Qiao Ye's short story: Cooking dumplings must not be broken (II)

　

4

　　- Now that I make turnip filling, I won't do that. My method is simpler and tastier now. That is, directly rub the radish into a particularly fine and fine shred, control the water a little, and then mix the meat into it. In the boiled dumplings, you taste it slowly, the shredded radish is half-cooked, chewy, tough, and steamed with the flavor of the meat, not to mention how good.

　　Adjusting the stuffing? Adjusting the stuffing is particularly bad. No, no, you can't mix meat and vegetables together. Tune separately. As for the meat, it is necessary to release raw soy sauce and dark soy sauce, with raw soy sauce adjusting umami and dark soy sauce adjusting color. Then add green onions, ginger, thirteen spices, salt...... After mixing, marinate the meat for half an hour before mixing it into the dish. The ratio of vegetables and meat, the more refined way to eat in the city, is one to two, one to three. My family eats all 1 to 4. Meat, just click it lightly, so that the dish can get the taste of meat. Remember, meat is the icing on the cake. Many people have made the mistake of treating meat as brocade and vegetables as flowers, and the result is less vegetables and more meat. What kind of ability does it have to smell when there is more meat? It's still greasy and fragrant, and it's not healthy. The fragrance of more meat and less meat is different, it is a fragrant and healthy fragrance. - Of course, it's not impossible to eat less vegetables and more meat, but that's a rural way to eat, and it's a way to eat without elaboration. If you don't pay attention to it, what do you say, right? After the meat and vegetables converge, then put sesame oil. Remember, sesame oil should not be put first. Put sesame oil first, it is easy to paste other flavors, and other flavors will not enter.

　　Yes, a few more words of thirteen incense. Now the thirteen spices have special dumpling seasonings, there are meat fillings, there are vegetarian fillings, I tell you, whether you adjust the meat filling or vegetarian filling, it is best to use the meat filling in the thirteen spices. Why? If you mix the meat filling, this ingredient can be fishy. If you adjust the vegetarian filling, the vegetarian flavor is too thin, and the flavor can be a little thicker with this ingredient.

　　Noodles, people are clothes, horses are saddles, dumplings are stuffing and noodles. Of course, the noodles are exquisite, too exquisite, and very particular. How much water to put in, how much noodles to put in, and after making good noodles - some people say that it is noodles, and the harmony of harmony, I don't think it's right, it should be live, make the flour live, otherwise it will have no life, this life for people to eat - how long to let the noodles wake up, you have to pay attention to it. I also did it for two years to get to the point. This can't be talked about in detail, you can only do it yourself, in short, if you do more, you will understand, and the success will come naturally. When the time comes, how much water is put in, what the noodles are like, how long to wake up, what the noodles are like, you will know what the noodles are like. But let me tell you one thing, the noodles should not be too hard, and the skin that comes out of cooking too hard will also be hard. We should still eat soft noodle dumplings, which are good for the stomach. That is the good of northern Henan. Last year, a friend gave me a bag of noodles from northern Henan, and if you see this noodles for the first time, you will definitely think that there is something wrong with this noodles, and you can't believe that there are such good noodles. On that side, when you roll the noodles, you can't even roll them out. You roll it out and it bounces back. You roll it again, and it plays again...... The noodles are good, and each dumpling wrapper needs to be rolled five or six times. After eating a meal of dumplings, people with weak strength must have a pain in their wrists.

　　As for the relationship between stuffing and noodles, the more you do, the more experienced you are. I'm able to do this right now: the amount of noodles and stuffing, not much at all, not too much at all. Sounds like a god, right? Let me tell you, in fact, where is there such a god, it just depends on the strength of the individual's eyesight. You think, at first, it's just a rough idea, and the more you wrap it later, the more clear the amount of stuffing and noodles becomes. If there is less stuffing, then make less filling, if there is less noodles, wrap more filling, and in the end, isn't it just right?

　　- I'm too particular about that, too. If you want to talk about life, you can't be so particular. Isn't it? It's a problem to be so particular. Just like my daughter, she has developed the same problem as me, and she always pays attention to everything, one-on-one, two-to-two. Many years ago, once, a few of her friends came to her house for dinner, and her friends, I didn't squeak, let her entertain her. She just got a little bit of this, a little bit of that, got a few dishes, a little rice, and cooked dumplings, asked how many people each person had, and asked them to report that they were finished cooking. In the end, I didn't finish the food, and there was a little bit left. After seeing off the guests, she cleaned up the table and praised me: Look at what I did today, how good it is!

　　Her friends never came to the house to eat again. Recently, that is, last year, a friend went to my house again, I cooked, she was full and did not stunned before she said, you know, we ate at your house that year, we went out to find another restaurant, I didn't eat enough, I didn't dare to eat enough. As a guest, there must be something left. My daughter then understood. Everyone laughed so hard that they couldn't do it.

　　Isn't that interesting? The less you do, the more you stay.

　　- Yes, I am also against leftovers, it is unhealthy to eat, and it is wasteful if you don't eat it. I also know it's not about saving money, it's not about being stingy. Today's days have long passed the stinginess level. But that can't really be said of things. If you entertain guests, you have to do more, do more, do more, and don't do it in a small way. As soon as the guest comes, the mentality of the guest is already twisted, and when you do less, you will be even more twisted and dare not eat. The second is that the guest will always eat more when he arrives at the host's house and tastes new food and new methods. If you do more, he will be able to let go of the amount to eat and eat happily. The third is that doing more is the face of the main family, eating more is the Hakka giving face to the main family, and the main Hakka family has face, how good.

　　Good dumplings are in good condition? That is, thin skin and big filling. It's not difficult to thin the skin, it's not difficult to have a big filling, it's hard to have both. Once, when I went to someone else's house for dinner, the sister-in-law also made dumplings, but the skin was so thick that I couldn't bite through it! As for the filling, just a little bit, I asked, "Why do you put that little bit of stuffing?" The sister-in-law also spoke hard, saying, "If you eat the stuffing, then you go and eat the balls." ”

　　That sister-in-law is a good person, and she cooks really well, and she works hard to do it for the good, but people talk about spirituality, everything talks about spirituality, and cooking has to be talked about - cooking, in fact, especially talking. How many meals do you say a person should eat in a lifetime? Three meals a day, 30 days a month, more than 300 days a year, and more than 1,000 meals a year...... If you have a little spirituality, you can figure out your own moves. If you have been cooking for so many years and don't have your own one-and-a-half moves, then you can't say anything, you can only accept your fate.

　　It's also strange to talk about fate. I have a daughter-in-law in my hometown who likes to eat dumplings after the stuffing is rancid, and she says that it has a natural sour taste. Hearing her say that, I also had the heart to give it a try. Once I deliberately put the dumpling filling and ate it once, it really had a weird sour aroma. But in comparison, I still think it's not rancid - there are people who love to eat dumplings with rancid fillings, you talk about it!

　　What should I do with the leftover dumplings? Then make fried dumplings. I also love fried dumplings. Fried dumplings and freshly cooked dumplings are two flavors. Don't use an electric baking pan, fried dumplings in an electric baking pan are easy to fry and deform. Put the dumplings in a frying pan and hot oil, and wait until the dumplings are charred and yellow, and then turn the dumplings over. When you fry it and feel that the dumplings are hard, put some water. Yes, it's pretty much the same as making fried buns. Then, the fried dumplings are soft and fragrant.

　　It's okay to make your own frozen dumplings. However, you have to pay attention to two points, one is that the dumpling skin must be thick, so that the filling can not leak when cooking. The second is to wrap the dumplings and put them in the refrigerator to freeze, they can only be frozen a little, and they have to be put in a plastic bag as soon as possible. You can't keep it so open and frozen, it will freeze the dumplings. Did you know that freezers consume water? Also, the noodles used in our dumplings are different from those in the freezing factory, and the noodles they use have such and such additives.

　　- Say a thousand things and ten thousand, don't eat if you don't eat quick-frozen, what is not good as soon as you get up. It's true.

　　I have to talk about the face flutter. Facial flutter is also a matter of urgency. You see my dumpling soup, does it still have a little yellow in the white? I gave it a good name, "Snow Gold," what is this gold? It's cornmeal. When making dumplings, the noodles we use are all white noodles, right? Actually, cornmeal is better for noodles! Fine yellow cornmeal, wrapped dumplings on this kind of noodles, it is more neat, more spaced, and less sticky to the board. The dumplings with this kind of noodles are put into the pot, and the dumpling soup will bring a little sweetness of corn porridge, which is more delicious—— I tell you, this kind of noodles is the best in western Henan. Yes, that's what I brought with me when I went back to Luoning's hometown this fall, okay?

　　There are two points to cook dumplings, one is to cook, and the other is not to break. It must not be broken, just like the spirit of a person must not be dispersed. When it comes time to cook dumplings, the dumplings are broken, leaking, the stuffing gets into the water, the dumplings are ruined, and the dumpling soup is also ruined.

　　Yo, you've finished eating, and your appetite is really good, and of course my dumplings are good. I'll bring you another bowl of hot soup. Yes, yes, a bowl of "Snow Gold". Well, I'll have a bowl too.

5

　　"Why do you like dumplings so much?" she asked. She always felt that there was a reason for this.

　　"What is there to say about this. Dumplings are delicious! Let me tell you, I'm a person who just likes to eat them. Eat, drink and have fun, eating is the first thing in life, I just want to make myself eat well, eat delicious. Once, when I was alone at home, an old man called me and asked me to go out for dinner, and when I heard about the restaurant, hot pot or something, I lost my appetite, so I said I was ready at home, and he asked me what I was cooking? I said to make dumplings. I said that I love dumplings, what does it have to do with one person or two people at home? ”

　　The two of them laughed together.

　　"What the old fellow said makes sense. Ordinary people often don't make many dumplings, and when they make it once, they feel that it can be trivial, grand, and too troublesome, so they don't want to open this open. In the past, my family was like this, and if you wanted to eat dumplings, you had to discuss with your wife and daughter. I don't believe that I can't make this dumpling, and I don't believe that I am a lazy person - both delicious and lazy, then I can only rely on others. If you don't want to rely on others, you can go to the supermarket and buy quick-frozen. But as soon as I bought the quick-frozen, I felt aggrieved, and I thought, this can also be called dumplings? Why do I have to eat this thing? I complained to myself, you have lived so big, you can't do anything in your life, and you can't make dumplings for yourself...... I can't stop doing anything every day, and if I do it every day, it will definitely become an easy task. That's what happens in the world. ”

　　She smiled and looked at the lovely old man.

　　"Three years ago, I lost my wife and children, and my daughter's home in Shanghai asked me to go over, and I didn't go. The girl is not at ease, and she persuades me to live and persuade me, so let me think about something to do. No, I opened this dumpling shop, which is to eat what I love and do what I love. It's all right. The old man took a sip of soup, "Why do you love dumplings so much? There are not many people of your age who love dumplings." ”

　　She paused and began to talk about her mother: "...... She had a problem with the central retinal artery last year, and her eyes couldn't see, and every time I went home, she still wanted to make dumplings for me. I made the noodles, mixed the filling, rolled the skin, and let her wrap it. She laughed as she spoke, remembering when she was making dumplings with her mother. Mother, she is so good at making dumplings, no matter who she and her father are at home, as long as they say eat dumplings, their mother will come to work hard and start making them, but when she is alone at home, her mother is to deal with it, eat some leftovers, and send it away - her generation lives without herself.

　　After her mother's eyes couldn't see, she knew that this dumpling still had to be made, and even more. So every time I go back to see my mother, she must be eager to eat dumplings. She prepares everything properly, and her mother is only responsible for the bag. She told her mother a joke about dumplings, saying that two foreigners ate dumplings during the Chinese New Year, and one said, "I'm so stupid, I peeled the skin of the dumplings for the first time." Another said, "You're fine, the first time I thought it was a nuclear spit." She told her mother that they had invited the new foreign teacher to dinner, and the main food was dumplings, and the foreign teacher watched how they ate with amazement. A male classmate grabbed a dumpling and was sending it to his mouth, and the chopsticks slipped and dropped the dumpling into the beer cup. The foreigner also hurriedly scooped the dumplings into the wine glass with a spoon, and then fished them out and put them in his mouth, making them all laugh. The foreign teacher was very studious, and asked them why they ate like this? The table didn't know how to answer. She remembered her mother's words, and said that this is called "dumplings are wine, and the more you eat, the more you have." The foreigner asked again: What does this mean? She replied: Have you had a good life...... Her mother's hands shook with laughter, and she smiled and took the dumplings from her mother's hand and put them on the board. There are noodles everywhere on the board, and so is she on her. Although she has been learning to make dumplings for ten years, she still can't achieve the "five nets", and she always makes noodles everywhere. Fortunately, my mother is no longer able to see - no matter how bad things are, there is a little bit of good.

　　 "Yes, what kind of food is good for people, although it is in the thing, it is not in the thing. At the end of the day, it's a thought. The old man was silent for a moment, and then let out a long sigh.

　　She was silent, waiting for him to continue.

　　"In 1960, I was 10 years old. At the end of the year, there was nothing to eat at home, nothing left. My mother asked me to borrow grain, so I stepped on the snow and went to the county seat, and when I arrived at my aunt's house, my aunt gave me a pound of white noodles. Really, only a pound. - Children who have no face and no skin should borrow food. Adults can't get out. I am short of food, so I can't open my mouth when I go to borrow it from others.

　　It was the afternoon of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and it was snowing heavily, so I brought back the pound of white noodles. When I got home, it was dark, and my mom asked me what I wanted to eat, and I said, I want to eat dumplings. My mother stood there stunned for a long time before she began to meet. No, I know, but when I saw her busy in the kitchen, I knew she would find a way to get it. In the hearts of children, mothers are always a person with a way.

　　"After a while, I went to the kitchen to see that my mother had already wrapped the dumplings. Each dumpling was round and bulging, and I was so happy that I said to my mother, "Mom, you are really good!" I asked my mom what the stuffing was, and she said you'll know when the time comes.

　　"The dumplings have been offered to the tablet of the Heaven and Earth Monarch and are on the table. I picked one up and put it in my mouth, and when I bit it, a stream of water flowed out. There's no stuffing, just this stream of clear water!"

　　"A puff of clear water?"

　　"Yes, Shimizu. ”

　　"How can clear water be wrapped in dumplings?" she looked at the old man with a question mark on her face, not understanding at all.

　　 "She's covered with snow bumps. Silly boy!" the old man burst into tears.

　　She was stunned.

　　"Don't you always talk about dumplings and dumplings now? Let me tell you, what I ate that time was the real dumpling. ”

　　"What does that dumpling taste like?" she asked, stunned.

　　"It's a little sweet, really. Snow is sweet. The old man said leisurely, "That's why I tell you, boiled dumplings must not be broken." You think, if my mother's dumplings are not wrapped well, why is it that the snow turns into water and the dumplings are not out of shape?"

　　She nodded, not sure what to say.

　　"Actually, the broken dumplings—" After a long silence, she finally spoke, but paused again. The blind mother is now unable to do so, and the dumplings are often broken. She corrected them one by one, and she still cooked most of them. She would pick out the good ones for her mother to eat, and she and her father were full of praise as they ate the rotten dumplings.

　　- When she came back to her senses, she found that the old man was looking at her, waiting for her to continue.

　　"It's delicious too. She said.

　　"If you really want to say it's delicious, I can't help it. The old man smiled tolerantly.

　　She also pursed her lips and smiled, stood up, checked out, and went out.

(Excerpt from "Young Writers")