Home-cooked Red Bean and Barley Soup to get rid of dampness in your body

Hooray! Finally she is back but she is in clutches. I am over the moon because she told me that I have regained my health and there is some dampness in my body after feeling my pulse. I asked her what and why there would be dampness and these were her replies.

Red Bean Chinese Barley Soup

Symptoms of Dampness

• You feel heavy.
• You feel tired easily.
• You feel that water in your body is not circulating properly.

What causes Dampness?

• Recently, I had my wisdom tooth removal. She mentioned that painkillers and antibiotics can cause dampness.
• She also mentioned that I have "heart fire". It could be due to my late nights or difficulty in getting adequate rest at night.

Red Bean Barley Soup to get rid of Dampness?

• She suggested cooking red bean with barley soup and drink it regularly. I asked her if drinking more water would help. She jokingly mentioned no matter how much water I drink, it would not help. I asked her if exercise would help, she replied a "Yes"!
• I asked her why I need to cook red beans with barley, she replied that red beans would make barley less liang (cooling) which is bad for women.

How to prepare?

Ingredients:

Chinese Barley 

Red Beans

(Proportion Red Beans:Barley = 1:2)

Tap water

Steps:

Wash barley and red beans. 

Fill your pot with tap water.

Cook them until they are cooked thoroughly (beans are broken) which will take around 40 minutes.

I added rock sugar for a better taste.

I hope my post has helped you in some way! She also told me to avoid Ba Zhen Soup because it might be bad for my wisdom surgery recovery as it is too "Bu". It might trigger an infection. She gave me some suggestions for other soups to further remove dampness. Stay tuned!

Si Shen Tang with additional Yu Zhu and Black Beans Soup

During this period whereby I have two holes in my mouth due to my wisdom teeth removal, I was advised to drink milder soups such as Si Shen Tang with additional Yu Zhu. I was advised that this would help with digestion of solids and fluids, helping with body dampness in a way. I love this soup because it is very delicious! I love the lotus nuts especially.

Si Shen Tang with Yu Zhu

Ingredients

Si Shen Tang herbs - It comes in a package and can be purchased even from neighbourhood NTUCs.
Black Chicken - Ask the auntie selling chicken to remove the skin.
Black Beans
Yu Zhu

How to cook?

I like to blanch my chicken to remove the scum (the whitish stuff that floats on your soup if you do not blanch your meat.). I do it by pouring boiling hot water on my black chicken.

After rinsing, I put all the ingredients in a Glass pot and filled it with tap water. 

I boiled it at high heat. When the soup was bubbling, I turned it to low heat to simmer it for an hour. The lotus seeds were very soft after cooking. 

As black chicken can be pretty oily, it is best to sift out the oil for a healthier option.

How does it taste like?

Unlike conventional herbal soups which taste bitter, Si Shen Tang has no bitter taste at all. It is very nutty probably due to the copious amount of lotus seeds. The Yu Zhu gives the soup a very light sweet fragrance. The sweetness of the black chicken enhances the wholesomeness of the soup.

Delicious!

How to cook Paper Wrapped Steamed Herbal Black Chicken?

Tired after work and still doing work, I was thinking what nutritious food to cook and it had to be relatively easy to cook. There was a black chicken in the fridge and I decided to try Paper Wrapped Herbal Chicken. I was quite pleased with the results as the paper sealed the flavours and the chicken meat was infused with the aroma of the herbs. especially when I unwrapped it.

Why do Chinese eat Black Chicken? "According to Chinese medicine, the black Silkie chicken can help to warm the body and strengthen the immune system. The chicken is believed to be especially helpful for women." Medicaldaily

For this easy recipe, I have included a video, pictures with captions and a printable recipe card.

Paper Wrapped Steamed Herbal Black Chicken

Place the herbs and chicken on baking paper in a bowl.

Wrap the chicken with another baking paper.

Steam it for 45 minutes using Happy Call.

Rest the handle of the lid on the table. No spilling of water.

Grate some ginger.

Mix grated ginger, light soya sauce and sesame oil with the Japanese Cucumber

print recipe

Paper Wrapped Steamed Herbal Black Chicken 

by My Sassy Food Blogger 

August-3-2017

Ingredients

• 1 Black Chicken
• 3 Dang Shen
• Est 10g Yu Zhu
• Est 10g Wolfberries
• 2 Red Dates (Seeds removed)
• 1 small piece Ginger
• 1 Japanese Cucumber
• 2 tablespoons Lee Kum Kee Superior Light Soya Sauce
• 2 teaspoons Sesame Oil

Instructions

1. Cut 2 pieces of square shaped baking paper.
2. Place herbs and chicken on baking paper in a bowl.
3. Wrap herbs and chicken with baking paper.
4. Fill Happy Call with water.
5. Bring it to boil.
6. Place bowl with wrapped herbs and chicken in steamer.
7. Steam for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
8. Grate some ginger.
9. Cut the chilled Japanese Cucumber into thin slices.
10. Mix the grated ginger with soya sauce and sesame oil.
11. Add water to the mixture.
12. Soak the cucumber in the mixture.
13. Place the cucumbers in the refrigerator.
14. Serve chilled.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 45 mins Total time: 1 hour Yield: 2

Oats with Tuna and other soft food ideas - Recovering from Wisdom Tooth Surgery

Dentist Phobia

Since I was 6 years old, I have been having a phobia of dentists. Ever since I bolted from a dentist chair and dashed to the carpark, frightening the guts of my poor parents who gave chase, I have been extracting all my milk teeth using a piece of string. When I grew older, I realised that I would not be able to remove my wisdom teeth using any string in the world. Yesterday, I went for upper and lower wisdom teeth surgery. The upper one was giving me problems and I decided to get rid of the lower one as well. How many of you are scared of dentists too?

Quaker Oats to the rescue

What to eat after a wisdom tooth surgery?

Yesterday, I was very hungry but it was so uncomfortable to eat that I only managed to swallow some porridge and I was unable to chew the pork and liver at all. I was very sad that I wasted the ingredients. Therefore, if it is Day 1 of your wisdom tooth surgery, please buy fish porridge instead of pork. As a result, I only ate a Bao before my surgery and some porridge for the whole day.

Day 1 - Mixed Pork Porridge 

When I woke up in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised by how much my stomach had flattened and the excess fats around my waist looked trimmed, just by eating very little during dinner! I know this is temporal bliss but maybe I can start eating less for my dinner.

For breakfast, I definitely had to go with fish. Too lazy to go out, I decided to eat Instant Oatmeal. This Quaker Oats has come to my rescue many times in my life, sustaining me whenever I am sick and have no appetite. It goes well with honey, fruits and nuts and even Nutella. Today, I tried with tuna. I love tuna in everything. It was edible and I was able to consume most of it without comfort. Yeah, oats with fish is the saviour for wisdom tooth surgery patient!

Day 2 - Mashed Egg Tart for tea break

Day 2 - Steamed Egg with Tofu

Happy Call Steamer and Frying Pan for steaming egg

I posted on SHC and thanks to them, I have gathered some good ideas to try out for the next few days - steamed eggs with tofu, yoghurt, Tau Hway, sliced fish mee sua, fish porridge, fish hor fun...

Day 3 - Baked Beans with eggs and tuna

What to expect during a wisdom tooth surgery?

Since I have dentist phobia, I decided to have my surgery done at Thomson Dental Care at Novena Specialist Centre. My dentist is Dr Lim Tse Chiun. She is very gorgeous looking, standing at 1.8m. She looks even more beautiful in person than the picture online. I went to her because of word of mouth.

During the surgery, she was very gentle and always explained every step in advance. She was very encouraging and kept saying, "Good, you did VERY well." Surprisingly, her LA shots were not painful, unlike my previous ones. Only one shot on the nerve located in my lower jaw was painful. She comforted me and said that she had to do that to put the nerve to sleep. Staring at her huge sparkling eyes was so calming.

Although she was gentle and patient, she was very efficient. She administered the LA shots on upper and lower at the same time. 10 minutes later, she poked me with a sharp object to test if the LA had kicked in. Subsequently, she removed the upper wisdom tooth very quickly. Initially, I was worried that a female dentist might not have the strength to remove wisdom tooth. She did not show any lack of confidence and was very fast.

For the lower one, it was severely impacted. She explained that I would hear grinding sounds. The grinding sounds went on for a while and she also managed to remove the tooth easily. Both surgeries took less than an hour. I arrived at 9.15am. By the time she explained to me what would happen next and got me to sign a form, it should be 9.30am. When I came out of the room, it was only 10.10am!

I relaxed in the lounge for two hours, watching Odette on CNA.

What are the DOs and DON'Ts  after a wisdom tooth surgery?

Dr Lim told me to 

Dos

• Bite on the gauze for 1 hour. After 1 hour, if the gauze is less than 50% soaked with blood, I should stop using it. If it is still soaked, I will fold it into a quarter size and bite on it for another hour. I used 3 gauzes out of the 10 she gave me.
• Continue to brush my teeth. She said that my natural reflex would cause me to stop a tooth away whenever I brush. She asked me to brush a few cm further in my mouth whenever I feel like stopping. She also mentioned that even if my brush touches the stitches, it is fine. Oral hygiene has to be of paramount importance.
• Rinse my mouth very gently whenever I brush my teeth.
• Use a green solution to rinse my mouth after every brush for 1 week.
• Consume ONLY LUKEWARM drinks and food.
• Consume my painkillers and anti-swelling medication after food.

Don'ts

• Do not consume hot or spicy food.
• Do not spit or rinse my mouth for the next 6 hours after surgery. If there is blood, I am supposed to swallow it and not spit it out.
• Do not lift heavy objects or participate in strenuous activity.

From my previous endodontist (dentist specialising in root canal) at Thomson Dental Care (He is at Q&M now.) 

• Do gentle and gradual mouth exercises to prevent numbness of the jaws.
• Do not consume drinks with a straw.

From my own experience

• On the day after your surgery, DO NOT SNEEZE! I was not in pain until I sneezed. I felt an excruciating pain on the right side of my face. Thankfully, the pain subsided.

Almost wanted to use desktop

My two surgeries cost around S$1300 and I am able to use my Medisave. I did not quote prices at other dental clinics.

I hope my that my blogpost has helped those who are thinking of wisdom tooth surgery. After my ordeal, I advise all of you who have impacted wisdom teeth to remove them before any pain.

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