Wintermelon soup

Wintermelon soup has always been one of my favourite soups. It's also Cassie's favourite soup, and it's quite simple to make. My mom and my MIL makes two different versions, but I'll be describing my mom's version today.



Wintermelon soup is supposed to be best for the summer weather because it doesn't take long to cook, and wintermelon has a "cooling" effect according to my mom.

Ingredients:

1. Wintermelon, chopped into 2 cm cubes. In the supermarket, it usually comes in slices, as a whole wintermelon is quite large. Try to find a middle section, rather than an end section. At home, rinse the melon, carve out the seeds, and cut off the skin. Then chop up the melon into cubes.

2. Pork. I used some ground pork, but you can also use pork bones, chicken, ham, seafood (shrimp, scallops, crab, etc). If you do you pork bones, boil them briefly and discard the water to boil out the excess fat.

3. Chinese mushrooms. I soaked them in warm water for 2 hours, and then sliced them into small pieces. The water used in the soak can also be used in the soup, provided that the mushrooms are cleaned prior to soaking.

Method:

To prepare the soup, I boiled the chinese mushrooms and meat in a pot. I also added a bit of salt to taste, and 1/2 tsp of sugar. My mom tells me that when cooking with chinese mushrooms, one must always add a bit of white sugar as this will bring out the flavour of the mushrooms more.

Once boiling, I add the wintermelon cubes and allow to boil on medium high until the wintermelon becomes more translucent. On my stove, it took me about an hour from start to finish, not including the time to slice and dice the ingredients.

For extra flavour and for presentation purposes, one can add a beaten egg to the soup to make what my mom calls "egg flower".

My critics enjoyed the soup.

Enjoy