Cantonese mushroom bone soup - China Recipes - Start in China from Shenzhen

Cantonese mushroom bone soup

Cantonese mushroom bone soup is made of a large pig leg bone, chopped in big chunks. The typical Cantonese influence comes from the herbs you need to add. It's a simple recipe (if you can find the Cantonese flavoring) that doesn't require much attention and can be prepared well in advance.

Cantonese mushroom bone soup ingredients

Ingredients:

water
one big pig bone (leg), chopped into large chunks. Preferable with some meat on it
about 10 dry mushrooms
some chopped fresh mushrooms
2 slices of ginger
salt to taste

Special Cantonese ingredients:

4 dried jujubes (those red big things, smell a little like little apples)
two tablespoons of dried wolfberries
1 tablespoon of lotus seeds
some dried lily bulbs
small piece of dried white yam
Job's tears / Coixseed / Chinese pearl barley (PS. NOT for pregnant women)

Note, we normally buy a bag (see photo below) that contains all of this stuff, but you could also buy everything separately.

Prepare:

wash the bones under the tap with some cold water to remove blood
put the water in a big high pressure pan and add the bones
bring the water to a boil
wash the mushrooms good and soak the dry ones for a while in a little bit of water
when it starts boiling good, you will see some dark gray foam on top of the water, this is blood and should be removed
use a big spoon to remove the blood, you probably need to do it a few times
after all blood is removed, add the dried mushrooms, slices of ginger and special Cantonese ingredients
close the high pressure wok and use high fire for 5 minutes
after 5 minutes, turn the fire low and let it boil
add fresh mushrooms after about 10-15 minutes and let it slowly boil
add salt, mix well and serve