homemade local soup?

[souppy]

I'm interested to know what are the common soups which Singaporean's eat at home & what are the magic recipes.

I always hear 'my mothers soup tastes so good' so am wondering if a few Singaporeans would share their secret recipes so I can make too.

[watery]

most chinese singaporeans cook either chicken soup or pork rib with  XXXX soup. eg old cucumber

really simple to cook actually.
-boil water, then add red dates, dried scallops
- add pork ribs (lightly sprinkled with salt)
-add old cucumber ( or lotus root, peanuts etc)
- add a little fish sauce/ light soy sauce for taste

Voila!

P.S. The longer you cook the soup, the better is taste. Average 2 hours will be good.

[healthy living]

There are soups and soups.
Hard to tell you recipes offhand.

Many Chinese soups are derived I think from Cantonese cuisine which is big into home-cooked 'slow-fire' soups (ie soups which have been boiled and simmering for hours).
Some are herbal (but yummy) so you have to figure out what is what as well in ingredients.

It is simple really to cook the soup, but it is all dependent on what you put into it, and how long it is simmered or watch on what the Cantonese call 'old fire'.

Get yourself one of those cookbooks from the local bookstores for Chinese soup 101.

An informative one written in English was written by Ng Soing Mui - she's written a whole series and painstakingly takes the reader through the ingredients process, and what is what, and what serves what purpose.
Even veggies are catergorised into 'cooling' ones and neutral ones.

Most of the soup base is pork or chicken bones, or very lean pork chunks. Boiled to death for hours, with the oil on the surface being meticulously scooped out periodically .

The other ingredients going in vary, based on what purpose the soup is intended for (to suuplement nourish,  for 'cooling'  purposes etc)..

My local favorite is Itek Tim (that is a duck soup with its roots from the Peranakans, not Cantonses. You can find this same soup in Penang and Malacca).
Basically they use sour preserved berries, ginger and a whole fresh (not frozen) duck for this one, with optional pork bones for soup base.

Another local favorite is the peppery, pig stomach soup, which a lot of post-partum preggie women drink a lot of - it drives the 'wind' out.

Then there is the double boiled (pot within pot) soups.
which is soup cooking within another boiling container outisde.
Very nutritional supposedly. Black chicken soups are cooked thus.

Some Chinese girls just live daily on soups (which are pretty substantial considering the different amount of stuff they put into it), and perhaps that's how they stay so slim.

[Pork bone soup]

0.5 kg pork bone (this one has meat a bit)
4 garlic. Crushed.
preserved chai sim or cabbage (salty)
2 table spoon cooking oil

Boil water.
Put in all the pork bone after the water is boiled.
Heat the cooking oil. Put the garlic until the color changes. Put it inside the soup (boiled water + pork bone).
Add salt & pepper.
Leave it for about 1.5 hours.
Put in the veggie.
Serve.

[SmellyKelly]

Cold Storage has a range of Chinese herbs in packets. These are pre-selected herbs, dates, wolfberries etc. in the right proportions/ weight.

Choose according to whether you are going to cook a pork rib or Chicken (with bones & all) soup. Chicken is always safer.

Saute some garlic, then the meat. When partially cooked, add boiling water and packed herbs. Season with salt, light soy sauce, pepper. Simmer on low heat.

Disclaimer: Didn't learn this from anyone, but experimented based on soups I've tasted before.

Good luck!

[Mumof2]

A healthy vitamin enriched soup.

Chicken / Pork Bones
Green apples - halved
carrots
corn
salt & pepper to taste

Tip - To get rid of the smell if you use pork bones, boil water and pour it over the bones before cooking.

[Mum's recipe]

For 4 to 6 people.

2 large white radish, shave off skin and to be cut into diagonal cubes
$ 5 worth of meaty pork bones
Dried shredded cuttlefish - 1 handful

* Boil the pork bones in water and allow
  it to simmer for at least 3 hours till the
  meat is tender
* Add salt and msg
*  Add the white radish
* When radish turns transparent in color,
  add the cuttlefish
* Allow the soup to continue boiling for
  another hour
* Serve

Expats may not like the dried cuttlefish but that is the core ingredient that makes the soup tastes yummy. As they are used as seasoning and inedible (too stringy). you can go easy on the msg.

[WHAT!!]

Did you really say add MSG?  I thought the whole world knew what poison that stuff is.

[cripes!]

they all sound really disgusting.  think i'll stick to the fragrant and fresh thai and vietnamese soups

[Native Woman]

cripes, the OP was asking for 'homemade local soup'.

The locals use pork ribs/bones or chicken bones/legs to make soup stocks. It is disgusting if you are a vegetarian but  the above recipes are as local as anyone can get.

[easypeasy]

Very simple. This is a long time recipe that has been pass on from generations to generations.  1 inch ginger, 3 pieces garlick both crushed. chicken bones/lamb knuckle/leg, cinnamon, fennel seed, the spices are to be slightly fry first. Put in water, chicken or lamb, half cube of chicken stock, boil for 1 to 2 hours. Sprinkle some salt and spring onion. Can sprinkle some pepper too if you like spicy before u eat it. Serve warm.