The sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar is a day for good luck and peace; it is also a day to celebrate the harvest and offer sacrifices to heaven and earth. It is not only the "Tiankuang Festival" and "Aunt's Day", where you invite your aunts to pray for peace and success; it is also the "Sutra-Drying Festival", "Clothes-Drying Festival", etc. monks will post scriptures. Ordinary people would take out their winter clothes and quilts to dry in the sun to remove bad luck and prevent insects. There are different customs and traditions across the country on June 6th. What kind of food should be eaten?
Fried noodles
In Henan, " Eat fried noodles on June 6th ". Fried noodles are not fried noodles. fried noodles, also called fried noodles and tea, is a traditional local delicacy in Henan. It is made by frying flour and various nuts together. It can be used as breakfast or as a snack. The origin of fried noodles is that after Yue Fei regained Caizhou (now Runan), in order to thank Yue Fei and the soldiers, the people crushed and fried the new wheat and gave it to the soldiers as food.
1. Prepare ingredients:
500 grams of ordinary flour, appropriate amount of black and white sesame seeds, walnut kernels and fried peanuts. Of course, you can also add various nuts if conditions permit. Put the walnut kernels into stone mortar and mash them into small pieces and pour them on the chopping board. Pour the peanuts in and mash them. Then pour the black and white sesame seeds, peanuts and walnuts together and crush them so that the several nuts can be fully blended together. .
2. Start frying:
Heat the pot, pour in the flour directly, stir-fry quickly over low heat, dry out the moisture in the flour, stir-fry the flour until fragrant, take it out when it turns slightly yellow and set aside.
Brush vegetable oil evenly on the bottom and sides of the pot, pour in the prepared nut powder and stir-fry for a few times to let the nuts stick to the oil, then pour in the fried flour, keep the fire low and continue to stir-fry to make the nuts and flour even. Mix and stir-fry for about 2 minutes until you can smell the aroma of the nuts, then turn off the heat and continue to stir-fry for a while to cool down the camellia to avoid clumping.
After the oil tea is cooled, put it in a crisper and store it in the refrigerator. If you like it sweet, add some white sugar ; if you like it salty, add some salt. After pouring it into boiling water, the aroma will be fragrant.
Meat Buns
In Shandong, "Watch the Valley Show on June 6th, break open the buns and get a package of meat". On this day, people will take the new wheat and beat it into flour, and use the new flour to make meat buns. Steamed buns as big as a bowl and meat fillings as big as a fist reflect the joy and generosity of the harvest.
1. Start kneading the dough:
Add 34 grams of yeast html to 400 grams of flour, dissolve it with warm water of about 35 degrees, and stir evenly. Add warm water to the flour in small amounts and many times, stir until there is no dry flour in the basin, and knead it into a slightly harder consistency. Smooth the dough, then seal and ferment for 2 hours.
2. Prepare fillings:
Cut a handful of green onions into chopped green onions; cut a piece of ginger and a white green onion into small pieces, add water to a juicer and beat into a green onion and ginger paste for later use; peel 2 pounds of pork belly and chop into meat fillings Place it in a basin, add an egg, 3 grams of salt, 1 gram of pepper, 1 gram of Sichuan peppercorns, 10 grams of light soy sauce, 2 grams of dark soy sauce, 5 grams of sesame oil, and add one-third of the green onion and ginger paste and mix. Evenly, put the onion and ginger paste into the meat filling in three times, one-third each time, stir to get the gelatin of the filling, then add the chopped green onion and mix well.
3. Make steamed buns:
Sprinkle flour on the chopping board, take out the dough and knead it repeatedly to remove the air, roll it into long strips and cut it into evenly sized dough. Knead the dough for a while, knead it into a round dough and roll it out into a slightly thicker middle and slightly thicker edges. Thin dough, put the prepared meat filling on the dough, turn the dough while kneading the edges, keep your right thumb still when kneading, so that the folds are even, put it on the chopping board and arrange it to make the buns more elastic. Round, so that the bun dough is ready, cover it with gauze to prevent the dough from drying out.
4. Start steaming:
Pour water into the pot, put the cold water into the buns and ferment for about 15 to 20 minutes, then turn on high heat to boil the water, then turn to medium heat and steam for 15 minutes, finally turn off the heat and wait for 3 minutes before opening the lid and taking it out. The pot prevents the buns from collapsing after opening the lid. The skin of the buns is thin and soft, the fillings form into balls, and there is a lot of juice. The skin is thin and the fillings are large.
Eating dumplings
On June 6th, people also eat dumplings to prevent Sanfu from experiencing the bitter summer. Although northerners eat dumplings during the holidays, the custom of eating dumplings on June 6th is Yangzhou and other southern regions. custom.
1. Prepare the fillings:
Whether the dumplings are delicious or not depends entirely on the fillings. If you want the dumplings to be delicious, you need to add two kinds of water: one is the stock water; the other is the green onion and ginger water.
Ingredients water : Boil water in a pot, put in a few star anise and a handful of peppercorns, simmer over low heat for 3-4 minutes, then turn off the heat, pour it out and let it cool for later use.
Green onion and ginger water : Crush green onions and ginger and chop them into pieces, then add them to the cool water and knead them to get the green onion and ginger juice, then soak them for a few minutes and set aside.
For the meat filling, choose pork belly that is 30% fat and 70% lean. Add salt, chicken powder, pepper, and thirteen spices for seasoning. Crack in an egg, pour in light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce for freshness and color. Mix the seasonings evenly. Add the onion and ginger water in batches, stir in one direction until all is absorbed, pour it back and forth three or four times to fully saturate the meat filling, then pour in the chopped shiitake mushrooms and mix well.
2. Start kneading the dough:
Sprinkle some salt when kneading the dough. The dumpling wrapper should be slightly hard and chewy. Then divide it into evenly sized dumplings, roll it out into a dumpling wrapper that is thick in the middle and thin on both sides, and shape it into an ingot shape with a tiger's mouth. dumplings.
3. Start cooking the dumplings:
Boil water in a pot, add the dumplings under the boiling water, add water two or three times in the middle, cook until they all float and they are cooked. If you like soup dumplings, add some salt, chicken powder, pepper, light soy sauce, Add onion, coriander, vinegar, and use dumpling soup to make a sour soup .
Eating wontons
Jiangnan pays attention to " June 6th, wrap the bowl of wontons and drop them ", which means eating wontons made with new wheat. Wontons are like ingots. Eating them will bring you wealth. In addition, in ancient times, the heat in the dog days made it difficult for summer, so children would be allowed to eat wontons on this day in order to pray that they would not suffer from heat stroke. They would also have good water quality, go into the water to cool off without accidents, and spend the summer safely. .
The New Year Festival
In Hunan and Guangxi, June 6th is also known as the " New Year Festival ". There is a popular saying in the local area: "There is no food in June, so I look forward to trying something new every day." Before the new rice came, the old rice was not enough. Only on June 6th, people will cook a pot of rice, make delicious dishes, and then burn incense to worship heaven, earth and ancestors, praying for good weather and a good harvest.
(First Food Editor: Cao Cao)
