No matter where you eat the noodles

None of them are as delicious as the ones made by your mother

Henan people are very fond of noodles, "I will panic if I don't eat them for a day" I'm talking about noodles. In the countryside in the old days, noodles were the second staple food after steamed buns. Noodles were eaten at least once in three meals a day, regardless of whether they were thin or thick.

The types of noodles include soup noodles, dredged noodles, braised noodles, etc. According to the shape, there are noodle sheets, dragon beard noodles and noodle leaves. People eat different noodles in each season. In winter, they eat soup noodles to ward off the cold and warm themselves up. The hot noodles in soup make them warm immediately after eating them. In summer, they eat noodles to cool down. After the noodles are cooked, take them out and put them into cold water from the well. Pull it out and mix it with garlic juice and cucumber shreds for a cool and refreshing taste.

Spring and Autumn are neither cold nor hot, and garlic and green beans have also come out. It is rare for villagers to eat meat. They can’t get enough of braised noodles made with fried garlic and green beans with eggs.

In the past few years, I have eaten out a lot of special noodles such as sour soup noodles, soy pot noodles, and paste soup noodles, but I still feel that they are not as strong as the noodles made by my mother, and the taste is not as good as those made by my mother. The sesame leaf paste noodles are authentic.

Henan people love to eat noodles. In addition to the noodles being delicious and labor-saving and time-saving, the main reason is also the noodles saving. The elders often say that if you roll the noodles thin and cut them narrowly, you don't have to worry about adding customers at the last moment. If you add a few more bowls of water, the food will come out for the guests.

In those difficult times, my mother rarely opened the vat of white noodles unless there were guests or festivals. Of course, my mother would occasionally improve our lives. A delicious meal of sesame leaf pulp noodles brought brightness to the dull days with little oil and meat.

In the countryside of the central plains of Henan, sesame leaf pulp noodles are rich in local characteristics. People eat them endlessly and are suitable for people of all ages. Because of their simple preparation, unique sour taste, salty flavor, digestion and appetizing, they have been popular since ancient times. decline.

In my impression, sesame leaves are used to make starched noodles in my hometown, but in other places I have been, the vegetables that go with starched noodles are mostly dried radish leaves or other dried vegetables. The texture and taste of these slurry noodles cannot be compared with those in my hometown. As for the slurry noodles made with vinegar and batter that can be seen everywhere on city streets, it is not worth mentioning.

Now that I think about it, the reason why my mother’s sesame leaf slurry noodles have a unique taste, strong paste flavor and long aftertaste is mainly because of the exquisite ingredients and exquisite production.

The starched noodles that fascinate me

How particular are they?

Let’s talk about sesame leaves first. This is the most important ingredient.

In my hometown, picking sesame leaves is commonly known as "beating sesame leaves". The beginning of the seventh lunar month is a good time to pick sesame leaves. Beating it too early will affect the sesame harvest, and beating it too late will make it too old to chew.

Different sesame varieties have different colors of sesame leaves. With years of accumulated experience, farmers often prefer sesame leaves with long, narrow and thick leaves. This kind of sesame leaves contains a lot of oil and tastes chewy and mellow.

After knocking down the fresh sesame leaves, the village women picked out the mixed dead leaf debris, cut off the heads and tails, put them into a large iron pot, added water, covered them, and burned them over a high fire. Use chopsticks to turn the sesame leaves over several times until the water boils completely and the sesame leaves turn from green to brown.

Turn off the heat and simmer for a while until the sesame leaves are "fried". Put the fried sesame leaves into a sieve to drain the water. Find a flat and clean open space in the yard and spread them out evenly to dry.

Of course, some people think it is unhygienic and choose to spread it on a straw mat or hang it on a rope to dry. The result is self-defeating. The dried sesame leaves are astringent and unpleasant to eat, and the taste is greatly reduced. I once heard my grandmother say that drying sesame leaves on the land is passed down from generation to generation by the older generations. When the sesame leaves are dried next to the soil, the astringent and bitter taste is absorbed by the soil.

With wind and sun, the sesame leaves will be dried in three or two days, becoming brittle and wrinkled. Pick it up off the ground, put it in a bag and put it away. Whenever you want to eat it, just take it out the day before and soak it in a basin of water overnight. It will not go bad if you eat it for a year.

Let’s talk about the noodles used for slurry noodles. The noodles are hand-rolled and are mung bean noodles that are tough but not hard.

The mung beans I choose are cherry pigeon mung beans that are not moldy and insect-free. First wash and dry the mung beans, then grind them into watercress with a stone mill, mix with an appropriate amount of water, and let them dry until they break into pieces when you put them in your mouth. Process it on a stone mill and roll it into fine flour.

The surface for rolling noodles should be neither soft nor hard, too hard to roll out, or too soft to stick to the chopping board. My mother is an expert at rolling out noodles. A large ball of dough fits snugly in her hands, and she kneads it back and forth into a dough pancake.

The mother pressed both ends of the large rolling pin with both hands, one hand hard and the other gently. The dough grew from small to large, from thick to thin under repeated squeezing, until its shape was about the same size as a steamed bun. When the thickness is moderate, my mother sprinkles some noodles on it, folds it into several folds, and quickly cuts it into uniformly wide noodles with a knife.

I saw the fingers of my mother's left hand slightly bent, pressing the folded dough sheet, holding the knife in her right hand, and cutting it briskly. As the hand moved, the noodles as wide and narrow as one flowed out under the mother's hand.

It’s time to talk about powder paste. The most important thing in making battered noodles is to beat the batter. The powder slurry is also called juice. The powder slurry should not be too sour, as it will upset the teeth; it should not be too light, as it will be tasteless.

In my hometown, peas, mung beans and black beans are often used to make powder paste. The peas were picked out one by one by the mother in the dustpan. Those that were incomplete or had insect holes were discarded.

A few days before making sesame leaf pulp noodles, my mother soaked the selected peas in clean water. After soaking them overnight, after the mung beans were fully expanded, she put them into a small flower mill and ground them into coarse powder. Pulp.

My mother found a large piece of fine cloth that was used to lay on the grate when steaming steamed buns. She poured all the coarse pulp into the cloth bag, used a gourd to scoop water from the vat, rinsed it, and filtered it. All the slurry flowed into the earthen basin.

After rinsing several times and seeing that the filtered water in the bag became clear, I unfolded the bag and poured the slurry residue into the pot. A large basin of slurry was placed quietly on the chopping board, and over time it became clear that it had three layers: upper and lower.

The top layer was as clear as water and had no use. It was scooped out by the mother and dumped. The middle layer is the second pulp, which is the essence of the pulp water and the main raw material for making pulp noodles.

My mother scooped useful slurry water into the earthen jar, added yeast commonly known as "slag head", sealed the earthen jar with plastic cloth, waited patiently for a day or two before opening it, and the slurry in the jar After fermentation, the water has turned into a fine powder slurry, which looks white and bluish in color, and smells sour and fragrant, like a jar of mellow and long-lasting old wine, which is refreshing.

My mother’s starched noodles are the simplest and purest

But the most unforgettable for me

Starting to make the starched noodles, my mother used a spoon to scoop out the starchy water from the earthen pot. Pour it into the iron pot, add two ladles of water, and start boiling the pot.

After closing the lid, mother turned around and went to mix the batter. The noodles taste better only when they are thicker. If the noodles are not enough, you have to use batter to make up for it. When the slurry in the pot is almost boiling, a thin layer of white foam will appear on it. At this time, you need to use chopsticks to dip some sesame oil in the sesame oil bottle and drop it into the pot, then stir gently with a spoon to make the slurry foam. will disappear and the slurry will become fine and smooth.

When the water in the pot boils again, tear up the sesame leaves and throw them into the pot. Wait for a while, then spread out the noodles on the pot and stir them evenly with a spoon. When the fire was simmering for a while, my mother picked up a pair of chopsticks, flicked the pot a few times, and finally sprinkled with chopped green onion and salt, and the noodles were ready to be cooked.

At this time, I was very hungry, holding a bowl and leaning against the door of the kitchen, looking longingly at the dense heat in the kitchen. The mellow aroma of noodles and the strong fragrance of sesame leaves hit my nostrils. It can quench people's greediness every time.

My mother served me a large bowl with a smile, and I didn’t even bother to burn my mouth. I drank and ate, including noodles and vegetables, and I just drank it. I drank several large bowls and ate. Don't give up until your belly is full.

Sometimes a big pot of slurry noodles would be too much to finish in one meal, and my mother would boil the leftovers while waiting for the next meal, which would give it a unique flavor. A local proverb says: "Heat noodles with pulp three times without changing the meat." This is enough to illustrate the unique charm of "noodles with leftover pulp".

The conditions at home were not good at that time, so the slurry noodles made by my mother were the simplest and purest way to eat them.

Those people from well-off families are more particular about eating noodles. They not only need to add some small grinding oil or chili oil, but also add a spoonful of pre-prepared boiled soybeans mixed with diced celery to make the noodles white. , sesame leaves are black, celery is green, soybeans are yellow, and chili peppers are red. Such a combination can be said to be a good color and aroma.

It is not complicated to make side dishes to accompany noodles. Pick some soybeans with full seeds and soak them overnight, add peppercorns, star anise, and salt and cook them. Remove the leaves and roots of celery, wash them, blanch them in boiling water, and cut them into pieces. Cut into small pieces; fry the peanuts in an oil pan until thoroughly fried, then use a rolling pin to crush them. Mix the soybeans and diced celery together in a bowl, and it becomes a refreshing side dish.