5E

WOOD - The Energy of Springtime

Here's a brief blurb that describes the energy of Springtime:

SPRING
Wood, the energy of spring, gives us the power of birth, growth and renewal. It enables us to move forward with vision and determination. Its function is to structure.

Seasonal Cooking for Spring -- Nina Simonds

Nina Simonds can always be counted on for some great recipes, and in her groundbreaking book, A Spoonful of Ginger, she shares some wisdom about the seasonal diet for spring:

"The spring season signifies rebirth and renewal and it is traditionally a time for cleansing.  Some Chinese doctors recommend a fast, consuming only fruit and vegetable juices.  Foods considered particularly appropriate for this season (apart from seasonal specialties) are: grains like wheat, barley, oats and rye; beans like lentils, kidney beans, and green peas; vegetables such as bean sprouts, carrots, celery, salad greens of any kind, broccoli, green peppers, shiitake mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and green beans; all types of citrus fruits and apricots; chicken, pork, duck and beef."

Her wonderful book includes some "sample spring menus" for "spicy stir-fried chicken with fresh vegetables;" "basic cooked white or brown rice;" "cinnamon-honey orange slices;" "vegetarian egg-drop soup;" "barbecued pork brown rice;" "coconut rice pudding with berries;" "braised duck with tangerine peel and sweet potatoes;" and "flash-cooked bean sprouts."

Eating with the Seasons: Spring

Paul Pitchford, writing in the classic, Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition, writes about suitable foods and their preparation for this time of year -- spring.  He writes:

This is the season to attend to the liver and gallbladder.  In spring we naturally eat less, or even fast, to cleanse the body of the fats and heavy foods of winter.  The diet should be the lightest of the year and contain foods which emphasize the yang, ascending, and expansive qualities of spring -- young plants, fresh greens, sprouts, and immature wheat or other cereal grasses.  Salty foods such as soy sauce, miso and sodium-rich meats all have a strong component of sinking energy and are best limited during springtime.  Too many heavy foods clog the liver, resulting in spring fits and fevers.

He adds,

The expansive, rising quality of sweet and pungent-flavored foods is recommended by the classics as a means of creating a personal spring within.  For this effect, one can use a little concentrated sweetener with pungent herbs, such as honey/mint tea.  The pungent cooking herbs -- basil, fennel, marjoram, rosemary, carraway, dill, bay leaf -- are desirable at this time.  Most of the complex carbohydrates such as grains, legumes and seeds have a primarily sweet flavor which increases with sprouting.  Young beets, carrots, and other sweet starchy vegetables, thinned from the spring garden, provide a refreshing sweet flavor.  Certain intensely pungent flavors are traditionally employed in the spring by Western folk healers as medicine: a week-long daily dose of raw onions and garlic acts as a vermifuge to rid the body of parasites.  A traditional Japanese parasiticide is the sweet-pungent combination of mochi and mugwort -- pounded sweet rice with mugwort.

Five Element Cooking -- for Spring

The book, "Feng Shui and the 5-Element Kitchen," talks about spring as "the dynamic energy of new beginnings!"  "Sour-tasting foods refresh and revitalize.  Tension, irritability and anger subside, your muscles relax, and you are able to take deep breaths and find new solutions to your problems.  The recipes of this element feed your liver/gallbladder system.  This, in turn, activates your metabolism and awakens your vitality.  If you feel drained or fatigued, you should serve salads and fruits lightly warmed to assist the body with their digestion."

They suggest some interesting recipes to support and nurture (or enhance!) the energetics of spring, including: sorrel soup; arugula soup; stuffed tomatoes; refreshing green salad; roasted bulghur with parsley; shrimp skewers; celery and tomato ragout; green beans with cherry tomatoes; tomatoes in walnut vinaigrette; chicken livers with braised greens; duck breasts in red currant sauce; fresh raspberries with creme fraiche; vegetable terrine with smoked salmon; sour cherry compote with cream; and hot spiced grapes.

Seasonal Cooking for Winter -- Nina Simonds

Nina Simonds can always be counted on for some great recipes, and in her groundbreaking book, A Spoonful of Ginger, she shares some wisdom about the seasonal diet for winter:

"Winter is the season when the yin element controls the climate; darkness and cold are the pervasive influences.  Foods that are particularly suited to this time of year are: brown rice, wheat, barley, millet and oats; kidney beans, adzuki beans, black beans, and pinto beans; carrots, onions, potatoes and seaweeds such as kelp and nori, lettuce, and bitter vegetables including endive and escarole; cranberries; halibut, bluefish, salmon, swordfish, claims, crab, chicken, beef and lamb; garlic, ginger, pepper and other pungent spices."

Her wonderful book includes some "sample winter menus" for "wilted spinach and mushroom salad, vindaloo lamb, and basic cooked white or brown rice;" "spicy fish stew, scallion pancakes, and two-spice vanilla tapioca pudding"; and "Chinese cinnamon barley soup, hot and sour cabbage slaw, curried tofu, and basic cooked white or brown rice."

Editor's Note: the photo is of cioppino, a spicy Italian tomato-based fish stew, with seafood.

Five Element Cooking -- for Winter

The book, "Feng Shui and the 5-Element Kitchen," talks about winter as "gathering forces for a new beginning  The recipes of this element nourish and strengthen your vital water energy." 

They suggest some interesting recipes to support and nurture (or enhance!) the energetics of winter, including: "calamari salad with zucchini and carrots," "adzuki bean salad with smoked salmon," "chestnut puree with cabbage," "miso soup," "carrot salad with oragnes," "mussel soup with barley sprouts," "seafood omelet," "soybeans with red peppers," "noodles with sprouted garbanzo beans," "smoked trout with potatoes two ways," "sushi with sole and cucumber," "sea bass with wild rice," "stuffed squid," "turbot with fennel gratin," and "saddle of venison with red wine shallots."  Are you sensing a theme here?  Most of these recipes seem to combine seafood with some other mild-flavored dish.  The flavor associated with the water element is "salty," so it's no surprise that seafood, much of which is caught from salt water, takes such prominence on this seasonal menu.

Note: In the cookbook, they also suggest ways in which each of these dishes is somehow enhancing the energetics of the season.  Cool!  This book and Nina Simond's book seem to be the only two that even make reference to the subject...

Eating with the Seasons: Winter

Paul Pitchford, writing in the classic, Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition, writes about suitable foods and their preparation for this time of year -- winter.  He writes:

"Both the salty and bitter foods are appropriate for winter, since they promote a sinking, centering quality which heightens the capacity for storage.  Such foods also cool the exterior of the body and bring body heat deeper and lower; with a cooler surface, one notices the cold less.  However, use salt with care: an excess tightens the Water organs (kidneys and bladder), causing coldness and overconsumption of water, which weakens these organs and affects the heart as well.  Providing protection for the heart-mind in the winter is important can be accomplished with the addition of a few bitter foods, since their flavor is said to 'enter the heart'."

He adds,

"Most common bitter foods are not wholly bitter, but combinations of bitter and other flavors.  These foods include lettuce, watercress, endive, escarole, turnip, celery, asparagus, alfalfa, carrot top, rye, oats, quinoa, and amaranth.  The bitter flavor is also part of the protective coating of some foods, e.g., citrus peels and the outermost leaves of cabbage (seldom found on cabbage in supermarkets).  The strongest bitter qualities are in the herbal realm.  Common examples are chicory root, burdock root, horsetail, and chaparral.  Roasted, ground chicory is available as a major ingredient in many coffee substitutes.

Salty foods include miso, soy sauce (or the wheat-free version, Tamari), seaweeds, salt, millet, barley, plus any food made salty by the addition of salt.  Salt is over-used in the typical diet, while the bitter flavor is under-represented.  However, strong doses of bitter food are not needed except in the cases of certain imbalances, but small, regular amounts in winter nurture deep inner experiences and preserve joy in the heart.

He also cautions,

"After acclimating the body to winter with appropriate cooking methods and more salty and bitter foods, the cold person may still feel cold because of a lack of warming potential (yang) in the body.  In this case, add more warming foods (such as those listed later in the chapter under "kidney yang deficiency".)  Subjecting the healthy body to a little cold nourishes the kidney-adrenal function, but excess cold weakens it."

WATER - The Energy of Winter

The energetics of Winter, from a source I wish I could remember, in order to credit:

WINTER
Water, brings the elements full circle. It gives us adaptability and will power. It is the element of winter, giving us time to pause and gather strength. It is the seedbed of all life. Its function is to unite.

Eating with the Seasons: Summer

Paul Pitchford, writing in the classic, Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition, writes about suitable foods and their preparation for this time of year -- summer.  He writes:

"To unify with summer, a yang season, the Inner Classic suggests we express the yang principle -- expansion, growth, lightness, outward activity, brightness, and creativity. The following suggestions for lifestyle and diet reflect this principle. Summer is a period of luxurious growth. To be in harmony with the atmosphere of summer, awaken early in the morning and reach to the sun for nourishment to flourish as the gardens do. Work, play, travel, be joyful, and grow into selfless service. The bounty of the outside world enters (into us) and enlivens us."

He adds,

"Use plenty of brightly-colored summer fruits and vegetables. ... Cook lightly and regularly add a little spicy, pungent, or even fiery flavor. When sauteeing, use high heat for a very short time, and steam or simmer foods as quickly as possible. Use little salt and more water.

Summer offers abundant variety and the diet should reflect this. Minerals and oils are sweated out of the body, and their loss can cause weakness if they are not replaced by a varied diet. To be more comfortable, drink hot liquids and take warm showers to induce sudden sweating and cool the body. Summer heat combined with too much cold food weakens the digestive organs. Coldness causes contraction; it holds in sweat and heat, and interferes with digestion. Iced drinks and ice cream actually contract the stomach and stop digestion. (They are best avoided.)

On the hottest days, create a cool atmosphere and serve more cooling fresh foods, such as salads, sprouts (especially mung, soy and alfalfa), fruit, cucumber, tofu, and flower and leaf teas, including chrysanthemum, mint and chamomile. Common fruits which cool summer heat best are apples, watermelon, lemon and limes. Mung bean soup or tea is another specific remedy. Also, the dispersing hot-flavored spices are considered appropriate in the warmest weather. At first their effect is to increase warmth, but ultimately they bring body heat out to the surface to be dispersed. With heat on the surface, one's body mirrors the summer climate and therefore will be less affected by it. Red and green hot peppers, cayenne red pepper, fresh (not dried) ginger, horseradish and black pepper are all ideal for this purpose. However, if too many dispersing foods are taken, then weakness and loss of yang will result, and the ability to stay warm and vital in the cooler seasons (to come) is lost."

Seasonal Cooking for Summer -- Nina Simonds

Nina Simonds can always be counted on for some great recipes, and in her groundbreaking cookbook, A Spoonful of Ginger, she shares some wisdom about the seasonal diet for summer:

"Summer is a high-energy/yang period when the fire element dominates. Some [Oriental Medicine and Ayurvedic] doctors recommend cutting back on coffee, alcohol, red meats, dairy products and other fatty foods during the warmer weather. In addition to the seasonal specialties, foods that are particularly suited for summer are: grains like corn and millet; mung beans and red and green lentils; chiles, cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbage, green peppers, kale, any bitter greens -- such as endive, escarole, watercress, bitter gourd, scallions and tomatoes; strawberries, raspberries, apricots, grapes, and peaches; shrimp, oysters and clams; and pungent seasonings -- such as curry, pepper, fennel, garlic and ginger."

Her wonderful cookbook includes some "sample summer menus" for summer, including: "Shrimp Sambal" (I've made her recipe and it's off-the-hook great!), "Wilted Greens with a Spicy Garlic Dressing" (mmmnnn...), basic cooked white or brown rice, and "Strawberries and Melon in Plum Wine." Other menus include "Grilled Shrimp with a Chile Dressing," "Fresh Corn and Roasted Bell Pepper Salad," "Steamed Rice with Toasted Pine Nuts," and "Fresh Mangoes and Silver Tree Ears in Syrup." Also, "Fresh Corn Chowder" and "Vegetarian Roll-Ups."

(This is a pic of a Vietnamese dish with poached chicken on shredded cabbage in a spicy Nuoc mam-based sauce with peanuts and cilantro. Yum!)

Five Element Cooking -- for Summer

The book, "Feng Shui and the 5-Element Kitchen," talks about summer heat as the time of "growth and ripeness!"  "A little bit of bitter taste supports your energy in the fire element. Your heart and circulatory system find the right rhythm, and your personality unfolds joyfully. Heart and arteries are in harmonious tension and give you the gift of happy vitality as blood is pumped through your body. With the recipes of this (season) you feed your heart and soul." Cook something from the fire element, they write, if you "(want to enhance or nurture) your heart and circulatory system), would like more joy and harmony in your life, want to refresh and build up your blood and bodily fluids, would like to stimulate and vitalize your mind and spirit, and would like to take special care of yourself in the summertime."

They suggest some interesting recipes to support and nurture (or enhance!) the energetics of summer, including: "pan-roasted whole grain muesli," "kasha soup with rosemary," "mache salad with pomegranate seeds," "artichokes with noodles," escarole salad with carrots," "dandelion salad with croutons," "breaded celery root," "braised asparagus," "sweet potato puree," "duck liver with rhubarb and fresh figs," "roasted oats with basil," "stuffed beets," "marinated lamb chops," "gratin of cardoons," "brussel sprouts with almonds," and "chicken heart skewers."