Chapter 241 Making Sauce
Taozi really keeps his word; he said he'd let me take care of him for a few months, and he really did come after several months.
From summer to autumn, when the busy harvest season began in late autumn, even Tuantuan could walk steadily, and only then did Taozi come to pick her up.
Tuantuan is undoubtedly adorable, but taking care of a child is really tiring. The moment I saw Taozi, it felt like my life had been saved.
I happily packed Tuantuan's clothes, including the little dress I made for her and all sorts of little toys, into a cardboard box.
Tuantuan probably knew she was leaving; she pursed her little mouth, tears welling up in her eyes.
After everything was finally packed up, Taozi hugged her and prepared to leave, when she finally burst into tears.
"I don't want to go, I don't want to go..."
She cried and kicked her little legs, not wanting to leave.
I was hoping that Tuantuan could leave, but seeing her like this, I felt both heartache and reluctance.
All I could do was whisper to comfort her, "Tuantuan, Auntie will come to see you at the base in a while. Don't cry, okay? Be a good girl."
After I comforted Tuantuan, she stopped crying loudly, hiccuping as she sobbed.
"Thank you so much, sis. You've taken such good care of this child."
Taozi carefully placed Tuantuan on the donkey cart, left me a plate of cured pork ribs, and turned the cart around to head towards the Baizhen base.
My adorable Tuantuan is gone. Although I feel a little sad, I can now fully immerse myself in the autumn harvest work.
After storing the vegetables and grains, picking mushrooms, and stockpiling wild fruits and nuts from the mountain, half a month had passed.
Although busy, the autumn harvest is undoubtedly joyful.
Looking at the rooms and basement filled with vegetables and fruits, I felt a strong sense of security.
There was a large pile of Chinese cabbages in the yard, which were being salted, pickled, and pickled with various other vegetables. The preparations for this year's winter were not yet fully completed.
Another new task has been added: making soybean paste.
The soybean paste I stocked up on before is almost gone, so I need to make some myself.
I get up early in the morning and start cooking millet porridge in a clay pot. After feeding the livestock and returning home, I scoop out the thick millet porridge, add some freshly pickled vegetables, and that's a simple breakfast.
The freshly pickled vegetables haven't fully absorbed the flavor yet, so after taking them out, scoop up a small spoonful of the pickling juice.
Take a sip of millet porridge, dip a glossy, bright green cucumber in the pickled vegetable juice, and then put it in your mouth.
Crisp with the original aroma of cucumber, coated with an enticing pickled vegetable sauce, it's delicious.
After finishing the meal and cleaning up the dishes, we prepared to make soybean paste.
Making soybean paste is not easy and takes a long time. In addition, soybean paste has a long shelf life, so I plan to make a lot at once.
He took out the bag of soybeans and weighed out 12 jin (6 catties) of soybeans. He sat on a small stool and carefully picked out the beans, removing the bad ones.
Place the selected beans in a large plate and wait to be stir-fried.
Clean the iron pot thoroughly, without adding water. Heat the bottom of the pot over a fire until it is slightly warm, then put a large bowl of good beans into the pot.
Stir-fry the soybeans in the pan continuously with a spoon until they turn a dark brown color and the air is filled with their aroma. The soybeans are then ready.
He threw two soybeans directly into his mouth, bit down hard, and chewed them with a crunching sound.
The soybeans have been fully roasted, and they are crunchy and fragrant.
I remember my dad saying that when they were little, they would eat roasted soybeans like sunflower seeds as a snack.
So I set aside two pounds of soybeans, scooped them into a separate small bowl, and saved them to eat while watching TV.
Rinse the remaining soybeans in water several times until the water is no longer cloudy; then they are ready.
Add water to an iron pot, drain the washed soybeans and pour them into the pot, light a fire under the stove, and boil the soybeans vigorously in the pot.
When the soybeans are cooked until they can be easily crushed with a pinch, they are fully cooked.
Don't rush to take the cooked soybeans out; leave them in the pot to simmer overnight.
Simmering soybeans takes a long time, so there's no need for me to wait specifically for it.
He lit a fire on a separate stove and cooked himself a delicious meal.
After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, they took their needles and thread and nestled on the sofa to knit sweaters for Mancang and Tuantuan.
Although none of these children are related to me by blood, they all genuinely care about me.
When I have nothing to do, I always think about making some clothes for them.
When sleepiness finally came, I carefully put away the needles and yarn in my hands, then snuggled into the warm blankets and fell asleep.
When I woke up the next morning, there was a thin layer of frost on the window; the weather in late autumn was getting colder day by day.
The first thing I did upon waking up was think about the beans simmering in the pot.
With the lid off, the soybeans in the pot had turned a reddish color from being steamed; it's said that this method makes the soybean paste look more appealing.
There's no rush. First, cook some tomato and egg noodles on the stove in the house. Once you're warmed up, then continue working.
Remove the cooked soybeans from the pot and drain them. The soybeans should be slightly moist, but there shouldn't be too much moisture on the outside.
Use a meat grinder to grind the moist soybeans little by little into soybean paste.
It took almost an hour to mash all the soybeans in a large pot into a paste.
The mixed soybean paste is a bit sticky. Squeeze the soybean paste into a ball, about the size of a volleyball.
To prevent the sauce from cracking, even the formed balls need to be reinforced several times.
Once you're sure a sauce block won't crumble, gently place it on a piece of paper that you've prepared beforehand.
Ten pounds of soybeans yielded a total of 18 blocks of sauce.
Place a table on the west side of the kitchen, cover it with paper, and gently place the 18 sauce cubes on the paper to air dry.
We need to stop making soybean paste for a while at this point.
The soybean paste can only be made after the soybean paste blocks have been stored for several months since next spring.
The aroma of soybeans fills the house, and I hope that next year's soybean paste will taste even better.
After washing all the tools I needed for the day, I lay down on the warm kang (heated brick bed) to watch TV while eating fried soybeans.
For several days in a row, the house was filled with the smell of soybeans.
As the smell of soybeans gradually diminishes, the surface of the soybean paste block begins to harden.
I bent down and smelled the sauce. It smelled strange, and had nothing to do with the smell of soybean paste.
I kept praying in my heart, hoping that I hadn't done anything wrong.
All preparations for winter have been completed, and after being busy for more than half a year, I can finally relax again.
With nothing else to do, I went to the basement to take stock of the supplies.
Needless to say, the snacks were all eaten up several years ago, and even if there were any left now, they would be inedible.
There's plenty of sugar, salt, and oil left over, so there's no need to worry about it or save any.
The only things to worry about are soy sauce and vinegar.
Because we usually use soy sauce and vinegar when cooking and pickling vegetables, we consume a lot of soy sauce and vinegar.
With a plan in mind, the early winter days shouldn't be too lonely.
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