Papaya Sweet Soup with Lotus Seed and White Fungus

It is one of the popular dessert in Hong Kong that people usually enjoy eating it through the year.  Since the white fungus is consider as 'natural collagen' due to the high amount of protein, women love to eat it regularly.  The rock sugar and lotus seeds can help nourishing dry skins or sore throat.  In summer, people like to chill this clear looking dessert before eating so that it can cool off the body from the heat.

I used the dried lotus seeds in this recipe, but it is always better if you are using fresh lotus seeds.  Remember to remove the green core that has a bitter taste.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Papaya, ripen

10-15 Lotus Seeds, core removed (I used dried lotus seeds here)

2 White Fungus

2 tablespoons Goji Berries

1/3 cup Rock Sugar (adjust it to your preference)

8 cups Water

DIRECTION:

1, Soak the white fungus in water until it is rehydrated; about 30 minutes.  Discard the yellow hard core.  Gently tear the fungus into large pieces; set aside.

2. Peel off the skin of papaya.  Cut it lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.  Cut the papaya into chunks; set them aside.

3. Bring the water to a boil.  Add lotus seeds and rock sugar.  Boil for another 15 minutes.

4. Add papaya, white fungus and goji berries.  Bring it to a boil again and then turn the heat to medium.  Continuously boil for another 20 minutes and it is done.  It is delicious to serve it both cold or hot.

Mama's Fermented Sweet Rice Wine ｜ 媽媽自家甜酒釀做法

This summer when my parents came to visit, I asked my mom to teach me how to make sweet rice wine.  The fermented sweet rice wine sold in stores can never be as good as the one mom makes at home.

There are so many different ways to make fermented sweet rice wine out there, but they all sounded so complicated or vague.  This time, when my mom came and we did two batches from start to finish.  Both batches were a success.  I saved one batch for drinking as it is and saved the other one to make tang yuan.

All the ingredients listed should be possible to find in old style Asian stores.

Mama's Fermented Sweet Rice Wine

媽媽自家甜酒釀做法

My mom was showing the first batch of our successful  rice wine.

Ingredients:

2 cups White Glutinous Rice

4 Wine Yeast Balls

How to make it:

1. Blend the yeast into powder; set it aside.

If you don't have a processor, using the back of the knife to smack the yeast balls until they become granulate.

2. Rinse the glutinous rice in two changes of water; drain well.  Pour the rice in a dish evenly and then sprinkle about 4 tablespoons of water over it.

3. Cook the rice in a pre-heated steamer over high heat for 30 minutes, or until the rice is totally soften and cooked.

4. Remove the rice from the steamer; allow it to cool until luke warm.  (yeast needs the warmness to ferment, but hot rice can kill the yeast).

5. Sprinkle the yeast over the rice a few times while stirring the rice.  Make sure they incorporate very well.

6. In a sterilized jar, add the rice to fill half of the container.  Cover the bottle with a kitchen paper towel and close the lid. 

(I used spaghetti container to ferment my wine and they came out just fine)

7. Leave the bottles in a dark place.

8. After about three days, you will see some wine starting to form on the bottom.

9. Stir the rice once, and continue to allow it ferment for at least three weeks before drinking it. 

Both the wine and rice residue are edible.  You can use the rice to make sweet soup or steamed chicken.

The wine after three weeks.

10. To store the wine, remove the paper towel and close the lid tight. Store it at room temperature for up to a year.

Walnut Sweet Soup | 合桃糊

Walnut Sweet Soup | 合桃糊

Ingredients: (4 servings)

1.5 cups Walnuts

1/2 cup White Rice, short grain

5-8 cups Water

1 cup Brown Sugar

材料: (4 人份)

1.5 杯   合桃

1/2 杯   白米, 圓米

5-8 杯   水

1 杯   片糖

DIRECTION:

Coconut Sticky Rice Koi Cake | 椰汁錦鯉年糕

Coconut Sticky Rice Koi Cake

椰汁錦鯉年糕  

INGREDIENTS:

300 gram Coconut Milk

3 cups Glutinous Rice Flour

1 cup Wheat Starch

1/2 cup Young Coconut Flesh

1 cup Sugar

Food Colorant (Red and Black)

材料：

300 克   椰奶

3 杯   糯米粉

1 杯   澄麵

1/2 杯   椰青肉

1 杯   白糖

食用色素 (紅色, 黑色)

DIRECTION:

Pearl Barley Lemon Drink ｜ 檸檬薏米水

Peral barley lemon drink is a common beverage in Hong Kong.  During the fiercely hot summer time, many moms will make this lemony drink for their family to cool off their bodies.

In this drink, we combine two different types of barley, the raw barley and the toasted barley.   Since we believe every food contains different elements like "yin and yang" or "cold and hot", we consider raw barley to be "cold" and roasted barley to be "hot".  By combining the two barley together, we can balance the extreme elements that benefits our bodies.

The raw barely is on the left, and the roasted barley is on the right.

Pearl Barley Lemon Drink

檸檬薏米水

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Raw Barely

1/2 cup Roasted Barely

4 tablespoons Sugar

1/4 wedge of Lemon

How to make it:

1. Bring it to a boil.  Add raw barely and roasted barely.  Reduce the heat to medium and continuously boil it for 25 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Squeeze in the lemon juice and season it with sugar.