Last nite the flat went under Chinese aromatherapy kitchen session, an amazing slightly pungent but lovely smell the one of this chicken soup where the key ingredient is dried Chinese cabbage. You want this soup lettin cook for two hours if you like to chew the cabbage later, otherwise one hour will do it, enough for the herbs to become tender and disclose their flavour and properties (but you dont want to chew that dried one in very dark color in the pic, nd just put it aside).

This is the quantity of herbs for two people. Back to front: parsley, cherry tomato, dried cabbage, mini lettuce, radish and a variety of green leafy veg that i dont know the name (help anybody?) – this one is delicious alone stir fried with minced garlic! Here a larger shot of it:

Beside those veg we also need spices, i used pepper and bamboo salt, rice vermicelli, a chicken leg fresh or previously roasted (like in my case) with soya bean sauce and brown sugar a la Cantonese style - recipe @ the bottom.

This is all you need to make the soup! Just start by stirring the sliced or roughly diced chicken meat in a spoon of oil with grounded garlic and ginger. Then pour in a liter of hot water from a boiler, and all the veggies as they are except for the diced radish. Add the spice, taste it during the cooking time on medium-law flame. Add the vermicelli at the end, not too much of it. Can you smell it?

Potete sentire il suo profumo? Questo avviene quando la cucina viene investita da una sessione di aromaterapia cinese dove l’ingrediente chiave e’ il cavolo cinese secco (di colore scurissimo nella foto). Le altre verdure sono: il prezzemolo, i pomodori pachino, una lattughina, un ravanello grande, un altra verdura a foglioline su rametto resistente (quella ingrandita nella foto) di cui non so il nome (e’ squisita da sola nell’aglio soffritto). Poi pepe, sale, aglio e zenzero macinati, una coscia grande di pollo fresco o precedentemente arrostito in stile cantonese con salsa di soya e zucchero di canna (v. qui). 

COME FARE: cuocere il pollo a pezzetti in un cucchiaio di olio con aglio e zenzero. Dopo alcuni minuti vesare un litro di acqua gia bollente, salare e pepeare,aggiungere le verdure/erbe. Far cuocere per circa un ora non di piu, giusto il tempo per far sprigionare tutti i sapori, ma il cavolo sara’ un po duretto da masticare quindi scartatelo mentre mangiate la zuppa. Altrimenti per ammorbidirlo di piu far cuocere per due ore. 

This is going to Yasmeen at Health Nut, she is hosting Weekend Herb Blog now.

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HOW TO MAKE THE DELICIOUS CHICKEN A LA CaNTONESE:

• a whole chicken
• salt
• 1 C brown sugar
• 2 C soy sauce

1. Massage the chicken thoroughly with salt. let rest for 15 min.
2. Wash it and massage again with a part of brown sugar this time
3. Dissolve the other part of sugar in soy sauce and put the chick to rest  for 15 more min in this black mixture.
4. Grill it in oven for 45 min at 150 degree. It will become awsomely juicy and dark golden.