Chapter 397: Fermented Black Beans
Of all the beans, broad beans are the last to be harvested.
During the pod-setting period after the flowering period, when the pods grow out, the broad beans inside gradually fill with juice and grow larger.
The pods of broad beans are much larger than those of red beans, green beans and soybeans. After the filling period is completed, the leaves will slowly begin to fall off. The reason why they are harvested later than other beans is that in addition to the longer filling period, you have to wait until the pods and broad beans are fully grown and gradually turn yellow.
At this time, the moisture content has been reduced by half, and you can harvest it on a sunny day.
The harvested crops were being dried in the yard. Different varieties of beans were placed on several pieces of plastic film. The red, green, yellow and black colors filled the entire front yard.
The black ones are sesame seeds, and the broad beans will not be harvested until two days later. The weather has been stable recently. The earthquakes have disappeared since the rainfall has decreased. The sun is shining brightly during this period, and the grass on the meadow is no longer wet. The cattle and sheep at home can be let out to forage.
Based on last year’s experience, there won’t be much rain between now and when the weather cools down, so this period is a good time to dry goods before winter.
After the grain in the yard was dried, Mu Xi went to the field to harvest broad beans. Zhao Yeqing gathered the plastic film covering the beans and picked out and threw away the black and bad beans before packing them into bags.
Some beans are infested with insects in the pods, and there may be insect eggs on them. If they are not carefully selected and bagged for storage, the eggs will easily hatch in the bag, causing the entire bag of beans to be infested with insects.
He first tied up the four corners of the rolled-up plastic sheet with rubber bands, called the chickens that were walking in the backyard to the front yard, and Zhao Yeqing moved a stool and sat down.
First, I untied the plastic sheet covering the soybeans, picked out the bad beans and threw them on the ground. The chickens then came over and ate all the bad beans.
After Zhao Yeqing had picked all the beans, the chickens were obviously still not satisfied. Their sharp beaks were about to peck at the plastic film, but she picked up the carrying pole next to her and drove them all away.
When making the fence for the vegetable garden some time ago, there were some leftover materials. Mu Xi installed a fence gate in the aisle between the front yard and the back yard. This could prevent chickens and ducks from running from the backyard to the front yard, making it convenient to dry the grain in the front yard.
After all the chickens were locked up in the backyard, Zhao Yeqing poured all the beans into the sacks. After all the beans in the yard were picked up, Mu Xi also brought back all the broad beans. Just like soybeans, he harvested both the pods and the stalks, then threshed and dried in the yard.
The broad beans now are already old. Some time ago, the two of them picked some fresh broad beans, peeled them from the pods and put them in the refrigerator to freeze. When they want to eat them, they can take them out and thaw them and they will still have the fresh taste.
Zhao Yeqing quite likes the taste of boiled broad beans. The skin of the broad beans smells a bit smelly when they are just cooked, but after peeling them, they taste sweet and the more you eat, the more you become addicted.
The broad beans were now dry and felt hard to the touch. Mu Xi knocked them all out, shelled them, and spread them out in the yard to dry. He also put the bundles of bean stalks into the firewood shed.
There are not many opportunities to make fire now, so the bean stalks collected this time can only be consumed in large quantities when they are used to smoke bacon during the Chinese New Year.
They can’t make it in time for autumn sowing this year, and the two don’t plan to plant too many things. They just need to use a piece of grain land to grow sweet potatoes for feeding pigs.
Zhao Yeqing moved all the grown watermelon seedlings to the field and planted them, intending to take care of this watermelon and sweet potato field through the rest of the year.
The newly harvested broad beans can be used to make bean paste after being dried. The harvested soybeans have been fermented in advance and are planned to be made into water-fried black beans together.
Before being used, broad beans must be boiled in water and then dried and moldy.
In the past, the elders in the family would cover the moldy bean curd with jujube flowers when drying them. When Mu Xi was in Meishan, he would look for the source of honey by following the source, and that source of honey was jujube flowers.
The purple flowers have a unique aroma, which can add a special flavor to the taste of the moldy bean curd.
But it might be difficult to find it in the mountains now, and it might be dangerous, so the two of them just chose to spread dry straw on it to help ferment the mold.
When light green mold appears, you can wash it with water, or directly rinse it with white wine to disinfect it, and then soak the bean curd in soy sauce to soften it.
Both of these soy products require chili peppers and ginger. Zhao Yeqing went to the field and pulled up two ginger plants. There were about five pounds of ginger pieces underneath.
The ginger harvest this year was average. In the previous summer when the weather was hot, the ginger planted in the basement once weighed more than five kilograms per plant. Now two plants can barely weigh five kilograms.
Perhaps because of the excessive rainfall, the plants in the greenhouse in the yard wilt and their roots rot from time to time, and the growth of the ginger is not satisfactory.
When the weather was normal before, there were four distinct seasons. Later, when something unexpected happened, there were only two distinct seasons, either extremely hot or extremely cold.
There are no two seasons now. All four seasons are equally warm, not too cold nor too hot. The highest temperature this year is around 35 degrees Celsius recently.
The lowest temperature will not drop below 20 degrees.
This temperature is suitable for growing crops, but there is too much rain, and crop diseases caused by the rain and humidity are becoming more and more frequent.
Zhao Yeqing looked at the small piece of ginger in his hand and sighed. After shaking off the dirt on it, he filled the small hole where he had pulled the ginger out and then took the ginger back to the kitchen.
The long green stems and leaves on ginger are also edible. After removing the old leaves, wash them and set them aside until you have made the sauce.
Mu Xi had already chopped up the peppers that would be used. A jar of bean paste would require nearly a pound of broad beans and ten pounds of peppers, while a pound of soybean paste made from soybeans would require half a pound of peppers.
The basin was filled with chopped chili peppers, and now Mu Xi was preparing the minced garlic needed for the bean paste.
Zhao Yeqing took out the peppercorns, opened a new bag of salt, poured the broad bean paste, chili peppers, peppercorns, salt, minced ginger and minced garlic into a large basin and mixed them evenly. He then quickly put them in a sterilized jar, covered the jar with a lid and poured a circle of water around it to seal it.
The jar can be opened after about a month, and if you want a mellower flavor, you can keep it for a few more years.
The same goes for water-fermented black beans, except that the peppers used are pickled peppers, and the beans also need to be cooked and dried. The difference is that this has to be fermented in advance before it can be made.
A few days ago, I soaked the soybeans and cooked them until they were soft. I poured them into a container, poured a small bowl of the cooking water over it, covered the container with a blanket and waited for fermentation.
It has been fermenting for five days and it is finally finished now. It is just right to be made into sauce together with broad beans.
Mix pepper, salt, sugar, white wine and beans together, seal them in a jar, and put them in the refrigerator for a week before eating.
Zhao Yeqing thought of the spicy bean and rice hot pot with Guizhou flavor, served with pork belly and a few pieces of smoked tofu...
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