Wrap the shortbread carefully.
Stir before pounding.
thrash.
The "May Day" holiday has not yet arrived, and the major scenic spots in Yinchuan have already welcomed many tourists. There are many specialties in the western cinema of the north fort of the town, and one of the shortbreads is particularly popular. In more than ten years of operation, its maker, Tian Zai, has combined the favorite flavors of tourists from all over the world to create a "childhood taste" for everyone.
Little shortbread movie theater is fragrant
When you come to the old Yinchuan street in the western cinema of Zhenbei fort, as soon as you enter, you can smell a smell of dried fruits and syrup, which is passed down from the merchant Tian Zaijia. This aroma comes from a delicacy called shortbread.
The shortbread is a manual work, but the process is also exciting enough: the shop master mixes the dried fruit and syrup in a pot, boils it into a sticky dried fruit ball, brings it out while it is hot, puts it on a wooden pier covered with steel plates, and Tian zai picks up a large wooden hammer, smashes the dried fruit ball flat and thins it at once, and then cuts it into pieces of pancake with a knife, puts it on a plate, wraps it in plain oil paper, and hands it to the guests who are waiting on the side.
This year's tourist season seems to be earlier than in previous years, and at present, the studio is already very lively, and there are many people tasting Tian Zaijia's fragrant shortbread. A piece of shortbread, a large slice in the palm of your hand, thin and crisp, tastes like a mouthful of dried fruit, and is mixed with the sweetness of maltose. When the tourists walked around a large circle, they tasted the sweetness, immediately replenished some energy, and lifted their spirits.
"I've been selling shortbread here for more than ten years, and the business has been good." Tian said that he was a native of Anyang, Henan, and knew the weaving skills of iron and copper wire. In 2010, he came to Yinchuan and made small crafts in the western cinema of Zhenbei fort. At that time, there were already people in the city who made shortbread, but this man was old and had other affairs to be busy with, so he taught tian zai the craft.
Crushed dried fruit and boiled syrup Everything has to be just right
It is said that it is a shortbread, but in fact, this "cake" is more like shortbread. Because most of the bread is made of noodles, and this shortbread is called cake, but there is no flour. Speaking, Tian then introduced the samples of ingredients on display, including black and white sesame seeds, peanuts, melon seeds, walnuts, goji berries... They are all ordinary foods, but after some processing, these ordinary foods become more delicious.
When it comes to processing, different ingredients have different "treatment" when making them. Among them, goji berries are the most convenient and can be used directly; followed by sesame seeds and melon seeds, fried on the line; peanuts and walnuts are more troublesome, after frying, you have to beat into half a piece before you can carry out the next step, "otherwise when you wait until you beat, I use a little more strength, peanuts and walnuts will jump out like bullets, and it is not good to hit tourists." Tian Zai said with a smile that in fact, you can also grind the dried fruit to make it better integrate with the syrup, but if you do this, not only the crispy taste is lacking, but also the beating seems to have less rhythm.
However, compared with dried fruits, sugar is the most difficult to handle and grasp, it is sometimes crispy, sometimes sticky, more "cunning", "the heat is very critical, to master well." Tian said that the shortbread was first boiled into a syrup with maltose and honey, and then the dried fruit was fried inside. When boiling syrup, the heat is too small, after drying, it will be brushed, sticky teeth, not crisp; and the heat is scorched, the taste will be bitter, and it is not delicious, "whether it is processing dried fruit or syrup, everything has to be just right." ”
Pounding is the key to good food
The dried fruit is sautéed in the syrup and it should be beaten. It is said that "vigorous miracles" are said, and Tian Zai attaches great importance to this step. He said it was a show for the tourists who came and went, and for the shortbread itself, it was also the key to good food.
"Crispy and crispy actually have different tastes, and the more times this shortbread is beaten, the more crispy it becomes." Tian said, generally in the summer, it is hot, and the dried fruit balls are not so easy to cool and harden, you can beat seven or eight times, and even a little faster can even hit ten times. But in the winter, you can also play about four times, which is still a little warmer. If it's too cold, this food can't be made.
Because the dried fruit balls cool and solidify for a short time, almost as soon as they come out of the pot, they have to seize the time to fight, a little slower, it will not form. So even if there are customers waiting to buy, Tian can no longer turn around and "take care" of this pot of dried fruit dough first. He first took two shovels and quickly stirred them a few times, and then picked up the wooden hammer. "Most people may not have noticed that when mixing, the main thing is to mix the dried pomace left by the previous pot into the next pot, so that the viscosity is small and it is not easy to stick to the wooden hammer." Tian said that under the condition of no oil and no flour, this is the best way.
As the saying goes, "If a worker wants to do a good thing, he must first use it." The wooden hammer that pounds the shortbread is not something that can be used with any kind of wood. Tian re-introduced, generally use beech wood or apple wood. Apple wood, in particular, in contact with dried fruit balls, seems to punch in the taste of the wood itself, "just like the roast duck of the fruit wood, there will be a subtle change." ”
After constant improvement, I eat the taste of childhood
When Tian Zai first learned to make shortbread, there was only one flavor called "walnut goji berry shortbread", and sometimes when chestnuts were on the market, there would also be chestnut flavors. Later, on this basis, he mixed 5 flavors such as sesame goji berries and pepper salt peanuts.
"There are people in the scenic area, everyone is from the south of the sea, the north, the taste is different." Some people asked me if I could make something that tasted this way, or that taste, and slowly I added several flavors. Tian said that the requirements made by tourists can basically be met, and they also define the taste of this piece of shortbread with their own preferences.
"A lot of people say it tastes like it when they were kids." Tian said that when he first learned the craft, he did not hear the master talk about the origin of this shortbread, only that in Shaanxi, Yunnan, Beijing and Guangdong, there are similar traditional dim sum, so it is not surprising that everyone feels like the taste of childhood. "Before, there was a Cantonese who opened a tea house who thought it was delicious, and he had been making it here as a snack for the tea house. He felt that this handmade taste could not be replicated by factory machines. ”
Reporter Li Shangwen /Photo