My mother has been cooking for 70 years, and she doesn't have a specialty, but the soy sauce beans she cooked smell mellow and are enjoyable to eat. They are very authentic and authentic, which is a delicious food that sisters are proud of.
Every summer in those years, my mother began to select materials: pick out the golden-colored, full-grained, neither bad nor rotten soybeans one by one, pour them into a big earthen basin, wash them with the newly drawn "well-cooled" water in a rolling well, and put them in an iron pot to cook for about 30 minutes with a big fire.
After the cease-fire, stew for five minutes, remove with an iron fence to dry the water, and pour in appropriate flour to mix with cooked beans. Knead it into the shape of a corn cob, then put it back into the pot and steam it for about 30 minutes. Cease fire, immediately open the pot and let it cool for later use.
Mother is busy picking a handful of sorghum leaves from the field and coming back to wash them and dry them. And cut back a large bundle of Artemisia annua in the fields in front of and behind the village. At this time, the room was filled with the sweetness of bean buns and the extraordinary fragrance of Artemisia annua.
Then began to load the basket. I remember that there was a container woven with corn coats at home, and the bottom was made of thin rods at the top of sorghum, which was called "beat" The whole container is cylindrical, and its name is basket. Good sealing, often used to "cover the beans with soy sauce".
I was very curious at that time and always wanted to witness the miracle with my own eyes and see how the raw beans turned into delicious food that people would never give up. But my mother is busy during the day and always does this work at night. Therefore, I often regret missing opportunities.
Where there's a will, there's a way. When I was about to doze off this time, I applied a thick layer of cool oil on my eyelids, and finally I made it to the moment of witnessing the miracle.
I saw my mother quickly spread a thick layer of Artemisia annua on the bottom of the basket, wrapped the bean buns layer by layer with sorghum leaves, tied them with fine hemp rope, lined them up one by one, and covered them with Artemisia annua. If you put it up layer by layer, the basket will be almost full.
At this time, my mother poured a sieve of broken wheat straw on it, covered it with an old dress, and put it in the corner of the woodpile to let it ferment slowly, completing the transformation like "phoenix nirvana".
I always wanted to sneak a look, but my mother said that if I ran away, it would be bad, and I couldn't eat fragrant beans. Finally, I just looked and looked, but I didn't dare to do it.
Finally, on the seventh day, at night, my mother opened the basket and carefully cut open the layers of sorghum leaves. One by one, the steamed buns covered with white hair and gray bumps were ugly in shape and strange in taste, which made people hate it.
I said, "Mom, throw it away!" Unveiled disgust and disappointment. Mother said earnestly: Dani, all delicious things are troublesome to cook, and beautiful things are not necessarily delicious. This needs to be aired and steamed and soaked in the sun to be delicious.
I waited patiently for more than ten days, and my mother broke this "ugly" bean bun into small pieces and spread it out on the mat to dry. The midsummer sun is really poisonous, and it will be scorched in three or four days. Mother put most of them in an earthen cloth bag and hung them on the hooks hanging from the beams in the house. Mom said it would take a year. It's precious!
There should be more than a big bowl left, so my mother will add some water to the iron pot, add pepper, aniseed, onion, ginger and salt, then clean the dried bean buns and put them in water for boiling.
After cooking for about 30 minutes, I imagined the beans dancing happily in boiling water, feeling happy and full of expectations. Stew for another 20 minutes. I can't wait. But my mother was still unhurried, and boiled for about 30 minutes with a small fire, then slowly opened the lid.
The original clear soup was watery, and it gradually became a little bit thin and sticky. At this time, my mother took it out with a spoon and put it in a earthen pot. After cooling, she covered it with old plastic paper and exposed it in poisonous sunlight. Sun, sun, sun for thirty days.
The color of the gray process is gradually changing: gray Huang Yiyi, gray red, brown red and tuo red. The concentration changed from clear soup to thin water, then to muddy and sticky, and finally to thick and thick.
And bask in a layer of transparent oil, which tastes more and more fragrant and mellow. Put them in a small sealed jar, scoop out a few spoonfuls every meal, drop a few drops of ground sesame oil and dip them in steamed buns. They are delicious and very steamed. When making braised chicken pieces, put two spoonfuls on them as soon as they are out of the pot. The fragrance is full of alcohol, and the color is bright, and the color, smell and taste are good. What old godmother, sweet noodle sauce, spicy sauce, can't be compared.
The most noteworthy thing is to make a Zhajiang Noodles: fry chopped green onion, cut some diced lean meat, put two spoonfuls of homemade hometown old-fashioned sauce when it is ready, and make a noodles. That taste is simply wonderful.
When I was in middle school, because my family was poor, I couldn't bear to buy the dishes served by everyone at school. My mother's delicious soy sauce became a must-eat dish for every meal. At that time, every weekend when I came back from home, my mother would prepare a large glass bottle of soy sauce beans for me to take to school. So week after week, year after year. The taste of soy sauce has become the taste of mother's love.
Later, I was admitted to the university and became farther and farther away from home. After graduation, I became a home in a foreign country and a mother myself. Life was like this step by step, tepid and as calm as the water in Panhe and Zhaohe rivers. Living conditions are getting better and better these years, and I don't have to worry about food and clothing anymore, but my mother's soy sauce beans are rarely eaten.
Whenever I go back to Sheqi from other places to visit my relatives, I always bring bags of foreign specialties, such as "Beijing Roast Duck", "Bean Yellow" and "snowballing", which my mother has never eaten before. When I came back, my mother called to my younger brother, "Yang, kill the chicken." I quickly said, "Mom, I'd rather eat your Zhajiang Noodles made with earth sauce!"
Life with parents is the best.
I have traveled all over the country for decades and tasted so many delicious foods, but I always feel that the local sauce in my hometown is authentic, and the traditional handmade soy sauce made by my mother is the most fragrant!