"Tell you to eat vegetables and eat meat, and see if the corners of your mouth are rotten again!" With a little reproach and pity, I took out the newly made persimmon cake this year from the refrigerator, and repeatedly smeared the corner of my son's mouth with the thick white persimmon cream on the surface of the persimmon cake, "Eat, don't be picky, your mouth hurts and no one will do it for you!" "The son took a bite of the soft and sweet persimmon cake, and the crystal clear flesh came out, and the deep amber color looked hungry." Mom, is there another medicine like persimmon cake? Give me a few more! The child asked me mischievously. How does this sound so familiar, it seems that he has said similar words in his childhood, and the mottled pictures of more than thirty years ago reappear in his mind.
At that time, I was a child of a few years old. In the winter, there are few fresh vegetables at home, and due to the lack of nutrition, I often have mouth sores and rotten corners of my mouth. Every time at this time, my mother would inadvertently conjure up a persimmon cake wrapped in white frost, and use the white persimmon cream on the surface to paint the corners of my mouth, and then this persimmon cake would naturally belong to me. As a child, I always thought that persimmon cakes were the best panacea in the world, not only to cure the corners of my mouth, but also to treat my stomach full of hungry worms.
Growing up, because my father went out to work, my family's economic conditions improved, I rarely had a rotten mouth disease, and I didn't eat much persimmon cake, but I never forgot its taste. Once in a market, I found that there were persimmon cakes selling in the market, and I couldn't wait to take my mother's hand and said, "Look, there are persimmon cakes for sale, let's buy some!" The mother looked at it, but refused on the grounds that the child had eaten too many persimmon cakes. I didn't think much of it, thinking my mother was too stingy to buy it for me.
So, I secretly saved up my pocket money and finally bought back the persimmon cake that I had in mind. A white ball, wrapped in dark brown and somewhat blackened persimmon cakes. I stuck out the tip of my tongue and licked the white persimmon cream, huh? On the palate, it is somewhat murky, sticky and flour-like. After taking a bite, it was quite sweet, but after chewing it carefully, it was slightly sour, which was completely different from the taste in the memory! I seemed to understand why my mother didn't buy me persimmon cakes, and I haven't eaten persimmon cakes for a long time since.
Years later, I was married. Mother-in-law came to our new room warm pot, big pockets and small bags, just leaked sweet potato noodles, artificial meat made of new soybeans, bundles of green onions..." This is my own persimmon cake, not very good, but very clean, you taste" Mother-in-law took out a few persimmon cakes from a small pocket and stuffed them for me. After tasting it, the familiar taste lingered on the tip of my tongue: persimmon cream is a faint taste that melts in the mouth; persimmon cake is soft on the inside, the flesh is sugary, and the taste of juice fudge is sweet but not greasy. I immediately asked her excitedly for advice on how to make persimmon cakes, and only then did I know that this little persimmon cake needed to climb the tree to pick the fruit, select the fruit and peel it, dry it and turn it over, knead it many times... And the most critical part, piling up persimmon cream is extremely cumbersome, and she says she can't do it well. She gave the dried tomatoes to her mother-in-law, her husband's white-haired grandmother. Although I desperately want to know the secret of persimmon cream, think of the old man's old age and unclear speech, or don't let her bother.
Photo: Nostalgia is too good
When the feelings of persimmon cake gradually faded in my heart, an autumn trip made my heart to make persimmon cakes wave again, becoming more and more intense. It was a mountain village deep in Taihang, with stone houses and stone roads, roof roads, and thorn-woven sunbaskets filled with red and peeled persimmons. Looking around, in an empty courtyard, I saw an amazing sight: several peasant aunts, using a homemade tool to peel persimmons. They didn't seem to have to look at persimmons or tools, giggling and chatting about their parents' short, hearty laughter like the most beautiful accompaniment, orange persimmon skins like brilliant ribbons flying in the air, drawing a beautiful arc, falling on the ground to form orange hills. In the blink of an eye, the cut persimmons were already full of golden yellow.
A big aunt warmly greeted me and forgot to take pictures and just cared about me: it takes two months to buy persimmon cakes, and how delicious it is to freeze the persimmon cakes! I couldn't resist asking for the secret recipe for making persimmon cakes, and she smiled and said: Where there is any secret recipe, just sunbathe!
The chatty aunt detailed the traditional method of making persimmon cakes in Linzhou. First of all, the fruit must be selected, before and after the frost, the persimmon immediately changes from hard and astringent to sweet and soft state, which is the best time to make persimmon cakes. Too early, the persimmon does not ripen naturally, and the persimmon cake made is hard in taste and not sweet enough; in a few days later, the persimmon becomes soft and cannot be peeled, and naturally cannot be made persimmon cake. To choose persimmons with full fruit and round shape, persimmons with longitudinal grooves on the surface are not easy to peel, wild persimmons are too small in shape, and sun-dried products are not suitable for persimmon cakes.
The first thing to peel is to dry persimmons, and homemade persimmon cakes are the best tool for peeling, thin and fast. Drying requires sunny and cold weather, the temperature is too high, the sweet taste of persimmons will attract nasty flies, at this time you need to set up a net yarn to do a good job of isolation. When drying, it should be turned over once a day, with the top of the persimmon cake facing upwards during the day and the bottom of the persimmon cake turned up at night, and then the wind was blown. After a week, a hard shell is formed on the surface of the persimmon cake, and the flesh is soft and you can pinch the persimmon cake. Hold the persimmon in your hand, press the top and gently press to crush the flesh. You can't use a strong force, it will break the persimmon; you must knead the persimmon cake with gentle internal force, without hurting the peel. After two days, the flesh is dried and kneaded again, by which time the persimmon cake has begun to take shape and become flat. After another three days, the toughness of the persimmon cake increases, and it can be kneaded and pressed to the flattest state, and the persimmon cake has become a prototype. At this time, it already has the shape and taste of persimmon cake, and it still lacks the soul of persimmon cake - persimmon cream.
70% of the dried tomato cakes are piled together, covered with plastic sheeting, covered for a few days, and then spread out again to dry. White persimmon cream will faintly appear on the persimmon cake, so repeatedly piled up and dried, the persimmon cream gradually thickens. The more times it is piled up and dried, the more persimmon cakes are frosted and thicker. By the time the New Year approached, the persimmon cake had been completely wrapped in white frost and had also been given a soul.
It turns out that the best ingredients only need the simplest way to make them, but they need to spend enough labor and patience to complete them with the most sincere heart. For example, at that time, I was eager to make my own childhood delicacies and elixirs.
Because I had missed the season to pick persimmons, I had to spend a year waiting for the best time to make persimmon cakes. Of course, this year I did not have free time: in the spring, I bought a fruit picking artifact online, so that I could easily pick persimmons if I could not climb trees; in the summer, I walked through the ditches and ridges of the back mountain of my in-laws' house to select fruit trees suitable for making persimmon cakes; in autumn, I begged my mother-in-law to make two mats from sorghum straw - everything was prepared, just waiting for the persimmons to ripen when the frost fell.
Finally looking forward to the red persimmons on the mountain, the whole family picked persimmons with joy. Choose a complete smooth, moderately sized persimmon with good ripeness, peel off the skin, and dry and cold weather in the north, dry persimmons, pinch persimmons, and blink for more than half a month. The crimson red persimmon cake with no persimmon cream was ready, and I couldn't help but taste it, and the sweetness came with flexibility, which was the taste of the depths of memory. However, this is not enough, in order to reproduce the real Linzhou persimmon cake, forced to resist the desire of tongue, I sealed the persimmon cake in a crisper box and placed it in the refrigerator for refrigeration. With the help of modern tools, the traditional process can be appropriately improved, which is more conducive to controlling stable quality. The formation of persimmon cream requires a temperature of less than 10 degrees And the appropriate humidity, and it is very easy to fill more than 100 persimmon cakes in the newly purchased refrigerator at home.
For the first few days, I was like a child of a few years old, opening the refrigerator every day to see if the persimmon cake was frosted, and then every few days, the white persimmon cream never appeared as desired. Perhaps, my whimsical improvement is not suitable for traditional craftsmanship! I thought to myself: If I can't make a frost, I will buy a black porcelain jar next year, specially used to cover persimmon cream, I will not believe that it cannot be done.
For more than two months, I almost forgot about the persimmon cake in the refrigerator. "Try it, you made persimmon cakes, the frost is good!" The mother-in-law took something from the refrigerator and accidentally found that the persimmon cake was wrapped in a thick layer of persimmon cream, and couldn't help but exclaim: "There is nothing you can't make!" "I squeezed a white cute "little cute" with my hand that was trembling with excitement, like when I was a child, first licking the persimmon cream, and then taking a bite, at that moment, it was as if I had become the greedy little girl of the year, and excitement, happiness, and sweetness swept in...
Reproducing the delicious taste in the heart is not only an exploration of food, but also a inheritance of delicious food. I carefully selected the prepared persimmon cakes, sealed them one by one, and then packed them in boxes and sent them to relatives far away from home. The thick persimmon cream is full of the taste of the hometown, so that they can taste the food of the hometown, hoping that their children will remember the taste of their hometown and pass on the taste of their hometown.
Pay attention to yellow and yellow food, record home-cooked meals every day, share the harvest of planting vegetables, tell the life of fireworks, exchange food experience with you, look forward to your reply and comments, thank you for your attention and likes, we will see you in the next issue!
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