Chapter 92
At the village entrance, the crisp sound of harrows turning the rice grains echoed throughout the village. In the village, men, women, and children stood in the fields, holding sickles as they harvested the golden rice.
While the outside world was bustling with the busy farming season, Shu Wanxiu was able to stay home and make rice cakes in peace, thanks to Pang Zhishan's helpful suggestion.
After grinding the rice into a paste and bringing it up the mountain, Shu Wanxiu crushed the malt and glutinous rice she had bought from Granny Pang the day before, dissolved the maltose in a small amount of warm water, added it to the rice paste, stirred it well, covered the pot, and let it sit there.
Chen Sanhe said that since the weather is good now, the lid should be lifted to check every hour or so. If you smell a slight sour smell and there are some bubbles in the rice milk, then it is ready to be steamed.
Making rice cakes is actually quite difficult. Not only do you need to soak and grind the rice, buy koji and maltose, but you also need the utensils to hold the rice batter and steam it – a steamer and a steaming cloth.
Fortunately, Chen Sanhe was a perfect matchmaker; she helped Shu Wanxiu borrow these two items.
A suitable amount of water was placed in the pot, and firewood was piled up under the stove. Shu Wanxiu waited for an hour, then lifted the lid and smelled a sour aroma. There were countless tiny bubbles on the surface of the rice milk.
This is what it looks like when it's ready to be steamed.
After a while, the small bubbles turn into large bubbles, which will make the sour taste even stronger. The resulting rice cake will be sour, not sweet, and have a poor texture.
Shu Wanxiu deftly moved the wooden basin to the table and poured the contents into the steamer.
She was not strong, so it was a bit strenuous for her to lift a basin of things and pour them into the pot. She also had to control the speed and force as much as possible while pouring, and slow down as much as possible to reduce the breaking of air bubbles.
After pouring out the entire basin, his face was red and his neck was swollen. He took a couple of deep breaths before sitting down to tend the fire.
Shu Shouyi felt sorry for her and patted his chest, saying he would take over the fire.
Shu Wanxiu, however, could not agree.
Because mastering the heat is also key to making good rice cakes.
Such a pot of new rice! They hadn't even cooked it for themselves yet, but they made rice cakes first and spent a lot of money buying maltose to add to it. This pot of rice cakes couldn't afford to be the slightest mistake. Shu Wanxiu patted his head and coaxed him to fan himself to cool off.
One piece of firewood after another was added to the stove, and the fire burned fiercely. The water in the pot was also boiling, and wisps of steam broke through the lid and floated out.
The two of them waited patiently and expectantly by the pot until the time when other people had already started preparing their lunch, and the steam that was rising from it was finally no longer bland and tasteless.
A rich, sweet and sour aroma of rice wafted into Shu Wanxiu's nose.
Her eyes lit up, and she turned to look at Shu Shouyi. "Can you smell it?"
Need I say more? Kids have incredibly sensitive noses!
After a while, the fire was turned off, the lid was lifted, and after the thick, scalding steam dissipated, Shu Wanxiu was able to see the contents of the pot clearly—the thin layer of liquid rice paste had turned into fluffy, expanded, white pastries.
Before she could even taste it or get too excited, Shu Wanxiu followed Chen Sanhe's instructions and, with quick hands and sharp eyes, used a clean, thin bamboo strip to cut the entire steamer of rice cakes into small pieces.
Shu Shouyi only saw Shu Wanxiu roll up her sleeves and move her hands rapidly above her head, which dazzled him.
I don't know what my aunt was doing, but after a while, she let out a sigh of relief, put down the bamboo stick she was holding, and leaned against the stove, saying leisurely, "All done."
Shu Shouyi, who was behind him, no longer cared about the rice cake. His gaze fell on Shu Wanxiu's hands, and he gently raised his hand to touch the inside of her reddened wrist.
Shu Wanxiu felt a slight tingling sensation on her skin from the touch, and she raised her hand in confusion to her eyes.
oh--
Even though she was moving very fast, she was still choked by the steam that kept coming out from behind her.
Wrists, arms—any skin hanging above the steamer turned red.
If the freshly steamed rice cake is not cut quickly, it will collapse and become less fluffy. She had no choice but to risk getting burned to cut it.
Shu Shouyi looked bewildered and fearful, but Shu Wanxiu said it was nothing, "It's just some moisture, Auntie will wash it off with water."
She rinsed it with cold water for a while, and also washed the wooden basin that had just contained the rice paste.
"Look, it's not popular anymore!"
She turned her arm, showing Shu Shouyi her restored fair skin.
This put the little, anxious child at ease.
After sitting for a while, the steam rising from the rice cakes had noticeably decreased. Shu Wanxiu took a pair of chopsticks and a bowl, and picked out two small pieces of rice cake from the edges.
She blew on it again and again, feeding the rice cake to Shu Shouyi's mouth.
Shu Shouyi pushed her hand away and handed the rice cake back to her. "Didn't Auntie say yesterday that she would give it to Granny Chen first?" He solemnly shook his head. "Shouyi won't eat it."
"You heard that?" Indeed, he was right there at the time. Shu Wanxiu smiled happily, pinched his cheek, and praised him generously: "Our Shouyi is such a good boy."
Well, Shu Wanxiu originally wanted to taste it herself and send it down the mountain if she liked it. Although she didn't know how it tasted yet, at least its appearance was not bad.
And to put it another way, does that mean we won't deliver to people's homes if the food doesn't taste good?
Yesterday, when she went door-to-door buying maltose, the news that she needed to make rice cakes must have spread like wildfire, and by today everyone must know.
Sigh!
She held the rice cake in mid-air, asking, "Really not going to try some?"
Shu Shouyi shook his head.
"Oh well."
It's lunchtime, so sending the rice cakes down now will ensure they're still warm when everyone eats them, preventing them from getting cold and hard.
Shu Wanxiu took out a bamboo basket and clean lotus leaves that she had picked and dried by the water earlier, which were used to hold things. She packed them up according to the household, one set for each family.
Each portion was wrapped and placed in a basket. Later, the small basket was almost full, and there wasn't much rice cake left in the steamer.
She collected the remaining bits and said in a strong voice, "Alright, let's go!"
Knowing that Chen Sanhe was still in charge of drying grain today, Shu Wanxiu led Shu Shouyi straight there with a clear goal in mind.
Chen Sanhe had just finished turning over the grain and was sitting on a small stool she had brought from home, enjoying the cool shade under a tree. The surrounding weeds and leaves were all wilted by the sun. She fanned herself with her straw hat and squinted as she waited for Chen Lian to bring her lunch.
Who would have thought that Shu Wanxiu would arrive first?
She tossed her straw hat aside, propped herself up on her knees, and asked, "How is it? Is the rice cake done?!"
Shu Wanxiu smiled and said, "It's done, but I don't know how it tastes. Please be the first to try it, Auntie."
"What do you mean?" She thought for a moment, remembering what Shu Wanxiu had said yesterday, and laughed as she cupped Shu Shouyi's face in her hands. "Are you really going to stop Shouyi from eating?"
"It wasn't me who stopped you! It was Shouyi who was thinking of you and refused to eat!"
She vividly reenacted the scene where Shouyi refused to eat, and Chen Sanhe kept exclaiming "Oh my!" and, in delight, picked up Shu Shouyi and hugged him.
The commotion drew the attention of two aunties who were also tending to the drying grain nearby, and they came over as well. The children also looked over with eager eyes.
Shu Wanxiu had already put down her basket. While greeting the other two aunties, she took out the rice cakes for Chen Sanhe's family.
"Auntie, please try some."
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