Chapter 133 Rice Cake

Without waiting for her to refute, Mu Xi put his arms around her slender waist and held her tightly in his arms.

"Sleepy......"

His voice was tender and Zhao Yeqing felt that he was acting like a spoiled child.

Forget it, there is nothing to do today anyway, so just let him sleep.

Leaning in his arms, listening to his regular heartbeat, she felt warm all over and fell asleep before she knew it.

-

When I was woken up by Mu Xi, I had only slept for more than an hour.

"If you sleep any longer, you won't be able to sleep at night."

She moaned, turned over and closed her eyes again.

She vaguely heard Mu Xi walk out of the room, and when she came back, her face was covered with a touch of warm moisture.

Mu Xi wrung out a warm towel and started washing her face.

After the towel was removed, the warmth on her face slowly cooled down, and she woke up a lot from her sleepiness.

The sunlight outside became dim, making people feel sleepy.

She stretched and sat up, her stomach growling.

"What do you want to eat?"

Mu Xi obviously heard the voice.

Zhao Yeqing lay back on the bed, hugged the quilt and twisted a few times, "I want to eat rice cakes."

Mu Xi was convinced. This man could do whatever he wanted.

But he also knew that she might want to eat rice cakes just a little bit now, but if she didn't get to eat them, this desire would be magnified, and she would keep talking about it until she got to eat them.

"Can we eat it tomorrow?"

Zhao Yeqing also knew that this idea came to him suddenly, and he laughed, "Okay."

The glutinous rice needs to be soaked overnight.

The rice cakes here are glutinous rice cakes, which are not made from water-ground rice. Instead, they are made from steamed glutinous rice and then pounded with large stones.

There is no large stone pestle for making rice cakes here, so we can only use the one used for grinding sesame seeds. A small one is enough for making ten or so.

The next morning, Mu Xi put the steamer on the table.

After soaking glutinous rice overnight, you can easily pinch off the rice grains with your fingernails.

Mu Xi placed a cloth inside the steamer and spread the glutinous rice evenly on it.

It was still early, less than seven o'clock, and Zhao Yeqing was still in bed.

By the time she wakes up, the glutinous rice should have been steamed.

But eating glutinous rice directly in the morning is not good for the stomach, so he went to the chicken coop and got a few eggs, which were still warm.

Take two eggs, beat them, add warm water and pour them into two bowls. Pick up the steamer with glutinous rice, add an extra layer to the bottom of the steamer, and put the two bowls in to steam together.

It would be nice if there was fermented glutinous rice. He remembered that when Zhao Yeqing was a child, the most common dish he ate was fermented glutinous rice eggs, and they had to be runny.

There is no fermented glutinous rice at home, only two old distiller's yeasts.

After the egg custard on the bottom layer was steamed, Mu Xi ate his own bowl, kept the other bowl warm in water, took his sickle and gun and went out.

In this season, we should still be able to find Polygonum multiflorum for making sweet wine koji. Mu Xi walked towards the water source in the forest.

There was a landslide before, and many water sources were displaced. It took me half an hour to find a stream that had not been displaced.

Polygonum hydropiper likes to grow near water sources. If it is still alive in this season, it should be blooming.

Mu Xi walked down the mountain along the stream. When he didn't find any water pepper, he picked a few handfuls of fresh pine needles.

Only when you reach halfway up the mountain can you see patches of Polygonum multiflorum. The flowers on the Polygonum multiflorum are purple-pink, with spikes of flowers hanging down from the branches.

The flowers of Polygonum hydropiper are used to make sweet wine koji. Mu Xi also brought some Polygonum hydropiper grass back with him. It was dried and ground into powder, which was sprinkled on the leaves of vegetables. It is a natural insecticide.

When Mu Xi returned home, Zhao Yeqing was eating egg custard with a bowl.

Seeing him come back, she stood up and walked to the door, "Where have you been?"

After saying that, without waiting for Mu Xi to answer, he leaned over to look into his basket.

"Polygonum? Are we going to make sweet wine?"

Zhao Yeqing's eyes sparkled. He hadn't drunk for a long time.

Most wines, including fruit wine brewed with rock sugar, inevitably have a bitter taste, and only sweet wine is her favorite.

The glutinous rice in the steamer has not yet been taken out of the pot, and the rice cake has not yet been made, but she is already thinking about the sweet wine.

Mu Xi smiled and chased her away, "We have to make the wine yeast first, and then we have to wait. Come over and sit down and eat your egg custard first."

Of course she was not in a hurry since someone was taking care of her. It would be a bit ungrateful to urge her any further. She smiled and scooped a spoonful of egg custard into her mouth, "I'm eating it. This egg custard is delicious."

Before making glutinous rice cakes, he first washed and dried the pepper flowers so that he wouldn't have to wait when making the koji in the afternoon, saving some time.

Mu Xi opened the steamer and found that the glutinous rice inside had been cooked, with the rice grains crystal clear and plump.

A whole steamer can just fit all the ingredients in the pestle.

Mu Xi smeared a layer of oil on the stone pestle, picked up the cloth and poured all the glutinous rice into it.

In the past, when making New Year's glutinous rice cakes, they used a large wooden stick taller than a person. Two people each held one and took turns hammering it. Now we can only sit down and hammer it slowly with a short wooden stick.

The main thing about making rice cakes is that you need to smash them hard to break the rice grains. You need to be very gentle with your hands and smash them down hard with each blow.

Zhao Yeqing finished eating the egg custard, washed the bowl and walked out of the kitchen.

Restock the grass and drinking water in the sheepfold and cattle pen first, and feed the rabbits and chickens as well.

The clay pot that was fired yesterday has completely cooled down in the furnace today. I opened the lid and poked it, and found that the clay pot has become hard due to firing.

All four clay pots were gently taken out, three of them were successful, and one had a slight crack.

Zhao Yeqing put this outside the house, and when spring came, he would go to the mountains to find some wild flowers and plant them inside.

One clay basin was left in the tool room as a standby, and the remaining two were filled with soil and brought into the room.

Fertilizer has been mixed into the soil in advance. Put the pea seeds soaked yesterday into the small holes dug by your fingers, two or three seeds in a small hole, cover with soil and water thoroughly.

There are small holes at the bottom of the mud basin, which is padded with wooden boards. Excess water seeps out from the holes, and the wooden boards will not dirty the house.

There were banging sounds coming from the kitchen. Zhao Yeqing washed his hands and went in to change hands.

"I'll do it, you take a break."

Hammering this stick is very tiring, so Mu Xi handed it to her. After resting for ten minutes and feeling that her hands were not so sore anymore, she took it back.

Zhao Yeqing's hammering for ten minutes continuously was already his limit; it was really tiring.

But when she thought of the delicious glutinous rice cake, she felt she was okay again.

"Just tell me if your hands get sore, and we'll take turns."

There wasn't much glutinous rice in the stone pestle, so the two of them took turns pounding it almost done.

The glutinous rice in the bowl has lost its shape as rice grains and has turned into a large, sticky lump.

Zhao Yeqing reached out, pinched a piece, dipped it in sugar and put it in his mouth.

The glutinous rice cake dipped in white sugar is sweet and soft, and tastes better than the one dipped in brown sugar. It’s a pity that there is no fried soybean flour. It would also be very fragrant if dipped in salty soybean flour.

Directly transformed into soy milk glutinous rice cake.

After eating one piece, Zhao Yeqing filled a small bowl with food and planned to eat it later.

What’s left is to make individual glutinous rice cakes.