Papaya and snow fungus sweet soup

Ingredientsserves 4

Method

1. Soak the snow fungus in cold water thirty minutes until it has swelled to twice its size, cut away the hard yellow base and tear it into small pieces.
2. Bring five cups of water (about 1.25 litres) to a rolling boil, add the fungus, the apricot kernels and the lotus seeds, lid on, and simmer on low forty minutes until the fungus is soft and silky and the liquid has begun to thicken from it. Fungus that is still crunchy was not soaked long enough, or is a cheap one that never softens; give it twenty minutes more.
3. The papaya should be firm-ripe with a little green; one that is too ripe collapses into orange threads the moment it goes in. Add it and cook fifteen minutes more, no longer, so the chunks hold.
4. Add the rock sugar, let it dissolve and taste. Bitterness means too many bitter kernels or a lotus core left in.
5. Serve warm; in summer put the whole pot in the fridge and serve it cold.

Take care

• None of the declared allergens. Bitter apricot kernels are only ever a few to the pot, must be boiled the full forty minutes and are never eaten raw; leave the kernels out of a child's bowl.

The story

HK01 files it as the office worker's bowl for an afternoon in air conditioning, and the dessert shop serves it inside a whole papaya to show off. At home it is the pot a mum makes when papayas are cheap at the market.

Same wall

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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.