CONFINEMENT DISHES

Chicken and black fungus cooked in wine.


CONFINEMENT.
[The Asian way]




Confinement, the thirty days after the baby is born, is a very serious matter in the Asian society. This period is governed by the grandmothers, mothers-in-law, and mothers of the family. Six months before the baby is born, the family will be looking for a “companion for the month”.

This lady would be chosen by recommendations from relatives and friends who have used her. She is usually in her mid forties to sixties years of age. Her work is to look after the new mother and baby for the thirty days.

She would also bring with her, her experiences, her traditions, superstitions and stories of the old days.
The ladies of the house and this companion would sit down for a talk about the “whys and why nots” of the confinement, and compare notes.

The rules are normally agreed and set by the grandmother. They start the day the baby is born.

No reading or crying, for fear in your old age you will be blind.
No using cold water for showers or even washing hands, you will have aches and pains when old.

No fruits and vegetables will be served except apples and mustard greens. The rest is too “cooling” for the body.
No coffee, tea or plain water. This will upset your stomach in later years.

No washing hair during the confinement. You will have headaches in your old age.
No fish will be served; you won’t be able to stand the smell of fish in you old age.

The new mother would be briefed one month before the birth and warned of the dire consequences again and again.
The companion would arrive one week before the birth to the home. She would get ready herbs for mother and baby, check out the kitchen and the sleeping area.

She would also go through the menu with the family.
Breakfast – hot soup with lots of chopped ginger, rice wine and chicken. Hot steamed rice if requested.

Snack before lunch- fried mee hoon [noodles], with lots of ginger and chicken, or fried rice with ginger and eggs.
Lunch—the ginger wine chicken soup, this soup will normally be served with the lunches and dinners. Fried chicken is added to give a change.

Dinner—steamed herbal chicken or abalone soup and rice.
The companion has to be up by 5am., to bath the baby and make the special tea. For the rice tea, she has to fry the uncook rice till brown, hot water added to make the tea.

Alternately, she boils red dates with lots of ginger, coriander seeds and dried longgans. These two teas are to drink through out the day.
Grandmother’s advice, ‘a good mother has to consume at least 5 kilos of ginger, 12 bottles of rice wine , lots of chicken and 3to 4 bottles of Dom.to keep her healthy in her old age’.

Relatives and friends visiting the mother and baby are always served this, hot, chicken, wine and ginger soup. Pig’s trotters from the vinegar and ginger pot.

This ginger vinegar pot is made one month before the confinement. Three types of vinegars and lots of ginger are boiled everyday for an hour. Pig’s trotters are added when needed. Through the 30 days, ginger, vinegars are also added, so that the pot is always ready for serving.

These two dishes are only served during confinement, for normal women, it is too [heaty]. So relatives and friends who yearn to eat these dishes always visits a new mother many times to enjoy this privilege.

The new mother’s joy is the last day of the confinement. She can wash her hair, buy a new dress and look forward to that night’s dinner.
The end of the confinement is also the baby’s [full moon] a month old.

This day is usually celebrated with a dinner with relatives and friends. Gifts are given to mother and baby, gold items from relatives, and angpows [red packets with money] from friends.

The companion is paid together with a pair of sandals and a suit of clothing. This is her last day of work. During the day, she will go together with the mother and baby to distribute to relatives and friends, roast pork and red eggs. And an invitation to dinner.

During the dinner, she will introduce the baby around while the mother has her first proper meal in thirty days.

For women who live in urban areas, this is a welcomed rest. Being waited on for thirty days. For those who live in the city, it is like a jail sentence.

Grandmother’s advice, ‘what ever you do, do not get sick, it is very difficult to cure, because your yin and yen are upset. And people do die from “confinement sickness”.

GINGER.
The properties of ginger are many and all very good for mothers during confinement (or so say the Chinese) ginger is supposed to help keep your body warm, bring out the wind and help with digestion.

Ginger, the most important ingredient in confinement cooking. In every dish there must be sliced, chopped or minced ginger.

WINE.
This is also an important item too.
Usually rice wine is made at home 4-5 months before the baby is born and 1 bottle is used in cooking every day.

Now days, you can buy almost any type of wine in the shops, so this saves a lot of work for the grandmas and aunties. But for the ‘die hard grandmas’ they still do this for love.

You can use, DOM, a medicated wine, sherry, brandy, ginger wine and other rice wine. This also depends on which province in china your ancestors are from, because their cooking also varies a lot.

Chicken and lean meat, eggs, certain fish and certain vegetables are allowed.

Definitely not allowed to eat are:(grandmas' rules)
Ducks.
Turkeys
Prawns and lobsters
Crabs, mussels and clams.

Here are a few recipes for this happy occasion, but like grandma said, ‘everything must have ginger in the cooking!’ as with most dishes, you can always alter bits here and there.

This is a good time to rest and just enjoy the food, cooked by your loved ones!

CHICKEN WINE SOUP.
1 whole chicken, chopped up.
¾ bowl ginger, cut into fine strips.
Sesame oil. 2 tabsp.

Black fungus or mushrooms (soaked and cleaned) optional.
Ginger wine, rice wine, sherry Dom or what ever wine you want to use. In my family this is the best way to cook.

In a kwali or wok, heat sesame oil, add in ginger, fry till its brown and dry, use low heat. Add chicken, back to high heat, fry till the chicken is well sealed, and add a dash of ‘stone ginger wine’. Stirring well, if using fungus, add in now.

Add enough water to cover the chicken and cook 15mins. Till chicken is cooked.
In a big bowl, add ½ cup Dom, ½ cup ginger wine, ½ cup sherry or rice wine, (use brown rice wine, white rice wine can be too strong and bitter to taste)

Pour into the chicken, bring to boil, dish up and serve with rice.
No salt is added, this is served with a side plate of soy sauce and you dip your chicken in the soy sauce.

For those who like their taste strong, a bottle of beer can be added in place of water or use all sherry or the home made rice wine.

We tend to use ½ water to ½ wine when cooking the chicken for a more pleasant taste. You can always try a few times to get your own taste.

GINGER VINEGAR POT.
2 kilos ginger, wash well, either skin on or off.
Use the flat of the chopper; bash each piece once, just to open it up a bit.
In a wok, heat up enough sesame oil to fry all the ginger, about ½ bowl. Fry well.

Remove into a clay pot. (Use a clay pot because of the vinegar or a stainless steel pot). Here again, there are many variations to cook this pot.
Some use only black, sweet vinegar, no water is added. We find this to be too sweet and sticky.

We use malt, sweet, and black vinegar with a big bowl of water. This ginger vinegar is boiled for 2 hrs. and every day, this pot is boiled for 1 hr. This is made a month before the baby is born.

When this pot is ready, pig’s trotters are added (for those who won’t have trotters, pork can be added), clean the trotters, fry in sesame oil with some ginger, dish into the vinegar pot and simmer till soft.

For individual taste, if too sweet, add more malt vinegar, if too sour, add palm or brown sugar. Some mothers who love their wine, would add wine to this pot.!

This again, has no salt and served with soy sauce.
The new mother has this dish 2 weeks after her baby is born, this is said to give more milk and rejuvenate her!
More ginger, vinegar and pork is added to this pot every week, to keep the pot going and every one happy!

Now days every one in the family loves these dishes, so we cook them very often to satisfy the cravings.

Another popular dish is this, “3 ginger chicken.”

1 whole chicken, chopped up.
To pound,
2” ginger, 2” kuyit (turmeric) 2” langkwas (galangal)
1 tabsp. Coriander powder, salt to taste.
Marinate the chicken with the above for 2 -3 hrs. Deep fry in oil. Serve with steamed rice.
Copyright. (c) gourmetchef.2005.