How to shell dried lotus seeds

In daily life, many people like to eat lotus seeds very much. Lotus seeds are also a kind of food with health-preserving effects. Lotus seeds are suitable for cooking porridge, or making stews with other ingredients. The food cooked with lotus seeds is suitable for all people. Lotus seeds are very nutritious and can be bought all the year round. The lotus seeds we usually buy in ingredients are dried lotus seeds that have been sun-dried and need to be soaked in water before cooking.

1. The shell of dried lotus seeds is hard and smooth. The method of shelling lotus seeds is as follows :

Add 1000 ml of water to the pot and boil it, add 25 grams of alkali and stir well, then put in 250 grams of dried lotus seeds, cover the pot and warm it slightly. Then use something like a broom to push and rub the lotus seeds in the pot repeatedly several times until the lotus seed skin is peeled off (the action must be quick, because over time, the lotus seeds will swell and the skin will not be easy to take off), rinse it repeatedly with cold water, and then use a toothpick or a fine needle to poke out the lotus seed core.

2. In some places, there is also a folk method of removing lotus seed shells in large quantities. In summary, there are mainly the following steps ;

1. Cook. Bring the rice soup to a boil, pour in the dried lotus seeds, cook until slightly swelled, then drain the rice soup.

2. Put the boiled lotus seeds into wood ash or fine charcoal ash while they are still hot, let them be evenly coated with the fine ash, and then pile them up for an hour to allow them to dry.

3. Chop. Hold the lotus seed in one hand and hold the knife in the other hand. First, remove the two ends of the lotus seed, and then chop off the middle part. A shelled lotus seed will come out.

3. Other methods

Soak the lotus seeds in cold water for a while, and you can directly peel off the lotus seed shells, but it will be a little slower. But it cannot be used directly for cooking. The red skin inside must be removed; the lotus core inside must also be removed before it can be used in cooking or soup.

1. To remove the red skin, boil water in a pot, add edible alkali, put in the lotus seeds, check the boiling situation while boiling, and cook until the red skin can be easily separated from the lotus flesh. Then cool it with clean water, stir constantly while cooling it, and take it out after all the skins are removed.

2. Remove the red skin of the lotus seeds and put them into hot water to boil. When the top of the lotus seeds opens slightly, take them out and dry them slightly. Use a bamboo stick to push out the lotus core from the bottom of the lotus seeds. The lotus seeds are now ready for cooking.