Hold the Salt

It is published in the Straits Times today about Holding the Salt. There are 7 recommended steps to cut down on sodium. I extracted them from the newspaper
1. Know the culprits
2. Fight snack attack
3. Cook with less salt
4. Go for natural flavours
5. Skip the gravy
6. Pick fresh food and
7. Train your tastebuds

I have adopted no 3 and 7 gradually in my household cooking. We used to sprinkle salt (if not MSG, staying with old folks they have their habit). But now we only use a light bit of soya sauce and basically no salt for our daily soup. It took us about 4 months to train our tastebuds. Initially food tasted really bland and it was not pleasant to eat. But now i have learn to savour the true natural taste of the ingredients.

Talking about daily soup, being a Cantonese i need to get my fix on that.  Cantonese soups are normally brewed patiently for many hours. Although i have a helper, i would rather she spend time doing other domestic matters than to watch over the soup and importantly to save on our utility gas expenditure.  That is why i bought a Thermos Shuttle Chef, sometime in March during their promotion at Isetan. It is one of the best kitchen investment i have made.

It is used to cook soup everyday. You just need to boil the ingredients in the inner pot for about 10 to 15 minutes then transfer into the outer pot.  The theory is that the residual heat will keep cooking the soup. Initially i was concerned if the flavours will be compromised, i reheated the soup 1 hour before consuming, in hope that more flavours will seep out of the ingredients.

After a few days of usage, i realised that it is needless to do so. The soup flavour was not compromised and the soup was still steaming hot after 6 to 8 hours. You can imagine i save maybe 1.5 hours of gas a day?

For working mothers, i highly recommend this. You can prep the items the night before and throw everything in to boil when you wake up. Put the inner pot into the outer pot just before you go to work. When you are back, a nice soup is waiting and your tired soul wanting...

In my future post, i will share with you a few tried and tested soup recipes enjoyed by my family.