Green papaya snow fungus pork rib soup (Confinement food) 青木瓜雪耳猪骨汤 (坐月汤)

Breastfeeding mothers need a healthy diet and breastfeeding makes many mothers extra thirsty and therefore drinking a lot of fluids help to prevent dehydration.  Fluid intake is associated with breast milk production and green papaya is one of the nutritious fruit that can be used in a soup or in salads.
That said, consuming green papaya helps to increase the production of oxytocin which ultimately increases the production of milk.

Green papaya snow fungus pork rib soup ~ 青木瓜雪耳猪骨汤 (坐月汤)
Ingredients

• 800 gm green papaya, remove skin and seeds
• 15 gm snow fungus, soak till it plumps up, snip off the hard ends
• 450 gm pork ribs
• 12 seedless red dates
• 2.1/2 lt water
• 1/2 tsp crushed pepper corns
• seasalt to taste

Method

1. Peel off the skin from the green papaya, remove the seeds and cut into wedges.
2. Blanch the pork ribs in a pot of boiling water, rinse well.
3. In a pot, bring the water to a boil, add in the red dates, peppercorn and pork ribs.  Let it simmer for about an hour.
4. Add in the papaya wedges into the soup, followed by the snow fungus.  Cook till the papaya and snow fungus have softened.  Add seasalt to desired taste.
5. Serve the soup immediately with a dash of pepper.