Here's a favorite Chinese tonic, perfect for soothing dryness, quenching the thirsties and expelling dampness from your body. Sugar Cane Imperatae Water Chestnut Tonic 竹蔗茅根紅蘿蔔馬蹄水 is a tonic with a longish name but it's super simple to make and delicious and healthy to drink!
Here are all the ingredients needed for this tonic. From the left it's carrots, water chestnuts 馬蹄, rhizoma imperatae 茅根 and sugar cane 竹蔗.
Sugar cane in its raw form is basically a stick with a hard green or purple skin and a hardish yellow pulp filled with juice. To eat sugar cane the skin must first be removed. Check out our guide on how to peel the skin off at our post on How to Prepare and Eat Sugarcane.
In HK you can find sugar cane 竹蔗 in the wet markets. The heavier the better, it means more juice. Also sometimes you can find pre-peeled sugar cane in the supermarkets (like we did, yah!). Pre-peeled makes the whole process much easier! As you can see in the photo above pre-peeled sugar is a light yellow.
To prepare the peeled sugar cane for our tonic you need to slice into thinner sticks. If your sugar cane is fresh it is pretty easy to slice. However, if your cane has been sitting around for a while the pulp may have dried/hardened a bit. If so take care when slicing, make sure the knife has a good grip in the cane before using force to slice through.
According to Chinese medicine sugar cane juice helps to expel dampness from the body. It is also very good at quenching thirst.
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| Fresh rhizoma imperatae root |
This next ingredient is considered more of a Chinese medicinal root. Rhizoma Imperatae 茅根, also known as Bai Mao Gen, is often added to tonics for its sweet taste and heat clearing properties.
A short sideline here: Have you ever seen this little green box before? Well, when I was growing up there was always a box like this in our house. And every time one of the kids got the sniffles we got to mix up a hot delicious healing beverage from this box, yummy! Really makes you feel better!
It turns out that the rhizoma imperatae root is one of the two ingredients for this 'Cane & Imperatae Beverage 竹蔗茅根精' that I grew up with! So, in a sense, this powdered beverage is a modernized version of this exact traditional tonic that we're making today! Pretty cool, eh?
Find this root fresh at the supermarket or wet market in HK. Otherwise look for the dried version of rhizoma imperatae 竹蔗 at the Chinese medicine shops. You can also get it online here.
Water chestnuts 馬蹄 are somewhat sweet and have the most delightful crunch. In a tonic, they help clear heat and quench thirst. Look for these in asian supermarkets and wet markets.
Did you know that these are actually aquatic vegetables that grow in the mud. See the water chestnut on the right? That was the condition of our chestnuts when we bought them: all covered in mud! That's actually a good sign in a way, it means that they are super fresh. To double check freshness give the chestnuts a squeeze. The harder, the fresher.
These chestnuts need to be peeled to reveal the snowy white insides. We used a vegetable peeler to peel the thin dark skin off, just be careful of your fingers!
The last ingredient is one that most folks already have in their kitchens, the wonderful carrot. Roll cut the carrot into similar sized pieces and drop them in the pot. Carrots add a lovely sweetness to the tonic as well as having the properties of clearing heat and expelling dampness. It's really nice to eat the carrots!
Throw everything in a pot with water and boil until the flavors from the ingredients are absorbed to the tonic, about 1 to 1 1/2 hour. The sugar cane and carrot will provide some sweetness. Add rock sugar 冰糖 to further sweeten to your desire.
Ladle out, warm and delicious, to serve to all and sundry. Enjoy your soothing and relaxing tonic drink!
Sugar Cane Imperatae Water Chestnut Tonic
竹蔗茅根紅蘿蔔馬蹄水
(10 servings) Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 1 1/2 hours
Ingredients:
- 5 nos. 4 inch lengths of sugar cane 竹蔗
- handful rhizone imperatae 茅根
- 6 water chestnuts 馬蹄
- 2 carrots
- 1 1/2 liter water
- rock sugar 冰糖 to taste
Directions:
Prepare sugar cane: Peel skin off sugar cane if needed. Split each cane length into 4-6 sections.
Prepare water chestnuts: Rinse chestnuts under water until clean. Use vegetable peeler to peel the skin off. Cut each chestnuts into fourths.
Prepare carrot: Peel carrots. Roll cut each carrot into similar bite size pieces.
Boil the tonic: Add sugar cane, rhizone imperatae, water chestnuts, carrots and water to a large pot. When the water boils, turn down the heat to medium low and let simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hour or until a taste test reveals that the ingredients have permeated the tonic. Add rock sugar to taste, stirring til the sugar is melted.
Serve: Serve the tonic in bowls. You can add a bit of carrot, water chestnut and sugar cane in each bowl if you like. The sugar cane will be hardish, but can be chewed to release the lovely sugar cane juice inside. Enjoy!
Terrific Tonics at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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