Sweet Potatoes with Dried Longan Dessert Soup

Serve 4 - 6

Ingredients:
- 2 regular yellow flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized/ small cubes
- 2 regular orange flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized/ small cubes
- 1 palm-sized honey rock sugar (or normal rock sugar, if desired)
- 1 thick slice of ginger (about 1cm thick, thumb-sized), lightly smashed once
- 1 pot of water (about 1500ml)


Preparation:
1) Bring a pot of water to a boil and add ginger slice.

2) Put in dried longan, yellow and orange flesh sweet potatoes, and bring them to another boil.

3) Reduce heat to low fire, add rock sugar, and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes just soften.

4) Serve hot.


Of course, you can have some sweet potato caserroles or briny-taste dishes, instead of having it sweet. Give me some time, I will have more sweet potatoes recipe in due (trying… winking smile)!


A bowl of this sweet potato dessert soup with dried longan counts about 120kcal.


Tips: Please do not over-cook the sweet potatoes as it will become too soft to yield the right texture.
* Cut the sweet potatoes into small cube size makes the cooking faster. It is also easier for the children to chew. Most of all, it looks much more presentable in appearance when served.
* Do simmer the rock sugar together with the sweet potatoes to attain perfect sweetness.

Dried Beancurd and Ginkgo Nuts Dessert (白果腐竹雞蛋薏米糖水)

This is one of my favourite Chinese desserts of all time. This dessert tastes light, refreshing and nourishing. It is also really easy to make.

(Serves 6 to 8)

Ingredients:
- 50g holland barley (洋薏米), rinsed a few times
- 1800ml water
- 5 pandan leaves, tied to a knot
- 20 pitted red dates
- 100g soft beancurd skin sheets (三边腐竹)
- 100g canned (boiled and shelled) ginkgo nuts (白果) (I used half can)
- 130g rock sugar (冰糖) (adjust to taste)

Preparation:
1) Soak bean curd sheets in a large bowl of water till soft, around 5 minutes.

2) In a pot, add water, barley, pandan leaves and red dates. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 20-30 minutes till barley is soft.

3) Add gingko nuts and soaked softened beancurd sheets (do not add the water used to soak the beancurd sheets. After adding beancurd, it easily spills over the stove. Be careful.) and continue simmering for another 10 minutes, or until the beancurd skin reached the consistency you like (big pieces or congee-like fine consistency; I like somewhere in between).

4) Add rock sugar to taste, turn off the flame when the sugar is fully dissolved. Discard pandan leaves. Serve warm or chilled.

5) When the dessert is almost done, you can add eggs and cook to your preferred texture. I just broke the eggs and added into the dessert, immediately turned off the heat. Let the heat in the pot continue to cook, about 5 minutes, then I got soft-boiled eggs in the dessert. Really enjoyed!

Cooking Tips:
1) Make sure you buy the soft type of beancurd skin to make this dessert. The other type, which is harder and oilier, is more suitable for making Chinese style meat stews (lor bah).

2) Get the finer type of barley, usually labelled as holland barley (洋薏米). They are easier to cook and softer to eat.

3) If using raw ginkgo nuts, you will need to increase the simmering time in step 2 (around 1 hour) till the nuts are soft. Add a bit more water too. Before using, gently crack open the shells with a mortar and pestle, insert a toothpick to flick out the dirt in the center of the nut which is bitter tasting.

4) Instead of canned ginkgo nuts, you can use those which are vacuum packed as well. Because of the way the nuts are compressed by the vacuum packaging which distorts their shape, I personally prefer the canned type.

5) You can substitute gingko nuts with lotus nuts, or use a combination of both.