Spring Recipe - Stir Fried Chicken and Goji Berries
By Vicky Chan of NourishU
Spring Recipes
Spring is the season of new growth, the season of wood and the season of the liver. It is the season of wind and rain and very unstable weather. It marks the beginning of a new growing season including bacteria and viruses. People can easily catch cold/flu and infectious diseases in spring. Wind-injuries can be characterized by rapidly changing and moving symptoms such as a stuffy and runny nose, coughs, fever, body pain, sneezing, and dizziness.
Our livers are most vulnerable to wind-injury in spring. It is important to invigorate the liver by eating warming and pungent food to defend and expel wind evil. Foods that are sweet in nature such as dates, goji-berries, animal's liver and leek can benefit liver health and help to promote liver qi. Sour can nourish liver and promote blood. Salty taste can promote sour.
Spring tonics emphasize on light and healthful foods such as spinach, celery, onion, lettuce, leaf mustard, Chinese yam, wheat, dates, peanuts, onions, cilantro, bamboo shoot and mushrooms. Soybean, bean sprout, egg, and tofu are rich in protein and can promote liver health and healthy growth of tendons.
Chrysanthemum Flower
Chrysanthemum flowers are very effective in lowering liver heat and calming the liver. They can be used as a tea or cook with other ingredients to make soup or entree dishes.
Dandelion
Dandelion is everywhere in spring. It is bitter and sweet in taste, cold in nature, and attributive to liver and stomach channels.
Pick dandelion leaves from your garden or from a wild field where there is no chemical pollution to make a detoxification tea for yourself and your family in spring. It is diuretic, clears damp-heat and toxic material, and benefits liver health. You can repeat this once again in late summer when you see them bloom again. It is the most inexpensive and effect detoxification tea that you can give to your body.
Stir Fried Chicken & Goji Berries
THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS
Benefits the liver and eyes.
INGREDIENTS
- Astragalus (huang qi) 黃耆 - 30 gm
- Goji-berry / Chinese Wolfberry (gou ji zi) 枸杞子 - 15 gm
- Chicken breast - one piece
- Cucumber - one
- Cooking wine - 2 spoonfuls
- Rinse astragalus and put with 2 cups of water in a pot and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then bring water to a boil and lower heat to medium-low to cook down to 1/2 cup of water left. Strain and keep aside.
- Wash and shred chicken and cucumber.
- Season chicken with salt, pepper, cornstarch and 2 to 3 spoons of astragalus water.
- Soak goji-berries for 20 minutes and rinse. Season goji-berries with some astragalus water.
- Warm one spoonful of oil in a wok and stir-fry chicken for a few minutes. Then sprinkle in cooking wine and the rest of the astragalus water, and stir.
- Add cucumber and stir for a few more minutes, then add wolfberry and stir for a couple of minutes more and is done.
USAGE
No restrictions.
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Goji Berries For Health and Longevity
By Vicky Chan of NourishU
Gougicai / Goji Berry
Gougi / Goji berry is one of the most popular Chinese herbs used in Western countries since the beginning of the 21st century. It is commonly known as wolfberry. Goji is the modern name, the direct translation from the Chinese name枸杞.
The gougi plant is a perennial scrub which can produce large amount of berries after a couple of years and can grow to as tall as two meters. The health benefits of the berries are well known to the West, but not so much for the leaves of the young plant and the root of the very old plant.
The gougi leaves are called gougicai which means gougi vegetable in Chinese. They are cool in nature and bitter in taste. They can strengthen the body's constitution, promote essence (Jing in Chinese medicine), clear internal heat and wind, improve vision, and promote liver, lung and kidney health. It is a very popular summer vegetable in the southern provinces of China.
Gougicai can be easily grown in a backyard or container garden. You can start from transplanting some strong stems by just sticking them into the soil. By keeping the soil moist for the first 10 to 15 days, new roots will come out and give life to the plant. When the plant grows to about 1.5 feet tall, you can harvest it by cutting the stem, leaving 3 to 4 inches above ground and it will grow back again. In time, the root will spread out to give life to more new plants. The best thing is that once you have started growing them, they will come back year after year.
Gougicai is commonly used in making soup. It only takes about 5 to 10 minutes to cook. The vegetable is slightly bitter in taste so using a meat broth or adding thinly sliced meat to the soup can offset the bitterness and make it more delicious.
The following is my favourite gougicai soup recipe. It is best for the whole family, for young children and for people recovering from illness.
Gougicai and Pork Liver Soup
THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS
Promotes liver health, improves vision, reduces liver heat, promotes blood and improves overall health.
INGREDIENTS
(3 to 4 servings)
• Gougicai 枸杞葉 - 320gm
• Pork liver豬肝 – 160gm
• Pork豬肉 – 80gm
• Gogi berries – one handful
• Egg- 2
• Ginger – 3 slices
DIRECTIONS
1. Remove leaves by holding the top of each stem with one hand and put it between the thumb and the index finger of the other and then push leaves downward from top to bottom. The leaves will fall off easily. But be careful to avoid the small spikes on the stem when doing it. You can protect your hand by wearing a glove. Rinse the stems and leaves separately.
2. Put the stem to boil with about 6 to 8 cups of water for 10 to 15 minutes, remove stems and discard.
3. Rinse pork and liver and cut into thin slices. Soak and rinse goji berries.
4. Bring the water to boil again. Add ginger, liver and pork to cook for about 5 minutes.
5. Add gogi berries and leaves and bring to boil for another 5 to 10 minutes.
6. Beat eggs, turn off heat and add eggs to the soup and stir slowly. Add salt to taste and serve.
USAGE
No limitation. But avoid consuming dairy products at the same time because dairy hinders the effects of goujicai.
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