You must try this crispy and tender ivory vegetable once!

In addition to enjoying the flowers blooming all over the mountains, spring is also a good season to enjoy seasonal vegetables. Of course, the vegetables here are not the familiar cabbage, green vegetables, and lettuce that we usually eat...

For example, have you heard of Pu Cai? (If you have heard of it, please leave a message and call 1)

I believe that for most northerners, Pu Cai is definitely an unfamiliar delicacy, but how can it be missing from the tables of Huainan people every spring?

It is said that cattail leaf was once a "state banquet dish" and Premier Zhou Enlai used it to entertain foreign guests. In Huaiyang cuisine, there is a saying that "no cattail leaf is not a feast".

Image source: Huai'an Release

In addition to water chestnuts, you can also see two spring specialties similar to water chestnuts in the vegetable markets (especially in southern cities): grass sprouts and water bamboo. At this time, children in the north must be full of confusion, unable to tell them apart.

Tadpole quietly opened tb, it's not cheap

However, it is definitely okay to eat the vegetables sold in the market. The principle followed by Chinese cooking is: everything can be fried or stewed. So how do we distinguish these three seasonal vegetables? What is the subtle relationship between them...

Cattail and grass sprouts are one family

Although many people have never eaten cattails and grass sprouts, they must have seen the aquatic plant cattail, because its female inflorescence is so unforgettable that it looks like an oversized sausage (I can't help but drool).

Cattail, image source: Wikipedia

The edible part is the base of the young leaves and the tip of the rhizome of cattail. Cattail leaf is the base of the young leaves of cattail, which is called the base of the leaf sheath in botany, and the pseudostem formed by the embracing. The grass bud is the creeping stem of cattail hidden under water, which is the tender part of the rhizome of cattail. Because it looks like ivory, it is also called ivory leaf.

Exploded diagram of the various parts of Oriental Cattail, image source: khartasia

Cattail leaf is sweet and fragrant, tender and delicious, with a slight taste of bamboo shoots, and is known as the "best bamboo shoot in the world". Cattail leaf can be fried or stewed. If fried, it needs to be cooked quickly over a high fire to maintain its tender texture. Of course, it also has a unique flavor when paired with other ingredients, such as chicken porridge cattail leaf, Shengze cattail leaf, etc.

A dish of stir-fried eel with cattail leaves

Grass sprouts are more suitable for braising. Add seasonings, onions and ginger in hot oil and stir-fry. Then add star anise, grass fruit and grass sprouts and stir-fry together. Then add half a bowl of water and simmer until the water is dry. During this time, you can add soy sauce, sugar and salt for seasoning.

The picking time of cattail leaves starts from early April every year and slowly ends around July to August. Grass sprouts can be picked all year round, and the best picking season is from May to August every summer.

So what is wild rice stem?

Zizania latifolia is actually an aquatic plant. After the tender stems at the base of the culm are infected by Ustilago edulis, its meristem becomes abnormally active, causing the young stems to swell and form galls. It has now been brought to the dining table of the Chinese people and has become a seasonal limited edition delicacy.

The legendary wild rice stem, image source: Wikipedia

Zizania (the name sounds like the hero in a martial arts novel) is a perennial aquatic tall-stalked grass plant of the genus Zizania in the Poaceae family. It often grows in shallow streams. It has sword-shaped leaves like cattail, but the leaves are relatively wider, and the spike-like panicles have a more rustic feel.

The caryopsis of wild rice is called wild rice, which can be eaten as rice. In addition to producing wild rice and wild rice to provide food for people, wild rice is also an excellent feed. The plant itself can also provide a place for fish to overwinter and shelter. It is also a pioneer plant in embankment consolidation and land reclamation.

Judging from its appearance, it looks like an ordinary rice seedling. Image source: Wikipedia

Tracing back to its origin, wild rice is a genuine Chinese dish. As early as more than 3,000 years ago, wild rice had become one of the six grains in Chinese people's minds, also known as "Diaohu rice". Later, due to the infection of black smut, wild rice became popular as a vegetable in the market.

Wild rice has a crisp texture, slightly sweet taste and high nutritional value. It can be fried, mixed, stewed, and braised. For example, fish-flavored wild rice and wild rice fried pork slices are common home cooking methods.

Today is the beginning of summer. Are you still arguing that "If you don't lose weight in April, you will regret it in May, June, July and August"? You still have to eat diet food. In this case, why not try these spring-limited delicacies that are crispy and refreshing without making you gain weight~

Finally, Tadpole would like to ask everyone: What interesting seasonal vegetables are there in your hometown? Leave a message and tell us about them!

Audit expert: Wang Guoyi, Postdoctoral Fellow in Food Safety

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Editor/My Neighbor Totoro