Jujube Chinese Red Date - DIY recipes

Jujube Chinese Red Date

Jujube date is a very popular Chinese fruit. You can enjoy them fresh  during the fall (August~ October) in the northern China. But most frequently, they are enjoyed from dried fruit.  Here are some easy recipes that are popular in China.

Several commonly used ingredients mentioned below can be found at PierMall.com:

For Health Benefit

(1) For those who always feel fragile, tired, with poor sleeping quality
Jujube Chinese Red date, Dragon Eye fruit, Lotus seed

Wash all three ingredients
Cook Lotus seed in water until soft,
Add jujube date and dragon eye fruit for another 10 minute.
Sweeten with sugar, rock sugar or honey.

(2) For those with high blood pressure, high cholesterol
Use 8 oz celery, 30 pieces of red date. Wash and boil in water together for 30 minutes. Drink and soup and eat both celery and date

(3) For those recovering from sickness
Cut lamb into small pieces, add shelled peanut and date, cook over medium heat for 2 hours. Eat both meat and soup

(4) For those with excess brain work: poor sleep, forgiveness
Cook jujube date 4 Oz, dragon eye fruit 4 Oz , walnut 2 Oz and American ginseng slices 0.5 oz together until soft, add 2 Oz honey mix together. Cool and stored in a air tight glass jar. Enjoy 1 table spoon morning and evening.
Honey Peanut & Jujube

4 Oz Dried jujube date,
8 Oz Honey,
4 Oz raw shelled peanut
3 cups of wate
Wash jujube date and peanut thoroughly, soak in the warm water for 15 minutes
Combine 3 cups water and peanut, cook over gentle heat until peanut is soft
Add jujube dates to the cooking pot, continue to cook for about 10 minutes or until jujube dates are soft but not overcooked.
Drain the water and set the jujube date and peanut aside to cool

Add honey to the pot and cook over low heat until it becomes sticky
Add jujube dates and peanuts into honey, and mix them well.

Jujube date paste
Cook dried jujube dates for 10 minutes or until it is soft.
Make sure do not overcook the dates, which might turn sour when overcooked.
Puree the cooked dates in a food processor,
Sweeten with sugar.
Work the date into smooth paste.

It can be used as spread for the bread, filling for many other things, such as: bread, cookies, dessert and steaming bun

Snow mushroom Jujube soup
10 Jujube dates
20 Goji berries
20 peanuts or dried lotus seeds
2 large Snow Mushroom

1 cup of Medium grain rice or sweet glutinous rice
Sugar (black, brown, white or rock sugar)

Soak the snow mushroom in cold water for 4 hours
Wash the mushroom thoroughly. Break into smaller pieces and remove the hard part of the roots. Wash jujube date, Goji, and peanut/lotus seed
In a pot, combine rice with peanut/lotus seed, cook over high heat until boiling
Reduce the heat to medium heat, add snow mushroom and continue to cook
When the peanut/lotus seed is soft, add jujube date and goji berry and continue cook until they are all soft . Snow mushroom will become gel like

Cook in slow cooker: This soup can also be cooked with slow cooker. Just add all ingredients except jujube dates into the pot, Cook over high heat for 3~4 hours, or low heat for 5~6 hours until all ingredients are very soft. Add jujube and continue cook for 30 minutes before serving.

Tips: When the jujube date is overcooked, it will turn sour. So add the jujube in the last step. Usually it only requires 30 minutes’ cooking time. If you use black or brown sugar, the soup will turn dark color

The rice can be optional in this recipe. When there is no rice added, the soup is more gel like.
Eight Treasure soup
This is the traditional Chinese dessert. There are many different forms: Ba Bao Soup, Ba Bao Rice Cake, ba Bao Rice Dishes etc The ingredients are all similar: there are at least 8 different things. Sweet rice, Red beans, jujube date are the essentials. For the rest, you can add anything. Just use your imagination. Here is one example:
6 Oz Sweet rice (gluto rice)
4 oz Chinese Red bean (Or Japanese Azuki bean,. But it can be replaced with red kidney bean). Green Bean (mung bean) can also be used.
2 oz Raisin
2 Oz raw shelled peanut
2 oz Lotus seed
2 Oz pine nut (or walnut)
2 oz dried jujube date
2 oz Longan dragon eye (shelled dried whole fruit or seedless dried fruit)
4 cups of water.

Wash sweet rice and soak in water for 3 hours
Cook sweet rice, peanut and lotus seed in cold water until they are soft
Add longan dragon eye, jujube date and pine nut and continue cook until the rice become sticky
Add raisin and sugar, cook for another 15 minutes
Serve.

Tips: If you want to release the flavor of dragoneye into the soup, add it early. The fruit itself will become tasteless if cook for long. If you want to keep the sweetness in the fruit itself, add the longan fruit together with jujube.

Slow cooker version:
This soup can also be cooked in a slow cooker:
Add water, rice, peanuts and lotus seed in the slower cooker Cook in High for 3~4 hours, or in Low for 4~5 hours
Add dragon eye fruit, jujube red date and raisin and sweeten the soup 30~45 minutes before serving.

Tip: If you like thick soup, add less water. You can always start with less water and adjust the water during the cooking.

Walnut jujube date soup

This soup is great for the brain function
4 Oz medium grain rice
0.5 oz walnut
O,5 oz jujube date
Wash all three ingredients
Soak the rice for 30 minutes
Add rice and walnut with 4 cups of cold water
Cook over high heat until boiling
Add jujube date, cook over low heat for 45 minutes
Sweeten

Ginger Jujube soup

0.2 Oz Ginger slices
0.6 Oz dried jujube dates
1 oz brown sugar or black sugar

This is an excellent drink for the cold day. It is also good for the relief of Dysmenorrhea symptom in winter.

Wash date thorough,
1. Slice ginger
2. Add all three ingredients in 2 cups of water
3. Cook over high heat until boiling
4. Turn down the heat, continue cook 10 minutes
5. Drink the soup