Simmered Soup Casserole

( culture.ni-hao.co.uk )

Updated: 2011-09-07

Simmered Soup Casserole (wǎ guàn wēi tāng 瓦罐煨汤)

This soup is a typical dish of Jiangxi cuisine, with a history of more than a thousand years.

The casserole cooking pot is three metres in height. Inside the pot, there are several smaller jars placed layer upon layer, which respectively hold home-grown chicken, snake, turtle, gastrodia tuber, mushrooms and other raw materials.

Beneath the exterior of the crockery pot, charcoal is burnt at a constant temperature to allow the soup to simmer for as long as seven hours. Because the jars are heated by the intense vapour drawn up through the clay walls, they simmer gently avoiding direct heating which creates a thick, aromatic and restorative soup.

After all the soups are cooked and served, the tinfoil covers are removed from the jars revealing a fantastic aroma. The savoury fresh soup produced in this way is extremely thick and delicious.

The secret of such great flavours lies in the pots ability to absorb water, permeate air and control the temperature. The raw materials are simmered in sealed jars at a low temperature for such a long time that the nutritional elements are fully dispersed. Thus, the soups are soft, tender, delicious and fragrant whilst maintaining the original taste.