Warm tofu pudding with rock-sugar Asian pear
Silky homemade steamed tofu pudding topped with rock-sugar Asian pear — sweet, soothing for the throat and eaten warm.
- 30 min
- Serves 2
- Steam
- Easy
Why it suits you: Yin Deficiency already brings a dry mouth, warm palms and irritability, and the rapid rise of yang and spring dryness at Awakening of Insects make heat flare more easily. Tofu pudding and pear are sweet and cool, clearing heat and restoring moisture, and steamed until silky and eaten warm, they are easy on the stomach first thing.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 20 min- 1Scrub the pear, then core and dice it with the skin on. Simmer with the rock sugar and 200 ml water over low heat for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat, add the goji berries and cover.
- 2Pour the soy milk into a pan and heat over medium heat until just below the boil (about 85°C), then turn off the heat and skim off the foam.
- 3In a large heatproof bowl, dissolve the GDL in 2 tbsp cold water, then pour in the hot soy milk from a height in one go. Don't stir.
- 4Cover and steam over low heat for 15 minutes until set. Spoon into bowls, top with the pear syrup and goji berries and eat warm.
Cautions
- Leave out the goji berries during a cold or fever.
Chef's tips
- GDL is sold at baking-supply shops. Use thick, unsweetened soy milk, such as fresh soy milk from a tofu shop — thin soy milk may not set.
- Short on time? Buy ready-made tofu pudding from a tofu shop, warm it through and top with the pear syrup.
The TCM view
Tofu pudding is sweet and cool, clearing heat, moistening dryness and generating fluids; Asian pear is sweet, slightly sour and cool, moistening the lungs and easing thirst; rock sugar is sweet and neutral and moistens the lungs; goji berries nourish the liver and kidneys. The bowl is sweet, cool and moistening — the term's nourish-yin, clear-heat principle — and eaten warm, it is cool without being cold.
