CCTV News: January 7th is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which is Laba Festival. As the saying goes, "Laba is the New Year after it", Chinese people welcome the New Year with a bowl of hot Laba porridge. This enthusiasm will last until the Lantern Festival "lanterns" and people have nearly a month to celebrate and enjoy their traditional festivals.
Sichuan Zitong: Twenty ingredients to match Laba porridge warms the stomach and warms the heart.
In Zitong, Mianyang, Sichuan, Laba Festival is not only a day to taste Laba porridge, but also a traditional festival that carries profound folk culture and people’s beautiful wishes.
When making Laba porridge, rich and diverse ingredients are the key. Rice, glutinous rice, bacon, sausage, soybeans, and red dates, and more than twenty kinds of ingredients are carefully selected. First put the prepared bacon, sausage and other ingredients into the pot, stir-fry to create an attractive fragrance, and then serve. Then, stir-fry the bean ingredients in a pot over low heat until dry and shiny. Then, add enough water to a boil, add cereals and beans ingredients in turn, and simmer over high heat for 25 minutes. Wait until the ingredients are half-cooked, then add cured and dried fruit ingredients and continue to cook for an hour. During this process, you need to stir continuously to ensure that all ingredients can fully absorb the soup until Laba porridge becomes soft, glutinous and thick. As the fragrance spreads in the courtyard, neighbors sit around the fire, tasting the steaming Laba porridge while talking about homely activities, feeling the warmth and joy of the festival together.
Jincheng, Shanxi: Making Laba garlic with skillful hands
In northern my country, people will make Laba garlic on Laba on Laba day, and take it out and eat it with dumplings on New Year's Eve. The garlic cloves were green at that time and tasted delicious.
At the home of Dong Shulin, a Jincheng city in Shanxi, early in the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, relatives and neighbors gathered in front of the table and started making Laba garlic.
Put the peeled garlic into a disinfected glass jar, add sugar, salt and a small amount of white wine, pour in rice vinegar, and finally seal the jar, marinate at room temperature for about 20 days, and Laba garlic is marinated. Laba garlic tastes crispy and delicious, sweet and sour, not spicy, and it tastes the most.
