Recipe – Wintermelon, Wolfberry and Pork Ribs Soup

Wintermelon is commonly used as a vegetable in Asian cuisines. Taiwan is a country I used to visit a few times a year due to work. Whenever I visited Taiwan, especially during summer time, I enjoyed slurping down a large cup of refreshing and thirst-quenching wintermelon tea. Wintermelon has a few health benefits so I decided to cook the Wintermelon, Wolfberry and Pork Ribs Soup for my family. The recipe is from the Sweet Mandarin Cookbook by Helen and Lisa Tse.

Ingredients
2.5 litres water
400g pork spare ribs
300g wintermelon, peeled and cut into 4cm dice
1 tablespoon dried shrimp, soaked in lukewarm water for 10 minutes
1 teaspoon white peppercorns, lightly pounded
1 dried honey date
50g wolfberries or goji berries
salt, to taste (optional)

Instructions
1. Pour 1 litre of water into a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Add the ribs and boil for 10 minutes; this will cook off the scum. Drain through a colander, discarding the cooking liquor, and return the ribs to the pan.
3. Add the wintermelon, shrimp, peppercorns, honey date and wolfberries. Cover with 1.5 litres of water and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly for 15 minutes.
4. Reduce the heat to its lowest setting and simmer for a further 45 minutes, by which time the soup should be sweet and full of flavour. Season with salt to taste.

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