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I recommend big, thick flesh longans.
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Prepare a knife with a sharp and small tip.
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Rinse and dry the longans so you don't make their flesh dirty when peeled.
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Lotus seeds: I often buy them peeled with the bitter green centers removed (available at supermarkets or markets).
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Choose the old lotus seeds to avoid making them hard when cooked.
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Pour the seeds into a basin, soak in 5-10 minutes then rinse.
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Put the rinsed seeds in a saucepan and fill with 300 ml of water (about more than 1 bowl).
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Add some salt.
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Boil in 20-30 minutes.
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When the water boils, lower the heat to avoid breaking the seeds.
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Check the doneness: when the seeds are soft and friable, they are fully cooked.
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Add 100g of smashed rock sugar into the saucepan, cook over low heat and wait until totally dissolved (about 5-7 minutes), pour the boiled seeds into a bowl to be quickly cooled off.
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Put the saucepan back onto the heat, add 1 or 1/2 bowl of water and 50 g of smashed rock sugar, bring this to a boil until the sugar is completely dissolved, turn off the heat to let the syrup cool off.
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(To have a sweeter syrup, add 100g of rock sugar).
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The total amount of water we use for 2 times is 600-700 ml.
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This dessert should be just a little sweet because the longans are already sweet.
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While boiling the lotus seeds, peel the longans.
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Use the sharp tip of the knife, cut rings around the tops of the longans to de-seed.
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(Do not tear the flesh of the longans as the lotus seeds will fall out when you stuff them into the longans.)
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Peel enough longans to use.
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(We normally scoop 5-7 longans filled with lotus seeds + 10 extra lotus seeds in every bowl)
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When you have enough peeled and deseeded longans, stuff them with lotus seeds.
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Once the syrup is already cool, put all the stuffed longans and lotus seeds into the syrup and put them into a box and store in the fridge.
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Scoop into bowls and serve.
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Crush an ice cube and drop on top of the bowl if desired.
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A LITTLE NOTE: Lotus seeds can become hardened when left overnight in the fridge.
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Therefore when you boil them, you need to check their doneness: add sugar only when the seeds are totally friable and soft.
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28
You may ask why you have to boil the syrup and the lotus seeds separately...
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29
It's OK to pour enough water and boil only once, then add sugar only once.
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30
But the syrup won't turn out as clear as the way I wrote above.
