Talking about Qingming Kueh (ai Dumplings) on The Eve of Qingming

Talking about Qingming Kueh (ai Dumplings) on The Eve of Qingming

1. Outing and offering sacrifices are important customs of the Ching Ming Festival, which have been passed down since ancient times and have continued to this day.

2. Qingming kuih, as a must-have food for offering sacrifices to ancestors, has naturally become a must-eat food for Qingming Festival

3. Thin-skin fillings do not collapse and do not stick to the teeth, which are the characteristics of our Qingming kuih. People who have eaten them say they are delicious.

4. Prepare the wormwood after blanching (don’t squeeze the wormwood water too dry), a total of 1000 grams (the steps of collecting wormwood and adding alkali for blanching are omitted)

5. In the countryside, the old way is to chop up the wormwood with a kitchen knife or mash it with a stone mortar.

6. Of course, the wormwood can be twisted more finely with the cooking machine

7. Add 1510 grams of water to the pot, add wormwood after boiling

8. Add 2 teaspoons of alkali (soda powder), the purpose of adding alkali is to keep the wormwood its emerald green color

9. Stir well

10. Prepare 1000g each of late rice flour (Japonica rice flour) and glutinous rice flour

11. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat after boiling

12. Stir in the night rice noodles directly

13. Stir well

14. Then add glutinous rice flour and stir ⚠️Tip 1: In the past, to make Qingming Guo Kueh, the late rice flour and glutinous rice flour were always pre-mixed in a ratio of 1:1, and then added to the boiled wormwood and mixed well. Now change it to the late rice noodles and stir them in the pot first, then blanch the late rice noodles first!
Because late rice noodles are not as sticky as glutinous rice noodles, it makes sense to boil them first!

15. Put it out of the pot and put it in a large pot

16. Then knead while it's hot! This step is best left to male labor at home!

17. Keep kneading

18. Knead! The loose rice noodles have been initially kneaded into a ball

19. When kneading to this level, add 1 tablespoon of salad oil around the bowl

20. After kneading the haja salad with oil, the color and gloss of the rice noodles are different!
The harder you knead the rice noodle dough, the longer it takes to make the Qingming Kueh Kueh skin, the tougher it will be, the more delicious it is, and it won’t stick to your teeth.

21. Continue to knead, the rice noodles are not sticky at all!
⚠️Tip two: Compared with putting some oil on your hands and then rubbing them, or sticking your hands with oil and then rubbing them, this direct oiling method is much better! It is not sticky at all in the subsequent process, and the rice noodle dough is not easy to dry out.
In the process of kneading the rice noodles, if it is too sticky, it is suitable to knead the noodles. If it is too dry, add some water.

22. Knead until smooth rice noodles

23. Fry a pot of stuffing in advance (see the recipe for the winter solstice custom www.xiachufang.com/recipe/106046358/)

24. Roll the rice noodles into long strips, cut into about 30 grams, and put them in a fresh-keeping bag

25. The pressure kueh skin artifact is still good

26. Pack the stuffing and compact the stuffing as much as possible to make the Qingming Kueh look full and not easy to collapse when steaming.

27. Fold the kueh skin in half and squeeze it tightly

28. Crimped wormwood and rice noodles are directly rubbed together to make Qingming Kueh that often sticks to the teeth and lacks toughness. It is far from delicious!

29. Finished product

30. Steam a few, let’s try (the water is boiled and steamed on the steaming rack for 10 minutes, simmered for 2 minutes)

31. The stuffing with thin skin doesn't collapse and doesn't stick to the teeth, they all say it is delicious

32. You can also wrap sweet stuffing to make it into a youth group

33. A layer of swelling glutinous rice is wrapped around the youth group, which is another flavor, commonly known as "snow group", which often appears in the winter solstice!

With wormwood collection, blanching and preservation steps

34. The wormwood before and after Qingming is very tender

35. I can pick up a lot in a while

36. Wash the collected wormwood and drain the water

37. Boil a pot of water, add 2 tablespoons of alkali to dissolve it and bring it to a boil (adding alkali can keep the wormwood green and at the same time make the wormwood easy to become soft and rotten)

38. Join wormwood

39. Wait for the wormwood to boil again

40. Quickly fish out

41. Cold water shower cooling

42. Put the wormwood into a ball, put it in a fresh-keeping bag, and store it in the refrigerator for half a year or even a year.
Because the wormwood before and after the Qingming Festival is tender, its color is more emerald green. When wormwood is collected when it is older, its color will become dark green or even dark green. Therefore, the amount of wormwood used when making wormwood dumplings is closely related to the color of the wormwood itself! Should be added or subtracted as appropriate!

Tips:

1. Most rural people make Qingming kueh based on experience and feeling, and there is no specific quantitative index. The formula data is the result of the family's many experiments. The amount of formula is a bit large, so you can reduce it proportionally.
2. The harder you knead the rice noodle dough, the longer it will last, the better the toughness of the Qingming Kueh Kueh skin, the more delicious it is, and the better it will not stick to your teeth.