When they planted the cabbages, Pei's father had not yet recovered his health, so he did not plant many, and returned a few days later.
He's not like he used to be, reluctant to spend money on anything. He's made money now, and this time he even rented an oxcart himself.
It was Brother Liu from their village again, who was still very helpful and helped carry all the vegetables down.
A large pile of cabbages and some dried corn were carried into the yard by the three of them when they returned. Their family members were all at the store.
Before pickling the cabbage, the cabbages need to be dried, so Pei's father put the cabbages they brought back together with the ones that Granny Liu had brought over earlier.
And these corn kernels, they need to be rubbed into grains, then dried thoroughly and put into bags.
So the father and son just got back today and started husking corn.
When Pei Yuezhi and the others returned in the evening, they saw the father and son still diligently husking corn. Fortunately, they hadn't brought back too much, and they finished processing it all by the end of the afternoon.
“This isn’t a small amount of cabbage. My aunt said hers weighed over 90 jin (45 kg), so all of yours together should weigh close to 200 jin (100 kg), right?” Pei Yuezhi said, looking at the cabbage they had stacked.
Pei's father said, "These weigh about seventy jin, so this is quite a lot."
These cabbages are indeed a lot, but now they are two families, with a total of nine people.
At least two or three hundred catties should be pickled.
“We have a lot of people now, but we’re still short some. I’ll go to the market tomorrow to buy some, and make it three hundred catties,” Pei Yuezhi said after thinking for a moment.
Pei Yunzhi was a little surprised: "Do we really need to buy so much? I'll go tomorrow, I can still carry it."
Pei's father was also a little surprised and said, "How much salt will this take? What will we do if we can't finish it? We've never pickled this much before."
“Once the cabbage is pickled, there won’t be as much left, and we don’t have to worry about not being able to finish it. If we don’t like it, the shop can use it. Salt isn’t particularly expensive here either. Let’s settle on this. Yunzhi will go buy it tomorrow.” Pei Yuezhi finalized the deal.
Seeing her say that, Pei's father didn't say anything more, but just nodded silently and said, "Yuezhi must have her own considerations."
Pei Yunzhi is very reliable and completes all the tasks assigned to him well.
When I got home after finishing my work in the evening, I saw neatly stacked cabbages in the yard.
This is going to be quite busy. Pickling all these cabbages will take half a day.
However, the newly brought-back cabbages need to be left outside to air dry for three days. We'll need to rest then too, as more people will make the work easier.
Now that the weather is getting colder, Pei Yuezhi gave away one or two pieces of the clothes she bought from the system shop a couple of days ago to everyone.
We didn't give them all at once; we'll give them to them during the Chinese New Year.
I originally planned to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival during my last break, but it's already September and I haven't had a chance to celebrate it yet.
Holidays are the busiest time for restaurants.
My own restaurant was no exception; it was incredibly busy that day, and all we could do was prepare some delicious food to celebrate.
Next time there's a holiday, we'll have to close the shop. Although we can earn more during holidays, it's also tiring, and we don't have many customers here. It's better not to work ourselves to the bone and then miss out on the holiday.
Pei Yuezhi is someone who loves celebrating festivals and enjoys joining in the fun. She likes all sorts of rituals, such as stocking up on autumn vegetables, pickling sauerkraut, and making salted vegetables.
These are things she used to do in the fall when she was little. Even though she doesn't have to do them now, she still does them as a unique ritual for the beginning of winter.
...
The cabbages in the yard are almost dried; it's time to pickle them into sauerkraut.
Everyone in the family was home that day, and Pei Yuezhi began to organize everyone to get busy.
First, break off the older, drier stalks of these cabbages.
Then find a large pot and boil a pot of water. The water doesn't need to boil; it just needs to be hot enough to touch.
Blanch the prepared cabbage slightly to soften it. This will make the sauerkraut more substantial and also help retain moisture, preventing it from becoming tough and dry.
After blanching, the cabbage does not need to be cooled down. It can be placed directly into a clean sauerkraut jar. This method will make the sauerkraut more sour.
When the pickled cabbage starts to accumulate in the jar, you must press it down firmly and tightly to prevent it from rotting.
Worried that there might be gaps inside and that it wasn't packed tightly enough, Pei Yuezhi found some clean lotus leaves, laid several layers on top, and then stepped on them to test the compactness.
This is a normal pickling process and won't make the vegetables dirty.
These cabbages completely filled the large vat that Pei Yuezhi had prepared.
Sprinkle a layer of salt on top; some people layer vegetables and then sprinkle salt. But if you do all the steps correctly, the sauerkraut won't spoil, so you don't need to add that much salt.
Therefore, Pei Yuezhi's sauerkraut did not contain that much salt.
Find a large, very heavy stone and place it on top of the cabbage.
Finally, I washed a few more radishes and put them into the sauerkraut jar. The pickled radishes can be used to stir-fry shredded meat, which is also very delicious.
After working hard for half a day, everyone finally finished pickling the sauerkraut.
I didn't eat a proper lunch, so Pei Yuezhi made me a simple meal.
"Yueyue, I'm exhausted. Can you make me a little bread roll that I want to eat?" Liu Yuanyuan said coquettishly, hugging Pei Yuezhi's arm.
"Okay, I'll make it for you right away."
Let's make a baked bread that Liu Yuanyuan has been wanting to eat for a long time. Let's make something simple and delicious, like honey bread rolls.
Prepare two pounds of high-gluten flour. Make a slightly larger batch; the kids will definitely love this bread.
Add 480 grams of milk, 12 grams of yeast, 3-4 tablespoons of sugar, 3-4 tablespoons of honey, and then crack in three eggs.
Stir the flour until it forms clumps and there is no dry flour left. This dough has a high water content, so it can be kneaded into a ball without much effort.
Cover the dough and let it rest for ten minutes before placing it on a work surface and starting to knead it.
While the dough was resting, Pei Yuezhi bought some butter and softened it first, so she could add it to the noodles and knead it together.
I made a lot of bread, so I used 100 grams of butter.
Knead all the butter into the dough, using a technique similar to washing clothes, for about five minutes, then let it rest for another twenty minutes.
The next steps didn't involve anything else that would suddenly be purchased from the store, so Pei Yuezhi called Liang Zhenzhen over to help prepare the cooking ingredients.
It was almost time to bake the bread, so I called Liu Yuanyuan over to light some firewood and get the kiln ready.
Take out the risen dough and slap it on the board more than twenty times; the more you slap it, the smoother it becomes.
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