🍅 HK Borscht: The most eclectic Chinese soup (羅宋湯)

You have to try this Hong Kong cafe staple One of the most unique Chinese soups ever to exist Luo Song Tong Cantonese-style borscht soup It's a twist on Eastern European borscht That's heartwarming, familiar, and new at the same time First, my dad will show us how Hong Kong cafes Prepare the perfect blend of veggies Let's get started Half of a cabbage is enough We'll cut the cabbage in half, then cut out the hard core Then chop into slices lengthwise That's good, now cut it into small pieces Then, turn 90 degrees and chop into small chunks Next, we'll cut our celery We'll cut the celery into large pieces About 1 inch First, we'll cut off both ends of each stalk Then, we'll cut it into small pieces There are some tendons here See? We'll cut them off Once we eat it, it'll be easy to chew We'll break apart the stalks of celery by hand Then pull off the exposed fibers as much as possible Once the tendons are removed, we'll cut them You don't have to cut them all at once Then, chop them into small pieces like so Next up, potatoes These are sweet potatoes, about 10 grams What kind of sweet potatoes are these? These are yellow sweet potatoes, they're delicious You can use a wet knife to cut them Once you use a wet knife, they won't stick to the knife You can cut them like this We'll cut them into small pieces however you prefer As long as they're around bite size Remember to add some water to your knife As you're cutting the potatoes To prevent them from sticking to your knife You can cut them however you want It doesn't matter how you cut them If you like it this way, you can cut it this way We're going to make a soup Once it's done, it won't be too hard Cut the carrots With the carrots, we'll peel them first Just cut them into small pieces You don't have to follow any rules Then, we'll cut them into small, similarly sized pieces Onions We'll be using 1 red onion here First, cut it in half Then in half again That's good Then, rotate to cut into small pieces Now, for the tomatoes Tomatoes My dad cuts them in a few different ways To get a variety of textures Just cut them like this With one, he'll cut it into quarters Then rotate to cut into small pieces With another, he'll halve Then cut diagonally into small triangles It's up to you if you want to cut it diagonally or not Just cut it however you want For the soup, I'll cut it into small pieces For this one, he'll dice it So that more flavorful juice comes out when cooking To make the soup richer What kind of vegetables should you use And what should you avoid? You can't use spinach or Chinese cabbage The most common vegetables are Potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, celery, and cabbage These are the most common vegetables Why don't you use Chinese cabbage? Chinese cabbage isn't right for this soup The flavor isn't right for this soup Spinach isn't right for this soup The other vegetables, after you boil them They release some taste It's totally different from this taste For this dish, the potatoes have some starch coming out If you cook them for a longer time, the soup will be thicker The tomatoes will have a nice color I'm going to stir-fry this first To make the soup richer The tomatoes will melt more This is how I do it You can do it this way, or you can stir-fry them together This is chili Usually, this soup is a bit spicy I'll just add half of it No need to add all of it We'll remove the core and seeds Then, cut perpendicularly down the length of the pepper Into small pieces Mix it all together We'll use about 1 tbsp of ginger Crush it We'll smash and roughly cut the ginger into smaller pieces Crush the garlic Then, we'll just smash the garlic No need to cut How much garlic? 3 cloves of garlic Half a lemon We'll add it later We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com Along with step-by-step instructions and video clips To guide you as you make the recipe at home A lot of people use beef or beef tail I don't eat beef at home We'll use pork ribs First, we'll blanch the pork ribs We'll use cold water We'll add 4-5 cups of cold water to our wok Add the pork ribs Then, add the meat We'll add more pork ribs Now, turn the heat on Why are we using cold water? Cold water will remove the red color from the pork ribs It'll make the soup look better If you use boiling water, the meat will be overcooked The meat won't be cooked Once it boils, it'll start to bubble Now, it's boiling Do you want the white color to come out? Yes, I want it to come out If you add it to Cantonese soup, will it be like this? We'll have to blanch it first The foam that comes out while boiling is technically a coagulated protein Which we don't want in our soup See? Once it boils, it'll start to bubble What kinds of meat are good? And what kinds of meat should you avoid? Most people use beef Fattier beef The tail of the beef is also fat It's because of the beef tendons Some people use chicken drumsticks Because my mom doesn't eat beef So I use pork ribs Pork ribs are fat enough I think if we're talking about flavor Beef is the best in this soup It's like Vietnamese noodles There's a lot of beef bones In this soup, you can use lamb, beef, or pork You can use any meat It doesn't have to be the same But for vegetables, we use this What if you use chicken or beef? Is it the same method? It's the same For beef, we use the same method Turn off the heat Let it boil When the water boils, we'll lower the heat And let it simmer for another 30 seconds before removing the meat We've removed the ribs We'll remove the ribs And put them into cold water We'll put them in the cold water Why in the cold water? We'll wash them Then, we can drain the water from the spare ribs It's clean now It's very clean We'll pour out the water How did Russian borscht become a staple of Hong Kong cafes? The short answer is Civil War Its first stop was Shanghai One of the few safe harbors for Russian migrants During Soviet revolutions in the 1920s As with most immigration stories Many Russians landed in the restaurant industry Russian chefs introduced dishes like borscht An Eastern European soup featuring beets In a beef or pork-based broth Topped with sour cream The soup evolved to fit the ingredients and tastes of Shanghai locals But how did the soup end up in Hong Kong? Due to Chinese Civil Wars in the 1950s Anti-Communist Russians fled to Hong Kong An Eastern melting pot of cultures and cuisines In Hong Kong, borscht quickly became a casual favorite Reminiscent of what my dad's making today Today, in virtually every Hong Kong diner or cha chaan teng You can find luosongtong, or literally, Russian soup, on the menu The water is boiling now We'll turn the heat on We'll heat our wok on high as we get ready to stir-fry our ingredients Make sure your wok is clean and dry for this step Turn the heat to low Once the wok is heated, move the ingredients to the side The ingredients will become soft and tender Add a bit of oil We'll add a tbsp of oil We'll add ginger and garlic first We'll turn the heat on We'll cook the ginger and garlic until fragrant Or just 15-20 seconds We'll add onions We'll fry it on low heat On high heat, the onions will stir fry the ingredients Don't fry on high heat After 20 seconds of adding the onions, We'll add the small pieces of tomatoes. Alright, tomatoes. We'll add the small ones first. The next ingredients will also be added quickly, About 30 seconds between one another. Alright, potatoes and carrots. We'll turn up the heat a bit. Because it's a bit wet. There are some tomatoes. By turning up the heat, we'll cook off some of the liquid So the ingredients don't steam instead of stir-fry. We'll add the tomatoes as well. Remember to keep stirring the ingredients So all of them stir-fry evenly. Celery. What do you recommend as a good vegetarian soup base? For the soup base, You don't need to add meat. You don't need to add chicken. You only need the tomato flavor. The rest of the ingredients Will be added later. If there's meat, the flavor will be stronger. If there's no meat, the flavor will be lighter. If there's no meat, the flavor will be weaker. After adding the celery, We'll add a favorite American condiment. We'll add 5 tablespoons of tomato paste. Okay, let's stir-fry it. Dan Lee from Patreon asks, Do you use tomato paste? A lot of people use tomato paste. You can buy tomato paste. I don't have it at home, so I don't use it. Tomato paste is made with tomatoes. I'll add a few more tomatoes. I'll add 2 tablespoons of ketchup. That's enough. We'll add the pork ribs. After adding the ketchup, we'll add our spare ribs. Okay, that's enough. Give it a good stir. Then, we'll add something to spice it up just a bit. Black pepper. 1 quarter teaspoon. Cover the pan. Okay, turn off the heat. Now, we'll transfer everything to a large pot. We've poured it all in. Now, we'll add some water. We'll add a can of chicken soup. It'll add more flavor. 14 oz. Turn the heat to high. Turn the heat to low. Add some water. 9 cups of water. After the chicken broth, we'll add 9 cups of hot water. The pot is boiling. Stir it up. We'll give it a quick stir to make sure all the ingredients are mixed. Now, we'll add the cabbage. 2 bay leaves. 1 lemon. Now, we'll add the cabbage, bay leaves, and lemon. Okay, now we're done. How do you time when you add all the veggies So they're not overcooked? We don't have to be worried about overcooking. We just want the vegetables to be soft, not tender. It has to be soft, not tender. You must make sure the tomatoes are soft. If the vegetables are too soft, You can add them later. This dish takes a long time to cook. So the soup has to be well flavored. It's important that the soup tastes good. Turn on high heat. Once it's boiling, turn the heat to medium-low It's less than medium heat Because we're adding boiling water to the pot So it'll quickly boil With all the ingredients and water added We can wait patiently for it to boil Which should be pretty quick since we added boiling water Have you tried this on your birthday? Yes, this is pretty common But we didn't have that many ingredients at the time In the mainland, we don't sell tomatoes all year round But maybe right now it's on sale We have potatoes, carrots, and many other vegetables We don't have that kind of big salary When we were young in China We have the Chinese salary It's like a long pudding Now it's boiling, so we can uncover It's starting to boil Turn the heat to medium-low How do you keep the meat tender after it's cooked? Don't add the pork belly It won't be tender if you cook it If you cook it with pork ribs The meat will be tender The meat will be chewy If you cook it with beef tail It won't be tender As you can see, it's boiling Turn the heat to medium-low It's a little lower than medium-low We'll now lower the heat to medium-low And cover again Cover the pot for 2 hours If you want a nice soup You have to cook it slowly Now we need to let it cook for at least 2 hours I also wanted to make a special shoutout To thank all of our wonderful Patreon supporters For helping bring this video to life If you enjoy our videos And are interested in supporting us directly Head on over to patreon.com Slash madewithlau to learn more After 2 hours, it's time to check on our soup The soup is ready Now, we can season it Add some salt and sugar Wow, it looks good Let's try it We'll have a taste test and do our final seasoning Add a little sugar and salt 1 teaspoon of salt It doesn't have to be too salty Because the soup is already sweet and sour Add 2 teaspoons of sugar Now, we'll stir in the seasoning How long can you refrigerate this for? You can put it in the fridge for a week It'll taste even better after 1-2 days Usually, you have to put it in the fridge for 2 days Does this freeze well? If it freezes quickly, it won't taste as good With the borscht completed We can transfer to a serving bowl like we're doing here Or directly into individual bowls Then, serve while hot That's very good Yummy It's like a Chinese tomato soup Hello everyone The braised green onion soup is ready I hope you all like it Hong Doy, let's eat the braised green onion soup Cheers! This was delicious YouTube thinks you'll like this recipe next Let's see if they're right