Mustard Greens and Dried Oyster Soup

Have you ever tried mustard greens and dried oyster soup? I love it!

Like many others, I rejected mustard greens because of its bitterness. My mother-in-law introduced it to me through braising mustard greens with Chinese-styled meat balls (狮子头) with soy sauce, I fell in love with it only after a few times, and that was like after a few years too. I guess, mustard green is similar to bitter gourd, you either like or hate it. Now I love it a lot, it is like bitter gourd (bitter melon), or blue cheese. It is an acquired taste. After eating, I felt cooler and lighter. Somehow, I guess it reduces my cholesterol too!

Just google-ing a while, I found this: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=93

The cholesterol-lowering ability of steamed mustard greens is second only to steamed collard greens and steamed kale in a recent study of cruciferous vegetables and their ability to bind bile acids in the digestive tract. When bile acid binding takes place, it is easier for the bile acids to be excreted from the body. Since bile acids are made from cholesterol, the net impact of this bile acid binding is a lowering of the body's cholesterol level. It's worth noting that steamed mustard greens (and all steamed forms of the cruciferous vegetables) show much greater bile acid binding ability than raw mustard greens.

I am not kidding you! I could feel the cholesterol was being lowered!

Serve 2

Ingredients:

· 200g Spare ribs

· A few dried shitake mushrooms, soaked

· 1 Carrot, chopped

· 1 bunch of mustard greens

· 6 dried oysters

· A few red dates

· Salt to taste

Method:

Boil the water, blanch the ribs. Put everything inside.

For normal pot, 4 cups of water, boil until 2.5 cups of water left after 2 hours. High heat for 10 mins then turn to simmering low heat till end.

For pressure cooker, 3 cups of water in pressure cooker, 30 mins.