Congee with Nuts and Dried Fruits(la ba zhou )

Laba porridge method:

Raw materials for making Laba porridge:

150 g round glutinous rice, 25 g mung bean, 25 g red bean, 25 g cashew nut, 25 g peanut, 25 g longan, 25 g red jujube, 1 small slice tangerine peel

Ingredients for making Laba porridge:

Rock sugar 75g

Processing steps of Laba porridge:

1. Soften all materials with water and wash them;

2. Pour water into the porridge pot, add all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn to medium heat and cook for about 30 minutes;

3. Add rock sugar to taste.

The characteristics of Laba porridge are as follows

It is delicious and nutritious.

Attention should be paid to the preparation of Laba porridge

This porridge can be eaten cold or hot.

Congee with Nuts and Dried Fruits

Laba porridge, also known as "Qibao Wuwei porridge", "Buddha porridge" and "everyone's rice", is a kind of porridge made from a variety of ingredients. "Drinking Laba porridge" is the custom of Laba Festival. The traditional ingredients of Laba porridge include rice, millet, corn, job's tears, red dates, lotus seeds, peanuts, longan and all kinds of beans (such as red beans, mung beans, soybeans, black beans, kidney beans, etc.).

The custom of drinking Laba porridge on Laba Festival comes from Buddhism. The eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar is the day when Sakyamuni became a Buddha. In order not to forget the sufferings of the Buddha before he became a Buddha, but also to commemorate the Buddha's Enlightenment on the eighth day of the twelfth month, ancient Indians ate mixed porridge as a memorial. Since Buddhism was introduced into China, all temples have made porridge with fragrant grain and fruit to present to disciples and believers. In the Song Dynasty, people gradually formed the custom of cooking and drinking porridge on the day of Laba, and it continues to this day.

In menglianglu, written by Wu Zimu in the Southern Song Dynasty, "on the 8th of this month, the temple is called Laba. There are five kinds of porridge in dacha temple, which is called Laba porridge. " According to the customs in volume 11 of Fang county annals of the Qing Dynasty, "on the day of Laba, rice, wheat beans, vegetables and fruits are used as porridge, which is called Laba porridge. If the fruit trees are not solid, they will plant porridge in the hole with a axe and ask, "if it's knot, the branch will break." It's called "feeding the tree."

The origin of history

The origin of the custom of drinking Laba porridge on Laba day is related to the story of Buddha becoming a Buddha. Therefore, Li Fu, a scholar in Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "the porridge on the 8th of the twelfth lunar month is passed down from the kingdom of Vatican. It is a mixture of seven treasures and five flavors."

Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, whose real name is Gautama Siddhartha, is the son of King Jingfan in the ancient northern India (now Nepal). When he was young, he saw all living beings suffering from birth, aging, illness and death. In order to seek the true meaning of life and the liberation of life and death, he gave up his royal life and went out of his family to practice Taoism. After six years of hard work in the snow mountain, he often had a solar eclipse. Later, he found that asceticism was not the way to extricate himself, so he gave up asceticism and went down the mountain. At this time, a shepherdess saw that he was weak, so she boiled chyle (milk and grain co cooked) to support him. Sakyamuni's physical strength was restored, and then he entered the seventh day of meditation under the bodhi tree. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, he saw the stars at night and became a Buddha. In order not to forget the sufferings of Buddha for six years before he became a Buddha, but also to commemorate the Buddha's Enlightenment on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, the ancient Indians ate mixed porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. Therefore, the Laba Festival was introduced into China from ancient India, and Laba became the Buddha's day of becoming a Buddha. Since Buddhism was introduced into China, all temples have made porridge with fragrant grain and fruit to present to disciples and believers. On Laba day, monasteries held Dharma meetings to imitate the allusion that the shepherdess offered chyle before the Buddha became a Taoist. They cooked porridge with fragrant grains and fruits for the Buddha, which is called Laba porridge. In some monasteries, before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks hold bowls and make alms along the streets. They cook rice, chestnut, jujube, nuts, etc. into Laba porridge and distribute it to the poor. People think that if you eat it, you can get Buddha's blessing, so poor people call it "Buddha porridge". Generally, the porridge is delicious and plentiful to meet the needs of the believers who come to the temple to attend the memorial ceremony. Some believers specially came to "porridge", believing that the porridge provided by Laba for Buddha is auspicious. They not only eat it by themselves, but also take it home for their families to enjoy. Year after year, the tradition of making Laba porridge in temples has been widely spread among the people, and the custom of "Laba Festival" has gradually formed in northern China.

Laba day, the folk people to drink "Laba porridge" custom, written records from the Song Dynasty. "Laba porridge began in the Song Dynasty. On the 8th of December, it was made from seven treasures and five flavors and glutinous rice in Tokyo's major temples. It has been around since then, and has been imitated by other people." In menglianglu, written by Wu Zimu in the Southern Song Dynasty, "on the 8th of this month, the temple is called Laba. There are five kinds of porridge in dacha temple, which is called Laba porridge. " As for the practice of "Laba porridge", Zhou Mi in the late Song dynasty recorded in "old stories of Wulin" that "walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon chestnuts and the like are used for porridge", while Fucha dunchong in the Qing dynasty recorded in "records of the age of Yanjing" that the practice of the Qing Dynasty is more complicated: "Laba porridge is made of yellow rice, white rice, jiangmi, millet, water chestnut, hongjiangdou, peeled jujube mud, etc., cooked with water and used for external use Red peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, stick pulp, pine nuts, white sugar, brown sugar and small grapes are dyed for spot dyeing. " Since the Qing Dynasty, the annual Laba Festival, Beijing's Yonghe palace to hold a grand ceremony of Laba, by the princes and ministers personally supervised. According to the chronicle of the age of Yanjing, "the lamas of the Yonghe palace cooked porridge for the Buddha on the night of the eighth day of the lunar new year, and the special ministers monitored it to show their sincerity and respect. Its porridge pot is so big that it can hold several stone rice. " The poem "Laba" written by Xia Renhu of Qing Dynasty describes this grand occasion: Laba families cook a lot of porridge, and ministers are sent to Yonghe. Shengci is also the Buddha of today. It becomes the second pot of worship.

Ingredients needed

Laba porridge has eight kinds of food, such as glutinous rice, sesame, Yiren, Guiyuan, jujube, mushroom and lotus seed.

On the basis of fine ingredients such as white rice, some cereals such as brown rice and coarse cereals should be appropriately matched. In this way, the coarse and fine combination can not only taste better, but also absorb more nutrients. The legumes in Laba porridge are rich in protein, dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals, and lysine is also rich, which can form an effective complementary nutrition with rice and other cereals. At the same time, proper addition of nuts and dried fruits and vegetables can not only enrich nutrition, but also adjust taste.

Laba porridge in Qing Dynasty was cooked with "yellow rice, white rice, jiangmi, lingjiaomi, chestnuts, red beans, peeled jujube mud, etc. There are red peach kernel, almond, melon seeds, peanuts and white sugar or brown sugar... "

What to eat

nutritive value

Rice, as the basic grain of Laba porridge, usually uses indica rice, which makes the porridge more viscous and tastes better. Rice is rich in carbohydrates, which is the main source of energy in a day. Millet, rich in phosphorus and magnesium, can repair bones, regulate nerve and myocardial function, very suitable for the elderly. Rice and millet can complement each other in protein and make amino acid composition more balanced.

Red beans and mung beans are not only rich in B vitamins, but also contain high-quality plant protein. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, red beans have the functions of nourishing blood, clearing heat, strengthening spleen and stomach; mung beans are rich in inorganic salts such as calcium, phosphorus and iron, which can supplement electrolytes in the body. Most importantly, the skin of beans is rich in dietary fiber, which can improve gastrointestinal function, detoxify and detoxify.

Peanut is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, its oil is not easy to store in the body, can improve hypertension and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases; lotus seed, with kidney astringent clear, nourishing and tranquilizing effect, lotus seed heart has the effect of dispelling fire, especially suitable for people with high work pressure.

Jujube has the function of replenishing qi and blood. At the same time, when making Laba porridge, the sugar in jujube can improve the taste of Laba porridge. Longan is the same reason, can improve the taste of eight treasure porridge, in addition, longan also contains vitamin K, has the effect of anticoagulation.

matters needing attention

1、 Rich ingredients, skillful collocation, nutrition and safety

There are tips for shopping. Consumers should go to supermarkets, farmers' markets and other formal channels to buy food without mildew, deterioration, and rancidity. If you buy packaged food that can be boiled directly, you should pay attention to whether the product is within the shelf life and whether the package is intact.

2、 Scientific cooking is very important to avoid losing nutrition

It is easy to cook Laba porridge at home, but we need to pay attention to the following two points: (1) in the processing of food materials, different food materials should be cleaned, soaked, peeled, nucleated and carefully sorted according to their characteristics. For example, beans and other ingredients that are not easy to cook need to be fully soaked before cooking to make them more soft and delicious.

（2） People have the habit of adding edible alkali when cooking Laba porridge. They think that the porridge is cooked quickly and the consistency of porridge is good. But this practice is easy to cause the loss of B vitamins and other nutrients. Experts suggest that when making Laba porridge, do not add alkali, and skillfully use the "coarse cereals porridge" function of electric rice cooker and electric pressure cooker to make delicious Laba porridge easily.

3、 Special people should pay attention to the delicious food

Laba porridge is rich in ingredients, with reasonable collocation and balanced nutrition, especially suitable for the elderly and the weak or the patients with weak spleen and stomach. However, people with different physique should also pay attention to eating Laba porridge.

（1） Diabetic patients for sugar Laba porridge to appropriate consumption, try to choose no sugar Laba porridge. Oats and barley should be used to increase the stickiness. At the same time, more miscellaneous beans can be put to help control the rising speed of blood sugar.

Chinese PinYin : La Ba Zhou