Chapter 13 Mung Bean Cake

Half an hour later, the aroma of stewed meat wafted out, luring the two little guys to come over to taste it.

Xu Qingmeng looked at their greedy looks and said with a smile, "We can't eat it now." As she spoke, she did not stop her actions and threw a few boiled eggs into the stew pot. The moment the lid of the pot was opened, the aroma became more and more intense.

Xu Qing thought that the two little ones might not be full, so she went to check on the mung beans. She gently pinched the soaked mung beans with her hands and found that the beans had become soft and the skin could be easily rubbed off.

So, she decided to make mung bean cake first. She rubbed off the skin of each mung bean to reveal the bean kernel inside, and then put the peeled mung beans into a pot, added water, and cooked over high heat.

After boiling over high heat, Xu Qingmeng asked He to remove some of the wood and simmer over low heat until the mung beans were completely cooked and became very soft.

Then, she used a cloth to crush the boiled mung beans into fine mung bean paste.

Pour a proper amount of oil into the pot, then pour in the mung bean paste and stir-fry slowly over low heat. During this time, she added white sugar several times to let the sweetness penetrate every part of the mung bean paste.

After stir-frying until the mung bean paste becomes thick and the moisture is basically evaporated, Xu Qingmeng serves the mung bean paste and sets it aside, waiting for it to cool naturally.

Although the mung bean cake has not yet been fully formed, it already exudes a faint sweet fragrance, making people want to take a bite.

Because there was no mold, Xu Qingmeng used her hands to knead the mung bean paste into squares of similar size. She kneaded about fifty of them and couldn't help but eat one herself.

Yun Sheng just walked in and saw Xu Qingmeng eating half a piece of mung bean cake. He ran over and hugged her legs, looking at her eagerly.

"Sister-in-law, I want to eat too. I subconsciously touched my stomach. I didn't have enough food at noon."

"Let go first," Xu Qingmeng said as he swallowed the mung bean cake in his mouth.

She took two plates, put two servings on them, one with more and one with less, and said,

"Send this to your elder brother, and share this with Yun Mo and mother."

"Hmmmm."

As Yun Sheng spoke, he took a piece and put it in his mouth. He took a bite and it tasted sweet and fragrant.

"Sister-in-law, this is delicious, better than the cakes sold on the street."

Xu Qingmeng looked at the satisfied look on that little face and urged, "Don't eat it all by yourself, take it out and share it with everyone."

At the same time, the aroma of the braised food became stronger and stronger. After an hour, the whole yard was filled with this mouth-watering smell.

Even the houses next door are filled with this lingering smell.

Afterwards, she turned around and took out the soaked soybeans. Since it was her first time trying to make tofu pudding, she only soaked one pound of soybeans.

If successful, this pound of soybeans can produce about four pounds of tofu pudding.

Since the original body was very strong, she didn't need any help. She just put the soaked soybeans and water on the stone mill and grind them into soybean milk.

The stone mill made a dull sound as it turned, and the soybeans and water gradually turned into soy milk under the grinding of the millstone. However, the soybean milk was too viscous at the beginning, so Xu Qingmeng added more water to grind it.

There was a thick layer of foam on the ground soy milk. Xu Qingmeng skimmed off the foam, took out a bucket, spread the fine cotton cloth washed by He on it, and filtered out the bean dregs.

Xu Qingmeng asked He to boil a pot of hot water, then poured the filtered soy milk into the boiling hot water and continued to cook.

When the soy milk was cooking, there was foam on the surface. Xu Qingmeng asked He to help skim off the foam. She took out the gypsum that had been burned in the stove, ground it into powder, and then added an appropriate amount of water and stirred it.

After the soy milk in the pot boiled, Xu Qingmeng took five small bowls, put some sugar in each and began to pour some soy milk into them, waiting for them to cool down before drinking.

After Xu Qingmeng turned off the fire, she saw a thin layer of skin on the surface of the soy milk in the pot. She then poured the gypsum water into it and stirred it quickly.

Xu Qingmeng stopped stirring after the soy milk became slurry, then covered the pot and let the soy milk sit for a while.

The soy milk on the stove had cooled down a little, so she called He, Yun Sheng, and Yun Mo to come and taste it, and then brought a bowl to Gu Yunyi.

"Good!" Gu Yunyi gave a brief evaluation after drinking.

Xu Qingmeng couldn't help but give the boss a thumbs up in her heart. Although he was a boss, he was still as frugal with words as ever.

"Sister-in-law, this is so delicious!" Yun Sheng was a little foodie and finished the drink quickly.

Xu Qingmeng smiled and touched Yun Sheng's head, then looked at Yun Mo and said,

"Does Yun Mo think it tastes good?"

Yun Mo also nodded heavily, his little face full of seriousness, "Sister-in-law, it's delicious. This one is sweet and white, and looks beautiful."

"I like it. I'll cook it for you tomorrow."

Xu Qingmeng also liked to drink it, and she felt that the soy milk made from it had a stronger and richer bean flavor than the modern soy milk.

He took a sip and liked it very much. "Xiao Meng, this is really delicious, sweet but not greasy, and the taste is delicate, like eating a cloud."

"Since mom likes it too, let's cook more tomorrow morning."

After drinking the soy milk, Xu Qingmeng opened the lid of the pot and looked at the tofu brain in the pot. It had already solidified, but after looking at it, she decided to let it sit for another quarter of an hour to extract some water.

There was no dried radish at home, so Xu Qingmeng could only cut some green onions and chopped coriander, added some soy sauce and stirred it a few times. She would prepare both sweet and salty dishes to try and let them taste which one tastes better.

However, Xu Qingmeng prefers saltier ones, and when she felt the time was about right, she scooped the tofu pudding out of the pot. It wasn't as tender as she had imagined, but it was still a success. She planned to try putting less gypsum water next time.

Xu Qingmeng scooped out two large bowls, added soy sauce to one bowl, and added sugar to the other bowl. The only difference between them was that they were salty and lacked some dried radish.

Xu Qingmeng and Gu Yunyi both prefer salty food, while the two children and He prefer sweet food. Since people like both sweet and salty food, she thinks that both flavors can be sold tomorrow morning. In addition, she won’t have to cook soy milk and rice soup tomorrow morning. After all, it’s free, and who wants to eat something that costs money?

After Xu Qingmeng finished all this, she started to prepare the fillings for tomorrow morning. Xu Qingmeng planned to prepare a mushroom sauce and meat.

She took out a piece of fat and lean meat and chopped half of it and cut the other half into cubes. Then she added the chopped soaked mushrooms and stir-fried them with some soy sauce. The mushroom sauce meat filling was ready.

Xu Qingmeng began to prepare other fillings for tomorrow morning. Just by looking up, she could see three of them. Two pairs of shining eyes were staring at the pot on the stove, and the other pair of eyes was glancing at it intentionally or unintentionally. She instantly knew what they wanted to do.

Xu Qingmeng pretended not to see the three people in front of her, mainly Gu Yunyi, who couldn't eat any more as he had just recovered and had already eaten quite a bit. Even though the two children didn't eat enough at noon, they had eaten quite a bit now. If they ate any more, she was afraid they would get sick from being too full.

(End of this chapter)