Chapter 13: Making Tofu with the Juice of Guanyin Chai
Lin Xiaopu quickly wiped the corners of his mouth to avoid drooling and being embarrassed.
But she really wanted to eat the alkaline rice dumplings that her sister mentioned!
Lin Shu smiled and said, "I'll ask my mother if she has any glutinous rice at home. I'll make a snack with the stinky wife you mentioned today."
"Okay, okay, let's make the tofu that sister said!" Lin Xiaopu remembered it clearly.
When the two returned home, the bamboo basket and backpack were full.
"Mother, mother, sister and I are back!"
He Guixiang was drying hemp in the yard. There were several ropes tied to a bamboo rack in the yard. She neatly placed the hemp that had been soaked for a few days on the ropes. She would wait for the hemp to be dried for two days before peeling it. By then, the peeled hemp would be white and transparent.
Nearly every household in Tianshui Village grows hemp. After harvesting, the hemp undergoes a series of processes, including soaking, rinsing, spinning, threading, and twisting into balls. The hemp then undergoes combing, paddles, and finally, is woven into individual bolts of linen cloth.* However, the villagers of Tianshui are poor, so most of the hemp is woven into thread and then twisted into balls. Merchants from town then come to collect these balls of thread. The money they earn isn't much, but for the villagers of Tianshui, it's a significant income. He Guixiang's hemp thread is good, and she sometimes earns a few extra copper coins.
Seeing the two girls return the gift, He Guixiang looked them over and made sure that neither of them had bumped into anything. Lin Xiaopu was not out of breath or had chest tightness, but was full of energy. She breathed a sigh of relief and said, "You're finally back. If you hadn't come back, Mother would have gone to the back mountain to look for you."
The bamboo backpack and bamboo basket were filled with wild vegetables and weeds. I don't know what the two little girls were so happy about.
"Mother, can I use the big bamboo sieve at home?"
He Guixiang glared at her and said, "It's our own home, why are you being so polite? You can use all the pots and pans at home as you like."
Lin Shu had explored the kitchen early this morning and was pleasantly surprised. While the main room was spotless, the kitchen was completely stocked. She could find everything: steamers, colanders, wooden basins for kneading dough, baskets for washing vegetables and rice, steamer cloths for steaming pastries, and so on.
Besides, there are several bamboo racks in the yard, which can be used to dry clothes and sauerkraut. Now they are all used by He Guixiang to dry hemp, but the large bamboo sieve used for drying things is still empty, which can dry more things at a time.
Lin Shu spread the yellow broom she had picked in a large bamboo sieve, and then stuck the large bamboo sieve on the bamboo frame.
The sun has been very strong these past two days, and it will almost burn if it stays in the sun for two or three days.
He Guixiang looked at her with an indulgent look and didn't ask her what she wanted to do.
"When will Dad come back?" Lin Shu asked.
"Your father has a long day in town, and he's reluctant to give up his few copper coins to ride on Old Man Liao's ox cart. It will be dark by the time he gets back. I'll make dinner soon, and we'll eat first, leaving some for him."
Lin Shu smiled and said, "Then I'll make a snack so that when Dad comes back, he can eat something fresh."
Lin Xiaopu heard the voice and immediately said, "Sister, let me help you!"
"Okay, Xiaopu, help me pick out the leaves of the Guanyin Firewood. Discard the rotten ones with worm holes. Choose the ones with thick leaves." Lin Shu arranged the work for Lin Xiaopu and went to the kitchen.
There are two vats in the kitchen, one large and one small. The large vat is for daily water, which is taken from a stream a little far from the door. The small vat is for mountain spring water that Zhou Ye specially fetched from the mountain. It is very sweet when drunk directly.
Lin Shu took half a basin of clean water from the big vat and scooped it into the wooden basin she usually used to knead dough. She brought it to the yard and asked Lin Xiaopu to wash the leaves with her.
Wash each leaf thoroughly, especially removing dirt and insect eggs.
After washing, Lin Shu changed the basin of clean water to soak the leaves and sprinkled a small spoonful of salt.
Salt was not as expensive these days as it is in later times. A small jar would cost more than ten or twenty cents. He Guixiang felt a little sorry for her wasting salt, but she still watched the two of them struggling with a smile.
Lin Shu cleaned the ashes from the small stove used for boiling medicine and burned some cedar branches she had picked on the way. "Xiao Pu, go get me a clean bowl."
"Okay!"
The burnt cedar ash was collected in a clean bowl. Lin Shu sniffed it closely and found a cedar fragrance. If fresh broomrape wouldn't burn, broomrape ash would be better, but cedar ash wasn't bad either.
When the bowl is brought, add water to the cedar ash and stir it. Then filter it through gauze in a steamer to obtain the alkaline water used for "making the brine".
The next step is the physical work of kneading the juice. Once the leaves have been soaked, replace them with clean water. This time, use drinkable spring water, just enough to cover the leaves. Then, use a rolling pin to poke them vigorously until the juice flows out and the leaves separate from the veins. Then, switch to kneading with your hands.
After rubbing for a while, Lin Shu felt sore in the waist and numb in the legs, so she took over as Lin Xiaopu.
Lin Xiaopu didn't mind the smell of the leaves, and rubbed them vigorously. Soon, the leaves were kneaded into a paste, and the remaining juice in the leaves was rubbed out by her.
There was only one wooden basin at home, so Lin Shu took out the clay pot, placed the colander on the wide-mouthed clay pot, covered it with steamer gauze to serve as a filter cloth, poured the rubbed juice into it, and then wrapped the leaf residue with the steamer gauze, squeezing it repeatedly, trying to filter all the juice into the clay pot.
Lin Xiaopu squatted in front of the clay pot, staring at it intently. The juice after filtering was green.
"Mom, are you going to use this clay pot later?" Lin Shu turned her head and asked.
He Guixiang smiled and replied, "No need, the iron pot is already filled with steamed rice. Later, my mother will use the iron pot to stir-fry two side dishes and stew a pot of wild vegetable soup."
The iron smelting technology of the Great Yan Dynasty was already very advanced, and iron pots were basically common in the homes of ordinary people. However, in some backward places, such as Tianshui Village, clay pots were still used. The reason why Zhou Ye had such an iron pot was because he brought some scrap iron with him when he fled from famine. He melted the scrap iron into the iron pot and only paid the wages for making the iron pot.
Now that I have an iron pot, the clay pot at home is also not idle. I use it to make soup or porridge from time to time.
After hearing this, Lin Shu felt relieved to use the clay pot as a container for braising.
Pour the cedar ash water just prepared into the juice in the ceramic pot, stir it evenly with a long wooden spoon, let it stand for a while, then add the cedar ash water again, stirring quickly in one direction to allow the two to fully blend.
"Alright, let it sit for another half an hour, and the juice from the Guanyin Chai will solidify."
Lin Xiaopu watched intently, very curious about how this big basin of stinky lady juice turned into tofu.
While waiting for the juice to settle, He Guixiang prepared the meal. She stewed all the freshly picked wild vegetables in a pot of soup, and threw away some of them as pig feed and weeds.
Lin Shu was at a loss for words. Every wild vegetable had its own unique way of being cooked. It was a wonder this stew was tasty. She had picked out and thrown away several such delicious wild vegetables. Today, she was busy preparing the Guanyin wood. Next time, she would cook a feast of wild vegetables and invite her mother to taste her cooking skills.
Dinner consisted of brown rice porridge and a few leftover flatbreads from breakfast. As Lin Shu ate, she could sense her mother watching her out of the corner of her eye, but she pretended not to notice and continued to eat with relish.
In the end times, the soil and water quality are poor, and it is difficult to grow crops. You may not be able to eat brown rice like this. Although the taste is not as good as polished rice, this brown rice with rice bran is much more nutritious than polished rice.
He Guixiang breathed a sigh of relief when she saw she wasn't forced to eat. If she had to eat white rice and porridge every day, her family wouldn't be able to afford it. It was just too hard for her. She used to eat delicacies from land and sea at the Marquis's mansion, but now she's stuck with brown rice and noodles.
After dinner, Lin Shu took the initiative to help He Guixiang clean up the dishes, but was chased out. "You don't need help with such a small task. Go play in the fields with Xiao Pu!"
Lin Shu glanced at her rough hands that didn't quite match her face, met her smile, paused for a moment, and then said in a relaxed tone, "I heard from Xiao Pu that there are a lot of loaches and snails in the fields. Xiao Pu and I will go get some to add to Dad's dishes!"
"What's so delicious about that? It's really fishy. If you want to go, go ahead. Oh, slow down, slow down. I haven't finished talking yet. Watch out for the leeches in the field..."
"I know--" Lin Shu responded, holding the wooden bucket in one hand and holding Lin Xiaopu's hand, and they had already walked out of the yard.
When they were far away, Lin Shu asked her sister, "Did our mother get bullied often before the family split up?"
When Lin Xiaopu heard this, he nodded hesitantly, "My grandma doesn't like my mom..."
Old Man Lin passed away early, and it was not easy for the old woman to raise three sons. Lin Dashan was sensible since childhood and was a well-known filial son in Tianshui Village. However, he fell in love with He Guixiang at the market and insisted on marrying her, which disobeyed his mother once. In addition, He Guixiang's family asked for a betrothal fee of one hundred yuan, which made the old woman even more displeased with He Guixiang.
You have to know that it is very easy to marry a wife in the countryside. In some poor areas, you may be able to bring a wife home with just a few pounds of meat and some candies and cakes. Tianshui Village is poor to begin with, and every household would like to use two copper coins. It takes a long time to save up such a hundred dollars. If you spend so much money to marry a daughter-in-law, the old woman will have to bargain hard.
He Guixiang's family was sold by her family. Without the support of her natal family, and knowing that she was in the wrong, she did whatever her in-laws asked her to do after she got married, and her already rough hands became even rougher.
Later, she had two children, both of whom were unwelcome girls and had weak health. The elder one was slightly better, though thin at birth, and plump after a few months of nursing. The second one, however, was often ill. Every time she tried the village remedies, she didn't get better, so she had to go to the town to see a doctor, and she often had to ask her mother-in-law for money.
These were the reasons why He Guixiang couldn't hold her head up in the He family. Even if her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law mocked her, she just endured it like a punching bag.
Lin Dashan also felt sorry for his wife, but he was a foolishly filial person, and because of the one hundred yuan betrothal gift, he couldn't stand up for his wife. He just worked very hard on weekdays, was respectful to his superior Lin Lao Da, and cared for his subordinate Lin Lao San. He also responded to all the requests of his nephews.
But all these years of humbleness were rewarded with sarcasm from the eldest brother's family and heated arguments from the third brother's family when the family finally divided up, each vying for an extra acre of land. If it weren't for the heroine Lin Yao's strong character, she wouldn't have been able to keep even the five acres of land and the two taels of money for settling down, and would have lost a lot more.
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*The series of processes of hemp comes from the Internet.
For the recipe of Guanyin tofu, please refer to the Internet.
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