not a total TCM devotee, I’m willing to believe that the heat-clearing soup, along with tons of Nyquil, helped me recover in time for Halloween.
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Other favorite soup recipes:
Hot and Sour Soup
Seaweed Egg Drop Soup
Tea-Scented Pumpkin Soup
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Winter Melon Soup with Shiitakes and Speck Ham
Serves 4 as an appetizer
1 2-pound wedge winter melon
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
1 1-inch piece ginger, sliced into matchsticks
Salt to taste
Thinly sliced scallions or sautéed leeks
A few slices speck ham, sliced on the diagonal
Slice off and discard rind from winter melon. Remove and discard seeds. Slice melon flesh to 1-inch cubes.
Soak shiitake mushrooms in room temperature water for 20 minutes, until softened. Squeeze out excess water, then thinly slice. Set aside.
Bring broth to boil and add winter melon. Simmer winter melon for 25 to 30 minutes, until melon becomes slightly transparent and soft. Add shiitakes and ginger and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add salt to taste. Divide soup into individual bowls.
If using leeks, briefly sauté in a wok with a little oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Top soup with sautéed leeks or scallions, then sliced speck ham. Serve while hot.
I really miss my grandmother’s soups. Pork rib and winter melon is my favourite, or beef and carrot. I’ve got some pork ribs in the freezer actually, I think this is what I’ll make…!
I hope you are getting better now. :) Dong Gua tang is also my favourite, it’s time to get some now before I set off for my holiday!
Seriously I really like your creation and enjoy your post. It sounds like a good combination winter melon and shitake mushrooms ha.
Hmmm, this sounds so interesting. I have never heard of winter melon before. I love your writing style and I’m bookmarking your site so that I can check it again. I love the phrase, “any Cantonese mother worth her hoisin sauce…” Well done.
I’m gonna try this for sure. Thanks for your recipe.
Haha, I love the mother story. “It’s the lack of tang!” =)
Great post! This makes me crave dong gua tang. I think I’ll make some this week.
I have never heard of speck ham before but the first thing that I thought when I saw your photo was “winter melon and prosciutto — what a great idea!”
I spent some time in Italy this summer with my Cantonese husband and we were struck by how the Italians and the Cantonese have similar food sensibilities, in terms of the emphasis on fresh ingredients and simple food preparation.
I just discovered your blog in an effort to expand my food blog readings and will be back for more, for sure.
Best,
Ai Lu
ladyhomechef – All better now! If soup doesn’t help nurse you back to health, it’s still comforting on cold fall days. :)
Ai Li – I would agree on the Italian-Cantonese connection. And it’s not too hard to mix in Italian ingredients into Cantonese food. Huiyang food (Jiangsu province), on the other hand, reminds me of classical French cuisine…more intricate knife work and presentation, and emphasis on complex and time-consuming preparation.
Nothing beats winter melon soup, well, in winter. Although my late-Mom would make it sometimes, my fondest memories are of enjoying it at Chinese banquet dinners. The melon, all carved intricately on the outside, would be set down on the lazy-susan. As the waiter scooped out the steamy broth and chunks of melon, we all just sat back, anticipating that taste of Chinese comfort food.
I would like to make this soup–with the dried scallops and without mushrooms–for a Chinese New Year dinner I am giving. According to my local market in Santa Rosa, CA, wintermelon is not available at this time of year. Can you suggest a substitute? I want to make something special for my friends.
Xiuru: wintermelon keeps for months before it has been cut… did you try going to a chinese grocery store to find it? At least here in San Francisco it is available in Chinatown, I bought some yesterday — they had both the large kind (whole or big piece) and the smaller sized ones.
I hope you are getting better now. :) Dong Gua tang is also my favouriteI want to make something special for my friends