Cold Remedy

I am very lucky that the girls were born healthy and have been strong for the past 17+ months. There were only a few colds with one or two incidents of low fever. Because they are still under the age of two, I try to use natural remedy when they get sick.

One of my favorite cold remedy is the steamed Korean pear. There are several variations. My mother used to core the pear, stuff it with rock sugar and steam it. We ate the pear as well as the juice. My Korean friend recommended adding honey to the cored pear before steaming. This version is quite tasty. Since my girls are still too young to eat honey, I alter the recipe a bit.

First, I cut the top of the Korean pear, so it has a "lid". Then I core the pear with a melon baller to remove the seedy part. To the cored pear, I fill it with approximately 1 tablespoon of julienned fresh ginger and 4 dried jujube (or red date in Chinese). Then I put the "lid" back, place the pear in a bowl with a plate on top and steam it using 3 cups of water in my electric steamer.



For the babies, I puree only the flesh of the pear and try to keep as much juice as possible. They love it!