腊月蒸饽饽 过年红火火

Making Steamed Buns for a Prosperous Chinese New Year

我的老家与辽西搭界,乡俗年俗别无二致。其中,蒸饽饽就是我们那里的一种年俗。每年,只要村里一户接一户地开始淘米了,孩子们就知道,离过年不远了。蒸饽饽的时节一般得进入腊月。“腊月蒸饽饽,过年红火火”。蒸饽饽预示着来年日子蒸蒸日上,还有一层寓意,就是饽饽大都是发面的,里面蕴含了恭喜发财意思。做饽饽少不了的原料是大黄米,用大黄米面蒸出的饽饽锃亮金黄,口感筋道。大黄米就是去了皮儿的糜黍,《本草纲目》中称“粘者为黍,不粘者为稷”,民间则称“粘的称黍,不粘的称糜”。而在我的老家,

My hometown borders on west Liaoning Province. Folks there have the same traditions and customs in celebrating the Chinese new year. One of them is to make steamed buns. Each year when the 12 th month of the lunar year rolls in, villagers of every household begin to wash glutinous millets and their children know the new year is coming. Glutinous millets are powdered for steamed buns, which will turn golden yellow and pliable when steamed.Dough kneading demands strength and naturally becomes men’s job. Like blenders, men’s strong hands stir and turn the ten liters of watered flour in a big ceramic bowl. When it is done the kneaded dough is left on the kang(a raised platform used as a bed) for fermentation. Now women begin to prepare fillings.When the dough and fillings are ready, housewives begin to make steamed buns. Sometimes their neighbors lend their hands during the whole process. So when the first pot of buns is available, housewives tell their children to give them out to their neighbors, a way to strengthen their neighborly relations. The rest of the buns will be aligned outdoor on cornstalk mats, to frozen them, the icy the better. Later they will be stored in big vats and covered with plastic lids. The buns will last to the second day of the second lunar mouth. In my eyes these buns always remind me of my "hometown flavor."