Snow Fungus and Purple Sweet Potato Dessert Soup

Soup is really the pearl of Cantonese cuisine. Besides salty soup, we make various sweet soups all through the year according to climate changes and body condition. In this early winter, I would like to have white fungus and purple sweet potato sweet soup. After a long summer, I badly need something warm and nourishing, white fungus is exactly what I want. Sweet potato can be easily obtained anytime in a year, but Cantonese particularly like to make sweet soup with it in winter.

This is a quick soup and usually I would make a big amount, keep in fridge and reheat for afternoon or evening dessert.

Ingredients –
Purple sweet potato, 500g;
White fungus, 1;
Dry date, 3;
Gouji berry, 1tbsp, for garnishing;
Crystal sugar, 100g, or any sugar with no colour after melting;
Water.

How to do –
1. Soak white fungus in water for 15 minutes. It would expand three times larger. Wash it gently to clean dirt. Tear it apart into big pieces. Cut off the yellow part at the bottom with scissor;

2. Sweet potato peeled and cut into big cubes;
3. In a soup pot, put in the sweet potato and 7 cups of water, bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes in low heat;
4. Add in the fungus and dates, simmer for another 15 minutes in low heat;
5. Add in the sugar and gouji berries and turn off the heat. Lid remains covered and let it sit for 10 minutes so that the sugar melts. After that, give it a stir and serve hot.

The white fungus has melted in the soup so the soup tastes silky, and they look like purple flowers after being coloured by the purple sweet potato.