Yellow rice steamed buns, also called yellow steamed buns, are a unique delicacy in northern Shaanxi. The production method is to first mix hard yellow rice and a little soft yellow rice in a certain proportion and soak them overnight, then take them out and grind them. The dough is made into dough, and after fermentation, it is stuffed with jujube paste extruded from red dates and beans as a filling. It is kneaded into a bun shape, steamed in a basket, and is golden in color. It tastes soft, sour, and sweet, and you will never tire of it after eating it for a long time. There are two types of yellow rice steamed buns, one is without "stuffing" (stuffing), and the other is of course containing "stuffing".
But what is yellow rice? What kind of steamed bun is this yellow rice bun?
At this time, we must first know what yellow rice is. Yellow rice is also called broomcorn millet, millet, yellow rice, summer millet, and yellow millet. It is divided into waxy and non-waxy. Glutinous millet It is mostly made with mellow wine and non-waxy millet, which is called Ziao, and is mainly eaten. Originating from northern China, it was one of the important food crops in the ancient Yellow River Basin. According to the dictionary's explanation, it is the fruit of millet with the shell removed. It is slightly larger than millet, light yellow in color, and very sticky when cooked. Yellow rice can be used to cook porridge, cakes, rice and wine. Yellow rice and millet both come from the north, but in the eyes of northerners, yellow rice is higher than millet. People use it as glutinous rice to make rice, and in some places they also use it to make cakes to entertain guests. It is difficult for ordinary people to distinguish between yellow rice and millet. To put it simply, yellow rice is very sticky after being cooked, and millet is not sticky.
"A Bite of China" made Suide's yellow rice buns popular all over the country. Yellow rice steamed buns are a must-have in Yulin people's New Year tea and rice. On the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, every household in Yulin begins to steam yellow rice steamed buns. People eat it from the twelfth lunar month to February. If hidden in a cool place in a cave dwelling, it can be stored until the end of March or early April of the lunar calendar, and it will be more moist and sweet when eaten.
Yellow steamed buns are steamed buns made from millet noodles. Millet is sweet, mild, slightly cold, and non-toxic. It not only has high nutritional value, but also has certain medicinal value. The raw materials of the yellow steamed bun are fermented millet flour, wrapped in steamed red dates and beans, extruded and mixed with bean-jujube paste and steamed. The texture is soft and sweet, rich in nutrients and easy to digest. Because of its yellow color, it is called "yellow rice steamed bun". Millet cultivation began in the Yellow River Basin more than 8,000 years ago. The fried millet noodles will exude a fragrant fragrance, are honest and endure hunger, and reveal the simple character of northern Shaanxi people.
The production of yellow steamed buns is very particular. You need to shell the millet first, soak it in cold water until it can be easily crushed with your fingers, pick it up to remove the moisture, and then grind it into dough with a roller. Then mix the dough and put it on the hot kang for fermentation. It is best to wrap it with a quilt to ensure that it will ferment well the next day. The filling of yellow steamed buns is made from cowpeas and red dates. The ratio of ingredients to fillings is 3:2. When steaming, pay attention to high heat for 10 minutes, medium heat for 5 minutes, and low heat for 5 minutes. I will never forget the scene when it came out of the pot. The bright yellow buns exuded a sweet fragrance in the lingering steam.
Steaming yellow rice buns is really a very stressful and hard work.
There are two types of yellow rice steamed buns, one is without "stuffing" (stuffing), and the other is of course containing "stuffing".
The content of yellow rice steamed buns is also very special. The basic raw materials of Hanzi are cowpea and red dates. The cooked cowpeas and red dates are squeezed and blended together to make a kind of bean and date puree. This is the content of the yellow rice steamed bun. The glutinous rice with more dates will be sweeter, and the glutinous rice with fewer dates will be lighter.
Yellow rice buns without seeds are best steamed. Take a piece of yellow rice dough and roll it into a round shape in your hand, then put it into the steaming pot, and it will be steamed in about ten minutes. Steaming yellow rice buns containing seeds is more complicated. You need to make a rice dough first, then wrap it with a small ball of jujube paste filling, and then put it into the pot for steaming. Steam and serve.
In fact, the hard work and tension of steaming yellow rice steamed buns does not lie in whether the yellow rice steamed buns contain seeds. The main reason is that one or two buckets of yellow rice noodles are required to steam the yellow rice steamed buns. Steaming requires steaming for a whole day from morning to night - it's no wonder you don't have to work hard to steam the yellow rice buns on this day!
However, this steamed yellow rice bun is worth the hard work. The yellow rice steamed buns are steamed on this day, and sometimes they can't be eaten throughout the first month of the year. They can be eaten until the beginning of February, and the future life will naturally be relaxed.
Therefore, on the day of steaming yellow rice buns, the whole family is usually in high spirits. If there are five or six people in a family, the men will always squat on the underground tube to light the fire, and the aunts will sit on the kang head and make steamed buns. As for the half-grown children, they often go to the yard to hold firewood while eating steamed buns. Steaming steamed buns takes a whole day, and naturally a lot of firewood is burned. The children were so happy hugging the firewood that they chanted an ancient song:
The pig hugged the firewood,
The dog made the fire,
The cat is sitting on the kang making steamed buns!
After reciting this song, under normal circumstances, the atmosphere of steaming yellow rice buns will become more enthusiastic. "Pigs hold firewood, dogs make fire, and cats sit on the kang and make steamed buns." Comparing people to pigs or dogs has become a curse word in Qingjianhe dialect, but asking people to pretend to be cats is a very popular thing. People in the Qingjian River area believe that "a person can become a cat only if he has studied well for three generations." Therefore, everyone is willing to be a cat rather than a pig or a dog. The people who work as cats are the aunts who knead the buns. Therefore, although the aunties have a hard time kneading the buns, they are happy because they have been praised and do not seem to feel tired. In this way, the family happily steamed more than a dozen pots of yellow rice buns for a whole day.
However, even after steaming the yellow rice buns, you don’t dare to forget to leave a piece of “old yeast”. Because yellow rice steamed buns are a kind of New Year rice, they are steamed every New Year and fermented to make the dough. Once there is no "leaven", the rice noodles will not rise (ferment) well, and the yellow rice buns will be steamed into a kind of "stone cake" that is less crisp and softer. It doesn’t taste good to eat, and it’s a pity not to eat. It puts people into a dilemma. This is so bad! But it would be nice to have "ferment". If the ferment left over from the previous year is fermented one day in advance, the yellow rice steamed buns are guaranteed to be crispy, sweet and generous, making it a glorious treat for guests and gifts. . Do you think this leaven is important?
So, what exactly is this leaven? Yeast is actually a small bowl-sized ball of fermented yellow rice noodles. Keep a small ball of yellow rice noodles from steaming yellow rice buns in the first year and treasure it until the second year. This is the so-called leaven.
Don’t underestimate this leaven. This leaven has been passed down from generation to generation from the older generations. "Yellow Rice Steamed Bun Old Yeaster". This extremely profound experience was also summed up by the older generation. "If you don't listen to the old man's words, you will suffer a lot." The yeast is actually the soul of the yellow rice steamed buns. Without a soul, the yellow rice steamed buns will naturally not be "alive". Naturally, it will become a kind of sour and hard "stone Bianstone". Naturally, yellow rice steamed buns like this are not delicious, and Chinese New Year will not be celebrated well this way. Huangmi steamed buns are made in the Qingjian River Basin. People’s main New Year’s meal is not delicious, so what else will it taste like during the New Year?