Although he was physically exhausted, he felt lighthearted. As long as he managed to get a vacation, he shared his meager supplies with his comrades without a second thought, since there wasn't much left anyway.
As long as he returns to Yujia Village, with his beautiful wife and young child in his arms, he doesn't care what he eats.
What's more, his wife never skimped on his food; she would tirelessly cook all sorts of delicious dishes for him.
Made by your loved one, freshly baked and piping hot, it warms your heart and soul.
Zhou Yi's sense of urgency spurred him to unleash his potential, leading a team to swim forward headlong, eager to rush back to Yujia Village.
The next day, the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, Chen Hong got up early to steam brown sugar steamed buns and dumplings, make breakfast, and feed the chickens, ducks, and dogs.
Yu Yang got up and practiced boxing in the yard for an hour before going back inside to wash up, his head still steaming.
After the meal, the mother and daughter went to the front yard together. The hotel kitchen was large, and several families were making tofu together there that morning.
There is a small electric mill in the shop, so you don't have to go to the mill in the next village to grind cornmeal or soybean flour.
With a finer grinding wheel, you can also grind soybeans for milk. The shop also makes tofu and tofu skin every now and then.
The household items are all there, and there are quite a few people to help. Aunt Guo and Aunt Erhu also soaked soybeans last night.
After breakfast, everyone arrived and started preparing to make tofu.
Aunt Guo pinched the soybeans; they were already soaked through. They divided the work: one ground the soybeans, one tended the pot, and one filtered the soybean pulp.
After grinding the soybeans, add some hot water. The ratio of water to soybeans should be seven to one. After mixing, filter the mixture through a fine-mesh gauze to remove the soybean pulp.
Pour the soy milk, after filtering out the soy pulp, into a large pot and boil it. After it boils, be careful to control the heat.
Boiling soy milk is a crucial step. If the heat is too high, it will easily boil over. So you can only simmer it over low heat. You also have to keep someone by the pot and use a ladle to stir the soup to stop it from boiling over.
The longer the soy milk is cooked, the richer and more fragrant it becomes, and the better the tofu made from it will taste.
Once the soy milk is cooked, the next step is the most crucial one: setting the tofu!
As the old saying goes, brine is used to curdle tofu; one thing can subdue another!
In Yujia Village, tofu is made not with brine, but with gypsum.
This is when Aunt Guo makes her grand entrance. She takes out her ultimate secret weapon—plaster powder, weighs it out with a small scale, and dissolves it in warm water.
"The ratio of gypsum powder is 100 to 2, which means that for every 100 jin of dried soybeans, you need to add 2 jin of gypsum powder when adding the brine."
If you add too little, the tofu won't hold its shape; if you add too much, it will not only taste bitter, but also be tough and dry, making it not only unpalatable but also impossible to produce tofu.
A skilled tofu maker can produce three and a half to four pounds of tofu from one pound of soybeans, while a less skilled tofu maker can only produce two and a half to three pounds from one pound of soybeans, and the tofu won't taste good either.
"While the soy milk is still hot, anyone who wants some, quickly grab a bowl and get some. Once it cools down a bit, I'll add the tofu, and you'll all have tofu pudding."
Chen Hong loves hot soy milk, so she quickly grabbed a bowl, ladled out a bowl, and blew on it while slowly sipping down the fragrant hot soy milk.
"It's delicious, the soybean flavor is so strong! It's definitely made with grains grown on our own land, it's so fragrant and delicious!"
After skimming off the foam, Aunt Guo scooped up another spoonful of soy milk: "If you like it, I'll give you another bowl!"
Chen Hong quickly shook her head, "No, I really can't drink anymore. I just ate breakfast not long ago, and my stomach is full!"
This bowl of soy milk is too much; the aroma of soybeans is so tempting!
"Haha, the soybeans we grow ourselves are really fragrant. We haven't been able to sell a single pound of the soybean oil we processed this year. We've kept it all for the hotel, except for our own consumption."
Xiao Hao's mother and Wang Xin's mother both laughed heartily, "We often drink soy milk too. When the tofu pudding is ready, you can have a bowl of tofu pudding too, it'll be even more delicious!"
Seeing that the sun was out and the men weren't needed at home, the village chief led them to the vegetable garden to harvest vegetables.
Uncle Erhu went to the sheepfold to feed the sheep. There's no grass on the mountain after the snow these past few days, so the sheep haven't been roaming around.
Two sheep are to be slaughtered this afternoon, but Uncle Erhu is a little reluctant and wants to give the flock one last good meal.
He carried a load of carrots from the cellar to feed his precious sheep.
This year, the five families soaked a total of fifty catties of soybeans. They turned on the fire in two large pots at the same time, and the kitchen was steaming. They worked all morning to make the tofu and press it up.
"Alright, let's hold off for now! We can open the bag after lunch. Xiaofeng, Wang Xin's mom, you two start cooking the rice, then cook a fish and stew some cabbage."
The people who went to the city to deliver vegetables should be back for lunch soon. Wang Xin's mom and Xiao Hao's mom, you two go help out at the vegetable garden this afternoon.
Chen Hong and Xiao Feng are energetic, so they can stay in the kitchen to help knead the dough and steam the buns. You two can start proofing the dough first; it's warm in the kitchen, so it should be ready by the time you finish lunch.
"Chen Hong, could you bring some more dates? We're running low on dates. Wash them and let them drain, then cut them open with scissors this afternoon."
At this time, Aunt Guo was the head of the household, in charge of everything inside and outside the house, and the young wives just had to follow orders and do the work.
When Chen Hong went home, she brought back not only a large bag of red dates, but also fifty catties of sorghum flour. Although Jiaodong does not steam yellow sticky rice cakes, it has the tradition of steaming rice cakes.
When Chen Hong returned, Xiao Feng had already started kneading the dough. Aunt Guo didn't allow the use of yeast powder; she preferred to use sourdough to leaven the dough.
Chen Hong washed the jujubes and drained them before starting to knead the dough. However, she added not only sugar but also milk to the dough, making it an upgraded version of steamed buns.
Chen Hong and Xiao Feng kneaded a total of 100 jin of flour, and also kneaded several kinds of colored dough. Xiao Feng was so tired that she kept shaking her arms.
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