<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">在上世纪六七十年代，我回乡务农。我从当地农民身上学到了许多，不仅有播种收割，还有诸如制作食物之类的生活常识。我对酿造甜酱以及用甜酱腌制黄瓜充满热情。在我看来，城里居民和在农村长大的年轻人，几乎都没有酿造的经验，更别说观察其酿造过程了。由于我真的热衷于自己动手，便向婶婶请教。婶婶专门给我讲了酿造方法，甚至手把手教我。下面我们来看看具体做法：</p><p class="ql-block"> </p><p class="ql-block">夏初梅雨时节，我把面粉揉好，擀成小薄片，然后在热水中煮熟，捞出后放在竹席上晾凉。对我来说，最重要的是，煮好的面片要放在阴凉处。大约25天后，到了七月中旬，梅雨季节过去，一年中最热的时候来了。婶婶告诉我把发霉的面片掰成小块。顺便说一下，据说，干燥的发霉环境会让霉毛呈黄色，潮湿的环境则会让霉毛呈灰褐色。接下来，我搬来一个瓮，倒入半瓮凉开水，把发霉的小块放进去。我把瓮搬到屋顶，让它在烈日下暴晒。我日夜都格外留意不让它淋雨，否则酿造就会失败。半个月后，在烈日暴晒下，瓮里的面片和水变成了酱红色，闻起来醇厚浓郁，我的甜酱就酿好了。我感到既开心又有成就感。我把提前准备好、洗净并晾干的黄瓜放入甜酱瓮中腌制。瓮继续接受一周甚至更久的烈日暴晒，美味的酱腌黄瓜就大功告成了。这酱可以腌制三次黄瓜，第一次腌制的黄瓜味道最佳，吃起来香甜可口。当酱不能再用来腌制黄瓜时，我就把它煮开，炒菜的时候用，当然，它是很棒的酱油。</p>