Pei Yao had previously considered selling fermented rice wine directly, but the summers in Lingnan are hot and the fermented rice wine is not cool enough, so it might not sell well.
It's made with glutinous rice, which is expensive, and if it doesn't sell well, it's a waste.
Another issue is that fermented glutinous rice is not as easy to store as lychee wine. Even if you boil the fermented glutinous rice before storing it, it will spoil and turn sour in about four or five days, and the freshness of the food cannot be guaranteed.
However, if the fermented rice wine is fermented again into lychee glutinous rice wine and stored properly, it can last for about a year.
Therefore, Pei Yao gave up the idea of making rice wine and decided to make lychee wine instead.
Pei Yao nodded: "Aunt, why don't you go to town today and buy a few dozen kilograms of glutinous rice? I'll make some rice wine later."
Upon hearing this, Chen Fang assumed that Pei Yao was really going to sell fermented rice wine, and agreed without hesitation.
After the two families had a lively breakfast together, Niu Qingshan came over to pick up Chen Fang to deliver goods to town.
When they came, they also brought a sea fish for the Pei family, which Uncle Niu specially gave to them.
Pei Yao still plans to pick some pitaya fruit today, and also pick some lychees to dry into lychee slices.
It's lychee season now, and it would be such a waste if we didn't pick more and dry them, otherwise the fruit would rot on the trees.
Moreover, if Pei Yao's lychee wine sells well, even after the lychee season is over and there are no fresh lychees available, dried lychees can be used for fermentation, and the taste won't be much different.
So after finishing her meal, Pei Yao took Pei Yichen and him off to pick thunder fruit and lychees.
Just as Aunt Fang said, there are indeed many lychee trees in the mountains by the river, and the trees are full of fruit. Other families in the village also dry lychees, but compared to the abundant resources of the mountains, their harvest is only a drop in the ocean.
...
Pei Yao peeled and pitted the lychees she picked before drying them in the sun, making them easier to dry.
The sun is strong in Lingnan, and the seeds of the prickly pear fruit that were dried yesterday are now dry enough to be stored away.
Their hard work yesterday did indeed yield a considerable harvest of Pili fruit seeds, filling more than two bags.
Pei Yao set aside some, planning to make some ice jelly for everyone to try later in the afternoon when she had some free time.
Pei Yao picked quite a lot of lychees today. When drying lychees, she chooses the larger ones with thicker flesh.
Those that are too small won't have much meat left after drying.
When Chen Fang returned from town, she brought Pei Yao a bag of brown sugar and fifty catties of glutinous rice. Brown sugar was very expensive in this era, almost more expensive than rice.
However, Chen Fang thought that it was Yao Ya's choice, so she didn't dare to be stingy with the money and gritted her teeth to pick out a few big and sturdy pieces.
Making Pili Fruit Jelly is actually quite simple. First, find a gauze bag, put the Pili fruit seeds and a few mint leaves inside, and then place it in a wooden basin filled with cool well water. Let it soak for a few minutes to allow the seeds to fully absorb the water.
Then you can rub it through the gauze. The process of rubbing Pili Fruit Ice Powder is a long and laborious one. You need to rub it repeatedly to extract all the gelatinous substance from the seeds.
When you can no longer knead out any more gelatin, it's almost done. Then, use gauze to filter out any impurities from the kneaded gelatin several times.
Then place it in a cool, shady place indoors, across the surface of the cold well water, and wait for it to solidify.
How can you make ice jelly without brown sugar syrup to go with it? So Pei Yao decided to make some brown sugar syrup.
First, take out the brown sugar that Chen Fang bought. This kind of brown sugar is big and tightly pressed. It is the kind of handmade brown sugar that tastes very good.
Pei Yao chopped it all up with a knife, then added water, brown sugar, and a little white sugar to a pot and simmered it together.
It's almost done when the brown sugar starts to become sticky and mushy.
Then put it in a jar.
At this moment, the ice jelly that was waiting to solidify in front of her had also solidified. Pei Yao patted it with her knife, and the ice jelly immediately shook its crystal-clear body, as if telling Pei Yao that it had solidified very well.
Take it out, cut it into pieces, put it in a bowl, and then pour brown sugar water and fermented rice wine over it.
Fermented rice wine is too sweet on its own, but when added to ice jelly which has no flavor, it's a perfect summer treat. That's why Pei Yao specially left a small jar of rice wine there in the morning.
It tastes great after mixing it before eating.
"Mother, Aunt, please take a rest. Come and have a bowl of ice jelly." Pei Yao brought out the ice jelly and placed it on the table in the courtyard.
The group of people who were peeling lychees in the yard put down the lychees, washed their hands, and came over to eat ice jelly.
The group looked at the crystal-clear substance in the bowl, exchanging puzzled glances. The youngest, Pei Xuan, asked first, "Sister, what is this? It looks like ice!"
It snows in Kyoto in winter. Pei Xuan even saw icicles falling from the eaves last winter.
The jelly in front of me is just like the icicles her father picked for her last year; they are both transparent.
She loves winter, when her family can gather around the door to build snowmen and have snowball fights. Kyoto also has many lantern festivals during the winter.
Every year around that time, her parents would take her to the lantern festival and buy her all sorts of fun and delicious things.
Pei Yao explained, "This is ice jelly made from Pili fruit. Everyone, try it and see if it's delicious."
The others had never tried ice jelly before and were very curious about this icy and translucent thing. Pei Yichen and Xiao Xuan'er were the first to pick up a bowl. They completely trusted Pei Yao, especially Pei Yichen, who always thought that whatever his cousin made was delicious.
Because mint leaves were added during the kneading process, the ice jelly has a cool and refreshing taste, making it very refreshing to eat in the summer.
It's also topped with brown sugar syrup made by Pei Yao and lychee-flavored fermented rice wine, so the ice jelly tastes sweet and has a rich lychee aroma.
Pei Yichen was so engrossed in the delicious food that he couldn't speak, and he kept showing off his delight.
Seeing how fast he was eating, everyone else quickly picked up a bowl and started eating too. Only Chen Fang patted Pei Yichen and said, "You brat, eat slowly. Nobody's going to take it from you."
Pei Yichen then slowed down a little. It's no wonder he ate so quickly; the ice jelly was just too delicious.
The others also tried the ice jelly, and their eyes lit up immediately.
this! ! ! !
This is so delicious!
"Yao'er, are you saying this is made from a thunderbolt fruit?" Yunniang looked at the delicious ice jelly in front of her in disbelief, realizing that it was actually made from that ordinary thunderbolt fruit.
Pei Yao nodded, a bright smile on her face.
After thinking for a moment, Pei Yao said, "Mother, Aunt, I'm planning to prepare some things in the next few days and then go to the dock to sell this ice jelly. What do you think?"
Chen Fang and Yun Niang both wholeheartedly agreed with Pei Yao's idea, and they both thought the ice jelly was delicious.
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