Food is the deepest collective memory of people in a region, and it is also an important part of its humanistic charm. Taizhou Linhai, Zhejiang, is known as "Little Zou Lu" and "State of Culture", and its rich cultural heritage has bred a unique food culture.
In Linhai, there has always been a saying that "the winter solstice is as big as the year". Every year on the winter solstice, Taizhou people do not eat northern dumplings nor southern tangyuan, but they always come to a bowl of hot winter solstice circles that symbolize reunion.
Winter solstice circle, that is, "round" or "hard circle". Round, means "reunion", "consummation", and the circle is not inlaid with sugar, glutinous rice flour is rubbed into long strips, cut into chunks, boiled in boiling water, placed in the fried soybeans ground into powder mixed with brown sugar and beaten (dialect, that is, roll a roll), that is, it is sweet and soft.
Nowadays, there are more tricks on the winter solstice, and linhai people love the glutinous rice balls with bread filling, most of which are mixed with pork and other seasonal vegetables, or the whole package or leave a small bite, steaming can be, fresh and juicy.
Let's see how it does.
【Ingredients】
Glutinous rice flour, pork belly, shrimp, corn, green beans, snow shoots, carrots, dried tofu.
【Directions】
1: Take 3 kg of glutinous rice flour, add water and knead it repeatedly to form a powder ball for later.
The winter solstice circle is generally made by beating the newly produced glutinous grain into rice and grinding it into powder. If it is the old rice noodles of previous years, the round made has no aroma and is not slippery.
Knead glutinous rice balls in winter, it is best to add warm hot water of about 60 degrees, open a hole in the middle of the glutinous rice flour, pour water into it, do not add it at one time, and then add a little lard and noodles to make the glutinous rice balls softer and sticky, and it is easy to wrap the filling, and then knead the dough all the way to the dough and pot light.
2. Mix the filling. There are three kinds of fillings that are commonly eaten locally: shrimp filling with fresh meat, white carrot filling and pork filling with cabbage.
Taizhou winter solstice circle is divided into sweet and salty circles. The classic sweet balls, mixed with brown sugar, sesame seeds, osmanthus flower filling, rolled on the bean yellow powder, the taste is sweet and rich, and the delicate glutinous softness of the glutinous rice balls makes people's appetites increase.
Linhai people prefer salty rounds, and the ingredients are mixed according to personal preferences, but they are indispensable to pork belly. Fresh pork belly chopped into a meat filling, mixed with minced shrimp meat, poured on top of the appropriate amount of corn kernels and green beans, sprinkled with a little starch and concentrated chicken juice, this is raw fresh meat shrimp filling.
Cooked fillings are generally made from various seasonal ingredients such as dried tofu, pork belly, carrots, fresh bamboo shoots, etc., diced and fried, such as russet white carrot filling and pork filling with cabbage.
It is a wild vegetable in winter and spring, commonly known as pillow grass, zongzi vegetable, and triangle grass. Its leaves are young and fat, the taste is delicious, the predecessor said that the cabbage can cure all diseases, very beneficial to the body, so it is also called "protective grass".
"When around the wheat field to seek wild grass, strong for the monk's house to cook mountain soup", generally grown in the field of the head of the cabbage, and weeds are very similar, so digging wild grass is to pick wild grass, after picking accurately, with a small shovel or small shovel blade obliquely shoveled into the soil, the depth should be appropriate.
3, the powder balls into a small ball, and then with the hand to grasp into a bowl, to the middle of the mixed fresh meat shrimp filling, palm slightly up and then pull a little powder skin, leave a small mouth; the other two kinds of fried filling, is all pulled up, wrapped into a small tip.
Grasping it into a bowl is just a big hole in the middle of the glutinous rice ball, but if it is not a veteran, it is not only time-consuming and laborious, but also unable to grasp the essence.
First of all, to ensure that the opening is large enough, and the skin at the edge of the hole is thin and the skin at the bottom is thick, with the thumb of the left hand rotating outward as the central axis, the remaining four fingers grasp the bottom to assist the thumb rotation, and the right hand pulls the upper skin down a little bit to ensure that the skin is uniform and not broken, and it is very important to pay attention to strength and skill.
Raw stuffing like fresh meat and shrimp filling, which has not been fried, generally does not wrap the skin on it completely, and will leave a mouth to ensure that in the case of steaming time, raw ingredients can also be fully cooked, shaped like a broken shell duck egg, very delicate Q cute.
Another large duck egg-shaped winter solstice circle with a pinch of pointed horns at the top of the whole circle is wrapped in a stir-fried filling.
4. Place the wrapped winter solstice circle on a grate covered with a layer of gauze.
Linhai people have the custom of "making the winter solstice". Early in the morning, people will go out to make a big purchase, and then use sincerity to make a table full of dishes such as the winter solstice circle. In the afternoon, these dishes will be placed at the doorstep of the home for sacrifice, commonly known as "please the old grandfather", praying that the ancestors will bless the family with peace and order, that adults will live a prosperous life, and that children will study and be motivated.
5: Bring the water in the pot to a boil, put the grate in the pot and put it flat, cover the pot and steam, half an hour or so can open the lid, clip out and enjoy while it is hot.
Just out of the pot of the winter solstice round, the stomach is more swollen, seems to have more than doubled, while hot to bite a bite, fragrant, warm baking, soft and spongy, accompanied by rich and fragrant grease, a taste of happiness spontaneously emerged.
Seemingly simple glutinous rice dumplings, from picking wild vegetables to prepare ingredients, to stir-frying fillings, and then to making dumplings one by one to wrap up and steam, the thought and energy spent on this is not simple, I am afraid that only the family, linhai women are willing to spend a afternoon to make this food.