Most of Chinese medicinal tea soups must be decocted – meaning the herbs should be boiled slowly for a long time. Every pack from the pharmacy is meant to be prepared 3 times a day and the resulting soup must be drinked with the meals (does not matter if before or after the meal). The boiling can be done in several ways, depending on the hardware you can use:
- Using a slow cooker – best is the type that have a full lid (without any gap in it) – just use the instructions of the slow cooker and follow these guides: during evening put in the empty pot a new tea pack. Add COLD water to cover the herbs and set the cooker on the slow mode. Remove the soup in the morning and drink it. Replace the soup with fresh HOT water and continue boiling until noon. Repeat the last step and drink another dose at evening. Throw away the used herbs (or use them as compost for your garden) and repeat everything for the next day. Learn from previous attempt and change the quantity of the water so you get about a cup of concentrated soup every time. If you get more than a cup you should drink all the available soup then add less water for the next boil.
- Using a normal pot over kitchen fire: add the tea pack, add COLD water, leave for 30 minutes to soak up. Start a rapid fire and watch closely to catch the first boil, then reduce the fire for a very slow boil. Boil for 30 minutes then stop and drink the soup. Next time when you boil the same pack use exactly the same procedure since herbs will be cold. This method is fast but have the dissadvantage to cook the herbs at a much higher temperature. The slow cooker method boils everything at about 96 degreees Celsius – preserving more healing factors.
Please note that in first 2-3 days you must learn the cooking device and proper quantity of water to be used initially and as refill. All receipes use different quantity of water so this process is to be repeated for every new formula.
Several variations are acceptable:
- Same pack of herbs can be used two days in a row. Second day soup will be less concentrated but overall more healing factors are used from the total amount of herbs you got.
- The soup can be drinked all day, in case you get much more than a cup every time, just pack it in some bottle and drink it slowly until the next round.
- If the slow cooker has a warm setting you can program boiling for 5 hours then switch the device on warm. Use the soup later during the meal.
Check this pictures for illustration:
[table]
| Step | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unopened tea pack |  |
| 2 | What is inside |  |
| 3 | Sample slow cooker |  |
| 4 | Inside of slow cooker (modern ones have resistance surrounding the ceramic pot – much better option) |  |
| 5 | Another view of the slow cooker |  |
| 6 | Dry herbs from the tea pack |  |
| 7 | Add COLD water and set on slow | |
| 8 | Check after some time if the boiling is happening (must be slow boiling) |  |
| 9 | Extract the soup from the slow cooker into a empty vessel |  |
[/table]
Lasă un răspuns