Chuan Bei, Lingzhi, Cordyceps and Gecko Soup

Why people make this soup

Nourilo tells of an old friend he hadn’t seen in years, now glowing and full of energy — utterly different from before, when asthma kept her up whole nights, unable even to lie down without wheezing. Someone suggested she gently double-boil a little cordyceps daily; she did so for the better part of a year and stopped having attacks. So, where budget allows, those with a weak, wheezy chronic cough sometimes turn to richer tonic ingredients like cordyceps, lingzhi and these. This soup is traditionally used to warm the kidney, support the lungs, and settle a chronic cough and wheeze.

Method

1. Remove the heads from the gecko, rinse, and blanch with the lean pork. Soak and rinse the other ingredients.
2. Place everything in a double-boiling vessel and pour in about 1.1 L of boiling water.
3. Double-boil over water for about 3 hours, until you have about 900 ml of soup. Drink the soup and eat the cordyceps.

Nourilo’s Tips

Gecko is sold in pairs; remove the heads, and note the tail is the most prized part. For a child’s cough and wheeze, you can simmer gecko tail with tangerine peel into a congee, to good effect. If cordyceps is too dear, substitute about 38 g of cordyceps flower. Adults and children alike tend to sleep better after this soup.