Duomei spent two days picking honeysuckle and tea leaves in the mountains. On the third day, almost all the honeysuckle and tea leaves on the surrounding hills were picked by the villagers.
At this time, there is only one day left before Qingming.
After Duomei ate porridge in the morning, she walked to the edge of the reservoir carrying a bamboo basket. Today she plans to pick some sage grass and come back.
When they make rice crackers during the Qingming Festival, they always add wormwood. The rice crackers are also called Qingming fruit. In some places, they don’t put wormwood but mugwort leaves. The color produced by this method is very different. is green.
Sage grass grows on the field ridges by the reservoir, and is also found in the mountains, but it is more tender near the water's edge. When picking sage grass, you must pick it tenderly, otherwise it will have obvious fiber that cannot be chewed and cannot be eaten.
Duo Mei found a patch of lush sage grass and squatted down to pick it. Not far from her, there were other people in the village who were also picking.
Today and tomorrow, everyone will be busy making rice crackers.
While Duomei was busy picking sage grass, Gao Mingcheng was not idle either. He carried half a bucket of rice that had been soaked overnight and walked towards Grandma Xini's house.
He hasn't bought a stone mill yet, so to grind the rice into rice pulp, he has to borrow the stone mill from Grandma's house.
When Gao Mingcheng passed by, Gao Zhuang was cleaning the stone mill.
Because the stone grinder is not used every day, it is inevitable that dust will fall. Therefore, before each use, it must be washed with clean water and then swept away with a special broom.
"Brother Mingcheng, grind first!" Gao Zhuang said, giving up the space.
Grandma Xi also soaked the rice and planned to make the rice crackers today so that when Tomb Sweeping Day comes tomorrow, she can take them directly to the grave to offer sacrifices.
"Okay!" Gao Mingcheng responded. He put down the soaked rice in his hands, looked around, took an empty bucket from Grandma Xixi's house, walked to the old well and brought back a bucket of water for later use.
When grinding rice milk, you need to add water.
Gao Zhuang came over with a rice spoon and said, "I'll add rice to you."
So Gao Zhuang was responsible for scooping up the soaked rice and part of the water with a rice spoon, and added it to the hole of the stone mill, while Gao Mingcheng was responsible for pushing the stone mill and using the friction of the stone mill to turn the rice into rice milk. It flowed out from the edge of the stone mill, was collected, and flowed toward a low-sloping place.
And underneath that, there is a clean bucket to catch all the rice milk.
Gao Mingcheng was so strong that pushing the stone mill was like playing without any effort.
As for things like stone mills, if you have little strength, the harder you push, the harder it will be. But if you have strong strength, once you push and push smoothly, it will create an inertia, so that you will not be so tired from pushing. .
Gao Mingcheng is like a perpetual motion machine. There is no stop at all. Instead, Gao Mingcheng keeps adding rice when he is tired. There is a point about adding rice. It cannot be too much at once. If it is too much, the grinding will be uneven and the result will be uneven. It can’t be too little, otherwise it will be a waste of effort.
As if being urged by someone, Gao Zhuang kept adding rice, and then suddenly found that the rice had bottomed out!
So he scooped a little water and poured it into the hole, letting the remaining rice milk inside flow out as well.
"Okay! Brother Mingcheng, you are so strong!" Gao Zhuang looked at Gao Mingcheng enviously.
He has been with Gao Mingcheng since he was a child, so he naturally knows that Gao Mingcheng is very powerful, but now he feels that Gao Mingcheng is even more powerful!
Gao Mingcheng smiled proudly, winked at Gao Zhuang, and said mysteriously: "I taught you to do push-ups, do you insist on doing them every day?"
Gao Zhuang nodded obediently. He would basically do whatever Gao Mingcheng asked him to do, unless he really couldn't do it.
A few days ago, Gao Mingcheng suddenly taught him a set of movements, including sit-ups and rising sun jumps, but he focused on push-ups. He also said that if he practiced push-ups, he would be happy for the rest of his life!
It's just that when Gao Zhuang talked about happiness in the second half of his life, Gao Zhuang always felt that Gao Mingcheng's tone and expression were a little strange.
Later, when he was doing push-ups, he was puzzled. Just doing push-ups, how could it keep him happy for the rest of his life?
Gao Mingcheng looked at him with a teachable look and asked caringly: "How many can you make?"
Gao Zhuang said honestly: "In the beginning I could only do a dozen, but now it's getting better and I can do more than twenty."
The average adult can do more than thirty, and a tall and strong person with average strength can do more than twenty, which is considered pretty good.
Gao Mingcheng patted Gao Zhuang's shoulder and said, "Keep working hard!"
He glanced at the rice pulp that had been ground, and said to Gao Zhuang: "Bring your rice too, and I will grind it for you together."
Before Gao Zhuang could speak, the young lady who was busy in the kitchen had already said: "No, we only soaked two kilograms of rice. It will be done in a while. You can go back first!"
In this case, Gao Mingcheng didn't force it and returned to his home with a large bucket full of rice milk.
When he came back, many beautiful people had picked the sage grass.
The picked sage needs to be washed, then scalded with boiling water, rolled into a ball with your hands to squeeze out the water, then chopped with a knife, the more chopped the better, and then mixed with rice milk.
After mixed with sage grass, the originally white rice milk turns white-green.
This herb is a wild vegetable, and it is also a medicine. It has the functions of antitussive, expectorant, and asthma treatment. If taken orally, it also has the effect of lowering blood pressure.
It is probably for this reason that when making rice crackers in the village, some sage grass will be added to it. This will have certain benefits for the body, and secondly, the color of the rice crackers will be more beautiful.
"Mingcheng, come and light the fire." Duo Mei shouted, then he picked up a large bucket full of rice milk and poured it into the large iron pot that had been cleaned long ago.
She soaked five kilograms of rice, and there was a lot of ground rice milk, which filled a big pot.
However, there is still a lot of water in these. When the water is heated and stirred later, the water will become less and there will not be so much.
Gao Mingcheng sat at the stove and was responsible for adding firewood to the fire, while Du Mei was in charge of the spoon. After the rice milk was poured into the iron pot, he had to start stirring it slowly with a spatula, because if he didn't stir, it would stick to the pot and burn it. Sometimes, the rice crackers produced in this way will not taste good.
As time went by, the water in the rice milk in the big iron pot was evaporated little by little, and it was replaced by a sticky rice ball. At this time, you still have to stir constantly, and you need to be careful when stirring. Good strength, otherwise it won't take shape at all.
Although Duomei is young, she is strong and experienced. Under her stirring, the rice ball turned into a big ball, rolling in the pot without sticking to the pot at all.
The rice crackers made in this way are good rice crackers!
Gao Mingcheng looked at the rice balls in the big iron pot with a look of anticipation in his eyes. By this time, there was no need to add more firewood, so Gao Mingcheng brought a basin that had been prepared in advance.
"Is it almost done? I'll get it out!" Gao Mingcheng said. He stepped forward, while Duo Mei took a step back and gave the spatula to Gao Mingcheng.
Gao Mingcheng shoveled up the rice balls at once. The small spatula was shoveling the big rice balls, and naturally he had to put them into the basin quickly.
That pot was already the largest pot in their house, but it could only just hold the rice ball.
Duomei poured a ladle of water into the pot. When the hot bottom of the pot collided with the cold well water, it immediately made a sizzling sound.
"You put it on the table and you have to knead it." Duomei said as she came to the table.
Their table is newly made and painted with a layer of tung oil, so the surface is very smooth.
Many Mei poured a little tea oil in a bowl, which will be used later. Because the rice balls are a little sticky, you need to put a little oil on your hands.
Duo Mei washed her hands again, and then prepared to knead the rice balls while it was hot and knead out the ingredients.
The rice balls that have just come out of the pot are soft. Once they are cold, they will harden, which makes it difficult to make rice crackers, so they have to be hot. Gao Mingcheng saw that many beautiful hands were burnt red, and he immediately said: "Leave it alone and I'll rub it!"
After saying that, he quickly washed his hands and took over the task of kneading the rice balls.
First, pull out a small ball from the rice ball, and then knead it like this, slowly kneading it into a long strip. When it is almost kneaded, use your hands to pull out a suitable size.
In fact, making rice crackers is somewhat similar to making dumplings, but it is much more troublesome than making dumplings!
Many Mei took the medicine that Gao Mingcheng pulled out, kneaded it a little, and then flattened it with the palms of their hands. They should try to flatten and make it as big as possible, but not too thin. If it is too thin, it will not be done.
After flattening, Duomei brought two bowls of pre-fried fillings. Most of them use radish and taro as fillings.
This stuffing doesn’t have to be completely fried, it just needs to be lightly fried to adjust the flavor.
If there is meat and it is fried with the meat, it will be better.
Gao Mingcheng didn't go hunting in the mountains recently, so he went to Junling Old Market and bought two kilograms of pork belly.
Duo Mei used chopsticks to pick up some fillings and put them into the rice wrapper. Then, just like making dumplings, he pinched the edges tightly without leaving any gaps.
Put the wrapped rice crackers on the table for the time being. If you wait too much, put them into the steamer together. At the bottom of the steamer, put palm leaves. You can also spread gauze if you have it, but if you use palm leaves, It will have a scent of rice dumpling leaves.
In this way, one person is kneading rice balls and the other is making rice crackers, which is quite harmonious.
When the rice balls are all kneaded, Gao Mingcheng also joins in making rice crackers.
"This stuffing is not enough, let's make round rice crackers with the rest." Gao Mingcheng said, starting to divide the large batch into several small batches, and then knead it into a small ball.
This round rice cracker can be eaten as it is, cooked in porridge, or stir-fried with oil and salt.
It can be said that there are various ways to eat it.
When the rice crackers are ready, put the steamer into the big iron pot. Some hot water was boiled in the big iron pot before. Now add a little more water, turn up the fire, and steam one over high heat. About hours.
Look, it’s more complicated than making dumplings!
But the people here like this, so every year during the Qingming Festival, every household will make rice crackers. Rice crackers are also a must-bring offering to ancestors when visiting their graves.
Probably, I also wanted my ancestors to taste the deliciousness of this rice cracker.
I admit, I feel greedy.
How many book friends have eaten this Qingming fruit?
(End of chapter)
