60. Chinese rice with mung beans (mung bean rice)

--- Actually, in Chinese, when referring to ‘having a meal’ (dinner/breakfast/lunch), we always say ‘Chi Fan’, Chi as ‘eat’, and Fan in this context means food, but if by itself, Fan only means ‘rice’.

Normally, a meal is composed by two parts - Fan and Cai. Fan is the stable food, normally only refers to rice, where Cai means the actual dishes. Am I talking sense again? :)

Combining rice with other grains

My friends from South China used to ask me, ‘in the North, you eat lots of flour based food, right?’ … I was always a bit puzzled - well, we have rice with dishes most of the time, then I realized, it is true, particularly compared to South Chinese people, who sometimes only make dumplings once per year, we eat dumplings, steamed bread, bing… almost every week.

But apart from these, we normally have a bowl of rice to accompany the dishes. The varieties of rice are different to those used in Southern cuisine.

In south China, rice is normally stir fried, for example, the most famous one, ‘Yang zhou fried rice’; in contrast, in the North, we usually mix rice with other types of grain. For example, today’s rice is white rice mixed with mung beans (although, in Chinese it is called ‘mung bean rice’).

In northeast China, the popular combinations include red bean with white rice, Chinese millet with white rice, Sorghum grain with white rice, crushed corn with white rice, and so on.

In the past, since China was very poor, and white rice was expensive, combining the different grains with rice was very common. However, nowadays, it is considered as a healthy way of eating, it can help making up what white rice lacks. And for example, today's recipe includes mung bean, which are very healthy and are even used for medical purposes (they are also good for hot summer days ).

In addition, mung beans certainly enrich the flavor of the rice, and I could get bored of eating white rice only everyday. The proportion of white rice and mung bean (or others) is very flexible, depends on how strong you want the flavor.

It is very easy to make, the only thing needs to pay attention is grains like mung bean and red bean (for example) takes longer to cook than white rice, so you do need to soak them first, then put them together with white rice to boil.

The recipe: mung bean rice

Here you go the simplest way of making mung bean rice.

Making for 3 people for dinner.

1) Soaking around 1 cup of mung bean in water. (I soaked it in warm water for 2 hours, if it is cold water, it takes longer.)

2) Mix 1 and half cup of white rice with soaked mung bean, and fill in with water around 2.5cm above the rice level.

3) Then the rest, boil it as normal rice.
(If you like congee, just add double or even a bit more water. )

You can have it with all kinds of dishes.

Mung beans in Chinese cuisine

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（The image is from http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/绿豆)

Today, in Oxford, it really feels summer is here, warm and sunny. I like heat -- I know… :) I am not even talking about just hot. :)
We can never be really satisfied -- cold days we want hot, hot days we wish it was cooler, so difficult to get just right.. If only we can control the sky. :)) However, no matter what, balance is always very important, no? :))

Mung beans in Chinese cuisine and Chinese medicine

In summer, one of the most popular foods in northeast China for balancing the body heat is mung beans . It is well known that mung beans can help reducing the body's inner heat, and dissolve the accumulated toxins in the body.

Mung beans in Chinese are called lǜ dou , literately green beans. It is said that there are many valuable nutrients in mung beans, for example, fiber, vitamins, iron, copper.... Also, the Bencao gangmu ( the Chinese medicine "bible" written in the 16th century) already recorded how people used mung beans for medical purposes .

Anyway, in general, they are all very good and healthy. In really hot days, having mung bean congee is highly recommended. In Chinese medical terms, when the weather too hot, it is easy to get "heat stroke", which can make you restless, and feel dry and thirst in the mouth and throat, even dizzy. Boiling mung beans with water for some time, and having the liquid with beans is known to help you cool down, and balance out.

Although mung beans are considered very useful in daily life, they count as ‘cold’ in Chinese medicine, so you should be careful if you are having stomachache or if you are prone to suffer from diarrhea. Mung beans are also not adviced for women when having period.

--- Sorry, should not get too much into Chinese medicine . There will be other times for talking about health issues.

Chinese mung bean dishes

In northeast China, there are many kinds of mung bean made food.


Mung bean cake , - commonly called lǜ dou gao , (gao here means cake): northeast mung bean cake is normally quite dry, without any oil or eggs in it, it can be eaten as it is, or .. which I like better, by dissolving some pieces into the hot water, turn it into a kind of liquid form; OR mung bean water / soup - simply boiled in the water with some sugar, and drink the liquid; OR mung bean rice - cooked mung beans with white rice; OR even mung bean ice cream -- which became my husband’s favorite after first bite.

Oh, no, I cannot talk more about these, my mouth is watering !!

Chinese health theory: the body heat

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The Chinese Theory of Body Heat

It is a very common symptom and very common diagnosis in Chinese medicine --- body heat .

As I write these two words down, I could almost hear my husband laughing… :( actually, not only him, many other friends (non Chinese) would laugh as well --- they really make a big fun of it --- but it is a very very common Chinese medical diagnosis, well, it is so common and obvious, that it does not even need a doctor to diagnose it.

What is body heat ? In Chinese, it is originally called "growing fire", in some other regional languages or dialects, these exact words might be understood as "anger" :). Despite the different words, the definition of this symptom is always the same: the "heat" generated from inner body, which shows in various ways, for example, (the most common symptoms) spots (those spots with big hard roots, can grow bigger and contain white liquid), constipation, often tired and sweat a lot (not because of the hot temperature), dizziness or nausea (specially) in the summer etc.

Body Heat Imbalance

According to Chinese medicine , every body has fire - body heat which keeps your body having a smooth flow cycle, and is believed to influence the functions of inner organs, for instance, liver, kidney, heart. Normally, it is well-balanced, but once it is imbalanced, you will have uncomfortable symptoms.

One of the most common causes of body heat imbalance is stress. Others include some food intake which the body doesn’t take it very well, for example, too much spicy food, or some environmental influence, for example, too hot weather. Different causes might trigger body heat and show different symptoms, the fire might be from different parts of the inner body depending on the "immune" strength.

Although no such medical term exists in the West, this theory has been passed on generation after generation, and it is well-documented in many Chinese medicine books . So, you can say it is a cultural thing.

Most of the symptoms only cause discomfort, do not bother you much, and nothing is very serious. And if the symptoms develop, they are normally treated according its individual problems, at the same time, if you want, "cooling down" the body heat.

For example, years ago, I had one of those spots growing between my shoulder and upper chest, because of its particular location, it eventually caused my upper shoulder area swallow badly, so I had to go to doctor to get treated.

If left untreated, the body can normally balance the heat out by itself after some time, but if you have some other illness like heart problem, it is better to be careful.

Balancing the Body Heat

There are a few kinds of Chinese teas or herbs called Niu huang jie du wan for treating body heat imbalance . These normally have very few side effects (sometime mild diarrhea), more like detox. The medicine can be very bitter, well, like most Chinese medicines . :)

Otherwise, you can have some particular food for helping it. Phew… We come back to food again. :)) Mung beans are the most common food for this, especially if the "fire" comes from the stomach. But since mung beans are not medicine, a diet rich on mung beans takes some time to work. Mung beans are good in any form. I prefer to make them into congee. It is very simple to make, but takes some time.

Before making mung bean congee, it is better to soak the beans for a few hours or overnight, then just add more water (around double or triple then you would make for boiled rice), slow boil it for around 1 1/2 hours. I like to have it with sugar, it is good to go with Chinese "ice sugar", (it is a crystal like sugar chunk, they can be broken into smaller pieces before putting into the congee), or just have it as it it. My husband prefers it with a pinch of salt. :) Mix mung beans with boiled rice is also good.


Anyway, I am talking about this is also because summer is here, it is good to have mung beans time to time to have a natural balance of your body heat. I love its taste as well.