止咳化痰饮料 (drink for ridding cough and phlegm)

I've been suffering from cough for quite awhile since I caught the flu bug from Alicia earlier in the year.

This is one of the drinks I tried brewing in my desperate attempt to get well. I'm not sure how many times I'm supposed to drink it before I get well, but I only tried twice and I stopped - cough didn't go away, but phlegm did though. :)

Anyway, my doctor just told me yesterday that my cough is more likely due to throat and airway sensitivity so he didn't prescribe me with new cough syrup; instead he offered me medication for my throat. I hope it works!


止咳化痰饮料 (drink for ridding cough and phlegm)


Ingredients:

• 1/2 liang chuan bei (川贝)
• 1tsp bitter almond
• 1tsp sweet almond
• 4 figs
• 1 dried orange (ju bing)
• 1L water

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Place herbs in 1L of water and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer for 45min and it's done :)

For tot's consumption:

I checked with the TCM hall and the assistant informed me that this drink is suitable for tots suffering from cough and phlegm but in small amounts. :)

Herbal tea (to combat the HAZE)

I hopped by ZTP on Saturday to pick up some chinese herbs and I asked the shop assistant for recommendations for drinks for combating the bad weather. The above packet (contains more than 10 types of herbs) is what I bought and it's going for only $2 and the current promotion is "buy 2 get 1 free". Naturally, I bought 2 packs. :P

It's really a simple drink to make and it tastes quite nice too. Not the bitter type of liang cha, in case you're wondering. :)

Herbal tea

Ingredients

• 1 packet of herbs (as above)
• black sugar to taste (available at TCM halls)
• 2-3L water

Method

1. Simply wash the herbs thoroughly - most of it looks like grass 
2. Place the herbs in 2-3L of water, bring to a boil then simmer on low heat for 30min. 
3. Add black sugar to taste.
4. Serve warm or chilled.

My little darling drank one cup too... so glad that she drank it... hehe. Anyway, don't give too much to a toddler in case it's too 'cooling', but in general, this drink is suitable for both young and old! :)

Herbal soup to rid pimples...

I dunno why I've been having little pimples lately - my hubby says those aren't considered pimples coz they're too small, but I hardly have pimples so it really upsets me to see those little spots on my face.

I happened to chance upon this recipe from a cookbook my mil bought and it says the soup helps to rid pimples so I thought oh well, might as well give it a try. What have I got to lose? Hehe. Anyway, the ingredients are rather similar to my ginseng root chicken soup just that the emphasis found in this soup is the Solomon's seal.

See the overwhelming presence of the Solomon's seal? :P

The clear soup after removing most of the herbs which can't be eaten and get in the way!

Solomon's seal (herbal) chicken soup

I didn't follow the recipe exactly - I just used my own estimation... :P

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, visible fats removed) - the recipe used black chicken
• 4 large seedless red dates
• 4 dried longan (this wasn't added in the original recipe)
• 40-50g Solomon's seal (yu zhu)
• 10-15g ginseng root
• 1 slice ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon hua diao jiu
• salt to taste
• 500ml water

Method:

1. Blanch the chicken thighs. Remove and place in the bowl for double-boiling.
2. Rinse the herbs and place them in the bowl as well.
3. Add the ginger, water and the hua diao jiu (Note: the hua diao jiu was added only at the point of serving in the original recipe but since I'm still nursing, I decided to add in the wine in the early stage of cooking so that the alcohol content would have evaporated by the end of the cooking).
4. Double-boil the soup for about 1.5h to 2h. (The original recipe cooked the soup on the stove for 1.5h but I decided to double-boil instead).
5. Add salt to taste.
6. Remove herbs before serving for easy access to chicken meat and soup. :)

Alicia loved the chicken meat from the soup as it was sooo tender and sweet. She took a bit of soup too but wasn't so keen - probably due to the slight hint of bitterness caused by the ginseng root.

For toddler's consumption:

• Tear off the soft chicken meat from the chicken bones for the tot.
• Do not serve too much of the soup as ginseng root is considered to be quite 'cooling'.

Steamed herbal chicken

Just came back from a short trip to Bukit Tinggi not too long ago. I know some of my wonderful friends are waiting for me to update my blog with the photos taken during the trip but I'm still waiting for the photos from my mum's camera to consolidate all the photos before uploading them... :)

Hee... anyway, after all the 'outside' food we ate during the trip, I made sure that I cooked some home-cooked fare for hubby over the weekend. Bought some handmade thick mee sua from Malacca on our way back to Singapore so I just had to try it the very next day... :) Hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed the mee sua soup I cooked on Saturday - sometimes a simple dinner can be so uplifting.

Anyway, I digress too much. You must be wondering what happened to the steamed herbal chicken I was supposed to tell you all about... hee. That was part of Sunday's dinner and I must say that it was pure comfort food (that is, if you are a fan of herbs). It would have been even better had I cooked it with chicken thighs with the bones intact but I only had deboned chicken thighs on hand so I had to make do.

Steamed herbal chicken

Yum... :)

Ingredients:

• 3 deboned chicken thighs (better to cook those with bones intact as I mentioned as the meat will be even more tender)
• about 1 tablespoon sliced dang shen
• about a handful red dates
• 8 dried longan
• 3 pieces huai shan
• 5 pieces dang gui
• 2 tablespoons wolfberries
• 1 slice ginger (julien the slice of ginger)
• 1-1.5 tablespoon oyster sauce
• about 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon hua diao jiu
• dashes of sesame oil
• dashes of ground white pepper

The chinese herbs

Method:

1. Marinate the chicken meat with all the ingredients.
2. Place the chicken meat and all the ingredients on a piece of aluminium foil. Seal the ingredients and place the packet on a plate.
3. Steam for about 40min (steam for at least an hour if cooking with chicken thighs that are not deboned).
4. Serve hot with white fluffy rice.

Marinating in progress

Time to wrap it up!

Waiting for the water in the steamer to boil

Steaming....

It's ready! Fogging the lens...

Can you tell it's really piping hot? :)

There you go... a proper peek into the yummy packet of herbal chicken

Double-boiled American Ginseng roots soup

I'd cooked this soup using the method of boiling on the stove earlier and essentially the herbs used are the same. However, this time I chose to use the method of double-boiling and I used pork instead of chicken.

The method of double-boiling cooks food slowly at a lower temperature. It is believed that the soup ingredients will slowly release the nutrients into the soup and the flavour and nutrients are 'locked' in the soup.

Double-boiled American Ginseng roots soup

Ingredients:

• 140g lean pork
• 1 bunch of solomon's seal
• 1 tablespoon wolfberries
• 6 red dates (pitted)
• a bunch of American ginseng roots
• 2 pieces huai shan
• 2 rice bowls water
• salt to taste (optional)

Method:

1. Blanch the meat.
2. Rinse the herbs.
3. Add all the ingredients (except wolfberries) into the double-boiler.
4. Double-boil for 2-3 hours.
5. Add wolfberries in in the last 15min.
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Sieve the soup, serving only the wolfberries and pork in the soup.

I put a little too much ginseng roots so it was a tad too bitter. Cut down on the amount of ginseng and it should work just fine. :)

Chayote barley dessert (佛手瓜薏米甜汤)

I bought chayote the other day from the market as it was recommended by the vegetable seller. I had asked her for recommendations for any remedies for ridding phelgm and she suggested this (though it wasn't the first option - she had something else in mind but apparently it was already sold out so chayote was the next best choice).

FYI, I saw this in NTUC and it was labelled as Chokos.

I got some information about chayote from this site:

"Chayote (pronounced chai-yo-tay) is a member of the cucumber and squash family. Though it is eaten both in raw or cooked forms, it is actually a fruit. In both forms it is a good source of amino acids and Vitamin C. It is also low in calories, sodium, contains no cholestrol and is a good source of fibre. You can peel it or prepare it with the skin on. The seed is tender and edible as well."

Here's the pic of the chayote from that site:

And here's the cut version of the chayote:

After a bit of reading up about the chayote in Mandarin, this is what I've gathered:

Chayote's health benefits:

• Boosts immunity against diseases
• Lowers blood pressure
• A good choice of food for heart patients as it's a low sodium food
• Has 2-3 times the protein and calcium in cucumbers
• Has a significantly higher amount of minerals and vitamins compared to other melons
• Alleviates indigestion, wet cough, chest tightness, flatulence, vomiting, liver and stomach gas pains and bronchitis.
• It is high in selenium (selenium has a strong antioxidant effect that protects cell membranes from structural and functional damage).
• Aids patients with fertility problems.
• High in zinc which stimulates intelligence in children.

How could you not give this vegetable/fruit a try? :P

It is a versatile veg/fruit and can be eaten raw as in salads, cooked in savoury soups or desserts.

This time, I've decided to make a dessert out of it:

Double-boiling in progress...

Here's the link to the stir-fried version I made.

Chayote barley dessert (佛手瓜薏米甜汤)

Ingredients:

• 1 chayote (skin and seed removed, chop into chunks)
• 2 candied dates
• 1 handful Chinese barley
• less than 1 teaspoon sweet and bitter almonds (combined)
• 2-3 rice bowls water
• rock sugar (optional)

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Add all the ingredients (except the rock sugar) into the double-boiler.
3. Double-boil for about 2 hours.
4. Add rock sugar to taste (it's already quite sweet so this is entirely optional).
5. Sieve out the candied dates and barley. Consume only the soup and the chayote.

Alicia had some of this though she wasn't particularly fond of it... in fact, she didn't quite like the chayote but was quite ok with the taste of the soup.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut the chayote into smaller pieces before serving or allow the tot to bite off from the adult's portion.

Dang Gui tonic soup

The other day when I went to see the TCM doctor regarding a slightly sprained elbow and an achy back, he told me that I have to be conscientious in taking care of myself, especially after each menstrual cycle as he says that my limbs feel a little cold to touch. He suggested that I should make myself a tonic soup after the menstrual cycle or buy Bak Foong pills to nourish my body... and so I decided that I'd just make myself the tonic soup. After all, I'm a fan of soups... so why not? :)

The last time I drank a dang gui soup would have to be during confinement. That's when I can take heaty stuff and not fall ill. It seems that it's the same with a woman who's just finished menstruating. Accordingly, this soup should be consumed on the day the period finishes. Unfortunately, I was too busy on that day and so I only made it the next day. I hope it won't cause me to be over-heaty!

Benefits of consuming dang gui (Chinese Angelica Root):

• nourish blood
• improve blood circulation
• alleviate menstrual cramps
• improves regularity of menstrual cycle

Dang gui tonic soup

Ingredients:

• 5 thin slices of dang gui
• about 1 tablespoon wolfberries
• 70g lean pork (瘦肉) - can be substituted with a hard-boiled egg or chicken meat
• 3 big red dates (pitted)
• estimated 10g yu zhu (Solomon's seal)
• 500ml water
• salt (optional)

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Blanch the pork.
3. Add the pork, all the herbs (except wolfberries) and water into the double-boiler.
4. Double-boil for 3-4 hours.
5. Add wolfberries approximately 15min before serving.
6. Add salt prior to serving (optional).
7. Sieve the ingredients, leaving behind only the meat and wolfberries in the soup.
8. Serve.

Anyway, the soup's really tasty and I enjoyed every bit of it... Men however are advised against

taking this soup as it's usually too heaty for men. It's possible for men to have the soup: just reduce the amount of dang gui to about 3 pieces.

Fresh lily bulb with wolfberries porridge

From the looks of it, you know that this porridge ain't mine... :P

Yup, it's my darling Alicia's. I decided to try this for her dinner last night because she suddenly went nuts over wolfberries yesterday and were popping them into her mouth like popcorn... must be the slight resemblance with raisins... she ate a lot of raisins at Julia Gabriel on Saturday too...

Anyway, I saw a recipe about lily bulb and wolfberries in a toddler recipe book before but they used dried lily bulbs. I didn't follow the recipe closely at all and I used fresh lily bulbs at that. Hee. That's the leftover lily bulb from the other day when I cooked the fresh lily bulb dessert. :)

Anyway, someone didn't really like it and took forever to eat. My hubby was doing the feeding coz I was busy cleaning up the stuff I bought from the market earlier on so I'm guessing I'd most probably have yielded a better 'result' if I was the 'feeder' coz she didn't finish her porridge. Then again, it's a huge bowl of porridge so oh well.... at least we tried out something new and now we know she doesn't like it.

Not sure if your kid will like this but you can always give it a try. :)

The health benefits of consuming fresh lily bulbs:

• 'cooling'
• moistens the lungs (润肺)
• calms the nerves
• good for treating 'heaty' coughs
• alleviates anxiety and insomnia
• good for the skin (美容养颜)
• anti-cancer

It is especially useful to consume fresh lily bulbs after recovering from an illness.

Contraindications: Those with 'cold' coughs and diarrhoea due to cold in the spleen and stomach should not consume fresh lily bulbs.

You can read about the benefits of wolfberries here.

Fresh lily bulb with wolfberries porridge

Ingredients:

• 2T rice grains
• 1/2 fresh lily bulb
• 3T wolfberries
• 300ml water
• rock sugar (optional)

Method:

1. Rinse the rice grains twice.
2. Remove the petals from the bulb. Soak them to remove dirt particles. Remove any blemishes.
3. Rinse the wolfberries.
4. Place the water, rice grains and 2T wolfberries into the innerpot of a small slowcooker.
5. Bring the water to a boil on a stove then transfer the innerpot of the slowcooker back to the outerpot. Slowcook for 2hours.
6. Add rock sugar to taste (optional).
7. Garnish with 1T wolfberries.

I chose to add 1T wolfberries only when serving so that the child will get to enjoy a different texture of wolfberries in the porridge. If you're worried that your child cannot handle the wolfberries then cook them together with the porridge.

Purple roses with apple flowers herbal tea (紫玫瑰苹果花茶)

My mother-in-law bought some purple roses (France) and apple flowers from a medical hall in Chinatown and she brought some for us today.

After reading up on these flowers, here's what I have gathered:

Health benefits of consuming purple rose tea:

• the roses are rich in vitamin A, B, C, E, K and tannic acid
• calms and relieves stress
• eliminates fatigue
• promotes blood circulation
• aids in detox
• it's great for the skin (anti-wrinkle!)
• leads to general good health

Regular consumption of purple rose tea will regulate menstruation and lead to rosy, radiant skin.

Apple flowers with purple roses make a great combination and they have great health benefits as well:

• prevents hypertension
• nourishes the blood (补血)
• relieves neuralgia (舒解神经痛)
• detox
• whitens skin
• alleviates depression

Regular consumption of apple flower tea can solve acne problems and alleviate menstrual cramps.

And so, here's the tea, in my spanking new glass:

Such a nourishing drink for the body yet so easy to make!:

Purple roses with apple flowers herbal tea (紫玫瑰苹果花茶)

Ingredients:

• 1 handful of purple roses and apple flowers (mixed)
• 1.5L water

Method:

1. Rinse the flowers with room temperature water.
2. Bring the water to a boil in a pot.
3. Turn off the heat and place the flowers into the water.
4. Let it steep for about 10min or longer before consuming.

Wintermelon barley drink

This is another one of my 'cooling' drinks. I have to come up with 'cooling' drinks more often now that the TCM doctor recommended that my hubby drinks some of that regularly since he's so 'heaty'.

So here's another 'cooling' drink idea for you.

It's cooling yet not too cooling and it's nourishing and can be drunk on a regular basis.

Wintermelon is not only 'cooling', it is good for detox too! If you understand Mandarin, you can read this site for more details. In general, cooking the wintermelon with the skin on is more effective if you are interested in the 'cooling' properties.

I hope you like it! :)

Wintermelon barley drink

Ingredients

• 1 slice of fresh wintermelon (preferably sliced from the centre of the wintermelon rather than at the ends)
• 2 handfuls Chinese barley (available at Chinese medical halls)
• Black sugar to taste (available at Chinese medical halls)
• 2L water

Method:

1. Wash the wintermelon thoroughly as we are cooking it with the skin on.
2. Remove the seeds and chop the wintermelon into pieces (skin intact).
3. Rinse the Chinese barley a few times till it's clean.
4. Place the wintermelon chunks and the barley into the slow cooker and cook on HIGH till you see small bubbles in the water.
5. Turn the slowcooker to LOW and slowcook for another 5-6hours.
6. Sieve the drink then add black sugar to taste.

Alternatives:

1. You can add water chestnuts to the drink as well.

2. Luo han guo (Buddha's fruit) can be used in place of black sugar.

3. Bitter and sweet almonds can be added as well.

Basic ginseng root drink

I went to the TCM doctor with hubby the other day and the doc recommended that he should drink some 'cooling' drink every day or every other day to relief his 'heatiness' and this is one of the drinks that he suggested that I make for hubby.

And so it's down to the basics:

Basic ginseng root drink

Ingredients:

• 1-2 handfuls of ginseng roots
• 1.5L water
• a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Rinse the ginseng roots and place them in the pot of water.
2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30min.
3. Turn off fire, add a pinch of salt.
4. Wait till the drink is cool before serving otherwise it will lose the 'cooling' effect.

Barley drink

Alicia suddenly had a slight fever last night of 37.7deg... got us worried... we quickly fed her paracetamol and tucked her to bed. Fortunately the fever didn't return...

Anyway, I thought she might be a little heaty so I decided to boil this barley drink and she had about 100-150ml of it.

Barley drink

Ingredients:

• 4 handfuls Chinese barley (生熟薏米, also known as 薏米仁 or苡仁)
• 1 handful deng xin cao (灯心草) - omit this if pregnant as it helps with urination - something that pregnant women don't need :)
• 1-2 handfuls candied wintermelon (冬瓜糖)
• about 1.5-2L water

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Add the herbs to the water in a pot and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer on low heat for 1.5 - 2.5hours.
4. Sieve and remove the herbs.
5. Serve warm or chilled.

Here's a pic of deng xin cao - it's supposed to have 'cooling' properties as well:

Ginseng root with Ophiopogon tuber drink

The weather has been really bad recently - scorching heat in the morning and early afternoon followed by thunderstorms in the evening. I've been wanting to boil some 'cooling' drink but only got to do so today...

This Ginseng root with Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) drink is not only 'cooling' but also energy-giving due to the ginseng. Mildly sweet due to the candied wintermelon and a hint of bitterness due to the ginseng, I find this drink refreshing and almost invigorating. :)

Ginseng root with Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) drink

Ingredients

• 1 large handful ginseng root
• about 35g ophiopogon tuber
• 5-6 sticks candied wintermelon
• about 1 litre water

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Add all the herbs into the pot of water and bring to a boil.
3. Leave it to boil for 5min then turn off the fire and cover the pot.
4. Leave the pot covered for at least half an hour before consuming the drink.

Alicia drank 1 cup of this too (her baby cup)... I was surprised that she actually drank it (and finished every drop at that) because I wasn't expecting her to be able to tolerate that hint of bitterness (which intensifies the longer you let the ginseng roots soak in the drink).

Modified Si Shen soup (四神汤)

Alicia hasn't been eating so well lately - ok, she picked up a bit since Saturday - so I decided to make this si shen soup. It is well-known for improving appetite and is commonly given to children with poor appetites. I think the main herb that does this is fu ling as research has shown that it strengthens the body, improves body weight and improves appetite. I wouldn't encourage parents with big babies/toddlers or babies/toddlers with an already hearty appetite to serve up this soup to your darlings as si shen soup is probably the equivalent of the Western appetizer.

Alicia guzzled down this 100ml of soup at one go last night! :D

The 四神:

Ingredients:

• 5g huai shan (淮山)
• 10g dried foxnuts (qian shi) (芡实)
• 20g fu ling (茯苓)
• 40g dried lotus seed (lian zi) (莲子)
• 250g pork rib
• 6 chicken thigh bones
• 1 soup pot of water

For added taste I added these ingredients:

• 4 dried figs (无花果）
• 3 candied dates (金丝蜜枣)
• 1 big red apple (cut into quarters)

Method:

1. Rinse the chinese herbs.
2. Blanch the ribs and bones.
3. Place all the ingredients into the soup pot and bring to a boil.
4. Simmer on low heat for 3 hours.
5. Sieve the soup and serve only the soup.

Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) drink

Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) can be brewed as a drink and these are its medical functions (obtained from here):

1. Effect on circulatory system:

(a) improves contraction of heart muscles

(b) protects heart muscle and arrhythmia

2. Anti-shock

3. improves toleration of lack of oxygen

4. improve immune system

5. improves recovery of cells of the pancrea and lowers blood sugar

6. anti-bacteria

I decided to brew this in particular to improve our immune systems, including Alicia's... fortunately she agreed to drink it although it has a 'herby' taste...

Here's how to make this drink:

Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) drink

Ingredients:

• 75g ophiopogon tuber (麥冬)
• a handful of candied wintermelon (冬瓜糖)
• about 1L of water

Method:

1. Rinse the ophiopogon tuber and place it together with the candied wintermelon into the pot of water.
2. Bring the pot of water to a boil.
3. Simmer on low heat for 25-30min.

Honeysuckle Chrysanthemum drink (金銀花菊花茶)

Just thought I'd share a really simple 'cooling' drink to make in this sweltering heat! Made this on Friday night but had no time to blog at all through the weekend.

Just for information, honeysuckle is not suitable for young children so do not feed this to your little ones. It's too 'cooling' for them; chrysanthemum tea alone is fine (even then, I think diluted in the ratio of 1:1 would be better - I did give Alicia that - and probably once a week is more than enough for young kids).

Honeysuckle, according to the TCM doctor I spoke to, is extremely cooling so unless you're super heaty or are recovering from a high fever etc., it'd be wise not to consume this often.

Another alternative is to combine chrysanthemum with luo han guo (Buddha's fruit). That's nice and nourishing without being too 'cooling'. :)

Honeysuckle Chrysanthemum drink (金銀花菊花茶)

Ingredients:

• 3 handfuls of chrysanthemum flower
• 1 pinch of honeysuckle (don't add too much as it will cause the drink to be bitter)
• rock sugar to taste (I usually put 2 handfuls of small bits of rock sugar)
• about 1L water

Method:

1. Rinse the chrysanthemum flower and honeysuckle to get rid of dirt. Do not soak for long as the taste of the chrysanthemum would then go into the water that it was soaked in.
2. Add the rock sugar to the water in a pot and bring to a boil.
3. When the water's boiling, turn off the fire and add the chrysanthemum and honeysuckle.
4. Let it sit for about 30min.
5. Sieve out the chrysanthemum and honeysuckle and your 'cooling' drink's ready!
6. Serve warm or chilled.

Follow the steps for plain chrysanthemum tea - just omit the honeysuckle

Apple chicken herbal soup

It's the second day in a row that I've not had the chance to go to the market because of Alicia... she woke up in the middle of the night and played through till dawn and my head was spinning when I woke this morning. Needless to say, it must be due to the terribly interrupted sleep I had.

Hence, I had to scour through whatever else was left in my kitchen to cook up a decent meal for the family... I had already set the chicken stock to cook overnight in the slowcooker so I had a soup base to work with. With really nothing much left in the fridge to add to the soup (I thought carrots alone weren't particularly appetising as a soup), I happened to glance into the fruit compartment and I saw that I had an abundance of organic apples... and so, apple soup it is for the day!

I used to cringe whenever I hear fruits cooked in soup when I was younger. Fruits, in my opinion then, weren't meant to be used in soups. :) Hehe...

Anyway, I had initially wanted to add sweet and bitter almonds (南北杏) to the soup (as most people usually do for this apple soup), but I remembered that there was something about bitter almonds so I went to check with the chinese medicinal shop opposite my place and the shop assistant warned me against adding the almonds if I wanted Alicia to have some of the soup. This is due to the fact that bitter almonds contain a trace amount of toxins and should not be given to young children. She went on to elaborate that young children may not be able to process the toxins properly like adults so it could be potentially harmful. She also mentioned that bitter almonds are not like the usual herbs we use in cooking like red dates and such as it is used mainly for medicinal purposes. She didn't mention at which age children could start taking them in soups but I mentioned that Alicia's 20+mths and she warned me against it so just be careful about adding this to soups if you are serving it to your little ones. To replace the sweet and bitter almonds, I decided to add lily bulbs instead. :) Lily bulbs are known to calm the spirit, nourish the lungs, are good for the skin and even for the prevention and treatment of cancers.

Anyway, here's how to cook it...



Apple chicken herbal soup

*Skip the dried scallop for tots below 18mths*

Ingredients:

• 3 large candied dates (金丝蜜枣)
• 4 dried figs (无花果）
• 1 handful of lily bulbs (百合)
• 2 organic apples
• 3 chicken breast bones, leftover chicken thigh bones from a few chicken thighs which I deboned
• 1 dried scallop (place in a soup bag)
• 3 cloves garlic (leave in their skin)
• 1 soup pot water

Method:

1. Clean and blanch the chicken bones.
2. Place the chicken bones, garlic and dried scallop in the slowcooker.
3. Cook on high heat for 1 hour then low for about 6hours (I usually do this overnight).
4. Transfer stock to a pot suitable for cooking on stovetop.
5. Rinse the large candied dates, dried figs and lily bulbs.
6. Soak the apples in a bowl of water for awhile then core and cut into quarters. If you are using non-organic apples, you may want to remove the skin in case of pesticide residue if not washed properly.
7. Bring stock to a boil and add the apples, large candied dates, dried figs and lily bulbs. Bring to a boil again on medium heat then simmer on low for 2 hours.
8. Sieve the soup (remove the bones and garlic) and return the rest of the ingredients to the soup (take the dried scallop out of the soup bag).
9. Dish and serve.

Alicia was receptive to the soup... it's the first time she's drunk so much soup in her whole life! lol... and she loved the lily bulbs and ate a slice of the cooked apple... *happy mummy*