Rice dumplings are one of the traditional staple foods of Tibetan herders. "Rice dumplings" is the Tibetan transliteration of fried noodles, it is a staple food that the Tibetan people must eat every day, as a guest in the homes of Tibetan compatriots, the host will definitely bring you fragrant milk tea and barley fried noodles with both hands, golden ghee and milk yellow "qula" (casein), sugar stacked layers on the table. Rice dumplings are flour that is washed, dried, and fried, and when eaten, it is mixed with a small amount of butter tea, milk residue, sugar, etc., and kneaded by hand into a ball. It is not only easy to eat, nutritious, high in calories, very suitable for filling hunger and cold, but also easy to carry and store.
Rice dumplings are one of the traditional staple foods of Tibetan herders. Rice dumplings are the Tibetan transliteration of fried noodles, it is a staple food that the Tibetan people must eat every day, as a guest in the homes of Tibetan compatriots, the host will definitely bring you fragrant milk tea and barley fried noodles with both hands, golden ghee and milk yellow "qula" (casein), sugar stacked layers on the table. Ghee is a cream extracted from milk, which is a flour made by hand after the barley is fried and ground. Tibetans have rice dumplings for three meals a day. Rice dumplings, the name sounds fresh, are actually barley fried noodles. The preparation method of rice dumplings is to dry and fry barley (barley, there are white and purple and black two kinds) in the sun, grind them finely, but sift them, so that the fried noodles made are edible rice dumplings. Rice dumplings are somewhat similar to fried noodles in northern China, but the fried noodles in the north are first ground and then fried, while the Tibetan rice noodles are fried first and then ground, without peeling. When eating the rice dumplings, put some ghee in the bowl, pour into the tea, add some rice noodles, and stir well with your hands.
Rice rice is more nutritious than winter wheat, and easy to carry, go out as long as you carry a wooden bowl, a waist bundle "Tanggu" (rice bag), and then solve a little tea on the line, no need to cook on the fire. Pour the rice into a leather pocket called "Tanggu", add butter tea, grasp the mouth of the bag with one hand, grasp the bag with the other hand, and in a few moments, the incense stick can be entered.
Preparation method
The processing and production of rice dumplings is divided into two processes: one is to fry barley, and the other is to grind rice dumplings.
Stir-fried barley
Wash the barley with water before frying and let it dry.
Stir-fry barley flowers in clay pots: First pour coarse sand grains into the jar to warm until the bottom of the jar is nearly red, immediately pour an appropriate amount of barley into the jar, hold both ears and shake the end of the jar. After a few minutes, the inside of the jar smoked and made a crackling sound of barley. When the cracking sound basically stops, the barley flowers will burst and the sand will be leaked with an iron sieve.
Stir-fry barley flowers in an iron pot: Pour an appropriate amount of barley into an iron pot, heat it gradually, and constantly turn it in the pot with a brush of bush branches to heat the barley evenly until the barley flowers burst out. The Qamdo and Nyingchi regions and the pastoral areas of northern Tibet use flat-bottomed iron pots, sometimes adding sand seeds, but not when stir-frying barley in large quantities. Due to the high temperature in front of the stove, people who master the heat often sweat. If you make fine barley, the barley flower should also be put into a leather pocket and stepped on with your feet, leaving the barley flower heart.
Grinding rice dumplings
There are many water mills, which are installed on canals or natural streams. The lower grinding disc is fixed, and the upper grinding disc is fixed to the wooden water wheel shaft. The shaft rod extends through the hole in the center of the lower grinding disc, and the lower end is equipped with a water wheel, and the upper grinding disc is driven by the shaft. The upper grinding disc has an inlet, and a fixed leather funnel is installed at the upper end of the inlet, which is filled with barley flowers. Tie a horizontal stick at the lower end of the funnel, and a short rod is placed vertically at the end of the cross, making contact with the edge of the upper grinding disc. When the grinding disc turns, it vibrates the wooden rod, and the barley slowly flows into the mill disc inlet, constantly grinding out the rice. In the Qamdo area, a stick is inserted in the funnel, and the lower end is suspended at the inlet, and the funnel opening is also shaken when the grinding disc is rotated. The Tibetan water mill is a relatively effective instrument in the traditional grain processing tools of the plateau, showing the wisdom of the Tibetan people and is still widely used today.
Rice dumplings are made by mixing barley with washed fine sand and stir-frying over fire, and then sieve the fine sand and grind it into powder.
Directions
Method one
When eating rice dumplings, it is generally mixed with butter tea and rice noodles, and when conditions permit, sugar and milk residue can be added, which can add deliciousness and increase appetite; when the Han people eat rice dumplings, if there is no butter tea, it can be replaced by pork oil or cooked clear oil, and then add boiled water and white sugar to stir to eat. No matter which method is used, the stirred rice noodles contain a lot of fat, should not eat too much, should eat less and more meals, so as to be conducive to digestion and absorption.
Method two
When eating the rice dumplings, put some ghee in a bowl, pour into the tea, add the fried noodles, and stir by hand. When mixing, first use your middle finger to gently pound the stir-fry towards the bottom of the bowl to avoid the tea spilling out of the bowl; then turn the bowl and press the fried noodles into the tea with your fingers close to the edge of the bowl; when the fried noodles, tea and ghee are mixed well, you can knead them into a ball by hand and you can eat. When eating, use your hands to constantly knead in the bowl, knead the dough, and send it to your mouth with your hands. Tibetans generally eat without chopsticks or spoons, but only with their hands.
Because the rice dumplings are eaten in a simple way and easy to carry, they are very suitable for nomadic life. When the herders go out, they always have to hang a rice bag around their waist, and when they are hungry, they grab it from the pocket and eat it. Sometimes, they take a wooden bowl from their arms, fill it with some rice dumplings, pour some butter tea, add some salt, stir a few times, grab it and eat it. Sometimes, while eating rice dumplings, drink butter tea.
New Year's customs
When tibetans pass through the Tibetan calendar year, every family must place an auspicious wooden bucket called "Bamboo Soqima" on the Tibetan cabinet, and the bucket is filled with barley, bad pole and Dolma (ginseng fruit), etc., on which are inserted barley ears, wheat ear flower schools, and a colored spleen called "Zi Zhuo" painted with sun, moon, and star patterns. Neighbors or relatives and friends come to visit the New Year, the host will serve the "Bamboo Soqima", the guest grabs a little rice with his hand, sprinkles it into the air three times in a row, grabs a little and puts it in his mouth, and then says "Tashi Delek" (auspicious and happy) to express his blessing.