Chinese Post-Partum recipes

My friend Ana was asking me about the chinese post-partum recipes that my mom is getting ready for, but she had her baby a month ago so her diet will be a little bit different than as if you were to do the 30 days after birth diet.

my Taiwanese post-partum cook book has a section on what you should eat at what stage of your post-partum, the below are recipes for 30 days after birth.

here are some basic concept for the ingredients:
sesame oil = detox
sweet rice = regain your strength, help with digestions, avoid your internal organs to drop/misplaced
red bean = help with more frequent urination
black or red color fish = help you with your scarring
tropical fruits = help with digestions and constipation
barley = help with swelling

here are recipes:
sesame chicken - eat 2x a day
it was too hard to translate from my book, so i found a recipe online. i would skip the wine ingredient.
http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/chicken2.html

sesame fish soup - eat 1 bowl a day
1 whole fish
ginger with out skin 15g cut in slices
sesame oil 60cc
water 100cc

wash the fish, sesame oil in the pan in high heat then put the ginger in,then turn the heat down until the ginger floats up but not blacken. then turn the heat up high put the fish in with water until it's boiled, then turn the heat down-covered and steam for 5 min (or until it's cooked).

sweet rice - eat once a day
if you want to make it savory you can add cut up small steak meat or pork belly meat or chinese sausages and dried shrimp, mushroom, and carrots. soak the rice 300g (serves 4) for 8 hours then drain and throw all ingredients in the wok and stir fry it with 2 Tbs of sesame oil until you smell the aroma (will not be fully cooked) then transfer it to a rice cooker and cook as usual.

barley rice - eat once a day

sweet rice dessert congee - eat once a day
soak the rice 150g (serves 2) for 8 hours. then boil 2000cc of water with the rice and bring it to boil then turn it down to simmer covered to cook for 1 hour. i would stir here and there and feel free to add more water to your liking. once the rice is cooked put in brown sugar 200g and dried dragon eye 100g stir and cook for another 5 min. and serve.

red bean dessert soup - eat once a day
soak the beans 200g (1 serving or i use 1/2 cup for 4 serving) for 8 hours. cut ginger 30g with out skin in small slices. combine the beans and ginger with 1000g of water then bring to to boil for 20 min. then turn it down and simmer for 1 hour. i would stir here and there and feel free to add more water to your liking. once the beans are cooked add brown sugar 150g stir and serve.

Nursing
i think any of these dishes will be fine to help you with milk production.
http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/milkrecipes.html

i also come across these 2 websites that i think are pretty good and have some classic chinese post-partum dishes you can try.
http://www.101healthyeasyfoodrecipes.com/healthy-easy-traditional-chinese-confinement-food-recipes/healthy-easy-traditional-chinese-confinement-food-recipes.php
http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/confinementrecipes.html

oh and also my chinese dr. said to not drink any water but to drink red dates water. it will help your liver to detox for the first 30 days. you basically boil a day worth of water that you normally drink (72oz) and just throw in a handful of dried red dates (10-20 pieces to your liking) and the end result is this sweet drink. serve warm or keep it in a thermo so you'll always have it warm (we bought a thermo). whatever you don't finish keep it in the fridge and warm up the next day in a pot never reheat food or this drink in a microwave.

I was craving Beef Noodle soup a few months ago and this came across Bon Appetit magazine and I've never made any Chinese Beef Noodle soup before, so i thought i would give it a try since i was craving for it. it turned our so very yummy!!! the key is to have lots pickled mustard greens in your soup. i bought fresh flour noodles from the korean store and it was the perfect texture.

i also came across this Taiwanese Beef Noodle recipe and i'm dying to try it!

Chinese New Year Cake

so it's chinese New Year this weekend and i told my mom that i would bring a New Year's cake. i'm online and trying to find a steam red bean cake and all the american recipes were baked version, which i've done in a cupcake form, but i think it's a little dry out the outside. then i came across this website (click here) and it's got a really yummy recipe for my red bean cake. the site also got lots of good how-to pictures and the recipes seems really yummy and i will have to try it soon. Finally i'll get to cook the real Taiwanese beef stew noodles!!!

Happy New Year- let's go Tiger!!!

Fresh Corn Pancakes

I love reading the Gourmet magazine, the pictures just look so good you could just taste it. It makes you want to read more about it and try it for yourself. I came across this Corn Pancakes yesterday in the magazine and thought this was really easy to make and I even got corn in the fridge ready to go. It turned out so very good and we served the pancakes with a dry rub steak for dinner. I just might make this again for next weekend's brunch party.

Serves4 (Makes about 12 pancakes)

• Active time:25 min
• Start to finish:25 min

Gourmet July 2009

Ready your griddle. These pancakes capture the golden sweetness of corn cut from the cob. Drizzle warm maple syrup on them for breakfast or serve them as a side dish with salsa and sour cream.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 to 4 ears corn
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

• Accompaniment:

  pure maple syrup, or salsa and sour cream

• Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and 1 tsp salt in a medium bowl.
• Cut enough kernels from cobs to measure 2 cups. Using back of a knife, scrape pulp from cobs and transfer to a blender with milk and 1/2 cup corn. Purée until smooth, then strain through a sieve into another medium bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids. Whisk in eggs, oil, and butter.
• Add to flour mixture with remaining 1 1/2 cups corn and whisk until just combined.
• Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat until hot, then lightly brush with oil. Working in batches, pour 1/3 cup batter per pancake onto griddle and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are golden-brown, about 2 minutes. Flip with a spatula and cook until undersides are golden-brown, about 1 minute more. (Reduce heat if pancakes brown too quickly.) Lightly oil griddle between batches if necessary.

Low-Fat Banana Ginger Bread

i got a new laptop for my birthday and now i 'm a little mobile, so i hope i will post more often. i wanted to archive good recipe that i've tried and if it turns out yummy i'll post it and share with you all. here's the first one... so i got a few over riped bananas at home and so i felt like baking on a sunday morning :-) what i love about this recipe is the spices i added recommended by epicurious reviewer and it actually has a really good kick to the boring banana bread.


Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup smashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)

1/3 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon butter (or veg. oil)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon each of ginger, cardamum, nutmeg and cinnamon

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2-inch pan; dust with flour.
Using electric mixer; beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until thick and light, about 5 minutes.
Mix in smashed bananas, buttermilk, oil and vanilla.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt over mixture; beat until just blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
Bake bread until golden brown on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Turn bread out onto rack and cool.

i HEART day !!!

We both had to work late on 2/14 :-( so we celebrated over the weekend. I cooked Jamie Oliver's "Superb Chicken" and it was de-lish!! you should all try it!