<p class="ql-block"> Good Taste Of My “DIY” In the 1960s and 1970s last century, I went back to my hometown to be a farmer. I learned a lot from the peasants there, not only sowing or harvesting, but also common sense of life , such as food making. So great was my passion for brewing sweet sauce and picking cucumbers with it. As far as I could see, citizens lived city and young people grew in countryside hardly had experience of brewing, go so far observing the process of it neither . Some really keen enthusiasts to do it by myself, I asked my aunt for helping . My aunt catered for the special advice of brew method to me, even taught me by her hands. Let’s look at the following : At the beginning of summer when mildew rains came, I kneaded flour and rubbed it into small slices , then boiled them in hot water, fished out ,and cooled on bamboo mat. The most important thing to me ,the boiled slices needed to put under the shady place. Nearly 25 days later, in middle of July, mildew rains season had passed, it came the hottest day of a year. My aunt told me to break the moldy slices into stives. By the way, it was said, that dry mildew weather caused the hair of mildew yellow, and wet mildew weather made the hair taupe color. The next step, I hauled an urn, filled half cold boiled water, and put the moldy stives in it. I carried the urn on the roof of my house under the burning sun. I paid great attention of not let it get rains day and night, for if not , the brewing failed. After half a month ,the urn which was exposed under burning sun, the slices with water of the urn became dark sauce red color,smelled mellow and rich, my sweet sauce was complete. I felt happily and successfully. I embarked on dipping cucumbers which I prepared, washed and cooled ,into the sweet sauce urn. The urn continued received hot sunshine for a week or more, my wonderful taste sweet picked cucumbers had been done. The sauce could picked cucumbers for 3 times, and the cucumbers of the first picking was the best tasty, the cucumbers sounded sweet and honey. I boiled the sauce which couldn’t pick again , and used it when I cooked food. Of course it was a fine soy sauce.</p> <p class="ql-block"> 品味我的“自制佳肴”</p><p class="ql-block"> </p><p class="ql-block">在上世紀(jì)六七十年代，我回鄉(xiāng)務(wù)農(nóng)。我從當(dāng)?shù)剞r(nóng)民身上學(xué)到了許多，不僅有播種收割，還有諸如制作食物之類的生活常識。我對釀造甜醬以及用甜醬腌制黃瓜充滿熱情。在我看來，城里居民和在農(nóng)村長大的年輕人，幾乎都沒有釀造的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，更別說觀察其釀造過程了。由于我真的熱衷于自己動手，便向嬸嬸請教。嬸嬸專門給我講了釀造方法，甚至手把手教我。下面我們來看看具體做法：</p><p class="ql-block"> </p><p class="ql-block">夏初梅雨時(shí)節(jié)，我把面粉揉好，搟成小薄片，然后在熱水中煮熟，撈出后放在竹席上晾涼。對我來說，最重要的是，煮好的面片要放在陰涼處。大約25天后，到了七月中旬，梅雨季節(jié)過去，一年中最熱的時(shí)候來了。嬸嬸告訴我把發(fā)霉的面片掰成小塊。順便說一下，據(jù)說，干燥的發(fā)霉環(huán)境會讓霉毛呈黃色，潮濕的環(huán)境則會讓霉毛呈灰褐色。接下來，我搬來一個(gè)甕，倒入半甕涼開水，把發(fā)霉的小塊放進(jìn)去。我把甕搬到屋頂，讓它在烈日下暴曬。我日夜都格外留意不讓它淋雨，否則釀造就會失敗。半個(gè)月后，在烈日暴曬下，甕里的面片和水變成了醬紅色，聞起來醇厚濃郁，我的甜醬就釀好了。我感到既開心又有成就感。我把提前準(zhǔn)備好、洗凈并晾干的黃瓜放入甜醬甕中腌制。甕繼續(xù)接受一周甚至更久的烈日暴曬，美味的醬腌黃瓜就大功告成了。這醬可以腌制三次黃瓜，第一次腌制的黃瓜味道最佳，吃起來香甜可口。當(dāng)醬不能再用來腌制黃瓜時(shí)，我就把它煮開，炒菜的時(shí)候用，當(dāng)然，它是很棒的醬油。</p>