Text/Liu Yutao
In my memory, my mother has several specialties, "jellyfish soup" is one of them, in the summer and autumn season, it is the time to eat "jellyfish soup", fresh jellyfish is a seafood dish in Longkou summer and autumn. As one of the "ten treasures" of the ocean, jellyfish is extremely rich in nutrients, containing protein, carbohydrates, calcium, iodine and other vitamins and rich collagen and other active substances, is a kind of seafood food that people generally like.
Longkou coastline is long, there is an endless sandy beach, commonly known as "golden beach". Growing up on the seashore, every summer and autumn, after heavy rain, in the calm blue waves of the sea, you can often see crystal clear, covered with light veil, like a parachute zooplankton, this is the jellyfish. Turn the "mushroom" over, with rounded folds, like a phonograph record. There is a bowl-shaped amber cavity in the middle, surrounded by four straight lattice "windows" where you can see the fuchsia or purple-brown internal organs inside. Jellyfish are also known as jellyfish, white-skinned. During The months of August and September, jellyfish often float on the surface of the sea in groups, sometimes stranded on the beach by impact, and when fishing, they first pierce their umbrellas with long markers and then catch them with nets. After harvesting, it is soaked with lime and alum. Squeeze out the moisture from the body and wash the salts. Generally, the body part of the umbrella and the mouth and wrist are processed, and the mouth and wrist are commonly known as "jellyfish head", and the umbrella part is commonly known as "jellyfish skin".
The Compendium of Materia Medica records that jellyfish are "as big as a bed, as small as a bucket, without eyes and stomachs, with shrimp as the eye, shrimp moving and snake sinking, floating and sinking like a fly, and being swept by the tide." Jellyfish is also a good medicine for curing diseases, is an important ingredient in many Chinese medicine prescriptions, jellyfish extract ingredients for hypertension, chronic tracheitis, asthma, stomach ulcers, rheumatism and other diseases have a good effect.
My father liked to eat seafood, and often bought a variety of small trash fish and shrimp and crabs from the sea to improve the family's life, and sometimes bought fresh jellyfish for his mother to make "jellyfish soup".
The mother first washes the fresh jellyfish and removes the mucous membrane on the surface of the jellyfish. When cleaning, you can add a little aged vinegar to play a role in sterilization and fishy. Cleaned jellyfish, to cut it into shreds, you can also cut into "chicken cubes" chunks, first blanch the water, and then cut the cucumber shreds, red peppers and other side dishes, and then add aged vinegar, or Huangxian vinegar, a little sugar, sesame oil, monosodium glutamate, salt, well water, the last process, the mother sprinkled a little white sesame seeds and garlic paste, stirred evenly and then put on the coriander, a pot of fragrant "jellyfish soup", it is done. The mother asked the father to pour the white wine, drink two cups to relieve the fatigue, the family began to eat on the table, the mother was busy, when she sat down to eat, the "jellyfish soup" left behind also saw the bottom of the basin.
At that time, the seafood that was often prepared at home was jellyfish heads, jellyfish skins, and small dried fish, which were delicious and easy to put. The mother put the pickled jellyfish skin and jellyfish head into a small porcelain jar in the back of the road and stored it.
During the Chinese New Year, "Cabbage Heart Cold Jellyfish Skin" is my favorite dish to eat. Mother took out a piece of jellyfish skin from the porcelain jar, white and transparent, rinsed it with water, rolled it up and cut into silk, and then soaked the jellyfish skin with fresh water for a period of time, and then repeatedly squeezed, the salt was removed, made light, mixed with cabbage heart and garlic paste, Huangxian vinegar, and then used coriander to code, put a little sesame oil, monosodium glutamate can be, use chopsticks to clip the long jellyfish skin, put it in the mouth, jellyfish skin is crisp and tender, quite a "biting tendon" feeling and a faint seafood smell, that crisp and refreshing and delicious, better than "bird's nest shark fin" can not be tired, It was a nice appetizer.
A bowl of "jellyfish soup" with a strong flavor, a plate of pleasant flavor "cabbage heart cold mix jellyfish skin", has become a lingering memory in my life, and perhaps, a nostalgia for my mother and home.
Time passes through the years, listening to the sound of cicadas, whenever I think of jellyfish, I will think of my hometown, the place near the sea that gave birth to me and raised me, and I will think of the taste of "jellyfish soup" made by my mother, that unforgettable nostalgia.
Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association Longkou Creation Home Mailbox: [email protected] One Point Longkou Literature Mailbox: [email protected]
One point no. Longkou literature
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