Red Date Tea (Confinement Recipe)

The Red Date Tea is more like a fruit tea that is good for mothers on confinement months. This traditional recipe for mothers who are breast-feeding, is a time tested recipe that will help mothers "make" more milk and produce more breast-milk for their newborn babies.

Besides being a remedy for most ailments that new mothers would experience, the Red Date Tea - with its myriad ingredients - is more than likely to cause the body to be heaty for the guys but for mummies, it actually helps to stabilize their confinement month and even help to lose weight.

I am using a crock pot to prepare this herbal brew for my wife who just recently delivered our newborn baby boy. I learnt this from the confinement nanny and I think this recipe rocks for those who are wondering what are the ingredients that go into this tea.

Ingredients:

Wolfberries Seeds
Dried Longans
Black Dates
Red Dates
Tang Sheng (Dried Roots)

The confinement nanny says to prepare a thicker Red Date Tea, the proportion of the ingredients will have to be increased. The crock pot can prepare enough tea for the whole day.

Wolfberries have a naturally sweet and herbal taste, so you can put more of these if you like. I usually put two handfuls. Dried Longans are sweet, so depending on what you like, you can put in about 30 pieces. The Red Dates 20 pieces and Black Dates 4 pieces are great for that special herbal taste that does some wonders to the body, and Tang Sheng - Dried Root - that looks like ginseng, I will put in about 5 pieces as these can make the Tea somewhat sour.

Pour in about 5 litres of water, and turn on the slow cooker for maybe 4-5 hours or overnight. That's it. :)

Celebrate Family Togetherness with Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Flour Dessert)

Celebrate Family Togetherness with Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Flour Dessert) Tāngyuán is a kind of Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour and is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in boiling water spiced with old ginger and castor sugar. It typically comes in one plain white colour, but some families have chosen to add a little food colouring to make the dessert a little prettier. Culturally for many families in China and also migrant families overseas, it is a meal eaten together. The round shape of the balls served in round bowls symbolises family togetherness. Tāngyuán translated means “Round Dumplings in Soup”. I got this recipe from my mother-in-law, and this is how it works. Recipe 1) Add 400g glutinous flour with 350ml water. Add the water slowly so that the dough mixture will not be too moist. If you accidentally added too much water, just simply balance it out with more glutinous flour. 2) Knead the mixture into dough. Then pinch a little and roll it in between your fingers. If the dough were to crack, it just means that it is too dry. If the dough ball does not hold its shape, then there is too much moisture in the pastry. 3) Divide into the dough into two (02) portions and with one portion, add a few droplets of food colouring – Cherry Red is good – and then knead the food colouring into the dough. The whole dough should now be pink in colour. 4) Put each portion of dough into a plastic bag and place them in the freezer for 30 minutes. 5) Remove from the freezer and begin to roll. (if however, after freezing the dough is too dry, just simply dap it with a little water. 6) Put the balls in boiling water, until they all start to float. Then off the fire and allow the dough balls to sit in the broth for about 5 minutes. 7) Scoop out the dough balls with a ladle and put them inside a bowl of cool tap water. 8) Prepare 300g castor sugar and put into the broth to boil a little, after which place slices of old ginger and pandan leaves into the soup and bring the soup to a boil. 9) Ladle the dough balls into the broth and allow them to sit in the fragrant mixture until the flavour has infused into the dough balls. 10) Allow the dessert to sit in the broth overnight, and when ready to eat, just heat up the soup and serve. Bon Appetit!