Cooking of Swiftlet Nest

Cooking of Swiftlet Nest

Preparation of Swiftlet Nest Soup

The procedures include: soaking and cooking.

Soaking

Dry Swiftlet Nest need to be soaked for about 1 hour. If need, the harder parts can be separated by hand during this process.

Cooking

Swiftlet Nest need to be double boiled and cannot be heated directly. Place the Swiftlet Nest in a porcelain stewing pot. The porcelain stewing pot can then be placed in a large cooking pot of water. Heat the pot till the water in the cooking pot boils (the water in the porcelain stewing pot should not have boiled yet), and then switch to low heat and continue to heat for about 1 hour.
The water in the porcelain stewing pot should completely cover the Swiftlet Nest and the water level should be about 0.5cm above the Swiftlet Nest. As the Swiftlet Nest will expand when heated, a larger porcelain stewing pot would be advisable to avoid wastage through over flowing during cooking.
The water in the cooking pot should be much lower than the height of the porcelain stewing pot, so as to prevent the boiling water in the pot to enter the porcelain stewing pot. However, if too less water is in the cooking pot, then it will take a longer time to cook the Swiftlet Nest.
After the Swiftlet Nest has been cooked and have cooled down, it can be put into the fridge to be consumed cold at a later time.

Common Ingredients that are added to Swiftlet Nest soup

Rock sugar, red dates (jujube), wolfberries, lotus seeds, Lilium bulbs, longan, snow fungus, Chinese yam (nagaimo), dried scallop, fresh milk, Chinese pear, papaya, etc can be added as desired. If the cooked Swiftlet Nest is to be consumed shortly, then the ingredients can be added and cooked with the Swiftlet Nest. However, the ingredients will shorten the storage time of the cooked Swiftlet Nest. Alternatively, the ingredients can be cooked separately and added to the Swiftlet Nest whenever they are to be consumed.

Shelf life of dry Swiftlet Nest

Our Swiftlet Nest are imported directly from our Indonesian swiftlet house once they are harvested, cleaned and dried. As such, they are fresh and can be kept for 1-2 years. The Swiftlet Nest should be kept in an air-tight container and stored in a cool area, away from direct sunlight.