Author: Ah Qiu Source: Meibi App
It's New Year's, so happy.
In memory, steamed cakes were a big drama of the rural people's New Year when they were young, and every household would steam cakes to pray for blessings during the New Year. "Rice cakes, rice cakes, tall and tall, higher and higher every year", always listen to grandma so nagging, "'cake' is 'high', please a good mouth, good luck".
The New Year flavor of Jiangnan people starts with steamed cakes.
We as children do not understand the things of "praying for blessings" and "asking for good fortune", only that many people gather together for steamed cakes, which are so lively and there are cakes to eat, so we especially look forward to the steamed cakes coming soon.
The steamed cakes in the village are all made by several families to help each other. My grandfather is a good hand at steaming cakes, his steamed cakes are neat, beautiful, soft and smooth in the mouth, there are many people who look for grandpa to help steam cakes, and the small stove and hall of Grandma's house are the stage of the steaming cake drama.
After waiting for a long time, I finally saw that there was a heavenly house with wooden planks, and the kitchen was full of rice baskets, which were filled with snow white and polished rice noodles, and the firewood and grass moved by the neighbors were piled up in front of my grandmother's house. The steamed rice cake drama that we are looking forward to every day has begun, and the day of eating rice cakes has finally arrived.
My grandmother ate dinner early, my brother and I waited to eat cakes, only a few bites of random steaks, and when my grandmother washed and put them down, the neighbors came one after another.
Grandpa shouted "Steam! So he quickly lifted the steamer basket filled with rice noodles and put it on the iron pot, and Grandma had already burned the stove red.
The wood in the stove hole "crackled", and the flames spat out their tongues without hesitation; the steam in the iron pot was still hazy, even if the bulb of "a hundred lights" was lit. The playmates of the neighbor were already crowded in my house, listening to the aunts and aunts talking about cutting shoes and making cotton jackets, looking at the steamer basket and secretly swallowing saliva.
After waiting for a long time, I suddenly saw Grandpa throw down the cotton jacket, Oh quickly walked to the side of the iron pot, roared, lifted the steamer with both hands, walked to the front of the board, and there was another roar, and the cake powder in the steamer was instantly upside down on the board.
We pounced on it, and we didn't care if our hands were hot or not, so we grabbed one handful each and stuffed it straight into our mouths, and now that we think about it, it's really similar to the way pigs eat watermelon.
As we ate, we watched Grandpa knead the muffins. I saw him soak his hands in cold water first, then wrap a white cloth in his fist and begin to knead the cake powder rhythmically and non-stop.
In a quarter of an hour, the cake powder has been glued into a ball, and then pinch it into a rectangular strip. Grandma had already prepared the thick line to tie the sole of the shoe, and Grandpa skillfully placed the thread under the rectangular cake body, crossed and pulled, and pulled again, cutting out a neat and uniform rice cake.
Grandma carved a plum blossom red seal or a yuanbao red seal on the rice cake, and the beautiful rice cakes lay neatly and joyfully.
We continued to grab and eat, and the adults around us also ate with us. In this way, steaming in a cage, steaming Guiqin's grandmother's family, steaming the little sister-in-law's family, and then steaming The Golden Pearl's sister-in-law's family... We followed this, ate that, steamed until late at night, and we also ate until late at night, not only eating the sweet rice cakes, but also adding to the happiness of the little friends who rarely stayed up late together.
At that time, the living conditions were poor, and I could not afford to steam brown sugar cakes, but everyone would steam a steamed red bean cake, or use wheat green juice and powder to steam a steamed green cake.
When eating, eat red bean cake and green cake first, because there is no refrigerator, the preservation time is short. White water rice cake soaked in the river water in the waxing moon, eating for several months will not be bad. That water is called "wax water", and the cake is called "white water cake".
At the beginning of the first month of the first month, we open the door to eat cakes to welcome the New Year, and the fifteenth Lantern of the first month eat cakes to celebrate the New Year, and every household in Jiangnan has to eat rice cakes and eat rice cakes backgammon. Grandma felt a white water cake from the water tank, put some white sugar to cook and stir-fry, eat the cake, taste is life, chew sweet in poverty, life has a taste.
After half of the first month, I want to eat cakes, take out a piece, put some vegetable leaves and fry in an oil pot, which can fill the hunger and eat rice.
After the beginning of spring, when the sun is long, when the stomach is hungry, cut a piece of rice cake, put it in the hearth and simmer it, the fragrance can float five miles away, it is so delicious.
Steamed rice cakes eat rice cakes, and the taste of rice cakes will continue until the spring flowers bloom.
Every New Year, Steamed Cake, the love of the villagers for life, the strong New Year flavor of the New Year, and the mellow nostalgia between the neighbors, run through my childhood life and warm me for a lifetime.