Ai Ling is a unique snack of the Qingming season in the Hakka area of Guangdong Province, belongs to Hakka cuisine, "粄" is the Hakka dialect of all kinds of glutinous rice, sticky rice pastries common name, such as radish, xianren, mugwort, is one of the Qingming rice, made of sticky rice flour, glutinous rice flour, wormwood, etc., because of the addition of wormwood, so it has a certain medicinal health care function. Wormwood is also a good food, in the traditional food of southern China, there is a kind of rice is made of wormwood as the main raw material. That is, fresh wormwood and glutinous rice flour before and after the Qingming Dynasty are combined in a ratio of one to two, wrapped with peanuts, sesame seeds and sugar and other fillings (in some areas, mung bean paste will be added), and then steamed. In the Dongjiang River Basin of Guangdong Province, locals pick fresh wormwood leaves and buds in winter and spring, and the plants have a strong aroma and are eaten as vegetables.
Steamed mugwort
Ingredients need to be prepared to make mugwort: 200 grams of mugwort leaves, 250 grams of water, 500 grams of glutinous rice flour, 100 grams of starch (cheng noodles), 80 grams of white sugar, 50 grams of black sesame seeds, 150 grams of ground peanuts, 100 grams of brown sugar, 50 grams of white sugar, and banana leaves. Divided into 5 steps, the following is the detailed operation of making Ai Ling:
1. Soak the newly picked mugwort in water for half an hour, scoop up, wring out the water, chop it, put it in the blender and beat it, add water and sugar to the blender and beat it together.
2. Mix glutinous rice flour with starch, then pour in the crushed mugwort leaves (including mugwort water) and rub well.
3. At this time, the filling is processed, the peanuts and sesame seeds are fried until fragrant, and beaten into granules with a blender. Crush the peanuts, sesame seeds, add the right amount of white sugar, and the filling is ready!
4. Wrap the filling into the ai dumplings, the Hakka like to use banana leaves as a mat, and I like to use this fragrant incense leaf, the incense leaf is cleaned and set aside. If not, you can use other substitutions as you like.
5. Wrap all up and put them into the steamer basket, steam on high heat first, steam over medium-low heat after the water is boiled, ten minutes is good, see the powder skin become soft.
Mugwort is a very seasonal snack, after the spring thunder, wormwood grows young buds, the abundant rain before the Qingming Will help the wormwood to thrive, at this time the mugwort leaf is most suitable for making wormwood! Under normal circumstances, during the Qingming Festival holiday, we will go out as a whole to collect wormwood in the mountain fields. The time of picking wormwood is always accompanied by joy and surprise, when you think of the sweet and soft glutinous of wormwood, the more energetic you are when you pick wormwood, the more energetic you are, the more you can appreciate the joy of harvesting! And the arrival of surprises adds to the joyful atmosphere! What surprises will there be? - That is, the occasional wild mushroom can be picked!
Fresh mushrooms are so named because they are often grown in moist and rotten straw, and are mostly produced in Liangguang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Taiwan. Fat, thick meat, short handle, smooth, the taste is extremely beautiful, so it is called "orchid mushroom" and "delicious foot mushroom". A bowl of sweet mushroom soup that remains my most memorable gastronomic memory to this day!
Fresh mushrooms
In addition to making mugwort, the returned mugwort leaves will also make another delicacy, which is wormwood omelette. Mugwort fried eggs are washed and chopped, add eggs and stir well, add salt, pepper, heat the pot and add oil, fry.
Mugwort omelette
Until now, our family has always maintained the habit of eating mugwort on the Qingming Festival, and although we live in the city, we will still take time to pick mugwort leaves and use the most traditional methods to make mugwort, so that this Hakka cuisine will be passed on!