Wash together
Mooncakes, speaking of mooncakes, we have to go back to the Tang Dynasty.
It is said that during the Five Dynasties period, there was a snack shop owner named Zhang Shoumei. He only sold one item during every festival, which was moon soup during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The preparation of this moon soup was somewhat different from that of moon cakes. It was made with longan, lotus seeds, lotus root powder, etc.
By the Song Dynasty, mooncakes had been listed as an official Mid-Autumn Festival snack. Su Dongpo once said, "The small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crisp and malt sugar inside."
By the Yuan Dynasty, the small mooncakes held even more mysteries, with stories of slips of paper hidden inside the cakes to convey secret messages.
This is where He Yingchun got the inspiration to put a note inside the Qiqiao fruit.
There are so many types of mooncakes, including five-nut, jujube paste, lotus seed paste, rose, pork floss, ham, etc., and the flavors are also different, sweet, salty, spicy, salty and sweet...
But the job that He Yingchun took on was actually a bit difficult. Everyone has different tastes, so if something is novel and unique, it needs to be carefully considered.
He Yingchun remembers that when she first learned to make dim sum, she read a lot of historical materials. A dried Tang Dynasty "dim sum" was unearthed in Xinjiang. It looked very similar to a Cantonese mooncake. The "Baoxiang flower pattern" on the skin was quite innovative compared to the slightly rough shape of today.
Make a mold, mix the dough with the water soaked with red beans, make the skin light pink, and use the "Baoxiang flower pattern" style, and use rose date paste as the filling.
The taste is well-defined, delicate and soft.
According to Madam Wang, it was no exaggeration to call it a palace pastry, and Mum, a seasoned pastry chef, praised it repeatedly. Even Wen Jingzhao, who was so picky, said, "Not bad."
But the lady was not satisfied. She only said that the taste was good, but not original enough. The little maid took out another ten taels and said, "Thank you for your hard work. This is the lady's reward for your hard work."
"How can I be so embarrassed?"
He Yingchun took the money, gave the maid a bag of nougat, and drank it with jasmine tea while chatting with her and asking about the maid's wife's daily preferences.
"Madam usually likes to eat glutinous and sweet food, but not too sweet. Yes, it would be better if the taste is a little richer, and it would be best if it can match the Mid-Autumn Festival full moon, just like the rice dumplings you had before."
Love glutinous rice? Add some glutinous rice to mooncakes and you’ll have egg yolk pastry!
But it can't really be made into egg yolk pastry. "Okay, I'll think about it!" He Yingchun sent the maid away and wrote and drew on the manual she carried with her.
This lady is someone who knows how to eat, so she still has to satisfy her customers.
Before I could think it through, Wen Jingzhao arrived.
He stood at the foot of the stone steps, tall and straight, and walked up step by step. The light from the lantern at the door fell on his shoulders. He was wearing a dark blue robe, and the night breeze blew up the corners of his robe, bringing a little chill.
Seeing He Yingchun, he smiled slightly and asked, "Are you coming back?"
"Back, right away! Xiaohe, we're leaving, remember to lock the door at night!" He Yingchun instructed Xiaohe. She was afraid that he might not remember, so she reminded him twice.
"Hey, hey, okay!" Xiaohe responded while rubbing his numbness by the river.
Xiaohe is a new guy who has only been here for a short time. Fatty Liu introduced him to him as his distant relative. He is chubby, fair and with a round face. He is not tall but very hardworking. He loves to eat just like Fatty Liu.
Wen Jingzhao, He Yingchun and their mother returned to the rented house together. The main reason was that Madam Wang and Li Bin were already married, and it would be too lonely for their mother to live there alone, so they had to move to the new house.
Most of the things have been moved, so I came here today just to clean up the mess.
Wen Jingzhao removed the wooden planks nailed to the attic. He Yingchun had never been to the attic before. "Wait a minute, don't close it yet. I'll go up and take a look."
When she was a child, she lived with her grandmother, who also had a small attic. It was dark and made some noises from time to time.
Watching horror movies was very popular at that time. She watched one with her friends and was so scared that she had nightmares for several days. Her cousin even lied to her that the attic was a haunted house and told other children to stay away from it.
As a result, one Chinese New Year, she saw her grandmother coming down from upstairs with a basin in her arms. She smelled something delicious and couldn't help but go up to take a look. Wow, there were candies, peanuts, melon seeds, pork elbows, fried fish...all New Year's goods.
I didn’t expect that my cousin could eat so well without telling them.
During the Chinese New Year that year, grandma's back pain was gone and her legs could run again. She chased the kids for three blocks with a broom.
He Yingchun climbed up and thought of the interesting things in his childhood and felt happy.
There was nothing inside, just a lot of books piled up and covered with a layer of dust.
"Why are you smiling foolishly? Come and take a look." Wen Jingzhao gently shook off the dirt on the book and handed it to her.
He Yingchun took the book and her eyes gradually widened.
It is not a book, but more like a diary, recording some delicious foods that have been eaten and their simple cooking methods. It is not difficult to tell from the sophisticated cooking methods that the chef is a great chef.
"Three-cup chicken, rice dumplings with fermented glutinous rice, multi-grain dumplings... This old chef can cook a lot of different dishes." She flipped through the pages. There were only a few pages, as if he had written down whatever he thought of.
I flipped through a pile of books again. There were recipes, travel books, poetry collections, travel notes, all kinds of books, and some annotations on them.
He Yingchun was a little curious about the owner of these books. "Did Uncle Wei tell me whose books these were?"
"They said it belonged to the previous tenant and had been here for a long time." Uncle Wei was so lazy that he probably didn't bother to throw it away.
She excitedly pulled out a few books and had some ideas about mooncakes.
Just a simple tidy up and it looks much cleaner after cleaning.
"Woof!" Gesan threw himself into Wen Jingzhao's arms enthusiastically.
Speaking of which, since they got married, Wen Jingzhao and He Yingchun seldom came to see it. He Yingchun saw it sticking out its tongue and frolicking, and thought it was really a heartless little dog.
Just a simple tidy up and it looks much cleaner after cleaning.
He Yingchun read the notes again and again. The ancients were indeed very wise. Even many cooking methods were lost to later generations.
The chef's notes gave He Yingchun an epiphany. His wife liked to eat glutinous and sweet food, but not too sweet. It also had to be novel and have a rich taste.
The prototype of a mooncake came to my mind.
Now that you have made up your mind, let’s do it!!
Turn the sugar into syrup, add peanut oil, pour in flour and mix until there is no dry powder. Let the dough rise for about half an hour.
The filling is taro paste. Peel the taro, cut into pieces and steam it. Put it in a bowl and mash it, add sugar and lard, stir until it becomes silky and looks smooth and delicate. Because it will be made into mooncake filling later, it needs to be fried and tried to be dry. After cooling, it can be formed into a ball.
She pinched off a small piece and gave it to Xiao He, who was staring at her eagerly, to taste. "Boss, it's delicious!" Xiao He didn't mind the heat and ate it all with a grin. Madam Wang told him to eat slowly, "Be careful not to burn your mouth and get blisters."
Next is the mochi. After mixing the glutinous rice flour, starch, sugar and milk, sieve them and add corn oil. Put them in the pan and stir-fry while stirring until they become translucent.
Let it cool down a bit, then keep kneading it, and the mooncakes will be more delicate.
She was busy making meat floss and asked her mother to knead it. "If it becomes long and stringy, it's done."
Speaking of meat floss, it's quite laborious. Wash the tenderloin and remove the fascia. Cut it into long strips along the texture of the meat. After cooking, let it cool down, put it in a bag and crush it with a rolling pin.
Then tear it into thin strips with your hands, add salt, sugar and other seasonings and mix well, then put it into a frying pan and bake it over low heat, turning it over and roasting it until it is dry.
That’s not all. The meat floss needs to be mixed with salted egg yolks. Since there was no salad dressing, He Yingchun made a sauce with milk and soy sauce, which tasted similar to salad dressing.
After mixing everything, you have to taste the saltiness of the filling. If it is too bland, you can add salt. If it is too salty, it will not taste good, so she added some sugar.
The last step is to make the crust. Soften the butter, add sugar, and then add maltose to make the crust look better.
After mixing well, add egg yolk liquid and flour and knead into a dough.
Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a circle, one larger and one smaller.
Roll the taro paste, mochi, egg yolk and pork floss into round shapes.
The other three people gathered around He Yingchun to watch her make mooncakes. Lady Wang said, "I've never seen mooncakes made like this before."
Not to mention her, my mother has been making pastries for so many years and has never seen this.
Xiaohe nodded, holding a small piece of mochi in his left hand and a small piece of taro paste in his right hand, eating them bite by bite.
Then you can assemble it. Layer taro paste, mochi, egg yolk and pork floss on the crust, then mochi, taro paste and crust again.
Finally, seal the upper and lower parts of the package and press it into the mold.
"The flowers are in full bloom and the moon is full." Xiao He read the words on the pancake after it was taken out of the pan.
He Yingchun cut a small piece for each of the three people who were staring at him eagerly. "How does it taste?"
She dared to guarantee that this taro and mochi filling was the best in the county, and the size was twice the size of an ordinary mooncake.
Is it new enough? Just tell me whether it is new enough or not!
"It's... delicious!" Xiao He nodded repeatedly, "This is the most delicious mooncake I have ever eaten."
Mum ate a small piece. She preferred meat to mooncakes. "Meat tastes good. It would be nice if there were more."
He Yingchun thought to herself, there are indeed some that are stuffed with meat, such as meat floss pancakes or Yunnan ham mooncakes.
Lady Wang commented fairly, "If I were to say so, this mooncake is definitely innovative, but I'm not sure if it will match the lady's originality."
We’ll know whether it’s to our liking after tomorrow’s delivery. Several people divided the mooncakes and took the leftovers home.
These days, He Yingchun was obsessed with making mooncakes and neglected Wen Jingzhao.
When he came back today, He Yingchun asked him, "Do you want to take a shower today?"
Wen Jingzhao was startled, raised the corner of his mouth, and said, "Wash it."
"Are you done?"
He Yingchun nodded, "Yeah, about the same."
"Okay, you finally remembered me." He put on a resentful look and gently twisted her earlobe with his index finger and thumb.
"I'll go take a shower first." He Yingchun's earlobes were pinched red by him, and she ran to the back room to close the door and take a shower.
Wen Jingzhao followed closely behind her, holding the clothes, hooking the door with his foot as it was about to close, and smiling meaningfully.
"Together, faster."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
