Chicken soup for the soul?

Hayoo.... here we are talking about food again. I don't think all those serious weight watching and keeping the waistline intact and tummy flat is going to work anymore. Hehehehe... Well, as I was saying, I made some Chinese herbal chicken soup for dinner. Coupled with that, I 've decided to do something that is very foreign in my kitchen, which was to make "steamed-one-dished-rice." Literally translated from a Chinese word, meaning an all-in-one meal. Well, it may be quite a common meal to many other household, particularly the Chinese, but you see, I'm part Peranakan. So, that means I grew up with elaborate, spicy and robust tasting dishes. So, this is something new to me. Nevertheless, I tried my hands on this simple dish.

Fresh from the steamer. Steamed egg custard (chawanmushi) with dori fillet and wolfberries. Steamed rice with salted fish, ginger slices, Chinese greens and enoki mushrooms

Chinese chicken herbal soup

What's cooking inside?

After that, must have dessert lah, kan??? So, this is what's been cooking inside the crock pot all night! Bubur pulut hitam with kacang merah. I like this version better than the pure black glutinous rice.
I still remembered a friend from the States commenting that this dish looked like road kill. LOL! But, after tasting it, he changed his mind. He got hooked on to it! Hahahahaha!!! Itulah, don't judge a book by it's cover! Kan?

BTW, since Malim asked for the soup recipe, here it is.

Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup

1 whole free range chicken (ayam kampung) skinned and cut up. If free range is not available, get a mid-sized chicken and make sure that all the skin and fat is removed.
1 packet of chicken soup herbs (You can probably get this in a Chinese medicinal shop at Chinatown. Try looking for the A1 brand if you can. These are vegetarian products, so, I guess they are halal. I bought mine at Giant's regular shelves. )
20 pcs dried wolfberries (kei chee)
8-10 pitted Chinese red dates
5-6 pcs dried longan fruit

Fill up a medium sized stock pot with enough water to cover the chicken and put to boil.
Once water starts to boil, put in the chicken and let the chicken boil on high fire until all the fat starts to float. This is important to achieve a clear consistency broth. You have to start skimming off the fat from the soup at this point. Skim off as much as you can. This is one of the primary reason why a free range chicken is preferred for Oriental soups. They have very little fat. Once done, put the rest of the ingredients into the pot and simmer under low fire for at least 2 hours. Season with salt to taste and serve hot.

Good luck in trying!