Snow Fungus with Pear is one of traditional Chinese desert soup. It's also a great desert in the summer. Snow fungus is more expensive than the more common black wood ear fungus, making it a prized treat !
WHAT IS SNOW FUNGUS?
Snow fungus (yín’ěr), also known as white wood ear (báimù’ěr) is a natural tree fungus. It grows naturally in tropical areas (where it can be found on dead wood), and is also cultivated commercially for both culinary and traditional medicinal uses.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), snow fungus is believed to strengthen the body, especially during recovery from an illness. It’s believed to be good for the kidneys, lungs, stomach, and heart, improving blood flow, and treating high blood pressure.
Before you start cooking
- You could find snow fungus in the local chinese grecory store.
- It has to be soaked overnight before cooking. The sencond day, snow fungus will turn to soft, and split them into a small pieaces.
- Using rick cooker to steam snow fungus.
- Peel and cut the Asian pear into bite-sized pieces, discarding the core
- Soaking Goji Berries 15 mintues before cooking
Ingredients:
- 25 g dried snow fungus(rehydrated overnight in water)
- 10 cups water
- 1 large Asian pear (about 300-400g)
- 40 g brown sugar
- 15 g dried Goji Berries (2 tablespoons)
Instrucation:
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After soaking the dried snow fungus overnight to re-hydrate, trim away the yellow root portion, which is very tough. Tear the reconstituted snow fungus into small pieces.
- Using rick cooker to steam soacked and small snow fungus with water; only needs water to cover the snow fungus when steaming.
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In a medium/large thick-bottomed pot, add the snow fungus and water. Bring to a boil, and reduce the heat to medium low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add the bite-size pear into the pot, and stire it. Then, cover and cook it for another 30 mintues over mideum low heat.
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Add the brown sugar and goji berries. Sweetness will come from sugar, pears, and goji berries, though you may want to adjust the sugar levels according to your own preference.
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Cover and simmer until the soup over low heat until it is syrupy, and the liquid/snow fungus both turn a light amber color. This will take 1-2 hours.
Tips:
You also can add chinese date into snow fungus soup. If you want to add chinese dates, it is better to cut the chinese dates into the half, and discard the core.
Also, I would like to cook snow fungus with lily roots. The cooking instruction is same as this recipe. Only extra step is that soaking dried lily root overnight to re-hydrate before cooking.
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