Borscht Soup Hong Kong Style (羅宋湯) and my 1st year of blogging

When my daughter was a little toddler, this was her favourite soup.  It is a tomato based soup with tender meat and a variety of vegetables which does not only feed the little kids well, it is also a winter warmer.  My daughter is now a teenager and she much prefer to have meat boneless but tomato is still her favourite food.  She would praise for me if I make her something with tomato for dinner.  This soup is popular in Hong Kong's cafe and western restaurant that beef bone and beef brisket are used.  I prefer to use ox tails as it has the meat and bone in one.  You can substitute it with chicken, pork or bacon bones as well.  The original Eastern Europe borscht soup is made from beet and the tomato based style is influenced by the Italian.

Time has gone fast and my blog will be a year old at the end of July.  I only manage to blog regularly since March this year.  Now I have a collection of over 80 recipes that I'd love to cook not only once but  more often in the future.  I would also like to thanks for my followers and people who has commented and visited my blog.  I have visitors come to check up my Hong Kong baked pork chops and rice and baked Portuguese chicken daily and I hope these recipes work well at your kitchen.  It's greatly appreciated and I've learned so much from you!

I plan to go back to work after a year long break to regain my health and well-being.  There are a lot of things I'd like to achieve and I hope I can still blog regularly in the future.  I have not had enough fun working with pastry yet.  I'm going to make tart and soup in July.  It is actually very nice working with pastry in winter as the butter is so hard and you don't need to put the pastry into the fridge back and forth to harden it.

Have a great day 4th July to my American friends!

Hong Kong Style Borscht Soup

Ingredients:
500g or 4-5 pieces of ox tails, trim off excess fat
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 large tomato, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
1/4 drumhead cabbage, chopped
2 heap tablespoons tomato paste
1 thin slice of ginger
3 litres water

Method:

1. Boil the ox tails with hot water for half a minute.  Drain.
2. Pour water into the soup pot, add the ox tails and all the vegetables.  Let it boils for 20 minutes, add the tomato paste and reduce the heat to low.  Let the soup simmer for about 2 hour or until the meat is tender.  Seasoned with salt.  (If you are using bacon bones, there is no need to add salt)

Tips: If you don''t want to the veggies overcook, you can simmer the ox tails with water for 1 hour before adding vegetable and tomato paste, then continue to simmer for another hour until the meat is tender.

Note: You can replace oxtail with chicken, substitute ginger with bayleaf.

羅宋湯

材料：

牛尾 500克 或 4-5 塊，去肥

紅蘿蔔2條

西芹2條

番茄3個

洋蔥1個

馬鈴薯1個

椰菜1/4個

蕃茄膏2大湯匙

薑1片

水3公升

用法：

1. 牛尾飛水。其餘蔬菜切大粒。
2. 把牛尾和菜放入湯煲，加水。大火煲20分鐘，轉慢火加2湯匙番茄膏，再2煲小時或至牛尾軟化。加鹽便成。

Tips:如不想蔬菜煲太久流失營養，可以慢火煲牛尾和水1小時，然後才加蔬菜再煲1小時。