The article is excerpted from Baling's new book "Cooking Smoke Everywhere"
Departing from Lanzhou to Dunhuang, I encountered a local drink that the locals love along the way - apricot peel water, the kind of coffee-colored tea that does not use the company to produce packaging or directly use plastic cups, has always entered my field of vision, I want to buy a cup to try the taste, I dare not start, until I swim with my wife in the Mingsha Mountains, I really can't help the dryness and thirst of the desert, I had to buy a bottle of apricot skin water to save the emergency, my wife told me that the apricot peel water is made of Dunhuang Li Guangxing dried apricot. I spent some days in Dunhuang to learn that Dunhuang is an oasis in the desert, rich in melons and fruits, once had the name of Guazhou, in the sandbar market, apricots are a major local specialty, filled with market stalls, loved by tourists.
Dunhuang is located in the northwest plateau, typical temperate continental climate, long summer sunshine time, large temperature difference between day and night, sandy soil suitable for the growth of melons and fruits, the fruit taste delicious and delicious. Li Guangxing is the king of Dunhuang fruits, every July is its harvest season, a large skin thin, lustrous yellow and bright, juice sweet as honey, sweet and sour, pitting and drying, become Li Guangxing apricot peel or apricot first product - dried apricot, after sugar staining, and then dried, the surface of the finished product is not sticky and not dry, there is a sense of transparency, sugar-free frost precipitation, that is, apricot preserved, beautiful color, sweet and sour, color and flavor are complete, maintaining the natural color and nutrients of fresh apricots, with the effect of quenching thirst and cold and hot poison.
Li Guangxing has a beautiful legend, the Western Han Dynasty general Li Guang led his troops to the west, the army fell on dawan, the summer was hot, the soldiers were anxious and thirsty, a burst of strange incense struck, only to see two colorful silk floating down from the clouds. General Li chased after his horse, pulled out a divine arrow and shot it, and a colorful silk fell to the ground in response, turning into a fruitful apricot forest. The crowds competed for food, bitter like yellow lotuses. Li Guang angrily cut down the apricot forest, and the next morning, he saw that the apricot forest was full of branches and leaves, and the fresh and tender yellow apricots were mouth-watering. Li Guang couldn't help but take a bite out of it, and the incense immediately entered his lungs, and the soldiers picked apricots one after another to fill their hunger, and suddenly their spirits doubled. The two colored silks are sweet apricot fairies and bitter apricot fairies, at the behest of the Queen Mother to save Li Guang, they only care about playing, provoking Li Guang to shoot down the bitter apricot fairy, late at night the sweet apricot fairy found the bitter apricot fairy, performed the immortal magic, and connected the sweet apricot branches on the bitter apricot stump to produce a sweet yellow apricot. Sweet Apricot, who had relieved Li Guang's distress in those years, was introduced to Dunhuang with Li Guangjun's army, and the Dunhuang people called it Li Guangxing.
Li Guangxing is one of the three famous apricots in Gansu, one of the agricultural and sideline products of Dunhuang, the fruit has a regular appearance, approximately round, the fruit competition plum, the skin is golden, the color is bright and bright, the skin is thin and fleshy, the core is small and crispy, the fiber is less, the taste is juicy, and the aroma is overflowing. Rich in acid, sugar, calcium, phosphorus, iron and other minerals and vitamins, rich in nutrients, the flesh of the fruit can be eaten fresh, can also be made into canned, dried apricots, preserved apricots, apricot paste, apricot wine, almonds can be used to make pastries, cold food, candy. The water from the dried apricots is also clear and rich in flavor without sugar.
The variety of Li Guangxing was introduced from the Hotan area of Xinjiang, and after a long period of natural domestication and artificial cultivation, a special variety was formed in Dunhuang. After thousands of years of reproduction, it has spread all over Dunhuang City. In 2007, The planting area of Li Guangxing in Dunhuang City reached 13,500 mu, and the output reached more than 5,600 tons, which was sold to Lanzhou, Xining, Beijing and other places. Almond trees are hardy, drought-resistant and thrive in the dry climate of Dunhuang oasis.
Apricot meat tastes sour, sweet, mild, and has a mild toxin, containing sugar, protein, calcium, phosphorus, carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin C. It has the effect of quenching thirst and moisturizing the lungs and fixing asthma, and is suitable for dry mouth and throat, dry lungs and dry cough, shortness of breath and other symptoms, and is used for hot flashes of tuberculosis and five upset fever caused by yin deficiency, all of which are effective. The pulp of green apricots has a good effect on the treatment of bacterial diarrhea and enteritis. Fanjin liquid is not spread in the mouth, dry mouth and thirsty people should eat fresh apricots. Boiled apricots with honey as a breast, has the effect of moisturizing the lungs, relieving cough and asthma. Almonds are commonly used drugs for cough and asthma, with effects such as blood activation, detoxification, and insecticides; bitter almonds contain bitter amygdal glycosides, enzymes and fatty oils, the main cough is reversed; sweet almonds contain bitter amygdala, fatty oils, sugars, proteins, resins, lentil glycosides, almond oil, sweet almonds, also known as almonds, for nourishing and palliative cough drugs, the main treatment of dry throat, dry cough.
Apricot peel water is the common name of apricot peel tea, the signature drink of Dunhuang locals, using the local Dried Li Guang apricot as raw material, made of apricot peel, after ice cold taste sweet and sour, quench thirst, and Beijing sour plum soup taste has the same second.
The production process of apricot peel water is very simple, the raw materials are red slightly acidic and black slightly sweet dried apricot peel, rock sugar, water, etc., the apricot peel is cut into small pieces and soaked in cool water for a while to wash the dust, pour into the water, the ratio of water and apricot peel is three to one or more, boil on low heat, stir while boiling, until the pot is opened, the color gradient, turbid and viscous, the apricot skin is soft and sticky, turn off the heat, take gauze and leather bands to cover the container mouth of the apricot peel water, the gauze mesh is fine, the filtered water is cleaner, you can block the fine fibers, and then pour water into the boiled apricot peel , the amount of water is half of the last time, boil over medium heat, while cooking while stirring the apricot peel with a spoon, turn off the heat, and then filter, filter the apricot peel water color orange yellow, naturally cool, put in the appropriate amount of rock sugar, stir well can drink, ice cold for half an hour and then drink, the taste is better.
Exquisite apricot skin water with Li Guangxing dried plus Mingshan jujube a few pieces, a few pieces of hay, a number of rock sugar boiled out, boiled for seven or eight hours, the nutrients of the material, taste are all integrated, mutual penetration mixed into sweet and sour, the taste is mellow and dense. The boiled apricot peel water is cooled, filtered, and iced, and can be enjoyed beautifully during the break. The apricot skin water that you drink as you usually drink can be brewed with the best dried apricots, without adding any by-products, just as sweet and sour, refreshing into the spleen.
Drinking apricot peel water in summer is the tradition of Dunhuang people, just like the sour plum soup in old Beijing, the mung bean soup in Shijiazhuang, and the herbal tea that the southerners use mint, licorice, lotus leaves, etc. to relieve the heat, refresh, cool, and wake up the spleen, not a simple single drink, but also a way of life for one person to survive the bitter summer.
Traveling to Dunhuang, it is a pity that you have not drunk apricot peel water, not all of it is a regret of the stomach, and there is the same as the taste of Dunhuang that has not fully penetrated into Dunhuang; under the scorching sun, drink a cup of sweet and sour apricot peel water, you can really enter the civic life of Dunhuang and the local culture of Dunhuang.
The wonderful amber apricot skin water is clear at a glance and intriguing. In places where tourists gather, such as Mogao Grottoes, MingshaShan, Shazhou Night Market, Yangguan Museum, etc., or in the streets and alleys of Dunhuang City, any cold drink stall has signs and advertisements for apricot peel water, attracting tourists' favor.
When we have a full meal, drink enough apricot peel water, you can also pour two large drink bottles of apricot peel water back in the luggage, stay on the road to drink, is an aftertaste, but very thirst-quenching, enjoyable.
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