The origin of Qingming Tuanzi: Li Xiucheng ordered the Taiping Army to learn to be a Youth League to defend itself against the enemy.
According to legend, during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in a certain year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, the general Li Xiucheng was chased by Qing soldiers, and a farmer nearby came forward to help, disguised Li Xiucheng as a farmer and cultivated the land with him.
Li Xiucheng was not caught, and the Qing soldiers didn't stop there, so they added soldiers to set up posts in the village. Everyone who left the village had to be inspected to prevent them from bringing food to Li Xiucheng.
After returning home, the farmers immediately had a plan because they were slipped by wormwood. They quickly picked some wormwood to go home, washed it, boiled it, squeezed it into glutinous rice flour, and made it into rice dumplings. Then put the green dumplings in the grass and mix them with the sentries at the village entrance. Li Xiucheng ate the green balls, and felt fragrant, waxy and non-sticky.
after dark, he bypassed the Qing soldiers' checkpoint and returned to the base camp safely. Later, Li Xiucheng ordered the Taiping rebels to learn to be a youth league to defend themselves against the enemy. The custom of eating youth league has spread.
characteristics of Qingming dumplings
Qingming dumplings are green as jade, waxy and soft, fragrant, sweet but not greasy, fat but not full. Qingming dumplings can be turquoise mainly by mixing cotton green powder and rice flour and steaming them naturally. They have the fragrance of wild vegetables and the sweetness of spring bamboo shoots in Huangtuling. Besides spring bamboo shoots, lean spring onions and brown sugar stuffing, Qingming dumplings are also very distinctive.
In the selection of ingredients, the production techniques of Qingming dumplings are the most exquisite in Huangyan, Taizhou, eastern Zhejiang Province. The selected bamboo shoots are from Huangtuling Mountain, which produces first-class bamboo shoots and winter bamboo shoots. In ancient times, there was a nursery rhyme: "Bamboo shoots come out of Huangtuling and paper comes out of Wenzhou City".
The local Qingming dumplings in Huangyan are more particular about cotton and green. Many local snacks and delicacies in Huangyan are a must in China, but they are poor in publicity.
Qingming dumplings are made by mashing Folium Artemisiae Argyi, squeezing out juice, and kneading with pure glutinous rice flour. Between a shoving and a turning, the green wormwood juice and rice fragrance are mixed into a whole, and they are kneaded into soft waxy blue dumplings, which are as green as jade, tough and soft, and fragrant.