Dried Long Cabbage Meat Soup

I have cooked this soup before but the dried long cabbage [bok choy kon] was quite tough.  Recently my neighbour gave me some dried cabbage and also some tips on how to prepare the vegetable before cooking it.  
Wow! following her way, the dried long cabbage was soft and delicious with meat    soup [you can use a combination pork ribs/chicken/lean meat].  The soup is tasty and soothing.  Here I used chicken pieces to cook this soup.

* How to prepare the dried long cabbage [bok choy kon]?

1.  Soak the dried cabbage in water overnight to soften;

2.  Drain and boil for 20 minutes until soft;

3.  Cut into bite size lengths and squeeze out excess water

4.  Add to pork ribs/chicken/meat soup and cook until soft.

Ingredients

[serves 2-3]

200 gm chicken pieces [skin removed]

1 piece dried long cabbage [prepare as above *]

3 red dates - seeded

2 dried honey dates [matt choe]

100 gm fresh nai pak [small fresh bok choy] - rinsed and halved

700 ml water/chicken stock

salt to taste

1. Blanch meat pieces in boiling water for a minute.  Remove and rinse.
2. Pour water/chicken stock in a deep pot.  Add in meat pieces, dried long cabbage and dates.
3. Bring it to a boil then lower heat to simmer until vegetable and meat are tender/soft [about 30 minutes].
4. Add in fresh nai pak and salt to taste.  Boil for another 5-10 minutes.
5. Serve soup hot.

Soup before adding fresh bok choy

Note:

If using pork ribs, boil and simmer for 30 minutes before adding vegetables and dates.

I'm submitting this post to The soup kitchen monthly blogger event @ The Spanish Wok:The Soup Kitchen by Debs.