Sunday, March 13, 2016

Chinese Summer Tonic Soup

All dried ingredients lined up neatly
This is a lazy way to cook a pot of 桂圓紅棗枸杞白木耳甜湯 red dates longan goji snow fungus soup with Midea Pressure Cooker. Why summer? Because of its ingredients are suitable for hot summer days. But it can be consumed any time of the year. There are several locations sell these ingredients in Chinatown: Hong Kong Seafood CityYin Wall CityViet Hoa Market.

Ingredients:
1 cup lotus seeds 蓮子
1 cup split jujubes, dried 紅棗
2 tbs goji berries, dried 枸杞
3 tbs longan meat, dried 桂圓
1 head snow fungus 銀耳
2 oz rock sugar or brown sugar

Directions:
  1. Soak white fungus in warm water until expanded. Trim off yellow part on the base. This may be bitter or sour.
  2. Rinse all ingredients well. 
  3. Place in the pot. 
  4. Add water to level 6.
  5. Set to SOUP in Midea Pressure Cooker for 30 minutes. 
  6. When done, add desired sweetness to the soup. I prefer plain because longan is naturally sweet.
  7. Remove from pot and store in a gallon container.
  8. Try to consume the soup in a week at any temperature. 
Brown sugar will turn the soup dark.
The effects of rock sugar is purity.
References:

Nutritional Values: