Pucai Porridge is a porridge dish made mainly with millet and cattail roots. Cattail roots, also known as Dugengxin and Dalin, are the roots of the cattail plant. They have a mild and slightly bitter taste and a cooling nature. Cattail roots have the effects of cooling and detoxifying, cooling the blood, promoting diuresis, and reducing swelling. They are suitable for consumption by people who feel stuffy and irritable during the summer.
[Name]
Pucai Porridge
[Ingredients]
Main ingredients: millet, cattail roots.
Seasonings: salt, water.
[Preparation Method]
1. Remove the old skin from the cattail roots, rinse them clean, blanch them in boiling water, and then remove and finely chop them after cooling.
2. Rinse the millet thoroughly, soak it in cold water for half an hour, then remove and drain the water.
3. Take a pot, add cold water and millet, bring to a boil over high heat, add the cattail roots, and simmer over low heat until the porridge is cooked. Then add salt to taste.
[Health Benefits of Cattail Roots]
Cattail roots, also known as Xicaogen and Mangcao, are the roots of the cattail plant. They have a mild and slightly bitter taste and a cooling nature. They are attributed to the stomach, bladder, and kidney meridians.
In traditional Chinese medicine, cattail roots are believed to have the effects of clearing heat, promoting diuresis, and detoxifying. They are mainly used for conditions such as hot and painful urination, difficult urination, abnormal vaginal discharge, and swollen and painful gums.
1. For hot and painful urination, difficult urination: 30g cattail roots, 30g stone weaver, 30g Portulaca oleracea. Decoction and take orally.
2. For damp-heat vaginal discharge: 30g cattail roots, 30g threeleaf arrowhead. Decoction and take orally.
3. For toothache due to stomach fire: 15g cattail roots, 15g bitter buckwheat husk, 15g rhubarb, 15g Artemisia argyi. Decoction and take orally.
[How to Identify Cattail Roots]
Cattail is a perennial herb that grows to a height of 60-100cm. It has a short and thick rhizome with long slender rootlets.
The stems are densely clustered, relatively thick and strong, with three sharp edges, and have two leaf sheaths at the base without leaf blades. The bracts are erect and elongated, measuring 3-14cm in length.
The spikelets are gathered into a head-like inflorescence, falsely axillary, ovate or elongate-ovate, measuring 8-16mm in length and 4-6mm in width, with numerous flowers.
The glumes are elongate-ovate, measuring 4-5mm in length, pale brown in color, with a short tip at the apex and red-brown short stripes on both sides; there is one midvein and six downward-pointing bristles, which are nearly equal in length to the small nutlets and have retrorse barbs; there are three stamens with linear anthers; and three stigmas.
The small nutlets are broadly ovate, flattened-triangular, measuring 2-2.5mm in length, blackish-brown and shiny when mature, with indistinct wrinkles. The flowering and fruiting period is from May to September.
