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Monday, July 12, 2010

Chayote, Sweet Corn and Mushroom Soup



I saw this recipe on Blessed Homemaker’s. I was attracted to this soup, because it uses chayote. Well, some call it buddha’s hand gourd, some call it english gourd, whatever you call it, it’s that green gourd with a slit in the middle.

I have always loved Chayote, because it is so swweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
And indeed, when paired with sweet corn in this soup, it is even sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeter. Infused with the fragrance of mushrooms. Minimal salt is needed, but, please, do not use loads of water, if not, don’t blame me if the soup is tasteless.

The original version called for Agrocybe aegerita mushrooms, but my shitakes weirdly are labeled as 茶树姑, the same Chinese name for aegrocybes. I just used that (hahaha, just because the Chinese name’s the same), because I don’t have agrocybe, the real茶树姑. My mushrooms are from Eu Yan Sang, so that can’t be wrong, I guess they might have been grown on Chinese tea tree trunks. Actually they might be camellia mushrooms , as the Chinese tea bush’s scientific name is Camellia Sinensis, so I’m not surprised that these shitake lookalikes are actually camellia mushrooms, hence the Chinese translation 茶树姑.


Here’s what I did,
1 chayote, about 400gm, peeled and cut into chunks
2 sweet corns, cut into small pieces
5 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked, cleaned and halved
250gm pork loin or lean pork
2.5L water or 10 cups

Bring water to boil and put in everything. Put in on high eat for 30 minutes and low heat simmer for 2 hours. Season with a little bit of salt.

Everything got pretty tasteless after all the boiling, but…… the soup is so flavourful. Everything went into the broth…. Yummy :)

26 comments:

  1. Hi Wendy,
    Just the kind of soup I should be taking now. I can taste the sweetness of the soup already.

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  2. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2 hrs ar....very expensive leh electricity here hahhaaahaha

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  3. busygran,
    It's nice for our hot weather... Yummy for dinner.

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  4. Manglish,
    All Chinese soups also like this one la.. unless those quick soups, that only requires a quick boil.
    Tak cukup lama, tak cukup sedap!!!

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  5. The weather has showed no mercy and been hot like hell recently...this is the perfect soup for the lunch with some Jiaozi.

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  6. Think I am going to try this too...jotting down the ingredients needed, thanks!

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  7. I never make soup with chayote except for stir-fry. Great idea to add sweet corn to the soup as it will give extra sweetness to it. Is summer now so we can get 6 sweet corn for $1.00 :)

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  8. Normally I just like to drink the soup and forget about the gourd and corn. :)

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  9. Hi wendy,
    'Nice meeting you'. seems to have fallen in love here & allow me to put you in my link so i can 'close-watched' whatever you cook :-)).
    (psst, i'm going down to my kitchen to do the dulche de leche now)

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  10. Another homely dish my mother used to cook - there may be some variation to the ingredients used, but the essence is the similar...

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  11. Angie,
    When you make more jiaozi, don't forget my portion :)

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  12. Gert,
    That's dirt cheap!!!

    Here, even if it's bounty harvest, the cheapest is RM1 for 3.

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  13. Little Inbox,
    It's a norm for many to do that.
    :)

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  14. Makcikkantin,
    sure.. link me up. it's FOC.
    :)

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  15. Shirley,
    Oh... definately. Every family has their own versions of everything :)

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  16. Oooh so thats what the gourd is called chayote....hmmm interesting. I think I'm going to like this. Will try it some time later.

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  17. Oh, so it's called chayote...thanks for describing and showing it...
    I've only bought it once...out of curiosity...after I cut it open, I decided to julienne it, stir-fry it with dried shrimp and tang-hun. The results? I quite like it , thought it tasted a bit like the 毛瓜。

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  18. Hi!! I always wondered how to cook this melon and didnt even know it is called chayote. I will try it out soon

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  19. mysimplefood,
    don't forget to give me feedback on how it turns out ;)

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  20. Glad you enjoyed this! We love this soup too!

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  21. Blessed Homemaker,
    Thanks for the recipe :)

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  22. Hi Wendy, Yesterday i had tried to boil this Chayote, sweet corn & mushroom soup, as u mentioned...its really sweet and very minimal of salt being put to taste! My gals love it very much!!! After boiling for 2 hours...the chayote was very soft and break to small pieces when we scooping our soup, make the soup a bit blur...do u put in the chayote together with corns to boil?? JasMine

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  23. JasMine,
    Yawoh, I put in together. But so far, I boil soup with Chayote few times already, ok woh, not too soft.
    Yeah, the salt is put in just to complete the flavour. If not it is only sweeet with no salty end.

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