When I was a child, every late fall, my mother bought a lot of mustard lumps to make sauerkraut. I remember her saying that people are prone to fire in winter, and sauerkraut can be refreshing and greasy, clear the stomach and fire, regulate the spleen and stomach, so eat more sauerkraut can be prevented by the fire of the disease. So, every year, we have to make a big jar of sauerkraut. Nowadays, this habit has been passed on to my generation. My memories of sauerkraut is done this way:

First, first cleaned in previous years to do sauerkraut special vat. This is very delicate, if this special vat has been put on other things or pickled other vegetables, and then used to make sauerkraut, pickled vegetables will rot. Therefore, it is very necessary to specialize the jar and clean it in advance.

Second, prepare the ingredients. Mustard pimples clean, remove the roots and skin, with vegetable rubbing into coarse silk; the leaf stems and a small amount of young leaves are also cleaned, cut into small pieces; find a piece of green stone that can be put into the vat and cleaned. Note here, never use red sandstone, this kind of stone in the tank soaked for a long time will lose some gravel sand, eat vegetables will be sand when the teeth.

Third, the production method. First put the prepared mustard pimples into the tank, put some vegetables with "sip crutch" to tighten the pressure, pay attention to be sure to press, put the top of the finished with a stone on the pressure.

Fourth, boil a pot of water, cool it down and pour it into the tank until the vegetables are flat.

Fifth, place the vat in a warmer place to let the vegetables in it ferment. When the fermentation is done, the vegetables will become sour and crunchy. Just quickly remove the vat to a cooler environment so that the sauerkraut doesn't become sheepish or even rotten.

Sauerkraut generally have so many ways to eat:

Directly eat, take a bowl of sauerkraut shredded or cut into pieces, sprinkle a little salt, put a little sesame oil, crisp and refreshing; can also be fried and eaten, such as sauerkraut fried sheep's blood, sauerkraut fried oat tannins, fried buckwheat bowl of buckwheat bald, sauerkraut fish, and so on; you can also do soups, such as sauerkraut and tofu soup, sauerkraut and squash soup, sauerkraut and sheep's blood soup, boiled sauerkraut, etc.; also can do sauerkraut Mutton bacon with noodles to eat.

Two, sour pickles

Sour pickles like Korean kimchi, but there is no sugar in it, and sour and salty, true to its name, there is a hint of spicy flavor, it is colorful and green, looking at it will increase appetite. Due to regional reasons formed Shanxi people's unique eating habits, breakfast and dinner is to eat thin rice and steamed bread and other staples, generally not fried vegetables. Therefore, pickles are used for the morning and evening meals to accompany these two meals. This dish, which has been passed down for thousands of years, is that it is hot and sour, appetizing and digestion, eat also will not gain weight and long meat.

Sour pickles in addition to mustard pimples as the main ingredients, but also added to many dishes, such as carrots, kale, green and red peppers, radish, cabbage, fennel white, Hu celery, garlic, ginger and so on.

Preparation: Wash and dry all the vegetables used. Carrot cut into pieces, mustard, radish, ginger cut into thin slices, cabbage, fennel white, Chinese celery cut into sections.

Practice: (a)

1, the special altar washed and dried.

2, put the prepared vegetables into the altar, add salt marinade.

3, put a little soybean oil in the frying ladle, when the oil is hot, put the peppercorns frying flavor, pour syrup vinegar frying until the smell floats out, let it cool, and pour it into the altar, submerge it until it is level with the vegetables, and then seal it.

Leaving 2 days later, the fragrant sour pickles can be on the table.

Practice: (2)

1, 2, and practice (a) the same

3, boiling pepper water: cold water into the pepper, the water boiled for about 5 minutes after the fire, cooled down and poured into the altar, submerged to the vegetable level, sealed, placed in a hot place to ferment. When you can taste, put in a cold place, the advantage of this method is that after eating the vegetables, the soup can continue to add vegetables marinated.

Eating method is a few drops of sesame oil in the dish before serving.

Three, spicy dishes

You may have tasted mustard oil, right, that choking flavor, let you eat your fingers, choking and do not give up. The flavor of spicy vegetables is similar to mustard oil, and it is also an indispensable delicacy on the table of Fenzhou people. The snow-white color of spicy vegetables, occasionally set off by a few fried peppercorns, is black and white, crystal clear and appetizing.

Practice: cut the washed mustard lumps into fine julienne. Put a little soybean oil in the frying ladle, when the oil is hot, put peppercorns fried flavor, fried to black, put into the mustard shredded quickly stir-fry a few times, into the salt and stir, out of the pot while it is still hot into a canister that can be sealed, placed in the heat, about two days can be eaten. But remember to place the jar of spicy vegetables in a cold place in a timely manner, otherwise the spicy vegetables will turn blue and sticky, and then the spicy vegetables will not be edible.

Four, pickles

Of course, mustard goosebumps can also be salted pickles, pickled in the following summer to dry shrink, and then a sandy pot to simmer out the water to half-dry, looks like beef jerky, that is a rare snack for children. When you are not doing anything, bite a piece in your mouth, slowly chew, savor, as in chewing delicious chewing gum, except that the taste is salty; if you cut the pickles into thin julienne, put some green onions, a few drops of sesame oil and vinegar, no matter what you eat is any tea, will feel nourishing and appetizing.

In fact, the mustard pimple can make so many fancy flavor beautiful small dishes, in the final analysis, or because of the "winter no fresh vegetables" helpless, as the saying goes: "clever daughter-in-law is difficult to cook without rice," ah! But in recent decades the rapid development of agricultural science and technology, now regardless of spring, summer, fall and winter at any time you can eat fresh vegetables, when these small dishes are no longer respected by the people, the average family rarely use pickles as the main winter meal, and even rarely hand-made. But unexpectedly, all types of large and small restaurants and even hotels will be mustard pimples on the table, the old "home cooking" to elaborate exercise to become "local specialties". Mustard is no longer under the bar, but to become a Yangchun Baixue jumped on the hall of elegance, rightfully written on the menu of the hotel, set on the banquet.