Fresh kudzu has a bit of a smell, which is not pleasant. If eaten raw, the taste is not very good.
But when it is cooked and eaten, the smell is gone, and the taste is very soft and delicious, even with a little fragrance.
The only problem is that there may be some garbage.
However, the starch content of kudzu in winter is high, so there is not much residue.
The kudzu roots dug up by Gao Mingcheng are all old and have thick rhizomes, ranging from three to four kilograms in weight to more than ten kilograms in weight.
Fortunately, although Duo Mei is a woman, she also has great strength in her hands. She held the kudzu root in one hand and a brush in the other, and quickly washed all the kudzu root clean.
When passing by her own field, she saw that half of the taro in her taro field had not been dug, and the leaves on the ground had withered after being hit by frost.
The weather here is not too cold, and taro will not be damaged by freezing in the ground, so it can be eaten and dug. Some farmers who sell taro will decide the time to dig taro based on market conditions.
Duomei was thinking about digging some taro to eat when she saw her brother.
So Duo Mei said hello: "Brother! Bring me a hoe and dig some taro for me to eat."
Zhang Chengyuan came empty-handed. He had just put the sheep in the field to graze. This time, he came here to grind the kudzu roots into paste.
However, many beauties asked him to dig taro, so he went to the shed to get a hoe and a basket without saying anything. He picked up the hoe and dug a row of land, which contained about ten kilograms of taro.
There are two types of taro, one with thick roots is called taro mother, and the small taro growing on the side is called taro boy.
The taste of taro is soft, glutinous and sweet, but the taste of taro is slightly worse, so when you go to the wet market to buy vegetables, it is best to buy taro instead of taro.
After Zhang Chengyuan dug the taro, he raised it to the pond, sank the entire basket into the water, and then shook it. During the shaking process, the taro in the basket collided with each other, and the mud on the surface would naturally fall into the water.
When the washing is almost done, you can rub it with your hands a few times and it will be clean.
Zhang Chengyuan carried the dripping basket and walked to Gao Mingcheng's home.
After entering the yard, he put down the basket and said to Du Mei, "I'll do it."
In such a short time, Duomei has found all the tools for grinding Kudzu.
A large basin and a tool similar to a washboard, but with an iron piece embedded in the middle.
This iron sheet is drilled with holes densely packed with nails, and the other side of the iron sheet will be rolled up. When you touch it with your hand, it will be very rough.
When making sweet potato flour and kudzu root, you need to use this tool to grind the raw materials.
She has been polishing off her beauty for a while, but it was a bit difficult. Now after hearing what Zhang Chengyuan said, she immediately stepped aside and let Zhang Chengyuan do the polishing.
Zhang Chengyuan sat on a small bench, holding the board steady with one hand, and grinding the kudzu root on the rough iron piece with the other hand. As he moved up and down, the kudzu root would be ground into a paste, and then fall into the basin below.
"Brother, you men are still stronger." Duo Mei looked on and praised with a smile.
Zhang Chengyuan helps grind the kudzu, so that she can free up her hands to do other things.
I had finished all the rice cakes last night, so I had to cook today. The meat and vegetables include the wind-blown pork that I had at home and the hare meat that Gao Mingcheng got this morning.
As for vegetables, there are more. Cabbage moss, red cabbage moss, celery, lettuce, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, radish, and mustard greens growing in the ground are all edible now.
But Duomei plans to make cuttlefish stewed with taro today.
Wash and cut the cuttlefish into strips, then stew it with taro. The flavor is unique.
Many Mei like it very much after eating it once. Gao Mingcheng also likes to eat rice with taro soup. He can eat a big bowl of rice in one sitting!
When Gao Mingcheng went to Yangcheng last time, he bought a lot of cuttlefish, squid, dried salted fish, and he brought some back this time, just enough to stew them in a pot.
Duomei first took out the cuttlefish and soaked it in hair, and then was busy peeling the taro skin.
It is true that taro is delicious, but it is also true that it is difficult to cook.
Taro is a plant of the genus Araceae. If people touch the mucus on the lower surface of taro scalp, their fingers will become itchy. Therefore, if you want to eat taro, you must first have itchy hands.
Duo Mei finished processing the taro as quickly as possible. By the time she cut the taro into pieces and threw them into the iron pot to stew, her fingers were already itchy.
But many beauties are not in a hurry. In the process of fighting taro, many beauties know that as long as they bake their hands with fire, they will not be so itchy.
If it's not convenient to bake, then just endure it and you'll be fine after a while.
At this moment, Duomei was lighting a fire and warming her itchy hands. The warm firelight shone on her hands, making them feel warm and itchy.
Many beauties couldn't help but look down at their hands. Before marrying Gao Mingcheng, her hands would suffer from chilblains every year, and there would be cracks on her fingers. The pain would be uncomfortable when touching water.
People in the village say that once you get frostbite, it will last a lifetime and cannot be cured.
She had a lot of good faith in the past, but now she doesn't believe it.
After marrying Gao Mingcheng and her living conditions improved, she gradually stopped getting chilblains. After she went to open a clothing store in the county, she never got chilblains anymore and her fingers no longer cracked.
Today, her hands are of course slightly rough compared to those in the city, but compared to those of her peers in the village, they appear delicate.
Such a pair of hands was something she had never dared to imagine before.
After the fire got bigger and his hands became less itchy, Duo Mei came to the yard and watched Zhang Chengyuan work.
Although the wind is chilly, the sun still brings warmth when it hits people's bodies. Zhang Chengyuan was sitting in the yard, basking in the sun and rubbing the kudzu root in his hands. There was already a lot of muddy kudzu root in the basin underneath.
After grinding all the kudzu root, the next step is to wash out the starch in the kudzu root paste, filter it, precipitate it, then wash it again, filter and precipitate it again, until the kudzu starch is washed clean, and then take it out to dry.
In the era before machine processing, if people wanted to eat delicious food, they had to go through a series of processes. This is true for arrowroot starch, sweet potato starch, and lotus root starch.
However, although there are lotus flowers here, the number of lotus roots they produce is small, and most of them eat the roots directly instead of using them to make flour.
It took Zhang Chengyuan a whole morning to grind the kudzu root.
He just breathed a sigh of relief when Gao Mingcheng came back with another bag of kudzu!
Seeing Zhang Chengyuan, Gao Mingcheng also said hello: "Brother."
Hearing Gao Mingcheng's voice, Duomei walked out of the kitchen and said with concern: "Are you hungry? Lunch has been cooked. You can eat it after you wash your hands. Brother, you can also eat with me at noon. .”
Zhang Chengyuan wanted to refuse, but he couldn't stand it. Many Mei and Gao Mingcheng asked him to stay for dinner.
After Gao Mingcheng washed his hands, he and Zhang Chengyuan went to the table to eat together. When he saw the dishes on the table, he almost made a sound in his stomach.
I had a simple meal in the morning. After a busy morning, I was already very hungry.
He immediately served rice and vegetables, mixed a bowl of rice with fried rabbit meat, and mixed a bowl of rice with cuttlefish and taro soup.
Seeing Gao Mingcheng eating big mouthfuls, there were many happy smiles on his face. Knowing that Gao Mingcheng had a big appetite, she fried two hares and stewed five pounds of taro!
"This tastes delicious!" Gao Mingcheng drank half a bowl of cuttlefish and taro soup with a satisfied expression on his face.
Nowadays, logistics is not developed, and the people in the village are not wealthy. Most people have never eaten cuttlefish stewed with taro. The taro is cooked and eaten directly. If it can be stewed with pork bones, it will be a rare delicacy.
But I don’t know since when, this cuttlefish stewed with taro has become a delicacy in their local hospitality.
Every time there is a wedding or a visit to the house as a guest, most of the hosts will prepare this stewed cuttlefish and taro dish, and people will eat it with gusto and never leave anything behind.
"This dish is delicious!" At the dinner table, even Zhang Chengyuan, who had always been taciturn, couldn't help but praise it after eating this dish.
Perhaps this dish happened to have a connection with the locals, so it has been passed down ever since it was tasted.
After eating and drinking, Gao Mingcheng took a short rest, then took the empty bag and prepared to go into the mountains again.
With Zhang Chengyuan here to help, he felt relieved.
Black Tiger and Elf's lunch was much richer than that in the morning, so the two dogs were extra energetic. When they entered the mountain, they kept burrowing into the bushes without knowing what they were thinking.
Occasionally, Gao Mingcheng could hear the sound of small animals escaping.
He didn't care and continued running to the place he marked.
He walked swiftly on the flat slopes, climbed like an ape on the narrow cliffs, and quickly entered the mountains.
It is said that a straight line is the shortest between two points.
When mountaineering, due to the complex terrain and difficulty of climbing, you can only find a flatter road. In this way, you will inevitably need to take a detour.
Gao Mingcheng has good physical fitness and can easily climb mountains. The two dogs are not weak and can keep up. Even if there are some who can't keep up, they are smart enough to take detours.
The mountains are a lot desolate in winter, and many small animals hide and only come out to look for food when they think it is safe.
Walking on the withered grass, Gao Mingcheng looked around and found that there were still green plants on the slopes. This plant was relatively short and usually inconspicuous, but among the withered grass on the ground, it became particularly eye-catching.
This is a purple-flowered groundweed, which likes light and moisture, but is also shade-tolerant and cold-tolerant. It does not care about the soil. It is highly adaptable and easy to reproduce. Therefore, they can be seen everywhere in the mountains.
They are inconspicuous at this time, but when they bloom, the purple flowers all over the mountains and fields look very beautiful.
Because it blooms in early spring, when the flowers are not blooming, it can dominate the show, and its flowering period is very long, which can last for more than twenty days!
The reason why Gao Mingcheng knows so clearly is because Viola purpurea is also a Chinese medicinal material and is recorded in Chinese medicinal materials books.
Purpurea is cold in nature and slightly bitter in taste, and has the effect of clearing away heat and detoxifying. Mainly used to treat jaundice, dysentery, mastitis, red and swollen eyes, pharyngitis; external application to treat bruises, carbuncles, snake bites, etc.
It has many functions, but the difficulty is that it can be found everywhere and is easy to collect.
Many thoughts flashed through my mind. The big foot stepped ruthlessly on a cluster of purple flowers and flattened it. However, after the big feet left, the crushed purple flowers trembled slightly in the breeze. Standing up tremblingly.
A person needs to encounter many hardships in his life, and the same goes for plants and trees. Only by withstanding the pressure and resisting the hardships can we usher in a better tomorrow.
Gao Mingcheng walked quickly through the mountain forest and soon found a kudzu root. He followed the vine to find the root and started digging.
Throughout the afternoon, Gao Mingcheng walked through the mountain forest, sometimes searching and sometimes stopping to dig. Interestingly, while searching for kudzu root, Gao Mingcheng dug up seven or eight winter bamboo shoots.
This can be regarded as not doing his job properly, but since he has seen everything, it is definitely impossible not to dig!
Compared with spring bamboo shoots, winter bamboo shoots are much more delicious. Fried pork with winter bamboo shoots, tender and delicious!
Spring bamboo shoots are big, thick and plentiful, but the ones here are a bit numb and need to be soaked before they can be eaten.
Although winter bamboo shoots are delicious, it is not easy to dig them up. Because spring bamboo shoots emerge from the soil and can be seen at a glance, while winter bamboo shoots are hidden in the soil and require experienced people to dig them out successfully.
Gao Mingcheng also knows some of the methods of digging winter bamboo shoots. He mainly depends on the growth of the bamboo to judge the location of the underground bamboo whip, and winter bamboo shoots naturally sprout and grow from the bamboo whip.
Sometimes you can dig three or four winter bamboo shoots on a bamboo whip!
Gao Mingcheng walked and dug all the way, no matter whether it was kudzu or winter bamboo shoots, as long as he saw it, he could see the shadow of the hoe waving.
By the time it was getting dark, Gao Mingcheng had gained a lot and was ready to go down the mountain.
Looking around, he didn't see the two dogs, so Gao Mingcheng shouted loudly: "Black Tiger, Elf, go back!"
The sound echoed in the empty mountains, and the sound waves spread far and wide.
This feeling of emptiness suddenly made Gao Mingcheng feel that the world was huge and he was so small.
A few seconds later, the familiar barking of a dog drove away Gao Mingcheng's thoughts. He saw the black tiger and the elf jumping out of a forest. The dog actually had a pheasant in its mouth!
Gao Mingcheng's eyes lit up when he saw the pheasant in the dog's mouth.
Don't tell me, he hasn't hunted pheasants in the mountains for a while!
The reproductive capacity of pheasants is not as strong as that of hares. In the past two years, Gao Mingcheng would occasionally hunt pheasants in the mountains to eat, but in the past two years, perhaps because he rarely went into the mountains, it was difficult to encounter pheasants again.
"Woof woof!" The two dogs ran in front of Gao Mingcheng, put down the pheasant in their mouths, and then began to bark like asking for credit.
The dark dog eyes were full of praise.
A pair of big hands fell on the dog's head. Gao Mingcheng touched the dog's head with one hand without any partiality.
"Yes, you guys are great! Where did you get the pheasant?" Gao Mingcheng praised and asked again.
Black Tiger understood, pointed his head towards a place, and then barked twice, as if to say it was there.
Gao Mingcheng looked around and saw that the woods there were dense and difficult for people to get in.
He immediately gave up the idea and decided to let the pheasants live.
Pheasants naturally do not hibernate. They are cold-resistant, can walk on snow, drink water with ice residue, and can live in the wild overnight. Their physical fitness is also impressive! (End of chapter)
