Chapter 45 Spicy Cabbage
The two people who were resurrected with full health in the space took a long nap the next day. When they came out, the people at the educated youth point in the front yard had already gone to work.
Not only the two of them, but everyone else in Auntie Huang's team happily watched others go to work while they stayed at home to tidy up the unfinished vegetable gardens or prepare for this year's winter storage.
In the morning, Ming Dai boiled medicine for Zhou Sinian in the space and made some sandwiches, which the two of them ate in the space.
After eating, Zhou Sinian made some comments, saying that it was not as delicious as steamed buns with meat, and Mingdai agreed.
Coming out of the space, Mingdai could clearly feel that today was colder than yesterday. Now she felt a little sympathetic towards those who had to wash radishes in the water today.
Today, their task is to process the radishes and cabbages they brought back.
Mingdai planned to pickle all the 500 cabbages, except for storing the 200 that she would keep for eating in her space warehouse for preservation.
Half of it is made into sauerkraut according to the method in Heilongjiang Province, and the other half is made into kimchi.
After listening to Mingdai's description of spicy cabbage, Zhou Sinian's eyes lit up. After drinking the medicine, he began to urge Mingdai to work. Mingdai sent him to scrub the grinding wheel, and his ears were quiet for a while.
Seeing that he was doing a good job, he was very satisfied and took out all the drying mats and sieves that he bought from Liu Dazheng's house.
She found a piece of wood, washed it clean, and put it on the drying mat to dry, then she began to prepare pickled cabbage.
Every household here has sauerkraut, and the method is similar to the one Huang Auntie showed off on the stage. Mingdai looked up the encyclopedia in her brain and chose another method.
While Zhou Sinian was scrubbing the grinding wheel, she boiled a large pot of water and rinsed the large sand tank that had been prepared in advance.
Add water again, put a piece of firewood on the stove, and start preparing the cabbage.
She asked Zhou Sinian to start fetching water, and she began to wash the roots of the cabbage, rinse off the yellow leaves and dirt, and place them on the drying mat.
Zhou Sinian was standing aside with a kitchen knife ready. Every time she handed him a cabbage, he would chop it with a knife. Then he cut the cabbage in half and put it aside to drain the water.
The two of them worked very quickly and soon, 150 cabbages were ready.
Carrying the cabbages to the kitchen, she put each head of cabbage in a pot of boiling water for one minute, took them out, and handed them to Zhou Sinian to cool them down at the well platform, then placed them on a drying mat to drain the water and drain them. This step was a little more complicated than what Aunt Huang and the others did, but the cabbages pickled in this way could be preserved longer and were sweeter.
After all the cabbages were processed, Mingdai sprinkled a layer of salt on the bottom of the jar and covered it with a layer of cabbages. She placed all of them in a cross shape, stacking them up layer by layer until the jar was just full.
Finally, put a large stone that has been cleaned long ago, press it tightly, cover it with a clean cage cloth, tie it tightly with a rope, put it in a cool place in the kitchen, and wait for time to ferment.
Zhou Sinian had pickled this kind of sauerkraut before at a show, and had secretly tasted it. It was too salty, and he didn't like it. He became even more curious about the spicy cabbage that Mingdai described.
According to the recipe in her head, Mingdai took out a bag of peeled garlic and a dozen old gingers from the warehouse, chopped them up and placed them on the grinding plate. She taught Zhou Sinian how to grind the mill. She filled the mill with garlic and Zhou Sinian grinded it like a whirlwind and soon ground out the mashed garlic and minced ginger.
Take out a large basin, pour in three large bags of chili powder and four bags of fine salt, and considering Zhou Sinian's taste, add two bags of white sugar and mix well.
Zhou Sinian looked at the red patch and secretly took a bite while Mingdai was cooking glutinous rice flour. He immediately stuck out his tongue because of the spiciness and doubted whether the spicy cabbage Mingdai described was really delicious.
Mingdai ignored him and poured the cooked glutinous rice flour paste into a large bowl, added minced ginger and mashed garlic and mixed evenly, and finally added chopped pear, white radish, leek and shrimp sauce.
I also dug out the fish sauce that I had bought at some unknown time, poured it in, and stirred it evenly.
The sauce smelled very fragrant at this time. Zhou Sinian slowly moved over again and stretched out his hand to grab a handful, but was ruthlessly pushed away by Mingdai.
"Go cut the cabbage!"
Feeling aggrieved, Zhou Sinian looked unwillingly at the large basin filled with sauces and walked away slowly.
Mingdai found another large basin, put half of it in water, added two large bags of coarse salt and stirred to dissolve it, then put all the cabbage that Zhou Sinian had cut into the basin and marinated it for a while.
After finishing all this, Mingdai looked at the time and it was almost noon.
She called out to Zhou Sinian, who was chewing cabbage leaves: "Come on, light a fire and cook!"
Zhou Sinian immediately stood up and rushed into the kitchen.
Considering that he has been very well-behaved and hardworking these two days, Mingdai plans to make something delicious for him.
She took out the jelly she had made in the space and cut a plate of it, then took out the pork belly, boiled a few eggs, and stewed a pot of brined pork in a small pot. Zhou Sinian, who was so attracted by the aroma, walked around the stove, unwilling to leave for a moment.
At noon, Mingdai ate a whole bowl of cold jelly with halved rice, which made her so full that she didn't want to move for a long time.
Zhou Sinian ate four bowls of soup, which was so horrifying. If Mingdai hadn't stopped him, he would have eaten another bowl.
Mingdai looked at his obviously bulging belly and was really afraid that he would burst, so she quickly scooped up the remaining brisket and put it into the space.
Zhou Sinian then licked the bottom of the bowl with a sense of unsatisfied satisfaction, and went to wash the pots and dishes quickly.
Ming Dai sat paralyzed in the warm kitchen, watching Zhou Sinian working happily. She felt that this kind of life was pretty good and much better than being alone in her previous life.
After lunch break, the cabbage is almost pickled. Pick up the cabbage, squeeze out the water, put it in a large bowl with the sauce prepared, and spread it all over the bowl.
This step was done by Mingdai. Zhou Sinian was very resistant to her action of rubbing the cabbage with her hands covered with sauce. He happily ate the tender cabbage heart that Mingdai had smeared with sauce for him.
After smearing the cabbage, put it in a large jar, press it with stones, and place it in a cool place in the kitchen. The work of pickling the cabbage is now complete.
After finishing both, Mingdai looked at the time and thought about dealing with the radishes.
Mingdai deliberately kept the unwashed radishes with mud on them, so that they would be easier to preserve. However, they could not be left outside, as the radishes would easily become brittle.
He fenced off a piece of land near the corner of the front yard and asked Zhou Sinian to dig a half-meter-deep hole. He put half of the radishes in the hole and covered them with soil. This way, even after a winter, the radishes would still be crisp and would not swell at all.
Mingdai put the remaining half into the space warehouse together with the cabbage, intending to take it whenever she wanted to eat it.
After finishing the work and seeing that there was still time, Mingdai planned to go to the mountain with Zhou Sinian to see if they could find something to eat.
Carrying the steaming roasted chestnuts in their arms, the two of them locked the door and walked towards Wild Boar Ridge.