(1218) three dates soup

A phone call came to me while I was travelling between Perak and Perlis. My daughter asked me the recipe for making 3 dates soup for an anaemic patient.

Many years ago I visited Amy during her confinement period for her second child. She had her first child's first month in her mother's home. After that it was agreed among the in-laws to rotate to her mother-in-law's home. However, while she was carrying the second child, her unmarried brother-in-law passed away. Since a happy event would clashes with a tragedy, she opted to hire a confinement lady to help her the lunar month subsequent to the second birth.

Her confinement lady boiled a most palatable 3 dates soup for her to consume throughout the 28 days. As one of the few who were admitted to see the mother and new born within that month, I was given the same drink made for the convalescing mother. There were three dates used: red, black and blue dates. I have forgotten her exact ratio, after all it was 33 years ago. However I vaguely recalled it was in proportion to the taste and value in money spent purchasing those different dates. It could have been 4:2:1, red dates are the cheapest by weight and the sweetest; it was followed by black dates and then the rare blue dates which would be the most pricey.

Depending on the means of cooking, by gas it was to bring it to a rapid boil, simmer for one and a half hours. If one was to use charcoal, it would be on medium heat until the volume of water halved. Using a slow cooker, one switched from high at a rolling boil to slow or simmer for two hours. Since the instruction was given a third of a decade ago, no one in the country then had induction electrical cooking yet. Any reader keen to try this recipe would have to improvise.

My daughter took down the instructions and accordingly boiled the first batch for her friend who was discharged from the hospital. The patient was being treated for leukaemia. We'll see how the patient fared a few weeks later.

** The blog was hand written three weeks ago. Finally I got to a place I have internet to post this. Am happy to report the "patient" found enough energy to plant a plot of 4 vegetables 10x40 feet in front of her house in Pahang.