Sweet Lilies in Pumpkin

Pumpkins are the featured food item of this month's issue of Self (China) magazine. They're full of vitamins, fiber, potassium, antioxidants etc, plus they fill you up pretty well at 50 calories a cup.

So what better way to finish off the godforsaken lily bulbs of last month than to cook up them in a pumpkin?


Sweet lilies in pumpkin
1 small pumpkin (squash)
2 lily bulbs, cleaned and flaked
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons rock sugar
3/4 cup water

1. Cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds.


2. Steam the pumpkin for about 10 minutes until cooked.


3. In the meantime, bring water to boil in a pan and dissolve the honey and rock sugar. Add the lily bulb flakes into the sweet liquid and stir over low heat until they are cooked (about 2-3 minutes)


4. Pour liquid into the pumpkin in the steamer. Cover and let it stand for about 20 minutes before serving (or longer, I was hungry).


(Normally this is cooked with the pumpkin cut into cubes, but I wanted it to look prettier,don't judge me ><)

Lily Lotus Stir Fry

Buying the lily bulbs was kind of like buying a really cute pair of shoes didn't go with the rest of my wardrobe-only in this case it was the refrigerator-and so I ventured out to get another series of oddities: lotus root and water chestnuts.

I found a stir fry recipe on a Chinese website and thought I'd give it a try. The recipe came only with the ingredient names (lotus root, lily bulb flakes, water chestnuts and celery) so I was winging it most of the way.

The honey gave out a nice flavor but the end result was still missing something to be honest,soy sauce? I guess I'll figure it out another day...





Lily Lotus Honey Stir Fry
1/2 cup lotus root, peeled and cut into thin pieces
2 lily bulbs, cleaned and flaked
5 water chestnuts, peeled and cut into chunks
1/4 small red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 strip ginger root, minced (optional,depending on how you feel about ginger)
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons warm water
1 1/2 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
Salt (to taste)

1. Boil water in a pan and toss in the lotus root pieces for about 1 minute. Blanch and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve honey and cornstarch in warm water and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok or pan, fry ginger and pepper strips for about 1 minute. Add water chestnuts and lotus root pieces, stir fry for about 2 minutes.
4. Stir in the honey mixture. Cook over moderate heat for another minute, stirring to coat.
5. Add lily bulbs and stir some more until everything looks tender. Turn off heat and add salt to taste.

Alternatively, you can use soy sauce in the place of salt. You can also decrease the cooking time if you prefer a crisp texture for your veggies (or flower parts).

Water Chestnuts (马蹄)
Water chestnuts were not as easy to find as I'd expected: the little vegetable vendor in my housing area for example, didn't carry it, and neither did Carrefour. Eventually I found them at the Lotus supermarket, next to the lotus roots.
Anyway, they are actually a very low-calorie vegetable (around 50 calories per 130 grams) with health benefits similar to lily bulbs (cold energy, clears heat, etc. I'm beginning to realize that I incorporate quite alot of cold foods in my diet)


This was the first time I'd ever bought water chestnuts so I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, it turns out all you have to do it cut off the top and remove the skin using a normal peeler.(A little search engine told me so)

Sweet Chinese Soup with Lily Bulb Flakes

Ingredients for Chinese sweet soups can be found on one big shelf in Beijing supermarkets (big or small) and most Chinese kitchens stock them because they keep well and most people (like me) can't use 'em all in a single recipe.

It occurs to me that to non-Chinese (or Asians), these items might as well be ingredients to some magic potion in a Harry Potter book (Eye of Newt, Tail of Dog... Goji Berries =_=''')

In a sense, Chinese soups are kind of like magic potions, used for warding off or counter attacking health problems: preventing fatigue, stopping colds, soothing nerves, promoting beauty and weight loss etc.

The whole knowledge of the characteristics of food, knowing what's hot or cold, warm or cool seems to be one of those things you grow up knowing as a Chinese person -I suppose it starts with grandmothers, mothers, aunts plopping some food in front of kids and explaining its goodness all the time, then kids going on to mention the properties of certain foods to whomever listens when they see that same food because that's just the thing to do.And eventually it becomes a cultural thing for you to discuss food properties at the dinner table. Go figure.

Anyway, this particular soup reduces heatiness (the suspected culprit of my cough) and reduces phlegm (which would be fantastic). It is supposedly good for your skin as well because it improves blood circulation and moisturizes your complexion (this is a nice bonus though normally I probably wouldn't sit around boiling a soup just for skin care).

Sweet Snow Fungus Soup
6 pieces snow fungus
1 fresh lily bulb, washed and flaked
10 dried lotus seeds
15 dried Chinese dates
20 goji berries
8 gingko nuts
2 tablespoons rock sugar (depending on your taste)
5 cups water (roughly)

1. Soak snow fungus and dried lotus seeds in warm water for 30 minutes to an hour.
2.Cut off and discard the hard stem parts of the snow fungus. Slice into small pieces.
3. Remove green stems from lotus seeds. (those are really bitter to bite on)
4. Place snow fungus, lily flakes*, dates, lotus seeds, goji berries and gingko nuts in a small pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 2 hours (until all the ingredients have become really soft). Stir in more water as needed.
5. Add in the rock sugar before you're about to turn off the heat. You can increase or decrease the sugar according to your taste.
6. Serve either warm or chilled.

*My lily flakes totally dissolved when I was done with the soup-come to think about it, I don't really remember really tasting them. I would probably choose to add the lily in with the rock sugar (towards the end) if I made this again





Not the prettiest dish, I have to admit, but undoubtedly good for you-as you will hear from most Chinese mothers

Eating Lilies

There's a short article in this month's issue of Self magazine that extols the benefits of eating lily bulbs(百合).

I read this on the plane to Shanghai, and being the highly impressionable consumer that I am, I promptly went out and bought about 20 bulbs from the nearest hypermarket.

Of course, now I haven't got a friggin' clue what to do with them.


Eat your flowers


I've seen fresh lily bulbs being sold in Beijing supermarkets, but never really took the initiative to figure out what I could do with them until now.

It turns out that at 162 calories/100 g (albeit starchy), fresh lily bulbs actually come with quite a number of health benefits:


They clear your pipes
Fresh lily bulbs can be consumed to "clear heat", relieving coughs, dry throats and other respiratory conditions.

They calm the spirits
It also works as a mental tranquilizer (no, not like weed) and helps treat insomnia and loud heart thumping ('palpitations')with it's tonic properties that promote restful sleep.

They fight Cancer
Lily bulbs have anti-tumor properties (I am not a med student, so I don't know which ones) and are a cancer fighting food.

They make you pretty
According to the March issue of Self (China) magazine, the bulbous lily root also gives you a smooth,rosy and supple complexion.


I don't know about you, but I know what I'm going to be eating for the next few days...