As Gu Lili operated the machine, she explained the key points to the three siblings.
After all, if this project succeeds in the future, they will need to know how to do it themselves.
After mixing thoroughly, it's time to wait for fermentation. Because malt itself contains a lot of amylase, when it's mixed with glutinous rice, it will break down the starch in the glutinous rice and convert it into saccharifying enzymes, so the juice will be sweet.
Fermentation would take about two and a half hours, so Gu Lili covered the basin and took the three of them out to find firewood.
Making this syrup uses quite a lot of firewood, so I should gather more while I have some free time.
Gu Huanhuan's foot is almost healed, so she went along today.
The four Gu sisters all went up the mountain. Recently, more and more wild vegetables have been coming out, so there are quite a lot of people going up the mountain.
There's no need to worry about any wild beasts coming out to harm people; the only thing to be careful of is snakes.
“Each of you break off a long branch. When you encounter tall grass, tap it with the branch before you move on,” Gu Lili said, breaking off a branch in front of her and holding it in her hand before reaching into the grass.
The three siblings all imitated Gu Lili, breaking off tree branches and tapping the grass every few steps.
"Wow, sister, there are bracken!" Gu Huanhuan exclaimed.
Although the group came to find firewood, it would be nice to find some wild vegetables to take back and eat.
Gu Lili quickly went towards Gu Huanhuan's direction, and couldn't help but exclaim in amazement when she got there.
The bracken fern stretched as far as the eye could see, and it had just sprouted; it was so tender it was practically oozing water.
Gu Lili couldn't help but swallow hard when she thought of the taste of stir-fried bracken. She quickly called Erniu and Sigou over to pick some.
"Beep, bracken fern is three coins a pound."
The mechanical voice echoed in Gu Lili's mind, but Gu Lili had no intention of selling it.
This bracken is a wonderful thing! You can't finish eating it fresh, and you can also dry it to eat. Most importantly, it can only be eaten in the spring.
Because there weren't enough ropes at home, Gu Lili specially brought a basket on her back. Luckily she brought it, otherwise, it would have been difficult to carry so many ferns.
The four siblings worked together and soon filled an entire basket.
The commotion they made attracted other villagers on the mountain to come and pick the fruit.
Seeing the basket full of ferns, Gu Lili stopped the others and continued to look for firewood.
"Sister, come quick!" Gu Erniu couldn't help but exclaim.
Gu Lili led Gu Huanhuan and ran all the way to Gu Erniu's place. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be a rabbit, weighing five or six pounds. However, its neck had been bitten off by some wild animal.
Blood was still flowing from his neck, indicating that he had only recently died.
Gu Lili looked up and saw an orange-yellow tail disappear into the bushes.
She was startled, swallowed hard, and guessed that it might be food given to them by the tiger from last time to repay a debt of gratitude.
She was afraid of frightening her younger siblings, so she didn't tell them that she had seen the tiger's tail.
"Erniu, pick it up and put it in your basket," Gu Lili instructed Gu Erniu to pick up the rabbit.
Since it's food delivered to our door by the tiger, why not eat it?
Gu Lili was still somewhat wary of the tiger. Once she had gathered enough firewood, she called her younger siblings to go home.
The siblings were in a good mood today; they had a basket full of wild vegetables and had also found a large rabbit.
At this moment, the firewood on my back doesn't feel heavy at all!
"Let's go home, I'll make you braised rabbit, how about that!" Gu Lili said as they walked.
The three siblings were drooling just listening to it, and they all nodded repeatedly.
Back home, Gu Lili asked Gu Erniu to skin the rabbit, and then she cooked it herself.
While Gu Huanhuan was cooking rice over a fire, she was also sewing shoe soles, while Gu Siniu went to the ridges of the fields to dig up wild vegetables to feed the chickens and ducks.
This rabbit is pure white and big enough that its fur can be used to make a scarf for Gu Huanhuan, or sewn onto her winter clothes as decoration; both would look very nice.
Gu Erniu stood in the yard with a kitchen knife, unsure of what to do next.
After all, he had only killed fish before; he really didn't know how to kill rabbits.
Gu Lili smiled and took the knife from Gu Erniu's hand. With a swift and skillful motion, she skinned the rabbit, leaving Gu Erniu dumbfounded.
However, Gu Erniu also carefully memorized how to peel the skin.
If something like this happens again, my sister won't need to get involved herself.
Gu Erniu watched Gu Lili kill the rabbit, and naturally took it to the kitchen to chop it into smaller pieces.
Gu Lili then took the rabbit skin aside to process it, making it easier to preserve.
Gu Huanhuan's rice was cooked, and Gu Lili had finished processing the rabbit skin.
Today, Gu Lili specially asked Gu Huanhuan to cook rice. This braised rabbit meat with rice is absolutely delicious!
After washing the pot, Gu Lili started stir-frying.
She threw in all the spices she had bought beforehand and stir-fried them. Soon, the rabbit meat emitted a rich aroma.
This made Gu Huanhuan, who was sewing shoe soles, somewhat absent-minded. She would glance at the pot every now and then and swallow hard.
Because it was a wild rabbit, Gu Lili was afraid it would be too tough to chew, so she cooked it for a full half hour before taking it out of the pot.
As soon as the rabbit meat was cooked, Gu Erniu and Gu Sigou outside couldn't wait to gather around.
Gu Lili smiled and invited everyone to eat. The rabbit was big enough today, so there was no bracken to cook.
Gu Sigou didn't even bother to blow on it; he picked up a piece and put it in his mouth.
"Phew... Sister... This is so delicious! It's the best thing I've ever eaten in my life."
Gu Lili gently patted Si Gou's head and laughed, "You little rascal, eat slower, aren't you afraid of burning yourself!"
Gu Erniu also stuffed a mouthful into his mouth. He didn't know how his sister cooked it, but it smelled so good that his tongue almost fell off.
The four of them finished the entire plate of rabbit meat. If it weren't for the fact that the bones were too tough to chew, Gu Siniu would have loved to chew and eat the bones as well.
At this moment, all I could do was reluctantly collect the bones from the table into a bowl and feed them to Big Black.
Big Blackie had smelled the aroma long ago. Gu Sigou poured the bones into its bowl, and it couldn't wait to start eating.
Listening to the loud crunching of the bone by the big black guy, Gu Sigou thought pathetically, "If only my teeth were that strong..."
After finishing their meal, Gu Huanhuan washed the bowls, and Gu Lili took Gu Erniu to see the fermenting malt.
Gu Lili instructed Gu Erniu to wash his hands clean, just like she did, and then grabbed a handful of fermented residue to examine it.
There are no more rice grains left, which means the fermentation is complete.
Gu Lili took out a piece of burlap and an empty basin that she had prepared beforehand, and then began to work with Gu Erniu to squeeze out the fermented juice.
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