Turnip and Carrot with Pork Ribs Soup

Most of the time we associate turnip with 'carrot cake' or 'lobak-ko' that most dim-sum places offered in their menu. In the Chinese context, turnip is regarded as 'white carrot', thus the given name for that particular dish.

Turnip is considered as 'cooling' vegetable, hence not many Chinese will use it in their cooking. However, the Japanese uses turnip almost daily in their meals either cooked or raw.

What I like about turnip is, it has this sweetness from within when we cook it, especially in soup. I've even tried 'turnip cool tea' which is supposed to heal dry cough when boil with rock sugar... tasted so good!

. 

. 


Ingredients

• 1pc Turnip - Large or medium size


• 1-2 Carrots - Medium size


• 300-400g Pork ribs


• 8-10pcs Red dates - pitted


• 3-4 pcs Dried cuttlefish (1"x1.5")


• 3.5-4L Water


• Fish sauce or salt for taste

.
Methods

1. Slice away the skin of the turnip, cut into free-shape cubes of about 2". Same for the carrots.


2. Boil water till boiling, add in pork ribs and allow to boil for 5 minutes before adding in the turnip and carrot cubes. Boil for a while and add in the red dates and dried cuttlefish slices. Boil under small fire for about 2-2.5 hours.


3. Add fish sauce or salt to taste.

Note: If you prefer to taste the natural sweetness of the turnip, try not to add in fish sauce or salt but instead put in more pork ribs.