As soon as the autumn wind blew and the day became cold, the pickle jar that was idle in the corner of the wall began to laugh.
I washed and dried the pressed vegetable stone early and dried it until it was hot; we don't say whether it is good for the dish, anyway, it is comfortable to use it.
Now, that vegetable patch, except for a small piece of amaranth, a large piece of artichoke and two spinach, there is almost nothing, not even grass.
Amaranth is the scientific name, we call it cranberry in this place, there are also people called taro, the edible part is the flat round flat fleshy bulb, after peeling off the skin, fresh food to do cold mixed vegetables crisp and tender, if you pickle a large vat of pickles, you can eat for half a year and six months. Freshly harvested amaranth is peeled and cut into pieces and eaten raw, and when you take a bite, you can splash the sweet juice straight out. Sometimes the kitchen knife has not been used much force, and the three- or four-pound vegetable lump clicks, and it is crisp and split into two halves.
In the past, our village did not grow amaranth blue, and in the autumn team, it was white radish, green radish, red and yellow radish, spicy change, mustard knots and thieves who did not steal, and the large pieces of amaranth in the pickle jar were rare goods, and they had to go to the market to buy. I love to eat my grandmother's pickled sauce Cranberry, the sauce is red, and I have an appetite when I look at it, which is completely comparable to the sauce lumps of Liubiju. Sometimes in order to eat more bites of cranberry silk, I have to drink a bowl of millet porridge with yam eggs. It was time to go to sleep, and when she was full of stomachs, she lay down in the bed, and before the lights were turned out, Grandma began to tell us the story of the seven inches of everyone building a new house.
When I was a child, there were always a few crumpled pickle knots on the windowsill of my grandmother's house, which adults called to avoid the plague. These two words may not be right, but the pronunciation is definitely correct. In the past, buying soy sauce and vinegar was a big expense, so ordinary people were rarely willing to do plague avoidance dishes. You also have to be patient in making this dish. For example, dig a proper pit in the middle of the cut amaranth, put the peppercorns in the pit, put soy sauce and a small spoonful of salt, and then put them on the window sill where the rain can't rain, and the rest will be handed over to the sun and time.
For a few months, when the aroma of the spices and the color of the soy sauce are fully integrated into the crepe blue that has been crepe into a hard knot, the unique open fermentation taste of the pestle will be slowly released when the air is humid, which will make people mouth-wrenching.
The plague avoidance dish belongs to the fine dish, and Grandma said that this dish does not hurt the stomach and is easy to digest. When my mother gave birth to my brother, my grandmother soaked a large glass bottle to avoid the plague dish, and when she ate it, she fished a small dish and dripped a few drops of sesame oil, which can be said to be a special offer in my mother's confinement, we can only taste one or two, comfort the hungry worms in the stomach.
Cooking pestilence vegetables requires skill, especially when washing and cutting, that kind of dry and tough, absolutely can not be dealt with with dead force and brute force, otherwise it will cut the finger. The thickness of the bar is also very exquisite, too thick and too thick, not conducive to foaming hair, too thin and too thin, and it lacks the kind of grappling strength to eat. As for the ratio of soy sauce and vinegar, how much sugar is ordered, it is often difficult for novices to get it right.
Pickling cranberries in water is the most popular practice. Ten pounds of vegetables, one pound of salt, clear water full of tanks, large stones pressed to the top, slowly fermented. Pickled cranberry white spirit, crisp and raw, can be mixed into a variety of flavors, really people eat people love. Marinated blue in thinly sliced water, shredded shallots, coriander strips, and mixed with soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and cold sauce, it is an invincible meal.
In the past few years, I have directly dried and preserved most of the amaranth after killing the water, so that it is convenient to eat and bubble, and it is much healthier than the old pickles in the past.
The yang ginger is what we usually call the devil ginger and the earth bell, because it is an exotic species, and a foreign word has been added in front of it. Artichoke also has a scientific name, called Jerusalem artichoke, which blooms yellow, like autumn chrysanthemum. This thing is worry-free, planted for a year, dug every year, winter in the ground is not frozen, Kai Chun'er wants to eat directly digging, no digging continues to channel the piece long, endless.
Water pickled artichoke is the most delicious, tender, sour and crisp, sometimes do not have to cut, directly from the tank to fish a piece, left hand hot roast, right hand pickle knots, a mouthful, mouth to mouth, and then on a few cups of hot brick tea, such an early belly, simply too much physical and mental pleasure.
Artichoke can also be made into a sweet and sour flavor, always like a small snack, accompanied by the big fish and meat on the table.
Speaking of amaranth blue, in the same field, the seedling period is not divided into middle uncles, pouring the same water, the same dung, but it grows long, and it pulls away. Some are six or seven pounds, some are three or two pounds, a chronic child, not in a hurry, only a little bigger than a fist.
The pickles used to pickle are too small and too tender, and it is estimated that there is very little left in a peel. I suddenly had a whim, and only pulled it out of the ground, cut off the roots, and raised it in a glass bowl with water. At first there was no change, but slowly new leaves grew on the joints where the leaves were shed. One, two, three, five, the pieces have a texture.
Baidu said that the leaves of amaranth can not only be eaten, but its vitamin C content is even higher than that of the bulb, so I decided to raise the small amaranth in front of me, let it grow more leaves, and give me more nutrition.
Gao Yanping is a columnist. Graduated from inner Mongolia University Literature Research Class. He is a member of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Writers Association. Vice Chairman of the Saihan District Writers Association. Million-word works can be found in Chinese Poetry, Prose Poetry, Grassland, Selected Essays, Western Essayists, Chinese Literature, People's Daily, Ta Kung Pao, People's Daily Overseas Edition, Workers' Daily, Yangcheng Evening News, Inner Mongolia Daily, Northern New Daily, Hohhot Daily, etc.