Persimmon Cake with Bean Paste
Persimmon cake is a Shaanxi snack. It is baked with fire crystal persimmons, a specialty of Lintong County, Shaanxi Province. It has a golden color and a sweet and fragrant taste. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, cakes made from persimmons and flour were already available in the Guanzhong area. According to legend, in 1644, Li Zicheng became king in Xi'an and immediately went to Beijing. At that time, there was a famine in Guanzhong and there was a shortage of food. The people in Lintong mixed the ripe fire crystal persimmons with flour and baked them into persimmon cakes for the soldiers to eat on the road. Since then, every year when the golden breeze blows and the persimmons ripen, Lintong people make persimmon cakes and eat them to commemorate Li Zicheng. There are many shops and stalls selling persimmon cakes in Xi'an, and the method is roughly the same: a flat-bottomed iron pot is placed on several stoves. The bottom of the pot is flat and shallow, just like frying pot stickers, so that each persimmon cake is heated evenly. The preparation method is not difficult. Strain the peeled and stemmed fire crystal persimmon meat into persimmon pulp through a basket, mix it with flour to form a soft dough, add the fillings, and pat it into a small drum-shaped pancake. When the oil at the bottom of the pot is 60% hot, add it in, flip both sides and fry until brown, and then it is ready to serve. When eating, you usually use chopsticks to slowly peel apart the browned skin and taste the filling. The filling contains walnuts, sesame, yellow cinnamon, bean paste, etc. After eating it, people can easily think of their childhood life. It felt so sweet in my throat. After taking another bite of the burnt skin of the persimmon cake, the fragrance of persimmon filled my mouth
Staple food
Home cooking
