Chapter 138 Rice Cake is also called Qingming Cake
Xuanmei spent two days picking honeysuckle and tea leaves in the mountains. On the third day, most of the honeysuckle and tea leaves on the surrounding hills had been picked by the villagers.
At this time, there is only one day left until Qingming Festival.
After eating porridge in the morning, Xuanyuemei carried a bamboo basket and walked to the edge of the reservoir. Today she planned to pick some Artemisia selengensis.
When they make rice crackers during the Qingming Festival, they always add Artemisia selengensis to them. Rice crackers are also called Qingming crackers. Some places do not add Artemisia selengensis but use mugwort instead, so the color of the crackers is green.
Mousetail grass grows on the ridges of fields near reservoirs and in the mountains, but those near the water are more tender. When picking Mousetail grass, you must pick the tender ones, otherwise it will have obvious fibers and will be inedible.
Xuanyuemei found a patch of lush Artemisia selengensis and squatted down to pick it. Not far from her, other people in the village were also picking it.
Today and tomorrow, everyone will be busy making rice crackers.
While many beauties were busy picking Artemisia selengensis, Gao Mingcheng was not idle either. He carried half a bucket of rice that had been soaked overnight and walked towards Xi Nainai's house.
He hadn't bought a stone mill yet, so in order to grind the rice into rice paste, he had to borrow the stone mill from his grandmother's house.
When Gao Mingcheng walked over, Gao Zhuang was cleaning the millstone.
Because the stone mill is not used every day, dust is inevitable that it will fall, so before each use, it must be washed with clean water and then swept away with a special small broom.
"Brother Mingcheng, you go first!" Gao Zhuang said, giving up his place.
Grandma also soaked the rice and planned to make the rice cakes today so that she could take them directly to the grave to offer sacrifices during the Qingming Festival tomorrow.
"Okay!" Gao Mingcheng responded. He put down the soaked rice in his hand, looked around, took an empty bucket from Xi Nainai's house, walked to the old well and fetched a bucket of water for use.
When grinding rice slurry, water needs to be added.
Gao Zhuang came over with a rice spoon and said, "I'll add more rice for you."
Gao Zhuang was then responsible for using a rice spoon to scoop up the soaked rice and some water and add them into the hole of the millstone, while Gao Mingcheng was responsible for pushing the millstone, using the friction of the millstone to turn the rice into rice slurry. The rice slurry flowed out from the edge of the millstone, and was then collected and flowed towards a low and sloping place.
And below it, there was a clean bucket to catch all the rice slurry.
Gao Mingcheng was very strong and pushing the millstone was like a piece of cake for him, without any effort at all.
As for something like a stone mill, if you are not strong enough, the more you push it, the harder it will be. But if you are strong enough, once you push it and push it smoothly, it will generate a kind of inertia and you won't be so tired from pushing it.
Gao Mingcheng was like a perpetual motion machine, never stopping. It was Gao Zhuang who was very tired and had to add rice non-stop. There was a certain rule to adding rice, you can't add too much at once, as it would be unevenly ground, and you can't add too little, as it would waste the energy of pushing the mill.
As if he was being urged by someone, Gao Zhuang kept adding rice, and suddenly he found that the rice was almost gone!
So he scooped some clean water and poured it into the hole, letting the remaining rice milk inside flow out.
"Okay! Brother Mingcheng, you are so strong!" Gao Zhuang looked at Gao Mingcheng with envy.
He has been following Gao Mingcheng since he was a child, so he naturally knows that Gao Mingcheng is very strong, but now he feels that Gao Mingcheng is even stronger!
Gao Mingcheng smiled proudly, winked at Gao Zhuang, and said mysteriously: "Do you insist on doing the push-ups I taught you every day?"
Gao Zhuang nodded obediently. He would basically do whatever Gao Mingcheng asked him to do, unless he really couldn't do it.
A few days ago, Gao Mingcheng suddenly taught him a set of exercises, including sit-ups and Yang Sheng Jumping, but he emphasized that he had to practice push-ups, and said that if he practiced push-ups well, he would be guaranteed to have a happy second half of his life!
But when talking about a happy and fulfilling second half of life, Gao Zhuang always felt that Gao Mingcheng's tone and expression were a little strange.
Later, when he was doing push-ups, he was puzzled. How could just doing push-ups guarantee his happiness for the rest of his life?
Gao Mingcheng looked at him with teachable eyes and asked lovingly, "How many can you make?"
Gao Zhuang said honestly: "At the beginning, I could only make a dozen, but now it's better, I can make more than 20."
An average adult can do about thirty of them. A tall and strong person with average strength can do about twenty, which is considered pretty good.
Gao Mingcheng patted Gao Zhuang on the shoulder and said, "Keep working hard!"
He took a look at the ground rice slurry and said to Gao Zhuang, "Bring your rice here too, and I'll grind it for you."
Before Gao Zhuang could say anything, the busy grandmother in the kitchen said, "No need, we only soaked two kilograms of rice, it will be done in a while, you can go back first!"
In this case, Gao Mingcheng did not force it and returned home carrying a large bucket full of rice milk.
When he came back, many bees had already picked the Artemisia selengensis.
The picked Artemisia selengensis needs to be washed, then scalded with boiling water, rolled into a ball with your hands and squeezed to dry the moisture, then chopped into pieces with a knife (the finer the better), and then mixed with rice milk.
After mixing in the Artemisia selengensis, the originally white rice paste turned into white-green.
This Artemisia selengensis is a wild vegetable and also a medicine. It has the functions of suppressing cough, removing phlegm and treating asthma. If taken internally, it also has the effect of lowering blood pressure.
Perhaps for this reason, the villagers add some Artemisia selengensis when making rice crackers. This is good for the body and also makes the color of the rice crackers more beautiful.
"Mingcheng, come and light the fire." Xuanyuemei shouted, then picked up a full bucket of rice slurry and poured it into the big iron pot that had been cleaned long ago.
She soaked five kilograms of rice and ground a lot of rice milk, filling a big pot.
However, there is still a lot of water in these. When heated and stirred later, the water content will decrease and there will not be so much.
Gao Mingcheng sat at the stove, responsible for adding firewood to the fire, while Xuanyuemei was in charge of cooking. After pouring the rice slurry into the iron pot, he had to start stirring it slowly with a spatula, because if he didn't stir it, the rice would stick to the pot and burn. The rice crackers made in this way would not taste good.
As time goes by, the moisture in the rice slurry in the big iron pot evaporates little by little, and is replaced by a sticky rice ball. At this time, you have to stir it constantly, and you need to control the strength of the stirring, otherwise it will not take shape at all.
Although Xuanyimei is young, she is very strong and experienced. Under her stirring, the rice dough becomes a big ball and rolls in the pot without sticking to the pot at all.
Rice crackers made in this way are good rice crackers!
Gao Mingcheng looked at the rice ball in the big iron pot with anticipation in his eyes. At this time, there was no need to add firewood, so Gao Mingcheng took a basin that he had prepared in advance.
"Is it almost done? Let me get it out!" Gao Mingcheng said. He stepped forward, while Xuanyuemei took a step back and handed the spatula to Gao Mingcheng.
Gao Mingcheng scooped up the rice ball in one go. Using his small spatula, he scooped up the big rice ball and naturally put it into the basin quickly.
That bowl was already the biggest bowl in their house, but it could only hold this ball of rice.
Xuanmei poured a bucket of water into the pot. When the hot bottom of the pot collided with the cold well water, a crackling sound immediately occurred.
"Put it on the table and knead it." Xuanyuemei said as she walked to the table.
The table in their house was newly made and was brushed with a layer of tung oil, so the surface was very smooth.
Manyu Mei poured a little tea oil into a bowl. This will be used later. Because the rice ball is a little sticky, you need to put some oil on your hands.
Xuanyuemei washed her hands again, and then prepared to knead the rice dough while it was still hot and shape it into dough balls.
The rice balls are soft when they are just out of the pot. Once they are cold, they will become hard and it will be difficult to make rice cakes. So they have to be made while they are hot. Gao Mingcheng saw that Xuanmei's hands were burned red, and immediately said, "Leave it alone, I will knead it!"
After saying that, he quickly washed his hands and took over the task of kneading the rice ball.
First, pinch out a small piece of dough from the rice ball, and then knead it slowly into a long strip. When it is almost done, use your hands to pinch out the dough in appropriate sizes.
In fact, making rice crackers is somewhat similar to making dumplings, but it is much more troublesome than making dumplings!
Manyumei took the dough that Gao Mingcheng had pinched out, kneaded it a little, and then flattened it with her palm, trying to flatten it as much as possible and make it bigger, but not too thin, otherwise it would not be possible to make it.
After flattening it, Xuanyuemei brought two bowls of pre-fried fillings. They mostly use radish and taro as fillings.
The filling does not need to be fully fried, just stir-fry it slightly to adjust the taste.
It would be even better if there is meat and you can stir-fry it with the meat.
Gao Mingcheng had not gone into the mountains to hunt recently, so he went to the Junling Old Market and bought two pounds of pork belly.
Many Americans use chopsticks to pick up some fillings and put them on the rice wrapper, and then pinch the edges tightly like making dumplings, leaving no gaps.
Put the wrapped rice crackers on the table for the time being. When there are enough, put them into the steamer together. Cover the bottom of the steamer with palm leaves. You can also use gauze if you have it, but if you use palm leaves, it will have the fragrance of rice dumplings.
In this way, one person kneads the rice dough while the other makes rice crackers, which is quite harmonious.
After the rice dough was kneaded, Gao Mingcheng also joined in making rice crackers.
"There's not enough filling here, let's use the rest to make rice cakes." Gao Mingcheng said, and began to divide the large dough into several small ones, and then knead them into small balls.
This kind of round rice cracker can be eaten as is, cooked in porridge, or fried with oil and salt.
There are many ways to eat it.
When the rice crackers are ready, put the steamer into the big iron pot. Some hot water has been boiled in the big iron pot before. Now add a little more water, turn up the fire, and steam it over high heat for about an hour.
Look, it’s more complicated than making dumplings!
But the people here like it, so every year during the Qingming Festival, every household will make rice crackers. Rice crackers are also a must-have offering when visiting the ancestors' graves.
Perhaps, they also wanted their ancestors to taste the deliciousness of this rice cracker.
I admit that I am so greedy for writing.
How many book lovers have eaten this Qingming fruit?
(End of this chapter)
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