Stir the dough
The saying "March 3, disturb the tuan" is a legendary allusion of Xu Maogong, the founding hero of the Tang Dynasty, and the noodle dish of "churning tuan" not only has the meaning of unity and harmony, but also is the most common meal in Tongwei and Jingning counties along the Jinniu River. It is very ordinary, ordinary and difficult to be elegant. Even this very ordinary, difficult to climb elegant churn, but in my heart, there is always a lingering, lingering, difficult to let go of the long feelings.
"March 3, disturb the regiment. There is a black old man in your house, who eats the churn and closes the door, scaring you into shouting. Got on the kang and blew the lights..."
On the rugged and narrow country road, the naughty boys who came home from school covered their mouths with their hands in the shape of trumpets and scolded each other vigorously.
The front side regressed while walking and scolding, the back side scolded, but it ran and chased, and the front side looked at the back and caught up, turned around and ran. Along the way, they went back to their respective homes in the process of running and stopping, fighting and making trouble.
Perhaps, when I came home, I ate the dough, but I didn't know if there really was a black old man at home, and I didn't know what the black old man who had eaten the churn and closed the door, got on the kang, and blew the lights did.
Churning dough, for the simple and generous Tongwei and Jingning people on both sides of the Jinniu River, is a very simple meal, as long as there is wheat noodles, mixed grain noodles, making dough will become easy. Because of the Houpu people's families raised on the barren land on both sides of the Jinniu River in Tongwei and Jingning, traditional noodles "rule" people's mouths and stomachs, and the churning dough starts with coarse grains (corn flour, quinoa noodles, bean noodles, buckwheat noodles), or it is not allowed to cook like the fancy fancy of the city people. With the improvement of people's living conditions and the pursuit of a healthy life, eating a churn made of coarse grains can also be regarded as a self-care. Think about it again, the original eating of the churn dough, just to solve the problem of food and clothing, just to fill the hunger, and now, the churning has gone to the market, which has to be said to be difficult to climb the elegant dough, a gorgeous turn in the changing times. In Tongwei County, I have been in and out of at least four or five "multi-grain noodle restaurants", of which soba noodles are the first to bear the brunt of these noodle restaurants. It can be seen that the "deep boudoir that is raised by the masses" has become a thing of the past, and in its place is a delicacy that only those who were born and grew up in this homeland can taste and enjoy, but for a wanderer who has been out all year round, he always regrets that he can rarely enjoy this kind of food in his homeland.
"Spring grass is born in the years, stepping on the spring in February and March", the simple, thick and thick Tongwei and Jingning people who live on the banks of the Jinniu River combine "stepping on the green" with "disturbing the group" is the expectation for a better life in the coming year. With the improvement of people's living conditions, this convention has become no longer an "agreement" for most people in Tong and Jing counties, and the mixing ball can be "beaten" at any time, and can be eaten at any time, as long as the family has spare time. I remember when I was young, as long as it was rainy, the disturbing group was my family's "regular customer", and at the same time, the funny actions of my mother when disturbing the group occupied a part of my childhood joy.
Churning dough, churning dough, stirring the batter into a dough means just that. It's easy to say, but it's not easy to make a good mix. The tongwei and Jingning people called "making a churning dough" "stirring a dough", so that the image of making a churning dough jumped on the paper and was about to come out. "Tuan" can not reflect the special production process of this kind of cuisine, so together with "stirring", it gives this characteristic delicious, and "churning" has become a noun. In this way, "beating" came into being, becoming synonymous with this kind of gourmet production process, so that "disturbing the group" shows and sets off a more enthusiastic labor scene. Imagine a strong peasant with a square scarf on his head, rolling up his sleeves, stirring vigorously with a cane in one hand, and evenly sprinkling the noodles with the other hand, and the bubbles of "poof, poof" bubbles in the boiling pot water, two actions, in one go, there is no rest in the middle. After sprinkling the noodles, you have to keep stirring, stirring thirty times in one direction, up and down thirty times, such an action is repeated until the pot overflows with aroma before wiping the sweat, drinking water, and taking a break. If there are fewer churns, you should also use a spoon to pick up and beat, otherwise it will paste the pot until there is no paste. When the aroma overflows the room, the fire fades, the lid is lifted, the spoon is scooped up, dripping into a flocculent shape, and the dough is made.
"Beating" is just a kind of rendering of this kind of food production scene, and the core of "disturbing the group" is still "stirring". Whether the dough is delicious or not, it's all on a single word of "stirring". "Stir the dough well, stir a hundred stirs", a "stir" word will summarize all the characteristics of this kind of food production, it can be seen that a "stir" word is good. "Stir the dough better, stir three hundred and sixty stirs", in fact, a pot of delicious dough is not only "three hundred and sixty stirring", which may far exceed this value. Moreover, the forging of a meal requires super physical strength, reflecting the "color and fragrance" that people require for food, that is, the sense of yellow and bright color, aroma and strong taste. The biggest effect of "stirring" is that the surface water is uniform, and there are no knots. "Stirring dough" not only requires strength, but also endurance, and rolling pin is the tool of agitation, I have to admit that the farmhouse cookware always has a variety of uses, and in different uses will reach a staggering full range.
The mother is skillfully busy at the side of the pot, the eldest brother cooperates quite well, and the heat is relatively well controlled. Mother said: "The fire cannot be too big, too big the churn will burn; the fire cannot be too small, too small to stir the dough and burn it, there will be knots." When building firewood, spread the firewood so that the bottom of the pot can be heated everywhere, so that the dough is delicious. ”
At this moment, the "disturbing group" can not be regarded as a completed work, only the completion of this special food staple food. A delicious pot of churned dough, but also need to be accompanied by vegetables. After the churning dough comes out of the pot, it is directly placed in the bowl, steaming hot, fragrant, directly impacting people's sense of smell, but also anesthetizing people's olfactory nervous system. The sauce is composed of garlic juice, spicy seeds, salt, etc., of course, sauerkraut, pickles, pickled leeks or raw leeks, pickles, plus some stir-fried green onions, fried leeks, fried garlic seedlings and other seasonal stir-fry. The stir-frying of the sauce and seasonal vegetables is completed before the dough is made, so that when eating the dough, the dough will not become cold and cool when stir-frying the accompaniment and processing the sauce. When I was a child, my mother and eldest brother worked together to make a delicious meal - stirring dough, "color and fragrance" are complete, and to this day it will arouse my appetite and make me want to stop.
The bottom of the pot that disturbs the dough, which is called "croak" by rural people, is an incidental product when stirring the dough. In the era of material scarcity, poverty and hardship, children loved to eat.
After scraping the dough in the pot, there is a thin layer of the bottom of the pot, the mother put a handful of wheatgrass fire in the hearth, and after a while the bottom of the churn pot is upturned, after drying, the mother uses the spatula to shovel the bottom of the churn, and the "croak" becomes. As soon as the "croak" comes out of the pot, it will often be snatched up by a few of our brothers and sisters. It was dry and crispy to eat, and the more you chewed, the more fragrant it became, like a pot.
At this time, the most primitive and classic way of eating "churning dough" is completed. When eating, use chopsticks to eat a small piece of small pieces, just put into the bowl of the churning dough is soft, you have to put your mouth on the edge of the bowl, with chopsticks to the mouth to eat, this is the most traditional way to eat. Each piece of churning lumps, dripping sour soup, sent into the mouth, tongue beating, constantly sucking, without teeth bite, directly through the throat, through the esophagus, straight to the stomach, by the fathers jokingly called "stumbling downhill" eating method. At this time, you will truly appreciate that the taste of the churn is so "peculiar", sour, spicy, soft, smooth, and with the mellow aroma of multigrain noodles, completely subverting the previous impression of sauerkraut food. A small piece of pasta instantly impacted my taste buds and released my appetite that had been "imprisoned" for a long time. The spoon has become an artifact for eating churning dough, scooping a spoonful of churning dough, and with the sauce and fried vegetables, all kinds of flavors attack my central nervous system together, that is called a refreshing! Eat hot churn dough can not be anxious, otherwise it will be hot in the mouth, and what is more, swallowing dates and eating hot churn dough is even more uncomfortable in the esophagus and stomach.
With the improvement of people's living conditions, "churning" is no longer the staple food in the lives of people in Tongwei and Jingning on the banks of the Jinniu River, even if people eat it, it is just to adjust the food and improve the taste. In recent years, although the practice of stirring dough in Tongwei and Jingning has not changed much, the composition of the dough has undergone a qualitative change. Pure wheat flour replaces pure corn flour, and the churning dough produced by this is both tendonic and slippery. Now, I basically can't eat this special delicacy in my life, that is, back to my homeland, the villagers in the neighbors and neighbors no longer use the "disturbing group" to relieve me, and the only thing left for me is the warm scene of my mother and eldest brother cooperating with the "disturbing group".
Beat a pot of churn dough, serve a piece of nostalgia, eat a bowl of churn dough, and put it in a sad body. The homeland is far away, and the thoughts are in the heart. Singing a song from your hometown can kill half a day; when you eat the food of your hometown, you have to be refreshed for a moment. Remembering the years of childhood, the bowl is full of delicious food, and with the increase of age, nostalgia grows day by day.
Li Zhicheng
About the author: Li Zhicheng, pen name Fool, Tao Sheng, male, Han ethnicity, born in August 1966, Tongwei County Longchuan Town Guanbao Village Lijiaping Society. Secretary General of Wushan Writers Association, Academician of Ningyuan Academy of Calligraphy and Painting, Member of Wushan County Collectors Association, Special Invited Reporter of Tianshui Daily, currently working in the Office of the President of Wushan County People's Hospital in Tianshui City.