Chapter 240 Laba Garlic
Speaking of Laba, we all think of all kinds of Laba food, such as Laba porridge, Laba garlic, Laba vinegar, Laba beans, Laba noodles, Laba rice, and eight-treasure duck.
It is said that the New Year will come after Laba Festival. Laba Festival has arrived as promised, and the festive atmosphere is becoming more and more intense.
First of all, Xu Qingmeng has already made Laba beans with Xu Xinting, and you can eat them tomorrow.
The main ingredient of the so-called Laba beans is soybeans. After cooking, put them in gauze while they are hot, then wrap them up and wait in a warm place. After fermenting for three to five days, until a layer of white mycelium sticks to the surface of the soybeans, you can put ginger, minced garlic, salt, sugar and chili powder in it, and finally pour in high-concentration rice wine and marinate it.
If He didn't mention it, tomorrow would be Laba Festival, and Xu Qingmeng would have already forgotten about it.
In the evening, Xu Qingmeng began to prepare Laba porridge.
As the name suggests, Laba porridge requires eight kinds of grains. The Gu family has a lot of different ingredients, so there is no need to prepare them specially. The family can easily get together eight kinds of grains. However, people are the same, they always feel that things outside are better.
Yun Sheng and Yun Mo just happened to hear it when they came back.
"Sister-in-law, can you replace the red dates with candied dates when you cook porridge tomorrow? Candied dates are more delicious and sweeter!"
"Sure! But what?"
When Yun Sheng heard this, he quickly asked, "But what?"
"Of course you have to finish your homework early in the evening. You can't be lazy and slack off." Xu Qingmeng said with a smile.
Yun Sheng scratched his head embarrassedly.
She really did a lot of laziness, pretending to sleep, and playing tricks.
However, Xu Qingmeng is not very clear about this local festival custom, but no matter where you are, you will drink a bowl of Laba porridge.
Xu Qingmeng instructed Aunt Lin to wash and soak the glutinous rice, black rice, red beans, mung beans, red kidney beans, coix rice, peanuts and lotus seeds in advance.
The next morning, Xinting got up early and boiled the eight kinds of grains for an hour. Then she added the candied dates that Yun Sheng wanted to eat, the pitted longan meat and the cored lotus seeds, and boiled for another quarter of an hour. Finally, she added the white sugar.
The Laba porridge cooked in this way is sticky, soft, glutinous and sweet.
In addition to Laba porridge, there is also the custom of pickling Laba garlic. However, this Laba garlic is not eaten on the Laba day, but is pickled on the same day.
I plan to soak the peeled ones in vinegar, and when they become as emerald as jade, they can be eaten. It looks like a poisonous dark dish, but it still tastes good.
He had people start peeling garlic early in the morning and making preparations.
When Xu Qing woke up from his dream, the Laba porridge had already been cooked. Then he saw the peeled garlic and suddenly wanted to eat sweet and sour garlic.
"Mom, let's pickle some sugar garlic."
Sugared garlic, the name sounds like it requires a lot of sugar, but He had never seen or eaten it before, so she became interested. After all, all the food prepared by Meng Niang was delicious.
"Okay, what do you say we should do?"
Pickled garlic is usually made with fresh garlic, but it is not available nowadays. Although the taste of dried garlic is slightly different from that of fresh garlic, it is also very good if pickled using the same method.
As long as she tries to adjust the proportion of the marinade and the method of use to make the flavors closer, there shouldn't be a problem.
It is not difficult to pickle sugar garlic. It is just a matter of the ratio of sugar, vinegar, and salt, and of course rock sugar is needed.
Xu Qingmeng explained it briefly, and Aunt Lin and the others knew almost everything.
Everything was ready, and Xu Qingmeng led them to adjust the proportions, and everyone was ready to start. However, they did not plan to make a lot, but because there were many servants in the house now, she wondered if she could make some pickles.
When He heard Xu Qing's dream of making pickles, she was very puzzled.
In fact, Xu Qingmeng had never seen a shop selling pickles from Yan County to the provincial capital.
Moreover, the modern pickles that can be eaten with meals, or even the kimchi that can be eaten directly, were not available in that era.
When Xu Qingmeng was in Yan County before, she asked He, but He said that it was only eaten by people who couldn't afford to eat, so that they could eat it with steamed buns when there was no vegetables to eat in winter.
Not only He, but also the servants beside them looked at each other in confusion, not understanding why the young lady wanted to make pickles.
However, they are servants and have no control over what their masters do. They just need to do their own job well.
Xu Qingmeng looked at He's puzzled face and the looks of the people around her, and explained: "Mother, the pickled vegetables I'm talking about are not the pickled vegetables you mentioned, but are similar to pickled vegetables, kimchi, etc."
After Xu Qingmeng finished speaking, everyone still looked at her in confusion. Then she smiled and said, "You may not understand what I'm saying now, but you will know when I show you how to do it."
Everyone knew that Xu Qingmeng's craftsmanship was good, so naturally there was nothing to say. Even more so was He. The family's current money was all earned by Meng Niang, so naturally she had no right to say what she wanted to do.
Xu Qingmeng did what he said. The first pickles he wanted to make were radish and cabbage.
She asked someone to buy two baskets of radishes and a lot of cabbage, preparing to make dried radishes, pickled radishes, radish kimchi, and kimchi.
Radishes and cabbages are not expensive, and all of them added up don't amount to much. Even if they are expensive, He wouldn't say anything.
Xu Qingmeng first had people peel the radish, light the fire, and so on. Of course, they didn't let them get rid of the radish skins. He Shi looked at it and became even more puzzled: "These radishes are not expensive, what are they keeping the radish skins for? Just throw them away."
Xu Qingmeng smiled and said to He: "Mother, you don't know, the taste of this radish peel is absolutely delicious, and the taste is different from the taste of radish soaked, you will know after you taste it."
After Xu Qingmeng said this, He Shi didn't ask any more questions. Some people were processing garlic, some were peeling radishes, and Xinting was processing cabbage on the side.
Xu Qingmeng was boiling water for soaking radish peels. He mixed various seasonings such as chili peppers, garlic, soy sauce, and sugar in proportion, and the water was ready.
Of course the most important thing about pickled radish peels is soaking them.
He was watching from the side and saw Xu Qingmeng pour the boiled water into the servant's jar filled with radish peels. Then he sealed the jar and had someone move it to a corner.
"Is that all?" He asked in surprise.
"Well, that's it. You can eat it after soaking for two days. It's sour and delicious. It's best to eat it with porridge in the morning." Xu Qingmeng nodded and said.
But this applies to all pickles. It is really good to cook a pot of porridge in the morning and pair it with refreshing side dishes.
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