Artemisia cake, the unforgettable smell of grass in spring

Artemisia is the fragrance of spring, and wormwood cake is the delicacy of the countryside.

Shilipo is on the east hill of the village. Shilipo is a paradise for wormwood.

Awakening by the spring breeze and rain, the wormwood grows crazily.

In the first few days, they were still dead branches and weeds. After one night, those wormwoods seemed to have woken up from a dream, growing vigorously under the sunshine, wind and rain of spring.

Many people in the village smelled the fragrance of wormwood, and went to Shilipo with hoes and baskets on their backs to invite each other.

There are several large sloping terraces in Shilipo, and the wormwood trees are turning green in the wind, which is very attractive.

The spring breeze and green waves brought a huge crowd of people, and almost everyone in the village gathered together.

Those who pick the leaves and cut the young buds, put them into baskets and back baskets in large and small quantities.

Adults and children, men and women, old and young, the scene was very lively and brought a lot of spring atmosphere to the village.

In addition to feeding chickens, ducks, and cattle and sheep, wormwood can also be used to make wormwood cake, which is an excellent delicacy and a major spring specialty of the villagers.

Artemisia cake is delicious, but when it comes to making it, it also requires technique and craftsmanship.

The materials for wormwood must be tender, and the tender tips, tender buds and leaves are the best parts.

When wormwood gets old and dries up, it blooms. The resulting wormwood cake is bitter and difficult to swallow.

The glutinous rice and the japonica rice must be properly matched for the rice. Otherwise, it will either be hard or soft enough to touch your hands, neither of which tastes good. As for the rice, you can’t steam it until it’s familiar, just eight or nine layers.

Artemisia cake, a combination of wormwood and rice, seems simple, but the process in the middle is still tricky.

Aunt Liu, the mother of Liu Erwa, is the best at making mugwort cakes in the village.

Aunt Liu has a complete set of mature methods for making mugwort cakes.

For wormwood, pick the tender tips with dew on the tips in the morning before the sun appears.

When you take the wormwood tips home, soak them in rice water for half an hour to remove part of the bitter taste.

Wash the tips of the wormwood and cut it into thin and soft pieces. You can make a cake by pinching a handful of it.

Divide the japonica rice and glutinous rice into four or six parts, soak them in water for half a day, wash them and steam them in a wooden bucket, then quickly pour them into the stone nest in front of the door. Beat the wormwood together until soft, then knead it into a round shape one by one, and the wormwood cake is ready.

The process of making wormwood cake seems simple, but you have to control the heat at every step. How long does it take to steam the rice cakes, how high does the fire on the stove need to be, how long does it take to pour the rice into the Shidui Nest before making the cakes, and when to put in the wormwood. These are all figured out based on experience and vision.

The wormwood cakes made by Aunt Liu are filled with a strong fragrance while they are still in the Shidui nest. They are shaped into cakes one by one and put into the mouth. They are soft, non-sticky and sweet aftertaste. , children of all ages love to eat it.

Especially if you eat mugwort cakes with porridge, they are easy to swallow. If you eat two mugwort cakes and a bowl of porridge, your belly will be full.

Aunt Liu is the "hero mother" in the village. She gave birth to eleven children and raised nine in her lifetime.

How can a family of children survive without a recipe for making weed cakes from grains and rice? Raising a baby is a nerve-wracking thing, and having too many babies is also a nerve-wracking thing.

Even though they ate some wormwood cakes and whole grains, Aunt Liu’s children were not hungry. They were healthy and healthy, and no one in the village was allowed to gossip.

Actually, my mother’s art of making mugwort cakes is also pretty good in the village, but that was all forced out of her.

There is a big family in the family, including elders and younger ones. Spring is also a time of food shortage, and there is a saying in the countryside of "spring famine".

If there is not much food, use weeds, grains and vegetables to make up for it. Wormwood is a good choice.

Artemisia cake can be boiled, steamed, made into cakes, and can also be eaten with porridge to fill your stomach. In those days, it was good to have a full belly. As for the big fish and meat, we could only think about it in our dreams unless we waited until the holidays or when guests came in.

When spring comes, Shilipo becomes the main place for my mother and me.

Hoes and baskets are the main props in the early morning.

Picking wormwood, cooking rice, steaming rice and making wormwood cakes are important labor lessons of the day. When I go to school in the morning, I eat two mugwort cakes, hold one mugwort cake in my hand, and put two more mugwort cakes in my bag.

Artemisia cake has become the main food for school in spring.

Liu Erwa said, look at the wormwood cake made by your mother, it is far worse than the one made by my mother. The color, aroma, and the feeling of eating it in the mouth are like heaven and earth. While Liu Erwa was eating her mugwort cake, she also made a few teasing remarks to bully others.

I said, no matter how good your mugwort cake is, can it compare to the bean curd rice and pork head meat in Wang Erniang’s restaurant in Baihechang?

Liu Erwa stopped talking. At this time, we were walking on Baihe Square and walked past Wang Erniang's restaurant step by step. The aroma wafting out of the restaurant was so refreshing that it was really a temptation. Liu Erwa and I are both teenagers. We walk past Wang Erniang's restaurant all day long and have never had a chance to go in and sit down, even to have a bowl of soup. Not to mention eating bean curd rice and pork head meat, the distance between those things and mugwort cake is the difference between heaven and earth.

However, the wormwood cake made by my mother is also delicious. Especially on the way home from school, even if it is cold and cold, I can take a few bites and walk uphill and uphill. It is still powerful. No matter what, going home is the biggest motivation for walking.

Liu Erwa said, it will be a long time until we grow up and we won’t eat this wormwood cake anymore.

I said, well, it would be nice to have mugwort cake to eat.

The two of us gnawed wormwood cakes vigorously, walking step by step on the way to school or home, looking at the spring fields, as well as the red dragonflies and flowers and butterflies, feeling the infinite beauty of spring and imagining it. for a better future.

Year after year, when Liu Erwa and I walked through the streets of spring together again, it was already spring again. The street trees on both sides of the street are green. Those flowers and grass exude the breath of spring wantonly. At the corner of the intersection, there is a small shop that smells of rice porridge, steamed buns, soy milk, fried dough sticks and beancurd rice.

Liu Erwa pointed to the stall and said loudly, "Hao cake, look, there is wormwood cake."

Liu Erwa and I sat down, eating porridge and wormwood cake, while talking about the people and things in the past. As we talked, Liu Erwa and I stopped talking. Both my mother and Liu Erwa's mother have been gone for many years and have gone to another world. I wonder if the spring in that world has the fragrance of mugwort cake.

Spring leaves many memories for many people. A drop of water, a flower, a piece of grass or a ball of wormwood cake.

Fortunately, I can still taste the fragrance of wormwood cakes, and think of the memories and fragrances that wormwood cakes and those people and things once exuded, which can be regarded as a profound memory of spring for myself.

Artemisia cake, a wisp of spring fragrance, is still strong.