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Double-boiled silkie chicken with red dates and dried longan
“The pot she makes when someone needs looking after.”
Ingredientsone pot, serves 4
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.
- Pit the 紅棗 (red dates). Rinse the 圓肉 (dried longan) and 杞子 (goji berries).
- Chop the 烏雞 (silkie chicken) into pieces and blanch it (汆水, a quick boil to clean off blood and scum).
- Put everything in the double-boil jar and pour in about 800 ml of boiling water.
- Seal the jar and double-boil for 3 hours.
- 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.