Mojiang Purple Rice 墨江紫米饭

Mojiang Purple Rice (墨江紫米饭) is rice cooked from Mojiang purple rice (墨江紫米), the grain of Mojiang Hani Autonomous County (墨江哈尼族自治县) in the north of Pu'er (普洱), southern Yunnan. The grain takes its name from its purple colour, and Mojiang is known as China's home of purple rice (中国紫米之乡).

Ingredients

Mojiang purple rice became a nationally protected geographical-indication product in 2015. Bai Lindong, head of Keman village (克曼村) in Mojiang, told Yunnan Daily that growers plant old varieties handed down from their ancestors, in cold-water paddies that stay flooded all year, with little fertiliser or pesticide; over-rich soil does not suit it. It is sown in spring and harvested in autumn, one crop a year, and usually takes more than 180 days to grow. Pu'er Daily reports that it is promoted as one of Yunnan's six famous rices (云南六大名米).

Where it comes from

Mojiang is the only Hani autonomous county in China, and in Keman every household once grew purple rice to make traditional Hani snacks such as purple-rice cakes (紫米粑粑) and purple-rice sausage (紫米肠). Wenlv Toutiao describes the grain as well suited to cooking and eating as well as to processed foods.

How it is eaten

In Mojiang the rice is cooked into a whole purple-rice banquet (紫米宴), with dishes such as purple-rice chicken, purple-rice balls, purple-rice sausage and purple-rice cakes on one table. Other dishes made with it include eight-treasure purple rice (紫米八宝饭), purple-rice porridge with jujubes and chicken stewed with purple rice and sanqi (三七).