Qingmingguo, also known as miancaiyi and qingmingyi, is a traditional snack in Wenzhou. It is made by the ancient method and the primitive stone tools. The soft waxy is chewy and has a longer aftertaste. What is the cultural connotation of qingmingguo? How is qingmingguo made? Let's get to know.
The cultural connotation of qingmingguo
Every year, the leaves are green and the fruits are fragrant. On the Qingming Festival, almost every family in his hometown has made Qingming fruit in various shapes, no matter outside the city, north of the Yangtze River, rich or poor. Qingming fruit is full of fragrance. It looks more like a beautiful jade, and it tastes more fragrant and smooth. Qingming Festival can eat 'cold food', that is, Qingming fruit, instead of cooking with a fire. There is also a very important commemorative significance in this, that is, in order to recall the hermit jieziti, who did not do meritorious service and did not say anything about his salary, and who warned the king to be diligent and love the people with his blood poems.
Jiezitui admonishes Duke Wen of Jin to "clear and restore the Qingming", but Duke Wen set the mountain on fire. Finally, jiezitui didn't move, and finally died holding a tree. When we chew the fruits of Qingming with relish, we should recall the sage and hermit jieziti who didn't do any good and didn't say anything about his salary two thousand and six hundred years ago, who admonished the king with his blood poems. He was moved by jieziti's disdain for fame and wealth, his anger at fraud and deception, his misdeeds in the world, and his sacrifice spirit of serving the king.
Qingming Festival is a festival for ancestor worship, for remembering the martyrs, and for remembering the present. As time goes by, the Qingming fruit is no longer the pure meaning of ancestor worship. It has a strong kinship and pure country feeling. Now, people far away from their hometown will have light nostalgia and sweet memories from the bottom of their hearts when they think of the green fruits.
The practice of qingmingguo
Qingmingguo, also known as miancaiyi and qingmingyi, is a traditional snack in Wenzhou. It is made by the ancient method and the original stone tools. It is soft and glutinous, chewy and has a longer aftertaste. It is a kind of food culture returning to the nature!
1. First of all, we should prepare and clean the stone mortar, which is a typical old tool for pounding rice and rice flour and rice cake in rural areas. I'm afraid it's hard to see now. (of course, if there is no stone, it can also be replaced by iron pot or bucket. If there is no stone hammer, it can also be replaced by wooden stick.).
2. Pick the fresh wormwood, pick the yellow flowers and clean them.
3、 Mash the fresh wormwood into vegetable juice. The finer the wormwood, the better. It can also be boiled and mashed. It can also be broken with a juicer.
4. After mashing the vegetable juice, add the vegetable with the juice; put in the glutinous rice flour, knead it into a ball by hand first, and add some water according to the degree of dryness and wetness to knead it evenly;
5. Lift a stone hammer (or called a stone hammer) weighing dozens of Jin and keep pounding. There should be a person nearby as an assistant. Sprinkle some dry powder on the glutinous rice flour and stone mortar from time to time to prevent sticking the stone hammer. Also turn the dough and pound the whole glutinous rice dough evenly.
6. After about 15 minutes, it becomes a very flexible powder. In this way, the mashed dough can be made into Qingming fruit, and the skin will not be broken and the stuffing will not be exposed.
7. No stone mortar can also be kneaded thoroughly in the pot, preferably with a wooden hammer. It also works. At last, we can hardly see the residue of wormwood, which is all green powder.
8. Take 30-40 pieces of fresh pomelo leaves, wash and dry them, and cut them into circles for standby.
9. Start to pack the Qingming fruit, take out a piece of glutinous rice flour, first rub it round, then turn out a pit with your thumb, put the stuffing in turn, finally close up and rub it again, flatten it; stick a grapefruit leaf on the bottom.
10. Steam in a wok, turn the heat for 12 minutes and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Qingming fruit with pleasant fragrance is out of the cage.
Introduction to qingmingguo
Every time in Qingming Dynasty, every family should make a kind of food called Qingming fruit, which is used to pay homage to the ancestors when they visit the tomb. Qingmingguo, as its name implies, is closely related to Qingming Festival.
From the shape point of view, qingmingguo is a little like jiaozi, but its taste is quite different from jiaozi. The skin of qingmingguo is made of a kind of plant called AI Ye. The leaves of AI are small like those of Compositae. They are covered and clustered. Wormwood is bitter, pungent and warm. It has the reputation of "medical grass". The ancients often hang wormwood in front of the door. It is used to ward off evil spirits and mosquitoes. In ancient times, before the Qingming Festival every year, women carried bamboo blue and came to the fields in groups to pick the leaves. The green and fresh leaves were piled in the blue, which was very attractive.
After picking the Wormwood Leaves, mash the wormwood leaves together with the juice, mix them with glutinous rice flour and early rice flour in a certain proportion to form a dough, then process them into a dough, then fill with fillings according to personal taste, and finally knead the dough to form. Qingming fruit was born after complicated procedures. People used to think that Qingming fruit was only found in the northeast of Jiangxi Province. Later, it was found that Zhejiang and Fujian areas adjacent to the northeast of Jiangxi had the habit of eating Qingming fruit, which may be related to the universality of AI's growth in these areas. The fruits of Qingming are used to offer sacrifices to ancestors and express the memory of the deceased.