百子櫃THE HUNDRED DRAWERS
Black rice
黑米
supports the kidneys養血
An unpolished rice with a purple-black bran that stains the water deep violet as it cooks. Chewier than white rice, it is usually mixed in small amounts into congee or a sweet soup rather than eaten alone.
TCM properties
Nature · neutral Flavour · sweet Meridians · spleen、kidney
Traditional food therapy
In food therapy black rice supplements the kidney and nourishes the blood; the dark-foods-build-blood reasoning is doctrine of signatures, drawn from colour.
Cautions: read first
- Soak it properly or it stays hard.
- The cooking water goes very dark; that is the bran, not a fault.
Preparation
Soak for at least two hours, then cook it together with the white rice.
Origin
Guangxi, Yunnan and Hunan. Packed at Australian Asian grocers, and sometimes in the supermarket organic aisle
Availability in Australia
Easy to find