This page is about Chinese Confinement in the early days. True “body-recovering” doesn’t actually happen until past days 10-12. That’s when you take out the heavy artillery. For now, the first 10-12 days (some say 8-10) should be light, mild and “taking it easy”. This doesn’t mean you can eat “cooling foods” or take showers and let your hair to air dry, it means your diet is light. From various sources at the wet mart and Chinese herbalists, the advice is to drink these light teas and lay off the power herbs.
I will continue to add as I learn more here, but here’s a start.
This warming tea has so many amazing purposes! It’s amazing for post partum areplenishing and nourishing blood and Qi.
For post partum:
This tea I drank as a confinement tea and within the first 0-5 days of confinement to help eliminate the lochia. It’s a simple tea with 3 ingredients (the meat is optional if you’re vegetarian) and very easy to make. It’s a sweet, slightly tart tea and must be drank hot/warm. It’s one of the better tasting teas I know available for confinement! You can boil a whole big batch for 5 days worth, refrigerate and then reheat when needed or boil fresh batches everyday. It is recommended to drink 1-2 glasses a day (depending if you’ve got other teas or soups already filling your tummy!). Do not add additives like sugar or salt. Keep it clean, light and natural.
Soak your dates and wood ear for 10-15 minutes in cool water
Boil your soup or tea water
When the water boils, add all the ingredients together and boil on a medium boil (covered) for 1.5 hours
Serve hot/warm directly as is
Some tips!
You can pre-soak the wood ear first thing in the morning. This will soften until you need to boil them.
Be sure to buy and use pitted red dates as the seeds are quite fiery (not in a good way). Some red dates come pre-seeded, but if not, you can use a sharp knife and remove them or halve them first and remove.
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...
Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate! The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...
A PU'ER Chinese (TEA) LOVE STORYChinese pu'er tea: Why I love it! As part of my overall health regime.One guiding principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the yin yang theory. In the natural world, there exists a balance between 2 opposing and co-existing forces...
Soup Name: Macaroni in a quick boil vegetable soup (a quickie dinner) Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. For more videos on soups and teas, you can follow us on YouTube. This is one of our families'...
Soup Name: ABC Chinese Soup (using a Lobster Base Soup) Traditional Chinese Name: ABC湯 (ABC tāng). The easiest name in the Cantonese repertoire for ABC vegetable soup is 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng), which literally translates to mixed vegetable soup. This soup is warming in...
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...
Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate! The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...
Soup Name: Chicken Herbal Soup with Abalone Traditional Chinese Name: 鮑魚清雞湯 (bào yú qīng jī tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.One of my favourite basic chicken Chinese soups - ever! And it's...
Happy Chinese New Year's!! Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy, and beautiful year of the rabbit!! As a tradition, the Chinese will eat what's called "New Year's Cake". It's basically sweetened rice and glutinous rice flour pan fried until soft and...
Tea Name: Chrysanthemum and Roselle (Hibiscus) Honey Tea Traditional Chinese Name: 菊花茶 (jú huā chá) This tea is sweet and sour to taste and cooling in nature.Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.Taking a moment? Want something calming and soothing? Try...
My parents were graced with grand child #7 two days ago and this story is the journey of confinement #7 for sister #2. We welcome baby Ashley to the family and because she was early, our personal “Pu Yuet” – who is grandma, is still stuck in Toronto waiting eagerly to board a flight to Hong Kong to help. So both myself and sister #3 have taken over with my mom’s guidance to provide the ultimate confinement diet for my sister #2.
This journey is an inclusive “diary” of the discoveries of food, drinks, soups, teas, traditions and little knick knacks that normal people don’t follow.
For more information, you can read the story of Chinese Confinement #6 as a start and a base.
I will continue to add to this post as part of the whole story with subsequent posts. Stay tuned and thanks for your continued support. I also welcome any advice or guidance as well. It’s incredible how vendor A will tell you to do A and vendor B will tell you to do B. The knowledge of wealth comprised within that tiny wet mart near my house is incredible and part of my interest now is document it and share it with you.
This soup is a powered up version of the Chicken Herbal Soup.
Packed with the natural sea-sweetness of the abalones and herbs, it’s a great soup for the cold winter months or confinement. You can eat the abalone as whole pieces (usually the smaller ones are cheaper, but it’s still an expensive soup), or sliced thinly and dipped in soy sauce. Regardless, don’t waste the abalone!
In addition, I know it says Chicken soup, but the Chinese commonly also add a small pork shank or pork bone to their otherwise known as Chicken and even Fish soups. You can’t get away from the staple pork.
Prepare chicken (in quarters) by rinsing and blanching in a pot of boiling water (let it boil for about 2-3 minutes)
Remove chicken and set aside
Boil your pork in the same pot of boiling water as the chicken (for 2-3 minutes)
Drain water and set aside
Wash and clean abalone (with a toothbrush to be sure to brush off all the black residue)
Wash and soak for 10 minutes all the dried herbs
Boil your soup water
What I love about this soup
This soup is only so slightly warming and designed to replenish qi and yang (also helps with replenishing and strengthening blood).
While the abalone itself is slightly cooling, it’s complimentary and offset by the warming chicken and other ingredients (if you want warmer soups, see below)
A very easy soup to make as you literally throw everything in together
It’s a versatile soup in that you can add different neutral vegetables (such as chayotes or corn)
Other chicken soups to try!
There are so many versions of this type of warming, herbal Chicken soup. Check them out below!
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...
Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate! The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...
A PU'ER Chinese (TEA) LOVE STORYChinese pu'er tea: Why I love it! As part of my overall health regime.One guiding principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the yin yang theory. In the natural world, there exists a balance between 2 opposing and co-existing forces...
Soup Name: Macaroni in a quick boil vegetable soup (a quickie dinner) Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. For more videos on soups and teas, you can follow us on YouTube. This is one of our families'...
Soup Name: ABC Chinese Soup (using a Lobster Base Soup) Traditional Chinese Name: ABC湯 (ABC tāng). The easiest name in the Cantonese repertoire for ABC vegetable soup is 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng), which literally translates to mixed vegetable soup. This soup is warming in...
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...
Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate! The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...
Soup Name: Chicken Herbal Soup with Abalone Traditional Chinese Name: 鮑魚清雞湯 (bào yú qīng jī tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.One of my favourite basic chicken Chinese soups - ever! And it's...
Happy Chinese New Year's!! Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy, and beautiful year of the rabbit!! As a tradition, the Chinese will eat what's called "New Year's Cake". It's basically sweetened rice and glutinous rice flour pan fried until soft and...
Tea Name: Chrysanthemum and Roselle (Hibiscus) Honey Tea Traditional Chinese Name: 菊花茶 (jú huā chá) This tea is sweet and sour to taste and cooling in nature.Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.Taking a moment? Want something calming and soothing? Try...
Pig’s Feet with Ginger in Black Vinegar, Ginger and Vinegar Trotter Soup, Pig’s Feet and Ginger Soup
Traditional Chinese Name:
猪脚姜 (zhū jiǎo jiāng)
This is the ultimate traditional confinement food (or soup) in the Cantonese cuisine repertoire. This dish is so amazing that people eat it just for the taste and not for confinement.
It is consumed by men and women alike because it is flavorful and delicious. The ingredients aren’t the easiest to obtain and it is not a remotely easy dish to make, but during confinement (when the mother can eat a bowl a day), it’s worth it to make a large pot and give to friends. Traditionally, families will make large pots of this dish and give it out to friends and family to let them know that there is a new baby.
For more information on what confinement is and the Chinese ingredients associated with confinement, please see our Confinement Soups page.
Some things to note on the directions for this soup is that it’s more a guide, rather than a true recipe.
Since my mom is a pro at this, she doesn’t really follow measurements and simply makes it according to personal taste – so I’ve tried to adapt this recipe to that style.
Some prefer it more spicy (add more ginger), some prefer it more sour (add more black rice vinegar), some prefer it sweeter (add more sweet vinegar or brown sugar) or some prefer super hard boiled eggs (keep them boiling in the vinegar for at least 2 days).
Regardless of how your taste ventures, make sure you have a bit of spare ingredients to adjust the taste to your preference.
What’s involved?
Prep time: 60 mins
Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins (for the soup)
Total time: 2 hours 30 mins
Serves: 10 bowls
Ingredients
1 whole pig’s feet, halved and cut into edible sections
10 large pieces of old fresh ginger (roughly 5000 grams)
Ginger is the highlight of this dish. That’s what makes it so potent, effective (to drive away the wind from the body), and gives it that little bit of spicy kick.
This part needs a good 1-2 days after you’ve purchased your ginger in bulk. Usually, when I see people buying ginger at the wet marts in bulk, we all know what’s cooking!
For this soup, the ginger pieces are kept rather large in chunks with their skin off. Once you peel the skin, don’t throw it out! For confinement, it is the perfect foot soak (or bathe if you’d like) for post partum.
Ginger preparation instructions:
Wash ginger and then leave to air dry for at least 1 day
Peel skin off ginger and dry both skin and peeled ginger (the skin is often used for bathing and soaking feet during confinement)
Cut ginger into large pieces
In a pan (or wok) on high heat with no oil, fry your ginger while stirring quickly for 5 minutes
Take out of wok and set aside
Preparing the Vinegar Soup Base
Be sure to use a clay or ceramic pot for these types of soups. Traditionally, that’s all they had back then and it does keep the flavour of the soup quite pure and can be stored in the pot and re-boiled as often as needed. In Hong Kong, the pre-made vinegar and even the soup itself are served, stored, and sold in clay pots. It becomes quite the workout to lug these things around!
In a large clay pot, add your sweet vinegar and turn on high heat until boiling
Add in prepared ginger
Reduce heat to low and boil (with cover) for an hour (until ginger is cooked)
Set aside until ready to add pig’s feet. I say this because during some confinements, people will have made the ginger-vinegar soup ahead of time in preparation for the birth of the baby.
Preparing the Pig’s Feet
There are also 2 parts to the preparation of raw pig’s feet. The first is to ensure the protein itself is clean and suitable for consumption. That means removing the hairs, the tougher parts of the skin, and the nails. The second part is to blanch it in boiling water. Interacting with the boiling water will immediately release all the insoluble protein, blood, bone bits, and fat, rendering it ready for soup production.
To remove the hair from the pig’s feet, you can either burn it off over a gas grill (with a hot flame) or using a sharp knife, scrape it off
Wash thoroughly in warm water
Half and cut the pig’s feet into edible sizes
Wash again in warm water (to remove the grits and bones)
In a pot of boiling water, blanch your pig’s feet for 5-7 mins
Preparing the Soup
When ready to eat, scoop out as much ginger-vinegar soup as you’d like to prepare for your portion of pig’s feet (so that you can continue to use, add more or keep your soup base)
Put into a smaller clay pot and apply medium heat until boiling. Add in blanched pig’s feet and black rice vinegar (to taste). The black rice vinegar will help soften the pig’s feet more. Add hard boiled eggs if desired.
Cover and boil on medium heat for 30 minutes (or until desired softness of feet).
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...
Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate! The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...
A PU'ER Chinese (TEA) LOVE STORYChinese pu'er tea: Why I love it! As part of my overall health regime.One guiding principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the yin yang theory. In the natural world, there exists a balance between 2 opposing and co-existing forces...
Soup Name: Macaroni in a quick boil vegetable soup (a quickie dinner) Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. For more videos on soups and teas, you can follow us on YouTube. This is one of our families'...
Soup Name: ABC Chinese Soup (using a Lobster Base Soup) Traditional Chinese Name: ABC湯 (ABC tāng). The easiest name in the Cantonese repertoire for ABC vegetable soup is 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng), which literally translates to mixed vegetable soup. This soup is warming in...
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...
Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate! The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...
Soup Name: Chicken Herbal Soup with Abalone Traditional Chinese Name: 鮑魚清雞湯 (bào yú qīng jī tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.One of my favourite basic chicken Chinese soups - ever! And it's...
Happy Chinese New Year's!! Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy, and beautiful year of the rabbit!! As a tradition, the Chinese will eat what's called "New Year's Cake". It's basically sweetened rice and glutinous rice flour pan fried until soft and...
Tea Name: Chrysanthemum and Roselle (Hibiscus) Honey Tea Traditional Chinese Name: 菊花茶 (jú huā chá) This tea is sweet and sour to taste and cooling in nature.Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.Taking a moment? Want something calming and soothing? Try...
A warm and healing soup, it’s often recommended for cold winter days or confinement. The turtle meat is said to be a nourishing meat (similar to chicken) and should be avoided if you are sick. From our experience, even when properly cleaned, soft-shelled turtle meat may have a taste of the “sea” and may require ginger to counter the taste.
For more information on what confinement is and the Chinese ingredients associated with confinement, please see our Confinement Soups page.
This is the first time that I have bought and tried soft shell turtle (to my knowledge). These types of turtles are actually bred for consumption and considered a prize delicacy in East Asia (ie: China). They are also harvested in the US (with set limits) for breeding and consumption as well (especially common to have Turtle soup in New Orleans). Ever since coming to Asia, I have developed an open mind to the types of food that is culturally different from my upbringing. The turtle definitely falls into this category. It is so commonplace that you can find soft shell turtles at your local wet marts.
To prepare soft-shell turtle, my vendor (and mom) told me to pan-fry them with ginger. This will help eliminate any fishiness in flavours and create a fragrant base for your soup.
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...
Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate! The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...
A PU'ER Chinese (TEA) LOVE STORYChinese pu'er tea: Why I love it! As part of my overall health regime.One guiding principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the yin yang theory. In the natural world, there exists a balance between 2 opposing and co-existing forces...
Soup Name: Macaroni in a quick boil vegetable soup (a quickie dinner) Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. For more videos on soups and teas, you can follow us on YouTube. This is one of our families'...
Soup Name: ABC Chinese Soup (using a Lobster Base Soup) Traditional Chinese Name: ABC湯 (ABC tāng). The easiest name in the Cantonese repertoire for ABC vegetable soup is 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng), which literally translates to mixed vegetable soup. This soup is warming in...
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...
Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate! The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...
Soup Name: Chicken Herbal Soup with Abalone Traditional Chinese Name: 鮑魚清雞湯 (bào yú qīng jī tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.One of my favourite basic chicken Chinese soups - ever! And it's...
Happy Chinese New Year's!! Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy, and beautiful year of the rabbit!! As a tradition, the Chinese will eat what's called "New Year's Cake". It's basically sweetened rice and glutinous rice flour pan fried until soft and...
Tea Name: Chrysanthemum and Roselle (Hibiscus) Honey Tea Traditional Chinese Name: 菊花茶 (jú huā chá) This tea is sweet and sour to taste and cooling in nature.Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.Taking a moment? Want something calming and soothing? Try...