Sweet potatoes on the tip of the tongue
Zhang Xiuting (Hebei)
Today I wrapped sweet potato and glutinous rice noodles together with bean paste and made sweet potato cakes, soft and sticky and sweet, and the children said it was a nutritious and delicious sweet. Every time I eat sweet potatoes, I can think of my childhood life, I am 78 years old this year, when I was a teenager, almost all the family ate sweet potatoes, potatoes, almighty sweet potatoes and potatoes, not only to solve the family's food and clothing, but also to carry my yearning for a better life.
Parents plant more than three acres of sweet potatoes every year, about two acres of potatoes, the harvest season is also their busiest and happiest time, the previous hard work turned into a smile on their faces, parents said that the stomach is full to do things in a down-to-earth manner, friendly treatment, although parents are farmers, but know how to be honest and know the etiquette, enough food and clothing and know honor and disgrace, let us brothers and sisters eat as much as possible, dress warmly, become useful to the country.
There is a dug cellar on the west side of the yard, and when it is just winter, the sweet potatoes are stored in the cellar, and in the spring of the following year, some subsidies are sold to subsidize the family, leaving some enough for the family to eat, and the annual harvest is provided for the family.
In China in the 1950s, everything was in ruins, and the life of ordinary people was simple and poor, but we had our mother who did not feel how difficult and difficult it was to process sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are a treasure, and they can be eaten raw, steamed, and boiled. The easiest thing to eat every day is sweet potato porridge, which must be cooked for a few minutes before adding corn grits. Pieces of sweet potatoes and polenta give each other the color of huang Chengcheng, which can be fused together with a little force to become a paste, and the smooth taste highlights the natural flavor of corn. Mother let us eat warm first, and she slowly tasted it herself.
When there is time, my mother uses potato noodles and soba noodles to press into wontons, and then uses home-grown eggplant shreds or tomato eggs or soybean sauce to make a marinade, mixed with cucumber shreds is particularly delicious, although the meat is very small, in fact, almost none, but now look back, you can still salivate, the memory is still fresh.
Sweet potatoes were really a good companion for me when I was young, and I couldn't get tired of eating them every day, and my mother would always change her tricks to cook sweet potatoes. Sometimes, just after cooking, my mother would put the sweet potatoes in the ashes of the hearth and simmer them for twenty or thirty minutes, and when the meal was finished, we would eagerly pull out the sweet potatoes to see if they were cooked. But the mother churned hot sweet potatoes, a little bit of peel off, the fragrance instantly filled the air, my sister and I scrambled to taste the first bite, although the hot sucking and eating, but refused to "humble", the sister said that this burning to eat than steaming to eat and boiled to eat more fragrant, especially when the skin is slightly burned, the inside is full of oil, the smell is more fragrant than meat. The taste of that time had the power to penetrate time, frozen in the taste buds, rooted in the memory, lasting for a long time, and moisturizing the decades.
The sweet potato method is certainly indispensable to dry potatoes, my mother will cut the steamed sweet potatoes into long strips, and then densely placed on the roof, the sun is sunburned for ten days, the color orange red taste is strong and sweet, the mother put these in gauze bags, as my dry food for school, but also let me give some to my classmates to eat, dried potatoes have been accompanying me to teacher training, is my material supply is also my spiritual food.
My mother made sweet potatoes into sweet potato flour to store, when the weather was hot, I made cold powder to eat, I learned to make it with my mother, mixed the powder and then pressed it into strips with leaks, cut the onion, ginger and garlic, put on coriander, salt sesame oil and vinegar and then put on the cool white open, a stir becomes a summer town hot cold drink, let people feast. When it is cool, the mother will boil the sweet potatoes into a pulp and then make them into vermicelli, which needs to be remembered, but this is also a hand-to-hand for the mother.
Mother made a variety of patterns with a single ingredient, for us is the eight precious jade food, especially when the family gathered in a circle while chatting and eating, it was happy, cheerful, eating vividly, eating happily, that is the mother with practical actions to do rather than with sweet words to express the selfless love, that is a good life that is a happy time! Sweet potatoes on the tip of your tongue, eternity in memory!
About the author Zhang Xiuting, 78 years old, a member of the Communist Party. In 1963, he was admitted to Zhuozhou Normal School, joined the Party in 1965, and after graduating in 1966, he supported the education cause in the mountainous areas of the old revolutionary base area, participated in the work for 34 years, and worked in front-line education for more than ten years. After retiring in 2000, he liked to grow up from the newspaper and broaden his horizons. He also likes to write, write, sing, and occasionally play simple songs on the keyboard to delight his body and mind. The so-called live to old, learn to be old! Learning this thing is the most important thing that can keep people young forever!