Chapter 59 Plain White Rice Cake

Bai Guo, which Zhao Xuan calls Southern Rice Cake.

She hadn't eaten this for five or six years, and just thinking about it made her mouth water uncontrollably—she slurped her lips.

White rice cakes can wrap everything; she plans to make some white rice cakes to wrap wild vegetables to eat.

When Zhao Xuan made this suggestion at lunch, Lao Dao asked her, "Do you know that the rice used to make white rice cakes is a special kind of 'white rice cake rice'?"

Zhao Xuan shook his head blankly: "I don't know."

Lu An also asked, "Do you have a stone mortar and pestle for pounding white rice cakes?"

Zhao Xuan shook his head again: "No."

The two men fell silent.

Zhao Xuan asked, "Then tell me honestly, do you want to eat white rice cakes?"

The two nodded.

Zhao Xuan clapped his hands: "That's settled then!"

Zhao Xuan planned to use rice to make white rice cakes. As for the stone mortar, he figured he could find one in the village. In the past, every household made white rice cakes for festivals. Sure enough, after searching carefully, he found a small stone mortar in a dilapidated farmer's kitchen, but it seemed to be used for storing water, not for making rice cakes. Zhao Xuan didn't mind; all roads lead to Rome, as long as this stone mortar hadn't been used to feed pigs.

The small stone mortar needs to be washed clean, scalded with boiling water several times, and then placed in the sun to be dried and sterilized.

As for the wooden pestle, we can just make one now.

The preparations took several days. During that time, Lu An and Lao Dao had already planted the crops in the dry fields. The wild vegetables that had already been picked couldn't wait that long, so they were helplessly made into plates of stir-fried wild vegetables with eggs.

While eating stir-fried wild vegetables with eggs, Zhao Xuan craved white rice cakes even more.

The wooden pestle was made by Lu An in his spare time. He could repair cars and set up electricity, but he didn't know carpentry. He turned the wooden pestle into a wooden hammer. The three of them tried it out. It was very heavy and could definitely pound rice to pieces.

Zhao Xuan said: Being able to eat a seasonal and delicious meal after each busy farming season is the greatest reward a farmer can receive from all four seasons.

Old Dao said: If you're craving something, just say so. You haven't even been to the fields this spring!

Zhao Xuan rolled his eyes at Lao Dao, looking somewhat guilty.

Since Lao Dao and Lu An returned, they have taken on all the farm work: planting crops, feeding livestock, and even cooking when they finish work early.

Lu An has always been willing to do more work himself, because he wants to be good to Zhao Xuan.

Lao Dao had long regarded Lu An and Zhao Xuan as his younger siblings. As the elder brother, he would definitely do more, so doing more work was not a problem for him.

Zhao Xuan was very happy; she felt like she had raised two cows.

On the day of making the white rice cake, Zhao Xuan also invited the Yao family.

Both families had finished their spring plowing—everyone gathered together to make and eat rice cakes, which really felt like a celebration.

The Yao family came from another province and were not familiar with making white rice cakes. When Lu An invited them a few days in advance, Zhang Xiaohe specifically asked about how to make this food. Lu An had eaten white rice cakes before and described it to them based on his memory.

The Yao family never came empty-handed when they visited, and sure enough, they brought a whole bunch of gifts that day—a large lunchbox filled with shredded egg pancakes; plump bean sprouts from their own garden; and a large stack of golden fried tofu.

These are all classic fillings for making white rice cake buns.

Zhao Xuan had already steamed half a bucket of rice, and to keep it sticky, she added some glutinous rice. The steamed glutinous rice needed to be immediately turned into a stone mortar and pounded into a dough, a process similar to making rice cakes.

The inside of the mortar was greased, and the wooden mallet also needed to be greased.

Old Dao squatted in front of the stone mortar, rubbing some oil on his hands. He looked up and saw Lu An holding a wooden mallet. He asked, "Do you know how to make white rice cakes?"

Lu An replied, "I saw it on TV, don't worry."

The rice was cooked, and Yao Yuan brought out the steaming rice and poured it all into the stone mortar.

A basin of cool water is placed next to the stone mortar. The cooked rice is turned by hand. The rice is too hot and needs to be soaked in the water from time to time to cool it down.

Lu An slammed the hammer down on the white, sticky rice, then lifted it high. In the meantime, Lao Dao would turn the rice over, stirring it together.

But whether Lu An moved too fast or Lao Dao flipped too slowly, before Lao Dao could stop, Lu An's wooden hammer came crashing down.

Old Dao reacted quickly, letting out a howl as he hurriedly pulled his hand away. The next instant, the wooden hammer struck the spot where his hand had been.

Old Dao was quite startled. He looked up and saw Lu An grinning at him: "Sorry, I got a little too hasty." Old Dao then stood up and made room for Lu An: "Go ahead, you flip it over, I'll do the hammering."

...

Making white rice cakes is physically demanding. After a few near-disasters in the first few rounds, they finally found their rhythm of taking turns hammering and flipping. When Lao Dao got tired of hammering, Yao Yuan would take over, and when Lu An got tired of flipping, Lao Dao would take over.

Rice is quite sticky, although not as sticky as glutinous rice. But after being processed and refined, the loose rice ball eventually becomes a soft and fluffy piece.

The rice we grow ourselves has a strong aroma; the whole yard smells of rice when it's being pounded.

Zhao Xuan and Zhang Xiaohe were busy in the kitchen preparing the filling. Zhao Xuan had soaked the shiitake mushrooms in advance and washed some dried shrimp. The wild vegetables they picked yesterday were also blanched, chopped into small pieces, and squeezed dry.

Many wild vegetables need to be blanched before eating to remove bitterness and toxicity. Zhao Xuan picked shepherd's purse, cudweed, wild leeks, and scallions, chopped them up, mixed them together, and made a bright green bowl.

Wash the bean sprouts that Zhang Xiaohe brought, cut the thin tofu into small cubes, and stir-fry them in a pot with egg shreds, shiitake mushrooms, and dried shrimp. Add a pinch of salt and some sesame oil during the process.

Shiitake mushrooms and dried shrimp have a savory flavor, while bean sprouts, tofu, and shredded egg bring a different texture. Stir-fry these colorful diced vegetables and take half of them out of the pan. Mix them into chopped wild vegetables to make a vegetarian wild vegetable filling.

While Zhao Xuan was mixing the vegetarian wild vegetable filling, Zhang Xiaohe also cooked the vermicelli, cut it into small pieces, and mixed the remaining half of the small cubes into the vermicelli to make vegetarian vermicelli filling.

The filling for white rice cakes is not fixed; some people add diced cowpeas, shredded taro, or cured meat. Each family has its own taste. Zhao Xuan made vegetarian white rice cakes because he felt that wild vegetables have their own unique aroma. If he added foods with strong flavors like cured meat, it would completely mask the original wild flavor of the wild vegetables.

Eggs are sometimes not considered meat, but rather a vegetarian food.

Because it was a plain white rice cake, Zhao Xuan added extra sesame oil and dried shrimp to enhance the aroma.

Zhang Xiaohe wasn't very familiar with white rice cakes, so she asked if this kind of white rice cake counted as a type of rice cake.

Zhao Xuan thought for a moment and replied, "I don't think so... The rice we use is different. The white rice cakes we eat here can be used to wrap fillings, or made into white rice cake cakes that can be steamed and eaten, or cut into strips and stir-fried. There are many ways to eat them. There's also a yellow rice cake, I don't know if you've ever tried it?"

Zhang Xiaohe shook her head.

"It's a kind of rice cake made from yellow millet, with added alkali, so the taste is a bit different from white rice cake, but it's still very fragrant. It's a pity..." Zhao Xuan sighed, "We don't have glutinous rice, otherwise we could make yellow rice cakes." As she spoke, she remembered something and said, "Sister Xiaohe, I can make baoci. The way baoci is made is different from rice cake. The skin of baoci is made by frying rice flour, and it's also filled with a filling of cured meat and pickled scallions. It's incredibly fragrant. I'll make it next time and invite you over to eat it."

Zhang Xiaohe nodded: "Tell me how to do it, and I'll make it at home and learn how to do it."

Zhao Xuan grinned and agreed, "Sure!"

While chatting, the two had already cooked the filling. Once the three men in the courtyard had finished making the white rice cakes and placed them on the table, they could start wrapping them.

First, roll the already formed white rice cake into a long strip. Pinch the strip into small pieces, and then roll each piece into a small round cake about the size of your palm. Take the small round cake and poke a hole in the middle. Use your fingers to pinch the small round cake into a small pocket along the hole. Stuff the pocket with plenty of filling, and then seal it up.

A white rice cake is just the right size to be held in one's hand; it is plump and white, like a big dumpling.

Zhang Xiaohe knows how to make noodles and dumplings. She learned it after just one lesson from Zhao Xuan, but since she only has one hand, she can only place the dough on the cutting board and knead it, so she's not very fast. The others divided the work: one person divided the dough into portions, one person rolled them into balls, and the rest wrapped them up.

The rice cakes were already cooked, and even after being pounded into a ball, they were still very hot. The vegetable filling was also cooked, so they could be eaten immediately after being wrapped into rice cake buns. Zhao Xuan wrapped one first and handed it to the dog. She wrapped it very large, with a thin skin and plenty of filling.

The dog took the dog's paws, thanked Zhao Xuan, and then happily ran out to play with 460.

After wrapping the wrappers for a while, the sun came out, so the group moved to another spot and placed the benches in the yard, wrapping wrappers while basking in the sun.

Some sat, some stood, and on the benches were bamboo round strips brushed with cooked oil. Wrapped white rice cakes were placed on them. When the strips were full, they were covered with white gauze and taken into the kitchen, where another empty bamboo round strip was brought out.

Life in the mountains wasn't particularly interesting. The group of people would chat occasionally while working. Sometimes Lao Dao and Lu An would talk about the salt fields by the sea, and the Yao family would talk about farming. Yao Yuan had already ventured to a remote village that Zhao Xuan and the others had never been to, and he would share his observations there.

In short, everyone's conversations were mild and uneventful, but they were all pleasant and uplifting.

If you get tired of wrapping them, you can sit down and eat a white rice cake.

Zhao Xuan picked up a white rice cake, walked to the steps in front of the hall, and sat down to eat it.

The skin of the white rice cake is very thin, soft and glutinous, yet with a subtle chewiness. One bite reveals a rich filling, with the freshness of dried shrimp, the aroma of shiitake mushrooms and egg shreds, and the crispness of bean sprouts and wild vegetables.

The taste of wild vegetables is so unique. Unlike the sweetness of homegrown vegetables, wild vegetables are purely fragrant, a wild fragrance. Tasting this flavor immediately brings to mind spring.

Zhao Xuan originally didn't like wild vegetables, but she had eaten too many of them in recent years. At the camp, wild vegetables made up more than half of her rations. Wild vegetables without sesame oil and salt were not tasty even after being blanched, because they were too fibrous, and the wild fragrance would eventually turn into a bitter taste.

Once spring is over, the wild vegetables become too tough for even cows to chew, but Zhao Xuan still picks them to survive, blanchs them, cuts them into finer pieces, and swallows them whole.

Sister Lu always shook her head when she saw Zhao Xuan eating old wild vegetables. Sister Lu said that many wild vegetables become more toxic when they get old and can no longer be eaten. For example, cudweed can damage the eyes if eaten in large quantities. But Zhao Xuan had no choice. At that time, Lu An was seriously injured and needed more nutrition. Zhao Xuan gave most of the food she was allocated to him and ate only a little bit herself, just enough to keep her alive.

At that time, Zhao Xuan was so thin that she looked like a skeleton. The thickest part of her two legs was her kneecap. She didn't even have long hair. Her hair was all messy and unkempt, and she really looked like a fool.

Until last year when she and Lu An came here, she didn't pick wild vegetables to eat much during her first spring, because she was really tired of eating them. This year, she picked so many wild vegetables on the way back while collecting medicinal herbs.

—But how come this white rice cake filled with wild vegetables is so delicious?

Zhao Xuan finished his meal in big bites and remained sitting on the steps, lost in thought.

The sunlight shone directly on where she was sitting, making it warm and cozy. Every now and then, a breeze would blow by, carrying a wild scent like wild vegetables and a damp feel.

She loved spring so much, she loved the village, and she loved the group of friends she had made.

Zhao Xuan sat slumped on the steps for a long time, and no one urged her to get up and work. Zhang Xiaohe wrapped a white rice cake with vermicelli filling, stuffed it into her hand, and told her to continue eating while basking in the sun.

Yao Yuan was teaching the dog how to wrap white rice cakes, while Lu An and Lao Dao were also clumsily wrapping them. Lao Dao, who was usually so agile, messed up on these delicate little snacks that required patience to make. The white rice cake wrappers he made were thicker than a city wall. After wrapping them a few times, he took the initiative to do the work of dividing the dough into portions.

The group ate as they wrapped the rice cakes, working all morning. Because they steamed a bucket of rice, they also cooked a large pot of rice porridge. They ate the rice cakes and drank a bowl of rice porridge whenever they were thirsty.

After all the fillings were wrapped, there were still some white rice cake wrappers left. So these white rice cakes were rolled into small round cakes. These white rice cakes were dried slightly and then put in the refrigerator. They can be stored for a long time. If you want to eat them, you can take them out, steam them until soft, dip them in white sugar, or use them in stir-fries or soups.

After noon, the Yao family prepared to leave.

Zhao Xuan brought them many white rice cakes and white rice cakes, and the two families happily said goodbye.

It was an ordinary day in spring. After this day, everyone continued with their lives as usual. Because of the comfortable temperature, farm work was not too tiring. After taking care of both the paddy fields and the dry fields, Lao Dao and Lu An started tending to the vegetable garden.

The vegetables in the garden in spring are the least appealing, a time of scarcity. The mustard greens that had tormented Zhao Xuan in winter had been pulled up and replaced with a variety of spring and summer vegetables: eggplant, tomatoes, cowpeas, and peppers. These vegetables require longer growing times as they need to sprout. The remaining land was still planted with garlic sprouts and bok choy, but Zhao Xuan was tired of those, so he continued to go out every day to pick wild vegetables.

Lu An and Lao Dao were indeed two oxen. After planting the new vegetable seeds, they went to the fields every day to check on them—the newly planted seedlings still needed careful tending. In addition to this, the two went to the mountains and, in just one afternoon, cut several hundred kilograms of fresh bamboo shoots. After that, they also planned to take out the peanuts they harvested last year and use their household oil press to extract oil.

Zhao Xuan remained calm and unperturbed—she wasn't idle; she was gathering herbs. Only by gathering herbs could she exchange them for better goods at the saltworks market.

So although Zhao Xuan hardly did any work, her self-esteem was exceptionally high.

The Yao family's spring plowing was over, and Zhang Xiaohe came to find Zhao Xuan to pick mushrooms and herbs together. The two of them went together and could go to more distant places.