There is also a very unique way to eat in northern Anhui, which is to make mung bean pills.
It is a well-known food for Lixin people, and it is also a necessary dish for people in northern Anhui for the New Year.
In the market in northern Anhui, you can often see the shadow of mung bean pills.
If you want to make mung bean pills taste better, you must carefully select the raw materials. If you choose mung beans, you must choose mung beans with full heads and bright colors.
Choose mung beans and soak them in water. After the mung bean is soaked, rub the bean skin in the tool and filter.
In fact, the filtered mung bean skin contains very high Chinese medicine value and is often used as an ingredient in other cakes.
It takes eight to nine hours to soak beans, and well water is usually used in winter. Well water can shorten the soaking time, and contains many trace elements beneficial to the body, which is incomparable to other water sources.
The next step is grinding beans.
Speaking of stone mill, it used to be a common food processing tool in Lixin countryside, and it was generally composed of two round stones. Put the filtered mung beans into the cave above, and the mung beans will be rolled and ground into paste during the grinding process.
The process of adding water is also very particular. Ensure a certain consistency, and the fried meatballs will taste better.
Pushing the stone mill with one hand and adding mung beans with the other have gradually faded out of people's field of vision. After grinding for a while, put the ground mung beans into the pot with a shovel and other tools, and then the next step is to fry them.
When frying mung bean balls, you should also pay attention to the heat. The fire should not be too big. If the skin is big, it will be easy to paste, but if it is small, it will not work, otherwise the meatballs will not be cooked in it. Fried meatballs are generally round, giving people a sense of reunion and celebration, and they are full of flavor. If there are problems in every process, you can't make good things.
After frying one side of the meatball until golden brown, turn the meatball over with chopsticks and fry the other side until the whole meatball is soaked thoroughly, and then take it out of the pot immediately, so that the mung bean meatball with a fragrant yellow smell is ready.
The mung bean balls that have just come out of the pot look golden in color, crisp outside and tender inside, and taste excellent. Eating directly is the first way to eat.
No matter how you eat it, what you eat is the taste of your hometown. This authentic and traditional food is not only delicious, but also has the function of clearing away heat and reducing fire.
The second way to eat is a relatively light type, mainly soup stock, beef soup and mutton soup. Put less pepper after cooking, which has a pure taste and a long aftertaste.
The third way to eat, which is also the most traditional, is to add water and meatballs after the onion and ginger are sauté ed, sprinkle chopped green onion on the bottom of the pot, and most importantly, put special Chili oil.
In the past, mung bean pills were a must-have food for every household during the Spring Festival. With the improvement of living standards, especially young people, rarely engage in such skill inheritance.
It's snowing and it's very cold. Drinking a bowl of such mung bean meatball soup is really steaming. Mung bean balls in northern Anhui have a long history. Drinking mung bean meatball soup will definitely make you unforgettable.
In the Spring Festival of 2020, when you go home for the New Year, have you prepared some mung bean balls to taste this northern Anhui cuisine with your family and friends?