Snow Fungus Longan Soup

I had to come up with an impromptu dessert soup when my brother came over for a cooked-in teppanyaki dinner last weekend. Too late to make his favorite red bean dessert soup (best boiled in slow cooker overnight).


Since the teppanyaki which uses a hot plate to fry a variety of meats and vegetables on the dining table, is "heaty", I've decided to boil the snow fungus which is a perennial item in my fridge. It is a very cooling and extremely refreshing dessert. (especially if you drink it chilled)

The snow fungus or white ear fungus or suet yee (雪耳) contains much vitamins and minerals like iron, vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus. The Chinese believes that snow fungus will nourish the lungs, heal dry cough and remove heatiness from the lungs.

When buying snow fungus, look out for the good quality ones that are pale yellow-white in color.

Snow fungus Longan Soup



40 gm snow fungus, soaked for 1/2 hour
1 tsp dried longan
150 gm lotus seeds, pitted
5 gm ginseng roots
130 gm rock sugar
4 liter water

1. Wash and break the snow fungus into smaller pieces. Discard the hard portions.
2. Rinse the rest of the ingredients lightly and put all into the pressure cooker.
3. Boil over high heat till you can see the second red indicator ring.
4. Switch to very low heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Serve hot or cold depending on preference.

Bak Kut Teh 肉骨茶

Bak Kut Teh 肉骨茶 is a popular Chinese herbal soup concoction in Malaysia and Singapore. Cooking this soup has hubby's reminiscence of his dad's only-one-time cooking bat kut teh from scratch where the herbs are boiled with sugar cane juice for hours to bring out the unique flavor.


Nowadays it is much more convenient because we can find instant packets of bak kut teh from the shops or supermarkets. They come in tea bags and usually consist of the following herbs:-

Angelica Sinensis (dong quai or female ginseng)当归 ,
Polyonatum Odoratum (Solomon's Seal or yoke chok)玉竹
Cinnamonum Aromaticum (Cassia or yoke kuai)玉桂
Lycii Fructus (wolfberry or kei chi)枸杞
Piper Nigrum L (white pepper)白胡椒
Codonopsis Pilosulae (dong sum)党参
Glycyrrhizae Preparata (Liquorice Root)甘 草
Ligustici Wallichii (Chuan Xiong)川芎
Star Anise八角


The hubby recently bought two different packets of Bak Kut Teh. While reviewing the instructions which say only 1.5 liter of water for each packet mix and since I have six mouths to feed with each person having two bowls of the soup, I combined the two packets together for this meal.

Bak Kut Teh 肉骨茶


2 pkts Bak Kut Teh herbs mix
1 kg pork ribs
3 whole garlic
12 pcs dried shitake mushroom, soaked 2 hours and squeezed
1 pkt enoki mushroom
16 pcs tofu pok
1 tsp dark soy sauce
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
3 liter water
salt to taste

1. Put all ingredients into the pressure cooker.
2. Boil over high flame till the second red indicator ring appears.
3. Switch to very low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Remove from fire.
5. Serve hot with rice.