Saturday, December 17th Light rain
The abundance of products in the sandbar and mountains makes this small mountain village look like a cornucopia. Since ancient times, farming has been developed here. The peanuts, beans, and sorghum in the field have contributed to the style and taste of Shonan in the sandbar diet. In the pigsty and cattle pen, it has become the basic element of sandbar farming and rain weaving.
There are mountains on the sandbank, and there are tea trees on the mountains, and the tea trees bear tea oil. There is rape in the field, and when the cauliflower is yellow, the butterflies fly and the bees dance. After early spring, the rapeseed flowers all over the mountains set seeds, which are dried and pressed with rapeseed oil. On weekdays, people here eat anointing oil, lard from fried pork plates. Whether in the barren years or today's days of abundance, Shazhou people regard tea oil as a treasure. If you don't get happy, it's hard to get out of the pot. Rapeseed oil and anointing oil have become the daily stir-fry oils of sandbanks.
Every household in Shazhou eats lard, and the fat meat on the polder is particularly in demand. Not far away, the civilized polder kills the pig stall, in addition to the fat, pig's feet, pig's ears, and pigs in the water, other meat is cut with a knife. The lean meat here is slightly inferior to the fatty meat, which is also due to the traditional diet Xi Shazhou. If a family wants to eat lard, they have to make a reservation with a familiar butcher. The meat of the lard plate cut back is cut into pieces and fried, and every household has oil residue. In the era of material scarcity, oil residue has become a rare memory in sandbar cuisine.
Shazhou people fry oil residue, choose pork fat or fatty pork. In the past, Shazhou people raised pigs, and they fed pigs with fat and fat by beating pigweed, bran rice and water. Lard fat is the fat layer of pork abdominal meat, there is no lean meat, and its oil is particularly rich and pure. If you don't kill the pigs at home, if you want to find a good plate oil, you have to rely on the relationship and find a butcher. Only the butchers in the village know whose pigs are fat and fat. If the main family is rich, the lard will most likely be **. For pigs of 200 catties, a plate oil is at least more than 20 catties. Cut it into palm-wide pieces, then use a knife to break it into long strips, then cut it into pieces that are two fingers wide and square, and put them in a large pot to fry. A pot full of pork fat, after frying dry, at best, take an enamel bowl with donkey glue to replenish blood powder and hold a bowl of oil residue, the rest is all oil, and use a clay bowl oil bottle to serve it for stir-frying at any time.
As a result, the butchers of Wenmingwei were highly respected by the people of the village, and when they walked through the village, they were always greeted by a bowl of stuffed rice wine and a plate of salted peanuts. The people in the village who eat public food will be better, and occasionally go to the polder to buy some lean meat and sacrifice their teeth. They pay attention to life beyond ordinary people. In Shazhou Village, it is not cost-effective to eat lean meat, and oil residue is a rare delicacy.
After the fatty meat is bought, cut into pieces, white and soft, put it in the pot to squeeze the oil. Slowly, the fat turns from white to yellow, from large to small, from soft to hard, until it shrinks into a finger-sized piece, and when there is no oil, the oil residue is removed and put in a bowl.
Produced by Shazhou Yao Kitchen.
Frying oil is often done after dinner. The children were very happy, rushing to burn firewood, hoping for a reward. I've had a similar experience since I was sensible. Every time there is such a highlight moment, you will gather around the pot, waiting and looking forward to it. Every now and then, wisps of green smoke shine through the tiles in the stove room, and the burnt smell of the oil spreads in all directions, wafting over the village. Mother wasted no time in giving us a little bit to satisfy our hunger. We grabbed the oil residue and blew on it and put it into our mouths. The crunchy oil residue is full of relish.
Every year in early summer, new peppers are produced in the village. The elders will take out the oil residue hidden in the pottery bowl, pick fresh green peppers and cut them into small slices, and then spare some Liuyang tempeh. Remove from the pot, add a little lard, add diced green pepper, minced garlic and tempeh to stir until fragrant, add salt, monosodium glutamate and pepper to taste, add oil residue, pour chili oil and stir-fry evenly. People in the village eat oil residue, and another way to eat it is steaming, and the oil residue is placed at the bottom of a bowl with a layer of tempeh chili sauce on top. This is often the way to eat the oil residue of pork fat. The steamed oil residue absorbs the steam, swells and softens, has a deep flavor, is salty and spicy, and is full of chewiness.
Either way, the oil residue is particularly appetizing. At the meal of oil residue, the family should cook a little more than usual. Nowadays, fried oil residue with green pepper has become a delicacy for Shazhou people to remember bittersweet and bitter, which not only penetrates maternal love, but also entrusts Shazhou people with their memories and cherishes of the past years.
Author: Tan Xuri, Food columnist).