There are many processes involved in making rice cakes, and it takes the cooperation of many people. My job is stepping on cakes.
My family lives next to each other, and they are usually busy with things. For one thing during the Chinese New Year, everyone naturally cooperated: making rice cakes.
Traditional Shaoxing rice cakes are square, more than a foot long on the side and about two inches thick. There are many processes for making rice cakes with cake flour, steaming cake flowers, picking cakes, folding cakes, stepping cakes, fluttering cakes, and making rice cakes, which require the cooperation of many people. My job is stepping on cakes.
On the day of making rice cakes, everyone was immersed in a special atmosphere, with a look on their faces that was unique to the New Year, busy and orderly making various preparations. Remove the door panel and scrub it clean with warm water. Cut a large handful of leaves from the palm trees in the vegetable garden, brush them at the head of the river, and dry them. In the evening, drive the chickens into the hole early. The young cousins carried the stone mortar of their family into the house and placed it flat. My father replaced a cream bulb that was only used on Chinese New Year's Eve. Next door, the green palm leaves spread on the door panel are quietly waiting for the rice cake to pounce.
Outside the house is the weather of the wax moon, but inside the house is the warm atmosphere flowing and full of light under the light of cream bulbs. Between the stoves, steam surrounds the yellowish electric lights, and the flickering firewood from the bellies of the two woks reflects on the walls, adding to the warmth and brightness of the stoves. The fifth mother-in-law and my mother were lighting the fire, my grandmother took my aunt to make cake flour together, and my second father-in-law was in charge of steaming cake flowers. The unique aroma of steamed rice noodles wafts through the hot air, and the breath of the air warms your stomach.
Rolling rice cakes is a hard work, but also a technical work. If you don't grasp it well, maybe the rice cake is not beaten, but the mortar or hammer is broken. Experienced, will be hit in the center of each hammer mortar. The first few strokes should be lighter, light but not floating, so that the cake flowers stick to each other and do not splash. Then, push hard, and a few strokes will pierce the rice cake. Rice cakes pay attention to aura and rhythm. Several young and energetic cousins relayed the rice cakes, and the cheers and hammers in their mouths came out rhythmically. "Hey! Spell! "Hey! Spell! "Hey! Spell! "Piercing! The cake picker shouted and announced that a round was successful and a movement was completed. "Good! Everyone on the side cheered. My father's job was to fold the cakes, turning the rice cakes in the stone mortar in time, scooping up the rice cakes that stuck to the bottom, and pressing them into a shape suitable for rubbing. The folding cake is quick with eyes and hands, and the gestures are refreshing.
The finished rice cakes are placed in a cake box covered with a cake cloth and stepped into a square shape. This process is called "rice cake". Generally, young men who are not able to pick up rice cakes with strength are stepping on cakes. Stepping on the rice cake, the work is not tired, but there is also a particular, to step firm, flat, the four corners are not missing, and the whole cake has no pores.
The steamed cake flowers, pine, fragrant and glutinous, are suitable for the elderly to eat, not sticky, not choking. The first steamed cake flower, before tasting, the great-grandmother should first pay tribute to the king and ancestors. In the later stage of making rice cakes, the rice cakes that stick to the bottom of the mashing mortar when folding the cake have the feeling of eating lard, which is particularly delicate and tough. Before putting the cake box into the cake box and covering the cake cloth, the five fathers and the little guild will pull some rice cakes for me. Chewing on the hot rice cake balls, stepping on the hot rice cakes under your feet, your heart is also warm. After stepping on the rice cakes, the fifth or youngest father-in-law carried them to the next door and threw them on the palm leaves spread on the door panel. To seek good fortune for the New Year, you should inscribe red on the rice cake. The new brush is dipped in magenta water, steamed for the first time, and a large "Fu" character is written in the center of the rice cake. The second steam, write four "Fu" characters. I feel that it is a privilege and a reward to write red for rice cakes.
The peasant family does not have a solemn etiquette, there is no family motto, and some are honest and simple work, inheritance and encouragement. Immersed in the warm atmosphere of the family's cooperation, breathing the unique air full of flowers and flowers to the flavor of rice cakes, the farmer boy quietly grew up in the experience of stepping on cakes and inscribed red. (Dawn Moon).