Kidney soupy!

As I'm still in my 'confinement' month, I had been cooking some nourishing soups and dishes to help my body strengthen. One of them is my favourite Pork offals soup. Back in my childhood days, mum would cook this every month on Saturday for lunch. 

Why Saturday lunch?

Because that is the day off for mum from work and also last day for the butcher to sell fresh meat. So mum would go market early in the morning to get the ingredients from the butcher uncle. Talking about that butcher, we had been buying from him all the thirteen years we had been in Singapore. I wonder if he had retired? My dad's favourite offals are small intestine, liver and kidney. Therefore these were the main ingredients in the soup, together with lean meat. 

As for me, I don't fancy the tough chewy small intestine. My favourite is the kidney. Yum!! 

How do you prepare the raw kidney?

Here's a photo of it!

Nicely soaking in the fresh water after doing the prep work on it.

Well, prepping the fresh kidney takes time. But it is essential so as to get nice yummy taste without the urine smell. 

Yes, kidney filters the urine. So it is important to cleaning them well.

Firstly, cut them horizontally to exposed the filtration unit. (Right kidney)  The part we eat is the cortex of the kidney. So slowly and gently, I have to slice away the filter system to expose the cortex of the kidney. (Left kidney is half done) See those white veins like structure on the left kidney? Those are the filtration tubules that needs to be trim away as well.

After it was all done, gently criss cross the inner surface of the cortex like a sotong, and the slice them into the slice you want for cooking. 

The kidney slices now had to be soak in fresh water to help diffuse out the remaining urine smell in the cortex. I usually kept rinsing and change the water 6-7 times, till the water remains clear. (Like in the first photo)

I had been putting in pork meat, kidney and liver for my soup. It was especially good to have nice warm soup that nourishes the blood and kidney in the cold rainy day. I do hope that the wild weather will ease in the coming week.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Kcan

Pregnancy pains

At my clinic, I often come across women whom needed a little help. At times, it could be something small, nothing big and serious, but just plain annoying. Why? Because they were pregnant.

When women falls pregnant, things they do, food they eat, medication they take, will have to be very careful. Especially in the first trimester, where miscarriage risk were a lot higher, they had to be even more extra cautious. And that's when women started coming to my clinic. To seek help, so that they can be well again. Acupuncture is their saviour. 

Acupuncture is the only known medical treatment, that do not use any medication intervention. That greatly reduces the risk of drug interactions which may harm the unborn baby. When administrated correctly by a trained professional acupuncturist, the treatment can be safe for both mother and child. And the bonus was, they achieved the same, or even better result than taking any regular medication!

So what sorts of small and annoying issues do I often see in my clinic?

1: Aches and pain.

When someone had a nasty headache, they reach up for some painkillers. When you had a sore back, you reach out for some painkillers to help you relief it, so you can continue doing the chores or just to get a good night sleep. But a pregnant women cannot just simpily do that. 

As the baby gets bigger, it pinches the nerves, or it hurts the back. That is when acupuncture or even just gentle cupping, can provides great relief.

2: Panic attack, depression

Pregnancy is a joyful occasion, but often, it can also be a stressful one. Especially so if the couple had done countless cycles of IVF, or, had previous miscarriage(s), or even just stressful times at home. Their body were tense, energy low, and just feeling the blues. Acupuncture and help to lift up the spirits, calm the nerves. There are even points to help strengthen the body, which will greatly reduces the risk of miscarriage! I am glad to say that I had not have a miscarriages baby in my clinical career as yet, and actually saved a couple of them whom had threatened miscarriage. (Thanks be to God!)

3: Itchy rash

Sometimes often at the later trimester of the pregnancy, some women developed itchy rashes. They were often developed as a small patch, but then later it spreads and spreads through the whole body. And they are annoying!

The doctors often prescribed creams which contains steroid, or just ask you to go get moisturised wash/creams, which doesn't really help in any way. So what can they do?

Acupuncture can help to stop the itching, reduces the rash. And together with some minor adjustment in the diet, the problem can be easily resolved. Yay!

So that's a small glimpse of my life at the clinic. So if you do have any pregnancy issue, remember that acupuncture can help.

Make sure you find a qualified and properly trained acupuncturist, specialising in pregnancy health.

Have a good weekend everyone! 

Kcan

Australian Red Dates

For our Confinement Care clinic, we searched high and low for farmers sells Australian red dates. It was quite tricky as we do not know any wholesaler contacts. Therefore we went directly to the farmers! 

We found two major red dates growers in Australia with several smaller ones. We ordered some to try and we were so surprise by its sweetness and freshness! Farmer Bernie is really friendly and told us many things about his farm and his red dates. Apparently, there are many variety of red dates! (Wow)

Australians called red dates Jujube, and he grows four varieties in his farm. And they are ORGANIC too! No wonder it is so sweet!

I packed them up in the glass jars. Look at how big they are!!

This is really great news for us. We want to sell products that are locally sourced as much as possible. It was really a bonus that it was organically grown too. It sounds strange I know, but I rather get Australian grown red dates than the Chinese grown ones.Now a days, I tend not to get things from China, because of poor regulations and monitoring of pesticides, fertilizers and heavy metal content. Who knows how long ago the dates are harvested too! (Just like how the apples you get in supermarket these days were picked like a year ago at least) 

The dates that I can get in Asian shops are mostly dried and rock hard, while the ones we got from Bernie was only harvested last year! And they are currently harvesting this year's crops. Will be putting my order in to get them soon. 

Because they are so massive in size, I only need to use 3 when making soup/tea. I threw some in when I make chicken soup one night, and it tasted fantastic! (natural sweetness in soup!)

Let me know if anyone is interested in getting Australian organic red dates! 

kcan

Interview

Eric is having an interview tomorrow for a short term contract which allows him to work from home.

Pray that it will goes well and that God willing, we will have some income boost from his work.

We are in the mids of scouting for suppliers for the various products we are selling through our business.

In case you are interested, we are setting up an overseas Chinese medicine confinement service. Our company works to help support Asian ladies with their confinement needs while overseas. We provide home visits of Chinese medicine and acupuncture services for women after labour to help them recover during confinement time. Our main aim is to make our site as a global point of information for confinement and it's purpose. We want to encourage people to do it, do it well, without the contradicting myths, legends and superstitions.

Feel free to pass our site to your friends who are pregnant or are in the process of doing confinement. 

Confinement Care

Kcan