Nostalgia essay: radish shredded dumplings in memory

Nostalgia essay: radish shredded dumplings in memory

Text: Wu Jianchang

　　After work on Friday morning, ride home for lunch. The moment I opened the door at home, a smell of radish and shallots came to my nose. Following the scent into the kitchen, I saw my wife making radish dumplings and was engrossed. I've already made a steaming rack by then, steaming on the gas stove, no wonder the aroma is so fragrant. Asked the wife the reason for making radish shredded dumplings today, the wife said, after you ate the radish shredded cake on Luoxing Road a few days ago, didn't you chant that the taste was not as good as the radish shredded dumplings made by your mother when you were a child, so when you had time this morning, you wanted to try to make it, so that you could find the feeling. My wife's craft of making a home-based version of the cake ball is OK, I know. Eating the radish shredded dumplings made by his wife, the scene of lying on the stove during the New Year when he was a child and watching his mother make radish shredded dumplings reappeared in front of his eyes.

　　I remember when I was a child, one of the happiest things was to look forward to eating the white glutinous turnip shredded dumplings made by my mother and the rice cake simmered in the hearth. Dumplings, reunion and welcome the new year; rice cakes, happy New Year.

　　When I was a child, due to economic constraints, cake dumplings and the like could only be eaten during the New Year's Festival, especially dumplings made of glutinous rice flour. The filling of the dumplings is not meat, but the filling made of shredded radish, which we called radish shredded at that time. Turnips are planted on the ground by their own, round and white. Collect it in winter, put it at home, and it won't be bad until the New Year. The shallots to be mixed with radish shreds were bought, because the soil here is not suitable for growing shallots.

　　Before making the radish dumplings, my mother would first soak the glutinous rice in water with my aunt and aunt for some time, and then take it to the stone grinding of the "old house (the nickname of a family in Hama Ri)" to grind it. There is a stone mill in the patio of the "old house", pushed by hand. After grinding the glutinous rice flour into a cloth bag, drain the water and then dry it, I later learned that this is the so-called water milled glutinous rice flour. Later, electric mills were installed in the pumping machine port of the brigade, and the stone mill in the "old house" gradually withdrew from the historical stage.

　　After drying, the glutinous rice flour is stored in a pot to keep the powder dry. At that time, almost every family had rice and flour.

　　I remember that at that time, after the twentieth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, my mother would prepare the radish dumplings. The mother would first take out the round radish stored behind the door, take it to the river bridge to wash it, and when she returned home, cut it into very fine wires on the table board between the stoves. Now we usually use shaved radish shredded planers. Put the chopped radish into the basin and stir with salt, waiting for the radish to come out of the water.

　　While waiting for the turnips to decant, my mother would knead the glutinous rice flour balls. In another basin, add the right amount of glutinous rice flour and pour boiling water over the stove. Boiling water is usually done by me. The mother would first knead a small dough with boiling water, and then use the dough to knead the remaining powder, and so on and so on, until the glutinous rice flour in the basin was kneaded into a smooth, soft and moderately hard dough. Cover the kneaded dough with a damp towel to prevent the surface of the dough from air-drying.

　　Next, it's time to spice up the shredded radish filling. The mother would use her hands to repeatedly squeeze the water off the shredded radish, and then add the chopped shallots and a little soy sauce and sugar (there will be white sugar in the New Year). The flavor of the radish dumplings is all prepared with shallots, soy sauce and other condiments, and the mother will hold them more evenly. The shredded radish filling made in this way has the fragrance of radish shallots, and the aroma is silky into the nose, which makes our brothers salivate.

　　After adjusting the radish shredded filling, the next thing is to wrap the dumplings. The mother's left hand from the glutinous rice flour dough to the next size of the agent, the left thumb embedded in the center of the agent, the index finger and other four fingers hold the powder, turn the agent, blink a nest head is made. Then put the shredded radish into the mouth of the nest head, and then put the nest head at the right hand tiger mouth, slowly turn the circle to close the mouth, and a radish ball becomes.

　　The water in the wok on the stove had boiled. The dumplings on the rice dumpling leaves coated with rapeseed oil on the wok rice rack are also placed in a circle, and the rice rack is placed with a wok, covered with a high wok lid, and the steaming dumplings begin. The firewood in the hearth crackled and burned, and the red firewood burned vigorously. These firewood, which have been prepared long ago since the beginning of winter, are the branches of the poplar neem trees in front of the house and behind the house, and the stove is usually burned with straw. After a while, the eaves under the high wok cover will emit white water vapor, and when the water vapor floats upwards, it indicates that the dumplings are steamed. Of course, the unique fragrance of radish and shallots mixed in the water vapor has long penetrated our nostrils. A few of our brothers and sisters were impatiently waiting for my mother to lift the wok cover.

　　After the lid of the wok was lifted, the mother took the rice rack off the wok, placed it on the table, and then used the fan to vigorously fan the dumplings a few times. Suddenly, the surface of the dumplings will become shiny and shiny. Then my mother would give us one for each of us to relieve the worms in our mouths. The rest are carefully put away with a bamboo basket after cooling, because it is used for the New Year. I remember that the weather was much colder then than it is now, so it would not be bad to leave the cake dumplings for ten days or so.

　　I remember my great-uncle was blind in his eyes as I remembered, and although he couldn't see anything, his taste was quite sensitive, and whenever he ate my mother's shredded radish dumplings, he nodded his head and squinted his eyes in praise: "Delicious, delicious." The taste was certainly not ordinary, and without looking at it, I knew that it must have been made by my little sister (my mother's smallest). "At that time, my aunt's family lived with us in the same Hama.

　　……

　　Today's wife made radish shredded dumplings, radish shredded added minced meat, added shrimp rice, added five-spice powder... The hot radish dough is very smooth and tender to the touch, and a light bite is smooth and sticky, non-sticky teeth. The aroma of radish silrabi, meat, noodles, and oil mixed together, in the mouth for a long time, feel the taste better than the taste in memory. I couldn't help but shake my index finger and reminisce: "Childhood life is like yesterday, today's taste is better than the old taste..."

　　In the afternoon, I went to work, brought a radish shredded dumpling, and let my colleagues in the office taste it...

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