Xuanwei is close to Guizhou. In my memory, there will be frost in autumn, heavy snow in winter and knee-deep snow at the deepest time. When I go to school in the morning of deep winter, I can't resist the biting cold wind blowing from my face. Such a climatic environment has made Xuanwei ham. In the cold period, the hind legs of pigs can be completely pickled without deterioration. Killing pigs is carried out in December of the lunar calendar. First, there is less farming and someone helps. The other is that the climate is just right.
On the selected day, I began to get busy early in the morning. The host family got up early, and my mother prepared breakfast for those who invited help in advance. You can have breakfast as soon as the helper comes. After that, everyone went to work according to the division of labor. Two or three people will make a stove. There were no ready-made stoves before, but they were all used temporarily by the river. First, dig a hole in the ground, and then build a stove with a few big stones. After the completion, a large iron pot was built to boil water with firewood.
My dad took another wave to the pigsty to catch pigs. When everyone rushed the pigs to the stove, they put them upside down. First, they tied the pig's front and rear feet separately, and then tied them with ropes to prevent the pig from hurting people when struggling. I'm afraid they can't hold them down, so the pigs run away. Everyone Qi Xin held the pig's front and back feet together, and the butcher killed the pig. No one can let go of the pig until it can move, and it must be held down with all its strength. This is an unwritten tradition and mutual understanding and trust. Secondly, cleaning and cutting meat, as we come to help, the happiest thing is to carry the meat cut by the pig butcher home in batches, and then run tirelessly on the way back and forth, which not only satisfies the hard-working vanity, but also gains the sense of accomplishment of labor.
Mom and other aunts prepare lunch, and fresh vegetables are in season, just like today's protagonist. Although many years have passed, the delicious food in my memory always makes my mouth water. Especially those classic dishes, are still fresh in my memory.
When receiving pig blood, put some salt in the basin to keep it fresh all the time. As a secret, this is the exclusive experience of the pig butcher, and this dish was also the favorite of our pig butcher at that time. Cut the slightly solidified blood clot into small pieces, put it in a pot filled with water and heat it slightly with low fire. Before long, sprinkle with salt and a little chopped green onion. The blood clot made in this way is tender and fresh, which is very different from the pig blood you see in the vegetable market.
As the essence of pork and the focus of the audience, tenderloin, as the first choice for the owner to thank relatives and friends, must contribute its own strength. In other places, small fried meat is mostly supplemented by green onions. Xuanwei's stir-fried meat is supplemented with garlic sprouts and turmeric. The local turmeric meat is thick and delicious. First, mix the sliced meat with a little powder, add hot oil to the dried Chili, stir-fry until crisp, add turmeric to make it fragrant, then stir-fry the meat, add garlic sprouts when the meat changes color, stir-fry for a while, add salt to the pot, and stir-fry a small sliced meat with good color and fragrance.
Tuozi is a local dialect, and the method of making Tuozi meat is actually very simple. As the name implies, it is to cut the pork belly into cubes (lumps) of about three centimeters and stew them with clear water. The soul of this dish is dipped in water, which consists of soy sauce, vinegar, salt, coriander, local shallots and roasted peppers. As the finishing touch, the burnt pepper is placed under the stove until it becomes fragrant, and then kneaded into a bowl in your hand and dipped in water. This is how Xuanwei's dip in water and peppers are treated. When eating, put a piece of meat in it, roll it in the water, and put it in your mouth for a bite. It is oily and oily, and the smell of meat is accompanied by the smell of water. Don't have an experience.
Xuanwei's practice here is to cut the pork liver into small pieces, stir-fry the dried pepper, pepper and ginger in boiling oil, stir-fry the pork liver when the aroma is overflowing, stir-fry the chopped green onion for a while when the stir-fry becomes discolored, and add salt to the pan. The key to frying pork liver is not to over-fry, and not to over-fry. What you want is just right.
Cooking bitter vegetables with clear water is a unique practice. You can eat them like this or dip them in water. At that time, I always thought this practice was very common. I didn't find their soup until I went to Shanxi and Beijing many years later. The usual practice is to thicken it and make it into a paste. This is the soup they approved. It is not as simple as cooking bitter vegetables, so only water and the bitter taste of vegetables are mixed together. There is nothing wrong with other methods, but in my mind, vegetable soup should be like this. I have always liked this refreshing taste. Food is regional, and once people get used to the original taste, they will be preconceived. It is very difficult to change this understanding.
There are many other dishes. By the time my mother was almost busy, it was already lunch time. Friends and relatives who didn't come to help began to come over for dinner. They all brought gifts when they came, so they can share them with you. They either brought champagne drinks, bought oranges, or brought their own eggs or rice. There are many people running for water seats, carrying plates, washing dishes and chopsticks. It was a busy scene, but there was no panic.
I was busy until the guests left, and my mother, the helping adults and our children sat down to eat. I couldn't help watching boiled pig blood, small fried meat, lump meat, fried pig liver, bitter vegetable soup and dishes whose names I can't remember now. Adults will raise their glasses to celebrate, and children will follow suit with drink cups. Laughter and sound will float into the distance, which is a heartfelt smile.
After hard work, food always looks particularly delicious, which is a kind of "harvest" joy. In the summer vacation, the hard work of cutting pig grass in the blooming corn field in the scorching sun and the difficulty of stumbling on the muddy road with a basket on your back in the heavy rain have all become the food now, and the labor has gained its due harvest, and everything is worth it.
After lunch, my mother was busy refining lard. When it's finished, it's almost time for dinner. More people come in the evening than at noon. Those who couldn't come at noon are all here now. After dinner, my mother will give the pork prepared in advance as a gift to those who come to congratulate, so that everyone can share the fruits of the harvest. It's past eight o'clock in the evening after this busy wave, but the adult's business is not over yet. The rest of the pork and leg meat should be preserved.
Pickling ham is the most laborious. After spraying with spirits, rubbing with salt until the water seeps out is considered as an end. In the meantime, our happy things are playing around, eating oranges and feeding the peeled oranges to busy adults. The adults haven't finished yet, and we have fallen asleep. The marinated meat is put in a big pot for about a week, then it can be taken out and hung on the beam, and the rest is completely given to time.
Your efforts will be tested in the future. If you don't knead enough or leave it for a long time in the curing process, the leg meat will go bad, and only enough efforts can bring delicious ham. You can cheat life, but life won't cheat you. Time is the judge.
With the improvement of living standards and the rising cost of raising pigs, fewer and fewer people raise pigs themselves. Later, our family stopped raising pigs. But the habit of curing pork in the twelfth lunar month is still there, but the meat is bought. Killing pig rice is out of my life. With the study and work, it is getting farther and farther away from me, but the past days are printed in my memory. Later, in my life, I tried to cook those dishes. Although the practice has not changed, the appearance of the dishes has not changed, but the taste is different. I always feel that something is missing, maybe the meat is not so pure, maybe it is a lack of atmosphere.
Later, I gradually learned that killing pig rice is widespread in rural areas of China. Although the dishes cooked in different places have different styles, they all have their own special dishes. Banquet is the inheritance of farming civilization, the blessing of harvest and the hope for the future, the epitome of mutual cooperation, and an important way to maintain and promote the relationship between relatives and friends. It is a culture.
However, with the rapid economic development and rich material life in China, some excellent traditional cultures and delicacies are disappearing from our lives. Nowadays, people pursue a fast-paced lifestyle and a healthy diet. From a health point of view, pickled products are not healthy, fresh meat can be eaten at any time, but you will always miss those pickled foods that impress you.
Now Xuanwei's pig-killing rice has entered the restaurant and become a series of dishes. Maybe this is a good way to experience food or comfort the souls of homeless people. However, in this sense, killing pig rice is only a formal existence, lacking culture as a soul and losing its original connotation.
I have also asked many people what they think of food. Most of them only recognize the food in memory. The same dishes are mostly in form now, always lacking the taste in memory.