The stone mill in the hall of a house in Dongjianghu Mountain
When I was a child, I heard older scholars say that there are male and female stone millstones, but I didn’t understand! It wasn't until I read the "Book of Changes" that I gradually understood the size, up and down, yin and yang of stone mills. The movement of the stone mill is like the reincarnation of the Bagua totem, which has the folk meaning of changing fortunes. Feng Shui uses millstones as ornaments to store on the pulse position, hoping that the times will turn around and Feng Shui will take turns. According to legend, the inventor of the stone mill was Lu Ban, which has a history of more than 2,000 years.
The stone mill in my hometown is placed behind the main door. The millstone weighs more than a hundred kilograms, and the wooden frame is one meter and two meters tall. The height of the millstone is about one meter and three for four, and the square table top is one meter and one meter. Four bucket boards are inserted diagonally around the millstone. The entire chassis is embedded in the bucket boards. The millstone floats on the frame. A brown rope hangs from the beam above the head. The brown rope has a T-shaped hook. The T-shaped hook is set in the hole of the grinding handle. Ready to operate. The millstone in my memory was the second uncle's exclusive tool. Every time during the holidays, he would almost always control it. He had great endurance, was neither hasty nor slow, the horse's steps were fixed, and he pushed, pulled, and pitched just right.
Stone mills are particularly good tools for grinding dry rice noodles, Qiao wheat, flour wheat, tofu, and rice milk; the sound produced by the millstone can be like thunder, deep and rough.
With the arrival of the Winter Solstice, stone mills start to get busy. Every household in the mountains will use glutinous rice and japonica rice to make winter noodles, soak them for half a day, grind the glutinous rice and add japonica rice, indica rice, 82, 73, 64, 55. The hanging slurry is pressed dry, broken into thumb-sized weights, and dried on a bamboo drying board; if necessary, you can grab a handful and mix with water and knead into strips, rounds, cakes, cook sweet glutinous rice, fermented glutinous rice wine, and add sugar. , prepare eggs, and entertain guests. This kind of hospitality etiquette is the highest standard of courtesy in Dongjiang Lake in my hometown. I have been a guest in the countryside and have eaten rice noodle glutinous rice cakes many times, boiled with sweet wine, boiled with cold water eggs, and boiled with eggs. The taste is sweet, glutinous but not greasy.
Stone-ground rice slurry, steamed rice skins, half-dried in the sun, cut into strips and then sun-dried. One or two red, green, and yellow rice skins are specially made and sandwiched between them. When cooking, put one or two rice skins. The colored vermicelli, topped with blanched eggs and shredded bacon, looks colorful. I heard from the elders that the master's treatment of a man is nothing more than this. I remember eating this kind of real rice noodles several times when I was young and being a fake man. It's really interesting in retrospect. I really want to marry a village girl from a family in the mountains of Dongjianghu. I'm so polite. The mother-in-law will definitely make a special gift every year. It is better for my wife to make her own, but the mother-in-law is from the mountains. I would like to express my gratitude to the mothers-in-law who are interested. Giving birth to the mother-in-law is a particularly kind specialty in Dongjiang Lake.
Grinding Qiaomai to make glutinous rice cake is a delicacy in retrospect. The purple color, greasy surface, and salty taste all reflect the wisdom of the mountain people.
In my memory, stone-ground tofu was made after the reform and opening up. The swollen soybeans were poured into the rotating millstone funnel by the spoonful, and the white nectar flowed out from between the bottom plate and the millstone, and dripped into the wooden tofu basin. Put half a pot of water in the pot, hang a parallel cross on the top, and hang a big cloth bag (forked mouth) on the end of the cross to wash the soy milk. After washing the soy milk, only the pressed and dried bean dregs remain in the big bag. Boil the soy milk over a fire, and burn and grind the raw gypsum. Powder, mix one pound of soybeans with one ounce of cooked plaster of paris, boil and scoop it into a tofu basin; place the foot basin on the bottom, remove the millstone frame, place the tofu frame on top, put a piece of gauze on it, and scoop out the paste. Put it into the tofu frame, cover it with gauze, cover it with a wooden board, press the stone grinder on it, and press the water until the tofu is formed; in this process, you can drink cool soy milk, the blended tofu is old, and the bean dregs cake is also delicious; just When you make white tofu, it tastes delicious no matter how you cook it. When you make fried tofu, it will be soft and soft. When you make tofu, it melts in your mouth and has a salty and fragrant taste. You will never forget the taste that is deep in your memory.
? The delicacies produced using stone mills in my hometown include sweet potato powder, hazelnut tofu, and steamed tofu. These original ingredients must be mixed with rice. The tofu in the city does not have the taste of hometown, let alone the sense of intimacy. For the sake of profit, rice and agar are added to the tofu. The rice increases the weight, and the agar solidifies quickly and is full of water. The merchants hurt their customers.
? Living in the fringe of town and countryside in the past few years, there are occasionally authentic rural tofu on the market. Seeing this original natural tofu, I seem to hear the roar of millstones echoing in my ears. A melody of harmonious existence in life, have you heard it?
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