Apple, Pear and Snow Fungus Soup 蘋果雪梨雪耳湯
Servings 2 people
Ingredients
- 0.5 ounce snow fungus 雪耳
- 8 ounces lean pork meat (like pork shank)
- 2 medium apples (cut into wedges and core removed)
- 3 Yali pears 鴨嘴梨 or other medium Asian pears (cut into wedges and core removed)
- 8 pieces sweet apricot kernels 南杏
- 6 pieces bitter apricot kernels 北杏
- 1 dried fig 無花果
- 8 cups water
- salt
Instructions
- Quickly rinse the snow fugus under tap water. Soak in a bowl of tap water for 30 minutes. Rinse again under tap water to remove any dirt. Remove the yellow end and cut into roughly 1-inch pieces.
- Rinse the meat under tap water, then soak in bowl of tap water for 10 minutes. Rinse again. Pat dried. Trim off any fat and cut in half.
- In a large pot, add pork, snow fugus, apple wedges, pear wedges, sweet almonds, bitter almonds and dried fig. Pour in 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Cover with a lid. Reduce to medium-low heat and keep on a small rolling boil for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Taste and season with a few pinches of salt. Serve hot.
Notes
- Snow fungus (aka white fungus) usually comes in a pack of a few. They are yellowish white. They can be found in Chinese supermarkets or on Amazon.
- I got my meat in Chinese supermarket. The pork is dark meat and very lean with almost no fat. If you can’t find lean pork meat, you can use pork bones. But you will need to boil the bones separately before using. Add pork bones in a pot just enough to cover. Bring to a boil and remove the bones. Rinse under tap water. It’s ready to be used.
- For the apples, use any sweet apples you prefer. Granny smith is too sour though.
- For the pears, I used yali pears 鴨嘴梨. You can use other Asian pears if you like. They can be found in Chinese or Korean supermarkets.
- For the apricot kernels, both sweet and bitter ones have different health benefits. They are always being used together in Chinese cooking. You can skip them if you can't find them or prefer not to use. Some of you may have heard apricot kernels are toxic and can be harmful. But if being cooked properly, they’re perfectly fine to consumer in a small amount. You can get both apricot kernels in Chinese supermarkets. When buying, they are likely to be named “almonds”. And some may not even named whether they are sweet or bitter. You may want to compare the packaging with my Chinese translation. (Sweet apricot kernels = 南杏, bitter apricot kernels = 北杏) You can also get them online, sweet kernels & bitter kernels.
- Dried fig can be found in regular supermarket or Chinese supermarkets. The one I found is from Nutra Fig.
- For leftover, the soup can be kept for 3 days in the fridge. Cooled and stored in an air-tight container. Bring back to a boil before serving.