The Taste of Christmas
Christmas always brings a warm and joyful feeling. Exchanging gifts and gathering with friends for a Christmas feast feels like a culmination of a year of hard work. In early December, I decorated the Christmas tree with my son and bought him an advent calendar to count down to Christmas, adding a bit of anticipation and festive atmosphere for him.
Besides turkey, gingerbread, Yule log cake, and sweet pies, mulled wine is always a staple at a traditional Christmas dinner. To make it, red wine is heated, then cinnamon, star anise, cloves, orange peel, and sugar are added and simmered for 15 minutes. These are also common ingredients in Oriental cooking. The principle is to use pungent and hot ingredients with hot wine to ward off cold, just like we drink a cup of ginger tea when we have a cold.
Cinnamon is pungent and sweet in taste, extremely hot in nature, and enters the heart, spleen, liver, and kidney meridians. It can warm the middle and dispel cold, warm the kidneys and assist yang, and warm the meridians and unblock the vessels. It mainly treats aversion to cold and cold limbs due to deficiency of spleen and kidney yang. Star anise is pungent and sweet in taste, warm in nature, and enters the spleen and kidney meridians. It can warm the kidneys, dispel cold, and regulate qi. Cloves are pungent in taste, warm in nature, and enter the stomach, spleen, lung, and kidney meridians. They can warm the middle and reverse qi flow, dispel cold and relieve pain, warm the kidneys and assist yang, strengthen the stomach, and remove bad breath. Orange peel is pungent and bitter in taste, warm in nature, and enters the spleen and lung meridians. It can regulate qi and harmonize the middle, dry dampness and resolve phlegm.
For a non-alcoholic option, you can make Christmas spiced tea, which children can also drink. Prepare five roselle flowers, half an orange peel, one star anise, two cinnamon sticks, and a small amount of cloves. Add an appropriate amount of sugar according to taste. Wash the ingredients and put them into one liter of hot water, then simmer for ten minutes before serving. This tea has warming and unblocking properties and can improve deficiency and cold of the spleen and stomach. Please note that it is not suitable for people with damp-heat in the spleen and stomach or those with excessive internal heat.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Besides turkey, gingerbread, Yule log cake, and sweet pies, mulled wine is always a staple at a traditional Christmas dinner. To make it, red wine is heated, then cinnamon, star anise, cloves, orange peel, and sugar are added and simmered for 15 minutes. These are also common ingredients in Oriental cooking. The principle is to use pungent and hot ingredients with hot wine to ward off cold, just like we drink a cup of ginger tea when we have a cold.
Cinnamon is pungent and sweet in taste, extremely hot in nature, and enters the heart, spleen, liver, and kidney meridians. It can warm the middle and dispel cold, warm the kidneys and assist yang, and warm the meridians and unblock the vessels. It mainly treats aversion to cold and cold limbs due to deficiency of spleen and kidney yang. Star anise is pungent and sweet in taste, warm in nature, and enters the spleen and kidney meridians. It can warm the kidneys, dispel cold, and regulate qi. Cloves are pungent in taste, warm in nature, and enter the stomach, spleen, lung, and kidney meridians. They can warm the middle and reverse qi flow, dispel cold and relieve pain, warm the kidneys and assist yang, strengthen the stomach, and remove bad breath. Orange peel is pungent and bitter in taste, warm in nature, and enters the spleen and lung meridians. It can regulate qi and harmonize the middle, dry dampness and resolve phlegm.
For a non-alcoholic option, you can make Christmas spiced tea, which children can also drink. Prepare five roselle flowers, half an orange peel, one star anise, two cinnamon sticks, and a small amount of cloves. Add an appropriate amount of sugar according to taste. Wash the ingredients and put them into one liter of hot water, then simmer for ten minutes before serving. This tea has warming and unblocking properties and can improve deficiency and cold of the spleen and stomach. Please note that it is not suitable for people with damp-heat in the spleen and stomach or those with excessive internal heat.
Merry Christmas everyone!