When is the best season to eat eel and scaleless fish, can pregnant women eat it, and what foods should not be eaten with it
Asian swamp eel is also known as eel. The Asian swamp eel is not only a delicacy on the table; its meat, blood, head and skin all have certain medicinal value, with effects such as enriching the blood, tonifying qi, reducing inflammation, disinfecting, and eliminating rheumatism. So when is the best season to eat eel? Can pregnant women eat eel? What should it not be eaten with?
The Asian swamp eel is a fish of tropical and warm temperate zones, a bottom-dwelling fish with strong adaptability. It lives in the lower layer of water bodies, mainly inhabiting muddy waters such as rice fields, lakes, ponds, rivers and ditches, and can even be seen in swamps, flooded fields or wetlands.
When is the best season to eat eel?
As the saying goes, “eat a ginseng root in winter, eat an eel in summer”; this “eel” refers to the Asian swamp eel. Asian swamp eel meat is sweet in nature and warm in property, and has the effects of tonifying the middle and enriching the blood and treating deficiency damage. It is very suitable for summer. Eating eel can also prevent diarrhea caused by indigestion in summer and protect the cardiovascular system! The high-yield period for Asian swamp eel in China is between June and October each year, especially from June to August when the Asian swamp eel is fattest. During this period, the Asian swamp eel tastes very delicious, has few bones and thick flesh!
Can pregnant women eat eel?
Eel is an excellent nourishing food for pregnant women. According to analysis: every 100 grams of eel meat contains 18.8 grams of protein, 0.9 grams of fat, 150 milligrams of phosphorus, 380 milligrams of calcium, 16 milligrams of iron, 428 international units of vitamin A, and also contains eel substances A and B and thiamine, etc.
Eel is a food high in protein and low in fat. It is warm in nature, sweet in taste and non-toxic, and enters the liver, spleen and kidney meridians. According to the record in “Bencao Shiyi”: “Eel tonifies deficiency damage, treats postpartum lochia dripping in women and disharmony of qi and blood, and eliminates cold qi and bowel sounds in the abdomen.” It can tonify the middle and benefit qi and treat deficiency and damage, and is an ideal nourishing product for people who are weak and malnourished.
Regular consumption of eel has a strong tonifying function
Eel is rich in DHA and lecithin. It is the main component constituting the cell membranes of various organs and tissues in the human body, and is also indispensable nutrition for brain cells.
According to experimental research data from the United States, regularly ingesting lecithin can increase memory by 20%. Therefore, eating eel meat has the effect of nourishing the brain and strengthening the body.
The special substance it contains, “eel substance”, can lower blood sugar and regulate blood sugar, and has a relatively good therapeutic effect on diabetes. In addition, it contains very little fat, so it is an ideal food for diabetic patients. The amount of vitamin A contained in eel is astonishingly high.
Vitamin A can improve eyesight and promote the metabolism of the skin and membranes.
Some people say that “eel is eye medicine”; in the past, people with eye diseases all knew that eating eel was beneficial. Regular consumption of eel has a strong tonifying function, especially more obvious for people who are weak, or after illness and after childbirth.
Its blood can also treat facial paralysis. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that it has medical and health functions such as tonifying qi and nourishing blood, warming yang and strengthening the spleen, nourishing the liver and kidneys, and dispelling wind and unblocking collaterals.
What should eel not be eaten with?
1. Dog meat: Dog meat and dog blood both have the nature of warming and stirring fire and assisting yang. Asian swamp eel is sweet and very warm, and its warming and fire-assisting effect is stronger, which is not beneficial to ordinary people. Moreover, Asian swamp eel has a fishy odor, so it is even less suitable to cook it with dog meat. Eating the two together tastes strange and can become a bizarre dish.
2. Spinach: The nature, flavor and functions of eel and spinach are not coordinated. Eating them together may cause diarrhea, and the oxalic acid contained in spinach will combine with the calcium in eel to form calcium oxalate crystals, increasing the risk of urinary tract stones.
3. Golden squash: Asian swamp eel warms the middle and tonifies qi, while golden squash is sweet and cold and descends qi. Their functions are very different. Eating them together causes their functions to cancel each other out and is not beneficial to the body. Moreover, their biochemical components are complex, and eating them together will produce biochemical reactions unfavorable to the human body and harmful to health, so they should not be eaten together.
4. Persimmon: Eel is rich in nutrients such as protein and calcium, while persimmon contains more tannic acid. Protein and tannic acid can combine to form tannin protein, causing protein to lose its original nutritional value.
5. Hawthorn: Eel is warm in nature and can tonify the middle and benefit qi, and has a certain relieving effect on deficiency damage, disharmony of qi and blood, rheumatism and other conditions. However, eel and hawthorn are incompatible. Hawthorn contains more tannic acid, and the reason for the incompatibility is similar to that of persimmon.
6. Grapes: Eel is rich in nutrients such as protein and calcium, and grapes contain more tannic acid. Tannic acid can combine with the calcium in eel to form a new substance that is not easily digested, reducing the original nutritional value of eel, so the two should not be eaten together.
How should Asian swamp eel be eaten to be delicious?
1. Braised Asian swamp eel
[Ingredients] 400 grams of Asian swamp eel, 2 heads of garlic, 10 grams each of old ginger and scallion, 2 tablespoons of baijiu, 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of aromatic vinegar, 3 tablespoons of white granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon of white pepper powder, 2 tablespoons of oil.
[Method] 1. Remove the internal organs of the Asian swamp eel, wash off the mucus on its body with warm water, do not remove the bones, and cut into inch-long sections for later use. 2. Wash the scallion and cut into small sections. Wash the old ginger and garlic and slice for later use. 3. Heat the oil in a wok over high heat until 80% hot, add ginger slices, garlic slices and scallion sections and stir-fry until fragrant, pour in the Asian swamp eel sections, add baijiu, dark soy sauce, Zhenjiang aromatic vinegar and white granulated sugar and stir-fry for 3 minutes, pour in boiling water until the water covers the Asian swamp eel, cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. 4. After 30 minutes, reduce the sauce over high heat. When the sauce is thick, sprinkle with white pepper powder, garnish with some chopped scallion and serve.
2. Pickled pepper Asian swamp eel
[Ingredients] 500 grams of Asian swamp eel, 50 grams of pickled peppers, 8 grams of ginger, 8 grams of white-skinned garlic, 8 grams of scallion, 8 grams of soy sauce, 8 grams of vinegar, 15 grams of salt, 5 grams of monosodium glutamate, 8 grams of cooking wine, 8 grams of white granulated sugar, 30 grams of vegetable oil.
[Method] 1. Cut the slaughtered and washed Asian swamp eel into 3.5-centimeter-long sections. 2. Finely chop the pickled red peppers and ginger for later use. 3. Slice the garlic and cut the scallion into short sections. 4. Heat the oil in the wok until 70% hot, add the eel sections and stir-fry until the moisture is driven off, add the finely chopped pickled red peppers and ginger and garlic slices, stir-fry until fragrant, add cooking wine and stir-fry evenly, add soy sauce, salt, white sugar and 500 milliliters of meat broth. 5. After bringing to a boil, move to low heat and braise the Asian swamp eel until soft. 6. When the sauce in the wok is basically reduced, add monosodium glutamate, scallion sections and vinegar, reduce the sauce until dry and the oil is glossy, remove from the heat, let cool, and plate to serve.
3. Clear stewed Asian swamp eel
[Ingredients] 1 Asian swamp eel, 1 section of scallion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 piece of ginger, 250 milliliters of chicken broth, an appropriate amount of sesame oil, a little monosodium glutamate, 1 large spoon of dry starch, 2 spoons of vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
[Method] 1. Add one spoon of dry starch to the Asian swamp eel sections and mix well by tossing. 2. Heat the wok, add generous oil, heat until 70% hot, and fry the Asian swamp eel sections in the wok for about 1 minute. 3. When the surface is slightly yellow, remove and drain the oil. 4. Put the fried Asian swamp eel sections into a bowl, add vinegar, a little chicken broth, monosodium glutamate, salt and shredded ginger. 5. Steam over strong heat for 30 minutes. 6. Take another wok and heat it, pour in a little oil, add scallion and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. 7. Add chicken broth, vinegar, salt and monosodium glutamate, and bring to a boil. 8. Thicken with wet starch, remove from the heat and pour over the steamed Asian swamp eel.