Within a month after the birth of her child, Pearlin Pang held a mini-celebration at home. The theme of her party menu is confinement food.

Instead of the usual fare like Pig Trotter Braised in Vinegar and Sesame Oil Chicken, there were Black Pepper Salmon, Sweet and Sour Fried Abalone Mushroom, and Butter Chicken among many others.

It was an instant hit among the guests. Pearlin’s father even asked his wife (her mother) to get the recipe from the cook.

Confinement food has long been associated with herbs, medicine and bitter taste. But recent mothers (and the many others who will give birth to a dragon baby in the coming year) have wider and more refreshing choices.

Lili Wong, who is Pearlin’s confinement lady and the cook behind the delightful dishes, comments that confinement food has been evolving over the last fifty years. Lili is the third generation of confinement ladies in her family, and she has nine years of experience.

“I try to come up with new recipes to suit the palate of the more modern mothers,” she says.

Interviews with two other confinement ladies, both of whom have more than 10 years of experience, confirmed this trend. They reported more novelty dishes like Baked Honey Chicken, Pork Cutlet with Tomato Sauce, and Pan-fried Garoupa slices, Malay style.

“It’s good to stay relevant to the palate of young people, and there’s no harm being creative as long as the choice of ingredients serves the purpose of confinement,” said Clement Ng, Vice Principal of the Singapore College of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Confinement food is meant to supplement the blood and “qi” (life energy that circulate in the body’s channels called meridians) that a mother lost during childbirth. Blood and “qi” deficiency, according to Clement, lowers the immune system and causes one to be prone to chronic illnesses such as rheumatism and migraine.

The wonder of these progressive confinement dishes is how unintimidating they seem, and yet they incorporate ingredients that are vital to the mothers in confinement, such as ginger, sesame oil and Chinese wine.

“These ingredients add warmth to the body, which new mothers are lack,” said Clement. An old saying, he adds, goes like this: A woman’s body is like an oven during pregnancy, but it becomes a chiller after childbirth.

This is why husbands and other family members got to watch out. As much as the food is appealing, they are too heaty for people with ordinary body conditions to consume long term.

Butter Chicken (Confinement Food)

Marinate

2 chicken thigh and 2 chicken wings

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1tsp Shaoxing wine

A pinch of pepper

5tbsp Flour

3tbsp Rice flour

Cooking oil

Sauce

60g Butter

4 sprigs of curry leaves

60ml Hot Water

1 tsp light soy sauce

4 tbsp D.O.M wine

1 tsp brown sugar

A dash of dark soy sauce (for colouring only)

A pinch of pepper to taste

Method:

Marinate the meat with the listed ingredients for half an hour.

Mix the two flours and coat the chicken with the mixture.

Let it stand for 10 minutes (until the flour is absorbed into the marinade).

Heat up a wok of oil, about 3cm deep.

Gently lower the chicken into the oil and let it fry over medium heat.

Once it starts to brown, turn off the heat and remove the chicken.
Leave it aside.

Heat up another wok over medium-high heat.

Throw in the butter and the curry leaves and then stir-fry.

Before the butter melts entirely (it loses its thickening effect if it does), add the hot water into the wok.

Add light soy sauce, D.O.M, pepper, sugar and dark soy sauce.

Throw in fried chicken, stir to coat them with the sauce and turn off the heat once you are done.

Place the chicken on a plate and serve immediately.