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Preparation
1 hour
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Processing
20 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
With a simple method, not taking too much time to prepare, red date and lotus seed soup is an extremely nutritious steamed dish for pregnant women and children. Let’s cook with TasteVN to refer to this recipe right away.
Ingredients for Red Date and Lotus Seed Soup For 2 people
Lotus seeds 100 gr Bird’s nest 10 gr Red dates 12 fruits Rock sugar 50 gr Sliced ginger 1/2 bulb
How to choose fresh and delicious ingredients
How to choose quality bird’s nest
- When buying, you will smell the fishy scent of the sea from the bird’s nest, which indicates it’s real. Additionally, the nest should have a white-yellow or orange color, and it should not lose color when soaked in water. For whole nests, the overlapping strands intertwined like loofah fibers are the best type.
- Old nests are crunchier when eaten, while young nests will be softer. Cooked bird’s nest while still hot will have a distinctive, slightly fishy smell, and will not shed strands.
- To easily distinguish between real and fake bird’s nest, you can soak the nest in water. Real bird’s nest, whether soaked in water or boiled, will retain its shape, and the soaking water will remain clear without changing color, while fake nests will release color after about 2-3 minutes.
How to choose delicious red apples
- When choosing red apples, you can look at the skin of the apple. You should choose apples with evenly colored reddish-brown skin, depending on the batch, the apples may have bright reddish-brown or slightly darker colors. However, if the apple’s color is too dark and shifts to black, it is best not to buy it.
- Additionally, red apples with many wrinkles on the skin, thin skin, and when squeezed have a light brown core, with chewy flesh will be very sweet. Usually, red apples that are more wrinkled and smaller will be sweeter than larger ones.
How to choose delicious lotus seeds
- You should buy lotus seeds right after they are harvested. At that time, the seeds are still on the lotus pod and you can comfortably select the delicious and quality seeds.
- To keep the lotus seeds fresh, you should choose those that are still in their shells. After purchasing, you should sun-dry them, avoiding wetting the seeds. Once dry, store them in a jar for longer preservation.
- Mature lotus seeds will have an ivory white or deep yellow color, with a plump outer layer. Especially, these seeds are very fragrant and not chewy. When cooked, they will also have a distinctive aroma.
Cooking tools
How to prepare Red Apple Soup with Lotus Seeds
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Soak the bird’s nest and red dates
Put the bird’s nest in a bowl and soak it in cooled boiled water for about 1 – 2 hours. Soak the red dates in cooled boiled water for about 30 – 60 minutes as well.
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Boil lotus seeds and red dates
You put the lotus seeds in a pot and pour about 1 liter of water in, then boil for about 30 minutes from the moment the water boils. After about 15 minutes, add the red dates to boil together with the lotus seeds for another 15 minutes. After boiling, take out the lotus seeds and red dates to prepare for steaming the bird’s nest.
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Shred the bird’s nest
After soaking the bird’s nest for about 1 hour, you begin to shred the bird’s nest so that when steaming, it will cook faster. After shredding, let it drain.
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Steam the bird’s nest
Gradually add the lotus seeds, red dates, bird’s nest, and sliced ginger into the steaming bowl. Then pour about 500 ml of water into the bowl. Prepare a pot, place a thin cloth at the bottom, and then place the steaming bowl on top.
Next, pour water into the pot so that the water level is about 1/3 the height of the bowl. Steam the bird’s nest over low heat for about 20 minutes, then add rock sugar, and continue steaming for another 10 minutes.
Note: Avoid letting the bird’s nest soup in the bowl boil. Because if the bird’s nest soup boils too much, it will lose all the nutrients originally present in the nest and will no longer be effective.
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Final Product
When completed, you will have a delicious and nutritious dish of steamed bird’s nest with red apple and lotus seeds. When eating, you will feel the mild sweetness of rock sugar, the fragrant smell of red apple and lotus seeds along with the soft, easy-to-eat bird’s nest strands.
Now you have the recipe for red apple and lotus seed porridge, this is an extremely nutritious dish that you can prepare for everyone to enjoy. Wishing you success!
