Stewed Pear with White Fungus and Rock Candy 杏汁冰糖燉雙雪

Pear is one of my favourite fruits! I guess I just love everything that's have a crunchy texture. It's juicy, refreshing and most importantly, available all year around and not expansive.

Among all regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese cuisines is probably the most renowned for food therapy using causal ingredients in day-to-day dishes. In simple terms, it is all about eating the right food at the right time and make the food delicious and pretty. In Chinese, it is called "不時不食", means "eat with the season", eat most foods only when they are in season.

The most well known example would be slow cooked soup and sweet soup. Cantonese food therapy is always about soup. Herbal soup for fall/winter to moisturize your body whereas veggie soup for calming your body during the heatwave in summer.

Pear(I especially mean Asian pear, the ones with yellow skin), is an excellent example of the Cantonese cuisine theory. Although you see them all year round, they naturally harvest in fall.

This dessert is served warm. Especially good for ones who is suffering from coughing and dry throat. You will feel this smooth sweet pear soup with the hint of apricot kernels scent slowly calm the dry throat and warm your stomach. It also helps to moisturize your skin.

Take care and keep healthy!

Stewed Pear with White Fungus and Rock Candy

2 servings

Apricot kernels // 2 tsp
Water // 2 cup
Rock candy // 1 tbsp
White fungus (optional) // 2 tbsp
Asian pear // 2

1. Wash the apricot kernels and pat dry. Place in a small pan over low heat to toast (or you can use the oven, just like how to toast nuts), until slightly golden on the edge or you can smell the scent.

2. Meanwhile prepare the pear bowls. Use an apple Corer to core, and carefully scoop out the fruits without breaking it. Save the fruits for next step.

3. Pour the water into a small pan over medium heat, bring it to boil. Add in kernels and fruits, simmer for 20 minutes over medium-low heat. Add in rock sugar in last 5 minutes.

4. Discard the fruits from the sweet water. Pour the sweet water(along with the kernels and white fungus) into the pear bowls. Place them in the steamer over low heat for another 30 minutes.

:notes:

1. Don't scared by the name white fungus. It is a very common ingredients in Chinese food therapy with the use of smoothing and moisturizing. Just think about mushroom, it's like the cousin of mushrooms ;)

2. I'd like to discard the fruits from the soup because of the pear bowl size and also it loses the texture after the simmering process. It's up to you to keep them or not.

杏汁冰糖燉雙雪

2位用

南北杏 // 2 tbsp
雪耳(可不加) // 2 tbsp
冰糖 // 1 tbsp
水 // 2 cup
雪梨 // 2

1. 洗淨南北杏，白鑊炒香備用。

2. 雪梨先用去核器挖芯，再慢慢挖空成梨盅。留下梨肉備用。

3.小鍋中放雪耳，梨肉，南北杏和水，煲20分鐘。最後5分鐘放入冰糖煮溶。

4. 隔起梨肉。煮好的糖水連同南北杏和雪耳倒入梨盅內，小火燉30分鐘即可。

:notes:
1. 我喜歡隔起梨肉因為梨盅很小而且煲過後已失口感。這就個人喜好留下亦未嘗不可。