Double Boiled Snow Pear Soup with Fritillaria Bulbs and Sweet Almond (川贝母南杏炖雪梨)

“Another lung nourishing soup for your healthy diets. 2 ways eating, soup or dessert.”

If you need something to cool your body down or just to nourish your skin, throat and lung, try this simple and delicious soup.
It shows off the mild tangy and refreshing taste with a hint of mild natural sweetness in the soup on the finish.

See recipe:

Ingredients
1 large snow pear, peeled (or with skin) and cored with whole pear should remains in shape (or halved)
1 tablespoon of sweet almond/ southern almond (南杏 ‘Nan Xing’)
1 tablespoon of Fritillaria bulbs (川贝母 Chuan Bei Mu’)
½ piece of whole (flattened) preserved tangerine (柑橘饼 ‘Gan Ju Bing’)
3 stripes of dried tangerine peels (干橙皮 ‘Gan Chen Pi’)
5 – 10 gram of Glehniae Root (沙参 ‘Sha Shen’)
3 – 5 dried figs (无花果 ‘Wu Hua Guo’)

About 1000ml of water (*depends on the size of the stew pot, it should be about 90% full in the pot with contents)

Optional:
Small lump of rock sugar
OR
1 teaspoon of salt

Method
1) Place whole pear into the Chinese traditional-style porcelain stew pot (炖盅). Stuff sweet almonds and into the cored part of the pear till it’s filled (It’s ok if can’t fit in all, leave it outside the pear in the pot). Then, place the rest of the ingredients in the pot. Fill the pot with water till 90% full.

2) Place stew pot in another large pot half-filled with water over stove (with medium heat) to create double boiling effect. Lift up the stew pot with a low rack to leave a gap between two pots. Simmer soup for at least 3 hours. Serve hot.

Variations:
If you prefer your soup to taste sweeter like dessert soup, add rock sugar.
If you prefer briny taste, add salt into the soup about 5 minutes before heat off. You can even add lean pork ribs into the soup, if not taken as vegetarian.

A regular bowl of my pear soup (without additional sugar) counts less than 100kcal. It’s low-fat, healthy and nourishing, and can drink it as vegetarian diet, too!

Tips: Place stew pot into a large steamer, if you have one. Or, choose slow cooker to do the cooking, if it’s more convenient for you.
* Use a corer to core the pear. To remain the pear in complete shape is just for better presentation purposes. It actually does not matter if your pear is still halved or in shape as it may be torn apart after long boiling till the whole pear softened. So, handle the pear whichever way you feel like it or at your best convenience.
* Soup appears in dark brownish colour due to the addition of dried tangerine peels. It’s ok if you don’t mind without the mild tangy flavour in the soup. Omit it, if desired. And you should get a clear soup based.