There is a snack in Huizhou that makes you think about it from the beginning of winter, and when it is finally made, the adults hide in tin boxes, give you a few pieces a day, and eat until the spring of the following year. In those years of material scarcity, what a sweet and warm reminder, this is the crisp and delicious Huizhou bud reed pine.
"Bao Lu Song" is one of the main refreshments used by Huizhou people for hospitality in the New Year, and it is spread throughout Jiangnan in The Ming Dynasty, which is a traditional cuisine suitable for all ages, and is more popular in Huizhou Xiuning, Qimen and Wuyuan. After the late autumn, the mountain people will break down the ripe buds on the mountain, and take advantage of the crisp autumn weather, the farmers will tie up the buds with wild vines, and then hang them like strings of pearls on the roof beams or board walls to dry in the autumn wind. In the winter season, the autumn grain in the mountains has all returned to the warehouse and turned into winter leisure. In addition to the villagers going up the mountain to cut some firewood for the winter fire for heating, some people have begun to be busy making local New Year goods in their own homes, and the bud reed pine is one of the indispensable New Year goods. Therefore, "establish winter and establish winter, dry buds and pines for winter", it has become a popular folk proverb that farmers in some deep mountainous areas of Huizhou often chant.
Bract reed pine, commonly known as corn flakes, is processed from corn. To make bud reed pine, you must first peel off the bud reed grains one by one. In the past when industrial machinery was not developed, peeling buds and reeds was also a manual labor. Each household has many bamboo baskets, and the family brings out a bench and sits next to the bamboo baskets, and then the left hand uses a plucked bud root to break the other unthreshed bud in the right hand, and the hands break each other from the inside out, at this time, the bud reed grains fall into the bamboo basket one by one. Later, through the theory of the physical action of hand breaking each other, the people in the mountains imitated the bud reed in the form of a washboard, which greatly improved the efficiency of the threshing of the bud reed. After threshing, the threshed buds are usually ground into fine powders, and then the fine corn flour is stored in the rice tank after being sieved.
In the liukou, Wangcun and Hecheng areas of the deep mountainous area of Xiuning Liukou in Huizhou, if you want to make bud reed pine, farmers must see whether the stars are bright at night the first night to judge the good weather the next day, and then consider whether to start making bud reed pine that night. Due to the large temperature difference between morning and evening after the frost falls in the mountains, when making bud reed pine, a pot of water should be boiled the first night, and when the water is about to boil, evenly sprinkle fine bud reed powder, stir while sprinkling, so that the bud reed paste does not clump, cook until cooked thoroughly, scoop into the wooden tofu box. Some farmers placed them on the Eight Immortals table or on two benches to let the bud paste gradually cool.
After seven or eight hours of freezing overnight, a box of bud reed paste was formed from this plate, at this time, I saw the farmer pick up a kitchen knife and cut the bud paste into "tofu blocks" with a side length of more than ten centimeters, and then slowly cross it with a special bow, and dry the pieces of fresh bud reed pine in the bamboo plaque covered with straw. However, I saw that the pink wall of Dewa horse head was covered with layers of "golden armor", and the round bamboo woven plate was full of "bud reed pine" pieces, and the aroma of bud reeds came to the nose, converging the warmth of winter and adding a simple and human warmth.
Dried flakes of bract reed pine with a firm and transparent texture. However, when you want to fry the bract reed pine, it is recommended to use lard paste, because the lard is fried to produce the bract reed pine more aromatic than the rapeseed oil. At the same time, when frying the bract reed pine, the amount of oil should meet the half-pot noodles as much as possible, so that the bract reed pine slices slide into the pot and the tumbling space is large. When the fire of the wood stove rises, the bract reed pine slices in the pot quickly "grunt" and quickly float, and the oil surface floats with pieces of golden yellow and colorful "golden leaves", the colander is turned over and fried for a while, and the filter oil is fished, and the fluffy and crisp bud reed pine is fried.
Every New Year's Day, the simple mountain people's eight immortals table, always hold out the golden fried bud reed pine, and then brew a cup of cloud and mist mountain tea to entertain guests. While chewing on a few slices of sweet "bud reed pine", sit around the stove and say turtles. Even if the cold winter outside the window is unexpectedly cold, I am afraid that it has melted into a cup of clear tea. That kind of warm and beautiful, happy and fairy-like enjoyment is absolutely wonderful.
(Xin Zhoujun Source: Walking Observation)