Cantonese Lotus Seed Sweet Soup | Snow Pear and Lily with Cane Rock Sugar

When the weather turns, Hong Kong kitchens reach for a pot of sweet soup.

This one is about as simple as they come. Lotus seeds cooked soft, snow pear in chunks, fresh lily added at the very end, and a few goji berries for colour. The soup stays clear and light, with a sweetness that never takes over.

The sugar

Cane Rock Sugar (原蔗冰糖) is rock sugar made from cane, with its natural amber colour kept. It dissolves easily and gives a rounded, mellow sweetness.

That gentleness is what a fruit-based sweet soup needs. The pear is already sweet, so the sugar's job is to round it out, not to cover it. Added with the pear, the rock sugar melts in a few minutes and the soup stays clear.

Shop Cane Rock Sugar

Timing is everything

Each ingredient goes in at its own moment. The lotus seeds need the longest, so they start first in plenty of water. The pear follows once the seeds are soft. Fresh lily is delicate and turns mushy if boiled too long, so it goes in last for only a few minutes.

Recipe

Cantonese Lotus Seed Sweet Soup

Ingredients

• Lotus seeds 50g
• Water 1000g
• Snow pear, peeled and cut into chunks
• Fresh lily bulb, separated into petals
• Ship Brand Cane Rock Sugar, to taste
• Goji berries, a small handful

Method

1. Rinse the lotus seeds well.
2. Put the lotus seeds in a pot with 1000g of water. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes until soft. Meanwhile, peel the snow pear and cut it into chunks.
3. Separate the fresh lily into petals and rinse them clean. Set aside.
4. Add the pear and the Cane Rock Sugar to the pot. Keep on medium heat for 5 minutes.
5. Add the fresh lily and cook for 3 to 4 minutes only, so it stays crisp.
6. Scatter in the goji berries and turn off the heat. Ladle into bowls.

Closing

Soft lotus seeds, sweet pear, crisp lily. It takes about half an hour and very little effort, and it is the kind of bowl you will want to make again as the days get cooler.

Ship Brand (帆船牌) is the retail line of Yuen Tung Sugar Factory Industrial Company Limited. Sugar refined in Hong Kong since 1987. Shop the collection.