Chapter 250 Flour Making Tips

The next morning, Xi Nainai and her family came very early. Xi Nainai was holding a large rectangular iron plate, while Gao Zhuang was holding a rack made of bamboo strips, which would be used to dry the sweet potato flour later.

The water solution filtered out from the sweet potato residue, after a night of sedimentation, left a mass of white starch at the bottom of the basin and clear water on top.

Looking at the sweet potato residue wrapped in cloth, it is already quite dry.

These sweet potato residues will not be wasted, but can be used to feed livestock.

After breakfast, Xuanyuemei went to her second sister's house to help take care of the child. She had no experience at the moment, but Xuanyueyu and Zhang Chengyuan also had no experience. The three of them got together and were troubled by the newborn baby.

Zhang Chengyuan had to take care of the work in the fields, and as a grown man, he couldn't take care of a newborn baby. When he held the child in his arms, he dared not move for fear of hurting the child.

Newborn babies produce the most feces and urine. At this time, apart from feeding, they poop and pee, and the rest of the time they sleep.

If a child cries, it is not because he is hungry but because he has urinated.

Xu Xuanyu prepared some diapers in advance, and Xu Xuanmei also made some diapers with old cotton cloth and sent them over, but the diapers were still not enough, because once the diapers were wet, the child would cry, and you would have to change and wash them.

Fortunately, the weather is not too cold now, so washing diapers is not too hard. However, washing diapers is Zhang Chengyuan's job. Many beautiful women are responsible for taking care of the children and preparing confinement meals for her second sister.

Seeing the grandmother and her family coming over, Gao Mingcheng hurriedly greeted them and said, "The weather is good today, it's a good time to dry the sweet potato flour."

"Yes, it's been sunny recently, so just sunbathe for two days. Mingcheng, have you had breakfast?" asked the grandmother with a smile.

"It's ready. Duomei, wash the pot clean. Now we can make the sweet potato flour. Xi Nainai, you mix the paste. I'll fetch water. Gao Zhuang, you light the fire!" Gao Mingcheng assigned tasks to everyone, then went to the well carrying a bucket tied with a rope.

The water bucket was not very big, so it took three buckets of water to fill the big iron pot two-thirds of the way.

Gao Zhuang had already sat on the wooden block near the stove and lit the fire in the stove.

Recently, Gao Mingcheng's family has no shortage of firewood. They pile thin branches together and chopped wood together. When making a fire, they burn the thin branches first, which burn quickly. When the fire is strong, they can add large pieces of firewood, which are more durable.

If a person wants to cook and light a fire at the same time, he has to burn large pieces of firewood. Otherwise, after stir-frying the food, he has to add more firewood. By then, he will be in a hurry and the food will definitely not taste good.

Grandma took He Xiuman to prepare the paste, and while she was doing so, she told her granddaughter-in-law the secret.

He Xiuman learned very seriously. Her family had never made sweet potato noodles before. Because her family had many people and was poor, all the sweet potatoes they grew were eaten as meals. How could they afford the luxury of making sweet potato noodles?

It is easy to make paste, it is just a matter of adding the right amount of water.

Because the sweet potato flour made at home does not contain anything added, but the one bought outside may contain alum.

Because sweet potato paste can only form a paste but cannot be shaped, adding alum can increase the gluten content of the sweet potato flour and help the vermicelli to be shaped into strips. Also, with the gluten content, it will not easily break during transportation, and the taste will be better and it will not become mushy even after being cooked for a long time.

However, alum contains aluminum, which cannot be metabolized after consumption. Eating too much can damage the brain, so it is best not to eat it. If the sweet potato flour you buy on the market can be folded in half and is even elastic, then it is likely that a lot of alum and gelatin have been added.

Because it is difficult to shape without adding alum, the homemade sweet potato flour here is not made by using a funnel to sift out the vermicelli and shaping it in warm water. Instead, the paste is spread on an iron plate, and then the iron plate is boiled in hot water for one minute. After it is cooked, the vermicelli skin is torn off and spread on a bamboo rack to dry.

Sun-dry for an hour, when the surface of the sweet potato vermicelli is dry but not completely dry, you can peel it off, fold it in half, and cut it into vermicelli strips. After the vermicelli strips are dried, you can store them and eat them later.

If it is kept dry, it can be kept for one or two years without going bad.

The water in the big iron pot has boiled. Grandma Xi took a round spoon and stirred the paste. Then she scooped a spoonful of paste, poured it on the iron plate, and shook it to spread the paste evenly.

At this time, you can place the iron plate on the water surface in the iron pot. This iron plate is less than the diameter of the large iron pot and is specially made, so it can just fit in. When put in, it floats on the boiling water.

Grandma covered the pot so that it would cook faster. She said to He Xiuman beside her, "Cook it for about a minute and it will be almost done. In the past, there were no watches, so we could only estimate the time ourselves. If we were not sure, we would lift the lid and poke it with chopsticks. Now it's good, you all have watches, you can check them."

As we were talking, a minute passed quickly.

The grandmother lifted the lid of the pot and a wave of hot steam hit her face.

There is already a layer of light brown powder on the iron plate. Sweet potato starch is white, but it will change color after being cooked. This is like a fresh sweet potato. After being cut, white juice will come out of the cut surface, but after a while, the juice will turn light brown. The same is true for the color change of sweet potato powder.

Grandma used chopsticks to fish the iron plate out of the hot water, then skillfully lifted up the rice noodles inside and spread them on the bamboo rack prepared next to it.

Then, the grandmother stirred the paste with a spoon and scooped a spoonful into the iron plate.

Every time you make rice paper, you have to stir the paste because the starch will settle. If you don’t stir it, there will be thick starch at the bottom and clear water on top.

While doing it, the grandmother passed on all the skills to He Xiuman.

He Xiuman also listened carefully and memorized it carefully.

Gao Mingcheng was also watching from the side. He then started to put the bamboo rack outside in the yard to dry in the sun. It would be best to find a location that was sheltered from the wind and facing the sun so that it would not be blown by dust.

In this way, Xi Nainai took He Xiuman to make rice noodles, Gao Zhuang made the fire, and Gao Mingcheng assisted by the side, helping to dry the rice noodles in the yard.

After the surface of the rice noodle skin was dry, he took a knife and a chopping board, folded the rice noodle skin in half, and then cut it into strips.

Pure sweet potato flour has poor gluten strength. If it is too dry, it will break when you fold it in half. So you should cut the rice noodles into strips when they are half dry and half wet.

After cutting into strips, place them in a large winnowing basket and dry them in the sun.

Gao Zhuang's family has about 700 to 800 kilograms of sweet potatoes, plus Gao Mingcheng's family has more than 100 kilograms, so they get a lot of sweet potato starch. Now, the whole process of making it into rice noodles is quite long.

When Xuanmei came back to cook lunch, she found that their sweet potato noodles were still not ready.

The stove at home is designed with two large and one small iron pots, two large iron pots and one small iron pot. The small iron pot is used for steaming rice, while the large iron pot can be used for cooking rice and stir-frying vegetables.

Most families had two pots, one large and one small. However, when a new house was built later, the villagers' conditions improved and every household raised pigs, so the stoves became two large and one small.

When building the house, the craftsman asked Gao Mingcheng how to build a stove. He instinctively said this, so the craftsman made him a big stove.

There is a pot that is usually empty, but now it comes in handy and is used to cook pork vermicelli.

Today is the day of the Junling old market. Early in the morning, Xuanyuemei rode her bicycle to Junling to buy fresh pork. She gave half to her second sister and kept the other half for herself.

The fat was chopped and lard was boiled out, then poured into the well water. Because there were so many people, half a pot of water was added.

After the water boils, you can put the chopped sweet potato vermicelli in and then put the lean meat in. When it is almost cooked, add some vegetables.

After seasoning, you can serve it and it’s a simple lunch.

Gao Mingcheng was eating noodles in a large bowl, enjoying it very much. Although the noodles were not particularly chewy, they were smooth and delicious, with a unique flavor.

"Delicious! The sweet potato noodles are delicious!" Gao Mingcheng praised generously, praising both the good sweet potato noodles made by his grandmother and Xuanmei's good cooking skills.

Many beauties pursed their lips and smiled, then lowered their heads to eat noodles.

It was a rare opportunity for her to eat sweet potato noodles, and this noodle with pork tasted really good, so several people ate up all the noodles in their bowls, not even wasting the soup.

Seeing that He Xiuman liked sweet potato noodles, Xi Nainai immediately said to Gao Zhuang: "I knew Xiuman would like sweet potato noodles, so we planted more sweet potatoes this year."

Gao Zhuang smiled and thought of the conversation he had with his grandmother when they were planting sweet potatoes.

Gao Zhuang was tired of eating sweet potatoes and didn't want to eat more, so naturally he didn't want to eat more. But Xi Nainai wanted to eat more, because she wanted to make sweet potato flour for He Xiuman.

Who would have thought that the weather would be dry in the second half of the year, not only would the sweet potato yields decrease, but there would also be no well water to make sweet potato flour.

Fortunately, Brother Mingcheng’s house has a well!

It took me a whole day to make this sweet potato vermicelli. The main reason was that the production efficiency was too low! I could only make one sheet of vermicelli at a time. Although it only took one minute to cook, it took a long time to cook it. After the water evaporated, the water level in the pot dropped, so I had to add water and boil it again.

By the afternoon, all the sweet potato flour was ready.

Because he needed to collect medicinal materials, Gao Mingcheng had a scale at home, so he weighed all the sweet potato powder and then divided it according to the proportion of sweet potatoes.

Grandma Xi wanted Gao Mingcheng to get a bigger share because she used Gao Mingcheng's family's water and firewood.

The stove has been burning for a whole day, and a lot of firewood is used.

Gao Mingcheng naturally declined, but he could do nothing about his grandmother, so he ended up accepting a few more kilograms of sweet potato flour.

As for the sweet potato residue, it was all given to grandma's family. Gao Mingcheng's family did not raise pigs, and the cattle and sheep did not eat this stuff much.

Although these sweet potato residues have lost some nutrients, they are still a good feed for pigs.

(End of this chapter)