Author: Xue Ning
When I was a child, every rural family had vegetable fields.
Early summer and early autumn, the beans are knotted in a lot of knots. Long beans are hung on the vegetable rack. If you can’t finish them, farmers will wash the beans, soak them in water, boil them in large pots of water and spread them in the yard. The dried beans become darker in color, curly and loose, tie the dried beans into bundles, hang them in the ventilated place in the house and stay for a long time. They can stir-fry, pickle vegetables, and make soup. What I like the most is the fried lotus root box of dried beans made by my mother.
"Pick lotus seeds in summer and dig lotus roots in winter, and it is the right time to eat lotus roots in winter." In my childhood, I mostly ate cabbage, radish, pickles in winter. My mother would buy lotus roots only when the New Year is about to be over.
Mother soaked the dried beans in advance, drained and chopped them, chopped ginger, scallion, garlic, put the pepper and star anise on the stove on the fire, rolled it into pieces and put it into the vegetable filling, add appropriate amount of salt and cooking oil, add some chicken essence and a few drops of sesame oil, and stir the vegetable filling evenly. Add water to white flour and starch and add egg yolk to make a batter. My mother gently scraped off the lotus root skin with a small spoon, washed it and blanched it in water first, and let it cool and cut it into slices. The bottom end of the first piece is not cut off, the second piece is cut off, and the two pieces are formed into a lotus root clip. After cutting, my mother put the filling into the lotus root clip, pressing the two pieces together so that the filling can fill the small holes of the lotus root. Then put the lotus root clips in the basin and wrap them one by one, so that the lotus root box will be made. At that time, I didn’t have money to buy meat, and dried beans were the “trump card” in New Year’s goods. My mother worked hard on the filling flavor. The fried lotus root box made by my mother has a variety of flavors, sour, sweet, slightly spicy, and each has its own flavor.
Mother was unique and made a dip sauce with soy sauce, sesame oil, and chopped green onion. Mash the fried peanuts and peppers and add sesame , shake the salt well into pepper powder, put it in bulk in a small bottle, and sprinkle what you like in a dip sauce.
Whenever the Chinese New Year is over, the table of farm rice and the plates of fried lotus boxes are yellow, crispy on the outside and crisp on the inside. When it tastes, the lotus contains bean fragrance, beans contain lotus charm, and the old house with gray tiles and blue bricks, and in front of the black and white TV, there are laughter and joy in the hall...
Now, the village land is contracted to the farm, and the vegetable shop is full of fresh vegetables. The scene of picking beans and drying beans gradually fades out of the village, and bundles of dried beans also disappear from the farmers, but the lotus box made by my mother is left in the depths of my heart. The small fried lotus box contains her deep affection for her children and her love for life. She mixes her beautiful wishes and blessings into delicious food and puts them in the lotus root clip, wrapped with infinite longing and hope!
No matter where I am, this rich Henan folk snack appears on my New Year’s dinner table every year, and the dishes become more and more mellow after years!
Xue Ning looks forward to encouraging you, thank you for reading!
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