Receta Ayurvedic Cough Syrup for Dry Coughs
Ayurvedic Cough Syrup for Dry Coughs
I wrote this entry back in August 2007 but didn’t get around to posting it. I have no idea why. Laziness on my part? Probably. Lousy memory? Absolutely. Anyway, here it is. An Ayurvedic cough syrup with no medicinal ingredients to cause side effects, safe for just about anybody, that tastes good and actually works. Yay!
I made some today. Pretty interesting, in its own way. See, I had a cold a few weeks ago, but I still have a lingering dry hack, which I’m known to do, and they can last for months with me. There’s no good reason for it that I know of – it just happens. And I’ve still got the cough. So when Fahim and I saw the Ayurvedic doctor in Kegalle a few days ago, she gave me a recipe for cough syrup.
Ayurvedic Cough Syrup
Ingredients
- 500 grams dates
- 200 grams raisins
- 1000 grams (or 1 liter) water
- 500 grams sugar
Directions
Remove seeds and stems from dates, then put dates, raisins, and water into a pot and let simmer on low until the liquid volume has decreased by about half. It’ll look like brown mushy lumpy stuff.
At that point, I whirred whirred it with my stick blender, but Fahim assures me that this isn’t at all necessary. After all, people have been making this cough syrup for hundreds or thousands of years, and they didn’t have stick blenders. But since I like my little toy and I like blending things, I did.
Strain. I used cloth with a fairly fine weave. Too fine, really, since it took quite a bit of effort to squeeze the liquid out. This is not an exact science, either, so don’t stress about making sure you’ve squeezed every ounce of liquid out of the stuff. At any rate, I squeezed until the remaining pulp was stiff like playdough to the point of keeping shape.
Add sugar to the liquid in a pot and stir until it’s dissolved. If necessary, heat it over the stove to dissolve the sugar if you’re not patient. Which is me.
Bottle. I stored it in the fridge and it kept for months. It might have kept longer, but I used it all up.
I gave the ingredients all in the same unit to make it easier for y’all to convert to whatever quantities and units you prefer without having to hassle with conversion formulas. Just keep the same ratio and yer good to go. Also, exact measurements are not required, and if you want to increase the water amount, feel free.
This cough syrup ended up having a syrupy thickness just like commercial cough syrups do, but it tasted good. And, so far, it seems to be working. I’ve had a few attacks of the dry coughs, took the syrup – about a tablespoon like the Ayurvedic doc recommended – and no cough.
Happiness reigns.
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Tags: cough syrup