I miss my hometown fried Baba

Luo Bangyi Wen

In March, it's time to visit my hometown to pay homage to my ancestors. Every season, I am wandering in a foreign land and think of Baba fried with walnut oil.

Fried Baba in my hometown is the first thought of a wanderer when he is homesick. Pan-fried Baba, as the name implies, is to fry the Baba made of flour with oil into golden yellow for eating. My hometown has a high altitude, where buckwheat and corn are abundant, and corn is the main planting variety in my hometown.

Baba, as I said, is made from waxy corn. Every winter, my hometown people begin to prepare Baba flour for tomb sweeping and sacrifice in March, select local varieties of waxy corn grains, soak them in water (the growth cycle of this kind of corn is about 18 days), and after the corn grains absorb enough water, use the necessary stone mill in rural areas to grind the corn. Then the peeled corn kernels are soaked for 2-3 days, and then ground by a stone mill. Under the extrusion of the corn kernels and water, the corn kernels become mushy and flow down the grinding trough. A sand net is laid on the base of the corn paste (a container made of bamboo in rural areas), and the water in the corn paste will naturally drain off with the drain net. When the water is almost gone, the mushy corn starch will be squeezed into blocks, and the blocks will be exposed to the sun with a knife until the water is completely dried. It is necessary to crush the massive corn paste by hand and sieve the corn flour into a dustpan with a Luo sieve (a screen with dense mesh) to continue to be exposed to the sun, and then store it in a dry and ventilated place until there is no moisture in the corn flour.

When waxy corn starch is processed, walnut oil will be processed. Walnut is the source of oil for thousands of years in the village. In my hometown, walnut oil is processed by the original walnut tree without grafting. This kind of fruit is very hard, and my hometown calls it iron walnut. Every family in hometown has a stone hammer and slate for processing iron walnuts. Every time two or three walnuts are put on the slate and smashed with a stone hammer, the walnuts become pieces. This work is time-consuming and laborious. It takes about 3 hours to smash about 1 kilograms of walnuts. After smashing, use a sieve with a larger mesh (called a coarse sieve in hometown) to remove the big walnut shells, and all the walnuts that leak under the net are smashed walnut shells and walnut rice. Put the walnut rice and thin walnut shells into a stone mortar or wooden mortar (people in my hometown call it a kitchen mortar) and pound vigorously. When the walnut rice and walnut shells become cakes, add some hot water. The higher the temperature, the better. Continue to pound vigorously. When you see walnut oil oozing, boil the water in the pot, put it into the beaten walnut oil cake, and then cook it until the pot is full of oil. When the water dissipates, the walnut oil will be finished. After cooling, it will be put into an earthen jar for sealed preservation. The earthen jar is the best container for walnut oil, which can be preserved for one year. Because walnut oil has a short shelf life and can not be preserved for a long time like vegetable oil, villagers will choose earthen jars to preserve walnut oil in long-term practice. The villagers process walnut oil from time to time to ensure that good walnut oil can be eaten all year round.

Baba made of walnut oil and waxy corn starch is a perfect match in fried food in my hometown. Pan-fried Baba is a pre-meal snack that the old family must have when sweeping graves and offering sacrifices in Qingming Festival. On this day of sweeping graves and offering sacrifices in Qingming Festival, a family comes together, and the food they take must first include walnut oil and waxy corn starch, followed by chicken and meat. Processing waxy corn starch is very particular, and the water for kneading the dough is very skillful, neither high temperature nor low temperature, which tests the experience of the processor. Knead waxy corn starch into dough, tear it off by hand and knead it into a round shape, burn walnut oil to a suitable temperature, put it in the kneaded cake and fry it until golden on both sides, take it out and put it in a container with pine needles.

Pan-fried Baba makes the fragrance of corn highly integrated with the fragrance of walnut oil and pine needles, which makes people feel fragrant after eating for a long time. This delicious taste makes people want to stop, and they can't stop eating until they are full. People in my hometown will mix a cold dish with Screaming Trees hair (moss on the tree, after processing), which can relieve greasy when eaten with fried Baba, and of course it is indispensable.

With the continuous progress of science and technology, waxy corn preserved by hometown people is replaced by hybrid corn, and people don't like to grow old varieties of waxy corn. Waxy corn flour is also replaced by glutinous rice flour. Walnut oil is deeply loved by city people, and rapeseed oil is popular among hometown people. Every year, glutinous rice flour is replaced by glutinous corn Baba, which is used to sweep graves and offer sacrifices at Qingming Festival, and it has no taste like that of that year. The stone mill, oil hammer and kitchen mortar in the village became antiques and gradually disappeared in the countryside.

In February of this year, I saw the family notice in the group that grave sweeping and sacrifice would be organized this Qingming Festival, and all the family members asked to go back to their hometown. I couldn't help asking "Have you prepared glutinous corn Baba?" Everyone in the group said that they had already prepared it. I think I can eat the homesickness taste that satisfies me again this year, and I have been laughing from my dreams for several nights in a row. Food in one place for a wanderer who is far away from home, regardless of your scenery and loneliness, you will never forget the taste of your hometown, which may be your lifelong homesickness.