In the old days, whenever important festivals and important guests came, Jiangyin people always liked to make wonton dumplings to entertain, among which, the most worth mentioning is the food called "crystal dumplings" by Jiangyin people. "Crystal dumplings" is actually a water-soaked dumpling, it has two meanings, one is that this dumpling is made of water-soaked glutinous rice milling powder, the other is to prevent the dumplings from sticking, often immersed in cold boiled water, pick up, eat are convenient, and at that time to cook the dumplings, like to cook out of the big stove with boiling water to eat, rarely steamed on the steamer. When I was a child, I often accompanied my grandmother to make dumplings and watched my grandmother cook dumplings.
Spring has begun, fresh cabbage on the market, Grandma began to prepare to make cabbage dumplings, treasured new glutinous rice early washing, soaked in the enamel basin overnight, the already white glutinous rice became as white as Xinjiang Hetian jade as gelatinous, originally immersed in half of the basin of glutinous rice rose white fat, obviously tall a paragraph.
The exquisite stone mill that was also treasured under the strip was taken out by Grandma twice, rinsed and wiped clean, the large round stool pad was smeared with stove cloth, the mill was moved up just right, a basin of water-soaked glutinous rice was put on another round stool, and then prepared a basin to put on the mouth of the mill, everything was ready, Grandma called me to the side, helped her scoop the soup in the basin into the stone mill mouth with rice, and sat on the small stool to start grinding water and grinding powder. The biggest feature of Jiangyin's "crystal dumplings" is that the rice noodles made of dumplings must be water milled, so that the dumplings that are wrapped up are smooth and non-sticky in the mouth, and the taste is very good, which is much better than the dumplings made of dry rice noodles and mortar rice noodles.
I really grew up with this stone mill, earlier my grandmother did not let me touch the grinder, I was afraid that I smashed my foot, she moved it alone, and then the steps faltered, I began to stagger under her care, and then I could easily complete all the grinding preparations. But Grandma never wanted me to grind powder, she thought I had no heart to grind up, the speed was too fast, the rice noodles were not delicate, always a person was not in a hurry, scooping a spoon even the soup with rice poured into the mill, and then a sound of stone rubbing, Grandma alone shook the push handle on the stone mill, the glutinous rice became a thick rice milk, flowing along the groove of the stone mill to the exit, slowly dripping into the bundled filtered gauze, under the gauze was a basin full of crystal rice flour. One afternoon twittering, a basin of glutinous rice was all ground, Grandma tied the polished rice milk bag to the thick bamboo pole of the lang clothes, after a night of filtering, the rice milk all condensed into pieces, this still wet glutinous rice flour is the main ingredient of the excellent crystal dumplings.
Of course, making crystal dumplings will not forget to grind glutinous rice flour at the same time, grinding red bean paste, Jiangyin people called "washing sand (fine sand)", locally grown red beans, boiled in boiling water is thin, but using it to make stuffing is far from enough, so, the stone grinding of rice flour continues to exert residual heat, the stone grinding out of the bean sand is delicate, the same squeeze dry drainage water, put into a large iron pot and lard together to fry, while putting sugar and some orange peel end, such as the color of the fried deep coffee, oil bright, it seems that the water is light oil oil is good.
At that time, the crystal dumplings also often eat sesame filling, like sesame filling is much more annoying, sesame to fry the incense itself to have patience, after frying, because of its rich oiliness, and can not be ground on the stone grinding, so the old law is by hand mortar, that is the hand to get the acid is terrible, Grandma helplessly can only let me go to the neighbor classmates, the famous Jiangyin old Chinese medicine Yu Zuqi old mr. home to borrow the copper boat grinding of Chinese medicine, this copper guy is really powerful, two hands quickly push back and forth, and soon the sesame seeds are completely crushed into crumbs, poured out and mixed with white sugar , it is a first-class sesame filling.
Of course, the crystal dumplings are the most delicious, Jiangyin people know, how the first place should also give the cabbage meat filling, the reason why Grandma has this Yaxing, of course, is also completely good cabbage dumplings this bite. Spring three ends of the cabbage is tender and fresh and fragrant, boiling water in a little, two knives should be sounded, chop the cabbage into a rotten bone, mixed into the same rotten meat paste, such cabbage meat filling, in the end is the fresh meat brought out of the cabbage fresh, or the fresh meat of the cabbage, anyway, such a cabbage dumplings, a bite up, the soup overflowed, the umami full of teeth, it is really perfect and clean, the unique flavor of the cabbage and gravy blended together, forming the most delicious Jiangyin fresh vegetables and dim sum in spring, February and March.
Bun dumplings are definitely technical work, powerful housewives wrapped out of the dumplings, thin skin but not exposed filling, a rice noodle ball through her hand, is the soft skin collapsed but do not run the filling, boiled out of the dumplings will definitely not bite a bite of thick rice flour skin, Grandma has this ability. Dumplings wrapped well, generally grandma will consciously distinguish between the meat filling of cabbage and washed sand and sesame filling, sometimes with chopsticks dipped in red heads, on the snow white glutinous rice dumplings dotted to distinguish, sometimes with shape to distinguish,
Drip round is cabbage, a tip is washed sand, two tips are sesame filling, so that the water up immediately know, the general dumplings are scooped up into a bowl full of cold boiling water, put on the table casually to eat, so that you can ensure that the dumplings are not sticky, if you want to store for a few days, the grandmother will soak a few next year's rice dumpling leaves in advance, cut into square leaves, the dumplings are potted, put one on top, and so all dried, the dumplings will not stick together, at that time, the dumplings are dried, the bamboo basket is put in a basket, and the ventilated roof is hung in the roof, Can be put for many days not bad, when eating, as long as the rice dumpling leaves are uncovered, boiling water in a while, up is sticky soft cotton, salty and sweet snacks, my grandmother often likes to pick up the rice pot to throw two, the rice is good, the dumplings are good, it is very convenient to eat.
Probably Jiangyin only such crystal dumplings are the most popular, today many hotels have the signature cabbage or green vegetable meat stuffing dumplings to supply, some restaurants simply do sweet and clean sand dumplings, which in today's sweet world, there are still a group of fixed sweet eaters like. Those crystal dumplings made of water ground rice noodles, that is really a must in Jiangyin dim sum.