Giam cai gai tong (Salted veg chicken soup)

Winter is finally here so it's time to whip out the soups and stews. This is traditionally cooked with duck but that's in short supply for me, so chicken will do. I checked the Internet and found a few recipes, with Noobcook looking the best, so here's my adaptation. I love my rice cooker because it doubles up as a slow cooker. Great because i can pop everything into the pot then forget about it as i go about my vacuuming and mopping and when I'm done, so is dinner!

Ingredients

1.2 kg chicken drumsticks (6 drumsticks)

2 tomatoes, cubed

1 packet of salted veg (xiao bai cai) 250g approx?

1 tbsp minced ginger 

Enough water to cover 

2 carrots, cubed 

Method

1) Wash the salted veg to remove all the brine. I even soaked it for 5 mins just to remove more of the salt, then rinsed it again. I know some other more health conscious recipes soak it for ½ hour but the last time i tried that, there was no taste left at all! Maybe it varies from brand to brand, so to be safe, I tasted the veg to see whether it needed to be soaked longer.

2) Chuck everything into the pot, except the tomatoes. Pour enough water to cover. If I really dug into my Cantonese roots, at this point, I would scald the meat in boiling water and throw that away to remove any blood and other impurities. But since housework awaits, I did the next best thing, which was just to periodically skim off scum and oil. 

3) Slow cook for 1 to 2 hours. You could of course simmer this on the stove at a slow boil for a similar amount of time. 10 minutes from the end, add the tomatoes. Check for seasoning, it's unlikely that the soup will require more salt but you can add pepper.

4) Serve with rice.