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3 Healthy Recipes in Flu Season

      People this year dare not eat chicken or duck for fear of avian influenza. So, if you are looking for some special dishes without chicken or duck during Spring Festival, the following are our recommendations.

1. Steak wrapped in lotus leaves


Xu Long is head chef of Western cuisine at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Here is a recipe in which he uses Australian beef in a favorite Chinese recipe.

Ingredients:
Beef short ribs: 1,500g
Fresh lotus leaves: three pieces
Oyster sauce: 125g
Dark soy sauce: 5g
Wangshouyi spices (a mix of 13 spices):1/4 of one bag
Salt: 3g
Sugar: 5g
Chinese spirits (baijiu): 10g
Cornstarch: 15g
Chopped spring onions: 10g
Chopped ginger: 10g
Sesame oil: 25g

To make:
Cut the ribs apart; boil them in water for a short time to clear the blood.
Mix all the ingredients except the sesame oil. Marinate the meat for 24 hours.
Blanche the leaves and let them cool off. Pat the leaves dry to remove water. Cut the leaves into smaller pieces for wrapping ribs.
Drizzle sesame oil over ribs, then wrap the ribs in the leaves and use kitchen twine to tie each package closed.
Steam ribs in a steamer for about two hours and serve hot.

 

2.  Pomegranate-glazed lamb meatballs

TOTAL TIME 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 pound ground lamb
1 small clove garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon black pepper Olive oil, for brushing
3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
Chopped fresh mint, as needed.

Preparation
1. In a large bowl, knead together the lamb, garlic, salt, orange zest and pepper until combined. Form into 1-inch meatballs. Transfer to a foil-lined baking sheet and brush with oil.
2. Heat the broiler. Run meatballs under the broiler until golden and just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Brush immediately with pomegranate molasses. Spear with toothpicks, sprinkle with mint and serve.

YIELD About 2 dozen meatballs, or about 8 servings.

 

3.  Fruits dishes

Seafood perfectly matches the sweet, freshness of papaya, making a dish delicious and delicate instead of oily. The fish should be perch, which has tender meat and is suitable for stir-frying. The lily is a good choice in this season, to clear away the heat in our chests. The agaric is also healthy food. Overall, the dish looks gorgeous in color, smells fragrant and tastes delicious.

Ingredients:
fish (perch), salt, chicken powder, pepper, cooking wine, cooking oil, egg white, starchy flour, papaya, agaric, lily, shallot, ginger, garlic, soup(chicken soup or bone soup), sugar, sesame oil

Procedures:
1. Scale the fish and then cut the fish into pieces.
2. Pickle the fish with salt, chicken powder, pepper, cooking wine, oil, egg white, and starchy flour.
3. Dice papaya, and cut agaric, lily, shallot, ginger, and garlic into small pieces.
4. Soak pieces of papaya, agaric and lily in a specially-made soup. You can use bone soup or chicken soup.
5. Put some oil in the wok, and when the oil gets hot, put in fish pieces. Stir-fry the fish for a while, and when the fish takes on a golden color, take them out.
6. Put pieces of shallot, ginger, garlic into the wok, and stir-fry them for few seconds. Then put the soaked papaya, agaric and lily into the wok with the shallot, ginger and garlic.
7. Add the fish pieces to the wok, and season with salt, chicken powder, sugar, pepper, sesame oil, cooking wine and cooking starch.
8. Put them on the plate, and garnish. Serve warm.

The recipe is from Daniel Jiang, the Chinese Executive Chef of the Chynna restaurant in the Hilton Beijing Wangfujing Hotel. The hotel is introducing a series of fruit-related dishes in this dry season at the beginning of autumn. In this season, it is necessary for us to rehydrate our skin and body, and eat as lightly as possible.