Pig blood balls
Text/Yan Wei
Shaoyang ancient name Baoqing, has a long history, the name of Xiaoxiang, located in the southwest of central Hunan, mostly hilly areas. During the Qing Dynasty, the city of Baoqingfu circumnavigated the Guo, Shaoshui ran through the city, and the ring city walls and forts were lined up, coupled with the mountains and rivers, easy to defend and difficult to attack, which can be described as the favorable time and place, and was called: "Baoqing of iron strikes".
Pig blood pills, which are the standard of every Shaoyang person, are full of the taste of hometown.
In Shaoyang, around the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, almost every household will make a household name dish, that is, pig blood balls. This is specially prepared by parents for the New Year, and they also have unlimited thoughts about their children, waiting for their children to return home early to reunite and taste the hometown dishes they made by themselves.
Behind the pig blood balls is the mother's deep love for her son, which is precious.
Legend has it that in Baoqing (present-day Shaoyang) in the Song Dynasty, a pair of orphans and widows lived, and in order to make her son have a strong physique, the mother sent her son to the temple to learn martial arts with the monk. Because the monk could only eat vegetarian food, Xi Wu was very hard, and the mother was very distressed to see her son losing weight day by day.
The mother thought of making some meat dishes to send, and she was afraid that the monks in the temple would be jealous, so she thought about it all day. Finally, one day, she saw a family killing pigs, and the pig's blood triggered her inspiration. Why not add pig's blood to tofu, which can not only relieve the hunger of meat, but also avoid the Buddhist precepts, wouldn't it be beautiful?
So I bought pig's blood and tofu, crushed them into a circle, and hung them on the stove to dry. After taking it to the temple for his son to eat, the taste was delicious, the amount of food was greatly increased, and the practice of martial arts was more energetic.
Soon, his son Xi Wu went down to the mountain to participate in the martial arts recruitment examination held by the imperial court, and won the Wu Zhuangyuan in one fell swoop, and the black and mushy blood was indispensable. After the spread of the matter, because of its delicious taste, coupled with the legend that you can get high school after eating, every household in Baoqing has risen to the custom of making blood dumplings, which has been passed down through the generations and has been passed down to this day.
The existence of the blood stick not only witnesses the greatness of maternal love, but also pins on the infinite expectations of parents who hope that their children will become dragons...
Pig blood pills also carry the full memories of my childhood, and every bit is full of the warmth of my hometown.
Near the New Year, parents take advantage of the time to kill the New Year pig to keep the fresh pig blood, and then buy fresh tofu with pork belly, onion, ginger and garlic, paprika, eggs together to crush and mix well, put in a lot of salt to preserve freshness, knead into a round blood basket to set it up, and then concentrate on drying, and then put it on the stove after the water is dried and smoked.
In order to lavender pig blood balls, my father also specially collected a lot of dry wood from the mountain, and hung the bacon on the stove along with the bacon, which was an excellent match for hometown dishes.
Pig blood balls should pay attention to the heat during the smoking process, slowly roasted with a low flame, and the family sat around the stove, talking and laughing. Sometimes the firewood burns so strongly that the light of the fire makes a person's face red, as if a person is drunk with wine—his face is full of red.
After more than half a month of continuous smoking, the pig blood balls became black and mushy, and they were very hard, like a small iron ball when taken out of the lavender cage, which was convenient for preservation and would not easily deteriorate.
Usually, after washing the surface, it can be steamed directly on rice, or fried, and once it comes out of the pot, it is full of aroma and becomes a favorite dish of the family.
Mr. Lin Yutang once said: "One of the happiest things in life is to eat the meals made by my mother." ”
Returning home for the New Year, the most gratifying thing is to eat a bite of the meal made by my mother, especially the pig's blood balls, which have the most hometown flavor and make people nostalgic. Whenever visiting relatives and friends in their hometown, the elders always like to give gifts to young people in return, and pig blood balls become the best gifts for young people.
At the time of parting, parents did not forget to stuff pig blood pills into their children's luggage. Back in town, every time I miss home, I take out the black and mushy pig blood balls from the refrigerator and relive the delicious taste of my hometown. That smell is the smell of a distant wanderer who misses his hometown and misses his mother.
Shaoyang people are very able to endure hardships, as can be seen from their love of eating pig blood pills. Pig blood balls are originally a very simple food, all composed of home-cooked tofu and pig blood, and as a result, the Shaoyang people have turned into a black blood dumpling that can be eaten all year round, with a surface like iron, and can also be freely mixed with other dishes.
Perhaps because of the long-term consumption of pig blood, the Shaoyang people are born with a flesh and blood personality, among which the most outstanding representative is General Cai Yi, who is the pride of the Shaoyang people in Hunan and the great democratic revolutionary of modern times.
Blood and hard qi are also the dominant characteristics of pig blood pills. This bloody and hard nature has always been passed down in the blood of the Shaoyang people.
Yan Wei (1985-), Ph.D., teacher, a native of Shaoyang County, Hunan, a member of changsha writers association, studied at Hunan University of Science and Technology, Central South University, Hunan University, engaged in education for many years, likes reading, calligraphy, literary creation, etc., and published several poems and essays on platforms such as "Contemporary Writers", "Literary and Art Life", "Red Net Culture", "Ideological Tide", "Tianya Poetry Journal" and other platforms. In 2020, he was awarded the "Excellent Teacher of Changsha City" by the Changsha Municipal People's Government.