INTRODUCTION

This will be a straight forward short post.

A light, sweet and smooth desserts that will made me hard to resist whenever this dessert was served. It is a flexible dessert and if you wish, you can add in additional ingredients such as gingko nuts or lotus seeds. However, I have opt to use peanuts as I have never like the taste of gingko nuts. The peanuts blends equally well in the soup and in fact, in my humble opinion is a much better combination. The use of pressure cooker had reduce the time of preparation considerably.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

• 1/2 cup of candied winter melon;

• 1 cup of barley (I have used Barley from the state of Sarawak)

• 1/2 cup of peanuts

• 6 pandanus leaves tied in a bunch

• 1 packet (rather standard size) of dried bean curd sheets specially for desserts purposes.

• 1 cup of rock sugar or granulated sugar

• 8 cups of water

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Wash the pandanus leaves and tie into a bundle. Set aside for later use.

• Wash the peanuts and barley thoroughly and put in a pressure cooker and boiled for 25 minutes.

• Release the pressure and put in the bean curd sheets, rock sugar and candied winter melons and boiled for another 10 minutes.

• Release the pressure and preferably served hot or chilled.

Variations

Variations can include addition of gingko nuts, lotus seeds and jujubes.  Beaten eggs can also be added to thicken the sweet soup.

CONCLUSION

• This is a traditional Chinese desserts that I can never resists. It is easy to cook especially with the pressure cooker. It is a very light dessert, smooth, sweet and suitable for almost all occasion. Barley is researched to have the  capabilities of reducing lower cholesterol levels. Chinese believed that the sweet soup will be good and nutritional to the complexion and skin conditions. It is also believed that pregnant women who have taken this dessert regularly will give birth to a fair and chubby baby.

• Try to make this simple desserts for your family. Remember that you can always tailor this to suit your taste buds and if you like Gingko nuts, go ahead as gingko nuts is beneficial to you brain and improved your memory.

• There is another barley dessert that I have written in Guaishushu’s Facebook Page that you may want to consider making –

  Black Glutinous Rice and Barley Sweet Porridge (血糯薏米甜粥）

Hope you like the simple post today and have a nice day ahead.