fast & yummy Lotus Root Soup

I love soup. Soup is transcultural, it evokes warmth, is a great comfort food, and reminds me of home. Plus, soup is easy to cook, difficult to fail but hard to perfect. In the modern kitchen where time is a luxury, it always helps to have the niffy little device called the pressure cooker. Now, I'm not sure if pressure cooker made soup taste any different from the traditional Cantonese slow-cooked soup (made over charcoal fire nonetheless), I'm happy with homemade soup any day.

So, here's the recipe for lotus root soup with peanut and pork ribs

Ingredients (serves 4-6)
1 kg pork ribs
Handful of red dates washed
2 bulbs of garlic washed & separated into cloves
1 big bowl of shelled peanut
1 big lotus root ~1 kg washed, peeled and cut crosswise into 0.5cm slices
Bones from 2 chicken
1 muslin bag
Marinate for pork ribs: 3-4tbsp light soy sauce, 1-2tsp of sesame oil, sprinkle of shaoxing wine, dash of white pepper. Exact measurements not required as soup is very forgiving

Put chicken bones, garlic and red dates into muslin bag. Option to add couple of pieces of dried cuttlefish. Some feel that it helps with the umami flavor of the soup but I find that it detracts from the natural sweetness of the soup. There are also others who advocate adding carrots/tomatoes which I feel is unorthodox and does not add to the flavor of the soup.
Place lotus root, peanut and muslin bag into pressure cooker and fill it with water with water level about 2cm just above the bag. (It's always easier to add water to dilute the soup later) Cook in pressure cooker under high pressure for 30minutes.

Meanwhile, wash and blanch pork ribs. Blanching means putting pork ribs into a pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes. It helps to remove any excess fat/blood/smell from the meat and ensures clear soup.
Marinate the blanched pork ribs for 30mins.

After 30minutes, mash up the contents of muslin bag with a wooden spoon to release all the goodness into the soup. Remove bag from the pot.
This forms the soup base.

Add the marinated pork ribs to the soup base. Pressure cook under high pressure for 15-20minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. And voila! Yummilious and hypernutritious lotus root soup. The natural sweetness of the soup coupled with the soft boiled peanuts and crunchy lotus roots brings about great comfort.
The soup can be served immediately. However, I find that placing the soup in the freezer helps remove the excess oil (oil floats to the surface and freezes which can be scraped off easily) and enhances the flavor when it is reheated the next day.