Chapter 42 Failed to Make Ice Jelly
At the third quarter of the Yin hour, the sun was setting in the west.
Cheng Wanwan and her family got busy.
Zhao Sidan's job was simple: go up the mountain to dig up wild vegetables, then come back, chop them up, and feed them to the chickens.
Zhao Sanniu and Zhao Ergou were in charge of loosening the soil, watering the dry and hard vegetable patches in front of and behind the house, and then digging and turning them over so that they could be planted tomorrow.
Zhao Dashan was making ice jelly under Cheng Wanwan's instructions.
Put a small bowl of agar seeds into a cloth bag, put it in a basin of water, and rub it vigorously. Keep rubbing and pounding to wash away all the stuff on the surface of the agar seeds until the clear water gradually becomes thick.
Half a pound of agar seeds turned into a large bowl of thick, shapeless ice jelly.
The mountain spring water is cold enough to chill the unformed jelly in the spring water, waiting for it to solidify.
While waiting, Cheng Wanwan sent her sons up the mountain to find hawthorn berries. It was the season when hawthorn berries were ripe. The chopped hawthorn berries were placed in the ice jelly, and the sweet and sour taste made people want to eat more after taking a bite.
Cheng Wanwan and Wu Huiniang were simmering sugar water in a pot.
This sugar is brown sugar bought from a shopping mall. There is red sugar in this era, but it is coarse sugar and doesn't taste very good.
She plans to make two flavors first: hawthorn jelly and sweet jelly with added sugar, not knowing which one will be more popular.
As Wu Huiniang watched her mother-in-law pour a large box of brown sugar into the pot, she felt extremely distressed. In those days, meat was expensive, and sugar was even more expensive. This much sugar would cost at least fifty or sixty copper coins. Could the lantern grass that no one wanted on the mountain really earn back these copper coins?
Wu Huiniang didn't believe that lantern grass could be made into anything delicious, but she had one advantage: she never questioned her mother-in-law and did whatever her mother-in-law said.
When the syrup was ready, Zhao Sidan rushed into the house carrying a handful of hawthorns.
"Si Dan is amazing!" Cheng Wanwan praised without reservation. "When the ice jelly comes out, the first bowl will be a reward for Si Dan."
Zhao Sidan licked his lips, his eyes fixed on the ice jelly chilled in the spring water.
Cheng Wanwan wiped her hands clean, took a pair of chopsticks, walked to the water basin, and poked at the ice jelly with the chopsticks, but it was still not set.
It's been almost an hour. Logically, it should be starting to solidify. Could it be that she forgot some step?
She sat to the side, racking her brains, trying to recall the details of making ice jelly by hand in Xinyang... She remembered, she had indeed forgotten a step. When she was washing the agar seeds, the staff put some kind of powder in the container. This powder should have been the key to solidification.
Zhao Sidan squatted by the basin of water, blinking his big eyes: "Mom, can we eat now?"
Zhao Ergou secretly licked his fingertip, his eyes lighting up: "Icy cold, delicious!"
"Really?" Zhao Sidan couldn't resist. He quickly took a spoonful and put it in his mouth. He smacked his lips and his eyes lit up. "Mom, what's this called? It's so refreshing to eat when it's hot. I really like it. I'm sure it can make money!"
Looking at the large basin of failed attempts, Cheng Wanwan said helplessly, "These are edible, but they can't be sold yet. We'll have to make them again."
Wu Huiniang asked nervously, "Mother, is there something I did wrong?"
From beginning to end, her mother-in-law dictated how to do things, and she handled the details, afraid of making a mistake at any step and ruining her mother-in-law's business.
Cheng Wanwan shook her head: "It has nothing to do with you. I forgot what to add in the middle. You guys eat a bowl each first, and then prepare dinner. I'll think about it quietly by myself."
She walked to the back of the house, felt the wind, and once again focused her mind on recalling the past.
But in her past life, she was simply traveling and didn't pay any attention to what that packet of powder was. No matter how hard she tried to remember, she couldn't recall it.
Just as Cheng Wanwan was feeling dejected, she suddenly slapped her forehead: "What an idiot."
She has a marketplace with books, which are like encyclopedias. Couldn't she just buy a book about making ice jelly?
She opened the online store and searched, and sure enough, there were recipes for ice jelly. She bought a recipe for only eight coins.
She opened the recipe book. The ingredients indicated that lime powder was needed to make ice jelly. Lime powder should have existed in this era, but it probably didn't exist in Dahe Village. She could buy it from the mall, but she would definitely pass this skill on to Wu Huiniang in the future. Where would Wu Huiniang get lime powder then?
She continued reading the recipe, which, though inexpensive, was far too crude, failing to even mention a substitute for lime powder.
Cheng Wanwan held her forehead in frustration. She pondered the properties of lime powder and suddenly had an idea: what if she replaced the lime powder with starch? Would that work?
Let's do it!
Cheng Wanwan bought some corn flour, wheat flour, sweet potato flour, and other common products from Dahe Village at the mall, and then walked to the front yard.
The four boys each held a bowl of ice jelly, sipping it slowly and smacking their lips after each sip, which looked rather comical.
“This whole basin is full of failed attempts. If you drink too much of this, you won’t be able to drink the finished product later.” Cheng Wanwan shook her head with a laugh. “While it’s still early, come and help out.”
She divided the crushed agar seeds into several small bowls, added corn flour, wheat flour, and sweet potato flour to them respectively, and then placed them in well water.
While waiting, Cheng Wanwan and Wu Huiniang prepared dinner together.
The dishes on the table were still wild vegetables and mushrooms, nothing fresh. The thing our family lacked most was meat, and we had no legitimate reason to eat meat.
Rice served with wild vegetables and mushrooms is considered the best meal in Dahe Village.
After dinner, it gradually got dark.
Cheng Wanwan went to check the three samples. The ice jelly with added sweet potato starch solidified the fastest and already had a jelly-like texture. It should be ready in about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
She got up to prepare the ingredients, took out all the bowls in the house, put half of them with chopped hawthorn pulp and the other half with thick, black brown sugar syrup, and finally cut the solidified ice jelly into small cubes, putting six cubes in each bowl, and then carefully placing them into the bamboo basket.
There were only eight bowls in the house, and the basket could only hold eight bowls of ice jelly. She picked up the basket and walked out of the house.
There are still people in the rice paddies near the entrance.
After nearly two months of drought, the rice suddenly had water. Some experienced farmers were reluctant to leave the paddy field ridges, walking back and forth in their own rice fields again and again, as if afraid that this was just a dream.
As Cheng Wanwan walked over, many people greeted her, something that would never have happened before.
She carried the basket to Old Zhao's house, where the whole family was enjoying the cool air in the courtyard.
"Grandma, you've finally arrived." Old Mrs. Zhao looked at the basket in her hand. "Did you really make some food?"
Cheng Wanwan nodded: "Didn't I have the children help me pick lanterns a few days ago? They were made with that stuff. It's my first time making them, so I don't know how they taste. If you think they're good, I'll take them to town tomorrow and see if anyone wants to buy them."
She took out the bowls from the basket, eight in total, and placed them on the table. There were twelve people in Old Zhao's family. She was just about to suggest that the children come to her house to eat. She said that the bowls with added flour and cornmeal wouldn't be sold in town, but they would taste the same, and the children could have as much as they wanted.
Before she could even speak, Madam Sun quickly interrupted, "Chunhua, Donghua, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and get the bowls, or there won't be any left!"
Sun twitched her lips. "My sister-in-law is too stingy. There are twelve people here, and she only brought eight bowls. That means four people won't get to eat. What if the old lady doesn't let the girls eat? Then the two maids from the third branch won't get a single bite. No matter how you look at it, the third branch is at a loss."
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