Choy Kon Tong (菜乾湯). (soup, with dried cole/dried vegetable = dried bok choy, 白菜乾)
On the way there, in the pot, after addition of the last ingredients.
Pre-soaked trimmed dried cole (see below), fresh water plus some of the vegetable soaking water, beef short ribs [Becker Farms] trimmed of excess fat, sea salt, a dried cuttlefish (小墨魚乾) (see here for an example of what I used; but a different brand), simmer, skimming a bit. Pre-soaked dried Chinese mushrooms ("heong koo" (香菇) variety this time), simmer; later on dried "black jujubes" (黑棗) and dried wolfberries (枸杞子) also went in. Seasoning adjusted, simmered till done, topped up with water at times. Total time around 5-6 hours for this iteration of the soup.
A portion of the finished soup.
The "dried vegetable" used.
I used one of the two bundles in the soup above. The clustered plants are eased apart, the bottoms of the stems broken off and the dried leaves+stems snapped into shorter lengths as appropriate then soaked in water for a while, shaking gently occasionally (grit & detritus falls to the bottom), then retrieved & excess water squeezed off.
Oh, I also had some potato & peas samosas (made locally) picked up from Patel Bros. :-)
