Sweetcorn, water chestnut and pork shin soup with blanched choi sum
Sweetcorn, water chestnuts and carrot simmered with pork shin for ninety minutes into a sweet, golden broth, served with blanched choi sum — the classic everyday summer soup.
- 1 hr 55 min
- Serves 4
- Simmer
- Easy
Why it suits you: Yin-deficient people are short of fluids, with a dry mouth, hot palms and soles and restless nights, and Major Heat's sweating dries them out further. Water chestnuts clear heat and generate fluids, sweetcorn and carrot sweetly support the spleen, and pork shin nourishes yin. Light and naturally sweet, this soup suits the whole family and eases that parched feeling.
Method
Prep 15 min · Cook 100 min- 1Put the whole pork shin in cold water, bring to the boil and boil for 3 minutes, then drain and rinse.
- 2Cut the sweetcorn into chunks, peel and lightly crush the water chestnuts, and peel and chop the carrot.
- 3Bring the water to the boil, add all the soup ingredients and the candied dates, and boil hard for 10 minutes. Simmer gently for 1½ hours and salt just before serving.
- 4Blanch the choi sum in boiling water with a little oil for 2 minutes, drain and drizzle with soy sauce. Slice the pork shin and serve with soy sauce for dipping.
Cautions
- Water chestnuts are cold, so halve them or add two slices of ginger if your digestion is weak or you get loose stools.
Chef's tips
- Crushing the water chestnuts releases more flavour; don't waste the pork shin — sliced and dipped in soy, it's great with rice.
The TCM view
Water chestnut is sweet and cold, clearing heat, generating fluids and resolving phlegm. Sweetcorn is sweet and neutral, regulating the middle and promoting urination; carrot is sweet and neutral, strengthening the spleen and benefiting the eyes; lean pork is sweet, salty and neutral, nourishing yin and moistening dryness; candied dates moisten the lungs and harmonise the flavours. Cooling yet gentle on the stomach, it suits yin deficiency in Major Heat.
