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Bean curd stick, ginkgo and barley sweet soup

Bean curd stick, ginkgo and barley sweet soup

腐竹白果薏米糖水
SimmeredBeansHot or coldWeekendFor guestsGood reheatedEasyhands-on 20 min · start to finish 1 hr 15 min

“A bowl of sweet soup after dinner, and the meal is complete.”

Ingredientsserves 4

百子櫃Dried beancurd stick· the thin sheets sold for 糖水50 g
百子櫃Ginkgo nut· shelled, skinned, green germ picked out12, about 20 g shelled
百子櫃Job's tears / coix seed· soaked half an hour; half raw and half roasted is another way40 g
街市Chicken egg (hard-boiled)· optional2
百子櫃Rock sugar75 g

Method

  1. Soak the Job's tears thirty minutes and drain. Crack the ginkgo shells with the flat of a cleaver, blanch one minute so the brown skin rubs off, and split each nut to pick out the green germ with a toothpick; the germ is the bitter part and where the toxin sits. Vacuum-packed shelled nuts still need the germ taken out.
  2. Bring five cups of water (about 1.25 litres) to a rolling boil, add the Job's tears and the ginkgo, and simmer thirty minutes.
  3. Add the bean curd, keep the pot at a steady boil, and cook twenty to thirty minutes more until it has melted into the liquid. The ginkgo and the grain must be cooked right through; grain that stays hard was not soaked, or the sugar went in too early.
  4. If using egg, as for bean curd and egg sweet soup: hard-boiled whole into the pot, or turn the heat down and stream in beaten egg as ribbons.
  5. Add the rock sugar, let it dissolve, five minutes more.
  6. Serve hot; in summer it is just as good cooled and eaten cold from the fridge. Count as you ladle: about three ginkgo nuts a bowl, one or two for a child.

Take care

  • Contains egg and soy. Ginkgo nuts carry a toxin that cooking reduces but does not remove; the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety says an adult should eat only a few cooked ginkgo nuts a day, records poisoning from as few as ten cooked nuts, and says never eat them raw. This pot's twelve nuts across four bowls is three a bowl; give a child one or two, and none to the very young.

The story

The ginkgo in this pot is the one ingredient Hong Kong mothers count out by hand, because the family rule about ginkgo and children is older than the food-safety leaflet. The pot itself is a dessert-shop standard, alongside red bean soup and sesame paste, and the version on the menu board usually has an egg dropped in.

Same wall

Red bean sweet soupMung bean sweet soupSweet potato and ginger sweet soup

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.