Fresh Snow Pears in Chicken Soup with Snow Fungus

This end of autumn and into winter soup is slightly sweet, slightly cooling and is deliciously simple to make. With only a handful of ingredients, it is an ideal soup for the whole family and will have your kids asking for more. Add more pears to sweeten it, but you can also use the Chicken Herbal Soup base to start as well.

• 1  chicken (whole), skinned and quartered

• 2 whole dried snow fungus, cored and quartered

• 4 fresh snow pears, halved and cored

• 2 L of water

1. Rinse and soak dried snow fungus in a bowl of enough water to immerse it in for about an hour (or until soft)
2. Clean and prepare the chicken
3. Boil a pot of water to blanch the chicken in and when water boils, add in the chicken and boil for 2-3 minutes
4. Drain and set aside
5. Cut the soaked snow fungus into edible portions while discarding the core (which is usually very yellow and hard)
6. Boil your soup water
7. Prepare the snow pears by coring and halving (keeping the skin will prevent disintegration)
8. Add all the ingredients together and boil on high for 30 minutes.  Reduce to a low boil for another hour.
9. Serve and enjoy!