Cooking Techniques of Chinese Food Therapy

Cooking techniques must be taken into consideration to prepare good medicated diet. Besides the color, the fragrance, the taste and the shape that the food cooked in common ways have, attention must be paid, when medicated diet is being cooked, to retain as much as possible its nutrition and effective constituents in order to bring into full play its functions of treatment and health care. The main purpose of cooking medicated diet with proper condiments is to maintain the special properties of the original juice and flavor of food and Chinese drugs so that their nature and flavor might be combined closely. As a result, not only does the medicated diet have good color, fragrance, taste and shape, thus arousing the appetite, but also the treatment of disease and health care are brought into play. Click to learn Chinese herb Fructus Trichosanthis (Gualou).

Common edible Chinese drugs and those with no improper flavor (or their fine powder) can be cooked together with food; if the drugs to be used are too many or have distinctly improper flavor, they can be wrapped in gauze and cooked along with food, and by doing so, the property of the drugs can go into the food or the soup; the dregs must be sifted out before it is taken.  Medicated diet can also be prepared first by decocting Chinese drugs, sifting the liquid from the dregs; then by pouring the liquid into the food being cooked, and cooking them until the medicated diet is done. In order to reduce as much as possible the damage to the nutrition and curative constituents, the methods of steaming, stewing, boiling or cooking soup are often used, while those of deep-frying, roasting are rarely used. Click to learn Chinese herb Folium Eriobotryae (Pipaye).