In Chinese tradition, confinement is an extremely important period for new mums and to recuperate their body after childbirth. It allows the new mum to take much-needed rest for an immunity boost to recover faster from the delivery.
It also helped that both the mother and baby remained indoors and under the care of the family. And even though science has made enough progress for women to have safe childbirth, it never hurts to adopt some of the traditional roots with modern science in a bid to boost the overall immunity levels of the mum and the baby.
That’s why we’ve listed six Chinese confinement food recipes that new mothers should try at home.
These recipes aren’t just about being healthy and nutritious, but they are tasty as well. And just in case you aren’t a new mum, you can always try them at home to give your immunity a natural boost.
6 Immunity Boosting Confinement Food Recipes To Try
1. Chinese confinement food recipes: Milkfish and Green Papaya Soup
Image Source: The Meatmen Channel on YouTube
This Chinese-style soup with slices of fish and green papaya can be consumed daily and helps boost the production of breastmilk.
The milkfish also has a less ‘fishy’ smell and taste but packs all the nutrients that fishes have to offer. It is certainly a must-add to your postpartum diet.
Ingredients:
- Cooking oil – 2 tbsp
- Milkfish – 2 pieces
- Ginger – 8 slices
- Red dates – 20 g
- Peanuts – 50 g
- Water – 3.4 litres
- Green papaya -1 kg cut into cubes
- Salt – to taste
- Muslin bag
Method:
- Add cooking oil to a pan and fry both pieces of the milkfish.
- Add four ginger slices and pan-fry until the fish turn golden brown.
- Transfer the fried fish into a muslin bag and let it rest in a pot.
- Add red dates to the pot along with ginger slices, peanuts and boiling water.
- Cover with a lid and let all the ingredients boil for one hour until the water turns murky.
- Remove the muslin bags with the fish and store them aside.
- Add the diced green papaya pieces and boil for another 15-20 minutes.
- Season the soup with some salt and serve in a bowl immediately.
2. Chinese confinement food recipes: Red Glutinous Rice Wine Chicken Mee Sua
Image source: The Meatmen Channel on YouTube
This recipe is rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties with ingredients like sesame oil, ginger, ride wine, and more, all of which help in the wellbeing and recovery of mothers during the postpartum period.
These are collectively rich in unsaturated fats, help maintain bone health, and fight off free radicals. Food items like ginger are also known as galactagogue and help boost breastmilk production.
Ingredients:
- Chicken drumsticks – 2 lbs
- Foo Chow Red Wine – 3 cups
- Sesame oil – 1 tbsp
- Fresh ginger peeled and thinly sliced – 1-inch
- Red Yeast Rice – 1 tbsp
- Mee sua noodles or use somen noodles – 8 bundles
- Salt to taste
- A small pinch of sugar optional
- Fresh cilantro leaves
- Chopped green onions
Method:
- Marinate the chicken for 15 minutes with red wine lees, rice wine, ginger juice, and light soy sauce.
- Add sesame oil to a pan and then thin slices of ginger.
- Fry until the slices turn crispy and fragrant, then drain and set aside.
- In the same pan, add the marinated chicken drumsticks and fry until they turn light brown.
- Add more of the red wine lees followed by rice wine add salt according to your taste preference.
- Stir and mix everything evenly and let it simmer for 15 minutes until the chicken turns soft and tender
- In another pan, add the mee sua to boiling water and blanch for one minute.
- Drain off water and transfer the mee sua into the individual serving bowl.
- Portion our chicken pieces and ladle them with some hot soup and with some of the red yeast rice, if preferred.
- Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro leaves.
3. Chinese confinement food recipes: Ginger Fried Rice
Image Source: The Meatmen Channel on YouTube
This is one of the easiest confinement food recipes to prepare and adds a lot of nutritional support for your recovering body. The recipe has ample ginger and sesame oil that also helps build inner immunity against cold weather.
Plus, the anti-inflammatory properties will help your body heal faster.
Ingredients:
- Cooked white long-grain or jasmine rice – 2 cups
- Chopped chicken fillets – 260 g
- Cooking oil divided – 2 tbsp
- Large eggs – 2
- Mixed vegetables thawed if frozen – 1 cup
Marinade:
- Grated ginger – 1 tbsp
- Sesame oil – 1 tsp
- 1 stalk green onion finely sliced
Ingredients:
- Marinate the chicken with salt and cooking wine, cornstarch, sesame oil, and mix well.
- Leave the marination for 15 minutes
- Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl with a little bit of salt and pour the mixture over pre-cooked rice and mix evenly.
- Pour cooking oil into a pan and fry the beaten eggs. Stir fry until cooked. Set aside.
- Add minced ginger to the same pan followed by garlic and stir until fragrant.
- Add the marinated chicken to the pan and stir fry until cooked.
- Pour the rice mixture, mix well and stir constantly to avoid the rice sticking to the pan.
- Top up the fried rice with light soy sauce and salt to taste, as well as sesame oil and mix it well.
- Add in cooked eggs and pepper.
- Garnish it with sliced green onion and fried garlic strands.
4. Chinese confinement food recipes: Pork Liver with Scallions & Wolfberries
Image Source: The Meatmen Channel on YouTube
Get a boost of nutrition with this recipe that has ample of vitamins and minerals from pork liver.
It is considered one of the best confinement food recipes not just for recovering mums, but also for women on their periods or anyone in need of an immune system boost.
Ingredients:
- Pork liver – 320 g thinly sliced
- Cooking oil – 1/4 cup
- Ginger strips – 60 g
- Chicken powder
- Wolfberries – 10 g
- Rice wine – 50 ml
- Ginger juice
- Light soy sauce
- Scallion – 4 stalks
- Salt
- Pepper
Method:
- Remove blood and impurities from the pork liver by adding flour and rub gently.
- Add the cooking wine and mix well and let it marinate for 15 minutes.
- Rinse and drain the liver.
- Add salt, pepper, chicken powder, rice wine, ginger juice, light soy sauce, and mix well.
- Add cornstarch to the mixture followed by sesame oil and leave it to marinate
- Meanwhile, fry the ginger strips and set them aside once they turn light brown.
- In the same pan, add minced ginger and garlic and stir fry until fragrant.
- Add the marinated pork liver and stir fry for about two minutes.
- Add the wolfberries, rice wine and stir fry until just cooked.
- Top the pork liver with sliced scallions and mix well.
- Garnish with the fried ginger strands
5. Black Vinegar Pig Trotter
Image Source: The Meatmen Channel on YouTube
This dish is as common as it gets with confinement food recipes, courtesy of its great nutritional support and abundance of proteins.
It is also great at boosting the immune system for anyone who is feeling under the weather. Make this at home and restore lost energy.
Ingredients:
- Pork trotter – 1 whole (1.2 kg that’s cut into smaller pieces)
- Old ginger – 150 g (sliced)
- Young ginger – 200 g (sliced)
- Sweet vinegar – 750 ml
- Black rice vinegar – 300 ml
- Sesame oil – 3 tbsp
- Scallions – 3 stalks
- Palm sugar – 200 g
- Boiled eggs – 6
- Scallions – 3 stalks
Method:
- Put the pork trotter pieces with scallions in a skillet pan.
- Add water until the pork trotter is fully covered.
- Bring it to a boil until the scums from the pork float.
- Drain and wash the pork.
- Add boiling water until the pork is fully covered and bring it to a boil for the second time until the scums float.
- Drain and wash the pork.
- In the same skillet, add old ginger, young ginger and stir until fragrant.
- Add the blanched pork trotter next and stir fry until it’s slightly brown and fragrant.
- Transfer the pork into a deep pot and add sweet vinegar and black vinegar.
- Let it braise for one hour.
- Add palm sugar and six boiled eggs and let it all cook for 10 minutes.
- Serve the pork trotter in an individual bowl with a boiled egg and add top it up with some soup. Garnish using coriander and enjoy.
6. Stir-Fried Pork with Mushrooms
Image Source: The Meatmen Channel on YouTube
This recipe is exactly what you’d want to eat when you have midnight food cravings. The dish is packed with ginger and mushrooms, and there’s plenty of flavours to keep your taste buds happy.
But more importantly, its active anti-inflammatory and rich fibre and protein ingredients make it one of the most obvious go-to confinement food recipes. Together, these help to provide energy and heal the body faster.
Ingredients:
- Pork shoulder – 380 g (sliced thinly into shreds)
- Ginger – 30 g (sliced thinly into match-sticks)
- Minced garlic – 1 tbsp
- Shimeji mushrooms – 75 g
- Oyster mushrooms – 75 g
- Sesame oil – 3 tbsp
- Cornstarch solution – 1 tbsp cornstarch with 1 tbsp water
- Light soy sauce – 2 tbsp
- Mushroom seasoning – 1 tsp
- tsp Sugar – 1/2 tsp
- Shaoxing rice wine – 3 tbsp
Method:
- Heat the sesame oil and stir fry ginger slices until they turn fragrant and brown.
- Push it aside and add in minced garlic and stir fry until fragrant.
- Add in pork slices, mushrooms stir fry constantly until cooked.
- Continue to stir fry and add in light soy sauce, mushrooms seasonings, sugar and rice wine, and mix all the ingredients well.
- Add in cornstarch solution to thicken the sauce.
- Garnish with spring onion
- Dish up and serve hot with rice.
Remember, it is important for you to eat a balanced diet and pay attention to your nutrition. Since these meals are simple to make and packed full of nutrition and fibre, they will help energise you and fuel you through the day.
The most important point to note is that at the end of the day this journey is yours: What works for someone else may not always work for you. But as long as you take care of yourself, you also take care of your growing little one.
Recipes and videos in this article were produced by The Meatmen Channel. Subscribe to their Youtube channel for weekly recipe ideas!
The Meatmen Channel is a lean team of meaty people from the little red dot, Singapore. They are here to turn your favourite Asian dishes into easy, home cook recipes. For more, visit The Meatmen Channel website.
This article was first published on theAsianparent Singapore.
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