Unlike my cheena-wannabe self, I adore desserts. I have an extremely sweet tooth, and will only stop when my teeth cries out in pain from the attack of sugars. However, chinese meals are seldom ended on a sweet note, unless you are off for a full sit-down 8 course meal – which happens on Chinese New Years and wedding dinners.
Chinese dessert usually have strange and wonderful names. It is usually some auspicious-sounding name – like four seasons ect. So I have decided to name my self-conccoted desset as well – presenting Growing Treasures.
Ingredients:
Dried white fungus. Be VERY prudent
6 red chinese dates
2-3 pandan leaves (pandanus leaves/ screwpine leaves) tied in a knot
100g of pak kor/ peh kueh (gingko nuts)
a couple of quail’s egg
wonton skin (optional)
rock sugar – according to taste
Soak the white fungus in warm water for a couple of hours. The reason this dish is called growing treasures is because the fungus grows and expands and nearly pop! It is HUGE. A fistfull will grow into a huge potful if you are not careful, and you won’t be able to fit anything else in it.
After the fungus is semi-soft, pop it into the pot and start boiling. You can now put those in:
rock sugar and tied pandan leaves.
Let it boil away merrily for an hour, and then add the dates. In the meantime, crack open the gingko nuts. Make sure YOU REMOVE THE HEART OF THE NUT with a toothpick…if you do not do that you will be very,very sorry when you bite into the extremely bitter centre. Me, in emulating the year of the golden pig, got some pre-cracked, de-hearted gingko nuts. Cheating, my mother laughed at me.
Depending on how long you’ve soaked your white fungus, you might only need to cook it for 2 hours, or like me, you might need more than that. Gingko nuts need at least an hour in the pot, so time it carefully.
When you are satisfied that the fungus is completely cooked, add the wonton skins and the quails’ egg for a quick boil to heat through,should not take more than 5 minutes.
mmmmmmmm…the sweet taste of home cooked thong sui.
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2 Comments so far
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I can understand every ingredient except for the quail egg. Why this also got quail egg one!? 
ahhaha do you see the theme? kiasu from penang recycles foodstuff incld. wonton skins
but yeah.it is true, some people use quail’s egg as well in dessert…picked it up from some wedding dinner I went to ages ago.Quite nice wei..
Comment by sourrain 02.21.07 @ 9:34 amLeave a comment