Healthy desserts?

It probably doesn't look like much, but this is one of the best winter dessert in my repertoire.

Sweet potato in brown sugar ginger tea.

Ginger, according to doctrines of Chinese medicine, warms up the body. Brown sugar helps with blood circulation, which in turn improves the flow of chi in the body. Sweet potato helps with reducing water retention in the body, and being high in fiber, helps also with digestion.

The ginger tea featured here is one I brought back from Taiwan. Sold in bags, it resembles nothing like the sugar we are familiar with in Australia. 

Sold in 5cm blocks, this is basically enough to make 2 large mugs of sweet ginger tea. The perfect balance of sugar, the spiciness of ginger, with the aroma of dried dates and longan (both improve circulation and warm the body), the perfect winter drink.

With all the rich and fatty food we tend to consume in winter, and general colder weather, this is a delicious way to restore a balance of health.

Sweet potato in brown sugar ginger tea

Serves 2-3

1 small sweet potato, cut into bite sized chunks

4 heaped tablespoons brown sugar (adjust to taste)

1 knob of old ginger, sliced thinly

3 dried red dates or 2 dried black dates

4 dried longan

1 litre water

1. Wash the sweet potato thoroughly, scrub the skin with steel wool to ensure most of the surface dirt has been removed. Cut into bite sized chunks, then place into a pot with the cold water, and set to the boil.

2. After the sweet potatoes have come to the boil, add the sugar, ginger, dates and longan, and simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft (10-20 minutes). Serve immediately.

Notes:

1. Dried red dates, dried black dates, and dried longan should be available from all good Asian grocers. You should be able to find them at the Chinese or Korean ones.

2. Old ginger should be used for this recipe rather than young ginger. Look for large knobs, golden skin, with wide stripes on the skin. Adjust the amount of ginger to your preference by adding the ginger little by little, keeping in mind the more you cook the ginger, the spicier the tea will become.

3. If you can find Okinawa brown sugar (沖縄黒糖) for cooking (and not as candy), that can be used as well. Otherwise, normal brown sugar from CSR is ok.

Mid-morning snacks and random ramblings

When I got back to Australia last week, it was a nice surprise to find good quality fresh lotus roots available at the Asian grocer. I am a huge fan of lotus, from root, to leaf, to flower and seeds. It's one of the few plants that can be used from root to tip.

One of my favourite dishes is glutinous rice stuffed in lotus root, a Shanghai classic. It's simple enough, with only a handful of ingredients, but a great test of judgment, skill, and of patience. Before anything, the right root must be chosen. It can't be too long, or too short; there can't be splits or cracks in the body. The length of the root must be complete, with no holes at each end where the rice may fall through. The rice must first be washed carefully, drained and allowed to dry; the root cleaned and the skin scraped off carefully with a sharp knife. A small section of the top is cut off, and rice patiently filled into the holes of the root. Too much rice, the root may burst or it won't cook properly; too little, everything will collapse and spill out of the root once it is cooked and cooled The top is then reattached, fixed in place with toothpicks, and the entire thing is boiled in water for several hours, until everything is completely cooked. Once cooled to room temperature, it is sliced, and served with a sprinkling of osmanthus sugar.



The entire process takes several hours, and the end result unknown right up until serving. Needless to say, I have had my fair share of disasters with this dish, particularly as I prefer mine to be more packed with sticky rice goodness than some others, making it more prone to undercooked bits of rice still being present in an otherwise healthy and filling dish.

Despite the simplicity of the ingredients, though, I am yet to discover a place in Australia that serves it, despite the abundance of Chinese (specifically, Shanghainese) restaurants here. Served as a "cold dish" or entree at the start of a classic Shanghai banquet, it is a dish that can be found anywhere, from the most humble of homes to the classiest of restaurants in the Jiangsu area. Then again, the 8 styles of Chinese cuisine is poorly represented here, despite the abundance of restaurants...a somewhat disappointing fact despite the importance of food in Chinese culture. (The 8 styles of Chinese cooking...perhaps that calls for series of posts on each? An idea for another day.)

And yes, I went on a holiday. Expect a few posts about it in the near future.