Chapter 124 Happy New Year

In Bobai County, there are two things that are indispensable during the Chinese New Year, namely, Huishui Zong and Da Zong.

At this time, Deng Shirong was making big dumplings at home, with his children and eldest daughter-in-law helping and watching.

The method of making big glutinous rice is to grind the soaked glutinous rice into powder, then add boiling water and stir it, knead it into strips as thick as arms, and then put it into boiling water to cook it into cooked glutinous rice.

Wash the pot clean, add a bowl of water, put in brown sugar in proportion, slowly boil the sugar over low heat until it turns into sugar oil, then add the cooked dumplings, stir well and boil until the water is dry.

Does it sound simple? However, when you actually do it, you will realize how difficult it is to make a big dumpling.

The previous steps are indeed easy, but the really difficult part is the last step. When the sugar oil and cooked dumplings are mixed evenly, as the water slowly evaporates, its stickiness will become stronger and stronger. By the time the dumplings are almost formed, the stickiness will be so strong that most people will doubt their lives.

Every time you stir it, most people have to use all their strength to stir it. If you are not used to doing hard labor, you will basically have to give up within two minutes.

Once the fire breaks down, it won't take long for the pot to burn unless you put it out.

Even if you have a lot of strength, you still cannot make big dumplings if you don’t know how to use the force. This is because the dumplings are too sticky and sometimes when you stir them vigorously, you will lift the whole pot up. There are many examples of people breaking the pot in the process of making big dumplings.

It is common for the spatula to break.

Because it is very difficult to make dazhu in this era, it is not available at ordinary times and is only available during the Spring Festival.

"Azhen, be careful not to make the fire too big or too small. If the fire is too big, it will easily burn the pot, and if the fire is too small, it will be difficult to stir evenly." Deng Shirong said while stirring vigorously.

Deng Yunzhen glanced into the stove and said, "Dad, I know. The fire is neither too strong nor too weak now."

Deng Yuntai, who was standing nearby, saw that his father was struggling to stir the mixture, so he said, "Dad, I see you're tired too, how about letting me try?"

Deng Shirong, who was indeed a little tired, did not refuse and nodded, "Okay, then I'll let you try!"

As he said this, he handed the large spatula in his hand to his eldest son, and then taught him how to apply force and how to stir.

As a master of large vats, Deng Yuntai was no stranger to the technique of exerting force. His father only gave him a few pointers and he understood it!

However, when he actually started to stir it, he realized that making big dumplings was really not easy.

Fortunately, there is a difference between having someone take over and doing it yourself from start to finish.

After the father and son exchanged hands, Deng Shirong saw that the fire was almost ready, so he ordered: "Ah Zhen, you can put out the fire. Sister Ping, go and get me the bamboo shells on the table."

Deng Yunzhen responded and used a fire poker to put out the fire in the stove.

Zhang Xiuping also immediately went to the table and took the stack of bamboo shells.

In this day and age, there are no suitable containers, so people in Naye Village use bamboo shells to hold large baskets.

The bamboo shell is made of the local Niugule bamboo (Hakka), which is the largest type of bamboo grown locally. Bamboo rafts and rice measuring tubes are made of it.

Generally speaking, many bamboo shells will have some tiny burrs, but the shells of this kind of bamboo are not only large, but also have no thorns at all. So every year when the bamboo shells fall, the villagers will pick up the bamboo shells in advance, wash them, flatten them with something, and then dry them, and then they can be used to make rice dumplings.

After the bamboo shells were brought, Deng Shirong began to pack them.

It took seven or eight bamboo shells to fill up the entire pot of rice dumplings.

The picture below shows the rice dumplings cut open after cooling: And the next step is to scrape off the rice crust at the bottom of the pot, which is what the children look forward to the most.

The rice crust left after making this big dumpling is really fragrant, sweet and chewy, and is a very rare delicacy.

The only drawback is that it is a bit difficult to chew. A piece the size of a child's palm can take a long time to chew.

There were a lot of rice crusts, and everyone had a share. Deng Shirong also took a small piece and started to chew on it.

The taste is exactly the same as I remember, it is indeed fragrant and sweet. As long as you don’t eat too much at once, its chewy texture is still quite enjoyable.

In later generations, although da zongzi is still an indispensable item for the Hakka people in Bobai County during the Chinese New Year, machines are used instead of manual labor. The zongzi powder is directly poured into the machine, and edible da zongzi comes out. It is very simple and convenient, and the taste is better than handmade ones.

The only regret is that the machine-made big dumplings have no rice crust.

Therefore, children in later generations have no idea what Dazhe Guoba tastes like.

In the evening, Deng Shirong steamed a lot of steamed buns for his eldest son and daughter-in-law who would return home on the second day of the Chinese New Year.

Needless to say, it was a grand occasion for a new son-in-law to visit his parents-in-law's house for the first time. As a father, Deng Shirong naturally wanted to give his son enough face.

…

The next day, Deng Shirong started making Huishuizhang.

The method of making ash water rice dumplings is to burn pine wood, sesame stalks or soybean pods into ashes (you can choose any one of them), and then filter the ashes with water to get alkaline water, which is ash water.

Soak the ash water and the glutinous rice that has been washed in advance together, allowing the glutinous rice to absorb water and swell. After five hours of soaking, take out the glutinous rice and pour it into a wooden barrel. After it is full, poke a few holes on the top to facilitate heat and ventilation.

After steaming for about an hour, pour the steamed glutinous rice into a wooden container, then use a wooden hammer to beat it continuously until the glutinous rice is evenly stuck together. The process is then complete.

This sounds simple, but it is not easy to actually make it. The main reason is that it is difficult to control the amount of ash and the soaking time of the ash water. If there is too much ash water, it will have a bitter taste, and if the ash water is not soaked enough, it will not have that fresh fragrance.

Only by grasping this balance can you make the fragrant ash water dumplings.

Deng Shirong makes ash water dumplings every year. Even in his old age in his previous life, he was the one who basically controlled the step of soaking the glutinous rice in ash water. Therefore, few people could match his experience, so there was no need to worry about not doing it well.

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After making the big dumplings and the gray water dumplings, New Year's Eve is here! China is a vast country with different customs in different places. Take New Year's Eve for example, many places treat dinner as New Year's Eve dinner.

But in Shuangwang territory, the lunch is eaten as New Year's Eve dinner.

On this day, families who can afford it will naturally kill a chicken to offer to their grandfather.

At the same time, the children take a bath, change into new clothes at noon, and then put up couplets and hang lanterns.

However, there are many rules for hanging lanterns. Only those who are not in debt can hang lanterns. Those who are in debt are not qualified to hang lanterns.

Although Deng Shirong's family is prosperous this year, he still owes the credit union a loan of 6,000 yuan, so they cannot hang lanterns this year.

After offering sacrifices to his great-grandfather, Deng Shirong prepared a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner with his eldest daughter and daughter-in-law.

After the family sat down to eat, Deng Shirong, the head of the family, naturally said a few words: "Compared to last year, our family has undergone tremendous changes this year. Your brother Yungui and I have contracted the brigade's vat kiln. Business is pretty good at the moment, and we have made a lot of money in the past six months."

At this point, Deng Shirong looked at his eldest son and said with a smile on his face: "Yuntai has also become a master vat maker in the vat and tile factory, and his income is also very good."

In the previous life, due to the unfortunate death of the eldest son, the whole family fell into grief, so they spent this year in a very depressing way.

He was reborn in this life and changed the fate of his eldest son, which was the happiest thing for him.

Seeing his father mention him, Deng Yuntai laughed and said, "Dad, this is all thanks to you."

Deng Shirong smiled, looked at his second son and said, "At the same time, Yunheng has made great progress in his studies and has firmly taken the top spot in the grade."

Deng Yunheng still felt very benefited by his father's praise and the admiring looks from his younger brothers and sisters.

"Azhu has returned to school, and your grades have improved significantly compared to last year. These are all things worth being happy about."

Deng Yunzhu and Deng Yunhua looked at each other. The two siblings, whose grades were worse than those of other brothers, felt a little guilty.

Deng Shirong finally looked at his eldest daughter-in-law and said with great satisfaction: "The most important thing is that our family has increased its population this year. Your eldest sister-in-law married into our Deng family. If she can give me two big fat grandchildren next year, it will be even more perfect."

Zhang Xiuping's face turned a little red, and she couldn't help but glance at her husband, the meaning was self-evident.

After that, Deng Shirong picked up the wine and said, "Come on, kids, let's drink together and wish our family will be better and better next year."

All the children and daughters-in-law raised their glasses together, those who were adults drank wine, and those who were not adults drank tea instead of wine, and they toasted together.

Next, it’s time to enjoy the New Year’s Eve dinner.

After the meal, Deng Shirong took out the red envelopes he had prepared long ago and gave New Year's money to his children and daughters-in-law one by one.

(End of this chapter)