The Laba Festival, as the name suggests, is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the Chinese calendar. The must-have food for Laba Festival is Laba porridge, which is usually made from eight different types of coarse grains to celebrate the harvest. So how is the delicious and sweet Laba porridge made? Let me introduce several different methods to you below.
[Method 1]
Ingredients: 20g of rice, glutinous rice, corn kernels, oatmeal, sticky millet, buckwheat rice, mung beans, red adzuki beans, walnuts, raisins, green peas, water chestnut rice, 30g of peanuts, 15g of dried longan, 30g of lotus seeds, 80g of chestnuts, 60g of sticky corn kernels, 30g of chickpeas, 50g of jujube, 70g of rock sugar, 10g of soaked wolfberries.
Method:
1. First, soak the water chestnut rice and red adzuki beans in water.
2. Except for the rock sugar, dried longan, raisins, and soaked wolfberries, put all the ingredients in a small bowl, wash them, and then put them in a pressure cooker. Add enough water, rock sugar, and dried longan.
3. Cover the pressure cooker, cook over high heat until it starts steaming, then reduce the heat and cook for 25 minutes, and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
4. When there is no pressure in the pressure cooker, open the lid, add the raisins and cook for 5 minutes, then sprinkle the soaked wolfberries and cook for a while. Serve.
[Method 2]
Ingredients: 50g of glutinous rice, 50g of japonica rice, 50g of black rice, 50g of rice kernel, 50g of longan, 100g of red beans, 100g of lotus seeds, 100g of longan, 100g of peanuts, 100g of chestnuts, 100g of jujube, appropriate amount of sugar.
Method:
1. Soak the lotus seeds in water until they are submerged, then put them in a steamer and steam over high heat for about 1 hour until cooked.
2. Peel and pit the longan.
3. Put a suitable amount of water in a pot, then add the black rice, red beans, peanuts, and jujube, and cook. When they are half cooked, add the rice kernel, japonica rice, and glutinous rice that have been washed, and cook. When the pot boils, simmer over low heat.
4. When the porridge is 70-80% cooked, add the cooked lotus seeds and stir well. After the pot boils again, simmer for a while, then transfer to a clean pot, and sprinkle with sugar. Serve.
[Method 3]
Ingredients: a suitable amount of rice, 2 carrots, 2 pieces of smoked tofu, 1 bamboo shoot, 7-10 shiitake mushrooms, a little black fungus, 1/2 pound of ground pork, 5-8 shrimp, a little salt.
Method: 1. Clean the rice and put it in a clay pot, add water and cook;
2. Put the ground pork in a pot, remove the foam after boiling (use lean ground pork as much as possible);
3. Cut the shiitake mushrooms and carrots into small cubes, chop the shrimp and black fungus, and put them in the pot together;
4. After 15 minutes, cut the smoked tofu into small cubes and put them in the pot;
5. After 10 minutes, cut the bamboo shoots into small cubes and put them in the pot;
6. After 30 minutes, add a little salt and simmer for a while (stir the porridge frequently during this process to avoid sticking to the pot). Serve when cooked.
[Method 4]
Ingredients: 150g of glutinous rice, 25g of mung beans, 25g of red beans, 25g of cashews, 25g of peanuts, 25g of longan, 25g of jujube, 1 small piece of dried tangerine peel, 75g of rock sugar.
Method: Soak all the ingredients in water, wash them, pour water into the porridge pot, add all the ingredients, cook over medium heat for about thirty minutes, and then add rock sugar to taste before eating.
Tips:
Although the ingredients for Laba porridge are rich and can be freely matched, the choice of ingredients should also vary according to different age groups.
For the elderly, their diet should be diversified and they should eat more soybean products. This is because soybeans contain rich biologically active substances such as soy isoflavones and soy saponins, which can inhibit lipid peroxidation in the body and prevent osteoporosis. Moreover, the gastrointestinal function of the elderly is relatively weak, and soybeans are easy to be digested and absorbed by the body. In addition, the combination of coarse and fine grains is rich in dietary fiber, which can increase intestinal peristalsis and prevent constipation.
For children, who are in the period of early childhood from 3 to 5 years old, they should eat more coarse grains. Laba porridge contains rich nutrients, which can not only help children replenish various nutrients needed by the body but also cultivate good eating habits for them in the future.
