When moving some time ago, many old houses that were not suitable for moving upstairs had to be thrown away. It's a pity, but it's useless, and it takes up space, so I just threw it away. When I tried to throw away the old pickle jar in the corner of the old yard, my mother was so reluctant. She stroked the cylinder again and again with rough and wrinkled hands, muttering, "What a pity, it still works!" " "
I know my mother has feelings for this jar.
Speaking of which, this pickle jar has made great contributions to our family. When I was a child, my family was in poor condition. I can eat some fresh vegetables from my own garden in summer and autumn, and I take kimchi out of this jar for dinner in the rest of the year. Even in the season with eggplant and cucumber, I like to eat some old pickles. Our family used to have a vegetable garden, but it was not very big. Because there are many people, we have to grow corn or sweet potatoes in that place, and the vegetable garden is naturally getting smaller and smaller. In order to make the whole family swallow coarse grain rice soup, mother pickled some old pickles in a different way and ate them comfortably in the days when the green and yellow were not connected.
This vat of sauerkraut was bought by my father for half a month's salary-three dollars and fifty cents. There are two golden dragons carved around the cylinder body, spitting fire beads, which are very imposing. The cylinder bore is 85 cm, and the cylinder block 120 cm is not small. Pickled pickles have been the mother's patent since this jar appeared. I sometimes touch my mother just to get a few compliments from her. As a result, some homemade pickles came out of this jar. Although it's a home-cooked pickle, it's better than others'. Looking back now, I always feel that it is because this pickle has soaked my mother's full love for her family and has become more and more delicious under the catalysis of time.
Pickles are not high or low, mainly based on seasonal selection. Pickle some green apricots (fallen from their own apricot trees) in spring and some peppers and cucumbers in summer. There are many varieties in autumn, so you can pickle some ginger, radish, big pimple, sour beans and so on. Before winter, a large vat of Chinese cabbage should be pickled, because fresh Chinese cabbage will lose its help, dry its heart and taste bad if it is kept for a long time. Sauerkraut is different, and it won't go bad after a long time.
It is extremely serious for mother to pickle pickles, which is related to the livelihood of the family! For example, pickling the most common radish! Pull the radish out of the ditch in your own sweet potato field and remove the radish tassels. Radish tassels can't be thrown away, but they can become delicious. Wash radish tassels, cut them into sections, blanch them with boiling water until they are half cooked, squeeze out excess water with a cage cloth to form dough, chop them with a knife, add minced onion, ginger and garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper noodles, add some oil and stir them into buns. It's delicious. When I was a child, I often asked my mother, what would it taste like to put some meat in radish tassels? Definitely better! My mother smiled and said to me, "Wait, when the days are better, my mother will make you Chinese buns with less radish tassels and more meat, ok?" So I look forward to a better day. Now that life is good, I beg my mother to make pork, radish and tassel buns again. Meat is bought, but radish sprouts are not sold. Ask some vegetable farmers and answer: those things are not eaten by pigs. What are you doing here?
Well, that's beside the point. Let's talk about mom's pickled radish!
Mother is very picky about pickled radish. Remove the head and tail of the fresh radish, wash it, and split it in two with a kitchen knife, which is clean and neat. I still remember the crackling of radish when it was split. It was very pleasant. Drain the cut radish in the shade. Under the action of wind and sunshine, the radish was half dry after one day. The brushed and dried vats are already waiting for standby, and the semi-dried radishes are neatly packed inside. Sprinkle a layer of salt on a layer of radish. When the radish is in the middle of the yard, a thin cloth bag is placed horizontally, which contains ingredients such as pepper, star anise, angelica dahurica, nutmeg and ginger slices to increase the aroma of pickles and dilute the spicy taste of radish itself. Pay special attention to sprinkle more salt, "save salt blind sauce." Never store the salt in pickles, or pickles will turn sour and eventually rot and become inedible. In addition, there is no need to add boiling water to pickled radish, because radish itself is full of water, and the water soaked after adding salt is enough to drown radish. Because of its high salt content, waterlogging can kill spoilage fungi, which is beneficial to the storage of kimchi. Cut the pickled radish into filaments, wash it with warm water, mix with shredded pepper, coriander and onion, and add some cottonseed oil, which is full of fragrance. Pickled radish and coarse corn, I could eat three at that time.
Pickling green apricots requires boiling salt and water. In spring, apricots with thumbs easily fall to the ground when they are cold in late spring. Every year, my mother goes to apricot trees to pick some big, insect-free pickles. This kind of food is made from local materials, which is cost-free and easy to obtain. My mother is very willing to cook this pickle.
The development of apricots is also very simple. Wash and drain apricots and pour them directly into the pickle jar, then pour in pre-cooked and cooled salt water, cover the cylinder head tightly and give it time. In fact, there is no secret recipe for salt and water: Zanthoxylum bungeanum is picked from our own tree, and ginger is cheap (because it is a pickled vegetable, you don't need expensive ginger with good appearance), and then add some angelica dahurica, fennel and a few petals, and if it is spicy, put a handful of dried peppers. Bring boiling water to a high fire, pour in these condiments, a packet of big salt, and cook for another ten minutes. After ten and a half days, the apricots became salty and sour under the action of feed water, just right. It is amazing that the green apricot, which was originally a waste, has completed a gorgeous transformation in the mother's skillful hands and become a good dish for the next meal. End a bowl of sweet potato corn porridge and pinch a sour apricot. The sweetness of sweet potato meets the sour and salty apricot and turns it into delicious food on the tip of the tongue. I remember when grandpa was drinking at night, he often fished out some green apricots from the jar to drink. The crisp "Ga Bang" sound and the "Zi Zi" sound of wine are the happy tastes brewed in bitter days, which will be unforgettable for a long time.
Mom also cooks some delicate pickles, such as old soybeans. This kind of pickles takes a lot of time, and the technical level directly affects the taste of pickles. First of all, it takes three days to cook old soy beans. Wash carefully selected soybeans, cook them in a large iron pot, take them out, wrap them with lotus leaves or large-leaf buttonwood leaves, wrap them tightly with airtight cotton-padded jackets, and bury them in wheat bran accumulated at home. For two weeks, due to high temperature, microorganisms will ferment in soybeans. At this time, take out the soybeans, and the soybeans in Huang Cancan have turned into purple sauce beans. The bean juice has also become sticky, and you can pull out long strips with your fingers, which shows that the beans are just cooked. Of course, cooked soybeans will give off a strong pungent gas, which makes people difficult to get close to, but mom says this is the unique fragrance of old soybeans. After the fermentation, my mother handed the bean paste to the sun, spread it on the roof and basked in the poisonous sun for three days. The wet beans are dry, and the smell of bean paste is more authentic. Put it away, make pickles with soy sauce, or make bean paste after crushing, all of which are delicious.
Pickling pickles with soy sauce must choose good radish, pumpkin or watermelon, which are the best partners of old soy bean. Whether it's pickled beans, pickles or soy sauce, my mother will pick some tender pepper leaves and put them in. This is my mother's secret of pickling pickles, which I learned from my grandmother and my mother taught my neighbors. Pickled pickles, a lift cylinder head, maotai flavor. It makes people's appetite increase greatly.
My mother's skill in pickling pickles is well-known in our three townships and five miles. It is also my mother's skillful hand, which makes us enjoy the bitter days, thanks to the old jar. Now, my mother occasionally pickles some pickles in a small jar to make us a rare sumptuous food. That old jar is really unnecessary now. ...
This time I moved to a new house, I washed the old pickle jar several times, covered it with oil paper, and still put it in the corner of the old yard.
About the author: Chen Huaqing, male, a member of Yuncheng Writers Association, is now working as a Chinese teacher in Yuncheng Experimental Middle School, Shandong Province. Love writing, music and calligraphy. Life belief: As long as you are alive, you must be happy. Don't forget your heart that loves life. For more than 30 years, I have written my life with my heart and recorded my inner feelings. Life belief: As long as you are alive, you must be happy. Don't forget your heart that loves life.
A little good Meng Xin's literature
The content of this article is published by a good author, which does not represent Qilu's good position.