Where does the red-eared tofu head belong?

In Renju Town, Pingyuan County, Meizhou City, there is a unique local traditional popular food "red mushroom tofu". This kind of red-eared tofu is made of bean curd residue after making tofu. Tofu residue is spread on a bamboo basket and placed in the shade. A few days later, a layer of dark red bacteria grew on the bean curd residue. It is very delicious to cook soup with this kind of red mushroom tofu and lean pork liver, which is indispensable for local people to celebrate festivals and entertain relatives and friends. It is said that only the soil, water and air in Lianzhu can cultivate this kind of red tofu.

The selection activity of "Delicious Guangdong-Looking for the Top Ten Traditional Cuisine Hometown in Guangdong" organized by Guangdong Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Guangdong People's Association was recently announced, and Pingyuan Red Mushroom Tofu Head was rated as "Top 100 Traditional Snacks in Guangdong".

Red-eared rotten head is a specialty of Renju Town, Pingyuan County. The color is red, the white meat is delicious, and the taste is sweet, tough and smooth, which is a good accompaniment.

There is a wonderful legend about the origin of red-eared tofu head in Renju area. Gobang used to be called Haoju, which refers to the place where rich people live. Legend has it that one summer, a rich man ground a lot of tofu when he was doing a wedding. Bean curd residue was put in the leisure room by a long-term worker because it was not fed to pigs in time. Two or three days later, red bacteria were born in the bean curd residue. When the rich man saw it, he thought that the long-term workers wasted pig feed, so he ordered the long-term workers to eat fermented bean curd residue. The long-term worker was helpless and cooked. Long-term workers feel delicious as soon as they eat it. The rich man saw that he ate with relish and took some and tasted it. When he eats it, it is also sweet and delicious. The master and servant felt very strange and told people about it. According to this principle, smart people keep experimenting, thus gradually evolving into artificial red mushroom tofu head. Everyone lamented: "This can be described as turning waste into treasure".

Legend belongs to legend, but the red-eared tofu head is really made of tofu residue. Gobang people take fresh bean curd residue, stir-fry it in a pot with slow fire until the bean curd residue is dry, then shovel it into a dustpan filled with good bean head leaves (also called big maple leaves) or phoenix tree leaves and banana leaves, cool it a little, then slowly compact it with a spatula, and then make red-eared bean curd red-eared into' mushroom mother' (mushroom mother is also called strain, which has the function of reddening faster.

The dustpan with tofu head should be put in a clean room. White bacteria can grow on the second day of summer, and then slowly turn into red bacteria. When one side of the dustpan is covered with red ears, turn it over to the back of the other dustpan and remove the pad leaves at the same time. When both sides are covered with red bacteria, they can be eaten or sold in the market. It usually takes about three to four days. In winter, because of the cold weather, the pressed tofu heads should be put in the greenhouse to ferment red bacteria. Farmers without greenhouses can also grow red bacteria by covering them with cotton-padded clothes or blankets to keep warm, but the time is one or two days longer than in summer.

Before liberation, people who came to Nanyang to enjoy the flavor of Lianzhu's hometown steamed and dried the red mushroom tofu head, and brought it to Nanyang by water passengers to make soup for their hometown people, which was deeply loved by overseas travelers.

Hometown people are away from home, recalling the smell of red ears cooked in their hometown, they want to eat it very much, but they can only eat it once when they go back to their hometown, because it is impossible to take it out. The time from fermentation to deterioration is really too fast. Moreover, the bean curd residue sprinkled with red bacteria can only be exposed to outdoor air for fermentation, and the longer the red fimbriae will be, the more beautiful it will be. It cannot be sealed and taken away. If you want to take it out of the door, the fermented red fungus will soon die as soon as it dies, and the bean curd residue will soon follow. Therefore, even if you go to the market to buy it, you should untie the bag as soon as possible after buying it, and don't let the bacteria deteriorate with the "death" of tofu residue, so that you can eat tofu residue instead of red ears.

In short, red-eared tofu can be eaten by boiling, steaming, soup, roasting and drying. It is a kind of plant fungus, which has anti-cancer effect according to the research of medical professionals. Red mushroom tofu head has a long-standing reputation in Meizhou Hakka area and at home and abroad.