Chinese Peanut Soup Dessert (花生糊)

This is one of the desserts serving in the Chinese restaurants. I vaguely remember this dessert until I was served this while dining at a Chinese restaurant in Denver two years ago. Yeah, it was a while back as recently I have no luck in getting this as a free dessert anymore, usually it was either green bean with sago or red bean soup. In case you were wondering, few Chinese restaurants in Denver give free tea and dessert at dinner and free tea, soup and sometimes jelly/oranges for lunch. Not bad yeah?

That one time seem to be embedded deep in my memory as I couldn't forget this delectable dessert. I remembered I used to have this dessert at the wedding banquet in Malaysia ages ago. Not sure whether they still serve this as one of the wedding banquet desserts today or the more fancy kind? Anyway, because I wanted to eat it again so I have to make it. I just made a batch of toasted ground peanuts for my Vietnamese sauces earlier and kept it ready in the freezer. So, I thought I can used that to make my peanut soup. Thus, I made it my short cut way and it was really good, not too sweet, just nice. Of course if you like it sweeter just add more sugar to taste.

One big pot to serve for 3 days!

Ingredients: ~Serves 6-8

(A)

• 1 1/2 cup toasted ground peanuts (skinless)
• 1 oz. (about 25 small) dried Chinese red dates (pit less), soak in hot water until soft
• 2 cups water

(B)

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 cups water

(C)

• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 3 Tbsp. water

~Mix both together in a small bowl

Method:

1. In a blender, chop, mix, stir or puree (A) until smooth. My blender has chop, mix, stir functions and I had to use those to make a smooth paste.

2. In a cooking pan, add in mixture (A) and (B). Bring to a boil at medium heat. Keep whisking with a whisk. Turn off the fire, add (C) and keep whisking to thicken. Serve warm. Keep the leftover in the refrigerator and heat it up in the microwave to serve.