Clear Soup with Ham Joint (Qingtang Huofang)
A classic Jiangsu dish with crystal-clear broth and meltingly tender ham. Refined taste in every spoonful.
Ingredients
8 items- Jinhua ham (upper part) 500 g
- Old hen 1/2
- Lean pork 200 g
- Scallions 2
- Ginger 1 piece
- Shaoxing wine 30 ml (2 tbsp)
- Salt 3 g (1/2 tsp)
- Goji berries 5 g
Nutrition
Steps （10 steps）
Soak Jinhua ham in warm water for 1 hour to draw out salt and soften.
Scrub clean ham surface, rinse twice, drain, cut into 1 cm thick slices.
Arrange ham slices in steamer bowl, top with scallion and ginger, drizzle 15 ml wine.
Steam over high heat for 60 min until a chopstick pierces easily. Discard liquid.
Put chicken and pork in cold water, bring to a boil, skim foam, drain and rinse.
Place meat in pot with scallion, ginger, 15 ml wine and 2000 ml water. Boil then simmer 2 h. Strain broth.
Cover steamed ham with chicken breast or pork fat, pour in broth to submerge, add 2 g salt.
Steam again on medium heat for 2 h until ham is fork-tender. Discard top meat.
Move ham to a soup bowl, pour boiling broth (~800 ml) over, adjust salt, steam 10 min on high.
Garnish with goji berries and serve hot.
Tips
Ham is salty; soaking and first steaming remove excess salt. Adding broth in second steaming infuses umami. Simmer broth on low and skim to keep it crystal clear.
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