The Spice Doc

Winter Hash

2012-01-19T20:01:00.000-08:00

(from 12/17/2010)

If you live anywhere near where I do and are beginning to feel the effects of the wind, cold, dryness, and lack of sun, then you are likely in need of something warm, nourishing, and colorful on your plate! Immediately. There is never a more significant time than now in the midst of this chilling season to begin paying attention to getting all those colors on your plate. You simply aren't going to get enough vitamins and minerals if you work in an office, come home when it's dark already at 4 p.m., and to top it off when you are outside the only bits of you the world can see is your eyes and nose (therefore the sun isn't going to bless you with it's nutrients)!

In Chinese Medicine, eating with the seasons as well as eating the colors and tastes of the five elements is essential to balanced health. Given that it is winter, you want to eat warm to counteract the effects of the cold. Winter is also a time when your kidneys and lungs are more susceptible to damage and illness and can manifest in symptoms such as : cold hands and feet, arthritis, painful joints, lower back pain, dry cough, colds, flu's, skin dryness, and general malaise. If you go by the five element chart (which I discussed here) the lungs pertain to the color white and the spicy flavor, and the kidneys pertain to the color black and the salty taste. While these particular organs are more susceptible in the winter, you shouldn't neglect the other major organ systems in Chinese Medicine : the liver (green & sour), the digestive function (yellow & sweet), and the heart (red & bitter). If you are wondering what it means for an organ to pertain to a taste and a color (and if you haven't gone here already), this is part of the Traditional Chinese Medicine nutritional theory whereby you treat certain organs and systems with specifically colored foods and tastes. A daikon radish is a perfect example of a white and spicy food which can benefit the lungs. Sometimes you won't find one food that satisfies both the color and taste of an organ system, in which case you might combine a color with a taste (perhaps a white radish with a sprinkle of chile flakes to open up the lungs).

A very simple way to make sure you're getting all the healthful benefits of vitamins, minerals, colors, and tastes is to make sure you eat a variety of (naturally occurring) colors every day. This winter hash is a perfect example of this. You can eat it as a side dish, you can use it to stuff something (a chicken or turkey perhaps? or a mushroom as I did recently), you can have it with eggs, and you can also just eat it alone. You can absolutely stray from this version of the recipe if you don't like carrots and prefer parsnips, or something along those lines.

In this particular Winter Hash, I used onions, leeks, carrots, yellow potatoes, sea salt, black pepper, cumin, and chile flakes. I cooked it all low and slow until it comes together into this beautiful melded hash that is both sweet and salty with a lovely spice along the edeges.

Ingredients Needed (winter vegetables preferable) : 1 onion, 1-2 leeks, 3 small yellow potatoes, 4 carrots, cumin, chile (fresh or flaked), sea salt, black pepper.

1. Slice up onions and leeks (leeks may need extra rinsing as they carry a lot of dirt). Begin to saute them slowly in olive oil until they just begin to cook.

2. Peel and cut up carrots and potatoes (parsnips or turnips would be great here too). Add to pan and turn up heat ever so slightly so it all begins to sear a bit, then turn it low again.

3. Add 1 tsp of cumin, a sprinkle of chile flakes (or more if you want more kick), salt and black pepper to taste.

4. Cook on low heat for about 30 mins to 1 hour (depends on how much you are cooking). At the very end turn up the heat once again for a few minutes to give it more caramelizing and color without burning.

(If you mince up the ingredients very finely you can use them to stuff mushrooms with, put a slice of pecorino on top and bake at 400 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.)

Kitchen Medicine

2011-12-06T03:56:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be missing in action for a little while here. I have to pool all my resources and energy into finishing a big project, soon to be unveiled, and it requires all my attention.

Before I leave (and I will return before you know it), I wanted to share some recent colors in the market. As well as some old and new medicinal cooking tricks. There's so much to digest (literally and figuratively) since my move to Chongqing as per the medicinal cooking that there isn't enough room on here to share it all!

For those that aren't TCM practitioners and reading this, if you don't know about the five elements and how that correlates to medicinal cooking as per TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) then it's important for me to briefly lay it out as it's the building blocks upon which the cooking begins. I discussed it in a post a few months ago here. Above is a picture of foods and their correlates, and below is a list of the basics. At first glance it's so simple and beautiful, and then you begin to realize that it gets all intertwined and a bit wild like a creeping banyan tree's roots which climb all over each other. For example, you might wonder if red and bitter treat the heart and small intestine, then a red chile would make sense? It's red and bitter. But it's also spicy, which falls into the category of the lung and large intestine. Don't over think it too much. As a layman you don't need to decipher it to that degree. If you're designing a treatment plan for a patient with a serious chronic (or acute) illness, you will of course need to be more fastidious with the plan. However, if you are just simply eating in a normal way, to be healthy, to be preventative, and to enjoy your food while you have a go at it, then just think this simply : colors and flavors correlate to particular organ systems.

Black & Salty = Kidneys & Urinary Bladder
Red & Bitter = Heart & Small Intestine
White & Spicy = Lung & Large Intestine
Yellow & Sweet = Digestive System (Stomach & Spleen)
Green & Sour = Liver & Gallbladder

You will do no harm by thinking in this way and you will definitely hit all your target vitamin, mineral, and all that other jazz that they like to throw out at you in today's nutritional requirements dialogue. Sometimes you wonder, how did we survive before when we weren't measuring out calories, B12, saturated fat, unsaturated fat, carbohydrates, sodium levels, vitamin D, etc. etc. etc. There is a time and a place for that, of course, and that's mostly in the classroom not in the kitchen. It's confusing and makes you, me, all of us riddled with a subterranean angst wherein more often than not, you miss the point of the whole thing. Interestingly enough, every week an article will pop up expounding on a new study with the news flash that (something you could have derived from the chart above) actually does good for one of the organs linked to the flavor and color.

The next level of TCM medicinal cooking theory is that everything is broken down into warm, hot, cool, or cold. This too gets a little confusing. Or coRnfusing as a friend loves to say. You might initially only think in terms of a hot soup versus a cold cucumber, and while this is true in terms of being warming (soup) and being cooling (cucumber), you might not think of how some meat's are hot (beef), some are warming (chicken), and some are cooling (crab), though you can eat all of them warm. There is the thermal nature of a food (cool/cold/warm/hot) which is what I am referring to here, and then there is the way you eat it (cold or warm). Suffice it to say, it's a lot to memorize and in the case of cool/cold/warm/hot, the best way to approach this (unless you want to dive into the academics of it) is to know your constitution and then be conscious of how you eat according to that. If you tend to run really hot, and have a red flushed face more often than not, then avoid heat-inducing foods that might exacerbate your condition. If you run cold, and are weak and lethargic with loose stools, don't go on a raw cucumber binge. Having said that, I will mention that in TCM you do rely on the general premise that eating warm foods (as in the temperature - such as a soup, not necessarily the thermal nature as in beef or chiles which are hot) is important for good digestion.

I learned a new thermal tidbit last week, which is common layman's knowledge here in China. Oranges are cooling and tangerines are hot. The interesting thing is that people know this here, and they abide by it. If they run hot, they don't go wild for clementines (considered to be in the tangerine category) in this season. If you have insomnia or red inflamed acne, you might want to watch out too!

And lastly, a cooking tip I learned as per fresh water fish (any non ocean fish) : take your fish, do what you need to do it (keep it whole and gutted or filleted) and submerge it in water with vinegar (not too much, a tablespoon for a medium size fish will suffice) for 24 hours in order to cleanse the blood of the fish, sweeten it's flavor, and help it to hold it's integrity in the cooking process. If you're on my facebook page, you've heard about this tip twice already, so apologies for the repetition!

And with that, I will be crawling into my office to peck away at the final stages of my project. If I don't get here before the holiday madness, remember to drink something bitter after a meal to help you to digest all the goodies you'll be partaking in and see you in 2012!

Mountain Yam - Shan Yao

2011-11-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

(Fresh Shan Yao being sold at the top of Jin Dao Xia gorge)

If you haven't already met, I'd like to introduce you to the Mountain Yam (Shan Yao). This is one of the most prevalent TCM medicinal herbs that is also commonly used as a food in a variety of dishes such as soups, hot pot (Huo Guo), stir fried dishes, and grated or sliced raw (the raw version is used often in Japanese cuisine). Shan Yao is usually found dried in the U.S., while you can still use this version in soups, hot pot, and cooked dishes, you can not use it raw unless it's fresh.

(Shan Yao soup at a Buddhist Temple vegetarian restaurant)

Shan Yao tastes a little like a creamier and earthier tuber, it has a thicker consistency that is almost a little mucilaginous at times depending on how you use it. Not everyone will love Shan Yao, I do. Since I've been living back in China, I've had it as a creamy soup (with Shan Yao being the primary ingredient), I've had it in hot pot (you add it into the hot pot broth, let it cook, then dip it into your sesame paste sauce and eat it) and I've had it cooked into a broth based soup.

(Hot pot/Huo Guo, spread with Shan Yao in the vegetable basket)

Shan Yao is used in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) as an herb to : (courtesy of Kamwo Pharmacy) 1. tonify (i.e. aid or supplement) the spleen and stomach, especially in cases of deficiency where there are symptoms such as fatigue, loose stools, weak digestion, or lack of appetite. 2. tonify lung qi and yin (i.e. supports lung function and moisture), examples of issues with this would be chronic wheezing or coughing. 3. tonify the kidneys (i.e. supports kidney function) when there is deficiency symptoms such as weak or sore lower back, spermatorrhea, vaginal discharge, or frequent nighttime urination. 4. treats 'wasting and thirsting' disorder (i.e. similar to diabetes with frequent urination, excess hunger or thirst, with possible emaciation.). Shan Yao (as per Tom Leung, Kamwo's owner, as well as a TCM herbalist and pharmacist) works particularly well as an astringent in cases of diarrhea, frequent urination, excess vaginal discharge, or excess sweating.

(Shan Yao is one of the many selections from an array of ingredients you can choose to put in your individually made soup at a food stall)

When I bought the fresh Shan Yao all the way at the top of this post, I was hiking with a lovely lady who shared the following (Japanese) recipe for mountain yam (Yamaimo in Japanese) :

Peel outside layer of Shan Yao/Yamaimo, wear gloves if you want to avoid itching, put yam into a water/vinegar solution so it doesn't yellow and to kill the oxalates which cause itching, slice up as you wish (thin or thicker), add soy sauce, wasabi, and shredded nori. Eat with rice or as is.

Perfect Persimmons: The "Other" Apple

2011-10-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't eat my first persimmon until 2002. I remember this because it was an event, that's how delicious persimmons are. I had been wondering what is that odd looking orange'ish-yellow tomato that's not a tomato sitting amongst all the fruit in China Town in NYC. Well, as it turns out it's a delectable piece of fruit that is sweet, but not too sweet, pliant yet still crunchy (unless it's really ripe, then it is a bit like a tomato/mango), and it has a hint of sour to hold itself up from becoming too cloying. Anyway, it's irrelevant what it tastes like to me because taste is subjective. It's good.

Persimmon is also a TCM medicinal food (referred to as Shi Zi, 柿子) that is used to treat inflammation in the gut, (hot and dry) lung ailments, and if slightly unripe it has astringent properties which cause not only your mouth to pucker up but also restrain diarrhea, coughing and/or vomiting blood, and reduce hypertension (P. Pitchford). Persimmons are cooling, sweet, and target the lungs and digestive area. They can moisten the lungs while at the same time reducing phlegm. In addition, you can use the calyx and fruit stem for treating hiccups.

Though I am not always a huge fan of breaking foods down into micro nutrients and hailing them as the next "super food", I was happy to see that persimmon's got a little media attention in 2001 in the Science Daily "A Persimmon A Day Could Be Better For Your Heart Than An Apple" having been found to contain "significantly higher concentrations of dietary fiber, minerals and phenolic compounds - all instrumental in fighting atherosclerosis". Eating one a day is supposedly enough to fight atherosclerosis according to the study conducted by the department of medicinal chemistry in the School of Pharmacy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel mentioned in the article. A persimmon a day keeps the doctor away?

Persimmon's are originally from China but spread to Korea, Japan, Brazil, Israel, and on from there, reaching the United States in 1856. There are over 40 different kinds of persimmons, some of which are more astringent than others according to the degree of pollination and the amount of ethanol produced in the seeds (if you are like me and have tried a persimmon that is sweet and crunchy one day only to bite into a soft, ripe, super mouth-puckering one the next day and wondered why, this is why!). In Japan to remove the pucker in a persimmon they place them in former sake curing casks and let them rest there for a few days. Or you can alternately (not having access to a sake cask) just let them ripen naturally to further remove tannins, though if they are of the kind that is more susceptible to this, then there is not much you can do. The puckering is of course indicative of a higher level of astringency, increasing it's ability to treat conditions such as dysentery, diarrhea, and spitting or coughing up blood. Apparently, the Native Americans had their own medicinal uses for the persimmon as well: as a poultice for warts, in the treatment of bloody diarrhea, and as a mouth rinse in the treatment of thrush.

Persimmons are in season right now (from October - December) so if you can find them somewhere, stock up! Keep them around to keep your heart healthy, or to treat that dry cough from too much artificial heating this winter, or simply just to enjoy!

Congee : Digestive Healer

2011-10-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Congee is by far one of the most prevalent examples of medicinal cooking's marriage with commonplace kitchen knowledge in Chinese and Asian culture(s) at large (in Thailand it's Khao Tom, in Japan it's Zohsui or Kayu, in Korea it's Jook/Juk, and so on). Everyone eats it. You learn about it growing up. You learn about it in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) school. They serve it on the street, they serve it in the posh hotels, they serve it at school. You know when to eat it, and what to add to it to cater more specifically to your current needs.

Chicken is more tonic for the qi (energy) and blood. Sweet potato will add to the digestive function. Da Zao (red dates) also come to the aid of the energy and blood. Gou Qi Zi (wolfberries) improve eye function while working on the liver and kidneys. Huang Qi boosts the immune system. Pickled and fermented green vegetables work on the liver and digestive function. A splash of chile sauce opens up the lungs and fights off a cold. Fresh scallions dropped over that hot tasty soup right before ingesting, fights off that cold even more than that chile sauce (or in combination thereof!). Ginger boosts the digestion, combats nausea, warms you up, and fights colds (too). There are endless combination's for congee, in fact so many that Bob Flaws, a well known author and scholar of Chinese Medicine wrote a book called "The Book of Jook" with a whole slew of the different recipes for congee (or in his case, the referenced jook). Call it what you may, it works, and it works well.

If you're of the digestively compromised faction (of which there are many), congee is your best friend. Eating warm is also of the essence in this case. Your digestion is like a furnace, if you put ice on that furnace, it will not stay "lit" and in turn cook your food for you so it can be transformed into the miconutrients and energy we so love to discuss in biomedical nutritional terms. The base for congee is simple and you can also quite simply just eat the base without anything else. You cook rice in water, at 1 part rice to 4 to 5 parts water, depending on how soupy you would it to be. Bring to a boil on low heat for at least 1 hour. Imagine that it's helping your body by breaking it all down beforehand so you don't have to do so much work once it goes in. Then decide what your flavor is going to be. Is your stomach a little extra sensitive? Add some ginger. Want a little more flavor and energy? Add chicken (cook it with the bone). While I have been enjoying the Chinese congee with a few pickled mustard greens, a sprinkle of salted peanuts, and a splash of chile sauce, I am a huge fan of the Thai Khao Tom, perhaps from growing up there or maybe because it has a little more panache to it.

Here is my recipe (an amalgam of many versions of Khao Tom learned throughout the years), it is great if you're sick, fighting a cold, having digestive troubles, or you just want to eat something clean and simple :

Thai Khao Tom

Ingredients : rice (long grain or short grain, your call), 1 chicken breast or 2 thighs on the bone, tang chai (pickled shredded cabbage - can be easily found in many Asian stores), scallions, cilantro, garlic, fish sauce/nampla, rice vinegar, Thai bird chiles or other fresh chiles, ginger, sesame oil

(serves 2)

1. Bring to a boil 1 cup rice with 5 cups water, 5 thin slices of ginger, whole chicken breast/or thigh(s) with bone (added immune system boost), 2 teaspoons of tang chai, splash or two of fish sauce (or use 1+/- tablespoon of sea salt if you don't like fish sauce), and 3 whole sprigs of cilantro with the cleaned roots still attached. Cook for 1 hour.
2. Take chicken out around 30 minutes and shred meat off with fork, place bones back in soup to continue boiling.
3. Chop 3-4 cloves of garlic up and fry quickly until lightly brown in sesame oil, set to side in a small bowl.
4. Chop fresh chiles up and place 1 tbspn. in a small sauce bowl with fish sauce and another tbspn. in a small sauce bowl with rice vinegar.
5. Chop up cilantro and scallions, also place in a bowl to the side.
6. Once soup is cooked, serve in a bowl, top with shredded chicken, chopped cilantro and scallion, a bit of crispy garlic, a bit of vinegar and/or fish sauce (depending on your taste and needs).

*Some people add crispy fish, some people cook Khao Tom with ground pork or shrimp, there are again, endless varieties. Have fun playing with it.

Fresh Chickens in Chongqing

2011-10-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

I am only 3 days into properly and officially living in Chongqing so there isn't a whole lot to report on through the fog of jet lag still clouding my mind during the days. BUT, I will say, one thing I am considering to do very soon is pick a chicken (or a duck) at the local grocery store to have freshly butchered for us. I know many (or maybe just some) of you will cringe at this. It seems barbaric perhaps? But, I don't know which is more barbaric, the illusion of the shrink wrapped chicken breast in plastic at your local chain grocery or the acknowledgement of where it comes from? I choose the latter. I do have to figure out if these chickens are jacked up on hormones, and while they weren't uber crowded in their final destination, it does bother me on some level that they have to sit there watching us while we choose their fate. They didn't seem overly large by any means (in fact, they looked like a normal size free range chicken does), so fingers crossed they aren't too tainted. Living in Chongqing, I'm not sure how much choice I will have except to eat less meat if that is the case. Which is fine.

In Chinese Medicine, chicken is gently warming, blood building, and easier to digest than beef if you have a compromised immune system or digestive capability. Here is a recipe I posted a while back for chicken adobo.

Chicken is often used to make medicinal soups with a combination of herbs, depending on what you want to target. Gou Qi Zi, Da Zao, Dang Gui, Huang Qi, all these herbs and more can be found floating in a simple chicken stock (made with the bones) in most of the restaurants and homes in China. When I was last here in July we had the opportunity to drink one of the most spectacular 8 hour triple steamed chicken stocks with fritillaria bulb (Chuan Bei Mu) and pear I have ever had. That soup in particular targeted lung and throat dryness, which is something I could use right about now as my throat is reacting rather strongly to the incessant smog.

Making chicken stock with herbs is a great way to eat your medicine. Here are a few suggestions for targeted maladies via chicken stock/soup :

With Chuan Bei Mu and Pear : lung and throat dryness, difficult to expectorate phlegm

With Gou Qi Zi, Da Zao, and Huang Qi : for qi, blood, and yin deficiency (can manifest as constitutional weakness, fatigue, dizziness, short or absent menses)

With Dang Gui : blood stasis, irregular menses, dry constipation

*you can link to each herb by clicking on it above and it will take you to a well respected New York City TCM pharmacy (Kamwo Pharmacy) where you can learn more via their herb index

Purslane, the Underappreciated Weed

2011-09-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

There will be no recipe with this post as I am in the midst of moving madness (to Chongqing, China) and can barely put two pieces of bread together with something in between let alone concoct a proper meal. This says a lot as I am decidedly not a sandwich girl to begin with.

Nonetheless, I managed to hit up the farmers market one last time over the weekend and to my joy I came across some fresh and wild purslane that one of the purveyors was selling. I had never tried fresh purslane, but I have studied it's medicinal uses in Chinese Medicine as it is part of the Materia Medica, known as Ma Chi Xian. As it turns out it is also a culinary delight in many places around the world (Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Mexico). In the U.S. it is considered a weed and some refer to it as pigweed or little hogweed, I am not sure if this is because pigs like it or for some other pig-related reason, but it is certainly an underappreciated edible weed here! You can chop it up fresh, saute it lightly, or use it in soups. I must admit, I have not had the opportunity to do anything but rip off a few of it's generous arms, rinse, and nosh on them in front of the computer or as I run off to take care of one last moving logistic, therefore I can't share a recipe as of yet. I can say that it is delicious, and that I enjoyed it very much in it's raw and simple form, it is indeed sour and a bit sweet. Mainly it starts sweet and ends sour. In the future I am going to toss it in a salad with some feta like the Greeks do (one of the recipes I managed to peruse online).

In TCM you use Ma Chi Xian to treat dysentery, hot or bloody genitourinary conditions, and topically for wasp or snake bites. See Kamwo Pharmacy's reference guide for more on this if you'd like.

And with this, I leave you, to run to do. One. Last! Thing! See you in China.

Tomato Time

2011-08-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

I feel like I am about to write this post a few weeks too late for those that haven't been relishing in this season, in tomato season. Not that you can't eat tomatoes in the winter, as there are many a freshly canned (sans preservatives beyond salt) brand and given how we consume, you can find them all year round anyway - but they really don't taste as good as they do right now. They truly taste like the sun in the summer, without the mealiness of 100's of miles of transport and refrigeration. In any event, there are still a few weeks left of tomatoes in all their plump juicy glory and this isn't a post meant for chiding. Tomatoes taste really good now, that's all.

In Chinese Medicine tomatoes are considered thermally cooling (meaning if you're HOT, they will cool you - makes sense for summertime), they have a sweet and sour flavor, and they target the liver and stomach organs. There are many different takes on the actions of tomatoes in the context of these attributes, but I am borrowing from J. Kastner's description, "clears heat, enriches yin (especially liver yin), produces fluids and removes dryness, cools and cleans blood, strengthens stomach, promotes liver network activity". For those that are not TCM practitioners, you may be wondering what in the world does "promotes liver network activity" mean anyway?! Well, each organ system (liver, stomach, heart, etc) has it's own set of areas in the body it works on. The liver (as it pertains to TCM) manages the sinews and muscles, detoxification, anger management (or lack thereof), purification and holding of blood, and problems with it (the liver) manifest in the eyes and/or nails (you can have red eyes if you have "liver heat" or you can have brittle nails if you are blood deficient). This may be too much information, or maybe it'll help to relate to how medicinal eating and cooking comes about with these types of links.

Back to the tomato. Given it's still summer, you may be having some heat signs that either relate to the liver or stomach that can manifest as : red eyes, dry mouth, thirst, vertex headaches, general dryness, or even elevated blood pressure. A tomato can help! A few normal sized ones a day in fact. If you are having digestive issues with cold foods, then this isn't your food, avoid the tomato for now. Otherwise, indulge away!

Simple Tomato Salad We've All Had

Ingredients : cherry tomatoes, basil (I used African basil, but use what you like), buffalo mozzarella, shallot, aged balsamic, olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt

1. Cut up the tomatoes and mozzarella. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Mince at least half a shallot. Sprinkle the salt and pepper and you're done. Maybe you've had this, multiple times, but I'm putting it up here anyway. This can be served on a baguette with all the juices seeping and sopping into the bread if you like.

Welcome to Chongqing

2011-07-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

Since I will soon be relocating to Chongqing (formerly Chungking), which just so happens to be Chicago's sister city, I thought I'd share a few snippets of the life and food there. There will be more as the years go by and I delve even further into yao shan (medicinal cooking) which is a big part of why I am going there. Chongqing lies in the heart of China in between the rich agricultural provinces of Sichuan, Hunan, Guizhou, and Hubei. It is the fastest growing city in China, which may really mean, in the world. Already there are 30+ million people living there and those figures don't account for a lot of unregistered people. The city is both inexorably new and old at the same time, a clash that makes for a vivid experience that literally slams into all your senses ... taste being one of them in the ma la (numb - spicy) variety of Sichuan cuisine.

Already on this short reconnaissance trip, I learned a few new medicinal kitchen tricks and recipes. I'm working on learning the 8 hour (sometimes it's 3 days) triple steamed Fritillaria bulb (Chuan Bei Mu) and Pear soup that I was lucky enough to taste at a very special welcome dinner for us. Because it was SO hot (Chongqing is referred to as the "furnace city" in the summer months) I did not partake in their own special style of hot pot, huo guo, but as soon as the Fall chill enters, I'm sure I'll be happily eating many a huo guo meal. For the time being, I'll leave you with a little taste of Chongqing, in no particular order..

La jiao, making chile sauce, the magnificent awakening smell led us there by our noses.

Huangjueping, artist community in Chongqing.

Zhen Zhu, pearls for making Zhen Zhu Fen (pearl powder), a TCM medicinal which treats heart, liver, and skin ailments.

View of the Jialing River from our future balcony.

Ginger outside a little noodle shop.

Winding mountain roads in the old part of Chongqing, Ciqikou.

The famous Sichuan Dandan mian/noodles, spicy and fragrant.

Year of the Rabbit, 2011.

Ciqikou, old part of Chongqing.

Jiefangbei, the new part of Chongqing, in the evening.

Umbrella culture to save yourself from the burning sun during the summer months.

Hillside vegetable garden, beautifully done.

Grape season.

Watermelons, xi gua, to cool you off.

Mulberry Magic

2011-07-07T09:02:00.001-07:00

This last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited over to a friend's home on a bright sunny day to go wild and pluck as many mulberries, mulberry leaves, and mulberry twigs as I wished from her mulberry tree. Nevertheless, I was quite tame and only took a little for my home medicinal purposes as I'll be leaving to live in China again soon to continue my work and study on yao shan, a.k.a. medicinal cooking.

Mulberry trees grow rampant throughout Chicago and around the surrounding areas, and we are right smack in the middle to end of the fruiting season for them in the Midwest. If you are lucky enough to have a mulberry tree in your backyard where ever you may be, don't A) cut it down! and do B) use it for home remedies! In China, the mulberries I encountered are of the black mulberry species, Morus nigra (a much longer, tighter, sweeter fruit), whereas this mulberry tree (Morus alba, native to E. Asia but naturalized in urban areas of the E. USA) was fruiting white mulberries with purple spots as they matured and is still sweet but milder.

In Chinese Medicine, the mulberry tree is full of medicinal uses (a total of seven medicinals are derived from it). The bark, berries, leaves, twigs, silk worms & their droppings (silk worms feed on mulberry leaves), and a parasitic plant of the mulberry are all found in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Materia Medica.

Below is the list of the seven medicinals found on the mulberry tree, you can use Kamwo Pharmacy's online herbal directory to read more details :

Mulberry fruit/Sang Shen : tonifies yin and blood, moistens the intestines, replenishes fluids, use with caution in cold conditions

Mulberry Leaf/Sang Ye : releases wind-heat (i.e. sore throat, fever, headache), treats cough with sticky sputum, cools the liver (i.e. dizziness, red painful eyes, vertigo), cools the blood

Mulberry Twig/Sang Zhi : dispels wind-damp-heat, acts as a diuretic

Mulberry Root Bark/Sang Bai Pi : clears lung heat (i.e. cough with colored sputum), acts as a diuretic, used to lower blood pressure

Loranthi seu Visci, parasite of Mulberry plant/Sang Ji Sheng : tonifies liver and kidneys, protects the womb, nourishes blood, strengthens bones and tendons, expels wind-dampness, benefits the skin

Silk worm/Jiang Can : extinguishes wind and spasms, releases wind-heat and stops pain, clears toxic phlegm-heat nodules, stops itching, relieves migraines

Silk worm droppings/Can Sha : dispels wind-dampness, harmonizes the stomach

*note, for those who aren't TCM practitioners some of the language used to describe the functions is specific to TCM, here is a key for a few of them ('tonify' = enhance, improve function of; 'wind-heat' = a cold presenting with heat signs; 'cool' = in TCM cooling herbs treat 'hot' conditions and vice versa ; 'wind-dampness' = can manifest as a moving arthritic pain ; 'dispels' = rids of/releases ; 'wind-damp-heat' = moving arthritic pain with heat signs; 'harmonize' = soothes)

For the purpose of using these at home, if you are a layman and not a TCM practitioner, there are a multitude of possibilities. You can simply eat the mulberry fruit to your delight, unless you suffer from loose stools or a 'cold' stomach. You can also make a medicinal wine out of the mulberry fruit, here is a recipe you can use to base it on. You can dehydrate the berries and powder them and make a tincture OR powder them to use in a hot tea for when you are suffering from a dry constipation or a scanty menstrual cycle. You can cut some twigs with the leaves attached and hang them to dry from somewhere up high in your kitchen (as I do) and then use the dried twigs or leaves for the purposes listed above. Usually, these medicinals are used in formulas in TCM in conjunction with other herbs, but using them individually for acute specific conditions can help as well in the forms of medicinal wines, teas, and tinctures.

As a general rule of thumb if you are going to use a tincture, the dosage would be a few drops (3-5) 2-3 times per day. If you are using a medicinal wine, then a small shot glass worth 1-2 times per day is sufficient. If you are using powdered herbs in a tea, 1-2 tsp/per cup of tea, 2-3 times per day. Dosages vary according to the condition, your size, and your constitution. For more complex or delicate conditions, please consult an herbalist or medical doctor.

Blue Potatoes - Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

As the 4th of July weekend approaches (or for those not in the U.S., perhaps a warm weekend of barbecues?), consider the blue potato. Some time ago I wrote about the potato in all it's simple glory. Potatoes are neutral and sweet in the Chinese Medicine world. They are also mildly diuretic, tonify (boost) the digestive function, moisten the intestines, and contain easily accessible carbohydrates when it's difficult for your body to break down food. A blue potato has the additional benefits of being a blood tonic according to TCM nutrition. From a biomedical nutrition perspective they are high in anthocyanins, making them strong antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, 75% of which is retained after baking.

While potatoes are a root/Winter crop, you can find them year round as a staple as they store well in cool, dark, dry spaces. They are also an excellent party food as you can produce a variety of dishes using them. Blue potatoes in particular will spruce up a plate with their radiant color and your guests will thank you with a happy digestion after devouring them.

I often long for baked potato skins but rarely do I find them made in a way that seems tasty or "healthy" enough (they're usually packed with fake yellow cheese, synthetic bacon bits, and loaded with sour cream) so I thought I'd reinvent the baked potato skin for this 4th of July weekend as a party treat. It's simple. It's delicious. It's got great medicinal value.

Baked Blue Skins

Ingredients: blue potatoes, aged goat gouda, Greek yogurt, few slices of thick bacon, scallions or chives, red Hawaiian sea salt

Directions :

1. Cut potatoes in half length wise. Scoop out about 1/2 of center with a spoon (I like to leave a substantial amount of potato so it's not just the skin as the name indicates, but scoop out enough to be able to fill it with a bit of stuffing).
2. Lightly grease a pyrex or baking pan with grapeseed oil. Place skins face (cut side) down. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 mins until just barely soft (check with a knife by piercing), flip over face up and bake another 5 mins. This cooking time is indicated for medium sized blue potatoes, not large, adjust if they are smaller or larger.
3. Take out and fill with crisped and minced bacon, 1 thin slice of aged goat gouda which covers the holed center. Place back in oven at 350 degrees F for another 5 mins or until cheese melts.
4. Take out and let cool. Add a dollop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of scallions or chives with a smattering of red sea salt. If you can't get your hands on that, just use plain sea salt, the purpose of this is more for the red, white & blue effect.

Happy 4th of July!

The Passion (Fruit)

2011-06-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

On a most recent trip to Paris I was lucky enough to catch sight of the absolutely spectacular and surreal passion fruit flower which begins to fruit in the Spring in France (though in places closer to the equator the seasons are longer August - December and March - May). I've always loved passion fruit with it's tart sweetness and crunchy bits of seed interspersed throughout. It's a commonly eaten fruit in both Colombia and Thailand, two places that are home to me and I've grown up in. But for whatever reason, I never caught glimpse of what it looks like as it grows, nor did I know it was a creeping vine, much like a weed - it can spread and grow like no other fruit I've seen. Except perhaps raspberries which also spread in bramble style across where they are planted or native.

In any event, it got me thinking what has passion fruit been used for medicinally speaking, since that's what I think about almost all the time as it pertains to food. In Chinese Medicine, passion fruit is considered cooling, slightly bitter and bland, and has a calming and nourishing affect on the heart yin (in non-TCM terms this would be more so the liquid and physical aspect of the heart, versus the function). Interestingly enough, passion fruit has been studied quite thoroughly by the pharmaceutical industry for it's calming and sedative effects! The irony of the use of passion in it's name helps you to remember that it is not there to inflame but rather to sedate and calm. Passion fruit is also known to lower high blood pressure and can be used as a digestive stimulant, especially in cases of stomach cancer.

The one thing about passion fruit that is challenging is the often times incredible tartness. This can mean that it requires the help of a little added sweetness to round it out and let the flavors come out more. My favorite way to have passion fruit is in juice form.

Passion Juice

Ingredients : fresh fruit or passion fruit pulp, honey, ice, water

1. Simply scoop out the pulp, put it in a blender, mix with some ice, water, and honey (or your choice of sweetness enhancement) and blend. Water to pulp ratio should be about 1:1 (adjust per taste).

Another excellent way to use passion fruit in the summer is in sorbet form, here is a recipe that is simple and delicious.

Mushroom Medicine

2011-05-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

Mushrooms have been used as medicine for millennia. Their DNA most closely resembles human DNA (as opposed to a plants DNA), lending them a strong biological and sometimes also a mythical link. Mushrooms will pop up above and below ground and can have stems or simply manifest as a puffball mushroom sans stem (used to staunch bleeding in Native American medicine or for sore throat in Chinese Medicine, they are known as Ma Bo).

From the Chinese medicinal cooking perspective, mushrooms (all types) have a wide and incredible healing capacity. They are cool and sweet in nature; decrease lipid (fat) levels in the blood; treat liver disorders (hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver cancer, or general liver toxicity); treat excess phlegm (in cases of congestion in the lungs); increase immunity (some are stronger than others, the Ling Zhi variety fares best for this); help to reduce tumors; and promote appetite (again, think cancer and a decreased appetite here).

Morels (Morchella esculenta) have been shown in particular to increase immune function in humans. They tend to grow around white ash or elm tree's and will show their faces sometime in the Spring, anywhere from April to early June, depending on where you are in the world and if they happen to grow there. If you are lucky enough to be where they are, you can find them in farmers markets where savvy mushroom foragers will share their bounty. They are only found growing wild and have not been cultivated to date (much like truffles). Though there aren't many mimics of morels, when foraging for them and any mushroom, you should always beware as a poisonous mushroom can not only make you very sick but can also kill you.

The most common morels are the yellow (M. esculenta), white (M. deliciosa), and black morels (M. elata). You may also find the half free or spike morel (M. semilibera) earlier in the season. Often morels live in symbiosis with the trees they grow by where they will provide the tree with water and the tree in turn will provide sugar which the morel will feed on. Their appearance in the Spring in conjunction with their immunity boosting capabilities after a long winter is yet another perfect example of how eating medicinally goes hand in hand with eating seasonally.

(spike morel, usually shows up before yellow and black morels)

The Arrival of Green

2011-04-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

I've been having trouble getting out of the routine of heavy winter-protection food, partly due to the weather in Chicago being a little unstable but also because well, it's comforting to eat heavy, slow cooked, delicious food. But then I went to one of Rick Bayless's wine paired four course private dinners, with a chef demonstration (and margaritas!) before, and POW! Spring has arrived. He demo'd a Mexican-inspired chimichurri, which is not only delicious but also solves the issue of lingering bunches of cilantro, parsley, or other green herbs. Green also just so happens to be the color and the taste of Spring, it's here to wake you up from your long hibernation and cleanse you to prepare you for the warm hot sun of the summer.

In Chinese Medicine, eating medicinally is directly linked to eating seasonally (and locally). While the season in the Midwest of the U.S. is not going to be the same as down in Australia where they're heading into winter at this moment, Spring is Spring when it's happening where you are and you want to think of green colored foods (just like the crocuses popping their heads out of the ground as well as the little buds on the trees) and the sour taste (lemon, vinegar, etc). You want to activate your liver and digestion in order to detoxify the winter sludge. This helps you to wake up with more energy to get out for those much anticipated sunny days and store up some vitamin D for the winter!

Chimichurri is an excellent way to make a sauce that works on a variety of dishes from fish, meat, pastas, salads, to appetizer toppings. It's also a genius use of all that extra cilantro and/or parlsey sitting in your fridge before it wilts. Chimichurri has travelled wide and far and can be made in a million different ways so do not worry, you can't make a mistake. It can be your chimichurri. A general guideline would be to use half oil (olive, grapeseed, or your oil of choice) and half vinegar (white or red), minced (or thrown into the food processor) herbs - cilantro, parsley, oregano, or a combo thereof, garlic, chile flakes, salt, and pepper. Or you can skip the pepper and concentrate on the chile flakes, OR add cayene or paprika. Use what you have, don't stress. It's easy. And it keeps in the refrigerator (pending no double dipping) for a few months! Extra herbs? Problem solved.

This Week's Chimichurri

Ingredients: parsley, white vinegar, olive oil, chile flakes, sea salt, garlic

1. Throw it all into a blender and puree, taste, and adjust. Eat and refrigerate. Enoy!

Spring time/Yang time

2011-04-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

(recycled from April 22, 2010)

Spring time is a yang time in Chinese Medicinal terms, while winter is a yin time. Many of you have heard and seen yin and yang theory thrown around loosely, adorned on tshirts, plastered on dorm room walls, imprinted on spa paraphenelia, carved into Acupuncture logos, and so on. Yin and yang theory is one of the major philosophical bases of Chinese Medicine and that little black and white swirly globe actually has some very beautifully simple and yet complex meaning. Simple and yet complex, this sentence is very indicative of yin and yang theory. There is a sentence that explains why it is both : "All that is yin is yang, all that is yang is yin". This sentence is very similar to "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" in that while something may be yin in nature, it can not exist without yang. In essence there is no day without night. Thus, simple yet complex.

As it pertains to food and the body, yin is the liquid and nourishing aspect (blood, saliva, water, etc.) and yang is the energy (electric synapses, physiological reactions, movement, etc.). We need both, but sometimes you need one more than the other. Spring is the time when we're moving from a long cold spell where you were more focused on yin foods and doing yin things (i.e. eating warm slow cooked foods whilst hibernating and conserving energy) and on into a more yang time where you require the energy to literally pop your head out of the ground much like all the young bulbs (in particular for today, ramps, which are part of the Allium family and sometimes are considered wild leeks)! Garlic already has many medicinal qualities that I have discussed here before, but if you want the medicine without so much bite, then a ramp is your friend and it is only here for a few weeks before it becomes scape season, then just plain garlic bulb season.

While yin and yang theory may be flying over your head into esoteric yaya land, once you understand it, you can self-treat and balance yourself out when you need. For these purposes, you want to put a little more bite and spark into your food to wake up your digestion while your life requires you to be outside more, shedding layers of clothes, getting sun, and interacting with people more frequently. Ramps grow from March to late May and sometimes June. You can eat them raw or lightly cooked. I used the pungent white portion to stuff under the skin of a young red cockerel, and I used the sweet green leaves to add to some roasted potatoes towards the very end so they just slightly wilted and melded in. The cockerels and potatoes were served alongside young asparagus which is also just starting to pop it's head out of the ground and will continue to do so for another month or so.

Roasted Red Cockerel with Ramps, Lemon, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt

Ingredients : cockerels or chickens (approx. 4-6 lbs), ramps (ie. young garlic), lemon, olive oil, sea salt, pepper

1. Rub cockerels with olive oil, lemon, sea salt, and pepper. Make a few tiny holes and also loosen the skin around the neck and bum of the cockerel - slip in the white portion of the ramp under the skin. Slice lemons and place in cavity. Place one whole ramp in the orifice of the neck. Let the cockerels sit for 1 hour to 24 hours (overnight).

2. Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees F. Place cockerels in uncovered, breast side down. Roast for one hour at this temperature. Raise to 300 degrees F and roast for 1.5-2 hours more (depending on the size of bird). Cockerels should come out browned and crisp but juicy inside, with a lovely hint of sweet garlic flavor.

How do you use yin and yang theory to treat yourself? If you are feeling excessively yin (lethargic, sluggish, tired, slow, damp, cloudy-headed), add more yang foods into your food (red meat, liver, bones, leeks, chives, scallions, garlic, carrots, lotus, radish... pungent and bright foods). If you are feeling excessively yang (hot, flushed, anxious, wired) add more yin foods into your diet (pork, chicken, almost all vegetables except the particularly pungent ones and those listed above).

If you want more recipes using ramps go here or here. Ramps have a long history of culinary and medicinal use in the U.S., especially in the south. There is even a ramp festival held every year in Tennessee called the "Cosby Ramp Festival". Apparently in the Appalachian region of the U.S. ramps are thought to ward off winter ailments, which is perfectly in line with the Chinese Medicinal use of adding some yang energy into your food to bust out and get ready for summer!

Burn Salve : Egg Whites

2011-03-31T10:05:00.001-07:00

Hot off the press (though it's been around the block and back for some time) : egg whites are an excellent salve for burns. The high collagen content helps in healing and soothing the burn as well as restoring the skin to it's natural condition. You want to keep applying layers of egg white as they dry and form a white film over the burn area. If you have a third degree burn this absolutely does not apply, but in the case of a moderate sunburn (for example) that is still in the first degree category this might just be the remedy you were looking for. Do not apply when there are blisters on the skin, this is best used after the acute stages. If the burn is either larger than your palm or has penetrated past the dermis layer of skin, consult a doctor immediately. Part of the reason egg whites are so healing is that it is basically the placenta of the developing chicken and placenta has always had a long history as a healing medicinal, in both TCM and Native American medicine. Some other home remedies that have been recommended for burns are : aloe vera, honey, and vinegar.

Guest Post: Shiso Leaf Uses

2011-03-04T14:33:00.000-08:00

A little about Jeremy:

Jeremy Cornish is an Acupuncturist and Ju Jutsu teacher located in Naperville, IL. He is currently involved in multiple projects including an acupuncture stress study, "Acupuncture Happy Hour" on-site in offices, and Executive Ju Jutsu, which is an executive coaching/team building experience. Keep up with him at www.onecirclewellness.com
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Eating sushi is a joy. I believe that the rituals and accoutrement around the process add a lot to the experience. Most people enjoy the wasabi, the soy sauce, and even the pickled ginger that typically come with sushi. But have you ever wondered why they stick a piece of green plastic grass in the mix?

That green plastic grass is a tragedy. In Chinese Medicine, we recognize the energetic effects of foods. For example, sushi is a raw, typically cold food. Cold is typically not conducive to digestion, so traditional people would eat herbs to balance the cold effect. This is why we usually see warm spices like ginger, or wasabi on the plate. Also, miso soup and green tea warm the body and aid the digestion.

There is an herb called shiso, or Zi Su Ye, or Perilla Leaf. This is a purple or green leaf that we use in Chinese Medicine for its warm, acrid nature (can help with acute cold/flu symptoms). The warm nature is good for the digestion, and helps to offset the cold of the sushi. In very nice sushi places, this leaf (pictured above) will accompany the sushi. You can eat this. It tends to have a lemon/mint flavor.

The other benefit of the shiso leaf is its ability to kill parasites, and prevent mild food poisoning. Those are two things to be considered anytime we eat raw fish! To me, the green plastic grass is a sign that the meaning has been lost. The people serving the sushi have forgotten the importance of the shiso leaf. Using herbs and spices to balance the energetics of food used to be common sense, and common practice.

Don’t let your simple medicines be replaced by plastic! Demand the real thing! Say Yes to shiso!!

Food as Medicine I

2011-02-16T05:44:00.000-08:00

There have been so many medicinal food tidbits that I've wanted to share that I thought a round up of the recent gatherings would be a nice kick off for February (mid-February in any case!). So without further ado, five of my favorites for this month...

#1. Pictured above is some ridiculously delicious beef stock. Do you make your own or buy it? Do you buy the little salty cubes of bouillon? Well, making your own stock is such a simple, tasty, and incredibly healing mechanism of food intake that I hope you start soon if you haven't already. It's easy to make and you can freeze batches of it for future use in soups, sauces, stews, and just simply as stock for healing purposes. In Chinese Medicine making a stock out of bones (and marrow) is thought to increase the function of the kidney and all the physiological aspects that are associated with it (i.e. brain function, growth, bone strength, fertility, urinary function). From the Western nutritional perspective, bone marrow is particularly high in DHA which is an omega 3 fatty acid that contributes to the development of the brain and eyes, as well as other growth functions in children. DHA is now synthesized (primarily from micro algae) and sold in capsules (much like every vitamin and mineral out there) but it is best absorbed and used by the body when ingested in it's natural form. Low levels of DHA are associated with Alzheimer's disease (meaning, there is a lack of DHA). When I prescribe stock to my patients it is usually for : blood deficiency (which can manifest as anemia, loss of vision, dry skin, scanty menses, fatigue), post partum, post surgical, chronic fatigue, low immunity, poor digestion, for fertility, and just for general good health.

Another fantastic example of where East meets West in terms of nutrition theory (besides the kidney function and DHA mentioned above) is demonstrated very well here in a TED talk by Heribert Watzke where he goes into the link between human brain growth historically and eating cooked nourishing foods (such as stock). He says what separates us from the other primates is primarily this : cooked food. I think stock plays a great role in this theory.

I like to buy short and long (beef) bones from my local farmers market and make a beef stock, but I also make chicken stock (usually using the leftover chicken carcass after making a roast chicken), and fish stock (I buy a large fish head from the fish monger). You can also make pork, lamb, lobster (using the shells), and other bone based stock. Make a stock that works for your palate and cooking needs.

Beef Stock Recipe

Ingredients : 2 long bones with marrow, 1 large white onion, 2 celery stalks, 2 carrots, parsley, salt, pepper

1. Sear the bones in a little bit of oil until browned on all sides, add approximately 2 liters of water along with whole peeled onion, celery stalks, peeled and roughly chopped carrots, 2 stems of parsley with leaves (or substitute with correander/cilantro), 2 tablespoons sea salt, 1 teaspoon pepper (adjust this to taste).
2. Boil for 3-4 hours (or up to 6-8 if you have the time - you will need to add little bits of water as it gets more concentrated, without diluting the flavor too much) until the stock takes on an amber hue. Let it cool and separate into containers for freezing after straining out the bones and vegetables.

#2. Whilst in Turin, Italy back in October I ran across these fabulous little boxes of digestif pastilles. I love that there is a culture of helping your digestion in Italy. In fact, there has always been one everywhere in the world but recently we've been losing touch with this culinary ritual. One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to eat warm nourishing foods as your digestive function is like a furnace according to Chinese Medicine. Another way is to eat or drink something after your meal which is not only tasty but medicinal such as a digestif liqueur or a digestif pastille much like the ones shown above. In Chinese Medicine licorice root and anise are both used for these purposes, both of which are featured flavors in these pastilles. But they also have interesting other flavors such as balsamica, cinnamon (cannella), and currant (ribes).

#3. I know the health food brigade has been all over this one for some time (and in the Andean highlands where it is a food staple from Incan times, even longer!), but for whatever reason I didn't take to quinoa right away. Perhaps I didn't understand it well enough. However in December while I was in Colombia I had an amazing arugula, parsley, avocado, and quinoa salad paired with a succulent and crispy roast chicken, and I was in love. Quinoa has a bitter quality which is excellent for tonifying (i.e. treating) the heart according to Chinese Medicine. If you are finding yourself a little anxious, have heart palpitations, or are easily excitable, perhaps quinoa is a worthwhile exploration for you. It is also a starch that is high in protein and won't weigh you down so much when you're on the go during the day or when you want to sleep light and happy at night. Quinoa has all 9 essential amino acids and is considered a complete protein, therefore it is an excellent food to add into your diet if you are vegetarian. In addition, it's high magnesium content helps to relax your muscles and enhance blood flow, especially if you are tense, stressed, and your liver is suffering. In Chinese Medicine, the liver is the receptacle organ for stress and it is also interesting to note that foods high in magnesium tend to be foods which correlate to the liver, primarily dark leafy greens (quinoa is a relative of swiss chard). The key to cooking quinoa is to do so until the little tails uncurl from the grain and you are left with a sweet, nutty, and pliant grain. I like to cook it with beef stock and a little tomato paste to lend it more umami flavor.

Quinoa Recipe

Ingredients: quinoa, beef stock, tomato paste

1. Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a pot and gently stir 1 cup of quinoa until coated and lightly browned, add 2 cups of beef stock and 1 tablespoon of tomato paste. Bring to a simmer and cook for approximately 20 minutes, you can see it is done when it puffs up and the quinoa tail comes unfurled. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over a salad or as your starchy side to a protein.

*for more flavor saute 1/2 and onion until soft before adding the quinoa.

#4. Cinammon, love it or hate it it's a very powerful food/spice to use as medicine. You can use it simply to make a tea (pictured above) or you can add it to stocks and soups to lend a spicy roundness to the flavor. In Chinese Medicine cinnamon bark, or Gui Zhi, is used to warm and unblock. It is also good for beginning stage colds, joint pain, menstrual irregularities, and other pains (in particular those worsened by the cold).

Cinnamon Tea

Ingredients: 1 stick of cinnamon bark, water

1. Boil water and let cinnamon stick steep until tea is a delicate beige. Drink and then reuse all day up to 5 times or when there is no more flavor.

#5. And last but not least, ghee (clarified butter). A product which I came across some time ago but have only just now circled back to is the ghee (pictured above and below) produced from grassfed cows by Pure Indian Foods. Ghee has been used in Ayurvedic Medicine for thousands of years and is considered a very powerful medicinal food that can be used internally and externally. It is butter without the milk solids (thus clarified butter). Ghee is used to heal skin disorders, gastrointestinal issues, and neurological conditions. The only time to use ghee with caution is in cases of obesity and/or an abundance of phlegm. In which case you would use it sparingly. You can use ghee much like any cooking oil or butter. If you're lactose intolerant and were looking for a butter alternative, ghee is your friend. I often recommend it to patients who have high anxiety or neurological conditions as it is grounding and soothing for the nervous system. It also happens to taste good and has a high burning point unlike olive oil which can go rancid if you use it to fry things.

(Happy 2011!) Butternut Squash Soup with a Hint of Spice

2011-01-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

Yellow and sweet. The color and taste which treat the digestive system in Chinese Medicine. If you're feeling anything like I am at the moment, your digestive system could use a little tender loving care after the whirlwind that is November through December with Thanksgiving followed by one Christmas party after another. Instead of making daunting New Year's resolutions by starving yourself, this soup will soothe you and your stomach without breaking the scale further.

Right now root vegetables, gourds, and tubers are in season. And, eating in season is the best way to truly eat medicinally. Butternut squash tastes precisely as it has been rightly named. Buttery (without butter), sweet, and meaty in it's own right. This soup takes no longer than 30 minutes to make and you can freeze batches of it if you plan to reheat whenever you need a little more tender loving care for your stomach, which is precisely what the Year of the Rabbit (coming up on February 3) is all about, gentle and soothing after the fire of the Year of the Tiger.

Ingredients: 1 medium or large butternut squash, 1 white onion, 1 garlic clove, 1 leek, 1 tbspn tomato paste, salt, pepper, curry powder (or use a combination of cumin, tumeric, dried chile), 1 tsp fresh ground ginger, cilantro, plain yogurt (my preference is Greek yogurt), chicken or vegetable stock, 1 bay leaf

Directions:
1. Peel squash and slice through the center, de-seed (you can keep them to toast and eat if you wish). Chop into large squares.
2. Slice onion into moon slices, wash and slice whole leek, mince 1 garlic clove, mince up 1 tsp of ginger, have all other spices and ingredients on hand.
3. Saute onion, leek, and squash until they both get a little soft and have color (about 5+ minutes), add minced garlic, 1 bay leaf, 1 tbspn tomato paste, 1 tbspn curry powder or aforementioned combination of spices (you can add this to taste), keep cooking all together until it's well mixed then add 2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock.
4. Bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes until the squash is soft, add 1 cup of plain yogurt (if you wish to have a thicker creamier soup, add 1 cup of coconut milk instead). Boil together another 5 minutes, pull out bay leaves and then let the soup cool for a few minutes before blending together (either with an immersion blender or in a regular blender, in which case you would need it to be at room temperature).
5. Reheat and serve with a garnish of cilantro if you wish and a sprinkle of crunchy sea salt.

Winter Hash

2010-12-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

If you live anywhere near where I do and are beginning to feel the effects of the wind, cold, dryness, and lack of sun, then you are likely in need of something warm, nourishing, and colorful on your plate! Immediately. There is never a more significant time than now in the midst of this chilling season to begin paying attention to getting all those colors on your plate. You simply aren't going to get enough vitamins and minerals if you work in an office, come home when it's dark already at 4 p.m., and to top it off when you are outside the only bits of you the world can see is your eyes and nose (therefore the sun isn't going to bless you with it's nutrients)!

In Chinese Medicine, eating with the seasons as well as eating the colors and tastes of the five elements is essential to balanced health. Given that it is winter, you want to eat warm to counteract the effects of the cold. Winter is also a time when your kidneys and lungs are more susceptible to damage and illness and can manifest in symptoms such as : cold hands and feet, arthritis, painful joints, lower back pain, dry cough, colds, flu's, skin dryness, and general malaise. If you go by the five element chart (which I discussed here) the lungs pertain to the color white and the spicy flavor, and the kidneys pertain to the color black and the salty taste. While these particular organs are more susceptible in the winter, you shouldn't neglect the other major organ systems in Chinese Medicine : the liver (green & sour), the digestive function (yellow & sweet), and the heart (red & bitter). If you are wondering what it means for an organ to pertain to a taste and a color (and if you haven't gone here already), this is part of the Traditional Chinese Medicine nutritional theory whereby you treat certain organs and systems with specifically colored foods and tastes. A daikon radish is a perfect example of a white and spicy food which can benefit the lungs. Sometimes you won't find one food that satisfies both the color and taste of an organ system, in which case you might combine a color with a taste (perhaps a white radish with a sprinkle of chile flakes to open up the lungs).

A very simple way to make sure you're getting all the healthful benefits of vitamins, minerals, colors, and tastes is to make sure you eat a variety of (naturally occurring) colors every day. This winter hash is a perfect example of this. You can eat it as a side dish, you can use it to stuff something (a chicken or turkey perhaps? or a mushroom as I did recently), you can have it with eggs, and you can also just eat it alone. You can absolutely stray from this version of the recipe if you don't like carrots and prefer parsnips, or something along those lines.

In this particular Winter Hash, I used onions, leeks, carrots, yellow potatoes, sea salt, black pepper, cumin, and chile flakes. I cooked it all low and slow until it comes together into this beautiful melded hash that is both sweet and salty with a lovely spice along the edeges.

Ingredients Needed (winter vegetables preferable) : 1 onion, 1-2 leeks, 3 small yellow potatoes, 4 carrots, cumin, chile (fresh or flaked), sea salt, black pepper.

1. Slice up onions and leeks (leeks may need extra rinsing as they carry a lot of dirt). Begin to saute them slowly in olive oil until they just begin to cook.

2. Peel and cut up carrots and potatoes (parsnips or turnips would be great here too). Add to pan and turn up heat ever so slightly so it all begins to sear a bit, then turn it low again.

3. Add 1 tsp of cumin, a sprinkle of chile flakes (or more if you want more kick), salt and black pepper to taste.

4. Cook on low heat for about 30 mins to 1 hour (depends on how much you are cooking). At the very end turn up the heat once again for a few minutes to give it more caramelizing and color without burning.

(If you mince up the ingredients very finely you can use them to stuff mushrooms with, put a slice of pecorino on top and bake at 400 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.)

Travelling Medicine: Brittany and Normandy

2010-11-12T06:44:00.000-08:00

November and December seem to always zip by so quickly, it's like the last burst of speed to the finish line, and then poof! There goes 2010. But we still have some time...and in that time, I've been to Brittany and Normandy (as well as Turin, Italy, but I'll save that for later). It was cool and breezy, with picturesque greys and greens. Everything was still lush from the rain, the oysters were out of control delicious and briny, the cows producing spectacularly silky dairy products for the richness that is the Breton and Norman cuisine, figs were oozing sweetness out of their purplish brown skins begging for a pungent aged camembert, and the walnut and chestnut tree's were half way through dropping their fruit for us to enjoy. I stocked up on sea salt in all it's shapes and forms along the way, and lugged it back in a borderline too heavy suitcase with an exasperated husband.

This trip was particularly tasty and it was hard to narrow it down, so I've focused on the seasonal and medicinal delights that we encountered along the way.

The first treat we got to nibble away at were tender, sweet, purple figs. Figs travelled a long way to get to France, as they were likely first cultivated 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor before reaching the Mediterranean. There are two seasons for figs in France, late summer and mid Fall to around November. From the perspective of Chinese Medicine, purple figs are excellent blood and digestive tonics given that they are sweet and reddish in color. In addition, their multitudinous miniature seeds which you ingest upon taking a bite of this fruit, are extremely effective in the treatment of constipation. In Chinese Medicine theory, seeds and nuts are used to help lubricate and move the bowels. Sexy stuff! For those that squirm when I mention your digestive regularity, fear not, figs are well worth it when in season, regardless of your intentions.

(oysters vendors by the piers in Cancale)

Cancale, France is possibly one of my favorite places on earth. Allow your eyes to glaze over and see past the touristy bits of this quaint seaside fishing village, they have some of the BEST oysters I have happily slurped down in my life. That's saying a lot given that I would eat oysters for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in my dream life. They tasted like a trip across the ocean with the salty water and sun splashing on your face. Much like when you put a big shell to your ear to hear the roar of the ocean, these oysters tasted pure like that sound. And in Chinese Medicine they fall into the category of kidney tonics given their salty taste and briny beginnings. In France, oysters are being gobbled up in the November and December months and they are a common staple at the Christmas table. In popular (and ancient) culture, oysters have always been given aphrodisiac status, which falls in line with the kidney tonic theory that Chinese Medicine lends them as the kidneys are key in matters of fertility.

(walnut tree)

(fallen walnut)

(chestnut tree)

(saved chesnut)

Oysters aren't the only kidney tonics, walnuts and chestnuts also fall in line with this medicinal value. We were lucky enough to have access to a walnut tree in a family members back yard and a chestnut tree at a manor where we attended a wedding. Walnuts are particularly beneficial to the kidney yang aspect of the body, meaning : chronic cough with wheezing, infertility, chronic lower back pain and weakness, and impotence. Walnuts are thermally warming, have a sweet flavor, and reduce inflammation as well as eliminate pain (Healing With Whole Foods, P. Pitchford). Chesnuts, another lovely winter nut found in abundance during this time of year treat the kidney, stomach, and spleen, giving them the additional benefit of being digestive tonics on top of their kidney benefits.

Ahhh, the lovely cows everywhere we drove through Brittany and Normandy! They were all standing about chewing away peacefully until I would force whoever was driving to stop so I could take the millionth picture of another cow and it would inevitably turn around and face me, stop chewing, and wonder why I had to disturb it (much like in the picture above). Bovine dairy is a bit controversial at times, due mainly to poor breeding and production practices, but it also has it's place medicinally when you can access healthy dairy like the dairy found in Brittany and Normandy where the cows are out to pasture and aren't fed bovine growth hormone or antibiotics (primarily because they are out to pasture and there is no rush). From the perspective of Chinese Medicine, milk has building and strengthening properties so long as you are not suffering from any of the following (in which case, use in moderation or not at all): sinus congestion, chronic skin issues, obesity, or phlegm. If you want to know more about milk, see here for a previous post on it. In Brittany and Normandy, it was hard to resist the excellent butter, delicious milk, and not to mention the phenomenal cheeses (Camembert, Pays d' Auge, and the variety of chevres) everywhere we went. Many meals ended with a slice of fragrant cheese and prepared our stomachs for the onslaught of Thanksgiving feasting that was around the corner!

(whatcha lookin' at?)

Umami : The Flavor of Satisfaction

2010-10-13T13:30:00.003-07:00

Umami is a word borrowed from the Japanese (thank you, Japan!) meant to describe a flavor that falls somewhere between a savory/salty, sometimes sour, with often times a tinge of sweet taste. Umami is the flavor of satisfaction according to the area of the brain that is initiated upon ingesting it. Some of the foods which contain the umami flavor are (but not limited to) : soy sauce, seaweed, fish sauce, bacon (!), fish or meat stock, umeboshi plums, oysters, truffles, parmesan, anchovies, lobsters, crab, shrimp, and ripe tomatoes. Umami has in fact been identified and studied, that is how important it is as a flavor! In 1908 Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese chemist found that glutamate was the common compound in all the above mentioned foods that produced the taste sensation of umami. Glutamic acid is one of the 20 non essential aminio acids. Kikunae Ikeda isolated this compound in the foods with an umami flavor (also referred to as the fifth taste by some) and patented monosodium glutamate (MSG) to mimic it.

What is interesting about umami from the perspective of medicinal cooking where you are using your food as medicine is the element of satisfaction that it emits. If you are one of those people who "can't get no satisfaction" from their food, maybe a little umami is missing to help curb cravings or halt overeating? Chinese Medicine has broken down tastes and flavors according to the five elements : sour, salty, bitter, spicy, and sweet. Four of those are considered the primary tastes, all except spicy, and then umami is the "fifth taste". Umami would be a combination of those four elements/tastes and it is through that approach to eating that you are able to balance your palate and your body's needs.

Umami has gotten a lot of press in the last few years in the U.S., so much so that a Umami Information Center was created in NYC just for this flavor! There's also an Umami Food and Art Festival. All you have to do is google umami and you will stumble upon article after article in publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, Saveur, Food & Wine, and on and on. Clearly, this is an exciting concept that has finally arrived in the West, even though everyone was already eating it all over the world and all that was needed was a word and the framework to reference it.

Recently, I had a craving for an umami-rich lunch, just for me and my happy self. Using four ingredients which are full of umami naturally, I constructed an Umami Pasta with : anchovies, cherry tomatoes, fish sauce, and parmesan (umami ingredients) along with lime, parlsey, red onions, Thai bird chiles, and olive oil.

Umami Pasta

Ingredients : 1 can of anchovies in olive oil, 1/2 red onion, 1 lime, 1 tbspn fish sauce, 3 Thai bird chiles or other chile substitute, curly or flat leaf parsley, fresh parmesan block to be grated over finished pasta, 10-12 cherry tomatoes, 4-6 ounces penne

(serves ONE, so if you want to make it to share, double the ingredients)

1. Slice moon slices of half a red onion and begin to gently saute in olive oil from the tin of anchovies. Add 3 minced Thai bird chiles. Once the onions begin to soften, add the whole can of anchovies.
2. Once the anchovies begin to break apart and get pasty, add the whole cherry tomatoes. Cook them for a few minutes until you see them begin to get softer at which point you will take the spatula and smash each one flat without stirring too much, you want to keep the tomatoes intact but flattened. They become pools of flavor.
3. Drizzle 1 tbspn of fish sauce and squeeze 3/4's of a lime over everything, this should give it enough body and juice to make it saucy. Let it simmer on a low heat for a few more minutes so it melds.
4. Add coarsely chopped parsley in the last minute of cooking so that it softens and cooks in just a little bit without losing the crisp texture.
5. Pour sauce over pasta and then grate fresh parmesan. Enjoy the umami bomb!

Love from the Sea

2010-09-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

The sea urchin (a.k.a. uni in Japanese or erizo de mar in Spanish): pure joy for your kidney's. This was my lunch today, straight out of the shell. It melted in my mouth. Salty is the flavor of the kidney's according to Chinese Medicine theory and thus much of the briney seafood will treat this organ system which is in charge of your essence i.e. sexual energy, bone structure, adrenal function, ability to cleanse and purify, and your overall grounding and stability on a physical and emotional level. Sea Urchin is also sweet and creamy and will target the digestive function. If you can get your hands on some of this joy - do it! Tossed with fresh pasta, spread on a crispy baguette (much like roasted bone marrow), gently placed on a piece of rice as sushi, or eaten as I did today, plain and out of the shell from the wonderful Dirk's Fish Market in Chicago (Dirk and all the people that work there make the trip worthwhile!).

The soft beige roe is gently removed from the shell and washed of it's surroundings before you either eat it right there and THEN or you choose one of the aforementioned methods of preparation.

A Duck's Egg

2010-09-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share the good news on duck eggs (which I already loved). While a free range farm fresh chicken egg is a wonderful source of protein and nutrition, duck eggs are even higher in concentrated amounts of vitamin A and D, manganese, zinc, copper, potassium, sodium, phosphorous, calcium, and iron. This also means they are higher in cholesterol, though it is considered the "good" cholesterol i.e. monounsaturated fats. Duck eggs are an alkaline food while chicken eggs are more on the acidic side. If you are allergic to chicken eggs, you usually will not be to duck eggs. And, eggs are the perfect protein, full of high quality essential amino acids. Does it get any better? That is, if you love eggs to begin with.

In Chinese Medicine, eggs are considered yin in nature, nourishing all that is liquid in the body, such as blood and essential fluids. Eggs are thermally neutral which means they are neither warming nor cooling and can be ingested by people who are at one extreme of the spectrum or the other. Eggs are an excellent food for fertility purposes, both before (pre-conception) and post partum. According to P. Pitchford (Healing With Whole Foods), eggs should be avoided in an overly damp condition (i.e. someone who is very overweight or if you have a mucus overload).

I like to poach or make soft boiled duck eggs and serve them over a salad or a tender meaty dish like I did before the summer started in this pork chop braise. Once it got warmer, out came a salad of radicchio, chick peas, carrots, and onions with a lovely soft boiled sweet duck egg on top. Apparently you can also bake with duck eggs, though I can't share any recipes on baking as it's not my forte. I drizzled a tangy vinaigrette over the salad which consisted of : olive oil, honey, sea salt, fresh crushed black pepper, dijon mustard, and rice vinegar. Delicious.

The Sandwich Alternative : Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls

2010-08-30T09:59:00.001-07:00

If you, like myself, are craving a sandwich-like meal without the added starchiness of the bread, then the Vietnamese fresh spring roll is here to make your day that much better as you take a chewy and pliant bite of sweet shrimp (or tender meat) along with soft rice noodles, crunchy lettuce, savory herbs, sweet carrots, and juicy bean sprouts, or whatever else you decide to put in there. Recently, I wrote about the damp elimination diet in Chinese Medicine. This entails eliminating "damp forming" foods (i.e. wheat, processed sugar, dairy, cold and fried greasy foods) for a period of time until said dampness (which can manifest as : obesity, sinus congestion, lethargy, loose stools, heavy headaches) is resolved, usually this is done in conjunction with herbal therapy but it is always necessary to address your diet. Sometimes it's hard to give up sandwiches in the busy lifestyle we've created, where you need to eat something you can literally grab in one hand while you're either doing something else with the other or you when you simply don't want to fuss around with utensils. If you're on the outs with bread and are still craving a hand friendly meal, then this spring roll is one of the answers (a corn shell taco with fresh ingredients could the be another).

The great thing about these fresh spring rolls is that they can be cool and warm, fresh and satisfying all at the same time. And you can put whatever you want in them! There are no rules. Traditionally they tend to be made with sweet shrimp, rice noodles, lettuce, herbs (mint, basil, cilantro), strips of carrots, cucumbers, scallions, and bean sprouts. But I'll do them with satay flavored chicken, or spicy beef, or soft pork belly and mix it up with radishes in lieu of carrots, it all depends on what you're craving. Or sometimes on what's in your fridge. I don't advise skipping on the lettuce (usually a long green leaf is necessary) as that holds the filling inside and the wrapper around the lettuce. The fresh herbs have the additional medicinal benefit as well, you can see more on here on what each herb treats.

First, you'll need a packet of the circular dried rice wrappers (banh trang), which you can find in most Asian groceries or sometimes in general ones such as Whole Foods. Next, some rice or vermicelli noodles. Then, a relatively firm long leaf lettuce such as a romaine or preferably a red leaf lettuce. Those are the basics and from there you can go where you please with the fillings! Shrimp, tofu, beef, chicken, fish, or only vegetables. The vegetables can be carrots, radishes, cucumbers, scallions, red peppers, etc. The herbs (go ahead and go wild here) can be basil (sweet Italian or spicy Thai), mint, cilantro, etc. Finally, you make a sauce with rice vinegar, fish sauce, garlic, cilantro, chiles, and you can also have a hoisin sauce on hand for sweetness or some siracha. Put them all in little bowls so you can pick how you want to dip and flavor individually. Below is my version of how to make Vietnamese fresh spring rolls but traditionally they are made between two wet towels or something along those lines, I find this way a little easier for my purposes.

Instructions :

1. Set out all your ingredients on a counter so you can have them ready to go for
filling your rolls as you go quickly and efficiently (or the wrapper will get dry once you've soaked it).

2. Choose a 2-3 inch deep pan or other serving dish where you pour hot water in and where the rice wrapper will fit in perfectly. You will then basically place the wrapper in 1 inch of hot water (have a big jug of boiled water available for replenishing) and let it sit for less than a minute until it just gets soft and no longer. Take it out gently with both hands holding it on either side and place on a plate.

3. Place a lettuce leaf in the center, add a bit of rice noodles (maybe 3 spoonfuls worth, not too much), then the meat, fish, or shrimp etc. you've chosen, then the carrots, cucumbers, or whatever vegetable you have chosen, and finally the herbs.

4. Take the long side and place gently but firmly over the fillings, then take either side and fold inwards (see picture), and then finally roll it like a cigar (tightly) without compromising the thin rice wrapper and seal it. This should all be done relatively quickly as the rice wrapper dries out in the air.

5. Place on a plate and keep adding to that plate without letting the rolls touch eachother or they will rip. If you want to make them ahead of time, you can place a wet paper towel over them. They also remain fresh in tupperware overnight if you want to take them for lunch. They are a little drier but still good.

6. Sauces : hoisin, hot sauce (siracha), fish sauce with garlic/cilantro/lime, and vinegar with fresh chiles. You can mix and match as you please for dipping purposes. Enjoy!

Guest Post : Insomnia and Molasses

2010-08-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

A little about Jeremy :

Jeremy Cornish is an Acupuncturist and Ju Jutsu teacher located in Naperville, IL. He is currently involved in multiple projects including an acupuncture stress study, "Acupuncture Happy Hour" on-site in offices, and Executive Ju Jutsu, which is an executive coaching/team building experience. Keep up with him at www.onecirclewellness.com

_____________________________________________________________

Sleep is an extremely important time for the body to heal and repair itself. Trouble sleeping can not only mess you up the next day, but in the long run, insomnia can weaken your system, and make you especially vulnerable to stresses and illness.

Chinese Medicine recognizes many causes of insomnia, and a common one is what we call Blood Deficiency. I'd like to explain Blood Deficiency, and share a very simple recipe you can use to build your blood.

In Chinese Medicine, we say that the blood has many jobs. It brings warmth and nutrients to all the tissues of the body. This means that the blood nourishes and moistens the skin, hair and nails. The blood strengthens the eyes, and helps the brain function. Blood brings a nice pink color to the complexion. We also say that the blood "calms the spirit".

Blood Deficiency is a very colorful way of saying that the jobs the blood normally does are not getting done. For example, someone with a very pale face, thin hair, poor vision, anxiety, and trouble remembering things would tend to fit the Blood Deficiency pattern. Also, if the patient were a female, irregular or very light menses would also be an indicator, since we say there must be enough blood to produce the menses.

People diagnosed with anemia typically fit the Blood Deficiency presentation, but not everyone that is blood deficient has anemia.

Another job of the blood is to ensure a good night's sleep. This is part of the calm spirit. We say that the spirit wraps itself in a blanket of blood while we sleep. Blood Deficiency = restless mind and trouble sleeping.

If the description of the pale faced, forgetful, dry skin, blurry-eyed, insomniac applies to you, or someone you know, there's hope! Try this simple recipe:

1 Tsp Organic Blackstrap Molasses

1 Mug of Almond Milk (or similar)

Warm the milk up (I use low heat on the stove, since I am anti-microwave, but do as you like) and stir in the molasses. Sip and enjoy.

*You may want to drink this before bed, as it has been known to cause a "nice drowse." Sweet dreams...

**Molasses is a high source of Iron (which is a major ingredient in Hemoglobin/your blood).

Food Noise : the Diet Post

2010-08-18T07:10:00.000-07:00

Food noise. It's everywhere. Every which way you turn, there's another diet, myth, "fact", or antioxidant savior. The Atkins Diet, the Paleo Diet, the Blood Diet, the South Beach Diet, Skinny Bitch, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, no carbs, no sugar, no protein, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, the Raw Diet, macrobiotics (no night shades), TV dinners/Lean Cuisine, diet pills, laxatives, fortified cereals, iodized salt (biggest conundrum ever - wasn't it already iodized before they leached and bleached and then had to add it back in?), mercury levels in fish, gluten-free (wheat = the new devil food?), food allergies every which way you turn, enemas, cleanses, juicing, starving, purging, gorging, eat this, don't eat that... how do you even begin to climb out of that noise? Some of it is wonderful guidance and useful and some of it we just get lost in. Who knew food could be such a loaded topic? But food is great, it's beautiful, it's delicious, and we all need it to survive and connect so it shouldn't be relegated to such a confusing place.

I have found that Chinese Medicine nutrition has one of the simplest and most illuminating takes on dietary approaches because it is just that, simple. It is about each individual, it caters to seasonal eating (eat warm foods in the cold, and cooler foods in the heat; nourishing when you need more energy, lighter when you need to float), and basically what I've been writing about on here all along : medicinal cooking. Treat yourself with food, know your food so you can do this. Everyone's diet will manifest differently according to these principles. There isn't one overarching do this or go to diet hell truth. When a patient comes in to see me, I start with what do you like? That's a good place to start. Then begin modification through awareness and necessity. The five element approach to food is always exciting to share: eating according to colors, flavors, and temperatures, and pairing that to symptoms, illnesses, and your constitution.

Black & Salty = Kidneys & Urinary Bladder
Red & Bitter = Heart & Small Intestine
White & Spicy = Lung & Large Intestine
Yellow & Sweet = Digestive System (Stomach & Spleen)
Green & Sour = Liver & Gallbladder

This is the bare bones of five element theory (if you want to see a more elaborate chart go here). When I first learned about it, well, the noise died down. This may sound like more noise to some. More information! Yikes. But really it's something we all knew a long time ago and it just got sidelined. People used to know that eating a little spicy would open up the lungs if you were congested. And they also used to be aware of how a sour flavor in the mouth can sometimes be related to a liver issue, or an overly sweet breath to diabetes. You can treat and diagnose according to these principles. Yes, it gets complex and it's a good idea to see a TCM practitioner for more guidance, but it is still a place we can all take something from and apply to our lives without going to a doctor. We should all be our own kitchen doctors if and when possible.

When it comes to losing weight, the individual constitution is still taken into account. Some people may be overweight and deficient (pale, fatigued, cold), and some may be overweight and in excess (hot, flushed, warm). All this is factored in. Excess pounds are seen as a damp condition in TCM. Dampness does not only manifest as obesity but also as chronic congestion, leukorrhea, chronic fatigue, and a myraid of other symptoms. If you are damp, you would begin to cut back (or eliminate entirely until the dampness is resolved but not forever) damp forming foods. The major damp foods are : wheat, sugar (in particular, processed sugar, though raw honey treats dampness), fried foods, dairy, and an excessively raw or cold diet. That may seem like a lot of foods and it may even make you go into panic mode : oh no, I can't eat anything I better stock up like a squirrel in the winter. Don't worry, you can still eat all vegetables, fruit (preferably while in season), fish, beef, pork, quinoa, rice, etc (really, the list is endless). And you don't have to eliminate everything in one go, be gentle with yourself. If your diet is high in wheat, sugar, and fried foods, you may need to take some time to eliminate and adjust and then adjust again. This is about you, not some golden rule. You.

One way to get started is to do a one month gradual elimination and then reassess at the end of it - Do I need to go longer? Do I feel better? Then you can begin to re-introduce the damp foods in moderation and only in the best possible quality as they too, have their medicinal value. Wheat is calming and soothing for the nerves and heart. Good quality dairy is nourishing and rich. And we all need a little sweet sometimes. Did you know that genetically modified foods are in essence damp forming given the manner in which they become indigestible (thus affecting the Stomach and Spleen and creating dampness)? Just look at what happened to the potato. Wheat is not evil, as it's being toted. But it is one of the more misguided products out there due to how it's processed, they leach the fat out to increase it's shelf life (sometimes it sits for years before it gets to your plate) and then you have to add the fat back in! Yes, that's not good for you. So when you re-introduce wheat, try to find the best possible quality, the freshest, and most whole. As for dairy, you can read the post I did on that here. And sugar, in moderation. Fried foods? We all need/want them sometimes! As my fellow TCM blogger says, strategic impurity.

The One Month Damp Elimination Diet

Week One : eliminate all wheat
Week Two : eliminate all sugar (except raw honey, taken in medicinal quantities and not as a sweetener)
Week Three : eliminate all dairy
Week Four : continue with all of the three eliminations

A nice thing to add into this, if you so wish, would be a day each week where you do a liver cleanse - this doesn't mean starve - you can read about how to do this here. It entails eating mung beans, rice, lemon, olive oil, sea salt, and chile (or pepper) for a day each week during the month you do the damp elimination (breakfast, lunch and dinner). But if this doesn't resonate for you, don't do it. It is useful if you're feeling particularly sluggish, need a little extra push with your metabolism, have a thyroid issue, or simply want to help your liver out a little. Avoid during menstruation as mung beans are cold, and you should not eat cold foods during menstruation.

I would advise going to a TCM practitioner or even a nutritionist so you can get support and additional ideas of what will work for you. Find out if you're deficient in any particular minerals or vitamins, and add that into your diet. Or take a Chinese Herbal formula to treat your constitution and get regular Acupuncture treatments to help curb cravings, strengthen your digestion, and boost your metabolism. Or don't. Just do the above. The great thing is you get to decide how to do this, when to begin, and how to proceed. If you're feeling anemic and weak, add some black beans or beets into your diet. If you're carrying water weight, add some corn silk tea in. Make your food intake about you, not anyone else.

I know that when I have dived into this, all I wanted to eat was fresh Vietnamese spring rolls. The perfect antidote to getting over the sandwich! I also grilled, tossed, and sauteed. And there was no feeling of there's something missing. Polenta replaced oatmeal temporarily. Everything was there. And then whatever might have been missing in my mind, came back.

Crazy About Carrots

2010-08-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Carrots are a surprising vegetable. How surprising can they really be you might wonder when we have all heard how carrots are good for your eyesight and many of us have that image of a cartoon bunny chomping away on a carrot just like popeye slurped his spinach. But, did you also know that carrots are a yang vegetable in Chinese Medicine? Hmm...what is yang (and yin for that matter) as it pertains to food? I've mentioned yin and yang theory on here before when Spring last arrived. Most vegetables are yin in the sphere of Chinese Medicine nutrition. Meaning, they are nourishing, building, and more gentle. Whereas yang foods tend to be more energizing, moving, and dense (i.e. meat, root vegetables, onions, and the pungent spices). Well, a carrot is considered a strong (yang) vegetable with many capabilities. It's a real fighter prancing about in a slender orange (and sometimes yellow, white, or red) outfit with wild green hair sprouting off the top.

Carrots have a neutral thermal nature and are sweet flavored. They boost the digestive function and help detoxify the liver through the elimination of waste (i.e. also great for constipation) as well as with their diuretic effect. Carrots are also considered an anti-carcinogenic in both Western and Eastern nutrition, likely attributed to their high beta-carotene levels (which contribute the the "good for the eyes" function). Phew! That's already a lot...but, there's MORE : they help to bring the body to an alkaline state (P. Pitchford, Healing With Whole Foods), which means they can help alleviate conditions such as acne, tonsillitis, and rheumatism. Carrot juice heals burns when applied directly. Carrots help dissolve tumors and growths, as well as eliminate parasites. It seems the list is endless with carrots. If you want to read a bit more about the medicinal use of the carrot, go here.

While carrots are lovely raw and you can snack and crunch away as much as you like, they are extra healing (and easier on the digestion) if you lightly steam or bake them. You don't want to boil or overcook them but warmth is good for your digestion. I like to slow bake them (further increasing their yang capabilities) so they're pliant without losing form, sweet and caramelized on the outside, but still fresh and light. Consequently, you should try to buy organic carrots if possible as they have been listed as one of the top highly pesticide-riddled foods based on research by the USDA and the FDA.

Baked & Caramelized Carrots

1. Peel one whole bunch (about 8 carrots), chop into large 1 inch pieces. Place in pan and coat with olive oil, sea salt, pepper. Add freshly chopped herbs if you wish (correander/cilantro, oregano, or rosemary work well).
2. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on how soft you want them to get.
3. Serve as is or with a piece of fish (pictures below : baked carrots with cilantro crusted tilapia).

Mint for the Mind

2010-07-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

In all this summer heat and madness, a little mint goes a long way. Not only is it cooling and relaxing but it (Bo He) specifically targets the lungs and liver in Chinese medicine. Some symptoms or conditions that mint targets are : early stage fever, red eyes (especially from allergies), sore throat, menstrual irregularities or pain, rashes (it will "vent" them - especially in the early stages so they resolve quicker), irritability, depression, heat stroke or summer heat, or if you just simply get the feeling you need to "cool yourself off".

The especially great thing about mint is that it is considered a weed and grows easily anywhere you put it (sometimes to the detriment of the surrounding plants - beware). You can grow it in a pot on your windowsill, or plant some in your garden, or if you can't grow it then go to the store and buy some. Using it fresh or dry is fine. I prefer fresh because it evokes a much mintier flavor, but medicinally speaking, dried works well too. Buy mint tea bags if you can't do any of the above!

The key to harnessing the most medicinal quality out of mint is to ONLY steep it in boiled water for 5 minutes and no longer. I usually like to use a whole stem of mint with the branches and leaves attached and stick it in a big jug of just boiled water with a little honey and just let it sit. Depending on the mint (the one pictured below is cherokee mint) the water may turn a beautiful greenish hue. You guzzle this down in a day if you're really feeling any of the symptoms mentioned earlier, or you can keep it for a few days in the fridge and enjoy some minty cool water on a daily basis while you sweat your way through the summer.

Rambling Raspberries

2010-07-08T17:07:00.001-07:00

If you already love raspberries and didn't need a medicinal excuse to eat them (or drink tea with their leaves), then you will be extra happy with this post. Recently, I went wild black raspberry picking, along with about 1 trillion mosquitoes just outside of Chicago. It was worth it. Even after the 40th bite, it WAS still worth it! I kept focused on the goal: Raspberries enrich and cleanse the blood (and treat anemia)! They regulate the menstrual cycle! Raspberries can help with urinary incontinence. The leaves are used in a tea to induce and promote labor. In Chinese Medicine the dried raspberries are referred to as fu pen zi and are used to treat incontinence, impotence, premature ejaculation, to benefit the kidney and liver function, as well as to treat blurry vision (gou qi zi is good for the vision as well).

Raspberries have a neutral thermal nature. I keep referring to the thermal nature of herbs and food and this is because it is relevant in their medicinal usage. In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) you often treat hot conditions, with cold foods. And cold conditions with warming/hot foods. When something is neutral it is interesting in that it will not harm or exacerbate a hot or cold condition. You may now be wondering, am I hot or cold? Well, I can not diagnose you from here, but you can often tell if you lean towards one or the other in general and you will change with time and with whatever is ailing you. And sometimes you will be both hot AND cold, it gets complicated, but really it's also quite simple. As an example of this, you might have a fever and be HOT but be shivering and feeling cold.

But let's get back to the raspberries. They are neutral, so do not worrry if you are hot or cold, they're safe! They are also sweet and sour flavored which means they will target both the digestion (sweet) and the liver (sour) by nature of their flavor. Raspberries are very cleansing and are a wonderful addition to your summer fare when you feel the need to lighten the load on your body and purge this years build up of toxins from being indoors too long and eating heavy rich foods.

Besides eating them just as is by popping them one by one into your mouth, you can also make a variety of tinctures with them since they have a short season. I chose to make a jam (alas, a little high on the sugar side of things), a raspberry liqueur, a raspberry vinegar, and some raspberry syrup. As for the leaves, pluck away and air dry them and save for later use, or you can also buy them ready to go in "tea form" in many supermarkets these days. But why not just dry them yourself if you have access? The tea is excellent for treating the uterus whether that is to induce labor or to relax premenstrual cramps. If you are having a bout of incontinence or perhaps some premature ejaculation, have a little dose of raspberry liqueur and see if that helps you. You can go here to learn how to make medicinal wines, just replace the ingredients that are mentioned with your fresh raspberries.

If you want to treat a liver related condition, then I would suggest adding a little raspberry vinegar to a dish. Both the sour flavor of the vinegar and the raspberry itself will treat this organ. Making the raspberry vinegar is also just as easy as making a raspberry liqueur, you simply choose a good quality white wine or rice wine vinegar and after washing the raspberries place them in the vinegar of your choice (make sure they are completely infused in the vinegar). Sterilize your bottles/jars first and DO NOT use a metal top, it should be plastic or cork as the vinegar will eat away at the metal and it will rust. You can use your homemade raspberry flavored vinegar for up to 6 months so write the date on the bottle when you make it.

Edible and Medicinal Flowers

2010-06-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

(Pink/Red Peony, also known as Chi Shao in Chinese Medicine)

This summer I've been obsessed with flowers, not just placing them in a vase or growing them for aesthetic purposes, but eating them. They also just so happen to be quite medicinal, besides being very tasty. In Chinese Medicine, flowers treat an array of ailments such as acne, red eyes, high blood pressure, colds, flu's, regulating menstruation, dizziness, and the list goes on. Chi Shao (the aforementioned red peony) increases blood circulation and treats dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, abdominal pain, and swollen masses. Usually, Chi Shao is used in conjunction with other herbs in a formula. There are many other flowers, as you will see below, that you can use in your daily cooking and brewing. Onion flowers, much like onions and garlic, are excellent for moving the blood and treating conditions such as high blood pressure. I made an onion flavored vinaigrette with them to drizzle over salads or even a meat dish. Flowers are interesting because they sometimes start sweet and then they evolve into a different flavor when you finish munching on them, it might be pungent (such as the onion flower), nutty (such as the arugula flower), or cucumber-y (such as the borage flower).

If any of your plants have bolted, taste the flowers and see if you can use them as a pretty substitute for what they grew out of. Have a browse below and start playing with flowers in your food!

(Arugula flowers)

(Arugula flowers)

(Arugula flowers over an heirloom tomato with aged goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette)

(Day lily bulb flower)

(Bolted shallot with flower growing at the top)

(Onion flowers)

(Onion flower vinaigrette)

(Artichoke flower)

(Zucchini blossoms)

(Bee making honey from flowers)

(Sunflower and seeds)

(Borage flowers)

The Star of Early Summer: Scapes

2010-06-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

Last year around this time in June I posted about garlic scapes, which I used to make a marinade for a slow cooked goat leg. This year I've been experimenting with all sorts of young green Alliums out there, ramps (which are in essence a wild leek but are similar to a scape), onion scapes, and of course garlic scapes. Scapes can arise out of any of a number of plants and are considered a flowering leafless stem. Not all are edible but if you catch them early enough and they come from the onion genus (Allium), then you're in luck! Onions and garlic are incredibly medicinal and healing foods. Onions in general work to lower blood pressure and decrease cholesterol, alleviate dysentery, induce sweating, and treat the common cold. Garlic acts as an antiseptic, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, enhances digestive capabilities, has diuretic properties, and relaxes the blood vessels (i.e. decreases blood pressure). Scapes are the the pure young essence of all these properties and are excellent for ridding yourself of any lingering winter ailments. The bonus to a scape is the flowers popping out on the top, which taste like a concentrated savory onion. In Chinese Medicine flowers are considered to have a more dispersing effect, which means they are particularly good for treating colds and flus as well as skin disorders.

I chose to experiment with an onion scape (courtesy of Kinnikinnick Farm) that had bolted and was technically considered past it's youth and prime in the farming world . Meaning, it wasn't as delicately flavored and instead had more kick and spice to it. I cooked it in with slow braised pork chops until they shredded, along with a few potatoes from the Fall season to give the sauce body, salt and pepper to taste, and some absolutely amazing lambs quarters from Three Sisters Garden (considered a weed) that literally tasted of what the descriptive word GREEN would taste like if it jumped into a vegetable! I used the scape flowers (pictured at the top), which have an incredibly delicious onion punch, to make a light, vinegary, and kickin' drizzler sauce when the dish was plated. We served the braised pork with a poached duck egg and baked purple asparagus.

Pork Chop Braise with Lambs Quarters and Onion Scapes

Ingredients (serves 4)
lambs quarters (2 large handfuls)
2 large thick cut pork chops with bone in
1-2 onion scapes & flowers
salt
pepper
olive oil
6 small potatoes
rice vinegar

1. Brown pork chops in olive oil, add minced onion bulb from scape, save flower and a bit of the green stalk for sauce.
2. Cook on low heat, adding about 1 cup of water for about 1 hour. Add peeled and chopped potatoes in and cook for another hour.
3. Wash and strip lambs quarters leaves off of stem, add to pork when it has begun to shred and is almost done. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. Make sauce: mince or just simply pluck off little flowers into olive oil (1-2 tbspns), rice vinegar 1 tbspn (substitute with good quality white wine vinegar if you desire), salt and pepper. Add 1 tbspn of minced green stalk from scape, using the portion closest to the flower so it's relatively tender.
5. Poach duck or chicken egg and serve over pork with a sprinkle of sauce on each dish.

Grow Your Own Medicinal Herb Garden

2010-05-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

I've been growing a little city garden every year for about 5 years now. In all honesty, much of it has been hit or miss and I'm just beginning to truly learn how to grow plants that flourish. This year I'm growing purely medicinal (most of which are also culinary) herbs in our little space, along with about 5 different heirloom tomato varieties. There are two things I've learned that are key in growing a city garden (and I'm sure I have many more to learn going forth): soil quality and preparation is a MUST, and know your plants well and what they like (how much sun, how much water, how close to other plants). There are many places you can research where to buy seeds and how to grow a city garden. Edible Gardens is a wonderful resource for buying heirloom seeds. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an excellent book by Barbara Kingsolver about a year in the life of her family growing their own food. If you live in Chicago, utilize Green City Market (open Wednesdays and Saturdays until end of October) to build on the knowledge available to you from the farmers themselves that come to sell their organic produce and are ultimately the ones that know their stuff best. When I go back to Colombia they always serve agua aromatica after a meal, which consists of any amalgam of herbs available in their garden or that they have bought and is used to aid digestion. In the meantime, I'll share the beginning of my little city medicinal garden and a few tidbits on what common garden herbs can be used for. If you have any great growing tips, herbs you like to grow, or herbs I haven't mentioned here to share, please do below!

Thyme : clears lung congestion, has an antiseptic action, relieves colds, soothes painful joints

Dandelion : stimulates the liver, increases bile flow, alleviates skin conditions, lowers blood pressure, acts as a diuretic

Parsley : stimulates breast milk, alleviates menstrual cramps, reduces bladder inflammations

Basil : alleviates menstrual cramps, warms colds and chills, reduces stomach inflammation

Lavender : calms anxiety, insomnia, and irritability, relieves tension headaches

Oregano : soothes flatulence, indigestion, and bloating, promotes menstruation, relieves headaches

Chives : treat bruises and swellings, promote circulation, treats phlegm and loose stools

Lemon Balm : antiviral and antibacterial, calms nervous system, soothes panic attacks, relieves depression

Dill : relieves nausea, aids digestion, reduces colic

Coriander/Cilantro : soothes digestion, antibacterial

Mint : aids digestion, eases menstrual cramps, flatulence, upset stomach, nausea and vomiting

Chiles (chillies) : energizing, reviving, warming for colds and chills, antibacterial

(10 days after planting everything is flourishing)

Circulating Chives

2010-05-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

Chives are another of the lovely young onions popping up in the Spring. Along with their magenta colored flowers they are a wonderful addition for the culinary and medicinal palate. In Chinese Medicine chives specifically target the kidneys, liver, and stomach. Which means, they can influence those organs specifically along with influencing the functions of those organ systems. Chives dry dampness (dampness can manifest as lethargy, obesity, loose stools, cloudy-mindedness, phlegm, and sluggishness). According to Paul Pitchford chives are also excellent in the treatment of bruises and swellings from injury, you can apply them directly (crushed and juiced) onto the affected area and/or consume 2-3 cups of chive tea per day (or consume 2 ounces fresh). Chives increase the circulation and warm up the body. The purple color of the flowers places it in the category of being further influential on the circulation of blood, as red colored foods often will be. The acrid taste is also very moving, you can almost feel this as you bite into a fresh chive and it emits warmth and spice.

Chives are thermally warm so they can treat cold conditions such as arthritis that is affected by cold, or a digestive system that is cold in nature (whereby you may get instant loose stools upon ingesting a cold beverage). You should avoid chives if you are experiencing any outwardly hot condition such as red inflamed acne, red eyes, or red inflammations. If you want to learn how to grow chives (which can be dried and stored for winter use), then go here.

You can add chives to virtually any dish it seems. I like them in scrambled eggs. I've also been adding them to salads and salad dressings, sprinkled over a meat dish, and chopped into soups. Do with them as you wish, but definitely have some on hand for your medicinal and tasty arsenal. If you have any additional chive recipes or wisdom please do share below!

Scrambled Eggs with Chives
farm fresh eggs
chives with flowers
butter
salt
pepper

1. Gently saute eggs on a low heat and add chives half way through. Salt and pepper to taste. If you want to cut the onion taste a little with sweetness, add a dollop of goat cheese.

Making Sense of Milk

2010-05-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

It is estimated that up to 70% of adults are lactose intolerant. Yet, the "milk does the body good" campaign came into play in a big way in the last 50 years (or more) and somehow got placed right at the top of the ever present food pyramid. So how does one reconcile the two? Does it do the body good? That is the question! Well, of course it does, we are weaned on human milk when we come into this world, but is it necessary to plow through gallons of cow's milk daily to grow to be 100 feet tall after the weaning process? I realize I'm treading a fine line here with these questions as toting milk as not doing the body good would be similar to saying, actually the sky isn't blue. And just to clarify, I am not saying that milk doesn't have it's place, but there is the question of when, how, and what kind.

Cow versus Goat

First, the cow and the goat and the differences in their milk. Cow's milk is deficient in vitamins B1, C, E, and A, as well having a ratio of calcium to phosphorous that is equal (whereas in human milk it is two times calcium to phosphorous, which becomes relevant when it comes to calcium absorption). Cow's milk also does not have the proper lactose to produce the flora in babies intestines which is necessary for easy digestion, possibly attributing to much of the colic that babies experience. Goat milk is the closest source of milk that is similar to human milk, and therefore most easily digested by babies and adults. It is rich in flourine which helps to build the immune system, and strengthens teeth and bones. According to Paul Pitchford, Goat's milk has been used in many different medical traditions to treat emaciation, malnutrition, anemia, stomach ulcers, nervous exhaustion, and loss of energy. In addition it is useful in treating constipation through it's enrichment of intestinal flora, as well as in conjunction treating diarrhea thanks to it's astringent properties. Goat's fat globules are smaller than cow's milk and are therefore more easily digested.

Pasteurization

When you buy milk you'll notice it says "pasteurized and homogenized". Pasteurizing is a process whereby you heat the milk to rid it of any potential harmful bacteria (along with the helpful) and thus increasing it's shelf life along the way. This is absolutely necessary when you are buying milk from a large scale dairy and where the cows are being fed Bovine Growth Hormone (to produce more milk and grow faster) and antibiotics (because they have a higher incidence of infections when they are on BGH, not grass-fed, and kept in close proximity to other cows). Raw milk on the other hand has a long history of medicinal use. In Ayurvedic medicine it is thought to produce mental clarity and in Chinese Medicine it is used in cases where there is a constitutional or other type of weakness. Raw milk should be tested for harmful bacteria, you can also bring it to a boil and let is quickly cool down to ensure that it is clean without losing all the healthful qualities of the beneficial bacteria.

Homogenization

Homogenization of milk is a process whereby they make the milk consistent throughout by "forcing the milk at high pressure through small holes". It is thought that due to this homogenization process, the enzyme xanthine oxidase is allowed to enter the bloodstream (where before it wouldn't have been able to in the larger fat globules that existed pre-homogenization) damaging the heart and arteries and allowing cholesterol to accumulate. Homogenization has no benefit except to make milk more seemingly palatable.

Milk Alternatives

There are many ways to get your dairy in without compromising your health, whether it be through dry aged cheese (in particular), good quality plain yogurt, or cow milk alternatives such as goat, rice, almond, and soy milk. You can also simply find the best quality cow milk source that you can, and it is absolutely worth the exploration. If you are experiencing gas, bloating, diarrhea, acne (or other skin ailments), headaches, acid reflux, or indigestion when you ingest milk, then you should consider doing an elimination diet to test if that is the cause. Milk has it's place in our nutritional intake, it's a matter of finding what kind of dairy products work best for you and when to take them. If you would like to read more about milk, this article by Dr. Kradjian is quite illuminating : "The Milk Letter: A Message to My Patients".

Young Wild Leeks and Yang Energy

2010-04-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

Spring time is a yang time in Chinese Medicinal terms, while winter is a yin time. Many of you have heard and seen yin and yang theory thrown around loosely, adorned on tshirts, plastered on dorm room walls, imprinted on spa paraphenelia, carved into Acupuncture logos, and so on. Yin and yang theory is one of the major philosophical bases of Chinese Medicine and that little black and white swirly globe actually has some very beautifully simple and yet complex meaning. Simple and yet complex, this sentence is very indicative of yin and yang theory. There is a sentence that explains why it is both : "All that is yin is yang, all that is yang is yin". This sentence is very similar to "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" in that while something may be yin in nature, it can not exist without yang. In essence there is no day without night. Thus, simple yet complex.

As it pertains to food and the body, yin is the liquid and nourishing aspect (blood, saliva, water, etc.) and yang is the energy (electric synapses, physiological reactions, movement, etc.). We need both, but sometimes you need one more than the other. Spring is the time when we're moving from a long cold spell where you were more focused on yin foods and doing yin things (i.e. eating warm slow cooked foods whilst hibernating and conserving energy) and on into a more yang time where you require the energy to literally pop your head out of the ground much like all the young bulbs (in particular for today, ramps, which are part of the Allium family and sometimes are considered wild leeks)! Garlic already has many medicinal qualities that I have discussed here before, but if you want the medicine without so much bite, then a ramp is your friend and it is only here for a few weeks before it becomes scape season, then just plain garlic bulb season.

While yin and yang theory may be flying over your head into esoteric yaya land, once you understand it, you can self-treat and balance yourself out when you need. For these purposes, you want to put a little more bite and spark into your food to wake up your digestion while your life requires you to be outside more, shedding layers of clothes, getting sun, and interacting with people more frequently. Ramps grow from March to late May and sometimes June. You can eat them raw or lightly cooked. I used the pungent white portion to stuff under the skin of a young red cockerel, and I used the sweet green leaves to add to some roasted potatoes towards the very end so they just slightly wilted and melded in. The cockerels and potatoes were served alongside young asparagus which is also just starting to pop it's head out of the ground and will continue to do so for another month or so.

Roasted Red Cockerel with Ramps, Lemon, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt

Ingredients : cockerels or chickens (approx. 4-6 lbs), ramps (ie. young garlic), lemon, olive oil, sea salt, pepper

1. Rub cockerels with olive oil, lemon, sea salt, and pepper. Make a few tiny holes and also loosen the skin around the neck and bum of the cockerel - slip in the white portion of the ramp under the skin. Slice lemons and place in cavity. Place one whole ramp in the orifice of the neck. Let the cockerels sit for 1 hour to 24 hours (overnight).

2. Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees F. Place cockerels in uncovered, breast side down. Roast for one hour at this temperature. Raise to 300 degrees F and roast for 1.5-2 hours more (depending on the size of bird). Cockerels should come out browned and crisp but juicy inside, with a lovely hint of sweet garlic flavor.

How do you use yin and yang theory to treat yourself? If you are feeling excessively yin (lethargic, sluggish, tired, slow, damp, cloudy-headed), add more yang foods into your food (red meat, liver, bones, leeks, chives, scallions, garlic, carrots, lotus, radish... pungent and bright foods). If you are feeling excessively yang (hot, flushed, anxious, wired) add more yin foods into your diet (pork, chicken, almost all vegetables except the particularly pungent ones and those listed above).

If you want more recipes using ramps go here or here. Ramps have a long history of culinary and medicinal use in the U.S., especially in the south. There is even a ramp festival held every year in Tennessee called the "Cosby Ramp Festival". Apparently in the Appalachian region of the U.S. ramps are thought to ward off winter ailments, which is perfectly in line with the Chinese Medicinal use of adding some yang energy into your food to bust out and get ready for summer!

Soups, Salads, and Spring

2010-04-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

Now that Spring is arriving, it's time to lighten the food load a bit, and increase your fresh vegetable and fruit intake. However, it is still incredibly important to avoid going all raw and salad-crazy just because the weather is warmer. Your digestion is still like a furnace, even in the summer months, and works at it's optimum when you treat it kindly with warm foods. If you begin to plow yourself with one salad after another, many of you will find yourselves in the grips of gas, bloating, loose stools, phlegm attacks, sluggishness, or wrap around headaches.

A great way to protect your digestion but also crunch away on a crispy light salad, is to make a warm light soup to have before, or with, your salad. I prefer to keep the soups lighter and vegetable-based and I add a warm piece of cooked protein (such as fish or chicken) to the salad to add another warm element. Spring is a time for renewal and cleansing and evolving with the seasons makes sense for your health. Many people ask me about doing detoxes during this time, I don't personally recommend heavy detoxing if you are still living your life as usual, working, running around, and stressing, so I often recommend an "eating fast" which you can find information about here.

Below you will find the recipe for a vegetable, vitamin, and mineral rich soup (Spinach, Roasted Red Pepper, and Yogurt Soup) to pair with whatever your favorite salad might be. Spinach is cooling in thermal nature, with a sweet flavor. It is a wonderful vegetable for moistening and nourishing the body, especially in conditions that create thirst and dryness (such as diabetes) and also at the end of a long drying winter. Spinach can also treat constipation and urinary difficulty and is of course known for being high in vitamin A and calcium. Red peppers are excellent in treating stagnant digestion (often the case at the end of a winter full of cloying heavy foods), as well as being high in vitamin C, and increasing circulation. Plain yogurt adds good dairy as well as some probiotic action. Roasting the red peppers adds more energy to the food (or yang energy as it is referred to in Chinese Medicine), while still maintaining the moistening and yin quality of the food.

Spinach, Roasted Red Pepper, and Yogurt Soup

Ingredients: 1 bunch of spinach, 2 red peppers, chicken or vegetable stock, 1 sweet white onion, plain yogurt, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

1. Roast red peppers either over a low flame or under a broiler. Wash and place on a baking pan and make sure to turn each side as it blackens. Remove from oven and rinse under cool water, peel off outer layer of skin and slice into thin slices.
2. Chop up one whole onion and saute in extra virgin olive oil on a low heat until they begin to caramelize, add rinsed spinach and stir until it begins to soften.
3. Add 2-3 cups chicken or vegetable stock plus 1-2 cups of water (depending on how thick you want the soup), add salt and pepper to taste. Add roasated red peppers and let it sit on a slow boil for a few minutes so everything melds together.
4. Add one cup of yogurt and mix in. Remove soup from heat and let it cool. Blend into a thick consistency and reheat before serving. You can add an extra dollop of yogurt and minced cilantro and crunch sea salt on top before serving or just serve as is.

Enjoy!

The S(tress) Factor

2010-03-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

You would think that being in the healing profession, I would not fall prey to the ever present "stress" that sneaks in here and there and everywhere. Well, I do. And I'm sure you do too. You hear people talk about stress all the time, at work, at home, at the gym, wherever, but what does it actually mean to your body? At some point 5 gazillion years ago, we needed stress to survive. The "flight or fight" response was beautifully created to save us from saber toothed tigers and whatever else was out there threatening our survival: our heart and lung function would speed up, blood flow to the heart and muscles increased significantly, digestion would slow or stop, muscle tension increased, the bladder relaxed, inhibition of erection was triggered, loss of HEARING! occurred, and tunnel vision became all you saw. We still have this fight or flight response ingrained in us and many of these triggered reactions are initiated by "stress", which is, as we all know, present in all our modern busy lives to some degree. Sometimes it helps us get through a big presentation or deadline, and sometimes it leaves little indelible foot prints that need to be addressed or they will accumulate and overtake us.

Understanding and knowing all this, it is pretty clear we need to find ways to deal with stress and to treat the effects of it on our bodies. There are long lasting consequences if you don't. There is a reason that either the saber toothed tiger got us back then or we simply didn't live past age 30. In many ways the quality of our lives has improved given that there aren't any more tigers (for the most part) hunting us down, but if there is one thing that should be managed it is our perceived reaction to stress factors. On occasion a little fight or flight is fabulous, we've all felt that surge in energy and burst through our work or an emergency situation to get to the other side. However, there still are the continuous stresses which our bodies react to in a low grade and constant fashion that leave us needing a little respite. Stress manifests in a myraid of manners (not all of which are exclusively stress-related but can definitely be created by stress) : high blood pressure, acne, high cholesterol, digestive issues, tight and painful muscles, ear aches, impotence, difficulty breathing, anxiety, TMJ, grinding your teeth at night, depression, increased risk of heart attacks, decreased immunity, headaches or migraines, insomnia, and irritability. 43% of adults "suffer adverse affects from stress" and even more than that head into a doctors office trying to figure out why they are experiencing any of the above listed ailments or symptoms.

There are many ways we deal with stress that can be detrimental : overeating, drinking too much, chain smoking, and violence (at times). There are also many ways that we can deal with stress and it's effect on us in a healthy manner. From the TCM perspective, Acupuncture is a wonderful way to combat any symptoms which may be occurring as well as to stimulate the feel good endorphin release and give our bodies and our adrenal system a break. Exercise also relaxes us and releases endorphins. Meditation teaches us and our bodies to come back down to a relaxed state and reduces the after-affects of stress. These are just some of the things you can incorporate into your daily life to help you with stress.

What about food and stress? In Chinese Medicine you would want to focus on foods which are moving and increase circulation, often these are bitter or warming in nature, they can also be sour and green (the flavor and color which correlate to the liver, which is the organ related to stress). In Western Medicine, magnesium is one of the primary minerals in charge of reducing the effects of stress by nature of it's ability to increase circulation and smooth the flow of muscle (i.e. relax those tight muscles). Magnesium also increases calcium uptake which is significant in terms of osteoarthritis and any condition which relies on calcium uptake. It just so happens that many of the warm, bitter, green, and sometimes sour foods are also high in magnesium : dark leafy greens, seaweeds, whole grains, nuts, and cocoa (yes, CHOCOLATE!! preferrably in the dark form).

While I have already written about many magnesium-rich foods such as kale, sardines, and chocolate, to name a few, today I wanted to touch on mustard greens. Mustard greens (Brassica juncea) are just as they are called, from the mustard plant. Mustard greens are considered warm with a pungent flavor in TCM. They are excellent in treating lung conditions (such as asthma), as well as for moistening the intestines in cases of constipation. These greens also increase circulation (thanks to magnesium in part!) and dissolve stagnant or congealed blood (which can manifest as sharp specific pains). You should use mustard greens with caution if you are in the midst of a hemorrhoid attack or have inflamed red eyes, or any other excess heat symptoms according to TCM.

Mustard greens are very bitter so sometimes it's nice to add them into something that has a slight sweetness and have the two flavors balance each other out. I made mustard greens in rice and served it with a sweet onion and thin sliced steak stir fry. It was perfect. You can also pair that up with a white sweet fish, some chicken, a bean stew, or whatever else you deem might work.

Stress Rice

1. Add rice to pot, use approximately 2 large mustard green leaves (per cup of rice) that have been washed, I took out most of the large stem portion, and chop relatively finely
2. Add water according to how much rice you make, sprinkle generously with sea salt or substitute water with chicken stock for a heartier sweeter version
3. Cook covered and once it is done, stir the greens into the rice and serve

When All You Can Eat is a Potato

2010-03-15T07:21:00.001-07:00

Potatoes are an often underrated healing source of food. After suffering the not so glamorous effects of salmonella (or possibly e coli) poisoning from a contaminated piece of prosciutto, a plain boiled potato with a tiny glaze of good olive oil and a sprinkle of crunchy sea salt was all I could stomach, literally and figuratively. Potatoes are neutral and sweet in the Chinese Medicine world. They are also mildly diuretic, tonify (boost) the digestive function, moisten the intestines, and contain easily accessible carbohydrates when it's difficult for your body to break down food. In addition, potatoes neutralize the acidity in the body and relieve inflammatory conditions whether it be arthritis or in the aforementioned case of gastroenteritis. You can make a juice out of raw potatoes which can be used to reduce all inflammations, applied externally for burns, soothe internal ulcers, as well as establish beneficial intestinal flora while having a concurrent antimicrobial effect.

The potato is regarded as one of the most complete foods as it stands on it's own. Meaning, you can eat a potato (with the skin) and get wonderful nourishment without having to add on extra foods. Potatoes have vitamins A, B6, C, potassium, magnesium, niacin, folate, thiamin, riboflavin, phosphorous, iron, zinc, and enzymes. Because a portion of the potato starch is resistant to digestive enzymes it reaches the intestinal tract intact and has the same physiological and beneficial effects of fiber : lowering cholesterol, increase glucose tolerance, protect against colon cancer, and reduce fat storage. The only thing to be watchful for in potatoes is the solanine which is present in the leaves, stems, sprouts, and fruits (or in potatoes which have been exposed to UV light, which can be plainly seen when they take on a greenish hue). In Chinese Medicine a potato is also considered yin in nature. Yin is all that is liquid and nourishing in the body, versus yang, which is all that is energetic and substantial (this is a very simple explanation as yin and yang theory goes much deeper).

The potato (S. tuberosum) is the fourth largest food crop in value and volume grown in the world. It originated in South America but has now reached every continent. There are thousands of varieties of potatoes, wild and cultivated. The potato interestingly became the MOST important crop in 19th century Europe as it was easily stored, high in nutrition, and cheap to grow. From a medicinal perspective, when choosing your potato, you want to go with the ones with a little more color and an earthier taste. Yukon Gold would therefore beat out a White Idaho. The Colombian papa criolla is above and beyond my favorite, but alas difficult to come by in the U.S. Blue potatoes have the added benefit of boosting blood and ciruclation. Beware of genetically modified varieties of potatoes which tend to be more indigestible due to having been created to only contain amylopectin (making them resistant to pests but in turn ruining the health benefits for us).

Aside from the solanine and genetically modified warnings, a potato is your friend. If you were stranded on an island it might be the best marriage between a vegetable and a fruit in terms of it's nutritional value. And if you are suffering from the effects of food poisoning that has given way to gastroenteritis, the potato is queen. Some other wonderful additions to treating your tender tummy besides the potato are : water with fresh lemon and sea salt, a tablespoon of raw honey taken on it's own, and probiotics (in the form of capsules, miso/fermented products, kombucha, or plain yogurt, you choose).

Treating Temperature with Tamarind

2010-02-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

Tamarindus indica L., otherwise known as tamarind (fruit), just so happens to be not only delicious but a wonderful medicinal as well. In Thailand (where it naturally grows) it is referred to as makam and I mentioned it briefly here in the Travelling Medicine: Thailand post. While it clearly is not growing in this Midwestern climate, you can find it in pulp form and it is just as tasty for cooking purposes, though I miss eating it fresh. The tamarind tree is beautiful and can grow to be as tall as 100 feet and as wide as 25 feet so if you're lucky enough to have one in your backyard, I envy you. Tamarind originated in Africa, travelled to India, and then on to the Middle East and so on. You can now find it in many of the tropical areas around the world. There are a few varieties which you can differentiate by the taste (either more tart or more sweet) or the color (brown to red).

The seeds, leaves, flowers, and fruit are viable for use in cooking and as medicinals. The major medical use for tamarind that is recognized throughout the world is as an antipyretic (fever reducer). It is also used as a mild laxative (to move the bowels) and as a carminative (to reduce gas in the intestines). The tamarind pulp can be used in any dish to aid digestion not only for humans but for elephants! If you have a bilious disorder, tamarind is your friend. You can also use the pulp externally to reduce inflammation or treat rheumatism. You can gargle with the pulp juice and salt for sore throat. The leaves and flowers can be boiled and applied to swollen joints, sprains, and boils. The seeds can be pounded into a paste and used to expel boils or to treat diarrhea. In fact, there are SO many uses for the tamarind plant that I can't list them all here. But you can look here for more information if you want. For these purposes, remember that it is an excellent fever reducer (since we're still in flu season) and a wonderful digestive. You can't really beat that kind of medicine when it tastes as good as it does, tart and savory.

I made a tamarind chicken dish recently which is so so so simple, you can't get it wrong. I had some pulp which I keep in the fridge to use in a multitude of tamarind recipes I like to cook, such as the chick pea dish and the Thai egg dish. For this you only need the following: chicken legs, thighs, or drumsticks with the skin and bones on (you decide what cut you want), panela (a type of cane sugar I used from Colombia, but you can choose any other type you wish to), tamarind pulp with seeds, cilantro, grapeseed oil, fish sauce, rice, and black pepper. That's it!

Directions:

1. Measure approximately 1/2 a cup of tamarind pulp (per 4 chicken legs) and add 2 cups of water into a bowl. Let it soak for up to an hour, periodically squeezing the pulp and letting it seep into the water, it will turn a rich brown. You can eventually pull out the seeds if you so wish.
2. Fry the chicken on both sides until it browns. Add the tamarind water and let it come to a slow boil. Add a few teaspoons of fish sauce (you can do this to taste if you want). Add 1-3 tablespoons of the sugar you choose to use (also do this to taste, depending on if you like it more tangy or not). Add a few whole correander/cilantro roots and leaves. Sprinkle black pepper.
3. Let the chicken boil slowly for up to an hour, you will see that it begins to fall apart (don't pull it apart) and the sauce should reduce to an almost syrup. Mince some fresh cilantro and serve it over the chicken and rice.

RUN to the store now and get some!!!

Year of the Valentiger

2010-02-14T05:59:00.000-08:00

It is a lovely coincidence to celebrate both (Saint) Valentines Day and the Year of the Tiger on the same day, you can do both, or pick one over the other.

Apparently there are differing opinions on why Saint Valentines Day is celebrated. It supposedly begins in quite a juicy little nugget of a way, in Ancient Rome, as a pagan "fertility festival". This of course conjures up all kinds of images, none of which can beat the one that they mention in this article in the Telegraph where it says "young men would strip naked and use goat- or dog-skin whips to spank the backsides of young women in order to improve their fertility". Brilliant. Fast forward through a few men (and a saint circa AD 289) named Valentine being executed on February 14th and you arrive right smack in the middle of the 18th century when the passing of love notes became popular in the UK.

This year is the year of the Metal (element) Tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar. Chinese New Year is always celebrated over the course of 15 days and it generally falls somewhere between the end of January and early February. Chinese New Year cycles every 12 years with 12 animals representing each year, each animal manifesting with different characteristics. The Year of the Tiger is the third sign in the Chinese New Year and is symbolic of bravery. People born in this year are thought to be fierce as well as noble. This year in particular is predicted to be a year of a lot of change and upheaval, at the personal and world level. It is a year to 'de-weed' your garden so that the things you really want to flourish will have the opportunity to.

We cheated and celebrated both yesterday evening, taking a whole day to do our shopping - first at the farmers market, then Fulton Fish Market, then a few things at another store, and finally we ended at a wine store to pair up wines for each of our six courses (which took us 6 hours to eat)! Interspersed you'll find links to previous posts on the medicinal aspect of some of these ingredients. Lots of aphrodisiacs (oysters and chocolate truffles) as well as celebratory Tiger foods (roasted bone marrow and lamb).

Before we could begin to cook we had some farm fresh eggs with red peppercorns, that I pretended were Tigers eyes.

Lamb and beef bone marrow.

Cocoa powder for truffles.

Whipping the chocolate.

Assembly.

Dark chocolate truffle with sea salt.

We nibbled on cerignola olives while the truffle assembly took place.

First course was a crisp wine with some oysters.

Oysters were followed by the roast beef bone marrow, served with a lemon parsley salad and a semi-sweet wine.

Roasted to oozing perfection.

Before moving on to the third course, we worked on the Ile Flottante.

Beautiful vanilla pods, which are consequently cultivated from orchids, a proper post on this is coming soon! We got our vanilla from culture vanille, based out of Mauritius.

Lovely floating vanilla seeds.

The third course was large prawns marinated in parsley, garlic, lemon, olive oil, and sea salt.

Fourth course, roasted lamb with a fresh apple chutney and roasted blue potatoes.

Fifth course, aged stinky local cheese (don't know it's official name) served with a white port.

Final course: Ile Flottante and a truffle was consumed but not pictured!

Have a Happy Valentines and Chinese New Year!!

Slow Food Movement

2010-02-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to watching Food, Inc.. I think they did a great job, I'm a few months late in saying this, but go watch it if you haven't! If you feel a little bummed out after learning about how large scale farming seems to have taken over (80% of) our food choices, then fear not, there is always hope. I say this because I hate to be the bearer of bad news without having something constructive to say in conjunction. So, after watching this film, you should learn about the Slow Food Movement which has been going on for quite some time (since 1989). If you scroll down on the right hand side of this blog you'll also find some lovely links to local & seasonal food information as well as what is in season at the moment (at least for a general four season climate area). If you want to pick up a great book in the vein of this subject, 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver is worth the read. Kingsolver writes about how she and her family relocate to a family farm, grow their own food, and stick to ONLY eating seasonally and locally, it's an illuminating read. Really, eating seasonally and lcoally makes the most medicinal sense when you think about it: cooling foods grow in the summer, warming foods grow in the winter, and so on and so forth. That's it, have a great day!

Breakfast in the Winter: Cold vs. Warm

2010-02-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

Since returning from warm and sunny Thailand where having a plate of cool papaya or juicy pomelo for breakfast made sense, I began to flounder on what to nosh on in the (incredibly) cold mornings here in Chicago. It's not that the cold weather is news to me at this point, nor is what to have for breakfast when it's chilly outside. However, my desire for warm oatmeal, warm toast drizzled with raw honey, or warm scrambled eggs has waned (using warm as an adjective three times in a row has significance here). Okay, breakfast can be much more exciting that those three things, but I'm talking about the basics, not a leisurely weekend brunch. In any event, in Chinese medicine if there is one cardinal rule it is NEVER eat a cold breakfast in the winter. In fact, this may be the case overall whatever the weather may be, but it is especially so in the winter when the cold outside is just going to make that cold inside (you) worst.

You may wonder why this is as you crunch on that sugary cereal drenched in cold milk, while you slurp with one hand and throw on your coat with the other, or you may not...but I'll share the answer if you want to hear it. Imagine your stomach (and digestion in general) is a furnace, it requires warmth to cook the food you put in it, and to then transform that food into the energy your body requires for all it's daily functions: kick starting your engine for the day, working, moving, breathing, thinking, the health of your skin, your (ahem) bowel movements, and so on and so forth (I know that last one got you thinking!). In fact, I've been wondering how to pose this topic for some time here, whether to be tactful or not, and well, there is no way around it - if you have less than well formed stools or are quite frankly on the runny side of the river, avoid cold foods at ALL costs. Often (and you can test this yourself), cold foods will instigate or aggravate such a situation even if it's already happening due to some other root cause. People, your bowel movements speak miles about what is going on inside you.

So back to breakfast and winter. When I lived in China having congee was not a bad way to go, though I much prefer the Thai khao tom soup. Both are rice porridges/soups commonly eaten in the morning but also at other times in the day or when you are ill. While I love these two options, I decided recently to cook polenta (or grits for some) for my morning meal. There is nothing quite like a slow cooked polenta (about 30 minutes if you forgo the hardcore 3 hour endeavour of perfection it can be as well) with a little butter, some grated cheese, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and you have yourself a sweet and savory nourishing warm breakfast.

Cornmeal (aka. polenta, grits, hominy grits - there are sometimes differences between them but for these purposes they all come from corn and are then ground into varying grain sizes) is incredibly healing for the digestion, as well as helping to improve appetite (if you're suffering from a chronic illness), strengthening the heart, and promoting healthy teeth and gums. It is also an excellent way to get your corn in when it is not in season, which it clearly isn't in February. You may recall I wrote about the medicinal properties of corn silk some time ago as well, being a wonderful diuretic and anti-hypertensive medicinal food. Corn (especially the non-genetically modified kind when you can find it here in the U.S.!) is very healing overall.

All I did for this recent polenta breakfast was pour approximately the amount of water I wanted the cornmeal to transform into (about 3 cups), brought it to a boil with salt and some butter, and slowly added in the cornmeal (I would say the measurement is 1 to 6, cornmeal to water, but it depends on whether you want it soupy or thick). You can keep stirring initially but if you have good cornmeal you can also just stir occasionally and let it sit on a slow simmer. The leftover polenta can go into the fridge and be seared in the evening and topped with a lovely ragu or some other such sauce. There are much more nuanced and elegant versions of polenta or grits or whatever you want to call your cornmeal decoctions, and you can find them here if you want to go the way of the Italians, or here if you want to go the way of the Southern Americans and cook grits or hominy grits!

I'm going to admit something here, I didn't just have the lovely aforementioned warm grits/polenta alone, I ended up crisping up a slice of bacon, chopping it into bits, and throwing it in. Medicinal properties of bacon you ask? Well, if it's from a well raised pig it's really not all that bad, in moderation. Everything in moderation.

Travelling Medicine: Thailand

2010-01-26T05:27:00.000-08:00

There is so so SO much food in Thailand, and not just any old food, I mean stunning food, that it's been nearly impossible to narrow it down for this post. I'm trying to stick to the purely medicinal aspect, which helps a little, but because the food in general is incredibly fresh and has a rich medicinal tradition of it's own it doesn't really help in the narrowing it down game. In fact, it didn't really help in the battle of the waistline either, since every time I go home I literally want to have all my favorites at least twice, then try something new and well...there isn't a lifetime of enough time to do that even when you live there. I could write an entire blog just on the medicine (and the pleasure) of Thai food. In fact, I found two lovely books just on that while I was home for the holidays in Bangkok. I was visiting the Yaowarat district in Bangkok and came across a strip of one store after another of traditional Thai medicine shops (traditional Thai medicine is referred to as Yaa Pan Boo-raan), where I came upon the two editions of books on food as medicine. Folks, there is nothing that really excites me more than this wherever I may be!

One of my favorite dishes and a must have every time I go back, is noodle soup (kuay teaw). There are many variations of noodle soup, perhaps so many that I'll never try them all as there are regional ones and then there is each noodle experts little nuance on a type of soup. The one directly below is from DuDee noodle shop on Chaengwattana Road, owned by Du and Dee (though Dee has since passed away sadly) and it has a few locations throughout Bangkok. I got it to go and assembled it at home, as many people do.

They do an excellent Tom Yum flavored pork noodle soup with bean sprouts, Thai white morning glory (pak boon thai si kao), crispy fish skins, ground pork (moo sap), barbeque pork (moo daeng), crushed peanuts, and there is of course more in these soups but you get the jist. Below this is a plain pork noodle kuay teaw with pork meat balls, with a dash of dried chile flakes on top.

Some people wonder why you would want to eat a spicy and hot soup when you're in a hot humid country. Well, chiles by inducing you to sweat ever so slightly (or for some profusely) are actually cooling your body down. Noodles soups can have many different qualities besides the spice factor, I wrote about beef boat noodle soup many months ago (kuay teaw rua) and it's medicinal properties (being more of a blood builder).

These soups can also be had plain, no spice, and are in general a wonderful way to build yourself up if you're feeling fragile or weak. Anything cooked low and slow (as the broth base is always prepared) is an excellent overall tonic. Then there are the condiments, the chile (cooling and warming, moving, anti-bacterial), the garlic (immune system enhancing), scallions (fights colds), ginger (digestive), and so on. As I said earlier, it's difficult to narrow things down when everything has such an essential role, but I'd like to focus a bit more on one of the ingredients which is commonly thread throughout Thai cuisine: the chile. There are many different types, large, small, dried, fresh, ground, whole, hot, mild, green, red, yellow, or orange.

The chile/aka. prik in Thai (or Capsicum frutescens) in Chinese Medicine treats the stomach, spleen, and heart and has a fire nature (the other 4 of the 5 elements being: wind, earth, water, and wood). It works on dissipating cold, warming your digestive system, dissolving food stagnation, producing sweat (and therefore cooling you as well!), and drying "dampness" (dampness meaning conditions such as : being overweight, an excess of phlegm, cloudy mind, sluggishness, fatigue). All chiles are rich in capsaicin, vitamin C, A, and E, phosphorous, and calcium, some are higher in each than the others. Chiles (also legitimately spelled chilies, or chillies FYI) have been studied extensively in the last 20-30 years as to their medicinal values by both the modern and traditional medicine contingents. It has been found that they're in fact good for all the things they were said to be good for in TCM, but are being used for even more purposes such as drug addiction and arthritis treatment. AlgoRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., a start up pharma company, was even in the market for creating a drug based on capsaicin for pain prevention.

Chiles can stimulate the neural pathways that release endorphins, and thus are pain-reducing. In TCM pharmacies you can find chile patches (which work very well I can say from first hand experience and from patient feedback) on lower back pain and arthritic pains in particular. So, if you are ever in Thailand and suffering from any of the above symptoms, have some noodle soup, add some chile, and sit back and let it seep in and heal you! Conditions in which you should use restraint on the chile front: active bleeding hemmorhoids, ulcers, or a "hot burning" diarrhea.

Beyond chiles, another of the wonderful medicinal food groups (though I will make a side note here; almost all fresh, local, & seasonal foods have some aspect of medicinal value to them) is the fruit world in Thailand. Oh the fruit!!!! There are so many which I miss when I am away and all I can get is imported cardboard cut out versions which I tend to avoid anyway. There are two which I happen to love and will therefore dabble on a bit here: mangosteens and tamarinds.

Mangosteens (aka. mung-kut) have finally made their way over to the U.S. in the form of semi fresh real fruit and in products galore due to their suddenly popular "medicinal and health" benefits in the Western hemisphere. I can't comment too much on the creams and dreams made of mangosteens but I can on the actual fruit. Well, mangosteens (also know as the "The Queen of Fruits") have been found to be high in xanthones. The rind in parcticular is rich in this compound and has therefore been used traditionally to treat conditions such as gonorrhea (though please go get some antibiotics for this if you have it!!!), diarrhea, ezcema, and bladder infections. The actual fruit inside the thick rind has antibacterial and microbial effects. Mangosteens are also simply just delicious, end of story. The white succulent flesh that is sweet and slightly tart is found when you slice it open and reveal the beautiful orange-like wedges inside. I have only ever eaten mangosteens fresh, and to my knowledge they aren't used in any Thai dishes, but if you know of any please let me know.

Tamarind (aka. ma-kam) is another favorite whilst in Thailand, fresh or otherwise. When I was a kid I would always eat these little powdery tamarind flavored candies which are hard to find nowadays, but I have kept the tins out of nostalgia and will post a picture on here sometime so that if you want to attempt to hunt them out you can while you visit (I did not find any on this trip). Tamarind is used as a mild laxative, blood purifier, for lowering cholesterol, as a fever reducer (applied as a poultice), as an antibacterial/microbial/viral, for skin infections, and the leaves are used to treat rheumatism and malaria (to be honest tamarind is used for countless other maladies so it seems to be one of those miracle fruits, go tamarind!). Another little surprise use of tamarind is in worcestershire sauce! Yep. It's everywhere.

One of my favorite uses for tamarind (besides as a cooling juice) is in the Thai street dish, kai look kuey featured below. It is a very simple dish to make.

Ingredients: eggs, fresh or pulp tamarind, sugar (cane or palm), fish sauce, shallots, cilantro, dry red chiles, oil.

Instructions: Hard boil eggs first, then lightly fry until golden on the outside, set to side. Take tamarind pulp and place in water, squeeze out juice until water is a nice brown color. Place water into pan and put on a slow boil, add sugar and fish sauce to taste and cook slowly until it thickens (the sauce should taste sweet & sour & slightly salty). Fry half moon shallots until crispy and add to sauce. Fry dry red chiles and add to sauce as well. Pour over crispy eggs and serve with minced cilantro if you so wish. (Below I used duck eggs to be extra decadent, but you can use either duck or chicken eggs)

Another very popular ingredient in Thai cuisine is kaffir lime leaves, aka. bai ma krood (below you can see the leaves pictures with some miniature eggplants & chiles, and the kaffir lime leaves). The juice of the actual limes is used for stimulating the scalp and promoting gum health.

Kaffir is also said to be a blood purifier. The leaves are used fresh in salads or dry (as well as fresh) in many curries and soups. Some of my favorites are Tom Yum (Hot & Sour Soup) and Gaeng Kiew Wan (Green Curry).

(Tom Yum Goong)

(Gaeng Kiew Wan Gai)

Last but not least, for the time being at least (because there will always be more trips to Thailand), coconuts and their milk and oil which are used in curries, desserts (see kanom crok, a Thai coconut dessert below), for health, and for cooking. Coconuts have also received a warm and excited welcome in the Western hemisphere as of late, their medicinal properties being touted left and right. And with good reason.

Coconut oil and milk is good for the inside and the outside, for the stomach and the skin. Coconuts are warming and sweet, strengthening and tonic. They are an excellent source of saturated fat for vegetarians, but should be used moderately if you are consuming large quantities of other forms of cholesterol. I often prescribe the oil as an excellent ointment for dry or irritated skin conditions. I also prescribe it for digestive weakness in adults and children (even toddlers). If a toddler you can gently rub a little coconut oil in a clockwise motion around the abdomen. Likewise for adults, but it doesn't necessarily have to be quite as gentle.

And with that, I'll leave you, but I want to add some more food pictures from my trip to Thailand, medicinal or otherwise! Enjoy!

Small mackerel (pla tu), for more on the medicinal value of the "little fish" go to my previous post here.

For more on the medicinal value of pumpkins (fuk tong) and gourds go here.

Garlic (kratiem) in all it's variations, for more on this wonderful spice, go here.

Market scene in the Yaowarat district.

Food stall in the market.

Morning glory (pak boong).

Limes (manao).

Satoh (don't know the English version for this Southern Thai herb/plant). You can look it up on this Thai vegetable guide site.

More chiles being picked through.

Pork balls (sai oua) mixed with herbs and spices and grilled on a stick.

Fresh fruit stall.

Homemade green mango salad (yum mamuang).

Wing bean salad (yum tua poo), a MUST try, one of my all time favorites as well.

Small green Thai eggplants used in curries and for other dishes (ma keua), for more on eggplants medicinal uses go here to a previous posting of mine.

Turtle eggs (kai tao).

Grilled sweet bananas (kluay ping).

Papaya tree with little tiny papaya flowers that will soon bloom into the fruit itself. For more on papaya see my Travelling Medicine: Colombia post.

Green papaya salad (som tam). Made with small blue crabs on the left (som tam bu) and plain on the right.

A little concoction of my own, singha beer with fresh chiles, lime, and a dash of sea salt at the beach.

And last (but not least!), a little kiss to a little crispy garlic fried river fish!

For more pictures on the Thai delights (there are too many to post here), go to the Spice Doc fan page or to my new Flickr page.

Back from Thailand!

2010-01-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

I don't want you to think I've forgotten about this, but I did revel in a long and much needed holiday home to Thailand (with a brief jaunt through Paris for Christmas). I will be compiling some juicy tidbits on just a smidgen of the endless variety of Thai medicinal foods this week. In the meantime, above, is a little glimpse of one of the integral ingredients, grown in our very own rooftop garden in Bangkok (if only I could manage such beautiful chiles here in Chicago!)...

Oysters in Paris

2009-12-26T04:13:00.000-08:00

We just celebrated a lovely Christmas in Paris. Here is a little taste of what we had, briney and succulent oysters. We are right smack in the season for these, but you can use the general rule of thumb to calculate when to have them: all the R months, meaning OctoberR, NovembeR, DecembeR..and so on. In Chinese medicine these are considered good for your kidneys, and therefore your fertility and sexual energy. Must be why everyone says they are an aphrodisiac...more on oysters another time. Have a wonderful holiday!

Ending on a Sweet Note (Happy 2010!)

2009-12-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

Another year is rolling into it's final days (at least for those going by the Georgian calendar, because in Thailand according to the Buddhist calendar it is 2553 for a little while longer and that's where we're going!). In any case all this has nothing to do with what I'm going to write about, which is HONEY. Full on capitals for this lovely and most amazing medicinal and literally gods-gift-to-us-sweet-nectar! I have been deep in the depths of honey and I think it's going to be a while before I climb out. It has become a bit of an obsession, everywhere I go all I see is honey. I'm packing for our trip in a few hours as I finish writing this, but I needed to write something about honey even though I don't think it will be enough, there is simply never enough honey.

It takes a bee it's whole lifetime to make one small teaspoon of honey.

That statement deserves it own sentence doesn't it? Each time you guzzle down enormous spoonfuls of honey, remember that. One bee's lifetime of work = one teaspoon of honey. And there is NO way (I'm happy to say) to make honey synthetically. We can not replace bees, thank god. Though we try: beware of honey that is fattened up with high fructose corn syrup. I have NO clue why this is done, but I've seen it here and there in honey jars that are fronting for pure honey. The plastic poo bear honey containers are often culprits of this sacrilege.

Bees (and therefore) honey are unfortunately suffering a serious population decline in the last 10 years. And when I say serious, I mean it's really really dire for us! This is no joke in terms of our food supply. Bees not only make honey for us, that honey comes from their ability to pollinate gazillions of crops for us - something we simply can't do on our own. Can you imagine going and individually pollinating each tiny bulb so it could grow up to be a pepper or a piece of fruit? Nope. It's impossible. Well, not entirely, but at least in terms of feeding the WORLD population (which we're struggling to do somehow anyway). When I grew my first chile plants I had them out on our back porch with full sun, plenty of water, and they grew plenty of flowers which were supposed to magically (in my apparently mistaken mind) transform into chiles. Well, the flowers kept dropping, and no chile babies arrived. Finally, I investigated fully and realized that unless a bee came along to do the magic I would have to take my fingers and rub the pollen on each flower and then onto the next flower and so on and so forth. I did do this, and chiles did grow, but if I were to have to do this for all my food (plant based in any case), it would be a full time job and then some. It would be ALL I did every day. So, bees are important. And we need to clearly pay more attention to this because we're losing them at a rapid rate and no one knows why (it is being referred to as "Colony Collapse Disorder"). Here are some articles on this: the Examiner, TIME, The New Yorker, and MSNBC. But not to worry, not all is lost as it seems we are becoming more aware every day and I have faith in us and our honey.

There are over 20,000 species of bees worldwide. And often a bee feeds on a specific type of flower, lending the honey it makes the taste of where it fed. This fact still amazes me to no end and I have begun collecting honey from every nook and cranny of the world I get to go to and find honey! No one honey is the same. I recently bought some chestnut honey from the farmers market in Chicago, honey made from a chestnut orchard and the bees that fed there...it was delectable. Silky, nutty, sweet. Bees have become quite prolific thanks to our need for them, there are now people who "rent" out their bees by travelling around in trucks full of hives and letting their bees out to pollinate certain crops. Almonds in particular are very dependent on bee pollination. I could write many paragraphs (and probably books) just on the pollination and the business thereof of bees, but let's get to the medicine.

Honey is incredibly healing. The first time I learned about this was when I was in Cuba and learning from two men who kept a medicinal herb garden there. They said you could take one tablespoon of honey on it's own (not during or before meals) to boost your immunity or for weight loss. Honey also works on harmonizing the liver (TCM term here), neutralizing toxins, and relieving pain (source: P. Pitchford, "Healing With Whole Foods"). And that's not it, there's more! Honey soothes a dry throat and cough, can treat hyptertension, and constipation. It can even be applied on a wound thanks to it's anti bacterial effect. Honey never goes bad. It can sit in a jar at room temperature literally for CENTURIES. Using raw honey is more beneficial and less sugary than the heated type. However, they warn that it's not always safe to feed this to babies (i.e. the raw kind).

While I was learning about honey I read a wonderful book by Piers Moore Ede called "Honey and Dust, Travels in Search of Sweetness". Piers travels the world in search of honey after suffering a terrible accident and in the process of his recovery falls in love with this sweet nectar. His book is a tantalizing journey around the world which will make you want to do exactly the same thing! Each time I picked it up, I would go right back to the cupboard and root around for a teaspoon (and lifetimes work of a bee!) of honey. My favorite as of late is taking a spoonful of honey comb, which you then slowly chew and let the honey gradually seep into your mouth while you keep rolling the comb around until you've juiced every last bit of honey out. It's like a honey gum but better.

I've noticed bees and honey everywhere now, real bees, bee logos, bee products, honey, and recently, honey liqueur from Germany. It's rather strong at 35% proof but you could certainly use it to mix into a holiday drink. Maybe a little honey liqueur on the rocks, with a splash of lemon, some cinnamon, some orange peel? You decide.

I almost always make my salad dressing with honey: 1 tbspn of honey, some vinegar (apple cider, balsamic, rice, it depends), salt and pepper, dijon mustard, crushed garlic, olive oil. Honey and sesame glazed chicken is lovely too. Drizzle the honey over a piece of chicken you've crusted with sesame seeds and broil. Baklava! You simply can't go on without eating baklava once in a while. The list of what you can do with honey is endless, it just goes on and on.

And with that, I will leave you because I'm down to the wire packing. I just enjoyed a teaspoon of the chestnut honey and hopefully I'll be coming home with even more honey from where I'm going! May 2010 be as sweet as what the bees give us.

Til' then..

Tis' the Season.. for a Detox

2009-12-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Tis' the season for a little .... detox. Heavy foods, lots of imbibing, and a constant parade of opportunities for the two makes for a sometimes great desire to detox. I get a lot of patients who ask about cleansing and detox, and many who have done some heavy duty liquid versions combined with colon cleanses, meditation, yoga, etc. This (what I am about to share) is not any of that. It is an eating cleanse, based out of Ayurvedic (known sometimes as kitchari) and TCM theory, designed for someone who is working and quite simply : needs to eat! I don't want to get too into an analysis of how to detox and the different opinions on it, because there are many ways and I myself have not studied them all nor have I tried them all so I am hesitant to comment. However, I have noticed that many people do not fare well doing hardcore intense deprivation-based detoxes whilst working and living their lives. In fact, some come in worst off after partaking in this type of cleanse. I will say this, read up on whatever you are going to do and if you intend to cleanse while you are living your life as you normally do (actively), then I suggest not going overboard. If you can afford the time to go sit on a mountain and eat very little while doing very little, then by all means, go for it. Otherwise, your body needs the energy from food, it's really that simple. You can trigger all kinds of imbalances and go steps back instead of forward if you do not cleanse approrpriately. Most of the time, Spring is the ideal time to cleanse (not only your closets) your body, but sometimes, you need a boost right smack in the middle of winter.

Now that that is somewhat clear (I hope), we can get to the purpose of this posting: the mung bean liver cleanse. This is a wonderful way to clean out your liver which is the main organ responsible for processing toxins that enter your system. Your liver gets tired. If you are eating heavy foods and drinking more than usual, your liver will start to get overburdened and you may experience: sluggishness, bloating, gas, diarrhea, indigestion, depression, irregular menses, headaches, fits of anger, tense muscles, and believe it or not more symptoms than those! This cleanse is a great way to give your liver a break and get back on track. I'm not saying you should eat mung beans and then go back to hamburger-land the next day, you'll still need to ease up on your body afterwards, but this will help to give your liver a break.

At the base of this detox is the wonderful medicinal and food: the mung bean, or lu dou in Chinese. Mung beans are originally from India but long ago became a part of Chinese cuisine and medicine, that is why this is a cleanse which falls into both the Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine traditions. Mung beans are cooling, sweet, beneficial to the liver and gallbladder, and nourish yin (the fluids of the body). Usually, mung beans are used in the summertime to cool hot conditions and keep the body regulated, but they can also be used to cool hot conditions or liver-related toxicity during other times of the year. When I lived in China I loved having mung bean juice and ice cream in the summer! But winter is never a good time for this version of mung beans, you must eat them hot as they are still cooling and you don't want to overburden your digestive system with too much cold.

When you do this cleanse you want to do as follows to be effective: choose one whole day per week for a period of a month OR do it for one day, then take a week off, then do it for two days, then take a week off, then do it for three days, and so on and so forth until you've reached 5 days total straight. I will not lie, while the recipe is delicious, it is not easy to only eat mung beans and rice for even a day, especially if you love food and/or are surrounded by festive holiday dishes. That's why maybe the one day a week for a month is best for the majority of people at this time, but if you've got the stamina and willpower, go the whole nine yards! You can not eat anything else but the recipe below, you can only drink water and non-caffeinated teas. You can eat as much as the mung bean recipe as you want, but that is all. You can not smoke or drink alcohol (this would obviously counteract the benefits of a liver cleanse!). To increase the benefit of this further, I suggest you eat your last meal at 8 p.m. and do not eat again until 8 a.m. (you want a full 12 hours between your last and your first meal to completely give your body and liver a chance to rest). If you must eat at 9 p.m., then eat your breakfast at 9 a.m., and so on and so forth.

Conditions you would want to use this cleanse for: chronic fatigue (see a TCM practitioner for more guidance in this case), vertex or temporal headaches (ie. top of the head or side of the head), red eyes, indigestion, gas and bloating, acid reflux, irregular menses (also see a TCM practitioner for more guidance), chronic bronchitis, phlegm, depression, if you are undergoing chemotherapy (email me for more information on this please - but you would want to do it before chemo sessions for a day if possible), if you have cirrhosis or hepatitis C, if you feel angry and stuck, or if you just simply feel the need to clean the body out and give the liver a break.

Conditions you do NOT want to use this cleanse: DURING menstruation (avoid! it is too cold and will cause complications), if you have chronic diarrhea and difficulty digesting food (you may be having a "cold" condition in TCM and this would not be a good cleanse for you), if you start this cleanse and find it exacerbates any pain or discomfort in your body.

Suggestions and warnings: If you are going for a 2-3 day cleanse you may experience some headaches or dryness, this is often your body detoxing (especially for those accustomed to drinking caffeine or smoking cigarettes), so long as it does not persist beyond a day or two, this is within the normal range of a liver detox. Again, and I can not emphasize this enough, if you are very delicate or have a complex condition, please see a licensed TCM practitioner while you do this.

Ingredients and Cooking Instructions:
mung beans
rice (basmatic or jasmine work well, brown or white)
lemons or limes
cold pressed olive oil
sea salt
chile (dried, fresh, or sauce)

1. One cup of mung beans to 5 cups of water, add salt, bring to a boil and let it simmer. Depending on how soft you want your mung beans (taste to decide) it can take from 45 minutes to an hour and change for this to cook. I added a little cumin to my last batch to give it a little more warmth since mung beans are cold and it is winter.
2. Cook rice separately.
3. Plate rice, add beans on top, sprinkle olive oil generously, sprinkle sea salt, squeeze lemon or lime on top, and add chile flakes, chile sauce (I used sriracha as seen above), fresh chiles, or black pepper for those that find red chile too much.

*** A little side note here, a reader below has noted that the kitchari version of the mung bean cleanse can be done for longer periods of time and by adding garlic, onions, spices (cumin, tumeric, etc), ghee (clarified butter - very good for your digestive system) and vegetables to it. This is definitely the case if you want to make it a meal which you integrate more often into your culinary path and that is still incredibly healing and cleansing. However, if you want to clean your system out for a full day at a time you would want to be more strict and lean on the ingredients and stick to the five basic flavors : sour (lemon), salty (salt), spice (chile, cumin, tumeric or a combo), sweet (rice), bitter (mung beans). There are many links out there to kitchari (or kitcharee) recipes, here is one.

Tins, Tomatoes, and Soup

2009-12-07T16:29:00.000-08:00

The first snow dropped today! There goes the green, and all color for that matter, for a little to a long while. Luckily the canned, tinned, and preserved fruit and vegetables from the Summer bounty will add some color to your plate if you're sticking to trying to eat most of your foods as they are in season (your seasons can be canned!). Look for brands that use the least amount of preservatives, I prefer the simplest of all: tomatoes and salt. And today I was craving tomatoes due to a little liver heat situation I was experiencing (a TCM - Traditional Chinese Medicine - term for certain symptoms related to the liver such as : red eyes, high blood pressure, headaches, dryness, thirst, and indigestion/food retention). In my case it was the latter symptom, a case of food retention and some sluggishness. It could be partly due to the holiday thump of heavy foods and winter creeping in, or a myraid of other reasons. In any case, I had a tomato bread soup in mind all along and that's what I made, and it was wonderful. And simple. When it comes to tomatoes you don't want to overdo it as they can weaken your calcium absorption and are also detrimental in arthritic cases, but when you need a little kick start, they work. I needed to rev up my engine so to speak and I didn't want any meat but I still wanted some substance.

Ingredients:

1 can of tomatoes
1/2 a white onion
sprig of parsley
1 celery stalk
salt
pepper
paprika
stale or toasted bread chunks
chicken stock
parmesan optional

Instructions: Saute bread in olive oil so it browns lightly then take it out and place to the side. Add more olive oil to the pan. Caramelize onions, add celery sliced up in small moons, add tomatoes, chicken stock, salt, pepper, and paprika. Cook it all down so it melds (taste), then add the bread and let the soup soak into it. Serve in a bowl and grate some parmesan if you so wish and add a bit of fresh parsley on top.

A Quick Cluck

2009-12-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

I'm deep in the incredibly layered and rich history of honey at the moment, so ... the honey posting I keep promising is not ready! I need more honey, more research, more sweetness before I can share it on here.

But I do want to share something else: chicken adobo. I've never been a huge fan of chicken, I think more than likely due to the pretty nasty growing practices they've been subjected to which does nothing for their taste let alone our health. However, a good chicken goes a long way and it's worth going the extra mile to find one. It is easier to digest than beef for one, and if you are weak and/or sick and you need a nice sweet warm protein to build yourself up with, then chicken it is. After Thanksgiving with all it's heavy richness, all I wanted was something simple with a little vinegar to cut the fat from the weekend (vinegar is an excellent way to move the blood and digestion). So I made adobo. Now adobo is much like making chilli, there seems to be a thousand ways to make it "authentically" (as you can see here in all these different pictures). I go with the way my roommate in college taught me. Chicken (preferrably with the bone and skin on), vinegar (apple cider or white), whole garlic cloves, whole black peppercorns, bay leaves, soy sauce, a little water, and that's it! So simple, and so so so so so so good. It's sweet, vinegary, salty, oozy, and fall-off-the-bone good.

Ingredients:

chicken with bone and skin (you choose but make sure you have enough meat to soak up the sauce)
bay leaves
garlic cloves
black peppercorns (whole)
soy sauce
vinegar (cider or white)

1. Brown the chicken in the pot first, add substantial amounts of garlic cloves (I used a whole bulb for two pieces of chicken thighs) so they lightly brown. Add water (just enough to cover the bottom of the pot). Add 1 part soy sauce to 1/3 part vinegar. You want the chicken to be at least half way covered. Add bay leaves. Bring to a boil.
2. Allow the chicken to simmer for a few hours turning it occasionally. You will know when it's done as the chicken meat falls off the bone and the sauce thickens into a caramely colored goodness. Serve over rice.

(some fun variations on this are adding potatoes, onions, or coconut milk)

If You Get Stuffed Too

2009-11-24T14:08:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is going to swoosh in (at least for those of us here in the U.S.) and knock all our bellies out. Just a quick note, this posting will be relevant to anyone about to indulge in a culinary feast: it could be post Ramadan, post Lent, post any fasting-then-indulging moments. Not that Thanksgiving involves any preemptive fasting, it is mainly just indulging and yes..being thankful (that your belly doesn't implode!). I pondered what I could recommend for Thanksgiving besides try-not-to-eat-too-much, and I thought that medicinally speaking the key around this time is to treat indigestion and overindulgence for the most part. Well, luckily for all of us there are many traditions around the world that have already come up with some wonderful remedies. One of which is any anise or licorice based liquor : the German Jägermeister; the French Pastis; the Colombian Aguardiente; the Portugese Aguardente; the Chinese gan cao (licorice root) which is added to almost all herbal decoctions and tinctures; the Danish Gammel Dansk; the Greek Ouzo; the Italian Sambuca; the Turkish Raki; the European (originally Swiss) Absinthe; the Hungarian Unicum; and the Czech Becherovka. I wrote an extensive posting about medicinal wines and liquors in June which will help you to navigate how to make your own if you are interested, or you can simply go out and buy a nice bottle of Pernod and call it a day.

The idea behind drinking a digestif is quite simply that: digestion. It is actually meant to do what it is called! This may be obvious to many of you, and surprising to some. In any event, it does help and I do recommend it as a lovely medicinal and tasty addition to the dessert menu for Thanksgiving.

If you do not drink liquor or wine, then I would suggest you make a tea using licorice root with honey and drink that after dinner. In fact, it would be a lovely post-dinner tea to serve if you so wish and you can skip the liquor (though having the alcohol element in small doses increases blood flow and circulation). All you would do is buy some licorice root (you can buy this at any Chinese pharmacy if you have access to one) and boil it in water, approximately 1 piece of licorice root to 2 cups of water. Boil for 15 minutes. Another excellent digestion aid is ginger, which many people are using already. You can make a tincture out of it as seen below or you can also boil it into a tea with honey.

In the meantime, good luck with your turkeys and all the goodness and I will be back soon with some wonderful news on honey and all it's sweetness.