Wood Ear Fungus & Cucumber Salad Benefits Your Lungs

Wood ear fungus and cucumber salad

Sometimes I have cravings and of late I have craved mushrooms of all types! Hence my post on making snow fungus dessert and now this wood ear fungus salad.

This is a super easy salad that can be made in 5 minutes and goes well with rice or even as an appetiser.

Wood Ear Fungus Salad

A handful of dried wood ear fungus, soaked until soft - drain well
Half a cucumber washed and roughly chopped into chunks
A tablespoon of sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 bird's eye chili, chopped

In a bowl, combine all the above. Mix well and let it rest in the fridge for 10 minutes. Serve chilled.

Benefits of Wood Ear Fungus

Auricularia polytricha - that's their scientific name - is usually sold dried and you must reconstitute them by soaking in water before you use them. It has a crunchy texture and helps people with high blood pressure or cancer while preventing coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis. It's a good source of copper, important for heart health and lung function.

It can be used in stir-fries and usually I would use this in cooking my "loh hon chye" which is a vegetarian dish of dried beancurd sticks, Napa cabbage, wood ear fungus, button mushrooms and mung bean vermicelli with fermented red bean curd. I would also use this when I make my braised chicken with fermented red bean curd which is such a tasty dish!

Wood ear fungus is also popularly used to make "kerabu" which is a similar spicy salad that is much loved by Malaysians. It is also used to make Chinese hot and sour soup. Because it is so bland-tasting, it can be used in most dishes.

Fresh Wood Ear Fungus

Yes you can get fresh ones too if buying dried ones are too difficult. You'd find them in the chilled section where vegetables and mushrooms are sold. Use them within the week.

Comments

Goji Berry, Chrysanthemum & Red Date Tea

I've been making this simple tea for a few times already. Not sure if I had shared this before but all it needs are 3 ingredients - dried goji berries, dried red dates and dried chrysanthemum bulbs. This sugar-less concoction is good for health especially if you want to maintain immunity. It's even more important these days what with the pandemic and Covid-19. But it is also a pleasant brew - no boiling needed. All you need is a handful of goji berries (washed and soaked for 5 minutes in water), 3-5 large dried red dates and a teaspoon of dried chrysanthemum flowers (these are the small heads of flowers, not the usual type for making chrysanthemum tea). Put all the ingredients in a teapot and pour in boiling water. Let it sit for 10 minutes and voila, you have made yourself a healthy tea without sugar. It has a natural sweetness from the red dates and goji berries. And once you have drunk all the tea, you can continue adding more boiling water for a second b...

Corn Silk That You Should Never Throw Away

The next time you buy fresh corn still in its husk, you should never throw away the corn silk. Most people throw away the husk and silk, thinking that they're useless but I can tell you, corn silk is great for your body. Save the corn silk to make a healthy tea. Just place all the silk into a pot, cover with 500ml of water and simmer for 10 minutes on low heat. Turn off the heat and pour yourself a steaming cup of sweetish corn silk tea that tastes a little like corn. Corn silk or Yu Mi Xu is a natural corn fibre that is also used in Native American medicine. It contains flavonoids that give corn silks their colour and have antioxidant properties. I t is considered an important medicinal plant, able to induce diuresis and excrete dampness according to TCM. Corn silk is helpful towards Kidney, Bladder, Liver and Gall Bladder. meridians Therefore it clears damp heat, bloating, rheumatism, skin eruptions, gout, wasting and thirsting disorder, hepatitis, cholelithiasis, ch...

24 Herb Tea - Bitter, Foul-Tasting But Oh So Good For You!

Was out running a couple of errands this entire afternoon and ended up buying groceries at the nearby supermarket. If I had a choice I wouldn't go into this decade-old supermarket because it's small, cramped and you tend to knock into other shoppers with your trolley (yes, the aisles are that narrow). Nic and I figured that we might as well buy our groceries since we were in this vicinity and he did need some coffee. Finally we ended up with a trolley full of cheese, butter, coffee and noodles. Anyway, I was getting thirsty after all the errands and shopping. We decided to stop and have a drink at this stall which sells Chinese herbal tea. This uncle who mans it is actually a Hong Kong native who has been living in Malaysia for a long time. He drives a little white van which he parks at the corner of a junction and opens up for business. You see, he sells hot and cold Chinese herbal teas of all types - the kind that is slowly boiled and brewed. It's common to see Mal...

The Soup Queen

Search This Blog