The other day, brushing the circle of friends, I saw my niece write in WeChat: "I want to eat the snow clothes bean paste made by my father..." I left a message under her text picture: "I like to eat the snow clothes bean paste made by your father, and I also like to eat the snow clothes bean paste made by your grandfather." The niece replied, "I've never eaten grandpa." "Yeah, you were born in the spring of 1984, right?" Your grandfather fell ill in the fall of 1980..."
I chatted with my niece in WeChat very cordially, but also very sad, mentioned the words "snow bean paste", stirred up a ripple in my heart: my father skillfully turned a pot of oily, golden snow clothes bean paste, staying in the depths of the years; my brother brought out a plate of hot, fragrant snow clothes bean paste picture, engraved in the journey of life; the whole family gathered together, scrambling to eat snow clothes bean paste Scene, vivid and vivid in memory.
I was born in the mid-1960s. When I was young, my family, like most families, was not very wealthy, but my father, who was a manager in a restaurant in Changchun, had a good hand in cooking and cooking. Father is a very busy person, all day long home, growing up in the restaurant, usually the family meals are made by the mother, only the New Year, the festival father will be in charge of the spoon to make Chinese New Year's Eve rice, will also first make a snow coat bean paste for the whole family to eat, because this dim sum means sweet and sweet, reunion.
My brother, who was five years older than me, and my sister, who was three years older than me, felt about this dim sum, liked it or not, and I never even asked them, but I especially liked to eat this soft, sweet, and endless dessert—not to mention eating, the thought of it made the saliva flow.
Snow cloth bean paste, also known as snow sponge bean paste, is a classic sweet dish of Ji (Lin) cuisine and Northeast cuisine, originated from the northeast Manchu, Qing Dynasty court royal banquet, has a history of hundreds of years. The production process is fine and exquisite, the production process is complex and cumbersome, time-consuming, laborious, and oil-intensive, and must be freshly made, fried, and eaten.
Every time I made it, my father was always busy in the kitchen alone, and he only knew that the main raw materials used to make snow bean paste were red beans, eggs, starch, flour, lard, sugar, etc., all of which were handmade, but I didn't know how to do it. I only heard the sound of chopsticks quickly stirring egg whites in the bowl, and sometimes I couldn't help but run to the kitchen and rush to the stove. Because of the heat of the fire, my father was afraid of splashing on my face and body, and always told me: "Stay away." Sometimes, even a scolding —"Don't come here!" "So I always watched carefully and still won't do it, which is a pity."
After a long anxious and eager wait, waiting for my father to put the steaming snowsuit bean paste that had just come out of the pot on a plate and sprinkle it with white sugar, we couldn't wait to dip the sugar and bite it down, and the semi-mushy bean paste stuffing was hot to the mouth—I was burned almost every time, but the next time it was so eager. Snow-clothed bean paste must be eaten while hot, just fried out golden, round, smooth, if left for a long time it will be cold, soft, and deflated. The first one is always gobbled up, feeling soft on the outside and soft on the inside, a little elastic, because it is not greasy, a little addictive. But when you eat the last one, chew it slowly and let the sweet, fresh, and fried taste rotate, swirl, swirl, and diffuse between the mouth, tongue, and nose...
My brother was a boy who was in good health and could eat (later became an athlete, became a soldier, and became a cook); I was the youngest and most hungry, and when I arrived, my appetite increased greatly, and I ate until I licked my fingers; my sister had a gentle temperament and did not argue. Mom let us not eat much. I even think that the most beautiful taste in the world is snow coat bean paste, and I can eat it once a year, and I am satisfied. It took the father a long time to make this snack, and several children were always swept away and wiped out in a moment' time. Every time after eating the snow coat bean paste, the smell of beans, eggs, oil, as well as hot and sweet smells wafting in the home, will not disappear for a long time.
In the fall of 1980, my father was seriously ill, unable to hold chopsticks in his hand, and could no longer make snow clothes and bean paste for the family.
Shortly after his father fell ill, his brother returned to Changchun from the army and also worked in a restaurant, first as a cook, then as a chef - at the age of 28, he became a third-class chef, and later opened a restaurant for a while.
In the few years that I left Changchun to study in Beijing, my brother would also make snow clothes and bean paste, and he had diligent study and hard work in the hotel, and he should also get the "true transmission" of his father. Every year when I go home during the winter vacation, just in time for the Spring Festival, my brother takes over his father's Chinese New Year's Eve meal for the whole family, and he will also make a plate of snow clothes and bean paste to the bottom of the family. I've seen my brother make this snack: beat the egg white until it's dry and foaming, add starch and stir well to make an egg bubble paste; put the lard in the spoon, use chopsticks to hold the bean paste dumplings that have been kneaded, covered with flour, and dipped in the egg foam paste, and put them into the hot oil one by one; pour it lightly with hot oil, and the white snowballs are floating until fried to a golden brown, put it on a plate, sprinkle with sugar, and you can eat it. At this time, the father will also taste one and eat it slowly. Sometimes he nodded his head and said "yes"; sometimes he shook his head and said slowly, "It's almost on fire..."
At the end of May 2001, my mother died. On the second day of the Chinese New Year in 2006, my father died.
I still go back to Changchun every few years to visit my elderly aunt and accompany my older brother and sister, and I live in my brother's house every time. I know that I love to eat this snack, as long as I go back, no matter what season, my brother will make a special snow coat bean paste.
In fact, after living in Jiangnan all these years, I know that There is a famous point in Changzhou, called "net oil roll". It is different from the name "Snow bean paste", but the materials, shapes, and tastes are generally similar. I have eaten many times in some restaurants, and it is fine and soft, sweet and fresh. But it is also strange to say that when I don't eat, I never want to eat, and my heart is still thinking about snow clothes and bean paste. I always feel that the net oil roll here and the snow clothes bean paste in my hometown, especially the snow clothes bean paste made with my father and brother, seem to be almost something. But what's the point?
In the fall of 2017, I took half a month off from public leave and returned to Changchun again. He lived in his brother's house, and his niece's family lived upstairs. The brother is nearly a year old, the eyebrows, eyes, and expression are exactly the same as his father, especially the white hair and white eyebrows, looking sad, heartbroken, and thinking of his father, it is inevitable to be sad. My brother wants to make snow clothes and bean paste, and I can't bear to make my brother tired and persuade him not to do it. The brother said, no trouble, bean paste stuffing has a ready-made sale, do not have to get your own. Besides, your niece and niece (niece's daughter) are just like you, just like this bite, don't eat what you do in restaurants outside, but eat what I make.
While chatting with my brother, I watched carefully watch him beat the egg whites with chopsticks: he added sugar three times until the egg whites were completely white into a snowflake, and the chopsticks stood in the bowl without falling - my brother said, this is when you come back, I will manually beat the egg whites, usually using an egg beater. Manual passing is too tiring and time-consuming. We remembered that when I was a child, I didn't know how many times I had eaten snow coat bean paste, but I only knew that it was delicious, and I never thought of my father's hard work in making this snack.
My brother poured some oil into the pot, and after heating it, he put the bean paste dumplings wrapped in egg whites and fried them, turning the heat down for a while. He told me that the key to making this dim sum is to master the heat, the oil temperature can not be too low, not too high, after the pot and wait for the surface to float up, and then slightly scorched when it is fished out.
A plate of snow-clad bean paste was served, and I ate it with my niece and niece's daughter for three generations. One bite opens the skin of the sticky sugar, and then chews it carefully, and the bean paste filling and white sugar slowly melt in the mouth like snow. Sweet, crisp, fragrant, fine, soft, soft, exactly the same taste as when I was a child - from my father to my brother- in my mouth, stomach, heart, and dreams are all original; the sweet taste, mellow and long taste, has not changed over the years; from childhood to youth, from middle age to old age, I am not able to eat more sweets. This northeastern famous dish is high in sugar, heat and oil, but my will has long been vulnerable in the face of this delicacy.
My sister-in-law who was the same age as me will also eat one, but my brother will not eat a bite, he has high blood sugar, can not eat sweets, and does not hesitate to make this snack just for the family, just like his father was for the family - if the father knows that after he and his mother die, his children will still "often (state) come to (spring) and go" and live better and better, he is also pleased, right?
I finally understood why I felt that the snow clothes bean paste in Changchun in the northeast was different from the net oil roll in Changzhou, Jiangnan: because the snow clothes bean paste was the exclusive dessert in my life, it had a special meaning in my life, and carried the happy, warm and happy time of my childhood. Those ordinary, simple, authentic life, even if it is hard, is also bitter in the joy, bitter in the love, bitter in the fun; snow clothes bean paste is not an ordinary snack, but a food condensed with hard work, containing the sincere feelings of the dearest and dearest, full of long and long warm memories. Every time you eat soft and delicious snow clothes bean paste, you think back to the taste of your childhood; every fragrant snow clothes bean paste condenses the labor of your relatives; every time you think of distant fragments of life in those years, happy and harmonious family scenes, the feeling of missing your hometown fluctuates strongly, and the feeling of missing your relatives is indescribable.
Snow-clothed bean paste, overflowing between the teeth, seeping into the taste buds, can not get tired of eating; snow-clothed bean paste, made of affection and love, not only temporarily comforts the stomach and intestines, but also warms the heart for a long time.
Source: Ji Bao Supplement
Author:Ai Ying(Jiangsu)
Editor-in-Chief: Meng Fanjie, Shi Wei, Han Tieying
Edit: Chu Hui