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Du Heng went upstairs with the Tianhu scale in his hand. This time, he took the ducks and geese out of the water in the wooden basin and hung them on the bamboo pole on the terrace. After the water on the surface of the ingredients had almost dripped off, he weighed the ingredients.
The ducks in the demon world are indeed much heavier than those in my hometown. A duck in my hometown weighs about three pounds, while the ducks in the demon world weigh four pounds. Du Heng no longer bothers about the annoying measurement conversion. He now follows the weight measured by the Sky Fox scale when making things.
The two ducks weigh more than eight kilograms, and the two geese weigh even more, weighing twelve kilograms in total.
Du Heng held up the goose neck which was thicker than his arm and said to Xiaoxiao with emotion: "Xiaoxiao, what do you think these ducks and geese in the demon world eat to grow up?"
Xiaoxiao was pulling broad beans to eat: "Chirp~" He didn't know, he was not a duck.
After careful calculation, it was found that about one and a half kilograms of salt were needed to pickle these ingredients. Du Heng went to the kitchen with the Tianhu scale. With the Tianhu scale, he believed that he could make successful salted duck and goose in one go.
A fire was lit in the pot, and Du Heng poured one and a half pounds of salt into the warm iron pot. The iron pot had to be kept dry and there must be no water in it, and the fire had to be low when frying the salt grains.
After the salt was slightly heated, he poured the prepared 1.5 liang of Sichuan peppercorns and 8 qian of star anise into the pot. The frying spoon stirred the salt and spices carefully. Du Heng carefully observed the color of the Sichuan pepper salt in the pot. When the color turned slightly yellow, the moisture in the salt was fried dry and the fragrance of the spices was stimulated. Then it was ready to be served.
After a while, Du Heng put the fried pepper salt into a dry porcelain bowl. The slightly yellow pepper salt exuded a fragrance. Du Heng picked up the star anise and took a look. The star anise had been fried dry and crisp, and it could be broken into small petals with a slight twist.
While the pepper salt is cooling down, Du Heng is going to prepare the broth.
Salted duck is a kind of braised food, but it is different from other braised food. It needs to be soaked in the marinade for a long time to allow the flavor to fully penetrate into the duck, but it cannot be stewed for a long time, otherwise the meat will not be tender enough.
This was not a problem for Du Heng, as he had a lot of experience from his hometown, as he had so many customers. As long as he had enough time, he could make the duck bones taste good.
The seasonings Lao Lu used were similar to those he usually used to stew meat, except that he did not add salt to the soup base. The flames at the bottom of the pot licked the bottom of the pot slowly and the brine in the pot needed to be boiled for half an hour and then cooled before it could be used to stew the ingredients.
During this time, he could use the slightly cooled pepper salt to pickle the duck and goose. Du Heng went upstairs with the bowl and the wooden basin. Xiaoxiao picked up a few plums and followed Du Heng upstairs. Du Heng turned around by chance and burst out laughing.
Behind him were Xiaoxiao, Xiaowonton, and two little chickens. When the four furry creatures saw him stop, they tilted their heads and looked at him. Du Heng wanted to drop what he was holding and beat them up one by one.
The skin of the ducks and geese was dry and cool to the touch. Du Heng lifted them by the neck and placed them in a large wooden basin. He spread the pepper salt evenly on their skin, kneading the skin as he did so.
There are some tips for applying the pepper salt. For areas with less meat, such as the neck, head, and claws, use less pepper salt, otherwise the pickled meat will have a salty taste and a bad taste. For areas with more meat on the belly, apply more pepper salt, so that the pickled meat can be fully flavored and the fishy smell and greasiness can be driven out.
Not only the skin, but also the inside of the belly. The ingredients Du Heng received were all cleaned by the chef of Yunyanlou. In order to maintain the appearance, the chef of Yunyanlou did not cut open the belly of the ingredients, but made a hole in the buttocks. Only the liver and heart were left in the belly of the ingredients, and the intestines were hollowed out.
Du Heng had already taken out the internal organs and placed them downstairs. When braising them later, he could throw all four hearts and livers into the pot and braise them together.
It was not easy to marinate the inside, so Du Heng grabbed the pepper salt and rubbed it into the food through the hole. He lowered his head and involuntarily released his spiritual sense to try to spread every handful of salt evenly onto the inside of the food.
If other monks saw this scene, they would definitely laugh out loud. I have never seen anyone use spiritual energy and divine consciousness to process food. Isn't this like using a butcher knife to kill a chicken?
However, Du Heng and the furries around him didn't think there was anything wrong. Except for Xiao Wonton who couldn't climb up the railing on the terrace, Nianniansuisui and Xiaoxiao squatted beside the wooden basin to watch him cook. Whenever Du Heng looked up, he would see three pairs of sparkling eyes.
All the pepper salt in the bowl must be used, otherwise the taste of the marinated duck will be a little worse. After Du Heng rubbed salt on the four ingredients, he left them in the wooden basin and placed them on the terrace. When the old broth is cooked and cooled, the four ducks can be marinated in the old broth.
Du Heng looked up at the spiritual fields outside the yard. He already had two spiritual fields, and he hadn't had time to plant anything in the newly reclaimed spiritual fields. While he was cooking, he planned to plant something edible in the spiritual fields.
After a while, Du Heng came downstairs with a bag of seeds. This was a bag of pumpkin seeds. Although Du Heng didn't like pumpkin very much, it was a good choice to use pumpkin to make a meal when there was no food. What's more, the whole pumpkin is a treasure. Both the pumpkin vine and the pumpkin flower can be eaten. In the summer, if there is no vegetable, you can pick a few vines to make a bowl of soup.
Growing pumpkins is different from growing other things. You don't need a lot of seeds to grow pumpkins, nor do you need to spread them evenly in the field.
Pumpkins are a crop that needs space, and it would be best if there were some racks or poles for them to climb. Du Heng was not going to give the second spiritual field to pumpkins, he only planned to give them some corners and let them play freely.
He dug a hole in the field near the roadside, and then threw 20 to 30 pumpkin seeds into the hole. After throwing the pumpkin seeds in, he covered them with a thin layer of soil and poured a little water on them. Then he waited for the seeds to germinate. When the pumpkin seedlings broke through the soil and grew the first small leaf, they could be transplanted.
Du Heng was afraid that Niannian Suisui and the others would accidentally turn over his pumpkin seeds when they were playing, so he surrounded the pit with thin bamboo branches. While surrounding them, he said to Niannian Suisui, "These are pumpkin seeds. Don't disturb them when you are playing. When big pumpkins grow in the future, I will steam them for you to eat, okay?"
Niannian Suisui glanced at each other and then squeaked twice in disgust.
After planting the pumpkin seeds, Du Heng carried the basket on his back and walked towards the peach forest. There was a stream next to the peach forest, and Du Heng planned to plant some taro in the low-lying area of the peach forest.
He didn't like taro and had never paid attention to how to grow it, but Feng Gui and the others liked it, so Du Heng thought he could give it a try.
The peach blossoms had faded, leaving behind thumb-sized hairy peaches. When the breeze blew, the leaves rustled and the hairy peaches poked their heads out from among the leaves. In another month or two, Du Heng would have peaches to eat.
There was also a plum tree in the peach forest. At first, Du Heng didn't recognize it as a plum. It was only after he saw the fruit that he recognized it as a plum tree. The plum tree was close to the stream, and most of its tops were leaning towards the stream.
Du Heng wanted to plant taro near the plum tree, where there was a shallow ditch. Du Heng dug up the dead branches and leaves that blocked the ditch and piled them under the plum tree. After a while, he got a small piece of moist and fertile land. He dug two shallow holes with his back to the stream, and then put one or two taro seeds every three feet. He didn't know if he was planting it right. He remembered that when Du's mother planted taro, tender sprouts had already grown on the taro. The taro he put in were the small taro he had left over, each of them round and hairy.
Du Heng placed the taro in the nest and covered it with a layer of soil. The place where the taro was planted seemed higher than other places, and there were twenty or thirty shallow mounds of soil under the plum tree.
Du Heng looked at the piles of soil and tried to transfer some spiritual energy to the taro. When he was panting with exhaustion, the taro finally sprouted pointed buds from the soil. The green taro seedlings looked like lotus leaves and were very beautiful.
At this time, Xiao Wonton suddenly rushed from Du Heng's side to the stream, and he whispered a threat in the direction of Nanshan.
Du Heng looked back, and saw nothing but a fern forest on the other side. He wanted to release his divine sense, but suddenly remembered what Xuan Yu said. Xuan Yu said that there was a formation protecting the village in the stone river surrounding the village, and any demon cultivator who wanted to spy on the village would be blocked by the formation.
Du Heng's cultivation was not high enough to penetrate the formation. He looked at the fern forest carefully. There seemed to be something in the ferns. The ferns in some places were moving very fast.
Du Heng touched Wonton's head and said, "It's okay, it's okay. It might be a wild rabbit. They can't get through."
The bracken near the river moved, and an animal emerged. The animal looked like an orangutan, but with a white head and red limbs. It squatted opposite Du Heng and looked at him across the water.
Du Heng was a little confused: "Monkeys... on the mountain?"
Little Wonton lowered his body and barked. Little Wonton had grown into a medium-sized dog, and his barking was no longer as childish as when he was little. Little Wonton's barking reminded Du Heng, who squatted down and touched its head: "It's okay, it can't get over."
The monster couldn't get through, but Wonton could rush out. Du Heng felt his hand was empty, and Wonton had already rushed out like an arrow. The little Wonton was like a yellow whirlwind, it nimbly stepped on the stones on the water and headed straight for the monkey on the other side.
The monkey was many times bigger than Wonton. Du Heng, standing on the other side, turned pale with fear: "Wonton! Come back!"
The nature of a hunting dog made Xiao Wonton rush towards its prey, but Du Heng only saw the huge difference in size, and in desperation Du Heng sacrificed his flying sword.
Seeing Wonton about to cross the Stone River, the monkey on the other side turned around and hid in the fern forest. After the monkey went in, Wonton also rushed into the fern forest. Before Du Heng's flying sword flew over the Stone River, Wonton had disappeared.
There was no sound from the other side, and Du Heng was extremely anxious. His spiritual sense could not penetrate the river, and he didn't know what happened on the other side. What if Wonton was injured? !
Du Heng made a decision after only thinking for a moment. He wanted to cross the river to save the puppy!
Just as Du Heng was about to fly up, Jing Nan grabbed his shoulder and said, "Have you forgotten what I said to you?"
Du Heng didn't know how Jing Nan got to him. He pointed anxiously at the other side of the river: "Little Wonton is chasing a monkey! Will it get hurt?"
Jing Nan said with his hands in his pockets, "It's okay, don't worry about it. Next time you come to the peach forest and see something strange on the other side, let alone a monkey, even if you see me and Xuan Yu standing on the other side calling you over, you can't go. You can release Xiao Wonton, or even Xiao Xiao, but there's one thing: you can't go over by yourself."
Du Heng was still worried: "But..."
Jing Nan reached out and touched Du Heng's head. He smiled gently and said, "It's okay. There are all kinds of monsters on Nanshan Mountain. You can't resist them now. When you have formed a pill and transformed into an infant, Xuan Yu and I will teach you to recognize the monsters on the mountain little by little. By then, even if you want to go to Nanshan Mountain, we will accompany you."
Du Heng was still worried about Xiao Wonton: "But my dog..."
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Jing Nan smiled and said, "You have to believe it. It is a dog with the blood of a spirit beast. Ordinary monsters can't hurt it." Jing Nan looked down at the taro next to him and said, "You planted taro here? It's a good one. But the tree here blocks the sun. Can I help you cut down the tree?"
Du Heng quickly stopped him: "Why cut it down? It's still unknown whether I can plant it again. How can you cut down a tree that has already borne fruit? And look at this plum tree. It has so many plums on it. After a while, I can make green plum wine."
Jing Nan looked at the plum tree in surprise: "This thing... can be used to make wine?" Jing Nan's face was full of disbelief.
Du Heng patted his chest and said, "Believe me, I have made plum wine. If you don't like plum wine, I can also make salted plums and honey plums. They are very good even as snacks."
Jing Nan put his hands in his pockets and sighed: "Why didn't you show up earlier."
Du Heng was confused: "Huh?"
Jing Nan said, "There used to be a lot of these trees in the forest. The fruits they produced were sour, and Xiaoxiao didn't like to eat them. When the fruit fell, the ground was covered with fruits."
Du Heng felt sad after hearing this: "Oh, what a waste! But it won't be wasted this year." He would make delicious food from the plum tree and not waste a single plum.
At this time, the fern forest on the other side of the river moved, and Xiao Wonton stood on the other side of the river covered in blood. Du Heng was shocked: "Xiao Wonton is injured!"
Jing Nan flew up and landed beside Xiao Wonton. He bent down to check Wonton and said to Du Heng, "It's not Wonton's blood, it's from a monster."
Jing Nan walked a few steps into the fern forest, then turned back and asked Du Heng, "Du Heng, have you ever eaten Zhu Yan?"
Zhu Yan? What is Zhu Yan?
Jing Nan seemed to see Du Heng's doubts, and he explained: "It's the monkey you saw just now. The monkey was bitten to death by Xiao Wonton."
Du Heng: !!!
When Du Heng hugged Xiao Wonton again, Xiao Wonton was so excited that he cried in Du Heng's arms. Du Heng checked its fur from head to toe. The yellow dog fur was stuck with a lot of blood. Fortunately, the blood was from Zhu Yan, not Wonton.
Wonton smelled fishy and the clean dog became a dirty little dog. Du Heng prepared to give it a bath as soon as he got home.
Then he turned to look at Zhu Yan who was dragged back by Jing Nan. He was in a dilemma. Zhu Yan's neck was bitten off by Xiao Wonton. God knows how Xiao Wonton's small mouth could bite off such a thick neck. Zhu Yan, who died with his eyes open, was covered in blood. His limbs were twisted and he lay under the tree. Anyone who was timid would have nightmares if they saw him.
Du Heng hesitated: "This...isn't it about protecting animals?"
Jing Nan was stunned for a moment: "What? Protect what?"
Du Heng slapped his forehead. He was really dumbfounded. This was in the demon world, how could there be such a thing as protecting animals? It was just that he really didn't know how to cook Zhu Yan, let alone eat it. Today was the first time he saw this kind of demon beast.
Zhu Yan exuded a foul smell, and Du Heng wanted to hide away from him. But his instinct told him that if such a large piece of meat was wasted, the God of Food would punish him!
Du Heng was a little embarrassed: "I've never been a monkey before... No, Zhu Yan." This thing must be a second-class protected animal in my hometown, right? If you eat it, you will definitely spend the rest of your life in prison.
Besides... the sight of him dying with his eyes open is too hideous, isn't it? Du Heng doesn't dare to kill him!
Jing Nan saw Du Heng's dilemma, and with a wave of his hand, he put Zhu Yan into the storage bag: "Wait for Xiaoyu to come back and ask him to clean it up. Then you can treat it like mountain jelly and that's it."
Du Heng felt better. He looked at Jing Nan in confusion, "Weren't you sleeping? Are you awake?"
Jing Nan snorted: "If I hadn't stopped you, you would have been torn to pieces by the monsters in Nanshan. How could I sleep peacefully?"
Du Heng scratched his head embarrassedly: "I'll remember next time." He touched Little Wonton's head happily: "Our Little Wonton is so powerful. I won't be afraid anymore if he follows me in the future."
Xiao Wonton licked Du Heng's hand with his tongue. Jing Nan's mouth twitched: "Hey, don't show off in front of me, go take a shower, you're so dirty."
After some hard work, the broth was ready, and Du Heng scooped it into a wooden barrel to cool it down. When the broth cooled down, he could wash the pepper salt off the marinated duck and goose and soak them in the broth to marinate.
Du Heng held Little Wonton in his arms and stood in the spiritual spring outside the yard. Little Wonton lowered his head and let Du Heng scrub his fur. Xiaoxiao and the others squatted nearby and watched.
Du Heng talked to him while washing the dog: "Wonton, I'm happy that you rushed out to protect me today. But you didn't listen to me. You came back safe and sound. What if you were defeated by the monkey and got injured? You were too reckless. If you don't listen to me next time and run out to chase prey, I will beat you up."
Little Wonton hummed, and he licked the back of Du Heng's hand with his tongue. Du Heng held his chin and opened his mouth: "Let me see our Wonton's teeth. You are still a little puppy, how did you knock down such a big monkey? I was scared to death."
Wonton's teeth were not sharp, and Du Heng couldn't figure out how it bit the monkey's neck after watching for a while. Should we wait for Xuan Yu to come back and solve the puzzle?
After Wonton had a bath, it became a yellow, fluffy, clean and pretty little yellow dog. The afternoon sun shone on it, and Wonton's hair seemed to emit golden light. Soon, Wonton and the two chicks squatted in the corner of the wall, basking in the sun and fell asleep.
The old brine was now cold, and Du Heng soaked the two geese and ducks, which had been rinsed with pepper salt, into the wooden barrel. In order to prevent the marinade from being evenly mixed, Du Heng also placed a large bowl on the duck on top.
After finishing all this, he carried the wooden barrel to the terrace. After marinating for an hour, he could cook the salted duck and goose.
Du Heng felt that his life was busy and fulfilling. By the time he came out of Peizhulin and washed up, an hour had passed.
Today, Du Heng stayed in Peizhu Forest for an extra stick of incense than usual, and he was very satisfied. He was humming a song while cooking the duck, and he seemed to be in a very good mood.
The duck does not need to be boiled for too long, just one stick of incense and a cup of tea, and the water should be kept boiling but not boiling. If it is boiled for too long, the duck and goose meat will become tough, and if the water is allowed to boil, the duck and goose skin will be easily damaged.
Making salted duck with white skin, tender meat and a long-lasting aftertaste requires technical skills, and both time and patience are essential.
A layer of golden oil appeared in the pot, with scallions and ginger slices floating in the oil. The tempting aroma soon drifted out of the yard, and Jing Nan came in smelling the aroma: "Oh, it smells so good, I can smell it."
Du Heng smiled and said, "You came just after the food was cooked. Come, have a duck leg."
Du Heng took out a salted duck from the pot and hung it over the pot to drain the water. When the juice from the duck stopped dripping, he placed the duck on the chopping board.
Du Heng twisted the long duck neck towards the duck's body, and chopped off the duck neck and head with one knife. After a few slashes, half of the duck neck appeared on the plate.
Du Heng held the back of the knife, with the tip of the knife pointed at the duck breast, and with a flick of the knife, the duck was cut in half. From the cut section, Jing Nan saw the clear lines of the duck meat.
The duck skin is white. This kind of duck would have a lot of fat. Jing Nan had seen a thick layer of fat under the duck skin when she made roast duck before. However, after being made into salted duck, there is not much fat. The duck skin looks very thin, and underneath is the thick duck breast.
If the duck breast is not handled properly, it will have a strong smell and the meat is very thick, but the salted duck in front of me can still see the juice flowing on the gray duck meat after cutting it open. The duck meat is still hot from the pot and is still steaming slightly after cutting it open.
Du Heng picked up half a duck and placed it on the chopping board. He cut off the duck leg with a knife and placed it aside: "Jingnan, eat the duck leg."
Du Heng had chopped off the duck's feet in advance. There was not much meat near the ankle, only a thin layer of skin and tendons. There was a piece of solid meat on the duck's leg, which was bigger than Du Heng's fist. The ducks in the cultivation world were all very capable, and they were all fat and strong.
Jing Nan held the duck leg and looked at it from left to right. He sniffed the duck leg and a salty and fresh smell entered his nose. He could not smell the mutton smell of duck at all. The hot salted duck leg was tempting Jing Nan. If Jing Nan did not take a bite, he would be sorry for its hard work in showing off.
Jing Nan smiled and said, "Usually you would leave the duck leg for Xiaoxiao, why did you suddenly give it to me today?"
As soon as Jing Nan finished speaking, he saw Xiao Xiao squatting beside the chopping board gnawing on another duck leg. Xiao Xiao covered the whole duck with his mouth. He tilted his head slightly to look at Jing Nan, with half of the bone exposed in his mouth: "Chiu?"
Jing Nan took a bite of the duck: "Oh, nothing."
As soon as Jing Nan put the duck meat into his mouth, he couldn't stop eating. The duck meat was very soft and not salty or bland. He took a bite and the flexible skin cracked to reveal the gray-brown lean meat inside. The lean meat was crispy and tender. Now it was just out of the pot, and after tearing open a piece, there was still juice flowing inside.
After tasting a few bites, Jing Nan praised it highly: "It's delicious, fat but not greasy, tender and tasty. I like this taste."
Du Heng narrowed his eyes and smiled: "I knew you would like this taste! You always like salty and fresh things, how about it? You won't feel sick of eating this even in summer, right?"
Jing Nan gnawed on the duck leg: "Mm, delicious. There are a lot of wild ducks over at Nanshan. Let's catch some more tomorrow. You can make more and keep them. I think Xiaoyu and Fenggui will like the taste too."
Du Heng thought for a moment and said, "Okay, let's go to Nanshan tomorrow and see if there are any fat ducks, we can catch a few."
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Jing Nan loved salted duck so much that he had finished half of it by himself before dinner time, leaving the bones piled neatly on the table.
The taste of salted goose is similar to that of salted duck, but there is a slight difference in the taste. Goose meat is not as soft and tender as duck meat, and tastes a little rougher than duck meat. But this does not affect Jingnan's love for goose necks and goose heads.
The goose head skin soaked in marinade is crispy, and the tongue is soft and tough in the mouth. After chewing all the meat and skin on the goose head, he cracked the top of the head and sucked out the bone marrow. Jing Nan was finally satisfied. He finally understood why Feng Gui loved to eat brains. This dense and smooth taste is really amazing!
Moreover, the salted duck and goose were not spicy. After Jing Nan carefully tasted the essence, he felt that his mouth was full of fragrance. If he had not stopped in time, he might have gnawed the goose head and duck head.
After eating the goose head, Jing Nan made up his mind: "Tomorrow we must go to Nanshan to catch some ducks. Otherwise, let the chef of Yunyanlou send some ingredients over. This salted duck and salted goose are delicious. Can we continue to eat them tomorrow?"
Du Heng didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Okay, I'll look through the storage bag again tonight. If I find a duck or a goose, I'll braise it for you. How about that?"
Jing Nan sucked his claws and couldn't help but pick up a piece of goose neck and started chewing it: "Yeah! Okay! By the way, goose liver is delicious too, cut another one for me to try."
Goose liver and duck liver are also soaked in brine, but they cannot be stewed in brine for as long as the human body. At most, they can be taken out after stewing for a cup of tea. Goose liver and duck liver are delicate, soft and glutinous, and have no peculiar smell.
Jing Nan accidentally ate two sets of hearts and livers. Du Heng just felt a little regretful. If the goose intestines and liver were also kept, Jing Nan would definitely love the taste.
When it was time to eat, Wen Qiong, who had sobered up, praised the salted duck and goose again. She liked to nibble on the leftovers, and she was seen gnawing on the neck and claws all night. With salted duck as a meat dish, Jing Nan stopped complaining, and even if the vegetarian dishes for dinner were leftovers from lunch, he happily finished the meal.
Du Heng looked at the ingredients he had prepared. One duck was missing, half of the goose was missing, all the necks and heads were gone, and only the bare bodies of the goose and duck were left in the bowl. In this world, everyone likes leftovers, but no one wants to eat real meat?
After dinner, Du Heng looked at the darkening sky and began to worry about Xuan Yu again. He didn't know when Xuan Yu would come back. Today he met Zhu Yan, and he didn't know what kind of monster Xuan Yu would encounter on the road.
Du Heng was kneading the dough while thinking about random things. He now had a lot of milk to make a lot of dairy products, and there was already a lot of double-skin milk in the refrigerator. Du Heng wanted to try egg tarts, but he was too lazy to make butter, so the egg tarts he made were the Chinese ones that would fall apart when you took a bite.
When he was in his hometown, he tried to make the egg tarts that chain stores sell, but no matter how he made them, the egg tart crust always tasted a little different from the ones sold. Later, he accidentally ate egg tarts from a Western pastry shop, which used Chinese-style shortcrust and water-oil crusts to bake the egg tarts. The baked egg tarts were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Du Heng was amazed the first time he ate them.
When Du Heng made chicken puff pastry for Xiao Xiao before, he had made oil skin. Last time when he made snacks, he didn't have an oven, so the chicken puff pastry was fried in oil. This time with an oven, Du Heng thought he could make a good egg tart.
After the water-oil skin and butter skin were made, Du Heng used the water-oil skin to wrap the butter skin according to the method of making chicken crisps. When making chicken crisps before, he wrapped the inside with salted egg yolk, but this time Du Heng pressed the oil skin evenly into the flower-shaped mold.
That was the mold he used to make egg cakes. He originally wanted to make a new mold, but when he opened the storage bag and saw the large and small molds he had made during this period, he had a deep understanding - once you get into baking, it's like a deep sea.
There were a lot of messy molds in his storage bag. Seeing these molds, he told himself that it was time to stop making molds. He should save as much as possible.
He pressed the dough evenly on the edge of the mold. The dough at the bottom should be a little thinner so that it would crisp up better. The edges just needed to be even.
With the help of Lingqi, Du Heng quickly made two molds of egg tart crusts. The next step was to pour the egg tart liquid into the egg tart crusts.
Speaking of which, Du Heng has been making evaporated milk and condensed milk recently. Evaporated milk is milk that is obtained by evaporating half of its water content after heating. This type of milk is more mellow and rich. It is very good for making milk tea or snacks.
When filtering the evaporated milk, Du Heng also got a ball of cheese. If he is in the mood to make bread in the future, he can knead this ball of cheese into it.
Condensed milk is the product made by adding sugar to milk, heating and stirring. After it is made, it is slightly yellow in color, thick in texture and sweet in taste. It is really delicious when spread on pastries.
It's easier said than done, but it actually takes a lot of time. If it weren't for Xuan Yu's formation, Du Heng didn't know how long he would have to stay in front of the stove. The condensed milk was too sweet, and Du Heng didn't keep an eye on it, so Xiao Xiao helped him finish a bowl.
To make egg tarts, you need to add evaporated milk and a small amount of condensed milk. Du Heng couldn't remember where he saw the recipe. Before making the egg tarts, he poured water into the mold and weighed it. The egg tarts in his hometown weighed two taels each. His mold was relatively large, so the egg tarts he made weighed four taels each. Each egg tart needed to have more than two taels of egg liquid poured into it.
He counted the number of egg tart crusts that were made. Two molds could make fifty-four egg tarts. This many egg tarts required nearly eleven pounds of egg liquid.
Du Heng hated doing math problems, but the most important thing in making Western pastries is the recipe. A little more or a little less will make the taste different. He calculated until his head went bald before he figured out how much pure milk, sugar, condensed milk, eggs and evaporated milk were needed.
Looking at Du Heng's bloodshot eyes scribbling on the paper, Xiao Xiao squatted on the chair in confusion. He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that Du Heng had ignored him since he started kneading the dough.
Finally, Du Heng excitedly held up the paper and shouted, "It's out! Hehe!" There were 3.7 jins of milk, 8 jins of sugar, 2.8 jins of eggs, 4 jins of condensed milk, and 3.2 jins of evaporated milk written on the paper.
Xiaoxiao sighed heavily. Why bother? Isn't this just torturing yourself?
Du Heng quickly weighed out all the materials with the Tianhu scale, took a wooden barrel and poured all the materials into it, then began to beat them frantically. This time, with the blessing of spiritual energy, Du Heng beat them quite rhythmically.
After half a cup of tea, Du Heng got a bucket of yellowish egg liquid with a sweet smell. There were some bubbles on the egg liquid, and Du Heng was now able to control his spiritual energy to filter out the bubbles.
This was the first time Du Heng used spiritual energy to manipulate the egg liquid into the mold. Although he had seen Xuan Yu and Jing Nan do it countless times before, he was still quite nervous when it was his turn.
The egg liquid is poured into the slightly yellowish egg tart crust, but it can only be filled to 80%. If it is too full, the egg tart crust will overflow once it is baked.
After Du Heng finished baking the egg tart crusts in both molds, he realized that he had miscalculated. There was still a large bowl of egg liquid left in his wooden barrel. Du Heng was dumbfounded when he saw the bowl of egg liquid. He looked at the egg tarts that were already filled with egg liquid and was puzzled. Where did he miscalculate? How could there be so much extra egg liquid?
It's not a big deal if you make a mistake, but how bad would it be if the egg tarts don't taste good? Du Heng himself doesn't like sweets, so what if he messes it up?
Xiaoxiao chirped twice, and Du Heng looked at her as if waking up from a dream: "Hey? Xiaoxiao, why are you here?"
Xiaoxiao sighed, and he knew that Du Heng didn't notice his existence.
But when Du Heng saw Xiaoxiao, he felt relieved. With Xiaoxiao here, he had nothing to fear. At worst, he could flatten the egg tarts and let Xiaoxiao eat them! Although it was a bit unkind, Du Heng really thought so.
Du Heng nervously opened the oven door and placed the two molds in the oven. After closing the oven door, he moved a small stool and sat next to the oven.
It takes less than two incense sticks to bake the egg tarts, and they can be taken out of the oven when caramel spots appear on the surface. It was his first time baking egg tarts in the oven, so he was not very accurate in controlling the temperature and time, and needed to keep an eye on the oven.
There is a small door on the oven, which can be opened to see what is going on inside while baking. However, you cannot use your spiritual sense to look inside, otherwise the spiritual fire in the oven will teach Du Heng to be a new person.
Du Heng leaned against the wall and looked towards the gate. It was already dark, and the light from the kitchen was shining through the window onto the bluestone in the courtyard. Near the east wall, the small bamboo survived after being nourished by the spring rain. But it was still so small and looked particularly thin.
Xiaoxiao walked to Du Heng and jumped on him: "Chirp?"
Du Heng hugged Xiao Xiao and said, "After eating the egg tarts, can you go to bed? I'll wait for Xuan Yu."
Hearing Xuan Yu's name, Xiao Wonton came over and leaned against Du Heng's feet. Du Heng reached out and rubbed Xiao Wonton's hair: "There's still someone at home who hasn't come back yet, and I can't sleep. Let's wait for him."
Little Wonton wagged his tail and licked Du Heng's hand. Du Heng felt relieved, at least he was not alone, he had Xiao Xiao and the puppy by his side.
It was almost the beginning of summer, and the courtyard was still quite cool. Du Heng looked up at the sky. There was no moon, only stars. Du Heng began to worry again: "I wonder if Xuan Yu has a lantern. There is no moon today, and the mountain road is difficult to walk. He must not be walking fast."
After a while he seemed to be talking to himself: "It's okay, just walk slowly, it's safer."
After a stick of incense, the sweet smell in the courtyard was already obvious. Du Heng opened the door of the stove and took a look. He saw that the egg tart crust had already emerged from the mold. The puffing was successful. In the middle of the flower-shaped egg tart crust, the egg liquid bulged high, but fortunately, it did not overflow from the egg tart crust.
Du Heng closed the stove door again. The yard was filled with the aroma of milk and sweetness. Smelling this smell, people felt relaxed.
Xiaoxiao jumped off Du Heng, who was already squatting at the door of the oven. Du Heng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He stroked Xiaoxiao's fur and said, "Watch carefully. When caramel spots appear on the surface of the egg tarts, they can be taken out of the oven. But don't put your spiritual consciousness into them."
Du Heng smiled and nodded, then stood up and walked towards the courtyard gate. After leaving the courtyard, he looked towards the west mountain.
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