Barley Gingo or Sweet Poatoes

https://www.rotinrice.com/sweet-barley-and-ginkgo-nut-soup/

A traditional Chinese dessert sweetened with candied winter melon. Other additions include beancurd sheets and quail eggs.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings: 6

Calories: 217 kcal

Author: Linda Ooi

Ingredients

• 8 oz unpeeled ginkgo nuts (225g) or ¾ cup (135g) peeled ginkgo nuts
• ½ cup pearled barley (100g)
• 1 cup candied winter melon (120g)
• 7 cups water (1.7 liters)
• 1 dried beancurd sheet

Instructions

1. Peel ginkgo nuts and remove the bitter center piths. Wash and drain peeled ginkgo nuts. Wash barley until water runs clear. Drain.
2. Combine ginkgo nuts, pearled barley, candied winter melon, and 7 cups (1.7 liters) water in a medium sized pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 1 hour.
3. In the meantime, break tofu sheets into small pieces. Soak in cold water to soften. Drain.
4. After boiling soup for 1 hour, add soften beancurd sheet to soup. Continue to boil for another 15 minutes. Turn off heat and remove.

https://en.christinesrecipes.com/2017/04/purple-sweet-potato-and-pearl-barley-sweet-soup.html

Ingredients:

• 560 gm purple sweet potatoes
• 65 gm (4 Tbsp) pearl barley
• 1 liter water
• 70 gm rock sugar, or to taste
• 4 pieces ginger

Instant Pot method:

1. Soak pearl barley for 30 minutes. Peel and cut purple sweet potatoes into chunks. Soak in water for 10 minutes to remove the starch from outside.
2. Drain out the pearl barley and sweet potatoes. Put all ingredients in Instant Pot. Close the lid, “sealing” position. Press “soup” button, high pressure cooking for 20 minutes. Quick release. Serve hot or warm. Enjoy!

Stove top method:

1. Prepare all the ingredients as above. But add extra ½ cup of water.
2. Put all the ingredients into a large pot. Bring it to a boil over high-medium heat. Reduce heat to medium low. Continue to cook until the sweet potato pieces are softened and sugar is completely dissolved, about 30 minutes. Beware not to cook over too high heat. Otherwise the sweet potato will be broken apart and the sweet soup becomes cloudy.

Notes：

• By soaking the purple sweet potato in water, the starch outside will be washed away. The sweet soup will be clear.
• The pearl barley needs longer cooking time than sweet potato. Soaking them in advance will help shorten the cooking time.