Superior Wombok Soup

This is not about cooking our good fellow friend and blogger, Wombok. This is a soup dish. A very home cooked dish that can be frequently seen during Chinese New Year reunion dinners or on those huge Chinese family occasions. You can really only find this in homes, not in restaurants.

It has been raining quite madly in Kuching for the past one week. Almost 24/7. This is definitely an appropriate one for chilly evenings. Both of us enjoyed it so much we hardly touch the other dishes on the table.

Wombok is also known as Wan Nai Bai, which is a very versatile vegetable. Hear that Wombok?

It can be stir fried, simmered, pickled, steamed and of course for soup. That sounds like a 101 ways to torture Wombok. Koreans use this vegie for their famous Kim Chi. We call it Superior here because got Hor Liau (Hokkien for Good Ingredients).

The Soup:
10 cups of superior stock

1) Parboil 1 kg of pork big bones and/or chicken to rid the blood and smell.

2) With 10 cups of water, simmered in with the pork big bones and/or chicken bones for at least an hour. Continue simmering with small fire while preparing for other ingredients.

1 piece of thumb size ginger

5-6 cloves of garlic

25-40 gm of dried scallops

6-8 pcs of dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in room temperature water and cut half

1.2 to 1.5 kg of chai yuan chicken/free range chicken, cleaned and chopped to smaller pieces

2-3 pcs of good quality fish maw, soaked in room temperature water and cut to smaller pieces

8-10 leaves of wombok, cut to each leave of 3 parts

1 pcs of carrot (optional)

Seafood like mussels and prawns (optional)

Pork balls/fish balls (optional)

Meat balls (optional)

Salt to taste

2) When ready, discard the bones. Place ginger, garlic, dried scallops, mushrooms and chicken pieces in the stock and bring to boil. Simmer for another 1/2 hour to 45 min.

3) Optional items can be added at this stage and simmer for 10 min or so. Otherwise, add fish maws and wombok and simmer for another 15-20 min.

4) Add salt to taste. In fact, the soup is so superior, you hardly need to add any salt.

Homemade Meatballs:

300gm of mince pork

150 gm of prawns shelled and pat and chop to pieces

2 stalks of spring onions

1 teasp of sesame oil

1 teasp of huatiaw wine

1 teasp of salt and pepper

2 tbsp of plain flour

3-5 pcs shitake mushrooms, soaked, softened and chopped to small pieces

Mix all ingredients together and stir till gluten develops. Slap against metal bowl until meat mixture becomes springy. Shape to round balls.