Chapter 40 The fate of porridge

After the winter solstice, it will be Laba in a few days. At this time, there was no grand occasion of eating porridge in the whole country in later generations. Only the temples and nunneries "cooked medicine and food" and distributed them to the families of benevolent believers. ①

There are several disciples in Guangming Nunnery who dispense medicines and food to the believers at the entrance of the main hall, and there are also special disciples who send medicines and food to the high-level mansions where they communicate with each other.

Because of Shen Shaoguang's relationship with Guangming'an, when Jingqing came out of the workshop, he specially got out of the car and put down a bowl for her. Shen Shaoguang took it with a smile and exchanged a few words of greetings. Seeing that Jingqing was in a hurry, knowing that she had to run many homes, he took out the money from the basket and put it in the basket with the porridge jar, and sent her out in person.

Jingqing felt embarrassed, "Why are you being polite when we are like this? I usually have a lot of good things from you, but this time I just want you to taste our medicine and food."

Shen Shaoguang said with a smile: "We also boiled some eight-treasure porridge here, which is similar to your medicine and food. We will send it to the nunnery later. You can also taste it when you come back. How is it better than your medicine and food."

Jing Qing smiled, "This is really something to try."

The two said goodbye at the door, and Shen Shaoguang watched Jingqing board the car and leave.

As she said, Shen Shaoguang personally took a can of eight-treasure porridge and sent it to the nunnery.

This eight-treasure porridge is naturally cooked according to the customs of later generations. In the past life, like most young people, Shen Shaoguang didn't value these traditional festivals. Now he is a stranger in a foreign land, but he misses it very much.

Just like Shen Shaoguang's former classmate of the jet lag party, when he was in China, he wanted to be more foreign, but when he really went abroad, he did the thing of driving from New York to Washington and roaring patriotic songs all the way.

When talked to Shen Shaoguang in the video, Shen Shaoguang laughed at her. Do you have so much stock in your song library? Wouldn't it be a complete single loop?

The classmate smiled: "The key is to express my love for the motherland, okay?"

Shen Shaoguang is also full of love for the old time and space. Now he is the master of the house, and any festival will be celebrated as before.

Today's fruits and vegetables are not as diverse as in later generations, but almost all of the grains already exist. Rice, corn, millet, barley, and red beans are all important. The lotus seeds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, walnuts, and chestnuts in the porridge and fruit are also indispensable. The most important thing is red dates.

It is said that the most exquisite cooking method of red dates is to peel and remove the core, and then add them when the porridge is cooked, without throwing away the jujube skin, use it to boil water, and then use this water to cook the porridge, and take the jujube aroma.

Shen Shaoguang had never eaten such exquisite Laba porridge. The porridge she drinks is made of whole jujubes thrown into the porridge, so when she eats porridge, she often spit out a jujube stone, and occasionally a jujube peel sticks to her upper chest.

Now cook by himself, Shen Shaoguang pondered, soaked the jujube, removed the core, then used a small grinder to refine the pulp, and then filtered the jujube peel through a fine fence. and nuclear issues.

This kind of eight-treasure porridge is very praised by Master Yuanjue.

On the porridge skin that was set, there were crispy and fragrant porridge fruits such as pine nuts and hazelnut pulp, all kinds, small piles, strangely beautiful. Stir it with a spoon and take a sip. The rice is rotten and the fruit is crispy. It can take care of both the tongue and the teeth.

Master Yuanjue laughed too: "Next year, our medicine and food will also be changed to this way."

Shen Shaoguang felt the absurdity of "grandson returned to ancient times to teach grandfather". Laba porridge may have been transformed from the medicine and food at this time, but will it be replaced at this time? However, Haolai is just a nunnery, and Haolai is just a kind of food, so don't take it too seriously.

This Laba porridge is not only given to neighbors and Guangming Temple, but also to diners. Among them, there is one who claims to be his wife's favorite congee and wants to buy a jar. didn't know it before, but now know that this is from Lin Shaoyin's house. Shen Shaoguang gave him a jar just like he gave Guangming An.

Who knew that this pot of porridge gave Shen Shaoguang the opportunity to return to the "old house".

At this time, although there was no saying that "after Laba is the year", in fact, people have lived like this for thousands of years. After Laba, the rhythm of the busy year has accelerated, and the taste of New Year's Yuanzheng is getting stronger and stronger.

The store has stored a lot of preserved vegetables, rice grains, wine, radishes, woks and other vegetables that can be kept for a long time. Beware of the New Year's Day such as butcher shops and rice grain shops closing in a few days. There is no need to wait until the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to clean the house, the store and the back house have already started the year-end cleaning.

Shen Shaoguang himself and A Yuan and their New Year's New Year clothes were also sewn by someone - Shen Shaoguang's needlework was mediocre, and A Yuan did not twist the horizontal needles and the vertical threads, so he did the clothes. , you can only ask professionals to do it for you.

Perhaps the officials are busy with the year-end performance summary report, the business people are asking for bills - or hiding their bills, and there are fewer people who come to drink in the liquor store. Shen Shaoguang happened to take Yu San, A Yuan, and A Chang calmly. Rongdi prepares for the New Year, and occasionally also buys some steamed cakes.

Since the Qixi Festival flower cake has become famous, when it comes to the festival, when it is necessary to give gifts or sacrifices, some people come to buy flower cakes, and some time ago on the winter solstice, Shen Shaoguang made a small profit.

The New Year's Yuanzheng is naturally not comparable to the winter solstice. After the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, there will be many New Year's gifts. If you know Shenji flower cakes, you should put two more boxes for the occasion.

This afternoon, Shen Shaoguang was decorating the cloud cakes when he saw the servant of Lin Shaoyin's house coming over and said to Shen Shaoguang with an apologetic smile: "I have an unkind request to trouble the little lady."

Shen Shaoguang asked him to speak.

"That day, my wife drank the porridge from your shop and felt very good. When I think about it today, I asked the cook to imitate it, but the taste couldn't come out. I don't know if your shop can make a bowl for it, and the cost can be calculated. "

Cooking eight-treasure porridge is a labor-intensive job. Shen Shaoguang was about to explain to him when the servant explained in a low voice, "Today's lunch, Mrs. Tai didn't come in much."

So you want it now?

Shen Shaoguang pondered, "The lotus seed and eight-treasure porridge will not come out for a while, but there is a kind of sweet porridge, which can be a little faster, and the taste is not bad, and it is more suitable for ladies who have Spring and Autumn." Shen Shaoguang said It's walnut cheese.

Shen Ji, whether it is jade-pointed noodles, cakes, hot pots, or meat and vegetables, they are all very appealing to Mrs. Tai, this servant trusts Shen Shaoguang, the key is that there is no other way, "Then I will trouble the little lady. Yes. When will you pick it up?"

It is said that it takes less time than cooking eight-treasure porridge, but it is also a labor-intensive matter. Because it involves an old man and Lin Shaoyin's face for tips, Shen Shaoguang took over the job of this private chef.

At this time, after listening to the servant's words, I suddenly had other thoughts: "The time is not easy to estimate, it will never be later than the evening meal. The guests are not used to pick them up, we will send them there when the time comes."

The servant naturally did not refuse, and immediately smiled: "In this case, I will leave it all to the little lady."

After the servant left, Shen Shaoguang handed over the decoration of the cloud cake to Yu San, and started peeling walnuts, picking jujube pits, grinding rice milk, and preparing to make walnut cheese.

Yu San was a little puzzled about why Shen Shaoguang took over cooking a bowl of porridge, but then he thought, such a bowl of porridge might be able to sell for the price of a pot of cake, and it would be strange that the little lady would refuse...

Shen Shaoguang was thinking about the former residence. I came to this workshop, but I haven't been in it yet. That "home" is just what it looks like in my memory and in my sleep.

Although Shen Shaoguang couldn't tell whether it was his own home or not, just like he couldn't tell whether Shen Qian and his wife and Shen Zhiwen, the boy named A Zhang, were his parents and elder brother, but Shen Shaoguang still wanted to go back and have a look , especially after A Yuan came back and talked about what he saw in that house.

Shen Shaoguang thought about the old things, and threw the peeled walnut kernels into boiling water to scald. In fact, microwave heating is the same, but there is no microwave at this time.

In the era of these kitchen appliances, walnut cheese was simply too easy, but now it can only be "purely handmade".

To make eight-treasure porridge, you need to peel and core to get the red date meat, and also need to make walnut cheese. But now Shen Shaoguang didn't have soaked jujubes, and only made a small bowl, so he didn't need to use the rude method, just peeled the red dates with a knife.

It was quiet in the store, Yu San finished making the cloud cake, and turned to see Shen Shaoguang wearing an apron, sitting cross-legged in front of the food table, picking the red dates bit by bit, A Yuan picking up beans not far from her, Inside the open kitchen door, Achang was guarding the stove, taking a nap little by little. Yu San smiled and went in to see the fire in the stove, but he didn't wake Achang.

The walnuts are peeled, the dates are also packed, and together with the soaked rice, they are ground into a pulp on a small mill, and then boiled in a pot.

In a short time, the sweet smell of jujube rice permeated the fireside.

Ah Yuan came over, sniffed and smelled, "It's really fragrant."

Shen Shaoguang smiled. There was the aroma of rice cakes and meat in the store. It was hard for her to smell the light porridge.

Seeing that the heat was almost over, Shen Shaoguang added a little sugar to taste, then put it in a white porcelain jar, closed the lid, wrapped it with a small white cloth mattress, and put it in the food box.

"Shall I deliver it?" A Yuan asked.

Shen Shaoguang pointed to the extra bowl, "Go and share with Achang."

Ah Yuan agreed with a smile.

Yu San glanced at her, "Just let them go."

Shen Shaoguang blinked, isn't the child just going to be vertical?

Regardless of Princess Yu, Shen Shaoguang took the food box and left the store.

Wanting to come, the servant greeted the Renren, Shen Shaoguang mentioned it, and the Renren let her in.

Shen Shaoguang was led by the servants of Lin's house, passed the ceremonial door, left the hall, walked through the corridor, bypassed the front court, and entered the back house.

Along the way, Shen Shaoguang compared what he saw with what he remembered. Most of them overlapped, but there were also differences.

The bamboo was much thicker than remembered, and the begonia tree has grown, but the flowers carved on this corridor still look like the old days.

Shen Shaoguang raised his eyes and saw Lin Shaoyin at the end of the corridor, dressed in a white robe of a scholar, like the breeze and the moon.

The author has something to say: 1. There are reference materials for Laba in the Tang Dynasty, some are made up, and no research is required.

The complex cooking method of Laba porridge and the pile of porridge and fruit on the skin refer to Mr. Tang Lusun's article "Reminiscence of Laba in the Cold Weather", and the section of walnut cheese refers to Mr. Liang Shiqiu's article.