The best sugar syrup for making roasted chestnuts is made from maltose, which has the highest sweetness level; honey can also be used.
White sugar... it's not that it won't work, but it's not sweet enough. However, you can adjust the water ratio.
Bai Lu acted on her thought immediately, "Xiao Wei, could you help me wash these chestnuts?"
"Can."
Whatever she can make, give it all to my older brother to try. He'll definitely be able to make up after he tastes it.
Xiao Wei thought this method was feasible.
After boiling the sugar syrup for Bailu, I realized there was no sand in it.
The ceramic sand used in later generations was not yet produced in the 1990s, and if the stones were not selected properly, they would inevitably be unclean.
If you put sugar-roasted chestnuts directly into the pan, they will all stick together, turn black and burnt, and taste bitter. Even if they are not spoiled, they will be no different from boiled ones, lacking the soft, sweet, and crisp taste of roasted chestnuts.
It would be great if we could have sand that is smooth, not easily broken, doesn't shed dust, and is uniform in size.
Upon hearing her request, Xiao Wei immediately replied, "There's some next door. The sand used for building houses is coarse sand transported from the sand quarry. The fine sand left over after sieving the cement slurry is used. We generally don't want the coarse sand."
When he came home from school, he saw Xiao Dazhuang sifting sand. He watched curiously for a while, and Xiao Dazhuang told him what was happening.
Upon hearing this, Bai Lu's worried expression instantly turned into a smile: "Go and get some back for me quickly."
Xiao Wei's eyes darted around, and he realized that the tall figure in the shadows was no longer there; perhaps he had gone to do something else.
After thinking for a moment, a brilliant idea flashed into my mind: "I haven't finished my homework, and I'll be kept after school by the teacher later. I need to do my homework now. Go get the sand yourself."
After saying that, she put the washed chestnuts into a small bamboo basket, let them drain, and hurriedly went back to her room.
As the flowers of the motherland, of course studying is more important, and Bai Lu didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
He lifted his foot and walked over to the next room.
When she arrived, she discovered that the person sifting through the sand was the very person she wanted to turn away from.
The foundation needs to dry completely before the walls can be built. Xiao Dazhuang, Wang Hao, Luo Shiliu, and the others, whose faces were more or less injured, were stacking bricks outside, a dozen or so at a time, and carrying them inside, bypassing the foundation.
Commonly known as bricklaying.
Beside a pile of red bricks, a rectangular sand sieve was propped up at an angle on the ground. A stern-faced man held a shovel, swung his arm, and threw sand into the wire mesh, shovel by shovel.
The fine sand and the large gravel separated instantly.
Noticing her footsteps, the man stopped what he was doing, placed the shovel on the ground, crossed his hands on the handle, and looked up with a half-smile in his eyes.
What do you want?
Bai Lu didn't want to talk to him, but his brothers were all watching, and she didn't want to embarrass him.
“I want some big sand.” Her smile was perfect, and her voice was cool.
Xiao Cheng knew she was still angry, so he raised an eyebrow helplessly and waved the shovel: "How much do you want?"
The large sands that were sifted out were of different sizes and needed to be sorted further. Bailu didn't know exactly how much was needed, so she pointed to the small black bucket for storing cement slurry next to his feet.
"One bucket."
The cement slurry bucket was only a third the size of a water bucket, but when filled with a large bucket of sand, it weighed at least twenty kilograms. Xiao Cheng glanced at the girl's slender, willow-like wrist.
It feels like it would break if you squeezed it. "Can you even lift it?"
Bai Lu was so angry that she wanted to say "It's none of your business," but before she could finish, she gritted her teeth and said, "Then let's just have half a bucket."
She can always make the trip again.
In the end, Xiao Cheng still filled a large bucket with sand and carried it home for her himself.
This rare and memorable scene drew cheers and whistles from a group of bricklayers behind them.
Bai Lu, who was originally walking behind, suddenly overtook Xiao Cheng and hurried home.
Xiao Cheng glanced back.
The men immediately calmed down and got to work!
Bai Lu returned to the courtyard, politely thanked Xiao Cheng, and then took the sand bucket from his hand.
Pour the large sands into a large basin filled with water, wash them carefully, and pick out the ones that are too big, too small, or too damaged, and put them on the ground to be taken out and thrown away later.
Sand of varying sizes will cause chestnuts to heat unevenly during roasting, making them prone to burning or charring.
Xiao Cheng stopped where he was and watched for a while.
Bai Lu carefully washed the sand, scrubbing it again and again with her fair and delicate hands, but she ignored him.
It was as if he was completely unaware that there was someone next to him.
Xiao Cheng had no choice but to pick up the sand she had discarded, put it back in the bucket, and carry it away.
A moment later, she returned with another bucket of sand. Bai Lu politely thanked him as always, and then continued washing her sand without even glancing at him.
Xiao Cheng was completely at a loss. Washing sand wasn't a heavy job, and he couldn't help with that.
They could only go back next door to continue sifting sand.
After washing and drying the sand during the White Dew season, we started to refine it. The pot we used for refining the sand was the one that had been damaged by falling bricks. We found an old piece of iron from the corner to put under the hole, and it was still usable as long as we didn't scrape the bottom of the pot too hard.
Turn up the fire in the stove, heat the gravel in the pot, add a spoonful of sugar syrup, pour it around, and stir the gravel repeatedly so that all the gravel is coated with sugar syrup.
Once the surface of the sand and gravel is coated with a layer of transparent sugar film, you can put the chestnuts in to stir-fry.
This process removes the dirt and fine fuzz that are invisible to the naked eye from the surface of chestnuts, making the roasted chestnuts cleaner, shinier, and smoother.
Stir constantly during cooking to prevent burning. Once the chestnuts turn slightly yellow, reduce the heat to low.
Stir-frying over low heat is to cook the chestnut flesh inside. Once the sand and chestnut pieces are clearly separated, add half a spoonful of sugar syrup and continue stir-frying until the chestnuts become dry and the skin turns yellowish-brown or dark brown. Then they are ready to be taken out of the pan.
The freshly roasted chestnuts were very hot, so you couldn't pick them up with your hands. Bailu used chopsticks to pick one up.
Place it on the table, and pinch it firmly with your thumb and forefinger through the tablecloth; the chestnut will crack open instantly.
The golden flesh and the sweet but not cloying aroma are enough to make your mouth water.
Xiao Wei, who was "passing by" outside, couldn't help but swallow hard, his eyes glued to the screen.
She actually managed to roast chestnuts in sand, and they smelled so good, a scent I'd never smelled before.
"Xiao Wei, come and have a taste."
Bai Lu had already spotted the little guy. Holding a golden chestnut, she smiled and waved to him.
Xiao Wei believes that refusing someone else's hard work is a very impolite thing to do.
So he went in.
The sand and chestnuts in the pot were all poured out and separated using an hourglass. The sand was placed in an old, broken earthenware jar, and the chestnuts were placed in a bamboo winnowing basket. They smelled especially good.
Xiao Wei didn't take the chestnuts that Bai Lu had peeled; he took one for himself and peeled and ate it while it was still hot to the touch.
Chestnuts roasted in sand have a soft, sweet, and crunchy texture, making them much tastier than boiled or roasted chestnuts!
"Is it tasty?"
Bai Lu didn't miss the little guy's micro-expressions. She could even change the little wooden face that was fixed for 24 hours a day. Her skills must be pretty good.
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