a while ago, I cleaned the kitchen cabinet and found an old potato lying in it. It was a little faded after being fried, and it was stewed just right. It was cut into long strips with thick fingers and served with soy beans. It was fried in boiling oil, and the potatoes were not covered with water. Turn on the low heat, and slowly stew until the potatoes turned sandy and the beans turned yellow-green. Then it can be cooked and put on the plate. Sprinkle some green chopped green onion to add color, and serve it on the table.
When I was a child, potatoes were the most affordable vegetables, and there were plenty of beans in my own land. This "potato dish" was often cooked by my mother, but every time my mother cooked this meal as a child, I always thought the food was not delicious. In my mother's nagging and bullying, I reluctantly picked up my rice bowl and ate the beans that were more palatable. Now I find that the taste experience of conquering the tip of the tongue, which I have been pursuing, turned out to be the meal cooked by my mother, which is the taste of my mother. When I was a child, I hated the rice that haunted me now, as well as the mixed soup made by my mother.
? Although the summer in Qin 'an, my hometown, can't be said to be hot, it can't be underestimated in dog days. When Qin 'an people spit out their tongues and frown in the heat, what they want most is not to drink ice water and eat watermelon, but to wish they could fill a bowl of slurry soup. Just thinking about it can eliminate a whole body of sweat.
Slurry is a unique delicacy in Tianshui, which is fermented from vegetables. It has the functions of detoxification, diuresis, relieving fire and lowering blood pressure, so it is deeply loved by people. Generally, celery, Chinese cabbage, shepherd's purse and bitter skirt vegetables (wild vegetables) are used to make them. The prepared slurry soup is as light as milk, the leaves are brown, the smell is sour and refreshing, and the saliva has been produced under the tongue. All rural women in Tianshui can cook water, but whether it is good or not depends on the level. If they do well, they still want to eat it. If they do badly, the whole jar will be emptied and even the jar will be discarded.
? There are many ways to eat slurry, such as slurry water surface, slurry fish, slurry soup, slurry radish and so on. We also have a kind of "sanfan" there. When eating sanfan, the necessary side dish is to mix sauerkraut. Picking up the sauerkraut in the slurry and adding salt to it is called vegetarian food and meat. I like to add a tomato slice when mixing sauerkraut, so that the pickled cabbage is so delicious that I can't even drink a mouthful of soup. My stomach is cold, and this way of eating does not cool my stomach.
? My deepest memory of slurry is the slurry mixed with soup made by my mother in summer. I like to eat the slurry made of celery and bitter skirt vegetables, so my mother always uses these two dishes to make slurry. In the hottest days of summer, my father, who has been away from home all the year round, will come back, and my mother will also put down the farm work in the field for a few days at this time. When my father is not at home, my mother has to work hard in the fields all day. In order to save time, she only cooks two meals in the morning and evening, but when my father comes back these days, my mother will definitely cook lunch, usually with water and soup.
? Before cooking at noon, my mother always sends me to the back garden to pick onions, leeks and peppers. Mother washed her hands, rolled up her sleeves, scooped out half a bowl of flour from the flour bag, spread it on the chopping board, added water into a flocculent shape, and then chopped it into small flour granules with a kitchen knife. Uncover the wooden lid on the slurry tank, scoop out a bowl of slurry from the tank, and then scoop out two chopsticks of pickled cabbage. My mother finely cuts the shallots into chopped green onions on the chopping board, cuts the leeks into inch-long pieces, cuts the peppers into circles and puts them aside, and then pours rapeseed oil into the pot. When the oil is hot and smoky, add the leeks and peppers and stir them quickly out of the pot. The smell of the leeks and the pungent taste of the peppers jumped out of the kitchen and filled the yard, making people drool. My brother and sister can't wait to mix and stir. This leek pepper is a side dish of mixed soup with water, and it is an excellent partner for pickles.
Next, there is the "paste water". Mom pours a little rapeseed oil into the pot. If there is too much oil, it will be greasy, so it is not a light way to mix soup with paste water. When the oil is hot and red, throw the chopped green onion into the pot, pour the paste water into it when the chopped green onion is in hot oil, and the pot will recover instantly with a sound of "bursts". When the paste water boils, it will be scooped out. Mother will add half a pot of water to the pot. When the water boils, mother will pick up the chopped noodles with a kitchen knife, gently shake her wrist and evenly sprinkle the noodles into the pot, then stir them twice with a spoon to avoid sticking them at the bottom of the pot. When the soup is boiled, she will pour in the slurry. At this time, mother will always scoop half a spoonful of leeks and stir them evenly in the pot, and then sprinkle a spoonful of salt and delicious slurry to mix the soup.
green leeks, brown pickled cabbage and buttered flowers float on the white soup, which looks very nice. The sour taste of water with the smell of chopped green onion and leeks only goes into people's noses. I can't wait long. I quickly put down the small square table, put on the oily leeks and pickles, and then bring out bowls of mixed soup according to my mother's instructions. Dad and my brothers and sisters are already seated at the table without shouting.
? This lunch is usually eaten in the aisle between the kitchen and the small room. The sun doesn't shine in the corridor, and a large sapling of cypress is planted outside the gate, which makes the corridor particularly cool and refreshing. My father and mother are exchanging information about the business situation in the past six months and the harvest in the field this year at the dinner table, and my father will tell us some interesting things in the big cities outside. The wind blew through the house, sending the laughter of our family far away with the fragrance of cypress trees.
? After junior high school, my father opened a factory in other places. My brother and sister went out to study, work and get married. We haven't returned to our old house for the New Year for twelve years, and the old house was finally completely idle after grandma died two years ago.
? In my dream, I want to eat another bowl of mixed soup made by my mother, and I am still in that yard.