Snow Fungus Dessert with Figs (mo fah kor)

Since I’ve been back to work a month ago, life had been pretty hectic. My blogging has fallen off to the side, especially since typing is quite an arduous task for me with a broken arm in recovery. While I was still sitting at home, I made quite a few simple dishes. This was one of them.

Snow Fungus is called shuet yee (Cantonese) or yin er (Mandarin). The Chinese believe that is has many benefits which is similar to collagen. It is believed that it can heal the lungs and has cooling properties. You can find a lot of information on this jelly-like fungus on the Internet, such as here.

While picking up some of these dried at the Chinese herbal store, I was told to include mo far kor (Cantonese) as well in this dessert. I later found out that these are dried figs.

This dessert soup is reall simple. Measurements are subjective I think, but use common sense

Ingredients

• 4 C water
• 1-2 heads of dried snow fungus, soaked for 30 mins and broken into little pieces, remove yellow parts
• 1 handful of dried mo far kor, sliced
• 1 handful of lin chee/lian zhi, rinsed and soaked for 30 mins
• 1 handful of pak hup (dried lily petals)
• 1 handful of dried red dates/hong zhou, rinsed and soaked for 30 mins
• 2 or 3 dried honey dates/matt zhou
• 3 sticks of brown cane sugar, or
• 1 box or rock sugar, or
• Any amount of sugar to taste

Method

1. Bring all of the ingredients to a boil except for sugar, for 30-40 mins or until the snow fungus is soft but not melted.
2. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat.
3. Serve hot or cold (refrigerated or with ice).