Chinese herbal soup for digestion, immunity (Qi) and clearing dampness 健脾养胃益气祛湿的四神汤

Today I'm going to make a Chinese herbal soup for general well-being. In Chinese medicine, this soup is said to be able to support our digestive system, gently boosting our qi, and clear dampness in our body. With more qi, healthier digestion, feeling lighter as dampness sometimes can drag us down, you will generally feel healthier and have better immunity. Hi everyone, welcome to Chinese Herbal Pantry. My name is Shirley. I'm a Chinese medicine practitioner and a pharmacist in Australia. In this channel, I share basic Chinese herbal knowledge and simple herbal recipes that you can cook easily at home for your general well-being or relieve minor symptoms. The recipe I'm going to share today has more than 300 years of history. It is a very famous recipe, so I'm not sure whether you have heard about it before or whether you have tried it before. Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear your experience. This soup was initially named as Four Minister Soup, Si Chen Tang, but later misread as Si Shen Tang because Chen and Shen in Chinese sounds very similar. Why Four Minister? This is because of the history behind it. I don't know how true this historical story is, but it is a nice story to know. I'm sure there are many different versions of the story. This is the one that I came across. What happened was during Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong went on to a trip to different parts of China. He brought along four of his beloved ministers. Due to the long travel, hard work on the trip, as well as changes in the climate, food and environment, all of these four ministers fell ill. Even the royal doctor accompanying the emperor couldn't treat their illnesses. Therefore, the emperor announced rewards to any local who can treat his ministers. A monk responded, and after diagnosing the minister, he prescribed this herbal formula. This formula only has four main ingredients, which represent the four ministers. This is how the name of this soup came about. Eventually, the four ministers recovered after consuming this herbal soup recipe. They felt stronger and did not fall sick that easily anymore. Hence, they could continue to accompany the emperor to different parts of China to help him to do the work. So, what can the recipe of only four herbs do? What are these four herbs? There are different variations on this recipe and different parts of Asia or even family might have their own version. The one that I give it to you today is the one that I prefer because I think the combination of these four herbs is suitable for most people. In my online course, I would teach other variations and how to modify this recipe according to your own body. But for now, this is the recipe that I have for you for today. And before I go on, please note that all these organs that I mentioned here, they are Chinese medicine organ system. They are not the same organs in the Western medicine. Okay, the first ingredient is lotus seed. As you can see here, you could see two different colors. I probably won't go too much in depth on the different. Chinese speaking, they are reasonably similar. Whatever you can find, it is okay. I tend to find that the white one is a little bit sweeter, so it's more suitable for sweet soup. And this one, not as sweet, but it's also very tasty. This one, I tend to like to use it in the savory soup. Sometimes, it's more personal preferences. So, lotus seed is neutral. It supports the Chinese medicine kidney and the Chinese medicine spleen. Spleen usually represents digestive system in our body. It may also help to relieve diarrhea. It nourishes the Chinese medicine heart. And in Chinese medicine, we think the heart and the mind are connected. And therefore, we say it also can help to calm our mind and to calm our spirit. And this is why I also have included the lotus seed in one of my recipes for calming and better sleep. You can check out the video here, or you can see the link in the description box below. Second ingredient is the Sanyao, or we also call Chinese yam. This is the dry form. Sanyao is neutral. It is a gentle qi tonic that tonifies our Chinese medicine spleen, lung, and kidney qi. It is quite safe because it's actually considered a food ingredient in China. When I live in China, I often see stir-fried Chinese yam dishes in restaurants during the season. The third ingredient is Polya Fulin. Fulin is neutral. It's clear dampness. It also strengthens the Chinese medicine spleen. It also quiets the Chinese medicine heart and calms the spirit. The fourth ingredient is Tianshi. In English, it's called Euryale seeds or fox nuts. It is neutral. It strengthens the Chinese medicine spleen, which is the digestive system again, and it may also help to relieve diarrhea. It also clears dampness. It also supports the Chinese medicine kidney. Why this herbal combination is great for overall health? If you look at the recipe more closely, the combination of these four herbs actually cover four major Chinese medicine organ systems. They are spleen, lung, kidney, and heart. It covers a lot, and that's why it is a good recipe for overall health. At the same time, I also want to bring your attention to that actually all of these four herbs support Chinese medicine spleen. In Chinese medicine, the spleen represents the digestive system. It is not the physical or the actual physical organ spleen in the Western medicine, so please be aware of that. In Chinese medicine, we place great emphasis on our digestion. We believe that when our digestion is good, we are able to absorb all the nutrients from our food properly. Of course, given that we consume healthy food, this will go on to create healthy qi, and healthy qi protects us. Therefore, it can support our immunity and general well-being. Don't forget this recipe also has Shanya, which is a qi tonic, and this is why these four herbs work in harmony and enhance each other's function. It kind of supports each other. The uniqueness of this recipe is all four herbs are neutral, meaning they are not warming, they're not cooling. All four of them are also very gentle herbs. Many of them are actually just food ingredients in Asia, and this is why this recipe is quite safe for most people, including children and the elderly. So it is very easy. You can cook a big pot for the whole family because it's suitable for everyone. It's also suitable for all seasons. Therefore, all in all, this herbal milk is quite a great combination, and that's why it has been passed down for hundreds of years. So how often can we drink this soup? We can drink this soup once or twice a week. Before I start cooking, if you find you are learning from this video, please subscribe and give me a thumbs up, and share with your family and friends. This gives me signals to make more similar videos like this one, and I think I probably is the very few on YouTube here who explain herbal soup this way. I think a lot of people, they just thought all Chinese herbs are good or healthy, and they just mix and match, and hoping that they will work without understanding their properties. Actually, when you understand property and mix them appropriately together, they actually can be more effective, and they will work more synergistically together. And also for safety, we need to know who and when to drink. Okay, I think I have talked too much. Let's start cooking, and the recipe is on the screen. Soak the herbs in lukewarm water for about 20 to 30 minutes to remove the dust, the dirts, or even the residues or sulfur dioxide if you are unsure of the quality of the herbs you purchase. Meanwhile, clean the meat. In this recipe, I decided to use pork bones because pork is a neutral meat, hence to keep the whole recipe neutral, not warming, not cooling. Then drain the water used to soak the herbs. Slice four to five slices of ginger, two slices for blanching the meat, and two to three slices for cooking the soup. And now we will start blanching the meat to remove the oil, the blood, so you could get a clearer and cleaner broth. I have explained the process in detail in an older video. For more detailed instructions, please check out the video. So in this video, I will go a little faster. As the cooking is the same, just use different herbs. Add two slices of ginger and optionally a very small amount of Chinese cooking wine to get rid of the gamey taste of the meat. After blanching the meat, take the meat out, give it a rinse, change the water to fresh new water, bring the water to boil, add two to three slices of ginger, then add in all the herbs. Let them all boil together for 20 minutes or so, and then reduce the heat to medium to low, but not too low. Make sure you see small bubblings on the top of the water. Let them cook for about 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how thick you want your soup to be. Make sure you check the soup from time to time, and also take this opportunity when you check to remove the fat or the oil that float to the top of the water. Just before you turn off the heat, it is time to add a small amount of salt and pepper as seasoning to your own liking, and give it a good stir, and now it is ready to serve. Let's eat. The flavor is very clean and very simple, but it's flavorful, and of course when you add the meat and stuff, it has the meat taste in there, and if you are vegetarian, so do feel free to omit the meat part and just use these four herbs. I do find that even just these four, when you cook it, it still comes out quite flavorful because of the nutty or sweet flavor. So that's all from me today, and I'm going to continue to eat before I get cold, so thank you again for hanging out with me in here, and I'll see you in the next video. Bye!