After dinner, the two went to wash up and rest.
Another night of sweet dreams...
The next morning, after getting up, Xu Han began preparing the food for the New Year's feast.
First, take out the dried pine nuts and put them in a large water vat. Stir them and then use a strainer to scoop out the pine nuts floating on the surface and discard them.
These floating on the water are pine nut shells; there are no pine nuts inside. The ones with pine nuts inside have sunk to the bottom.
After rinsing all the pine nuts in water, take them out and put them in the sun to dry while the midday sun is shining. Once they are dry, they can be stored away.
Xu Han took a small bowl of pine nuts, intending to roast them first and save them for the New Year.
Put the pine nuts into a large iron pot and stir-fry them continuously until the pine nut shells turn dark in color and the aroma of pine nuts is released. Then, turn up the heat to increase the temperature inside the pot, and quickly remove them from the pot and put them into a basin of cold water.
Soak them in a basin of cold water for two minutes, then take them out and place them on the heated brick bed to dry.
During the drying process, you can hear the sound of the pine nut shells cracking. When you want to eat them, just gently tap them with your teeth and the pine nut kernels will come out.
After it was done, Xu Han took a bite and found it was indeed quite fragrant. Now she could finally enjoy pine nuts freely.
Lunchtime arrived, and Lu Chuan returned from digging a pit outside. Xu Han took out mutton offal soup from her spatial storage for the two of them to have for lunch.
The mutton offal soup also included sweet potato vermicelli made by the two of us, which was especially delicious.
"Is the road easy to walk on today? Is it easy to dig a hole?" Xu Han asked.
"There is still a lot of snow that hasn't melted. Walking on the snowy areas isn't difficult, and digging holes is also okay; it's not too hard."
"Then there's no rush, take your time, there's still plenty of time!"
After lunch, Xu Han said to Lu Chuan, "Come back early today! Let's make sesame leaf pancakes. Prepare them in advance so we can fry them in a couple of days."
"Okay, you knead the dough first, I'll be back in an hour and a half." With that, he picked up his tools and went outside again.
Xu Han then began preparing the materials needed to make hemp leaves.
First, wash the sesame seeds clean. Take out a large porcelain bowl, put flour and the washed sesame seeds in it, add an appropriate amount of salt, cooking oil and water and start kneading the dough.
The dough with added cooking oil makes the fried jute leaves crispier and more fragrant.
Knead the dough into a smooth, large dough ball. Since you are making a lot, knead the dough in portions.
After kneading the dough, Xu Han divided it into small portions, rolled them into thin sheets, and set them aside for later use.
Clean the griddle that was specially made beforehand, then bring in two blue bricks, one on each side, and set up the griddle.
Then I went out and gathered a lot of small branches, which I put in the kitchen so I could bake the flatbread in a little while.
After everything was ready, Lu Chuan returned, and the two began to fry hemp leaves.
Lu Chuan was in charge of tending the fire and flipping the dough, while Xu Han rolled out the dough and placed it on the griddle.
The dough pieces don't need to be cooked too thoroughly; just cook them by flipping them once each. Be careful not to burn them, otherwise you won't be able to fry the sesame leaves.
When Xu Han was too busy to roll out the dough, Lu Chuan would fry the dough until it was crispy, and eat it as a crispy pastry, which could also be eaten as a snack.
Xu Han ate a piece of the crispy bread to taste it. The saltiness was just right, and it was especially fragrant, crispy, and crunchy. She wanted to eat more after eating it.
They continued working on it until evening without finishing, and since they didn't have time to cook dinner, they just ate some food from the space, like eggs and corn, which was quick and convenient.
After we finished eating, we continued working on it until evening before we finally got everything done.
Having been exposed to smoke all afternoon, Xu Han smelled terrible and felt greasy. Despite it being evening, she insisted on taking a shower and washing her hair.
By the time her hair was completely dry, it was already 11 p.m. Xu Han really missed the hairdryer at that moment; the time it took for her hair to dry was just too slow.
The next morning, when Xu Han got up, Lu Chuan had already gone to dig the pit. After breakfast, he started cutting the dough pieces and sesame leaves that had been baked the day before.
Stack the dough sheets neatly one by one, then roll them up together and cut them into wide strips. Lay the strips out and cut them diagonally into diamond shapes. That's how you cut the sesame leaves.
Place the chopped sesame leaves directly into a bamboo basket lined with oil paper.
After Xu Han cut the ingredients, there was a whole bamboo basket full of them. Once fried, they would last for a long time.
After preparing the hemp leaves, Xu Han took out some hawthorns, intending to make something delicious with them.
First, let's make a hawthorn cake. Wash the hawthorns thoroughly, then remove the pits and stems.
Put the prepared hawthorns into a pot, add an appropriate amount of water and start boiling them. After boiling, take them out, put them in a bowl and crush them with a rolling pin.
Pound it for as long as possible, the finer the better.
Put the mashed hawthorn into a pot and start cooking hawthorn cake. When cooking, you need to add an appropriate amount of granulated sugar.
Adding other types of sugar will prevent it from taking shape; only granulated sugar can make it.
Because there wasn't much granulated sugar in the refrigerator, Xu Han didn't make much hawthorn cake today. It's okay, she can make more next time she wants to eat it, it's not troublesome.
Once the hawthorns are cooked until they can cling to the spatula, use a mold to scoop them out and store them.
To make unmolding easier, you must brush a layer of oil onto the mold.
After smoothing it out, take it outside to freeze for a while. Once it's set, you can cut it and eat it.
There are still some hawthorns stuck to the utensils used to cook hawthorn cake. Don't throw these away. Just add some boiling water and rinse them, and you'll have a delicious hawthorn-flavored drink.
After finishing this, Lu Chuan returned. Xu Han hadn't cooked, so the two of them ate the food from the space again.
"I made hawthorn cake today, but it's not finished yet! It should be ready to eat when you get back tonight."
"Hawthorn cake is pretty good. It's especially good for cutting through the greasiness of oily food," Lu Chuan said.
"Would you like some candied hawthorn berries? I can make them too," Xu Han asked innocently, blinking her big eyes.
"Sure! I love eating this the most," Lu Chuan teased Xu Han.
Lu Chuan had already seen through Xu Han's little scheme: she wanted to eat it herself but was afraid of being accused of being greedy.
After getting the answer she wanted, Xu Han happily said, "Okay! I'll make a lot today and put it in my space so I can just take it out and eat it whenever I want."
In the afternoon, Xu Han started washing the hawthorns again, preparing to make candied hawthorns later.
After washing the hawthorns, use the bamboo left over from making things in Luchuan to split them into thin bamboo skewers, and then skewer the hawthorns one by one onto the bamboo skewers.
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