Serves 6
Ingredients
1 whole corn-fed chicken (600g)
1.5l water
2g ginger, sliced
50g fresh ginseng, wash completely
30g dried goji berries
30g dried cordyceps
600g soya bean
3 litre of water
5g gypsum powder
12g corn starch
2g salt
Method
To prepare the silken bean curd, wash thoroughly the soya bean and put into 3 litres of water, leave at least overnight. Afterwards blend the soya beans with the water in a blender until smooth. Sieve the mixture, leaving you with the homemade soya milk. Bring the soya milk to the boil. Meanwhile, mix the gypsum powder, corn starch and salt with 30ml of water, sieve and add into the hot soya milk then quickly pour the whole mixture to another sauce pan while hot. Leave for 30 minutes or until it forms a jelly-like silken texture. To prepare the chicken stock, wash the whole chicken thoroughly and put into a large pot with 1.5 litres of water and the ginger. If you have a steamer, put into the steamer for 3 hours, if not, pre-heat the oven to 105c, spray plenty of water and steam the stock for 3 hours. Afterwards, add the fresh ginseng and steam for another hour. Take out the ginseng carefully and cut into small pieces, remove the excessive oil from the stock. Meanwhile, put the dried goji berries into plenty of cold water for 20 minutes and drain well. Put the cordyceps into plenty of boiling water for 30 minutes and drain well. Season the chicken soup with salt and shaoxing rice wine.
To serve
Take some thin layers of silken bean curd and carefully place in the serving bowl or cup. Add the seasoned chicken soup and serve alongside a soup spoon decorated with goji berries, cordyceps and fresh ginseng pieces.
Photography | Jean Cazals