🇨🇳 China and 🇭🇰 Hong Kong · Guangdong (Lingnan) and Hong Kong

Xing ren huChinese almond soup

A smooth, lightly sweet soup of ground sweet apricot kernels ('southern almonds', sometimes with a little bitter kernel) and rice, strained, simmered with rock sugar and often finished with stirred-in egg white. Served hot or chilled.

Origin and history

Almond paste is one of the 'two sands, three pastes' of Hong Kong's basic sweet soups, found in nearly every dessert shop. Sweet soups began in the Lingnan region of southern China, where sugar was thought to counter damp climate and the Pearl River Delta's cane kept it cheap; shops grew in Guangzhou in the Republican era and Hong Kong inherited the habit. A Hong Kong sweet-soup shop that Michelin recommends sells almond soup beside walnut soup and stone-ground sesame paste.

Make it at home

Makes: 4 small bowls
Total time: 1 h
Hands-on: 30 min

Ingredients

Metric US

150 g1 cup (5 oz) southern almonds (nan xing, sweet apricot kernels), soaked overnight in water, 8 to 10 hours; the Anncoo Journal recipe uses ordinary raw almonds, which give a milder, less perfumed soup
40 g3 tbsp (1.5 oz) white rice, ordinary short or medium grain; soaked 1 hour and drained
800 ml3 1/3 cups water, boiled and cooled slightly for blending
45 g3 tbsp (1.5 oz) rock sugar, or to taste
1 egg white, optional but common; lightly beaten

Method

1. The day before, soak the almonds in plenty of water for 8 to 10 hours in the fridge. An hour before cooking, soak the rice and drain it.
2. Rinse the almonds and soak them in hot water for about 20 minutes, to loosen the skins; peel them.
3. Blend the almonds, rice and the 800 ml (3 1/3 cups) water in a high-speed blender until very fine.
4. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth or a fine sieve into a pot, squeezing out all the liquid.
5. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes, whisking constantly so it does not stick, until smooth and lightly thickened.
6. Stir in the rock sugar until it dissolves and take the pot off the heat.
7. Stir in the lightly beaten egg white and serve at once, hot, in small bowls; it can also be chilled.

Notes

Almond soup (xing ren hu, also sold as xing ren lou in Hong Kong dessert shops, and xing ren cha) is one of the three pastes of the Hong Kong two sands, three pastes. Like the other pastes it is ground, mixed with water and strained; the recipe here is thin and silky rather than thick.
The kernel used in the Taiwanese article is the 'southern' almond (nan xing), the sweet kind. Northern almond (bei xing) is bitter and contains amygdalin, which is toxic raw: the article gives a limit of 9 g a serving and says boiling reduces the toxicity. Its almond tea blends 40 g southern with 20 g northern kernels to 40 g rice and 1.2 L water; this recipe leaves the bitter kernel out.
Hot or chilled: the recipe's author prefers it cold in humid weather; Hong Kong sources suggest it for autumn and winter warmth.
Stirring the egg white in off the heat gives a smooth finish; the egg white is the usual addition in the egg-white version (dan bai xing ren hu).
Make-ahead: the strained liquid keeps overnight in the fridge; cook it fresh and add the egg white at the end.

Adapted from Anncoo Journal: Chinese almond dessert with egg white, United Daily News Health: southern and northern almond, almond tea, and HK01: history of Hong Kong tong sui and the two sands and three pastes.