PBS Hawaiʻi Classics
The Chan-ese Way: Rainbow Soup
7/29/2026 | 27m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
Chef Titus Chan uses a very large king crab to make rainbow soup.
Chef Titus Chan describes the wide variety of Chinese soups and makes rainbow soup using a large king crab.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
PBS Hawaiʻi Classics is a local public television program presented by PBS Hawai'i
PBS Hawaiʻi Classics
The Chan-ese Way: Rainbow Soup
7/29/2026 | 27m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
Chef Titus Chan describes the wide variety of Chinese soups and makes rainbow soup using a large king crab.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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(instrumental music) Titus Chan: How much do you really know about Chinese soup?
Well, in general, there are three categories.
Category number one on this kind of quick soup, which you can done five to seven minutes, such as egg flower soup, any soup with meat and vegetable.
The second category would be the kind that takes about in our so, such as bird's nest soup and sharks fin soup.
The last category are the kind it takes a long, long time to cook, such as putting one huge chunk of pork with watercress.
You cook it for two, three hours, partly for food, partly for medicine.
Today we like to show you the kind of easy kind of soup, very, pretty, very good eating and easy to prepare, and the star of the soup is a huge King Crab.
Let's all take a look at it.
(instrumental music) Titus Chan: You see this king crab is one of the major ingredients in our rainbow soup.
The reason we call it rainbow is because it looks so colorful, looks just like a rainbow.
And this is the thing that would have to give us the beautiful red color.
Before we go into the cooking, I'd like to say a few words about this king crab.
Now, folks, I have a lot of opportunity to work with this kind of king crab by the time I was cooking in Alaska.
During that time, oh, let's say about 15 some years ago, study have been made right on the Burn Street around the United States side.
The statistic shows about 2.5 million.
Mostly, they are nepted.
This kind of huge thing is not only in Alaskan coast, also in Japan.
The Japanese they harvest this kind of crab right along the summer months.
During the summer time on the northern part of Japan, they get a lot of this.
And this kind of thing live way deep down in the ocean, and they are great traveler.
They could travel miles and miles in one year's time.
Folks, this is very good to look at right now.
But boy, I'm telling you, if you and him swimming in the same spot under the water, I bet you become the fastest swimmer you ever know.
You know how big that is?
It's about four or five feet long, like that.
The biggest one that I saw was stretching out about six to seven feet.
But this is a medium size already.
It's already fully cooked.
Now, let's say we would need one cup of crab meat, so we will take out the leg so that we can get the meat out and using it as cooking.
But you see, this is a very strong crab.
You got to have a strong muscle in order to jerk it out.
Yeah.
So now we pressing it down and kind of jerking it out.
Oh, look at it.
It is so tough, so tough to make it.
But if you have enough drink, let's say you have breakfast this morning, yeah, then you really jerk it out hard.
Then finally, right there, we got one we got one out, like that.
Then all you need to do.
You simply crush it out and take the meat out.
But first, if you have this struggle so much, you know, after you jerk it out couple legs, whoa, you lose all your energy.
So, it doesn't work that way.
We got to have a better way to take it out.
So, what would be the better way to take it out?
I think simplest thing to do was simply to take the shell off first, yeah.
Once you take the shell off, then you could take it out easily.
So, let's say we take the shell off.
Now if you will follow me, once we take the shell off, then we'll be very easily to take the leg out.
So, all you need to do, take it off like that.
That's all there is to it.
You don't have to really struggle with it.
All right, now, up to this far, we will put this crab aside.
Then we will set to work as for how do we cut it up?
Now, we temporarily setting it up here.
I hope that he would behave sitting up there for a while.
Now, let's come back to do the cooking right over here.
Or what we need to do would be to take one cup of all the ingredients that I'm mentioning.
That's why we say this is an easy kind of soup that we can do right now.
Alright.
All what we need to do, we simply cut it off, crush it.
Somebody say, well, some girls in the audience would say, I would feel a strong arm husband in order to do that.
But you can get the can kind whatever.
But this would be very good, tasty you have it with the shell.
Now, all you need to do, you cut it up a little bit.
Then you take the meat out.
Nice meat.
You see how colorful that is.
That's why we call it the star of the soup.
Now here we cut it up again, take it out.
Don't worry about breaking it up.
Later on, we are going to break it up anyway.
So, we cut it all right up like that, and then we break it up into smaller pieces.
Roughly, we would need one cup for all this soup.
Now, the soup that we are preparing today would be about 15 cups, good for 10 to 12 people, then again, depending how much you would like to drink that kind of soup, it's everything in itself.
You got the vegetables, you got the meat, you got the cornstarch.
So, it's a very good soup for busy mothers, as well as for all the people who are at work or whatever.
All right, now let's tear it up a little bit, roughly, roughly one cup of meat would be good enough.
Then you tear it up, yeah, putting into one cup, measuring it, and put it aside.
And then we will combining some other ingredients.
Now this is a piece of a small, kind of thin, kind of bone.
Sometimes you have it on the crab leg, then it'd be good for you to take it out.
Now, one leg would roughly giving us one cup.
So up to this one, we cleaned up a little bit so that the, working area won't be too messy.
We got so many things to get it done, so we got to clean that up.
Now, up to here, we put it in here so that we all can see roughly about one cup of clean crab meat, which already fully cooked, ready to go.
Another thing we need to do would be the one tomato.
Yeah, that tomato you could either call it one tomato or one cup.
Then all you need to do you dice it up.
All the ingredients we are using today are based on one cup, and most of the things are all dice it up.
So, in the diced form, by the time you're cutting the tomato, it's good for you to get a nice, sharp, nice sharp knife so that you don't squeeze a lot of juice in here.
So now we cut that up.
And then sometimes, if a little more than a cup, you don't have to worry, because you can buy a tomato exactly equal to one cup.
After you cut that up, then you put it together with the other ingredients.
Now this soup, when we use this kind of tomato, is more or less add a little color to it, so don't cook it too much.
Now, after we slice it all up, one thing about cutting the tomato, yeah, so much juice coming out, but with a sharp knife, I think we can come back with this problem.
Cutting all up like that, any way that you can, cutting it up so that it would be in the diced form.
Now, after we do that, put it aside, including the juice and whatever.
Okay, put it right over here.
That's how we get the color.
That's why we call it rainbow soup.
Now, next thing we would need would be the green peas.
You know, the green peas would be the last thing you should put it in.
Otherwise, it would be turning into black and brown something.
So that's why I am putting it right over here, using a small platter to contain it, so that I know this would be the last one I put it in.
Folks, this is about four of five different kind of things you got to take some organization, yeah.
Sometimes, oh, you got a terrible hangover from last night, you don't know what you put in first.
You would what should put in last.
Therefore, you put that thing into a container so you do not mix them up.
Now, next thing we need to do would be a cup of shrimp.
This shrimp is already fully cooked.
So, this is kind of small shrimp.
We put it down one cup of fully cooked shrimp.
And then we would need roughly about half a square inch of fresh ginger.
As you can see, we have the fresh ginger over here.
Now, this is optional.
If you have it, fine.
You don't have it, no problem.
When you have it, that would help the smell a little bit and help to kill some of the fishy smell of the fish.
So, we use about that half an inch.
Do not peel.
Too much trouble to peel.
Just do it the lazy way, easy and simple way.
All right now, another thing we would need would be about one cup of cooked ham.
One cup of cooked ham, any kind of cooked ham, smoked ham, would be good.
You see, this kind giving you nice and deep red color would be, would be real good.
So, you dice it all up.
Some of us say, well, including the fat, not necessarily.
A lot of us don't care to have the fat, so you just trim it off a little bit.
But don't forget that ham should be fully cooked, because all the ingredients that we are using now are fully cooked.
The cooking time of this soup actually is about two or three minutes, so we have everything nicely diced it up, or everything would be pre-cooked.
So, making the soup lot easier.
Now in the area which you can get the Chinese roast pork, we call it char siu.
If you can get the char siu, would be terrific.
The char siu would give you nice, deep red color.
But not many place selling char siu, so one cup of cooked ham, it would be really good.
So now that's about one cup.
We put it right in here.
Now that we would need a little bit tofu, if you like to use tofu.
So many areas we can get the tofu without much problem, but some place you cannot get it.
And this is not the star of the show.
So, you don't make much difference.
If you have it, fine.
You don't have it, no problem.
Now, this is the thing the Chinese look at it very important, because it's inexpensive and very, very nutritious.
Japanese people love it.
They just have to have that.
That is almost their daily, daily diet.
So, all you need to do if you are to using that, you simply use one cup.
You dice it up.
This is something funny, you know, folks, you got to know how to preserve it.
You got to put it in water.
You got to put it in the refrigerator.
Otherwise, it would give you a funny smell.
A lot of Western people didn't like the taste, but to the Oriental people, it's a must.
Therefore, we'll say at this time we leave it optional.
You want to use it one cup.
Dice it up.
You don't want to use it.
No big thing.
So, we are going to leave it up to you this time.
People will say, how is this going to be made?
Well, the way that you making that, for a very simple description, would be, you ground up the beans, you add a little water to it, then you add a little salt, you bring it to a boil.
By the time it's getting boiling it up, then you pour it into a mold, and then once it's cooling off, then it would be, become this form.
It's a very good tasting thing.
Another thing we would be, would be two egg white, two egg white, huge egg or small egg.
Well, that doesn't weigh too much.
The French, let's say two medium one.
How's that?
So, everybody be happy.
We take a happy medium.
So, all you need to do, you put, put it in here, then you take another egg white.
Now we leave this aside.
Then we got two egg white over here.
All you need to do, you simply whip it up a little bit with this kind of fork.
You know, Chinese people don't use a lot of scientific tools, so to speak.
I know in this country, when you whip this, you use a whipper and plug it into a plug or whatever.
Then you, you got it going.
But this is no problem.
You very whip it a little bit, this little egg white we use that is not because the recipes tell us to do, we could care less the recipes.
This is to give us a body.
That's why we need that, right?
Lastly, what we need would be a cup of milk.
Would be a cup of milk.
This milk would give you the white looking.
That's why we have this kind of color contrast.
Alright, up to this point, all what we need to do we will come to the cooking area now.
This area, all you need to do is nice to have gas.
You know, by the time you turn it on, boy, everything is ready.
You couldn't beat that.
Now we got the gas going.
That's nice and strong.
Then all you need to do would be eight cups of chicken broth, whether buy it by can, whether homemade.
Couldn't care less.
So, all what we are saying would be eight cups of chicken broth.
All right, we put it in eight cups of chicken broth right over here, nice and hot, that's good.
Now it's a little too strong though, folks, it's kind of salty.
Yeah, if you drink it like this, that's your stock.
Your water bill is going to run up because you're going to keep drinking water.
Keep drinking water.
So, what can be done?
Let's dilute it with two cups of water, hot or cold.
Couldn't care less.
We're going to boil it up anyway.
So, this is all what we need.
Now, I better turn this off to conserve, to save some of the gas.
Right now, you look at this thing, you let it come to a boil.
In order to make it come to a fast boiling, we have a cover.
Simply cover it up, turn the gas on.
Boy, is fast, isn't it nice?
Now we're talking about up to here, while we are waiting it to come to a boil, you need to adjust the soup.
In order to adjust the soup, what I mean is you take off the scum, you take off the floating fat, then you put a little pepper, then you taste it.
Somebody say, oh, I know how to taste it.
Put my finger in there, and then lick it a little bit.
Well, you try to put your finger in there.
You hear scream when you know where that comes from, too.
So, use a small teaspoon.
It's a lot better.
Then you taste the food.
If the food, the soup, is to your right taste.
That's all you need.
That's all you need, all right.
Now let's take a look at that now.
It's coming pretty, pretty good, though.
So now you take a look at the wok here.
You got a lot of floating fat, which is expected.
So, you take it out.
If you don't take it out, yeah, your husband also is going to gain a few more pounds by doing that.
So simply, you take them out.
Sometimes it's got the scum, sometimes got the fat.
So, you take off the fat.
Everybody would love your soup because it's free from grease, from oil, and that's one of the reason we add a little water so that this thing would not be too strong for us.
Now, once you bring it to a boil, once you bring it to a boil, that's the time to put a little bit of your white pepper.
That white pepper would give you some taste and some smell, especially when you are using seafood, it's a lot better to use a little pepper.
How much, let's say, a dash, good enough to give you a smell, but not good enough to making everybody sneezing.
Look at this wok now, folks, the soup is hard boiling.
This is the stock.
Now, once the stock is done, let's say we want to do it early in the morning.
Then by the time we come home and we are ready to go, then you leave the green peas out.
You leave the milk out.
And then we would you also leave the so-called thickening base.
The thickening base is six teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with six teaspoon, let's say tablespoon, six tablespoon of cornstarch, six tablespoon of water.
You mix them up, then that would be your thickening thing.
Then we will have the egg white.
Now, let's say we have to do it now and then when we come home and we heat it up again.
So, we put all this in.
Bring it to a boil and then that's all you need.
That's all you need.
You put it in a pot, and by the time you come home, the soup, it would be ready.
All you need to do, you come home, you put it on the stove.
You take a shower.
By the time you come out, the soup is all ready.
Now, that provided you don't sing too long in your shower.
Alright.
Now, let's say we bring this to a boil, yeah.
Once we bring it to a boil, right now we are going to serve it.
So, we put the green peas in as well.
Then once it comes to a boil, then we do the thickening it up.
One thing I must warn you, though, folks, you must wait until the soup comes to a boiling.
Otherwise, the soup you put your thickening base in the soup is going to be really dull.
It's not shiny looking.
So, it's very important wait till the soup is completely boiling up.
Well, it takes time.
Sure, any good cooking tastes time.
So, there should be no problem.
You just patiently wait a little bit.
Then that's all you need.
Now this so called the thickening base.
These six tablespoons of cornstarch with the same amount of water you're mixing it up, you got to constantly stir it.
Now, as you can see right over here, if you do not stir it in, all what you pour it in would be water.
We don't want to put the water in the soup.
Actually, all what we need would be to thicken it up a little bit, just like American soup, such as clam chowder, things like that.
It's a little bit on the thicker side.
So, all you need to do, you just mix it up, and then you stir it in.
Now, while we are waiting for it to come up, then we would like to say all you need to do, you put it in a bowl like this, you put it in a bowl.
Now this is a beautiful bowl that we can we can use.
And once you put it inside, then if you are not serving it right away, people are not eating it right away, all you need to do, you simply covering it up again, like that.
Then, until people come, then you could serve it right away.
Before you serve it, I should suggest you to use about two teaspoon full of brandy.
All you need to do, you open it up.
You simply put your thumb over it and put two shots in there, about two teaspoon.
Okay.
Now, look at this.
Now we got the soup, boiling it up.
Look at this now, so we are stirring it in.
Stir it up.
Stir this up.
Very patiently.
Then we put the milk.
You see it's hot, boiling.
Now, you see this is very important.
Then we put the milk in.
Mix it up.
Mix it up.
Now, once the milk in it give you white looking, white, looking give you the color and the body.
Then again, oh, boy.
This is a troublemaker folks, you got the constantly stirring it.
Otherwise, it's going to set.
You know, by the time I was doing the professional cooking for Hilton Hawaiian Hotels and this kind of thing we cook it half done so that we don't have to stir it all the time.
Otherwise, we got too tired.
We want to sit down already.
Now it is boiling, so we stir it in.
Stir this up gradually, putting this in there, so that it would form a nice, thick soup.
One thing, folks, you make sure you bring it to a boil.
After you put all this in, you bring it to a boil so that the cornstarch would be cooked.
That's very important.
Now it's coming back to a boil.
After it come back to a boil, then all you need to do, you turn off the fire, and then you whip in your egg white.
You whip in your egg white.
Now, you see it comes back to a boil.
Nice gas wok.
Turn it off.
Why do we turn it off?
This way you keep your egg white tender and good looking.
If not, it would be too old getting cooked too fast right.
Now, up to this point, we mix it all up.
It's like a rainbow.
That's why we call it the rainbow soup.
And it's good eating, so easy to make.
Now let's do it this way.
We are going to put it right on this soup bowl.
Oops.
Making a lot of noise.
Now, putting it up here.
So, we'll be ready to serve.
Right before you serve you put in your liquor.
You do not stir up the liquor, though, folks, I don't want you to stir up the liquor until you take it out to the dining table.
Before you serve it, you do not mix it up.
So now you wash your thumb clean.
Yeah, you wash your thumb clean.
Then you should roughly two teaspoon.
Don't worry, people are not going to get drunk on that.
That's in about 10 serving cups.
So put it right in there.
Save it.
Save it now.
Don't, don't move it.
Leave it there.
So here it is folks.
This is the rainbow soup.
May I repeat again, how many people we can serve?
This is about 15 cups of soup.
You could serve anywhere from 10 to 12 people.
Let's talk about the cooking a little bit.
A while ago, we mentioned about gas wok, which is good, but the electricity stove, it would be just as well.
All you need to do, you put it on the large burner, you turn it high.
It works real well.
It works for just about any kind of Chinese cooking.
It takes a little time to adjust it.
It works as well.
Now let's say, let's say we have the soup about ready to serve.
Then we simply stir it up.
Stir it up.
Ooo, it really smell good.
The Hawaiian people will say, that is really, really delicious.
I should think folks you should try it.
Now, after you mix it up, then we simply dish it up into the individual bowl.
But if you say we want to wait a little while, then you may cover it up.
This is the nice soup bowl.
You see, this is a design so that you can keep the food warm, and then it's a very pretty design right over here.
Now, this is actually representing a peach.
The peach represents longevity.
All this design right over here, all this design right over here, says longevity as well.
So, by the time when people have a nine-course dinner for birthday, for wedding anniversary, you serve this kind of bowl.
It is very appropriate.
People would really like it.
Now, once again, I would like to bring out the king crab.
This is, again, our star of the cooking show right over here.
Of course, he missing out one leg.
But you can cheat a little bit, you know, you just fix a little bit like that, and then it doesn't show.
Oh, I loose the eyes.
No problem.
We put it right back there.
It's a make believe eyes anyway.
Now this is the whole thing, so simple, so easy to make.
Next week we will do the beef on lettuce.
And until then, take good care of yourself.
We are counting on you.
We would like to see you again during the next time.
Up to this far, goodbye.
Chinese say, joi gin.
(instrumental music)
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