Unforgettable prose of stove rice

I met a friend the other day and went to a restaurant for dinner. I found a big signboard hanging in front of the restaurant, which read several signature dishes, "hearth chicken" and "hearth fish". When I saw the word "stove", I suddenly felt cordial and remembered the stove rice in my hometown when I was a child.

At that time, natural gas and liquefied gas were not used in rural areas. People in my hometown eat on the stove, and every household has built a big stove with bricks and clay. The stove is square, more than half a meter high. There is a hole in the stove, and a large iron pot is fixed on it. We call it "Eight Pots", which has a big mouth. You can boil water, stir-fry or cook porridge at the bottom of the pot; Put a grate in the pot to steam rice, steam vegetables and heat rice.

Don't underestimate this small stove, but pay attention to the structure: the tuyere should be kept in a suitable position, and the mouth of the stove should not be too big or too small. Firewood is used in rural areas, and a lot of firewood is filled. The stove mouth is too big, and the flame under the stove can't burn the bottom of the pot; The stove mouth is small, the flame can't burn, just black smoke, which makes people cough. The vent of the stove will be connected with a bellows. When the bellows blows, the fire will burn very brightly. Vents should not be left too large. If they are too big, mice will get in. There are many rats in the country, and they will be drilled everywhere. The stove is made of angular bricks, which is quite strong. Then the brick joints on the countertop of the stove are plastered tightly with mud, which is very smooth. Later, when the living conditions were better, people who were particular about it painted the surface of the stove with cement, and the countertop was polished very smoothly. Later, many people simply put tiles on the countertops, which made them look more beautiful and upgraded at first sight.

It's a man's job to make a stove. As a pillar of a family, a man's skill is good, which can be seen from here. In the past, when marrying a daughter-in-law, many times the matchmaker would look at the stove first to see if the master's craft was skilled and whether the built stove was durable and square. You can know whether the son of this family is promising by looking at the craftsmanship of the man. Some people only look at the grain store, sometimes they really can't see how much grain is in it, so they can't figure out the property at home. Some people only look at furniture, but sometimes there is moisture in the furniture at home, and some people will temporarily borrow furniture to make a facade. But the stove can't be faked, nor can it be borrowed and moved around.

Looking at the stove, you can also know the attitude and habits of this family. The stove should be cleaned every day, and the things on it should be put in order. No food, no soup and no food particles. Life insurance is a good hand, and the hostess is also very diligent. If the stove is full of dust, food scraps, vegetable scraps, greasy batter, black and greasy, and the chopping board, kitchen knife, rice spoon and bamboo chopsticks are placed in a mess, the host family will not be diligent enough and a little lazy. Poor people live in their homes, and they are afraid of laziness if they are not afraid of poverty. The hostess is lazy and the children are not diligent.

I remember that in my early years, a distant cousin of mine got married, which was a reference for others. There was another interesting experience. Cousin's family and the man's family agreed to conclude this marriage under the matchmaking of the matchmaker. Girls are beautiful and young people are strong. Moreover, the man's family has a strong foundation and many preparations for bride price. But before the wedding, the girl's parents went to the man's house in person. As a result, they came back, their marriage broke up and the bride price was all refunded. Because they went to the man's house and saw that the stove in the man's house was dirty, greasy and black, and it had not been thoroughly cleaned for a long time. Seeing this, cousin's parents naturally don't want to. They think that the man's family is too lazy and will live at home for a long time. Even if he is rich for a while, I am afraid it will not last long. Cousin later found a hard-working family, married in the past, and now life is very comfortable. I heard about the old youth's family, and then life really fell apart.

The cooktop of the farmhouse is used all the year round, cooking and smoky. On weekdays, there is a smell of food, which is familiar to children who grew up in the countryside. This smell used to accompany them to grow up day by day. When children in rural areas were young, they just had a very high stove. When cooking, they helped their mothers add water and firewood to pull the bellows. When I grew taller, I learned to steam rice and cook porridge, and I grew up around the stove day by day. Generations are often busy in front of the stove. In my family, my mother, my grandmother and I used to be busy by the stove for three meals a day. I lit a fire, and my mother and grandmother were steaming corn buns or making pot stickers.

As long as I can remember, my mother was the busiest person by the fire. She is busy in front of the stove for three meals a day. The stove fetters my mother's figure and her best life. She worked hard all her life and never left the table. Mother's skillful hands and hard work have modulated the colorful happiness taste of this family. My mother always said that there are two things tied up in her life: one is her children, that is, my sister and me; The other is a stove that is busy several times a day.

Every morning, my mother is always the first to get up, and a busy day begins with the stove. Add water to the pot, put rice on it, make a fire under the stove, pull up the bellows, the bellows begin to drum up and sing, and the room is slowly filled with smoke. At this time, my sister and I woke up and got up slowly. When we got up, mother had already cooked the meal. I was the first to sit down to eat, followed by my sister, then my father, and my mother was always the last. She served us food one by one and sat down. By this time, I was almost full.

I like watching my mother cook best. Bellows are beating on one side, flames under the stove lick the bottom of the pot, and red fire reflects the mother's face. Sometimes there is a puff of smoke from the bottom of the stove, and my mother is unprepared, which makes me cough. The firewood was placed next to her and her mother slowly arranged it in a ridge. Firewood is mostly corn stalks, bean trees, wheat stalks, yellow tobacco stalks and short sticks, which are divided into soft firewood and hard firewood. Soft wood is grass, hard wood is hard straw and branches. Cork is easy to ignite, so do more things to ignite; Hardwood burns for a long time and is mostly used for long-term cooking. A handful of firewood under the stove was running out, so my mother unhurriedly grabbed another bundle and put it in the stove. Mother's figure is particularly warm and kind under the illumination of the stove fire, like clip art on the window grilles. Sometimes there will be some grass clippings and leaves sticking to my mother's hair or clothes, and I will help her take them down; Sometimes I sit next to my mother and help her pull the bellows. But at that time, when he was a child, he was very naughty. He often quit after a long time and went to the yard to play.

The fire under the stove burned for a while, and hot air came out from the gap in the lid. The heat is much higher and the dishes in the pot are cooked. Mother stopped the fire, carefully cleaned the stove and waited quietly for a while. We are all so hungry that we can't wait to smell the food. My mother said with a smile, cover it before cooking, so that the food can be cooked thoroughly. Finally, dinner is served. As soon as the big pot lid was lifted, the hot air suddenly came out and the air spread. The room was steaming and white, and the scene was really like Qiong Yao's Wonderland in the TV series The Journey to the West. I like to fight with my sister in the white air from time to time. My mother quickly scolded me for being afraid that we would burn and crash, so be honest.

The dishes were out of the pot, and the family sat around the small table, holding steaming rice bowls. It's delicious. Sometimes I make two fresh big goose eggs specially for my sister and me. In winter, it takes a long time to burn the fire under the stove, which is also the slack season. My mother is not as busy as before. Sometimes she would wrap two sweet potatoes in wet mud and cook them in ashes. When the dishes are cooked, cease fire under the stove and bake sweet potatoes. Pull open the mud skin, the aroma is fragrant, and the soft cooked sweet potato is called sweet.

Burning a fire under the stove seems to be leisurely, but in fact it is very learned. When you burn a fire, you have to add firewood and play with the burner, while pulling the bellows, and you have to take out the ash accumulated under the stove from time to time. If there is too much ash, the air inlet will be blocked, and the stove will not get in the wind, so the fire will not be strong. This is also a technical job. If the ashes are dug up urgently, they will float around and make the house dirty. There is too much firewood under the stove, which fills the hearth. The air is blocked and the rotor does not take off. It just smokes. There is less firewood, and it will burn out soon. We have to add firewood quickly. The bellows is pulled too hard, and the ash under the stove is floating around. The wind is weak, so it doesn't work in the furnace. Only when the firewood under the stove is not too much or too little, the firewood is half full, the bellows is not urgent or slow, and the wind is not too big or too small, the fire under the stove has been steadily flourishing. Some women burn a fire under the kitchen stove, and these technical essentials have not been mastered well. After a while, the fire head went out, so I lowered my head and stirred it with a fire stick. Just because the bellows were not well controlled, when the wind blew, a flame burst out in the kitchen stove, burning the bangs on her forehead and covering her face with dust. When the food is ready, this woman's appearance often makes people laugh.

On New Year's Eve, the stove is the busiest. Boiling, stewing, steaming chicken and stewed fish with glutinous rice balls are often busy from the afternoon. Father always chopped the firewood ahead of time that day. Firewood is resistant to burning, there is little smoke, and the fire is strong, and it burns with a beep. A large piece of wood can burn for half a day, and it also has the smell of burning wood, mixed with the taste of food. There was no heating stove at home before, but this day the stove burned for a long time and the kang burned hot. Sitting cross-legged on the kang watching the Spring Festival Gala is really comfortable. The stove is full of the warmth and happiness of farm life.

Where there is a stove, there is smoke. When there is fire under the stove, smoke will curl up on the roof. After cooking on the stove for a long time, my mother can tell from the color of the smoke what firewood people in the village are cooking, what rice will be cooked on the stove, and whether it is adults or children who burn the fire this time. Adults burn, the smoke is even, slowly floating up, no hurry; When the child burns, the smoke will be as anxious, slow and intermittent as a drunk.

Tao Yuanming's poem said: "This is a warm and distant village, and there is smoke in the Yiyi market." Smoke billows from cooking stoves and the countryside is peaceful, which is not only a scene in poetry, but also a rural family in the past. Of course, this is when the stove is still burning. Now that the old stove is gone, every household uses liquefied natural gas and cigarettes are gone. The picture of smoke rising slowly in the dusk can only be fixed in poetry and never seen again. Therefore, I always feel that something is missing in my life.

I really miss that year's cooking, and I miss the bitter and sweet years of that year.