When it comes to ice candy gourds, you may think it's not much of a craft. But in fact there is a doorway here. Definitely considered a piece of folk valuable craft.
Ice candy gourd originated in the Southern Song Dynasty, the earliest is supposed to appear in Hangzhou City, the reason is that the emperor's old man to the consort to treat the loss of appetite, the royal doctor to drum up the contraption.
It doesn't look hard to do, but it's not easy to do well. My second grandpa his old man, the original is in Beijing specializing in traditional sugar gourd craftsmen, listening to the second eldest mother said in the early years in the whole Fude is specializing in ice sugar gourd fellows, and now still doing, a lot of neighbors in the winter with large hawthorn and sugar to find him, let him process. Only not bad pension money, now not willing to sell on the street.
The first step is to wash and sift the hawthorn. The process is not complicated, need to be carefully cleaned, but any snacks can also be removed from the core.
De-core, my second grandpa his old man, left hand holding a washed hawthorn, right hand holding a wallpaper blade, action looks like machine processing. The left hand holding the hawthorn to the left and right hand blade a knock, the left hand a little harder to pinch hold the hawthorn, the right hand blade along with the trend, inside the seed like a small ball from the hawthorn inside the run out. The key to this hawthorn seeds are not scattered, fell on the ground in the stainless steel basin, clanging straight sound. The second master, however, looked completely distracted, and said to me, "Nephew, you see, we are not the two halves of the hawthorn, this is hard work, fine work, fine work into the craft."
The second step is to skewer the hawthorn. One hand holds the hawthorn, one hand holds the bamboo stick, along with the fruit up and down the two ends of the horizontal seed removal knife cut hawthorn one by one skewer to the stick. The people can still chat with you, not even look at the eyes. I'm really worried that I'll accidentally poke the skewer in my hand.
"Nephew, you know, this hawthorn cut open the mouth should be squeezed a little, date paste, bean paste, and so on, so as to make a more delicious, but you have to eat it when the sugar is just cold."
"Outside the sugar, crunchy and sweet, not sticky teeth, inside the hawthorn sour, plus date paste, bean paste of dense. Hey! That's flavorful enough!"
Step three, boil the sugar. I lit the fire on the stove and sat the pot ready to pour the sugar in.
"Silly boy, don't mess around, put some water in first, then pour the sugar in. The best way to boil sugar is to boil rock sugar, now this white sugar is not good!"
"What do you mean by icing sugar gourd, this icing sugar gourd, first of all it must be this icing sugar to become, followed by this gourd."
"Sugar can't be boiled blindly, for a long time, sugar color scorched, eating a slight paste flavor, also sticky teeth, the hawthorn flavor lined with impermeable, our Beijing dialect is called paste throat."
"Boiling time is short also can't, the sand does not hang, thin, sugar gourd a pick up on the top of the sugar thin bottom thick, sugar more places you bite up all the effort! Who wants to eat a sugar gourd above the sugar hanging like sugar cookie filling, right!"
"This boiled sugar ah, have to be just right, let the sugar hang evenly on the gourd, but also can not color heavy , look at this ice sugar gourd, crystal clear, like the face of the skin care water your aunt aunt to become!"
The fourth step, wrapped sugar. I didn't expect it! This step, actually is the most wonderful.
The second master is a bit of a maniac, usually square dance, softball, whiplash are not less involved in this step of the candy wrapping step has become the stage of his athletic body!
"Wrap the sugar! You have to wrap the sugar evenly, if it's thick, it's hard to bite, if it's thin, it won't taste sweet, and you'll only have the sourness of hawthorn."
"Wrapping sugar requires rolling, shaking, dropping, and pouring! Look at me!"
As he said this, he took the handle of the pan in his left hand and the uncoated candy cane in his right, and plunged it quickly into the pan and stirred it.
Muttering that it was called rolling sugar! His right hand kept spinning on the stick, and his left hand shook the syrup in the pot like ripples! Too late, the old boy, again, used his softball skills. Holding up the candy cane, he spun the whole thing around the yard in perfect circles, the syrup from the iced candy cane pulling out silk as he whirled around with his athleticism. Then with a breath held in his mouth like a whip, he slammed his right hand down onto a ceramic plate coated with sesame oil with unparalleled speed. The sugar syrup exploded beautifully on the tabletop with his whip-like force, and the sugar filaments that accompanied his spinning and pulling were perfect for the natural bloom on the tabletop!
The old man took out a small spoon, scooped a little bit of syrup in the pot, and dripped the syrup onto the seams between the hawthorns like a dragonfly. At this moment, a string of sugar gourd is considered to be a piece of work from the second master's "craftsmanship"!
Half a minute or so, gently pick up the sugar gourd from the plate, high up, through the winter sun, sugar flowers crystal clear, bite a bite, cold! Sweet and sour! Crisp!