Watermelon Skins & Sugared Wintermelon Sweet Soup

Some of u from FB (Facebook) oledi aware that there is a H1N1 case reported in little girl's pre-school on Wed. The school has closed the affected class but hubby & me decided to let little girl skip school til this weekend, I know we acted a bit too paranoid but it's better be safe than sorry.

Thus there was no bento yesterday, but here is a sweet soup I wanna share which I cooked on Wed when my throat felt a bit irritating after returning from the preschool (being paranoid again =p)

It is a simple soup, just boil watermelon skin & sugared winter melon (糖冬瓜) together. After cooking it, I let it chilled in the fridge, it tasted marvelous & refreshing too.

Believe it or not, the itch from my throat was vanished after consuming it! Amazing right? Just 1 little advice, don't drink it b4 u sleep, cos these soup may trigger u to urinate more, it may affect ur sweet dream =p

For those of u able to read Chinese, here is a posting on goodness of winter melon. Also, I found something informative here & here on watermelon & winter melon.

Herbal Egg Tea 蛋茶 ／ 雞蛋桑寄生茶

My bro & me used to buy this egg tea sweet soup from the Pasar Malam near our hse during our younger yrs, however, the uncle who sold this wonderful sweet soup was no long selling, we'd been craving it for very very long time. Thus whenever we see this tong shui, we'd definitely buy & savour it to settle our crave, no matter how full our tummy were. You may find this tong shui at Pudu Wai-sek-kai (the stall which sell the famous Chinese style steamed egg custard 燉蛋) or occasionally at the SS2 Pasar Malam (Mon).

Last yr, my friend MY borrowed me a few recipe books she bought from HK, and I found the recipe of making this tong shui, it is so wonderful! After trying out once, bro & me were so satisfied with the taste, it was just like those we bought! Therefore, every now and then, when bro craved for this tong shui, he'd begged me for it, oh yeah! Really begging... It was so fun to see him begged for a tong shui, hehehe....

So, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

4 eggs

30g 桑寄生(Chinese Herbal Taxillus Twing, it sounds as sang ji sheng in Mandarin, u can buy it from Chinese herbs shop, to be exact, we need 1 兩)

1 liter water

100g rock sugar

1. Wash & clean eggs (the shell, careful not to break it ;p)
2. Wash 桑寄生, drain well. Place eggs, water into a pot, cook on low fire for 30 minutes.
3. Take out eggs from tea, rinse with cold water, remove shell, set a side
4. Continue simmering the herb tea for 15 minutes, strain off the herbs, put in eggs and rock sugar, simmer for another 10 minutes, ready, serve while warm

The tea taste good, but after breaking the egg, or while eating the egg with the soup, it brought out another flavor, which enhanced the yumminess more.

I enjoyed 1 egg only this time, the rest went to bro, to serve his giant crave, happy feasting, bro!

P/s This 桑寄生 herb, has good curing effects for liver and kidney, may also help to cure insomnia.

Watermelon Skin 'Leong Soi' 西瓜皮涼水

Was chatting with Nicholas's grandma (Yeah!  It's ur mum, Duckz/Caroline ;p ) few days ago (while waiting for little girl to leave her tadika), learned this amazing leong soi from her.

So, what'd u do with all these after biting (or cutting) off the best parts?  Threw it off, what a waste!

Try this, just dump all the watermelon skin (of course after washing it clean) into a deep pot, put in hot water til just covering the skin, give it a boil, then simmer for about an hour.  You may put in 2 or 3 rock sugar for a slightly sweeter version.

Hmm....  so refreshing with some ice cubes...

The verdict: Tasted like the chok che (bamboo sugar cane) leong soi 竹蔗涼水, very refreshing especially after chilling.

I'd checked thru the net, found this site with great info of watermelon (in chinese):

夏天中暑，出现发热、口渴、尿少等症；或患其他急性热病，出现高热、多汗、大渴，烦躁、尿痛等症，都宜用西瓜作辅助治 疗。既可生吃瓜瓤，也可取瓜汁饮用，还可用西瓜皮煎水服用。

Having heat stroke during summer, fever, thirst,less urine, etc; or suffering from other acute fever, high fever, excessive sweating, great thirst, irritability, pain during urinating, etc watermelon is suitable to use as treatment. Watermelon pulp can be eaten raw, by drinking juice, or by drinking boiled watermelon skin water.

Can u see the usefulness of watermelon skin now?  Remember to boil it 1st b4 u throw them away next time when u have watermelon at home ;p 

Golden Pear Sweet Soup / Tong Shui

Golden pear sweet soup kept in container, left to chill in fridge, refreshing!

Another fridge clearing day, found 2 golden pear, decided to make a sweet soup (糖水).  Little girl helped up peeling off the skin of the pears, sliced them up thinly too, of course with my very close eyes on her little fingers.

Ingredients:

Golden pear / Asian pear skinned, cored and sliced thinly

Honey dates and wolfberries

1. Boiled half pot of water, threw in pears and honey dates (蜜棗), cooked for 45 minutes

2. Put in dried wolfberries and a few cubes of rock sugar, boiled for another 15 minutes

3. Done.  Tasty while it's hot, very refreshing when it was chilled.

Pear and orange soup

I found this pear and orange deep inside my fridge this morning, I believe they'd been sitting there for a long while and I was not brave to eat them raw.  Thus I dig out the long kept 枸杞, 蜜棗 and rock sugar to cook this dessert.

This was how it looks after half an hour cooking, yummy!  Full of the taste of pear with a hint of orange, not bad.  My brother like it too!