Although the Bai family from which Bai Lingjun was born is not a wealthy family, his family has always lived in the north, and they are certainly no stranger to the food cooked in the "five-cooked kettle".
Although you may not be able to eat meat for every meal in winter, you can still cook some pig, beef and mutton offal in a pot of cooked vegetables in a five-cooked kettle in the winter if you grow your own vegetables and dry them in the summer and autumn.
The taste of Bai Lingjun still smells good when I recall it.
The food they ate was not rare, but it could fill their stomachs and keep them warm, which was already very good for their family at that time.
Bai Lingjun said quite nostalgically: "Although I can eat meat every meal now and wear rich clothes, I still remember from time to time that I used to cook haggis, mallow and other very delicious things with my parents and brothers in a five-cooked kettle in winter.
ordinary dishes,
I didn’t expect rare dishes like coriander and ground chicken, but I am still very satisfied. Unlike now, I even have more ideas about my husband’s status and want him to move to a higher position.”
At this time, there were more types of vegetables. During the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, there were at least 30-40 kinds of vegetables. We often talk about grains. In fact, in addition to grains, there were five vegetables at that time. These five vegetables were sunflower, hyacinth,
Scallions, green onions, leeks.
The first is mallow (also known as winter amaranth), which is the first of a hundred vegetables. Mallow is a vegetable with large leaves.
There is a poem in the Han Dynasty called "Sunflower in the Green Garden", which shows that sunflowers were grown in people's vegetable gardens at that time.
However, later, many vegetables that were more delicious than sunflower appeared, and people stopped planting sunflower.
The history of growing and eating sunflower in China can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty, when people began to cook sunflower soup.
"The Book of Songs" says: "In the seventh month, Kui and Shu are harvested." "Shu" is the soybean we are talking about today. Soybeans are still an important source of protein for Chinese people. Putting Kui and soybeans together shows their importance.
Later generations wrote in Wang Zhen's "Book of Agriculture": "Sunflower is the main vegetable, used to prepare meals for the four seasons. It is rich in nature and drought-resistant, and tastes sweet but non-toxic."
Wang Zhen also recorded a variety of ways to eat Kwai, including cold salad, soup, and vegetable porridge, which all show that Kwai was a popular dish for people at that time.
The reason why sunflower is popular is that it has many irreplaceable advantages: its strong adaptability allows sunflower to be widely planted in the north and south of the Yangtze River, and its cold-resistant characteristics allow sunflower to be harvested and put on the table in autumn and winter.
However, in terms of taste, the leaves of Aoi are a bit rough and have a tongue-pulling feeling, and the taste is sticky and slippery.
Sunflower sprouts have thick juice mainly because they contain polysaccharides. Although polysaccharides cannot be digested and absorbed by the human gastrointestinal tract, they have their own unique functions: on the one hand, they can promote gastrointestinal motility and ensure the normal work of the digestive system; on the other hand, they can become
Food for intestinal bacteria prevents harmful bacteria from invading, so they are replaced.
What is hyacinth? It is the young leaves of soybean seedlings. It is no longer eaten as a vegetable today. There is also 薤. 薤 is a kind of small root garlic. It is no longer common today. Among the five vegetables, only one is still eaten today.
Onions and leeks.
Why have many vegetables disappeared? Because the ancients were not completely incommunicado with other countries. After delicious vegetables from other countries were introduced to our country, everyone thought they were delicious. Naturally, no one grew those old vegetables.
Moreover, plants are the same as animals. As long as they are cultivated by humans, they are domesticated and eliminated. For example, cabbage, which was called Chinese cabbage at that time, was not that delicious. Later, people gradually invented improved varieties, and cabbage became more delicious.
Thick, sweet and delicious.
In addition to sunflower, hyacinth, leek, and garlic, there were also radish and cabbage during the Three Kingdoms period. Radish is native to my country, and cabbage is also called kohlrabi. In later generations, no one ate it except pickles.
But at that time, cabbage could be used as food. It is said that wherever Zhuge Liang went, he asked his soldiers to grow cabbage because it could be used as military food.
Taro, also known as taro or taro, is both a vegetable and a staple food. The cooking method is similar to that of ours now. The taro in my country is recorded in the "Historical Records" of the Han Dynasty: "Under the Min Mountain, there are squatting owls in the wild. They will not eat them until they die." "Hungry, cloud taro is also called. The shape of the covered taro is like a squatting owl."
Deng Ai also planted it when he was working in the Huaihe River, but unfortunately not much was planted. After all, even taro can be eaten as food, but it is still not as good as
Eggplant, originally from India, was introduced to my country during the Han Dynasty and was popularized in the Central Plains during the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was a fresh vegetable at that time.
Wild rice is highly adaptable and can grow in both warm and cold climates. It also grows along the Luo River. During this season, people will pick it and sell it in the Luoyang market.
The Diaohu rice recorded in "Qimin Yaoshu", the Diaohu in the Diaohu soup is wild rice. How famous is this rice? The great poets of the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai and Du Fu, both wrote poems about it.
Li Bai's poem "Staying at Xun Ni's House at the foot of Wusong Mountain" said: "Kneel down and eat with carved rice, the moon shines brightly on the plain plate."
Du Fu said in "Jiang Ge Lying Sick and Writing": "Sliding and recalling the carved barley rice, smelling the fragrant brocade soup."
There are also some leeks, gourds, scallions, brassicas (rapeseed), radish, parsley, lotus root, water chestnuts, gordon, water spinach, cabbage, etc. are also very popular.
There are also records related to the method of eating gourds in the "Book of Songs", such as "The flags are flying and the leaves are picked, and the harvest is prosperous", "Melons are eaten in the seventh month, and the pot is broken in the eighth month", etc., indicating that gourds have been used as food from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.
use.
It is recorded in "Shiming" of the Eastern Han Dynasty that "the gourd is stored, and the skin gourd is used as preserved meat, and it is stored for use in the winter moon", which shows that gourds have been used as an important food source in the Han Dynasty, and processing methods have been developed.
In addition to gourds, what we can also eat are long-necked gourds with relatively long "necks", large gourds with a flat spherical shape, and standard-looking thin-waisted gourds.
Of course, these three types of gourds can be transformed into containers when they grow old, and can be used to hold vinegar or ladle water. Unexpectedly, gourds can be used for eating.
Weicai is also known as "Big Chaocai". It is an annual or biennial species with purple-red flowers and long flat pods containing five or six seeds, which are edible. It is also known as "Vatch" and is eaten by picking the weed.
Celery was called "Hu Qin" in ancient my country. It is generally believed to have been introduced during the Han Dynasty's expansion into the Western Regions. The celery grown in Zhe County, Yuzhou is the best and is famous for its large size, crispness, tenderness and fragrant taste.
It was also the place where Cao Cao lived when he was granted the title of King of Wei. If Cao Cao wanted to eat Huqin at that time, it would be very convenient, even more convenient than the emperor.
It is worth mentioning that at that time there were already fungi, called "chickens", and there were several kinds of them for eating.
"Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals·Original Flavor Chapter" states that "the most beautiful flavor is the fungus of Yueluo". This fungus of Yueluo was regarded as a delicacy by the ancients, and it is the shiitake mushroom that is commonly seen on our dining tables today.
There is a way to eat it called "缧 mushroom", the raw material is fresh mushroom, and the so-called "缼(fou)" means cooking.
Choose unopened fresh mushrooms (chicken), wash away the soil with light salt water, blanch them in boiling water, take them out and tear them into pieces.
Cut the scallions into thin slices, make soup with sesame oil and ghee, then add fresh mushrooms, thick black bean sauce, salt and pepper into the soup and cook.
What is mentioned above is the "vegetarian method" (vegetarian dish). You can also cook pre-cooked pig, mutton, and chicken slices with fresh mushrooms. There is no need to add oil here. It is called the "meat method" (meat dish).