Double-boiled silkie chicken with red dates and dried longan

Ingredients

Method

Double-boiled (隔水燉, the covered jar stands in a pot of water rather than sitting on the heat): pour about 800 ml of boiling water into a two-person jar, just covering the ingredients. Put the lid on and seal the jar with cling film (traditionally 紗紙, mulberry paper). Stand it in a pot of boiling water, with the water a third to halfway up the jar, and double-boil for 3 hours, topping up with boiling water as you go. Salt goes in last.

1. Pit the 紅棗 (red dates). Rinse the 圓肉 (dried longan) and 杞子 (goji berries).
2. Chop the 烏雞 (silkie chicken) into pieces and blanch it (汆水, a quick boil to clean off blood and scum).
3. Put everything in the double-boil jar and pour in about 800 ml of boiling water.
4. Seal the jar and double-boil for 3 hours.
5. Season with salt and it is ready.

Who it suits

• after childbirth
• blood deficiency after a period
• cold hands and feet
• a pale complexion
• trouble sleeping

Who should take care

• people who run hot and flare up easily should cut back the 桂圓
• avoid while a cold has not fully cleared
• take care with 桂圓 in early pregnancy
• diabetics in moderation
• gout sufferers take care, long double-boiled meat soups are high in purines (general warning across this collection)

Soup stories

The archetype of the confinement double-boil. 烏雞 with 紅棗 and 桂圓 is what mothers and confinement nannies make for a new mother through her first month. The other confinement icon, 豬腳薑醋, is a vinegar pot rather than a double-boiled soup.

From the same family

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.