Recipe: Sweet Watercress Drink (Sai Yong Choi Shui)

I have a Cantonese mother so, as my dad puts it, I will be drinking soup until the day I die. Which is not as bad as it sounds, cos I happen to like soup. The Chinese do not distinguish between food and medicine. For them, food is part of the healing and rejuvenating process. Many of the so-called "health foods" that I ate as a child have only recently become popularised in Western culture, like goji berries (medlar seeds or kei zi). And I think that's great!

A drink that my mother often prepared for my brother and I when we were children (actually, she still does even now that we are slightly older) was sai yong choi shui, which roughly translated, means Watercress Drink. It has a honeyed taste, and is completely au naturale. I'm going to ask my mother what exactly the health benefits are and update this post - I know it's good for coughs - but as any good chinese mother will say, "Just drink it, it's good for you."!

Hence I decided that it would be as good an excuse of a welcome home present for The Boy.

For further reference, I have included links (with pictures) to some of the more "exotic" ingredients.

RECIPE: SAI YONG CHOI SHUI (SWEET WATERCRESS DRINK)
1kg watercress (sai yong choi) - both leaves and stems
1x luo han guo, cut in two
10x chinese honey dates (mud jo) - I substituted this with dried red dates
handful of sweet apricot kernels (mung hung) - optional

1. Bring 2 litres of water to boil.
2. Add ingredients, washed, and boil on high for 15 minutes.
3. Lower heat and simmer for 2 hours.
4. Cool to room temperature, or cool in the fridge.

Yields 5 bowls.