"Broad bean blossoms reflect female mulberry, square stems and green leaves spit fragrant", late spring and early summer, it is the time when fava beans are on the market.
In the farmers' market or the streets and alleys, you will see many farmers pushing tricycles to sell broad beans, at this time, the aunts and uncles who buy vegetables must buy several pounds at once and go home to taste the fresh.
In the central Soviet region, people used to refer to broad beans with amaranth and garlic seedlings as the "three freshest in the ground" at the right time.
Indeed, the fava beans that have just been listed are emerald green in color and fresh in taste, which is natural fresh with fragrance and tenderness, and cannot be reflected with MONOSG and chicken essence.
I remember when I was a child, whenever the broad beans were on the market, my mother would use a sewing needle to thread the newly peeled broad beans into a string with cotton thread, then tie them up and put them in an iron pot on the earth stove, add water, put some salt, and cover the wooden pot.
When the pot "grunts, grunts" boils and the aroma of broad beans fills the kitchen, the mother will fish out the skewered broad beans, rinse them with water, and hang them on the necks of our children.
Green broad beans are like a string of Buddha beads, hanging on the "Buddha beads" of me, the spirit of the six countries, will always run to the east to the west home, everywhere to show off, sometimes with friends than whose "Buddha beads" are longer, whose "Buddha beads" are large, that pride is how big it is.
When I was ready to show off, I was tired of playing, and when I came home, I sat on the threshold of the gate, and at this time I seemed to become a little monk who ate and prayed to the Buddha, sitting there, playing with the "Buddha beads" with my hands in the refreshing bean fragrance.
In the end, I couldn't resist the temptation, and I dragged down the broad beans one by one, the soft beans, and put them in my mouth, powdery and sticky, with a unique freshness, and the taste has penetrated into the bottom of the heart.
Eating "Buddha beads" broad beans accompanied me through my long childhood and became the most delicious memory of my childhood.
When I grew up, I found that a seemingly simple broad bean can be described as ever-changing in the hands of the chef, which can be used as a dish alone or matched with other raw materials to complement each other.
Freshly picked and tender broad beans can be cooked with the skin.
Add fava beans with star anise, cardamom, fragrant leaves, dried peppers, salt, monosodium glutamate first until flavored, and then put into a casserole, add onions, salad oil and heat up on the table, a steaming hot, the oil soaked in the sand glutinous oil in the mouth of the broad beans will shine;
Using garlic seedlings to fry broad beans can be said to be a seasonal dish, cut the garlic seedlings into inches, sauté them in the pot until the skin wrinkles, pour in the broad beans, add a little water, fine salt, slightly simmer, add a little sugar to the pot to remove the astringency, so that a plate of soft and sticky, fragrant delicacies are ready;
With broad beans, you can also fry snow vegetables and stir-fry fresh bamboo shoots, which are very good and delicious.
If the skin of fresh fava beans is peeled off, it is fava bean rice, and the use of fava bean rice in cooking is even greater.
Broad bean rice can be cooked in water, directly mixed with ginger rice, or made as a side dish for some dishes, its emerald green color makes people look very pleasing to the eye.
In Jiangnan, there is a dish of "tips and tricks", which is to cut the bottom of the fresh bamboo shoots, then hollow out the middle of the bamboo shoots, stuff the broad beans and rice, diced ham, cover the bottom of the bamboo shoots, steam them in the basket drawer for fifteen minutes, take out the bamboo shoots and cut them with a knife to plate, brush with sesame oil.
After this dish is served, the ham is fragrant, the fava bean powder is tender, the bamboo shoots are crisp, and the green broad beans are picked up, which are tender and crispy into the mouth at this time, making people suddenly reluctant to bite down, and can only use the tip of the tongue to gently press, and leave the fresh fragrance between the teeth.
Because it has a good oval shape, it is suitable to use broad bean rice to accompany any dish, vegetarian can be used with powder skin, sauerkraut, amaranth, etc., meat can be used to fry shrimp, fried chicken, fried fish and other small dishes, but also can be used to fry clams, cuttlefish, clams and other seafood.
Broad bean rice due to its pink characteristics, but also can be widely used in desserts, in the making of rock sugar silver fungus, put some emerald green broad bean rice, will make the white and transparent white fungus immediately shine.
If the fresh fava bean rice is beaten into a paste, add lard, rock sugar, osmanthus and stir-fried thoroughly, it is comparable to the puree bean paste, if you add some milk, water to boil, slightly outlined, it is another popular "fairy emerald soup".
From the broad beans began to market, but about ten days, the fava bean mouth changed from the beginning of the light green to black, which is also when the broad beans are listed, the broad beans taste more bean.
At this time, the peeled broad bean rice is already green and yellow, and those who usually like to drink wine will have a plate of crispy "orchid petals" on the table.
"Orchid petals" is the nickname of people in our Lixiahe area for fried watercress, in fact, watercress does not look like the petals of orchids.
Later, I consulted a person who has studied food, and learned that "orchid petals" have a twin brother called "orchid beans", which are fried with shelled broad beans, and the bean shells burst like orchids that first bloomed, looking like the orchid fingers of beauty, and frying with watercress alone has become a veritable "orchid petal".
For people who like to eat zongzi, they will take advantage of the fact that the Dragon Boat Festival has not yet arrived, and the zongzi of some fresh fava bean rice will be wrapped to relieve the hunger, and the zongzi with broad bean rice will be more sticky and sticky.
Broad beans are easy to store, you can dry them in the sun, when you want to eat them, you can directly put them in an iron pot and stir-fry them to make snacks, we have a folk dish of "radical fava beans" here.
It is to put the fava beans that have just been fried hot into the soup made of vegetable oil, soy sauce, salt, monosodium glutamate, garlic paste, and dried chili peppers, and immediately cover them with a lid that can be tightly covered.
Fried broad beans in the soup a "excitement", issued a "whoosh" sound, like the quenching of iron, in the inside slowly matured and soft, gradually sucked into the water and soup in the condiments, eat fresh and soft, the most suitable for summer with cold porridge, now this small dish has become a best-selling cold dish in some restaurants.
There is a great beauty between heaven and earth, and I think that the broad bean is the representative, its leaves are not beautiful and fragrant, but the fruit it produces is so simple, kind, easy-going, mellow, and it makes people have a long aftertaste.
Tasting the fava beans with the fragrance of the earth has become a nostalgic memory that lingers on the tip of people's tongues!