Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Breakfast with a soupy twist

While jet-lagged and flipping channels in the wee hours of the night in Singapore, I chanced upon this recipe by Violet Oon.Red Dates and Peanuts Breakfast Soup
Serves 2 - Violet Oon's recipe

1/2 cup raw peeled peanuts (see ** below)
12 pieces dried Chinese red dates
1/2 of a large piece of dried sweet bean curd skin
1 egg white
4 cups water
2 pandan leaves
2 tbsp honey

I did everything this morning, although you can start this dish the night before and microwave to heat up the broth or drink it cold for breakfast.

Begin by boiling the water, pandan leaves, prepared peanuts, washed red dates, and snow fungus for 45 mins. to an hour. Break up the dried sweet bean curd skin into large pieces and add to the peanut and red date broth and bring to the boil. Streak in the white of 1 egg, add honey to taste and serve. According to chinese, red dates are good for those with poor appetite or fatigue.

**Soak the peanuts in hot water for about 2 hours. You can cook this dish the night before. Boil 2 cups of water, drain the peanuts and add to the water with the pandan leaves.


Note: I substituted the dried sweet bean curd with dried white fungus (sheut yee), and omitted the egg white in one bowl, while adding it to the latter.

Tried it this morning, and it's definitely a different twist to my usual toast and cereal. The aroma of the red dates and pandan leaves cooking in this soup perfumed the air, although the peanuts could use a little longer cooking in the first cooking process to be softer. But it's good. This is a light, textured, norishing soup in the morning, and a very warm and mildly sweet one since I tried it hot out of the stovepot. Think I'll increase another tbsp of honey to suit my taste next time. I preferred it without the egg white, although adding that does increase the nutrition level to this breakfast soup.

If you prefer not to eat the soft peanuts, sweet dates or the crunchy mild-flavored sheut yee, you can simply drink the brothy soup. A healthy start to another day.

9 comments:

ioyces said...

oh.....u can use the thermal pot for this....!! though then u might have to eat it not only for breakfast, but also lunch and dinner over several days...hehe...

daphne said...

oooo... this is really a different kind of breakfast. Still it looks easy to prepare. I'm too lazy to make something like that in the morning though.

tigerfish said...

What a nice change for breakfast!

AK said...

That's nice to have sweet soup during CNY..that's one of favourite desert soup to clear off heat..

Beachlover said...

healthy soup.I hear 'suet yee" is good for woman but I never cook with peanut...hmmm must try one day your receipe

Little Corner of Mine said...

Lovely soup you have there. I prefer these cook savory style by adding two chicken drumsticks and a dash of salt before serving.

Anonymous said...

Going to market now to get some peanuts to try this sweet soup!

Anonymous said...

Just happened upon your blog today and saw this interesting post. I've never had this dish for breakfast before, only dessert!

East Meets West Kitchen said...

Hi Ioyces,
Now that's an idea!

Hi Daphne,
You can make it the night before too!

Hi Tigerfish,
Yes, it was!

Hi Ak,
Thanks for dropping by, and now I know what to do to clear off heat.

Hi beachlover,
I didn't know that, but I like the combined texture of both. :)

Hey C,
I like this one as it is different from the regular savory soups. ;)

Hi ss,
I want to go to the market to buy a fat pig (sorry, nursery rythms stuck in my head).

Hi Brulee blog,
Thanks for dropping by! Me too, until I saw this as a breakfast soup, so I tried it, and it's good!