Chinese Tremella Soup uses the fungus tremella fuciformis (also known as snow fungus or silver ear mushroom) as the main ingredient. As Chinese soups go, this one is quite light, but it still has its unique effects and nutrition. Snow fungus soup is usually cooked with red dates and wolfberries, which are ingredients that nourish qi and blood. Or you can pair it with snow pears and rock sugar. This dish can be served as a soup, or, if sweetened, thickened with cornstarch, and refrigerated, as a healthy dessert.
Tremella fuciformis is commercially cultivated in China and widely used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is known as silver ear (银耳 yín ěr); snow ear (雪耳 xuě ěr); or white wood ear (白木耳 bái mù ěr), literally “white wood ear“)
In traditional Chinese medicine, this can relieve cough symptoms caused by lung problems. Western medical research supports some of these claims, noting that the polysaccharide content has immune, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties, especially cumulative over time.
Tips for preparing Snow Fungus Soup
Tremella has natural characteristics of colloid, so when tremella is soaked and cooked for a long time, it will produce a sticky feeling. Stir it with a spoon to see if the soup has a sticky feeling.
If you are worried about being able to cook a good tremella soup, you can add some starch when soaking, so that the soaked tremella carries part of the starch, and the starch will become thick after being heated. If you like it sweeter, you can add sugar according to your taste.
Tremella Soup (aka Snow Fungus Soup)
Equipment
- 1 large saucepan
- 1 large bowl
Ingredients
- 1 portion dried tremella fungus tremella fuciformis, aka snow fungus or silver ear mushroom
- 5 jujubes Chinese red dates
- 3 g wolfberry
- 30 ml sugar
- 10 ml corn starch
Instructions
- Prepare the ingredients.
- Put the tremella in a basin, pour enough cold water to cover the tremella, add 10ml of starch, and soak for one hour.1 portion dried tremella fungus, 10 ml corn starch
- Slice the red dates.5 jujubes
- After the tremella is soaked, remove the roots.
- Tear the tremella into small pieces, and wash them clean.
- Add cold water and tremella fuciformis to a large saucepan. The ratio of water to tremella is 5:1. Bring to a boil over high heat, then continue to cook over high heat for 10-12 minutes. Then stir quickly with chopsticks or a spoon for 20 seconds.
- Add the red dates and sugar. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Finally, add the wolfberries.5 jujubes, 3 g wolfberry, 30 ml sugar
- Turn off the heat. Cover with lid for 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and serve.
Nutrition
Do you enjoy My Chinese Home Kitchen?
We enjoy sharing these authentic home recipes with you. My Chinese Home Kitchen is a labor of love.
Please tell your friends about us!
Learn more about My Chinese Home Kitchen at our About page.
Please leave a comment, or SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter.
For more of our original videos, visit My Chinese Home Kitchen on YouTube and Rumble.
