The Arrival of Green

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!

Crazy About Carrots

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

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.

Circulating Chives

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.

Tis' the Season.. for a Detox

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.

Apples Make You Juicy

The whole "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" wasn't far from the truth. Apples serve many functions, not the least of which is to increase body fluids according to Chinese medicine. Eat an apple, kill that dry cough that's creeping in as the winter seeps into our homes. Which makes it the perfect Fall fruit. It also cools heat in the lungs, which will protect you from heat-producing activities such as smoking or being around smoke. If you're sick and have lost your appetite an apple will stimulate it. The malic and tartaric acid present in apples inhibits the growth of bacteria and therefore protects your digestion. Apples will even lower cholesterol. Have gallstones? Apples will soften them. Apples are cleansing for the liver and gallbladder in fact. What doesn't an apple do? Well it won't eat itself for you. I went apple picking recently as the season is coming to a close, and it was lovely. I picked Jonathans, Red Delcious, and Jonogolds. There were more but these were the ones I loved. Jonathans for apple juice. Red Delicious for chutneys. Jonogolds to munch on.

Puffball, the Mushroom

I would like to introduce to you the wild puffball mushroom featured in the picture above. It can grow to be the size of a massive pumpkin or it can be a soccer ball like the one you see here. I had no idea I'd be meeting this mushroom in the farmers market today and when I did I was pretty much in love, I mean a massive spongy white cute thing with a name such as puffball? Who wouldn't want to take it home! Alas, today I didn't take puffball home because you need to cook these within a day or two of picking but I will be going back on Saturday to buy one and make a lovely mushroom soup with it.

Native Americans would dry puffballs and use them to staunch wounds. 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). The only time to be cautious with mushrooms is when you are extremely weak in which case you would not eat them daily, but on occasion it would be fine.

The puffball mushroom, specifically, is a TCM medicinal herb, referred to as ma bo. It clears heat, relieves toxicity, and targets the lungs in particular (therefore good for lung conditions such as sore throat, tonsillitis, and a cough with heat signs). According to TCM, the puffball also staunches bleeding, much like the Native American usage.

This is what I plan to do with my puffball (they tend to be similar to an eggplant in consistency):

*go easy on the cream if you are truly treating a cough with heat signs OR avoid cream entirely if there is phlegm in involved, this soup works sans cream as well.

1 large soccer ball puffball
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
chicken stock
cream
butter
chives


1. Saute minced garlic and onions until caramelized then add puffball (chop into small squares or thin slices) and cook until tender. Add chicken stock and cream, bring to a boil and reduce a little. If you want it thicker you can add flour to the chicken stock before it goes into the soup OR you can add potatoes.
2. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve with chive garnish if you wish.

If you want to hunt for these yourself (they cost $1/oz which gets pricey) here is a link to learn a bit about HOW, but be warned, mushroom foraging is dangerous if not done correctly or taken seriously.

Check out this picture of a man with the giant puffblall he found.

Here's a link on the BBC about a woman who discovered a gigantic puffball in Scotland.