It's Agar-Agar Time!!!

I would like to explore this wonderful plant based substance called Agar.
Agar is a gelatine-like substance derived from red seaweed.  It is well known in East Asia for its extensive use in cookery both savoury and desserts.  These days agar is easily found in supermarket, health food stores, deli and generally most Asian grocery stores.  Agar normally comes in different forms – powder, flakes, grains, sheets, and sticks.

Agar-Agar in form of flakes, grains and powder.

Agar is normally used as gelatine substitute and it has 5 times greater setting properties than gelatine and contains 80% of soluble fibre.  Another difference between agar and gelatine is that agar sets in room temperature and gelatine often requires chilling.

Agar is Cold in nature and it is useful to relieve summer heat; constipation and Lung Dryness due to dry heat in the summer months.

However the nature of Agar will change depending on what is added to it.  Proper mixture of ingredients might enhance the therapeutic effect or complimentary to desire therapeutic outcome or work against it.

Due to its versatility and vast options in usage it merely up to our imagination to utilise it.

The following recipe and suggestion are indicative only.

Basic Preparation:

A.  Assuming using Agar sticks.

7g Agar – cut to short length

7 cups water

Method:

1. Rinse agar in cold water then drain. 
2. Heat up 6 cups of water in a saucepan.  Not to boil. 
3. Soak the agar in the warm water for 30 minutes. 
4. Bring to boil on high heat then vigorous simmer while stirring to dissolve the agar completely. 
5. Sugar or honey can be added while boiling.  Arrange cut seasonal fruits at the bottom of mould.  Slowly pour in the hot agar into the mould without disturbing the fruits arrangement. 
6. Let the agar cool and set at room temperature before chilling in the fridge.

B.  Following instruction on the package you purchased.

C.  Follow recipe books instructions.

In the next coming weeks I will post few recipes using Agar-Agar and explore it usage in my cookbook.

Thank you for reading.

Kenny Law
Australia Registered TCM Practitioner.
 

DISCLAIMER:
Information given are purely for references and it is not intent to diagnose medical conditions or to be used for self-diagnosed. Always consult medical health personnel for proper medical diagnosis.

© COPYRIGHT 2010 KENNY LAW

Sharing and/or reproduction of any part of this document is prohibited without written consent

For further reading:

               

Stir Fried Gingko Nuts and Shrimps

It is cold and wintery in Melbourne.  Temperatures has been fluctuating by the hour at times, and seasonal asthma, cough and wheezing are on the rise.  Few friends have already asked me if I could teach them some food they could eat that may help to relieve some symptoms such as feeling of cold in the chest and reduces sniffling throughout the day.  So here is a simple recipe I came up with.

 

Generally you can find ginkgo nuts in Asian food stores.  They are normally packaged in tin, vacuum sealed pack, not shelled and dried as whole.

For this recipe I would you use the prepackage ginkgo nuts.  You can find them in the cool room or the freezer section.  For a stronger taste of the ginkgo nuts then I would suggest the one with the shell still intact.

Directions to peel the ginkgo nuts.  First is to remove the shell.  They are not hard and thick.  Therefore you do not need to use excessive force to crack it open.  Simply use a jar and lightly tap them.  May take a few to practise if you have not done it before.

Then soaked them in hot-warm water to loosen up the membrane thin husk.  If you wish to have extra fiber, then just leave the husk and cook with it.  The membrane has a unique property because it can counteract some toxicity from the ginkgo nuts.

Please Note:

DO NOT give children more than 8 ginkgo nuts to ingest in one sitting.

Adults are not to take more than 15-20 nuts in one sitting.

Pregnant women must not take more than 10 in one meal and should only eat as directed by your local TCM practitioner.  Excess of ingestion will cause uterine contraction.

75g Gingko Nuts – Shelled and skinned

400g of medium shrimps or prawns – blanched in hot water for 2 mins or prawns become curled and coral pink.

1 small zucchini – halved and sliced

3-4 slices of ginger

2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped

1 tbsp oyster sauce or soy sauce

2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp Cooking rice wine/ Sherry

1 tsp corn flour mix with 1 tbsp of water – used as thickener but can be opt out.

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok/pot then fry ginger and garlic til aroma rises.
2. Add in the gingko nuts and zucchini.  Reduce heat to medium.  Continue stirring for 2 mins.
3. Add the shrimps and turn heat up before adding the cooking wine and oyster sauce.  Continue stirring and coats the shrimps evenly.
4. Finally stirred in the starch until flour mixture becomes translucent.
5. Serve hot with rice.

In general this recipe can be served to family members as part of a dish but not as a meal on its own.

Functions and Benefits:

1. Gingko – strengthens Lung Qi and sooth asthma.
2. Shrimps – assist and Tonifies Yang; Tonifies Qi and Blood.
3. Zucchini – cools heat; tones Stomach and Spleen Qi; moistens dryness
4. Ginger – warms Middle Burner, counteracts toxicity of shrimps or seafood in general.
5. Garlic – warms Middle Burner, moves Qi and Blood.

Precautions and Contraindications:

1. Gingko nuts CANNOT be eaten raw* or eat cooked gingko excessively.  This herb is slightly toxic.
2. CAUTION when use during pregnancy.  Best to consult your local TCM practitioner NOT friends or relatives.
3. If present of heavy phlegm sputum, replace shrimp with chicken.

*only to be prescribed  by qualify TCM practitioner in herbal formulas.

If you have any doubt or want to know more about this recipe, contact your TCM practitioner or myself.

Thank you for reading.

Kenny Law
Australia Registered TCM Practitioner.
 

DISCLAIMER:
Information given are purely for references and it is not intent to diagnose medical conditions or to be used for self-diagnosed. Always consult medical health personnel for proper medical diagnosis.

© COPYRIGHT 2010 KENNY LAW

Sharing and/or reproduction of any part of this document is prohibited without written consent

For further reading:
            

"Eat this . . . it is good for you" said Grandmama.

It has been a month now since Jakob's birth.  This last recipe will conclude the discussion of food and recipes for new mothers during the confinement period which last for 100 days or at least 2 months.

The key ingredient today is placenta.  Yes . . . it is placenta.  I can just imagine some of you might be turning way from the screen or just about dry reaching or gagging.  Some reader might have just redecorated the wall with their projectile vomit by this time.  I am trying hard now not to laugh, but  the 'visual' keep playing inside my head.

Try to put aside that image and focus on the facts and logic behind this ingredient.  The composition of placenta is complex.  It contains amino acids, protein, vitamins, minerals such as iron, enzymes and hormones.  Ingestion of placenta is not a new practice.  It has been used and still in practice by some cultures across the globe.

Dried placenta is a herb used in Chinese Herbal Medicine as a Yang-Tonic.  Originally human placenta is used but now replaced with cattle and/or pig placentas.

The placenta for this recipe is of animal, NOT from the new mother's.  However it is almost impossible to get hold onto any placenta, unless you might know some farmers might just be able to save you one.

Cook the placenta as you would with a chook or any given red meat.

1 fresh placenta - washed and cleaned.  Cut to pieces then blanched in hot water.

2 thumb size brown skin ginger - peeled and julienne.

30g Astragalus (Huang Qi)

10g Chinese Wolfberries (Gou Qi Zi)

10 pieces Chinese red dates

5g dried Mandarin Peel (Chen Pi)

2 L water

Tamari or salt to taste

Method:

1. Placed all ingredients in a pot then bring to boil.  Lowered heat to simmer for 2 hours.
2. Season with tamari or salt.  Serve hot with rice.

Functions and Benefits:

1. Placenta - Tonifies the Kidney Essence, Tonifies Blood and Raise Yang.
2. Huang Qi - Tonifies Qi and raise Yang, Tonifies Defensive (Wei) Qi, promote wound healing and reduces oedema.
3. Chinese Red Dates - Nourish Blood and sooth the mind, Tones Middle Burner Qi.
4. Gou Qi Zi -  Tonifies the Kidneys and benefits the Essence, nourish the Liver and brighten the eyes, moisten the Lungs.
5. Chen Pi - Regulate Qi of Spleen and Stomach by removing qi stasis causing qi to rebel upwards in the Middle Burner.

Precautions and Contraindications:

1. This recipe is Warm in nature and very beneficial to weak new mother after child birth or new mother has weak constitution.

IMPORTANT:  This recipe uses of herbs at higher dose.

You must consult your local TCM practitioner if you wish to try to make this medicinal soup for yourself.  Fail to do so may result in harm to your well being.

Thank you for reading.

Kenny Law
Australia Registered TCM Practitioner.
 

DISCLAIMER:
Information given are purely for references and it is not intent to diagnose medical conditions or to be used for self-diagnosed. Always consult medical health personnel for proper medical diagnosis.
 

© COPYRIGHT 2010 KENNY LAW

Sharing and/or reproduction of any part of this document is prohibited without written consent

For further reading:

            

Turtle, Turle, Turtle . . .

I didn't realized it has been two weeks since the last post.  Time just flies when you having so much fun, or not.  However I have been dreading to write about this recipe because I am not sure how to really explain it all . . . why turtle?  Well . . . why not?

There are a lot of edible variety of turtles across the globe.  However export and import of edible turtles are heavily regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).  Most species are now protected.


Mainly two species, Reeves' turtle and Chinese Softshell Turtles, are used as food and medicine in the current market.  A particular species called Golden Coin Turtles are used extensively to make a popular jelly called GuiLing Gao.  Due to extensive use it is now being reviewed to be listed as an endangered species.


Work is in progress to phase out the use of Golden Coin Turtle, replacing with only Softshell Turtle Pelodiscus sinensis.  This species breed and grow rapidly in tropical climate making it best choice to use as food and medicine.

For more information read  ENDANGERED SPECIES ISSUES AFFECTING TURTLES AND TORTOISES USED IN CHINESE MEDICINE

The recipe for this post is definitely not everybody's cup of tea.  I will only share one recipe of few that I know of.  If anyone who is reading this and wish to share their thoughts please do so.

The main focus of this dish is to Tonifies the Blood, Improve Qi circulation,  Boost Defensive Qi and Tonifies the Essence.

It is best prepared by double boiling.  So you will need a lidded ceramic pot which is big enough for all ingredients and 1.5 - 2 L water.  Here are the ingredients.

1 palm size turtle (Softshell or Reeves) - cleaned and cut to pieces.  If using Reeves, retain the shell.
30g fresh dried Rehmannia Glutinosa (Sheng DiHuang)
30g cooked dried Rehmannia Glutinosa (Shu DiHuang)
10 pieces Chinese red dates
30g Codonopsis (Dang Shen) - cut to pieces
30g Astragalus (Huang Qi)
10g Chinese Angelica (Dang Gui)
2 L hot boiled water

Method:

1. Prepare a pot of boiling water to poached the turtle meat.  Leaves the top shell if using Reeves'.  Bring to boil then let simmer for further 5 minutes.  Strain the water out then place the meat in a bowl of cold water.
2. Placed the herbs into the pot first before the turtle pieces.  If using Reeves turtle, turn the top shell over to save space just in case the lid cannot be secured.
3. Pour the hot water until it level with ingredients.  Make sure the water level is at least 2cm under the rim of the pot.  Secure the lid then place the pot in a deep container.
4. Fill the large container with hot water 3/4 level with the smaller pot.
5. Bring to boil then simmer on low heat for 3-4 hours.  Always check water content on both pots.  Add water if necessary.

Functions and Benefits:

1. Turtle - Tonifies Yin and Yang, taste Sweet and Neutral in nature.  Tones the Spleen, and Kidney Qi and Essence.
2. Sheng DiHuang - Clears heat and cool Blood, nourish Yin and promote body fluids.
3. Shu DiHuang - Tonifies Yin and nourish Blood.
4. Chinese Red Dates - Nourish Blood and sooth the mind, Tones Middle Burner Qi.
5. Dang Shen - Tonifies Central (Zhong) Qi, Tonifies Lung Qi, Nourish Blood and promote body fluids.
6. Huang Qi - Tonifies Qi and raise Yang, Tonifies Defensive (Wei) Qi, promote wound healing and reduces oedema.
7. Dang Gui - Tonifies Blood, invigorate blood circulation and relieve pain.

Precautions and Contraindications:

1. Sheng DiHuang is contraindicated in person with Spleen Qi deficiency and Yang deficiency.
2. Shi DiHuang is contraindicated in person with Qi stasis in the Middle Burner and deficiencies of Spleen and Stomach Qi.
3. Chinese red date is contraindicated to use when presence of excessive dampness accumulation and food stagnation.  It is also not recommended if presence of intestinal parasites.  Contraindicated to use as single herb or at large quantity.
4. Dang Shen is not recommended in cases with severe or with excessive heat or fire.
5. Huang Qi is not recommended in cases with Excessive Qi rising such as Liver Qi rising, presence of internal heat or fire, and lesions/sores cause by Heat pathogen.
6. Dang Gui is not contraindicated for person with Excessive conditions and severe Heat Yin deficiency.  Caution for those with Spleen Qi deficiency with abdominal distention or loose stool.

IMPORTANT:  This recipe uses quite a number of herbs AND at a higher dosage.  Thus it is not suitable for everybody.  Though it is recommended for new mother, it is purely base on INDIVIDUAL DIAGNOSIS.

You must consult your local TCM practitioner if you wish to try to make this medicinal soup for yourself.  Fail to do so may result in harm to your well being.

Thank you for reading.

Kenny Law
Australia Registered TCM Practitioner.
 

DISCLAIMER:
Information given are purely for references and it is not intent to diagnose medical conditions or to be used for self-diagnosed. Always consult medical health personnel for proper medical diagnosis.
 

© COPYRIGHT 2010 KENNY LAW

Sharing and/or reproduction of any part of this document is prohibited without written consent

For further reading: