I was with my grandmother in the days I was with
Lu Zhonghui
Looking back today, the days I lived with my grandmother, and there is still an exact date, should have started in the early morning of September 22, 1962. Because from this early morning, my mother went to Peng County Chengguan Hospital on the north gate to stay for a few days, and in the early hours of the morning, my grandmother came from where she lived to my parents' house at No. 2 Fence Street, and took over from my mother to accompany me through the second half of the night. After dawn, my grandmother took me back to her house in the courtyard behind the East Street Neighborhood Committee. Since then, I have lived with my grandmother on and off for 9 years. The distance between the yard of No. 2 Fence Street and the yard behind the neighborhood committee is actually only 5 minutes at most. But in the past nine years, except for some time during the New Year's holidays, I rarely returned to my parents' house on Fence Street. Once in a while, I don't eat at home. My mother asked me several times if I didn't recognize my parents' family. I wasn't 4 years old when I went to live in my grandmother's house, and no one believed it, but I do have a deep memory of what started in the middle of the night, and many things I lived with my grandmother. And in these vivid memories, my grandmother taught me to cook all kinds of food and do housework.
In one of my articles, I mentioned that my grandmother taught me to push rice ball noodles, but in fact, shortly after the Spring Festival, my grandmother started to make Qingming steamed buns again, and she asked relatives in the countryside to get sweet artemisia or cotton grass and corn husks. Sometimes I go to the vegetable camp in Southeast Village to pick cotton grass, and the cotton grass I pick back is old and young, and my grandmother has to clean it again every time. Then I helped my grandmother soak rice, wash cotton straw, wash corn husks, and push mills. When the fresh corn comes out, grandma will buy tender corn with corn husks, carefully peel off the corn husks, wipe off the corn kernels one by one and wash them with water, which can be complete corn kernels, or add some fresh green beans or washed wine rice rice, and push them into fine and thick gouache with a grinder, and then put in an appropriate amount of saccharin, wrap them into a triangle with corn husks, and steam them in an iron pot over a fierce fire. In July and August every year, grandma also uses a mill to push lotus root buns, which are very seasonal and delicious snacks. Back then, as long as there was fresh lotus root on the street, my grandmother would use fresh lotus root to add wine and rice rice, use a grinder to push out the batter of lotus root and rice, add saccharin and then stick it on the edge of the iron pot, after steaming, this lotus root steamed bun tastes fragrant and soft and glutinous. Unfortunately, you can't see this snack on the street at all. Whether it is pushing rice ball noodles or making various steamed buns, when pushing the grinders, each spoonful of food on the grinders can not be too much, only a small amount and there must be a certain gap before the second spoonful can be served. Otherwise, the mill will not be able to push away, and the powder will be very rough. I, a person who works hard and fast, honed my character from this time and again.
When the red peppers come out every year, my grandmother begins to prepare to make watercress chili, also known as bean paste or chili sauce. This process is relatively long, grandma first steamed ash noodles, Peng County people called "Yang Gai Jin'er", how to write these three words? There is also to fry the beans with water to swell and then peel off the bean shell, wrap a layer of raw ash surface, or use soybeans to fry and then swell with water to wrap a layer of raw ash surface, and the gray surface and the beans and soybeans wrapped in the gray surface are fermented and dried for later use. Red peppers are bought from farmers on the street every day, with a basket or a basket. My task was to help break the peppers and wash them on the well with my grandmother. I think it was when I was 11 years old, once after my grandmother and I washed the chili peppers, my grandma went out on other things, so I confidently took out the kitchen knife and began to cut the chili peppers. This method is to cut the pepper into relatively short knots first, and then scoop in the mill to push the pepper out finely, so cutting the pepper is a preparation. I used my hands to cut the chili peppers, and when I cut about a mileage, my hands began to be hot and jumping. I had to stop cutting the peppers and run from one end to the other in the house with my hands in my hands. At first, it is better to soak your hands in cold water, but after a while, soaking in cold water does not work at all, and the pain of this chili pepper is also panicking. I was thinking that I was a boy and had to be strong and enduring, but my hands were getting more and more painful and difficult to control, and I couldn't care about a boy's face, and I didn't care if his neighbors next door, especially his peers, could hear it, so I cried. As soon as my grandmother came back and saw my condition, she immediately understood what was wrong. She explained to me the precautions and applied clear oil and soy sauce to my hands. Then I washed my hands with soap, and after repeating this a few times, the pain in my hands was relieved.
One year ago, when I was making chili peppers, I told my grandmother not to make chili sauce pushed by the mill, but to chop chili peppers, just like the chili peppers sold in the sauce garden shop, and my grandmother agreed to my proposal. So I happily put the cutting board in a wooden basin and chopped the peppers with a kitchen knife. I thought to myself, this way I don't have to cut the chili, my hands won't touch the chili, and my hands won't hurt in the first moment. My grandmother and I took turns chopping all the chili peppers, and in today's words, I have a great sense of accomplishment at this time. I volunteered to clean the kitchen knives, cutting boards, and wooden basins. I held a kitchen knife in my left hand, and my right hand went to scrub the pepper residue on the kitchen knife, and accidentally slipped my right hand, and the index finger, middle finger and ring finger of my right hand were cut by the blade, and the blood flowed. The wound was stained with chili peppers on the kitchen knife and in the water, and the pain and burning sensation were unbearable for ordinary people. So I screamed and scared my grandmother, who hurried over to treat my wounds. In fact, I can still endure the pain of the wound, and the burning sensation of the chili water on the wound is unbearable. The two experiences of making chili peppers made me realize that even ordinary food is not easy to pay.
Before the Dragon Boat Festival every year, grandma began to soak salt eggs, eggs, duck eggs, and goose eggs. The salt water is the old salt water for many years, but when it snows, my grandmother and I have to collect the snow on the walls and tiles and put it in the salt water jar, and my grandmother says that the salt eggs soaked in the salt and snow water are delicious. Grandma also had to collect spotted bamboo leaves, buy spices and various silk threads, and make many angular sachets by herself. Then it is to buy zongzi leaves to soak wine rice, and then wrap zongzi, boil zongzi, boil salt eggs and prepare realgar wine. Every time my grandmother was making zongzi, I would watch from the side, or hold a leaf on the edge of the pot and learn how to make zongzi. After I wrapped a few tile-like rice dumplings, I asked my grandmother to put them in a pot for me to cook together. Often, the zongzi are not fully cooked, and the tile zongzi I put in the pot are all de-lined and steamed, and the rice grains are scattered in a pot. I was a little older, I think I was about 12 years old, and my grandmother taught me how to make zongzi. When my first pot of zongzi was successfully cooked, my grandmother smiled happily while eating the zongzi I made. I found that there is still a difference between the zongzi I wrapped and the grandma's zongzi, my grandma's zongzi are shorter and fatter, and my zongzi is thinner and taller. Later, I found out that my style is actually the style of pepper and salt dumplings in the Chongzhou area of Dayi, so I insisted on my wrapping method and style.
During the days when I lived with my grandmother, my grandmother also taught me how to make salted vegetables, kimchi, bean curd, water tempeh, dried radish, fat tofu, and bacon sauce meat. Every year from the winter moon to the Spring Festival of the following year, grandma will wash the tips of the green bamboo shoots with well water and dry them for half a day, and then cut the tips into fine particles. Heat the iron pot, then put the cut tip of the gang, put it in the iron pot and stir-fry it quickly for more than a minute, quickly shovel it up and put it in the bowl and pot and press it tightly immediately, put a clean white paper, use another bowl and basin, and cover the fried tip of the gang while it is hot. After one night, the tip of the fried bang bang has a strong mustard smell that goes straight to the nose, so it is called "Chong Chong Cai". "Chong Chong Cai" is a very good dish with cooked oil chili, Sichuan pepper noodles, soy sauce, vinegar and a little sugar monosodium glutamate. Sometimes, my grandmother would take me to the countryside, and on the side of the road, I would pick off the moss stems with buds that Pengxian people call wild rape, as well as the buds and moss stems that emerged from green vegetables and green shoots, and use the same method to make "Chongchong Cai", which is made of "Chong Chong Cai" made by these flower buds and moss stems, and its mustard flavor is stronger. If you don't want the wasabi flavor of the "washi" to be too strong, one way is not to cover it too tightly after cooking. Another way is to blanch the dish in boiling water, then cut it into fine pieces and put it in a bowl to cover tightly, and its mustard flavor is not so flushed.
According to my understanding of this dish, I think the word "excited" should be used. Grandma made this dish many times to make porridge, and it also became a snack on the New Year's dinner table. Regarding this dish, my grandmother's method is to scoop a bowl of kimchi water or part of kimchi water, put in chopped raw red peppers, or bean peppers, and then add minced garlic, chopped herb leaves, an appropriate amount of sugar and monosodium glutamate, and also add raw clear oil to make a bowl of seasoning water. Measure the beans according to the size of the bowl, stir-fry them in an iron pan, and then shovel the beans into the seasoning water while they are hot and cover them tightly. Generally, after more than an hour, the beans swell and soften in the seasoning water, and various seasoning flavors are immersed in the beans, which is indeed a cheap and high-quality specialty. There are not many raw clear oil into vegetables, but in the "stirring bean", raw clear oil is a perfect match. Of course, the raw oil must be pure rapeseed oil. In Peng County and the surrounding areas of Chengdu, I can still see the dish of "stirring beans", but it is not the taste I remember. This dish is a dish that I have been making all along, and I have gone through many explorations to make this dish have the same flavor as my grandmother. And every time I make this dish, I feel like my grandma is still by my side.
During my time with my grandmother, she taught me many ways to cook food, as well as how to do household chores such as laundry. Invisibly, it also taught me how to live an ordinary life with salt and taste, and also cultivated my character of loving labor and being able to endure hardships. In the day and night with my grandmother, my grandmother also told me about Chang'e Wu Gang, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, Guiguiyang, East Lake, West Lake, Nanjinbei Tower, Soul Village, Dragon Lantern, Spring Cow Hunting and other legends and folk stories. These stories sparked my imagination and curiosity, and sparked my desire to learn. Around the time I was in 3rd grade, I went back to my parents in the yard at 2 Fence Street. The time I lived with my grandmother was an experience that I often recalled, and it was the most memorable part of my childhood and youth.
February 18, 2024
END
Source: Walking Foot Chengdu
Text / Photo: Lu Zhonghui