Since I got a picture of it, let me introduce what this is.  Chuan Bei is included in many off-the-shelf chinese cough medicine.  This helps to relieve cough.  Apparently there are many grades of it.  I’m not a expert which is the best, but I will go for at least the mid range to high range.  It cost in the range of S$15-S$20 for a tael  (liang).  The shop keep should be able to advise, as some are less bitter.

Other than boiling drinks like the pear drink to relief cough, it can also be used as a ”filler” grounded with pearl (珍珠）into fine powder, which is fed to babies or toddlers (in the grounded form) when they have lots of phlegm.  As the amount of pearl is so little, chuan bei makes a good ”filler”, ie ground together with the pearl to increase the content of the final gounded powder.  It not only act as a filler (to increase the quantity for easy feeding) but also helps to relief cough, which usually comes with phlegm.  You don’t have to grind it yourself, the shopkeeper of the chinese medicine shop has their special mortar and pestle to grind them. 

It is not necessary to boil Gobo as soup. Instead just as a drink. I used a slow cooker as usual.

Ingredients

1. 1 Gobo (ngau bong or 牛蒡) Stick
2. Some Wolfberry (Kei Chi or 枸杞子)
3. Water

Method:

1. Wash and peel the skin of the gobo.
2. Break or cut into smaller sizes so that they can fit into the pot.
3. Wash some wolfberry.
4. Put all into the slow cooker.
5. Add about 3/4 pot of water and boil (I set it to auto and boiled over night).

This recipe is given by my TCM doctor, to help soothe my children’s cough.  He said that it can be drank even you do not have cough, it generally nourishes the lungs.  You can use red apple or Chinese pear (not the European pear, see here for photos).  The chuan bei mu (川贝母), North and South Almonds (南杏, 北杏) can be purchased from any Chinese medicine shop, such as 福华，正中平，shops at Hong Lim, (Singapore) and any neighborhood medicine shops.

Ingredients (serve 2 cups)

1. 1 Apple or pear (梨)
2. 1 Chinese tablespoon chuan pei mu (Bulbus Fritillariae Cirrhosae, 川贝母) (about 1/3 liang, or 13 grams)
3. 1 ½ Chinese tablespoon north almonds (北杏)
4. 1 ½ Chinese tablespoon south almonds (南杏)
5. 1 Chinese tablespoon rock sugar
6. 3 bowls water

Method

1. Remove the skin of apple or pear, cut into quarters and remove the core.
2. Wash the almonds.
3. Wash the Chuan Pei, and lightly crush it with stone pestle or anything hard (like the handle of your cleaver).
4. Put all ingredients in pot with water, and bring to boil.
5. Once boiled, lower to small fire and simmer for 1 hour (very low heat to prevent drying up of contents). 
6. Sieve and drink the water. (about 1 ½ bowls left)

Here is a picture of how chuan bei mu (川贝母) looks like

This can be drink as usual day soup.  This soup with the He Shou Wu is also a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), that known to help hair growth and darkening of grey hairs.

Ingredients

1. 3/4 cup Black beans
2. 5 dried red dates
3. 1 or 2 dried black dates
4. 200 grams pork ribs
5. 2 dried scallop (干贝)
6. 4 dried oyster （蚝豉, 蚝干）
7. 1 tablespoon wolf berry (枸杞子) optional
8. 1 small piece of He Shou Wu (何首乌)
9. 2 liters water (some will dry up during cooking)
10. Salt

Method

1. This step is best done days before the cooking.  Heat up a pan without any oil, with low heat, stir fry the black beans till the skin split open. When cooled, keep in air tight container.  (you can prepare a few sets as it can keep for 2-3 months in air tight container without moisture.). I was told that the beans are used immediately to cook soup after pan frying, it is a bit “heaty”.
2. Wash all ingredients 2 to 8.  Put all ingredient including the black beans in a stock or soup pot with water, bring to boil and then turn down flame to very small and allow to slow boil for 3-4 hours.
3. Add salt to taste, and serve hot.

You can also cook this in slow cooker for 4 hours. 

This is recommended by my TCM practitioner.  The body tends to have low immunity to respiratory infection when too “heaty”.  This recipe is good to be consumed frequently, as it helps the body to be more “cooling” but not too “cooling” to result in join pains or rheumatism.  It is more “nourishing”   (”yuen” or 润) than cooling.

In this period where swine flu A(H1N1) is around, might be a good idea to make this once or twice a week to increase immunity.

Black sugar preferred as it will also help to remove the toxic in the body (去毒).  You can get them at any TCM shops like 福华 or 正中平.

Black sugar cane can be optional, as it is sometime hard to find in the supermarket.

Ingredients

1. ½ Winter Melon (round type like volley ball)
2. 25 water chestnut
3. 1/3 cup barley
4. 3-4 sticks of black sugar cane (optional)
5. Sugar (prefer black sugar bought from TCM shops, otherwise use rock sugar)

Method

1. Brush the skin of the winter melon to remove the powdery stuffs.  Cut open and remove the seeds by scraping with a spoon.  Cut into chunks with skin on.
2. Brush water chestnut to remove all the soil (This needs some patience).  Cut away the top (a lot of flaky skin), and also for you to check if the water chestnut is spoil (with yellow patches or soggy inside, good one should be white).  Put them into a plastic bag, and smash it with stone pestle or handle of your cleaver. (putting them into plastic bag is to prevent the juice spraying all over.)
3. Rinse barley
4. Wash black sugar cane and smash it with stone pestle or handle of your cleaver.
5. Put all ingredient except sugar into a big stock pot with about 4 liters of water.  Bring to boil and simmer in low flame for 5-6 hours.
6. Scoop up all the ingredients with a sieve and discard, add black sugar to taste (depending on your taste, 6-10 table spoon is enough).