A meal is incomplete without a broth

One of my absolute favourite things is to cook broth, be it a hearty meat one, or a light mushroom or vegetable broth. I love to cook it, I love to consume it. I add noodles or rice to it, topped with fermented or pickled vegetables, meat, tofu, or egg. It is the perfect, savoury, hydrating meal on any day, come rain or sunshine.

In my work to nourish new mothers, I’ve noticed broth is a popular choice as people become increasingly aware of the nutritional benefits. It’s packed with amino acids, collagen, and minerals for easy digestion and absorption in the body and it’s a pretty darn delicious hot, savoury drink, not to mention a superb hangover cure (thank me later).

I grew up in a Cantonese household, where a meal is incomplete without broth — before and after.

For a traditional Cantonese household, seasonal changes are taken into consideration when thinking about which broth to make for the day. Cantonese people are the most dexterous when it comes to broth-making. If you’ve ever visited Southern China or Hong Kong, you’ll find shops selling dried ingredients on every few blocks. Most of these ingredients have a place in a broth kitchen. Almost any Cantonese person seems to have this delicate knowledge of how, why, and when to use certain ingredients in their food, encoded with traditional medicine knowledge. The ancestors’ biggest flex was knowing how to live well.

I often think of broth-making as a way to acquire a language, a marvellously complex one at that. To think about the season, to become in tune with what my body needs on a particular day, to consider which ingredients are in season, and to pay attention to a particular ingredient’s function in a broth when thinking about wellness. Principles of traditional Chinese medicine are often embedded in the composition of Cantonese broth. An addition or removal of an ingredient can shift the formula and change its function. However, there are some common broth recipes that are beneficial to people of any age.

Here are some questions I get when I share my broth recipes:

1. What’s the difference between broth and stock? Technically, I should be calling the Cantonese broth “tong”, or “tang” in Mandarin. I suppose in western culinary traditions, the method of preparing “tong” is closer to the definition of “broth”, whereby its preparation involves a slow simmering of ingredients. Stock, to my understanding, is to be added to cooking, whereas broth can be used as an element of a dish or consumed as its own entity. No salt is added to stock and tong, but it is added to broth in the western tradition.
2. Do different bones matter? Yes. Spinal, rib, barrel, and fan bones are all commonly used. Though spinal and rib bones are leaner, fan bone has more tendons (collagen), while barrel bones are rich in bone marrow.
3. To blanch or not to blanch? To remove the impurities and blood from the bones is an imperative process when preparing broth. This process usually involves blanching. According to the tradition of my household, if you’re sure that the bones are fresh, you could skip this process, just scoop out the foamy stuff on the surface. The process of removing impurities is also key to making a clear broth.
4. Heat? Always start with the lowest heat, then turn it up to medium in the last 30 minutes.
5. Remember no salt before or during cooking, only just before drinking it.

The chicken broth recipe is one I make often, and it is the simplest one. It’s nutritious to drink as it is or to add to your cooking, and it is a fundamental building block for assembling a delicious noodle bowl. I make them in batches to keep in the freezer.

Note: You can add smoked pork bones to it, the umami will be ten-fold. Some butchers call them “bacon bones”. Otherwise, a piece of 200g Pancetta will do the trick.

Ingredients: (to make 2 litres)

• 1 full chicken, skin removed as much as possible, so your broth won’t be too oily (if you have access to hard body chicken, even better, but double the cooking time)
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 5cm knob of ginger
• 6-8 cloves of whole garlic 
• 6-8 chicken feet (optional — they add collagen to the broth, which is good for muscle, gut etc.)
• 5 jujube dates (optional — adds more sweetness to the broth)

 Method:

1. Boil water, put chicken in for 15 minutes to blanch. You will start seeing the “gunk” of the chicken floating to the top, use a spoon to scoop it up and then drain the water. Remove the chicken and set aside.
2. Boil 2.3 litres of water and addto the pot. Put blanched chicken in the pot along with all the other ingredients. Start with the lowest heat for 1.5 hours, then medium heat during the last 30 minutes. (You can also use a slow cooker, low heat for 4 hours).

Bonus recipe:

This one is for the vegetarians — a favourite- the mighty mushroom broth:

Ingredients:

Mushroom broth — an immune booster and good for gut health

• 2 onions
• 4 medium carrots
• 6-8 cloves of whole garlic
• 1 punnet of button or portobello mushrooms, washed and roughly chopped
• 6-8 shiitake mushrooms (buy dried at Chinese shops, rehydrate 30 min before cooking)
• 200g oyster mushrooms
• 1/2 head of white cabbage
• Half a box of parsley

Method:

1. Put everything in 2.3 litres of water except for the cabbage.
2. Boil for 1.5 hours, add cabbage and parsley in the last 30 minutes.

*NOTE: I altered these recipes slightly due to the availability of ingredients at supermarkets. I will have more recipes on my blog — linked to my Instagram account @yangisungcooks