Alkaline rice dumplings with hematoxylin as the red heart are still a must-have for the Dragon Boat Festival in rural areas of Dongguan

Zongzi wrapped in glutinous rice is a must-have food for the Dragon Boat Festival. In addition to bacon rice dumplings, Panyu Huangge also wraps a unique and unique hematoxylin alkaline water rice dumpling. Its ingredients and preparation method are: 500 grams of red glutinous rice, 1 small piece of hematoxylin (about 8~10 cm) length, 1 cm wide, square shape), appropriate amount of alkaline water. Insert the sappan wood into the glutinous rice soaked in alkaline water, wrap it with boiled plantain leaves, and tie it tightly with needle grass (usually do not use big tail grass, that is, waterweed). Only 2 to 3 rice dumplings are wrapped in 500 grams of rice. After making, put it into a sugar bowl or square iron pot and simmer it for 12 hours before it is completed. Because the sappan wood inside the rice dumplings is dyed red, it gives the rice dumplings a unique flavor

The sappan wood is also known as Gomeifang and Su Fang. Sufang, Sufang wood, brown wood, red wood, and red wood

are derived from Caesalpinia (Caesalpinia

sappan

L.) Dry heartwood. Promotes blood circulation and unblocks collaterals, removes blood stasis and relieves pain, dispersing wind and blood. Mainly produced in Yunnan and other provinces.

(2) Plant characteristics

Deciduous trees. The trunk has thorns, the young branches are thin, and have rust-colored short hairs. The leaves are bipinnately compound leaves with 10 to 20 pairs of leaflets, smooth and hairless. Flowers yellow, butterfly-shaped corolla. The pods are thick, obliquely flat, and have a pointed tip.

(3) Growth characteristics

Wild in tropical and subtropical areas at an altitude of 500-1800 meters. It is mostly cultivated at the edges of gardens, fields, and in front of and behind villages.