Ah! Now I understand. Thank you very much for explaining Elaine.

Andreas,
Lotus soup hot pot is very popular in China now. You get a very good point here. If you want to make hot pot at home, make a large pot of soup can solve the problem. For example slightly increase the ingredients (or add a large pork bone) with at 8 to 10L water. Once the soup is done, take 1/3 out for the first serving with the most of the ribs and vegetables. After ribs and vegetables are eaten up, pour in the remaining soup to keep a 3-4 cm high soup level and begin to blanch other vegetables. It is very comforting in winter days.

my favorite Chinese soup is either this one ore the one with winter melon, I can never decide, so I make them both frequently 🙂

Thank you for mentioning the Cantonese variety. I'll try that soon, too. I didn't quite understand the thing with the hot pot. If you drink all the soup first what do you use to blanch the vegetables in? Could you maybe explain that a little bit more?

No, there is no need Andreas. The ribs have a very faint taste of sweet and freshness absorb from the lotus root. The taste should be one of the greatest mild meat.

do you serve this with some kind of dipping sauce for the meat?

You are the most welcome.

Hi Elaine,

it never occurred to me to leave the skin on the peanuts for cooking, In European cuisine recipes with peanuts are quite rare 🙂 I'll definitely try that out next time. Thanks a lot for putting up with my questions.

Hi Andreas,
It is raw peanuts I used in this soup. In Chinese cuisine, we usually keep the peanut skin as we think it is quite beneficial. But it is ok if you prefer to remove them.
When shopping lotus root, I usually choose plump ones with smooth and clean skin. That's all my experience. It is ok if the lotus root is slightly darker than mine as long as they are not blackened.

I have two questions though. First, the peanuts in the photo seem quite dark. Are they roasted or did you just leave the skin on them for the photo? Secondly, how do I determine whether the lotus roots are fresh when I go shopping?
The ones I got where not broken apart (and there was no dirt in them) but they where not as white on the inside as on your photos but a little darker, like yours after the cooking. So I assume they where not as fresh as they should be. Are there any tricks, like pressing them or looking for any specific detail (I obviously can't cut them apart in the shop)?