Chapter 145 Barley Cake
The pickled meat has become half-cooked, wrapped with glutinous rice, and is delicious when cut into slices and steamed or fried.
Zhao Yeqing prefers to eat steamed food, so he set up a pot and a steamer and put the thinly sliced sour meat on it.
The fried sour meat has a burnt aroma, but it is easy to get greasy when eaten, while the steamed sour meat is soft.
The meat fibers that have been pickled in acid have been destroyed, and it tastes softer than other meats. After being steamed over high heat, the fat in the meat is steamed out, and it melts in your mouth with just a sip.
The glutinous rice wrapped around the meat is steamed and absorbs the aroma of oil. It tastes better than the meat.
The sour meat was put into the pot for steaming. Zhao Yeqing also steamed two buns inside and asked Mu Xi to make the barley cakes quickly.
Just mix the barley paste, but making barley cakes is a little more troublesome because they don't use unleavened flour and take some time to ferment.
Mu Xi poured the barley flour into a small bowl and added a little wheat flour, yeast and water.
After mixing, cover with gauze and let ferment. It will take two hours to ferment.
Taking advantage of the fact that there was nothing to eat, Zhao Yeqing took out a small bowl of the roasted barley that was reserved for making rice candy.
Take a pot and pour water and sugar into it. Wait until the sugar in the pot melts in the water and the water bubbles until it boils dry.
The syrup in the pot gradually turned amber. Zhao Yeqing quickly took the pot off the stove and poured a bowl of fried barley rice into it.
He used chopsticks to stir the rice until every grain of barley was coated with syrup before stopping.
The sticky syrup turned the highland barley rice into a ball. After a minute, the temperature of the sugar dropped and Zhao Yeqing reached out and crushed the solidified fried rice.
This makes a highland barley version of caramel popcorn.
The syrup hardens after cooling, and when it is wrapped around the highland barley rice, it has a crunchy texture and is sweet and fragrant.
It suits Mu Xi's taste very well.
Zhao Yeqing ate and sighed, "It would be nice if there was tea."
It makes me sad to talk about this. I started looking for tea last year, and I have been looking for it from summer to winter, but I still haven’t found it.
There was tea in the village, but it was not the kind she wanted. The kind of tea that people in the village drank as water was black tea or herbal tea. She liked the green tea with a sweet aftertaste.
Mu Xi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Forget about tea in this season. I still have some licorice left from the last time I boiled water for you. It's slightly bitter but sweet. Would you like to cut a piece and try it?"
Zhao Yeqing almost had the words "Are you sick?" written on his face.
The steamed buns in the pot were ready, but the two of them didn't eat much at noon, so they just shared a steamed bun to fill their stomachs.
Mu Xi's steamed bun had a little bit of sugar in it. She liked to eat white steamed buns, and she could taste the sweetness of the bun itself when chewing it carefully.
I poked the sour meat with chopsticks and it was not completely soft yet. Steaming sour meat is just like steaming braised pork with pork belly, the longer it is steamed, the better it tastes.
Steam slowly over low heat until the highland barley flour in the small bowl is fermented.
The fermented highland barley dough has expanded to twice its size. After being cut into small pieces, it is sprinkled with a little oil and pressed into pancake shape. The pancakes are then steamed in a steamer.
The wait was so long that Zhao Yeqing couldn't help but say when the highland barley pancakes were steamed, "It's finally ready. If I had known earlier, I would have made highland barley pancakes. It's simpler and more convenient."
"Who was it that said righteously before cooking that he couldn't eat such oily food at night anymore?"
Zhao Yeqing choked. Highland barley pancakes are fried in oil and don't need to be steamed for so long, but the calories are a bit high.
She said some time ago that she works harder now and won't gain weight no matter how much she eats.
Now it’s only been over a week and I’m already getting slapped in the face.
She couldn't go out after the snow and there was not much work to do, so she watched her flesh grow little by little.
She ignored Mu Xi and sat motionless on the bench, raising her chin towards the steamer, signaling him to be more sensible and take out the steamed barley cakes.
Mu Xi laughed and raised his hand to show surrender. He took a clean cloth to wrap the edge of the plate and brought out the steamed barley cakes and sour meat.
Using a knife to cut the cake-like highland barley cake into small pieces, Zhao Yeqing blew on the hot air, picked up a piece of the highland barley cake and put it into his mouth.
Steamed barley cake looks a bit like steamed cake at first glance, but it tastes different. It has the texture of coarse grains but is not choking, and has a strong wheat flavor.
She ate it with some sour meat. The rich fat of the sour meat seeped into the pores of the barley cake. The wheat aroma mixed with the meat aroma, and the sour taste was very appetizing.
Zhao Yeqing was busy talking, and he was already sighing in his heart, absolutely amazing...
Perhaps because she loves sour food, she will not refuse any sour food. She ate more than half of a large plate of barley cake.
She didn't dare drink water after eating because she was afraid that her stomach would swell if she drank water.
Can't move.
Zhao Yeqing slumped in the rocking chair in the room, while Mu Xi helplessly rubbed her stomach to help her digest the food.
There is still a bowl of unfinished barley porridge on hand.
I can't eat at all.
Mu Xi finished drinking the remaining highland barley paste, and Zhao Yeqing turned on his phone, "We still have to wait for the maltose to ferment tonight, let's watch a movie."
There are still several movies stored in my phone that I haven’t watched yet.
"All is fine. Take your pick."
Zhao Yeqing chose a science fiction film with a very intimidating cover, but halfway through the film, he couldn't resist the power of his biological clock and fell asleep.
Mu Xi quietly picked up the phone, turned it off and put it away, then gently picked her up and put her on the bed.
He returned to the kitchen and waited until two in the morning.
The maltose has been fermented, the glutinous rice and malt crumbs are mixed together, and the bottom of the basin is the fermented yellow liquid.
Take another basin, put gauze in it, pour the glutinous rice mixed with malt and liquid into it, wrap it with gauze and squeeze out all the liquid inside.
There was a small basin of liquid. Mu Xi estimated the amount, poured the liquid into the pot and boiled it, then found a jar of suitable size and waited to fill it with maltose.
When the water in the liquid in the pot has almost evaporated, it will gradually become viscous. If it does not drip when you pick it up with chopsticks, it is cooked.
Mu Xi yawned, waited until the syrup was no longer so hot, poured it into the jar, then hurriedly washed up and went to bed in a daze.
When Zhao Yeqing opened his eyes, he suddenly became clear-headed.
She thought of the maltose she hadn’t finished making, and she kept thinking, “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.”
Just as he was about to throw off the quilt and get up, Mu Xi pulled him back into bed with one arm.
The voice was a little vague, "It's all done, let's sleep for a while..."
Mu Xi was very strong and he pulled her towards him at once but he failed to control his strength and Zhao Yeqing fell directly into his arms.
The two bodies were pressed so closely together. It would be fine at any other time, but was this the normal time?
It's morning!
Mu Xi was sleeping soundly and hadn't noticed anything yet. He tightened his arms around her, and her hands, which she had nowhere to put, rested on Mu Xi's waist, revealing the distinct lines of his lower back.
Who understands!
Zhao Yeqing didn't dare to move. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to close her eyes.
Don't look down, absolutely don't look down.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
