Winter melon makes a refreshing soup for the winter. Supercharge the flavour with shiitake mushrooms, and the bones and trimmings from roast duck.

Time: 2/5
Ready in less time than it takes to cook rice.

Effort: 2/5
Pretty easy, but only because I had shortcuts on hand.

Hang on to your Hats

Summer is here, which means it’s the season for winter melon. Confusing, I know, but that’s the best translation I have for 冬瓜 (doong gwah / dong gua). According to Chinese medicine, winter melon has cooling and refreshing properties, so maybe they make you feel like it’s winter? They’re also called wax gourd or ash gourd, but I think those are less fun names.

The most common way I had winter melon soup was with slices of lean pork (like rump), and dried shiitake mushrooms. However, duck and winter melon is another classic combo, and I won the right to take the roast duck trimmings home after using the good bits for savoury rice dumplings because I am grandma’s favourite grandson (by default, but a win is a win).

Which means I’m put on the fast track to have some great soup in short order, especially since I already saved up a bunch of dried shiitake stems from other recipes.

(This is why I keep telling you to keep your shiitake stems – use the caps for a recipe where you eat the mushrooms, save the stems for when you just want the flavour.)

Tonight, I’m serving the soup with a chicken and broccoli stir fry, and a zongzi we got from my SO’s colleague at a workplace dumpling exchange. Their family makes their zongzi with fresh bamboo leaves instead of dried ones, and it gives their dumplings a pleasant, fresh, grassy aroma. You can see the colour is different too, compared to one of our zongzi in the background.

I’m glad to add this to the short but growing list of soups on this blog – from the Five Ingredient Bok Choy Soup, to the Five Ingredient Napa Cabbage Soup, and now this ostensibly five-ingredient winter melon soup.

Dramatis Personae

Cantonese Roast Duck Trimmings – halfway up the pot

I’ll admit, this is a hell of a starting point. Having the bones and trimmings from using the good bits of duck for Dragon Boat Festival zongzi means having a flavour bomb ready on hand.

You could say I’m cheating, but I prefer to think that I’m up-cycling. But if you don’t have a bunch of leftover duck hanging around, you could get pretty close by roasting some duck legs in hoisin sauce, Chinese five spice, salt and pepper, and sugar.

Either chuck the duck legs straight into the broth, or make a big batch and have them with something else while saving up the bones.

Winter melon – one thick slice

These melons are huge, like easily the size of a toddler. They’re usually sold by the slice or by weight at the market. Take the slice home, rinse off any dust or dirt, cut it into wedges, then peel and de-seed.

Dried shiitake stems – couple handfuls

Just like with the caps, rinse off the stems and rehydrate them overnight in fresh water. Chuck the stems and rehydrating water into the broth together. Of course, if you want to use the caps as well that’s totally cool too.

Salt – to taste

Depending on how well seasoned your duck is, you might not need any at all. Wait until the end before you taste and decide how much to salt the broth.

Water – enough to cover everything else

Good old H2 and O. Resist the beginner mistake of trying to add too much water in the hopes of making more broth – physics is not in your favour. The more stuff you have relative to the amount of water, the more flavour the soup will have.

Executive summary

1. Wash and rehydrate dried shiitake stems overnight.
2. Begin cooking by covering duck trimmings in the pot with water. Add shiitake stems and rehydrating water. Bring to a simmer.
3. While water comes up to temperature, wash and cut winter melon into chunks. Cut off the peel and the seeds.
4. Add winter melon to the pot. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until winter melon has softened.
5. Serve hot.

Play by Play

Last things first. The night before, rinse off the dried shiitake stems – check out how much dust and dirt I got off of them. Soak the stems in some fresh water overnight.

Here’s what happened over the course of the evening. The stems plumped up, and the water changed colour – that’s how you know it worked. Make sure to add the rehydration liquid into the broth together with the stems, because that’s where half the flavour is.

Time to cook! It takes some time for the bones and the shiitake stems to give up their flavour, so I’m leaving them alone in cold water on a medium-low heat while I go prep the winter melon. The lid is on to keep the heat in and bring things to a boil sooner.

Here’s my attempt to explain the temporal sequence of events, but in a spatial way. I think it looks pretty cool. Essentially, cut the winter melon into wedges, then cut the seeds and the peel off each section.

The duck bones and shiitake have been simmering all the while. Chuck the winter melon sections in and simmer until they’re soft. It’s going to take 15-20 minutes. Check for seasoning at the end – you might not need any, depending on how much salt the duck bones contributes to the broth.

Soup time! Savoury and rich, but also ‘clean’ tasting. That’s the best way I can put it. It’s great with the zongzi because it’s nice and refreshing to take sips of the broth in between bites of the dumpling. Speaking of …

What’s cool about rice dumplings is that the rice takes on the flavour of the ingredients next to them, so the taste evolves as you work your way through it. Every family makes their zongzi differently, and fresh bamboo leaves hit different – might be something worth trying next year.

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