Cheng Tng - Teochew dessert 潮州甜品 - 清汤

The hot weather plus a heavy workload is affecting my health. The past couple of days, I am having poor digestion and a sore throat.

Looking through my cherished stash of Chinese ingredients, I decided to make a pot of cheng tng for my family. This light and refreshing Teochew dessert will cool off the body. On a hot day, a bowl of chilled cheng tng is a fabulous thirst quencher.

For my son who would only drink the sweet soup, I will keep a chilled bottle of it in the fridge.

My platter of basic ingredients (anti-clockwise) :

white fungus
dried red dates
candied winter melon strips
dried longans
barley
rock sugar
malva nut (centre)

Boil 2 litres of water and put all these ingredients to cook for half an hour. You can either drink it warm or cold.

There is no fixed rule on what you want to put in your pot of cheng tng. You can add ingredients that you like.

Malva nut (Sterculia lychnophora Hance) is known as :
Pang da hai (胖大海) in Chinese
Pong dua hai in Teochew
kembang semangkuk in Malay
Niranjan Phal or China Phal in Hindi.

The malva nut is commonly used in Chinese medicine to clear and sooth throat. Teachers and singers who have to use their voices a lot will drink a tea make from it to preserve their voice.

Soak the nuts in water for a few hours.   

胖大海泡一下水, 遇水会膨大 

Discard the skin and seeds.

去掉胖大海的皮和种子。

This is how the malva nut looks after it has been soaked and cleaned.

泡好, 清理过的胖大海

天气炎热, 煮点潮州甜品 - 清汤 - 给家人吃。不同地方, 不同家庭都会有自己的煮法, 都是大同小异。

我用的材料 : 银耳、 红枣、冬瓜条、薏米、桂圆肉、原黄冰糖和胖大海等。自己也可以随意添加小白西米、红薯干、莲子、龙须、百合、燕窝、白果、干柿饼等。

胖大海 (又名安南子、大海子、大洞果) - 主治清热润肺，利咽解毒，润肠通便。用于肺热声哑，干咳无痰，咽喉干痛，头痛目赤。