Cheng Tng (清汤）

Dried snow fungus (彰洲雪耳），dried lily bulb, dried longan, barley (生意米）,
pang da hai (胖大海）


osmanthus (桂花） agar agar


Besides Ice Kacang & Bubur Chacha, Cheng Tng can be found at almost all dessert stalls at hawker centres & foodcourts in Singapore. Since my girls are on their summer holiday, I have all the time & no excuse not to make my hubby's favaourite dessert, can't remember when was the last time I made this, lots of preparation work, lazy........

The usual ingredients in this sweet soup are dried snow fungus, dried lily bulb, dried longan, barley, pang da hai, sweet potato, large sago & agar agar cubes/strips. I've used snow fungus from Zhang Zhou (彰州）which is of better quality than the normal white bleached one, this variety appears to be very dirty, took a while to rinse off the dirts. As for the dried longan, this smaller version is better than the almost black type which I think is sweetened. The barley that I used is called 生意米, like the nutty taste as compared to the pearl barley which I think gets too soft after cooking. I only found out last night that pang da hai is called sterculia seeds, soak them in water for about 30mins drain & remove the skin, I've used 8 pcs of this seeds, which is a lot, think Cheng Tng is incomplete without this ! I've used a small orange flesh sweet potato, cut into cubes. Cook the large sago in boiling water until they turn transparent, plunge in cold water & drain, it took 30 mins to cook the large sago. Instead of plain agar agar cubes, I made mine flavoured with osmanthus syrup (桂花酱), cut into cubes & set aside.

Tie 10 pandan leaves into a knot, fill a large pan with water, add pandan leaves, snow fungus, barley,dried longan, bring to boil, add sweet potato & dried lily last as these get mushy if overcooked, add rock sugar to taste. Turn off heat, add pang da hai & cooked sago, when the soup is cooled, add the agar agar cubes. Transfer to container & refrigerate, I like my dessert really cold..........