Monday, May 02, 2005

Ginkgo, Barley & Bean Curd Dessert

This is a Cantonese dessert I sometimes had in Singapore and haven't tasted again since I left 5 years ago. So, when I saw Edith, a blogger buddy of mine, put up the picture on her blog, I asked her for the recipe. Apparently this dessert is nourishing, moisturising from within the body. It is said to be especially good for expecting mother and should be consumed so that the baby will have beautiful complexion. Here is a version I made using Magic Jar my mum gave me earlier this year when she came to visit.

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Ingredients:
50g pearl barley
20g dried beancurd sheet
60g canned ginkgo nuts
1 litre water
rock sugar to taste

Method:
Soak the beancurd sheet until it turns soft. (Mine took a few minutes only.) Wash the barley until the water runs clear. Drain. Rinse the ginkgo nuts. Boil everything together, leaving out the rock sugar. Simmer for about 1 hour.
If you are using Magic Jar, remove from fire when it starta to boil and tranfer the internal jar to the external jar and leave for about 1 hour. Add sugar to taste.
Serve hot.

Serve 4-6

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tried the recipe but the bean curd sheet does not dissolved completely like what we have from the Chinese restaurant.Moreover the soup also tasted a little bit bitter.Can you please comment.

Regards
Betsy

J said...

Betsy, to dissolve the bean curd completely you may need to soak it for longer. Have a look at Edith's blog http://preciousmoments66.blogspot.com to see what she did. About the bitter taste, did you remember to remove the stem of the ginkgo nuts?