Legend has it that when the two, lotus seed and lily of the valley, are combined, they can have a cleansing and calming effect.

And in fact, when many people combine these two ingredients together, they care more about the meaning they express; of course, there are more people who believe that they appear in pairs because they can form an excellent flavor. Today, let's explore exactly why lotus seeds and lilies go together.

Pairing

Lotus seed + lily = clearing the heart and calming the mind

Many of you should have heard that lotus seed plus lily is known for its ability to nourish the heart and moisten the lungs, clearing the heart and calming the mind.

If you can eat a bowl of lotus seed and lily porridge every night, it will make your sleep more stable, because these two ingredients themselves have the effect of clearing the heart and calming the mind, which is an excellent food for some people who have insomnia and sleeplessness at night.

And Chinese medicine experts, lotus seed and lily of the two foods, health effects are really very good, alone on the medicinal value, they have been a great achievement, but "medicinal" and "edible" in essence is different.

Lotus seed has a tonic kidney and essence, nourish the heart and tranquilize the spirit, solid essence to stop the efficacy of the belt, while the lily has a yin and moisturize the lungs, clearing the heart and tranquilize the spirit of the role, but these are to match with a special prescription in order to be able to significantly reflect the folk to match them, although there is no medicinal conflict, but does not fully reflect the effect of the "clear the heart and calm down". Often, in fact, because of the porridge, after eating can make people feel comfortable stomach, and then have a sense of satiety, sleepiness, so not only lotus seed lily porridge, such as Chinese wolfberry porridge, motherwort porridge, and even the skin eggs and thin meat porridge, also has a similar effect.

Of course, many people come across the combination of lotus seed and lily, in fact, in some specific occasions. For example, in the Guangdong feast, especially at weddings, guests will often eat a bowl of sweet lotus seed lily sugar water, this is because the Cantonese people pay special attention to the meaning of the lotus seed lily sugar water is to take its "sweet, honey, a hundred years of goodwill, even the birth of a noble son," the meaning, so we have agreed to take it as a necessary dish.

But if you're an authentic Cantonese, especially a Guangzhouer who likes to drink old-fashioned soup, then "lotus seed lily soup" may appear more frequently in your recipes. As a classic recipe for old-fashioned soup, lotus seed and lily can be combined with lean pork, pork bone, chicken, or barley and Chinese yam to make soup. Although lotus seeds and lilies are usually just supporting roles, without their presence, these soups are missing their souls. For this reason, Cantonese people often refer to these soups with lotus seeds and lilies as "lotus seeds and lilies soup" for short.

So, in addition to the rumors of the "clear heart and calm" effect, celebrate the auspicious meaning, we still like the lotus seed and lily together to eat. So what is the reason for this?

Deconstruction

Unity of flavor and great taste

Some chefs believe that lotus seeds and lilies are cooked together because they go together and have great taste and texture. This, too, is the most important factor that allows this pairing to be regularly featured in everyday diets.

Li Jingzheng, a veteran connoisseur of Cantonese cuisine and diet, believes that many food pairings begin with healing and end with flavor, and lotus seed and lily of the valley is one of them. Because if this combination is not delicious, not delicious, then it can only be said that this is a "drug with, rather than food with", which is also our Chinese dietary wisdom.

Take lotus seed, lily, the reason they can become a more classic food pairing, one is derived from their similar taste, there is a complementary effect; the second is that their flavors can complement each other, the formation of sweet sweet taste.

First of all, lotus seed is heated and boiled for a long time, and it is easy to get out of the sand, which is its biggest feature in texture. And it is similar to red beans, mung beans and so on, which is why "lotus seed paste", "bean paste", "green bean paste" common reason. The lily as a kind of high starch food, also easy in the case of long cooking to form a soft, glutinous texture.

So, lotus seed and lily if cooking at the same time, in easy "sand" this texture, can also become a **** sex, especially in soup, desserts, sugar water and other flexible dishes with a flow, the texture between them **** sex is obvious.

Secondly, lotus seed and lily of the valley also happen to have ****ness in flavor. Lotus seed itself is bitter, while lily belongs to the sweet taste of food, characterized by both do not have a distinctive odor. When lotus seeds are combined with mung beans or even red kidney beans, these ingredients have a recognizable flavor, so they can have an abrupt effect on the lotus seeds themselves. However, the off-flavor of lily is not obvious, and even has a certain sweetness, which is an excellent foil to the bitterness of the lotus seed itself, and produces a kind of unctuous flavor in soups and sugar water, so that it is not too sweet and fatty to eat.

Another point is that both lotus seeds and lilies have a refreshing scent, a scent that goes very well together. When the two melt into each other, they can refine it even more, creating a fresher, sweeter flavor, so it's even more delicious and memorable to eat.

Cooking

Lotus seed lily soup

Materials:

50 grams of lotus seed, 50 grams of lily, 1 silver fungus, 3 grams of wolfberries, 3 red dates, moderate amount of rock sugar.

Practice:

1, lily and lotus two hours in advance of soaking, remove the bitter core in the middle;

2, silver ear half an hour in advance of soaking;

3, red dates and goji berries washed and spare;

4, the pot to add half of the water, will be the silver ear, lotus seeds into;

5, half an hour after the boil into the lily, dates;

6, out of the pot to add half of water, will be the silver ear, lotus seeds into;

5, after half an hour of cooking into the lily, dates;

7, the water is not enough, but it's a little too late. p>

6, out of the pot before 10 minutes into the suitable for their own taste of rock sugar, sprinkled with goji berries, that is done.

Cooking tips

The correct way to make lotus seed and lily soup and lotus seed and lily sugar water should be to soak the lotus seeds in water first, and then put them into the pot to cook, so that they can be cooked and softened more quickly. Doing so, the lotus will taste better, when you put the lily should be when the lotus is cooked, because the lily is very easy to cook, if you put the two ingredients together to cook, it is easy to cook the lily, so the soup does not taste so good.