Nicely Chilled Osmanthus Poached Pear Dessert

Next week will be the first week during which the Circuit Breaker will be lifted (i.e. Phase 1 of CB being lifted). To be honest, nothing much is going to happen yet, except that the kids will be allowed back in school to learn from their teachers and to ‘play with’ and interact with their friends. I am really not too sure if this is the best decision made by the government so far, but I am looking forward to a much needed break from the dual role of HBL and WFH after two months of it. Two full months of it. Eight weeks. 56 days. 672 hours in all. Let’s hope the kid takes it well; more importantly is the fact that the situation remains contained with no sudden rise in cases of COVID again.

No good news otherwise though. All of us will have to continue to use masks whenever we leave our houses. We will not be able to return to the office to work yet because the government insists to have everyone continue to WFH. I am growing tired of Zoom calls already, because I can’t seem to find myself in it. I miss social interactions, face-to-face contacts and all the other aspects of life that we used to take for granted. We are told to embrace such circumstances as the new way of life. Sure, but it’s going to be a sad way to live out the rest of our life.

Nowadays, it helps to take time out to make new dishes because this brings my mind away from the negativities during the working week days and the persistent COVID updates. It keeps me sane to be thinking about other things than work or COVID. Hopefully, when I look back at my blog posts in the future, I could think back about all these niceties and reminisce about the different tastes and flavours during the harder times.

This dessert made with osmanthus flowers, pears and bird’s nest is just what I need on a weekend to chill down and space out. I love that it is a chilled dessert because it’s easier to stomach on a warm May day as well. Remember to try to get the Chinese pears for this dessert as they are softer and sweeter when poached compared to the other types of pears. Feel free to vary the ingredients according to what you like, just like what I did.

Ingredients:

  • Water: 1.5 litres
  • Bird’s Nest: 2 taels
  • China pear: 2, decored, cut into chunks
  • Dried osmanthus flowers: 2 tbsp, scooped into 2 tea bags and tied up
  • Rock sugar: 75g
  • Dried red dates: 10
  • Yang Shen (American ginseng root): 3

Method:

  1. Place all ingredients into a slow cooker. Leave to cook on high for 2 hrs.
  2. Leave to cool down.
  3. Dispose tea bags with osmanthus flowers.
  4. Chill 4 hrs before serving.

Trick:

  • The original recipe included dried white fungus instead of bird’s nest in this recipe. I really dislike white fungus and so decided to replace it with my favourite bird’s nest instead. Hope you will like it too!

Serving:
6 – 8 persons

Share this!
This entry was posted in Chinese, Dessert and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *