Meat and vegetable soup

For meat you can use pork, beef, chicken liver or kidney; for vegetable you can use spinach, Chinese leaves, green cabbage, mange-touts peas, lettuce or watercress.

1/4 lb (100 g) lean pork
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/4 lb (100 g) green vegetable
1 pint (600 ml) good stock
1 tsp salt

Method

Thinly slice the meat, marinate with the rice wine or sherry and a little soy sauce for about 10 minutes.

Wash the vegetable and cut into 1 in (2. 5 cm) lengths.

Bring the stock to the boil, add the meat slices and stir to separate them. Boil for 30 seconds only, then remove the meat with a strainer or sieve.

Skim the soup, then add the vegetable and cook for about 1-1½ minutes depending on the type of greens used. (Chinese leaves, green cabbage will require about 2 minutes cooking time, while spinach and mange-touts peas need only 1 1/2 minutes, and lettuce and watercress should not be cooked for more than 1/2 minute at the very most.) Place the meat with seasonings in a serving bowl, pour the soup over it, stir well and serve hot.

© Deh-Ta Hsiung and reproduced with his kind permission.