Travelling in Mary Janes

I love chinese desserts. I personally find them much easier to eat than your average cakes and creams. But in Melbourne, it’s hard to find anything that isn’t black sesame soup and even that is often of poor quality.

So today I thought I’d share a really simple chinese dessert. It’s called: Snow Fungus Sweet Soup.

The recipe is taken from Lily Wai Sek Hong and I quote her here:

Snow fungus, also known as white tree ear fungus, silver fungus and silver ear is quite similar to wood ear but it is white in color and almost transparent. Good-quality snow fungus has a pale and yellowish-white color. It is often used in soups and desserts.

White fungus contains much iron, vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus. The fat and gum-like protein in it is especially nourishing to the body. It is considered a good supplement to the body. Stew white fungus with rock sugar lubricates the colon and stimulates peristalsis. Thus, it is a mild laxative for constipation patients. White fungus is also said to be effective in nourishing the lungs, healing dry cough and clearing heat in the lungs. Those who have weak lungs catch cold easily. Eating stewed white fungus with rock sugar and red dates helps strengthen the respiratory system and thus, helps prevent cold.
But take this sweet soup before catching cold or after healing. Do not take it while having a cold

Ingredients

Snow Fungus
Rock Sugar

Snow fungus before being cooked

1. Soak the snow fungus in cold water to soften.
2. Put snow fungus in slow cooker with enough water to cover it.
3. Put in rock sugar (to taste)
4. Cook till the snow fungus is soft and jelly -like
5. Serve Warm.

Please pardon the bad quality of the photos. These were taken really late at night, but it serves as a rough illustration as to how it should look like. Many people hear the word ‘fungus’ and is put off by it, but this is actually really yummy and easy to eat even after a rather full meal.

You can also add other things to it, like barley, star anise and red dates etc etc, there is no set way to do it, so feel free to play around and come up with your perfect snow fungus sweet soup!