Chinese Confinement Recipes: Steamed Pork Patty

Chinese Confinement Recipes: Steamed Pork Patty

• May 12, 2021

Confinement Recipes for Week 1-3

For the first few weeks right after giving birth, confinement food is very basic and focuses on food that is easy to digest and avoids a lot of food and condiments that is believed to affect healing of the wounds. If it's a natural birth, follow this for 2 weeks and for caesareans follow for 3 weeks. They generally follow these rules.

1) Meals need to be mainly steamed, low in salt and low in oil

2) Avoid soya sauce, eggs, beef to help with scar healing

3) Avoid cold or raw foods to stop 'wind' from entering the body

4) Stick to chicken, pork and fish as the protein element of the meals

5) Whilst bleeding is still happening down below, do not eat ginger, red dates or red beans as they are foods that help with blood circulation and replenishment 

Steamed pork patty was one the first meals I ate once I got home after my caesarian. I had a hard time adjusting to low salt and no soya sauce in my cooking, and by my second meal of this steamed pork patty, a dollop of oyster sauce was my only saving grace. 

I came to really enjoy eating plain steamed food as long as I had oyster sauce and it helped me stay focused on not breaking away from confinement meals!

I'm afraid I don't have any process photos of how I made it, as it was already such hard work to try and cook whilst battling newborn exhaustion and recovery from surgery. 

Ingredients:
500g pork mince
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
2 tsp cornflour
4 tbsp water
1 tsp oyster sauce to serve (optional)

Directions:
1) Add salt, sugar, white pepper, cornflour and water to the pork mince and mix in circular motion using your hands or a spoon. Do this for 5 minutes to create a sticky texture that will give you a bouncier-bite texture when the patty is cooked
2) Spilt the pork into 2 separate plates for steaming
3) Boil a pan of water with a steam rack or use an electric steamer. Steam for 20 minutes on high heat until cooked through 
4) Serve with rice and plain steamed veggies. You may use a small amount of oyster sauce for flavouring 

Take a look at all my other confinement recipes