When I was in Foshan, I often heard southerners say that they were going home to cook a meal today. The words are a little confused, reminds me of the burning stick in the rural pot stove when I was a child in the north, everyone who has seen it knows that it is usually a thin wooden strip, the hand holding this side, has long been grasped the slippery, and stretched to the end of the stove, it has already been roasted into a black coke look, sometimes because I stabbed into the stove to stir the charcoal ashes when I was stunned, and forgot to pull it out, it was burned red by the flame in the stove, and when you remember to pull it out quickly, it already has a flame, the red flame, according to the smoke all over the house, means that it is another commonplace, but how can the rice beWhat about "burning" it?I've always been puzzled by this. Later, I thought it might be due to the climate, the humid climate in the south caused the family to burn a fire all year round, so I was used to saying the word "burn", while the dry northern region has always said that it is "cooking" to eat.
I think the word "do" fully shows the requirements of the northerners for meals, a meal, a mouthful of food, from grocery shopping, washing, chopping, ingredients, frying, cooking, seasoning, to plating, table, until the entrance, taste, for the northerners who are deeply influenced by Confucian culture, there is a strong sense of ritual. This is a set of cumbersome and interesting etiquette, which not only continues the civilization that has been precipitated for thousands of years, but also inherits the essence of life from generation to generation.
The grand and enthusiastic catering culture in the north was only applicable to deep mansions in ancient times, and in modern times, it is mostly suitable for business banquets, and for ordinary people, it is more common people's taste. In any case, after all, the word "do" reflects the intention of the cook, which is not only the awe of grain, vegetables and other foods, but also the respect and love for the family.
There may be people who are born with rich taste buds, and can not only taste the unique flavor of a dish, but also be good at making several delicious dishes. Not so for me, not only can I not taste anything, but I also can't cook, so when I know my friends, when I eat with me, the simpler the better, even if it is a steamed bun or a plate of pickles, I think it is enough, so some people always say that I don't understand the mood of life, just like a glass of white water is bland and tasteless.
I myself think it's true, for example, this banquet, some people think it's a way to maintain feelings, and I often think that if this relationship is maintained by wine and meat, then I'm afraid this relationship is just a saliva friend. Therefore, I think that instead of wasting time pushing cups and changing lamps, it is better to sit down or read a book, or sit quietly and think, or gossip and talk nonsense. Three meals a day, even if you eat flowers, you are just hungry after all, why be so persistent?There must be many people like me in this world.
However, although not all people will eat it, one thing that is interesting is that as the days go by, almost everyone will quietly not feel that they have completed the transformation - from not knowing how to cook, to having to cook, to being able to cook a simple meal, and of course, some people have advanced to five-star chefs.
Learning to cook is not only a person's transformation, but also means that the taste of a home is getting stronger and stronger.
The composition of each family is like boiling a pot of porridge, at first the family members are like a grain of rice, independent of each other, full, and together although they have skin to skin, they are not completely integrated. The change is formed with the addition of water to the pot, in the process of soaking in the water, the rice grains gradually absorb enough water, and begin to swell, the water has both your taste and my nutrition, and everyone finally begins to integrate you into me, I into your qualitative change. This relationship gradually boiled as the temperature in the pot rose, and finally at the moment when it became a pot of porridge, the feelings of the whole pot of porridge "home" also reached an unprecedented realm, that is, the so-called you and me.
The female painter of the Yuan Dynasty, Guan Sheng's "My Nong Ci", said: You and I are nong, and there is a lot of affection. There are many feelings, and the heat is like fire. Take a piece of clay, twist one of you, shape one of me, break the two of us together, and mix it with water. Twist another you, and shape another me. I have you in the mud, and you have me in the mud. I and you are born in the same coffin and died in the same coffin.
A pot of porridge boiled with heart, isn't that what it is?
To say that boiling porridge is neither simple nor simple, for example, my daughter likes to drink millet porridge, my mother dislikes me for using a small pot to cook porridge is time-consuming and costly, she always uses a rice cooker to make it, I think it is just "cooking" a pot of "porridge", neither can support the word "boil", nor is sorry for the word "porridge". If you don't believe it, if you open the rice cooker and observe carefully, you will see that the top layer of the porridge in the pot is a cloudy and semi-clear rice soup, and after stirring the spoon with a little wrist force, the rice that has accumulated and precipitated in the underwater layer will float up with great effort, and a bowl of it will be held in the mouth, and there is no aroma of rice being cooked, and there is no thick and oily taste, and what you swallow is just a mouthful of aquatic porridge.
This is the reason why I like to use a small pot to cook porridge slowly, and I think that the porridge boiled out in this way is the beauty of warming the heart and stomach.
Life needs to be boiled down slowly to have a taste.
Looking back at those anxious and sweaty living methods, it is really the same as Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit, I don't know the taste at all, if I really live like this, why bother to come to this world to take this trip?
The pot I use to cook millet porridge is an ordinary stainless steel amphora pot, which I inherited from my father-in-law's family, and the meaning of life lies in continuous inheritanceThe water I use to boil millet porridge is never mineral water or pure water, but the "Yangtze River and Yellow River water" released by ordinary people's homes when they turn on the tap water, and the essence of life lies in returning to nature.
After receiving the water, I sat in the pot and lit the fire, in the process of the water temperature gradually rising, I went to wash a bowl of millet, and when the yellow millet was washed clean, some subtle bubbles began to float at the bottom of the pot, as if it was a little elf, competing to run to the world outside the water, lest anyone fall behind. At this time, you can use chopsticks to pull the millet into the pot, cover the pot, quickly raise the water temperature to boiling with high heat, and then turn the flame to the lowest while half-opening the lid, and stir the millet by the tumbling water flow in the pot and gradually merge together. Since then, the millet who got together has begun the happiest dance in life.
I really don't have a book to read in vain, I remember when I was in elementary school, there was a mention of Hua Luogeng's overall planning method in the textbook, and it can be used at this time. The porridge boiled slowly over a low heat, and in the meantime I was free to cook a big meal - take out the casserole and stew the tendon meat.
Go to the restaurant to eat the chefs to make the stew, you can always eat the taste of some spices, the original taste of the ingredients themselves has long been suppressed by various spices, this is because the chefs like to put some star anise, big ingredients, fennel, angelica and other seasonings, and they all know the proportional relationship, know what dishes with what ingredients, how much to put, this I really can't learn, I have always wondered if they are like school textbooks printed in the brain, how can they be so counted?
Fortunately, there is a saying - high-end ingredients usually only need simple cooking, so I simply use this sentence to comfort myself.
After I bought the tendon meat home, it was soaked in clear salt water for more than half an hour, I took it out and put it under the faucet to wash off the wind and dust, and put it on a plate to be in the boudoir.
Eating without eating, I'm sure it's really good.
The casserole is hot, pour in an appropriate amount of peanut oil, stretch out the five-clawed dragon on the top of the pot, feel that the oil temperature is acceptable, put in a few grains of rock sugar, and silently think that this time you must use a shovel to slide out the sugar color, and the hand began to slowly stir the shovel, stirring and stirring, my heart is anxious, what is sugar color?Isn't it okay to make saccharification?Cooking was so troublesome, and I was impatient, and my heart soon rippled round after round.
I saw that the bottom of the pot was almost dry, so I impatiently threw four pieces of tendon meat into the pot, only to hear a loud "zila" sound, and the smell of meat instantly filled the room—the sugar color will wait for the next time to boil.
There is an old saying that you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and this is not wrong at all, and the cooking of Chinese dishes not only requires an experienced person to grasp the heat, but also needs to be sublimated by the lively pot steam, so that the dishes can make people get the pleasure of taste buds.
Although I don't have the patience to boil out the sugar, I still have the patience to let the tendon meat get fried over low heat. Flip the four pieces of tendon meat at the right time to fry both sides of the meat until browned, not only for the sake of the beautiful color, but also to simmer the oil of the meat.
In fact, this is the interrelationship between people and life, life is like this hot casserole, we are like the tendon meat that has been thrown into the pot and fried repeatedly, although it is a little painful, but it has also become more mature and flavorful.
Seeing that the meat color in the casserole is getting more and more powerful, quickly put in oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce in turn, pour in an appropriate amount of vinegar, and then put in two bowls of "Yangtze River and Yellow River Water", add an appropriate amount of salt, throw in a few sections of green onion and ginger, cover the pot, boil over high heat, simmer over low heat, and I don't care about it anymore.
Life is like the heat at the bottom of this pot, it is not good to be in a hurry, and it is not good to be slow.
At this time, I began to choose other ingredients, because it usually takes me at least an hour and a half to boil a pot of fragrant millet porridge and a pot of tender and delicious tendon meat.
I like to prepare a cold dish for every meal, but so far, I've only made a cold cucumber salad and a shredded pickle. Speaking of which, these two ordinary cold dishes that can no longer be ordinary can hardly be cooked, just like people live, no one can't live, right?
The cucumber I bought in the morning at the 15th Avenue vegetable market, along with the four pieces of pork tendon meat that were being boiled. More than a dozen shrimp on the plate, and a handful of small rape, I hope my daughter can eat a meal of meat and vegetable home cooking on the weekend, although my mother has changed the way to make a variety of delicacies for the little girl in ordinary days, but since I have a little girl, I naturally exude a sense of energy in my heart, always thinking of making a little meal that makes her happy, I hope that in the days when she lives independently for more than ten years, I can reminisce about the taste of home in my heart.
Shrimp are live shrimp, I hold them on a plate, if you don't use the bowl to hold them down, they will jump to the ground, sometimes I look at them, I wonder if we humans are also shrimp in the universe, no matter how they jump, in fact, even the galaxy escapes.
My wife and daughter both like to eat braised prawns, which is a complicated dish for me. First of all, I need to press them one by one with my hands, and then use a knife to cut through the back of the shrimp, not only to pick out the shrimp line, but also to absorb the flavor when cooking. It's just that each shrimp is not so willing to be cut easily, a little careless, it will jump out of your hold on to the hand again, the so-called dying struggle to do your best, the so-called as long as there is a glimmer of hope will never give up, but in the end it is not worth the sentence "people are knives and I am fish and meat".
The ingredients for braised prawns are also simple, the white onion is cut into water chestnut slices, some people like to make a bowl of sauce for later use, I really don't know about this, so I give up this flavorful sauce, and occasionally come to a bowl, which also leads my daughter to say that it makes a different taste - it's all because I really can't remember how to make the juice.
Braised prawns need to be boiled over high heat, and after the oil is hot, a plate of shrimp that has been cut open is quickly poured in, and there is a "zila" sound of frying and cooking, and the shrimp body turns yellow and red when the mouth is not counted to ten. At this time, you should quickly press it with a spatula, don't be polite, press it hard until the shrimp brain is pressed out, let go and turn it over, and continue to fry the other side.
Well, in life, sometimes you need a little pressure to get the taste, if this side doesn't work, then change the side to fry.
And cooking is as simple as life needs a little fun, and braised prawns are naturally indispensable for a little seasoning to decorate and season. After the shrimp brain is pressed out, put in the green onion section and stir-fry until fragrant, then add the sugar and stir-fry a few times to raise the umami a few degrees, then pour in a little white vinegar to remove the smell, drop in an appropriate amount of light soy sauce to adjust the color, pour in a little water to prevent the pot from drying up, and can boil the taste, press the lid, simmer for a while over medium heat, and put it out of the pot and put it on the plate.
Just like the effect of ingredients in the process of cooking, the same is true of life, joy, anger, sorrow and joy are all fun, and anger and resentment have their own effects.
Those who are not in a hurry or impatient in life are not only in an open and happy mood, but also in a completely sunny state, so like this braised prawns, sometimes simmering for a while in life will not only cause unexpected changes, but also make the taste more intense.
It's just that the braised prawns I made, the process of returning is simple and clear, and the taste is completely different every time, sometimes making sweet and sour, sometimes making salty and fragrant ......, every time my wife eats one, she will say: Yoyo, Dad is making a new dish.
Alas, I was ridiculed again.
Life, you have abused me thousands of times, I treat you like my first love, new dishes are new dishes, who makes their cooking skills unstable?Oh, I'm afraid I can't talk about the word "cooking", at best it's just a meal.
If you can't do braised prawns well, you can still do it by stir-frying a plate of rape, and this kind of green vegetables pays attention to a "bright moon and pine trees, and Qingquan stone is upstream".
In the flowing "Yangtze River and Yellow River water", the green rape is washed one by one with broken leaves and roots, and one by one is stacked on the plate, which looks tender and delicious. Heat the pan with cold oil, put in a few slices of garlic that have already been cut and stir-fry until fragrant, then throw in the rape, the pot steam instantly bursts, continue to cook over high heat, stir-fry evenly, and then drop in an appropriate amount of oyster sauce, sprinkle with snow-like salt, stir-fry three or five times, and then you can serve on a plate.
I saw the rape in the plate, the color is bright, the entrance is crisp and fresh, there is no fried wilting look, with a bowl of crystal clear rice, it is comfortable to eat, and the mouth does not lose the fresh and natural taste, this taste comes from the fragrant flavor of rape, which can not be compared with those complicated stews.
Life is the same, learn to cut complex problems, let the problems return to simple and clear in the heart, maybe make life more natural and smooth, if too much imagination, you will let yourself fall into tangled troubles and can't extricate yourself.
I like a simple lifestyle, and naturally I prefer simple and pure dishes.
Cold cucumber is one such dish. Like that plate of rape, these four cucumbers are also special agricultural products from Qingdao Xiazhuang. People often say that this is the best specialty, I always doubt my taste buds, why can't I eat the specialty of the people's mouth?What's more, some vegetable farmers will carry small baskets and sell them on the street instead of entering the market, saying that they grow them at home and that they are delicious. Could it be that what he said he planted at home was not planted in this vast world?Is it true that there will be no pesticides and no fertilizers?I have lived in the countryside since I was a child, and I have always been deeply skeptical.
Doubt is doubt, the rice still has to be eaten, no matter who grows it. Looking at the four cucumbers that I had peeled, I picked up a kitchen knife and slice them.
Knife workers don't have these two words in my dictionary. People cut shreds, I cut strips;People slice, I chop pieces. But what is there about it?I can't cut the paper-thin slices like the chefs, so I just cut the cucumber slices I can at once.
Life needs to be cut out of its own flavor.
Don't think that cold salad is very simple, cold cucumber needs a big bowl to mix well, put the cut cucumber slices into a large bowl, and then put in the garlic paste, the secret lies in a spoonful of sugar, then pour in light soy sauce and white vinegar, stir well, a plate of cold cucumber is ready.
At this time, my millet porridge has also been boiled to the way I want, through the glass lid, you can see that the surface of the porridge in the pot has a thin layer of butter film, if you gently push with a spoon, you can roll up the layer like a beautiful woman's forehead frowning, glutinous milk is smooth, that is the essence of millet, it needs to be boiled out with a simmer. I will definitely put this layer of millet oil film into my daughter's bowl in a grand manner, hoping that her weak body can be moisturized enough. I remember when the little girl saw the butter film of millet for the first time, she asked me in surprise: Dad, why is there still an egg yolk?
Four bowls of millet porridge were placed in front of each of them in turn, and stir-fried rape, cold cucumber, and braised prawns were also placed on the table, and I went to serve the most complicated tendon meat, and the aroma of tendon meat in the casserole had already rushed into my daughter's little nose.
I turned off the heat and opened the lid of the casserole, only to see that the rich broth in the pot was still tumbling and wrapping the tendon meat, presumably the taste had already penetrated into the tendon meat during the boiling period of an hour and a half. This is the good of the casserole, with its unique material - sand, the casserole can always maintain the stability of the temperature in the pot, to ensure that the air, moisture and ingredients in the pot are heated in a three-dimensional wrap, so that the best nutrients can be extracted from the ingredients, and the taste that the eater wants. For example, I picked up two pieces of boiled tendon meat in front of me, put them on a plate and cut them into pieces, placed them together with other dishes on the dinner table, and ate them with garlic paste. If you pour the broth on the rice, eat a bite of stir-fried rape, accompanied by cold cucumber, it is even more delicious, and this is the taste of ordinary people's home-cooked rice.
The dishes are all ordinary dishes, and the people are ordinary people.
Just as I went from not knowing how to cook to being able to cook a few simple meals, every journey in life has its inevitability;Just as I cook the same dish with different tastes every time, every story in life has its episodic nature.
The meal has been served, and I turned my head to see that my daughter was still frowning quietly at her desk, and it was already dark outside the window.
"Yoyo, it's time to eat. ”