Cooling duck

A delicious variation of chili con carne with a TCM twist

My week spot is the Liver, whose Qi gets easily stuck and thus creates Heat. Besides a light burning sensation on the tip of my tongue, I have a few red spots on its side. I experienced quite severe heat symptoms in the past, which led to sleeping troubles. I simply do not function if I do not sleep properly. I thus pay extra attention to heat signs and I try to calm the Fire with the appropriate food when I see that it gets “hotter”.

According to TCM, duck meat has a cooling thermal property, and I thus first prepared a broth with duck meat and lots of vegetables, balancing between neutral and more cooling ones.

Chinese cabbage and broccoli: cool, calm an irritated Stomach after too much coffee, alcohol, hot food or stress.

Tomatos: cold, same effects as Chinese cabbage but colder. To mitigate its coldness, it is usually good to eat them cooked (I may add, especially in winter, if you usually have cold feelings like cold limbs, cold in your back)

Carrots: neutral, mitigates fullness in the upper part of the abdomen

Celery: cool, calms Liver-Qi

I did not add any salt or spices. I cooked it for three hours with low heat. I then discarded the vegetables, put the meat aside and filled two jars with the broth. This broth can then either be drank, adding some salt, miso or soja sauce, or it can be used to prepare other dishes. I decided to use meat and the broth to prepare a variation of chili con carne.

I used dried beans and first cooked them in water. To balance the cooling nature of the meat and broth, I used onions, garlic and spices (cumin, origan and paprika), which are all warm – usually all spices are warm. I added some tomato paste, two chilis and the duck meat cuts into pieces.

Black beans are neutral and enter the Spleen, Liver, Kidneys. Thus, with this dish I could nourish some key Yin organs and at the same time calm the Liver and decrease the internal Heat.  Black beans are especially good for women in menopause, as Kidney Qi decreases in this life phase. The cooling nature of the broth is also helpful with symptoms such as night sweat, you can try to drink a bowl of broth before going to bed. It was filling and the overall taste was sooo delicious. After such a satisfied meal, you will have no craving for sweets or alcohol, at least that was the case for me.

If you try this out post a pic and let me know it was!

PS the little ducks in the pictures are chopsticks holder. Cute, aren´t they?