The temperature is low in winter, and if you stir-fry the vegetables, you may not have eaten a few bites, and the dishes will be cold, so hot pot has become the choice of many people in winter.
When eating hot pot, many friends will put some spices to taste, such as star anise, cinnamon, green onions, ginger, garlic and the like, these spices are relatively common and can also be bought in the market.
In addition to these spices, in some rural areas of the mainland, there are some special spices, which may not be available on the market and need to be harvested by yourself.
In this issue, I will introduce to you such a spice that may not be available on the market, but can be found in the countryside and in the wild, it has its own cinnamon fragrance, it is very delicious to stew hot pot in winter, and it can also strengthen the stomach and spleen, which is worth knowing.
A small weed with a cinnamon scent
This spice is a very inconspicuous small weed, say it is inconspicuous, because it is really slender, very short, in the grass pile, you do not bend down to look carefully, it is difficult to find it, this small weed is "Tuding Gui", in the folk have the common name of Mao spicy flower, silver silk grass, hunger grass, small deer bit, deer grass, small white flower, heather and so on.
Cinnamon is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Rotten family, usually growing close to the ground, its leaves are oblong, oval or spoon-shaped, the apex is obtuse and has a small short tip, the base is round or tapering, both sides are more or less sparsely pubescent, or sometimes the upper is less hairy to glabrous, the midrib is obvious below, not visible above, and the lateral veins are not visible on both sides.
The plants are usually not very large, as far as I have seen personally, they are usually in the range of about 20 centimeters, which is definitely not easy to notice when placed in the grass.
However, although Tuding Gui is not very inconspicuous, it is very popular among the common people in some rural areas in the southern part of the mainland, because Tuding Gui is a plant that can be used as a spice.
For example, in Fujian, Tuding cinnamon is often used by rural people, one of the reasons is that it has its own cinnamon fragrance. As long as you get a little closer to the cinnamon, you can smell the cinnamon smell on the plant, and if you boil it in water, the fragrance of the cinnamon is even stronger.
This characteristic makes it often used as a spice among the people, and is often used to stew some meat and improve the freshness of soups. In fact, as early as the ancient times of the mainland, Tuding Gui was a more common traditional spice among the people, but later with the emergence of various spices, this traditional spice gradually faded out, and only some rural areas are still in use.
Other values of Tuding Gui
In addition to being used as a spice, Tuding Gui is also a traditional Chinese medicinal material. According to records, Tuding Guiquan herb can be used medicinally, which has the effects of dispersing stasis and relieving pain, clearing dampness and heat, nourishing the stomach and strengthening the spleen, and aiding digestion. For example, it is written in "Fujian Folk Herbal Medicine": "Hungry grass, clear heat and relieve fire, astringent and lean yin." Stomach strengthening, can be made into spice stew. ”
It can be said that although this Tuding Gui is inconspicuous, it is used for both medicine and food, and it is very worth knowing for friends who like to eat hot pot and soup in winter.
How to use Tuding Gui?
According to my personal experience, the method of using the cinnamon is very simple, after the whole plant is harvested, it can be used as long as it is cleaned. Whether it is used to stew chicken, duck, stewed pork ribs, or used to make spices in hot pot, it is very good, which can make the stewed soup and hot pot very delicious, and can also make you nourish your stomach.
As for where is Tudinggui? That's too easy, this plant is widely distributed on the mainland, basically in the south of the Yangtze River basin, mostly grows on grassy slopes, shrubs and roadsides at an altitude of 300-1800 meters, especially in the countryside, especially in the countryside. And because it is a perennial herbaceous plant, it can be harvested in winter.