Steamed Flower Tofu and Pear Soup with ChuanBei (川贝雪梨汤)

Today I'm posting 2 healthful recipes which I am sure anyone can benefit from it. As I have mentioned before, my family loves eating tofu dishes. So I am always on the look out for good recipes. And just the other day, I happened to spot this recipe from Wendy's which pretty much had me when I saw the word steam tofu, lol! Steamed Flower Tofu, as the name implies, it's pretty to look at plus its healthy because it is steamed. Not forgetting it's so easy to whip up!

I made some changes to the recipe, so this "flower" will actually look different from Wendy's. :) I changed the mushroom at the center to Century eggs instead and I omitted the fake crab meat as well. I used Century eggs because personally I think its texture blends more nicely to this dish instead of the dried mushroom. :) I omitted the crab meat because I didn't have any when I make this. :)

I will be posting my version of the recipe for easy reference in future. Thanks to Wendy for sharing her recipe. :)

Ingredients for Steamed Flower Tofu: (Serves 4 adults)

2 century eggs, peeled, sliced into 6 -8 wedges per egg

4 slices Ham, sliced into strips

2 beaten fried egg, cooled and sliced into strips

1 silken tofu (250g)

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Line the steam bowl with heat resistance cling wrap, get ready the steamer.
• Line the century egg wedges in the center of the bowl in a circular manner.
• Then line the ham and egg strips along the wall lining of the bowl as well,, alternating each ingredient.
• In a bowl, mash the tofu and egg with some salt and pepper and mix till well combined.
• Pour the tofu mixture right in the center of the bowl.
• Fold down the sides of the cling wrap to tug in the edges of the ham and egg strips.
• Place in the steamer and steam at medium high for 20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before flipping out on a plate.

How easy is that?! It has already become my family favorite, I already made it twice and planning to make it again this week. :D Do try it, it's very good!

The second recipe is call Pear Soup with ChuanBei (川贝蜜枣雪梨汤). Okay, let me clarify, this is a sweet drink but a savory soup that you serve during dinner time. It's medicinal purpose mainly is to remove heat, stop coughing and clear phlegm. How I came about knowing this soup was that my husband loves to order it at Hong Kong airport whenever we transit there. He said he had it before way back at a Hong Kong restaurant in San Francisco and likes it very much. After realizing this, I was pretty determine to find out how to make this drink. Luckily, I found it in a soup recipe book call "The World of Nourishing & Fine Soups"!

Ingredients for Pear Soup with ChuanBei (川贝蜜枣雪梨汤) (makes about 2 cups)

12g chuanbei (川贝)

1 snow pear (雪梨) (mine was from Taiwan)

4 candy dates (蜜枣)

some cane sugar

300ml water ( original calls for 100ml only...too little!)

Cut pear into halves and remove core. Put all the ingredients into stewing pot, pour in water and cane sugar, stew for 2 hours. Serve when still warm. Chill is very nice too but might defeat the purpose of removing phlegm and cough. no?

This soup is actually quite pleasant to drink, whether served warm or chilled. Even my kids like it, since it's sweet and has no herbal taste at all. But do note that there are several grades of Chuanbei that you can purchase, some can be as expensive as S$24 per ounce! I bought the normal grade is S$8. :) If you are tired of drinking the usual barley or chrysanthemum drink for cooling, try this one, I'm pretty sure you'll like it.(^_^)

Okay, got to go for now. You all have a good week ahead! Cheers!