Four Foods in the Mountains

The snow hadn't melted yet, and the day before the Chinese New Year, heavy snow fell again.

On this day, the mountain was not as quiet as it used to be. The kitchens of every household in the small mountain village were bustling with activity, and the snow was full of children wrapped in cotton clothes and playing in the snow.

The snow was falling on the cold branches, a brazier and a stove were placed in the front yard of Lu's house, a pot of hot tea was being boiled on the stove, and a small basket of frosted persimmons was placed beside it.

We had to spend New Year's Eve together, so Lu Yunchuan and Cen Ning came to the eldest brother's house early this day to help with the preparations for tomorrow.

"Fortunately, I took advantage of the sunshine a few days ago and cleaned the house. This year, the snow has been extraordinarily hard." Yao Chunling said and brought a persimmon cake to Cen Ning.

Cen Ning took a bite in his hand, it was soft and sweet.

After being idle for a while, I started sweeping the dust a few days ago, moved the big furniture in the house to the yard, swept the house inside and out, sprinkled water on the ground, and removed and washed the sheets and bedding on the kang and replaced them with new ones. Yes, clean and waiting for the New Year.

After drinking a pot of hot tea, the four of them began to prepare for tomorrow's ancestor worship and New Year's Eve dinner. The fire in the kitchen stove was raging. Lu Yunlang lit the fire with corn stalks. Huangba, this is to be used for ancestor worship tomorrow.

The washed glutinous rice is steamed on the grate, put into the rice milk after steaming, pour a little brown sugar, and knead the glutinous rice balls by hand.

The kneaded glutinous rice dough can be formed after settling for half an hour, cut into thick yellow rice cakes, and wrapped with the sun-dried bamboo shoot shells, so that the steamed rice cakes have a clear fragrance.

"It's zongzi." Brother Zhi sat in Lu Yunlang's arms with a dried persimmon to warm up the fire, and said in a milky voice when he saw Aniang and Xiaoma making yellow cakes.

Everyone in the room laughed when they heard the words, Lu Yunlang rubbed Brother Zhi's face: "That's right, these are Chinese New Year's rice dumplings."

After steaming the yellow rice cake, the smell of glutinous rice and brown sugar filled the room. Cen Ning took the basket to pick it up with his hands, but was fumigated by the heat in the pot, and shrank his hands.

The basket in his hand was picked up, Cen Ning turned his head, Lu Yunchuan stood beside him without saying a word, and started to pick up all the yellow cakes on the grate into the basket.

After steaming the yellow rice cake, you can peel off the wrapped bamboo shoot shells. Yao Chunling took two pieces with chopsticks and shared them among several people. The rice cake kneaded by hand is soft and chewy, and the brown sugar is added to make it even sweeter. of.

The prepared yellow cakes are put in the basket to cool down, and then the fried New Year vegetables are prepared.

It was freezing cold outside, and the fire in the kitchen was warm, and a few people were sweating a little on their foreheads.

In previous years, the days were tight, even during the Chinese New Year, Yao Chunling was not too fussy, she stuffed sausages with bacon and steamed yellow cakes and it was over.

But this year is different, Lu Yunchuan married a good relative, the wheat harvest in the field is good, and the two brothers have done a few jobs and earned a lot of money. Seeing that the life of the family is getting better and better, and they are running towards a good momentum, With a big wave of Yao Chunling's hand, she is determined to have a prosperous and good year, hoping that the coming year will be even better.

After choosing the two fattest chickens in the chicken coop, she directed the two brothers to go to the backyard to kill the chickens and pluck their feathers. Yao Chunling closed the kitchen door and poured oil into the hot pot with Cen Ning.

"In previous years, those who were reluctant to part with oil and meat didn't fry Chinese New Year dishes well. This year's life is getting better, let's learn from others and fry some well. Tomorrow, we will honor our ancestors."

It will take a while for the chicken to be cleaned up. The fried New Year’s dishes need to be fried first and then the meat. Yao Chunling and Cen Ning picked up the vegetarian dishes at home and cut three pots, one pot of lotus vegetables, one pot of dried beans, and one pot of tofu, sprinkled with salt After the oil is hot, put it into the pot, and the yard will be full of fragrance.

These fried dishes are convenient to eat during the Chinese New Year. They can be eaten empty mouth with tea, stewed in soup or put in noodles to make marinade. It will not spoil if it is cold for a few days.

The croquettes were made into two types, meatballs and radish balls. Yao Chunling and Cen Ning stood beside the pot and kneaded them. The two of them were proficient in doing this. .

The meatballs are rounded and put directly into the pan, fried slowly over a low heat, and can be picked up when the skin is slightly hardened.

The freshly fried meatballs are burnt and crispy, sweet potato powder is added inside, the taste is even stronger, and the outside is crispy and the inside is tender when you bite into it.

The meatball had just been fried when Lu Yunchuan came in with the packed chicken.

Cut two chickens into small pieces, marinate them with salt and cooking wine for a while to get rid of the smell of the chicken, cook them first, coat the cooked chicken pieces with sweet potato powder and flour, and fry them in the pan. The fried chicken pieces are golden in color and burnt on the outside Crispy, but the chicken inside is tender and juicy, not at all firewood.

After frying the New Year's vegetables, she was reluctant to throw away the oil left over from frying the New Year's vegetables in the pot. Yao Chunling scooped up the gourds and saved them, so that she could continue to use them when cooking at night.

Seeing that the surface of the pot was still stained with oil, and there was still a little flour for wrapping the chicken in the pot, Cen Ning added some water to the flour and kneaded it into a smooth dough.

He is dexterous, kneading the dough three or two times and then rolling it into a thin cake, wrapping it with sugar filling and closing the edges around it.

You don’t need any oil to fry sugar cakes. The ones in the pot are just right. When the sugar cakes stick to the surface of the pan, the outer skin of the fried cakes will slightly bulge, and it tastes soft and sweet.

Cen Ning picked up one and blew on it, and handed it to Brother Zhi, who was sitting in front of the stove, "Hungry? Eat with both hands, be careful of burning."

The crust of the freshly made sugar cake was crystal clear. Brother Zhi held the cake in his little hand and took a small bite. The white sugar filling flowed out, and his eyes widened in surprise.

The fried pots of New Year’s vegetables couldn’t fit on the kitchen stove, so I had to lift them up on a bench and put them in the main room, and the fragrance wafted along with the wind.

After a while, a few heads poked out from the gate of Lu's courtyard. Lu Yunlang looked funny and waved them in.

A group of children came into the room, chattering and shouting, Yao Chunling laughed and said, "It's snowing, why did they all run out with their heads bare, and turn around and freeze again."

"Snow is fine, it melts after falling on your head, and it's fun when it's about to snow."

"Aunt Yao, I smell that your family's New Year's dishes are very fragrant."

"I've smelled it too. It smells like croquettes."

The child has a good nose, playing outside and smelling the smell, and then ran over. The life in the village is not bad, and it is the festive time of the New Year. No matter who they go to, they will give the children some The food is not bad for those few bites.

Yao Chunling was not a stingy person either, so she went to the kitchen to get some leftover bamboo shoot shells wrapped with yellow rice cakes, put a piece in the palms of each person, and then picked out large pieces of fried chicken and croquettes and put them on: "It's still hot after frying. , eat it while it’s hot, don’t wait until it’s cold and eat it to make your stomach upset.”

A group of children, each with meat in their mouths, cheered and ran away.

"Run slowly, you will be punished if you break your clothes and go home."

The children were not at all afraid when they heard this, and they ran more happily one by one: "The village chief grandpa said that his family fried crispy meat today, and asked us to go to his house to eat crispy pork."

"By the way, go and play with Big Huzi!"

There is snow in the deep mountains, and the snow is getting bigger and bigger. The laughter of children echoes in the villages at the foot of the mountains. The smoke from the kitchen is curling up, and the new year is coming.