Go back to the valley to farm

Chapter 225
Chapter 220 Six Yellow Cake

The workbench nailed out temporarily by the carpenter is collectively called "horse".Because the workbench for making the center beam is very large, the wood can roll freely on it, so it is called "rolling horse".

On the shelf next to the rolling horse in the middle of the ancestral hall, four improved beams have been placed.

Uncle A Chong is instructing the seedlings to change the fifth root.

The process of making beams is to peel off the bark of the big cedar tree, trim it to the same thickness, and then cut a section to be used according to the span of the room. The remaining beam is longer than the span of the room, leaving about five inches at each end.

After leaving a section of about five inches, both sides must be made into a concave shape, just like a "工" character.

This was done because it was intended to fit into a groove at the top of one of the pillars in the middle.

The vertical length of the character "工" is equal to the length between the grooves on the top of the two pillars, and only when it is stuck can it be exactly matched and stable.

All sizes and numbers are in the mind of the ink master.

Seeing Li Junge approaching, Uncle A Chong said, "Pi Wa, I just wanted to find you. Next, you need to prepare roosters, cinnabar, tea, rice, wine, firecrackers, money, candies, rice flowers, and cakes."

Li Junge smacked his mouth and said: "I just ate the roast chicken, how about we change the sacrifice? Anyway, it didn't end up in our stomachs!"

Uncle A Chong bluffed the old face: "Piwa, don't make trouble! Roosters are used to fight evil, have you heard that water ducks can fight evil?!"

Li Junge laughed loudly: "I'm just kidding you, by the way, what kind of cake do you use? There are so many varieties of cake in Lijiagou!"

Uncle A Chong said: "We all use small glutinous rice cakes in Xuantian Village. You can prepare small yellow glutinous rice cakes according to the custom at the foot of your mountain."

Li Junge said: "Oh, this stuff takes time! It will take a few days!"

Uncle A Chong said: "Yes! That's why I told you in advance that you have to get ready! Be prepared! The beams of six wooden buildings rise at the same time, tsk tsk tsk, this is the first time for me!"

Li Junge smiled and said: "No problem, I will prepare everything for you! I will take a video for you when the time comes, so you can make a good arrangement!"

Uncle A Chong patted the sawdust on his clothes, and said with a smile: "Oh, this is just for Uncle A Chong to show his face! I didn't say anything, I will definitely make you feel comfortable when the time comes!"

Back home, Li Junge told his grandma and mother about the matter, and grandma made the calculation: "Six-directional house, if it's [-] catties, it's almost [-] catties of yellow cake! [-] catties of sticky rice, [-] catties of glutinous rice , twenty catties of fat meat, as well as brown sugar and white sugar, bamboo leaves, bamboo shoot shells, galangal leaves, um, it’s been a long time since I’ve collected so much!"

Sticky rice is not sticky, but it is a kind of japonica rice. According to legend, it was passed down from Champa, so it should be understood here as a forming sound, pronounced as "Zhan".

Grandma likes to do big jobs the most, and she can only show her ability by doing one or two hundred catties at a time, and her face is full of excitement when she talks about it.

Li Junge couldn't laugh or cry and said: "Grandma, you can direct it. It will take three days to make this thing, so you should take it easy."

Grandma was still stubborn: "You are afraid that you won't be able to handle the fire well. It's okay, I don't sleep less, and I will guard the fire when the time comes."

Li Junge said: "Okay, then I'll take out the big steamer and wash it, then pick the leaves and bamboo shoot shells!"

After working all afternoon, Li Junge picked up five or six loads of leaves and bamboo shoot shells from the back mountain.

Grandma and mother boiled a large pot of boiling water, and then turned it into warm water, put the cleaned glutinous rice and sticky rice in large iron basins, poured them into warm water and soaked them overnight.

Had breakfast the next morning.Grandma and mother washed the soaked rice separately, put the sticky rice in a sieve and drained the water.

Then the three began to wash the leaves and bamboo shoot shells. After more than two hours, they soaked the leaves of galangal in clear water. Li Junge took the sticky rice to the shed by the pond and used a machine to grind it into a thick sticky rice paste.

When the rice milk came back, my mother boiled the brown sugar with water, and twisted the fat meat into meat stuffing.

Li Junge took the glutinous rice to the kitchen again, poured it into a big steamer and steamed it until cooked.

It was noon when the first pot was steamed.Then grandma has to step up to control it.

I saw grandma pouring white sugar and brown sugar water into the sticky rice milk and mixing it into a thick rice dumpling. Some soybean powder was added in the middle to adjust the concentration, and it was also to help fermentation.

After everything was done, Li Junge poured the steamed glutinous rice into the rice milk while it was still hot, and stirred it evenly with a long stick.

The amount of water is controlled by grandma, neither too much nor too little.This is all about experience.

After mixing well, ferment for two to three hours.Taking advantage of this time, Li Junge started to steam the next few pots.

When the glutinous rice is fermented until the rice milk does not flow obviously when scooped up, pour the fat meat stuffing into it and mix well, and then you can start wrapping the yellow cake.

First prepare the materials for wrapping the yellow cake, which are palm leaves, bamboo leaves, galangal leaves, and bamboo shoot shells.

Baohuangba is a technical job, and it is also a tedious job. It is impossible for a family alone to do it, so the neighbors and my mother's old sisters came to help.

This Li Junge could only stare blankly at it. Since it is for throwing cakes, it can’t be made too big. First, the small cakes will appear too much. Second, the big yellow cakes weigh one or two catties, and they will cry blind when thrown from the beam and hit the head.

One or two is the best. I saw that the housewives first smashed a piece of rice ball into small cubes, and then used bamboo leaves as a base. The bottom leaf was folded upwards, and the top leaf was folded downwards. It was not enough. The leaves can be added repeatedly from side to side, wrapping the rice ball in the middle, and then tied firmly with thin strips torn from palm tree leaves.

With skillful hands, small turquoise bamboo leaf rice bags were quickly formed, and quickly piled up in a large pile.

Then the housewives began to divide the work, some continued to make small bags, and some tied the small bags with ginger leaves and bamboo shoot shells into large bags of one or two catties.

Then the big steamer came in handy again, and it was Li Junge's turn to use his stupid strength.

First spread a layer of thin bamboo branches at the bottom of the big steamer, then a layer of bamboo cake and a layer of bamboo leaves, and then sprinkle bamboo leaves on top to cap it off.

Bamboo leaves increase the fragrance, and increase the gaps, which help the water vapor to flow in the steamer, so that the cake can be heated evenly.

After finishing all this, my mother covered the steamer and tied it tightly.Grandma also brought an old unused quilt to cover the steamer.To ensure the tightness of the retort.

The better the sealing, the yellower the yellow cake, the more fully the saccharification, and the sweeter the steamed yellow cake.

One big steamer was not enough, so I borrowed another from a neighbor's house, but it was not enough, so I bought half of it and went to Jiu Changju, and finally started to light the fire at six or seven o'clock in the evening.

Steaming this is a kung fu job. It must be steamed for about [-] hours on high heat, about five hours on low heat, and then keep the charcoal fire for another four hours.This can anneal and open the steamer.

This is a long process, with Li Junge, grandma, and mother on one side, and Li Dongsheng, Ai Yulian, and Liu Sanwa on the other side, the two places work in three shifts, just for the last moment.

Until three or four o'clock in the afternoon of the third day, Manchangba was filled with bamboo leaves, galangal leaves, glutinous rice and brown sugar mixed with a special sweet smell, and they even smelled it from the pig farm. , one by one stayed on the open dam and couldn't drive them away.

After grandma uncovered the quilt on the steamer, the sweet smell became more intense.

Li Junge couldn't bear it any longer, grabbed one that was so hot with his left hand and threw his right hand with his left hand. After finally waiting for it to cool down a bit, he eagerly untied the palm leaf rope, and a sweet fragrance came out.

Because the steamed yellow cake is bright red in color and sweet in taste, people have always mistakenly thought that a large amount of brown sugar is added to the yellow cake for coloring and seasoning. In fact, it is not the case. The yellowish and sweet taste of the yellow cake is entirely due to the long steaming.

Glutinous rice, after a long period of cooking and fermentation in a closed wooden retort, decomposes a large amount of sugar, and the color of glutinous rice also changes from white to yellow, and at the same time it becomes more fragrant and glutinous, hence the name Huangba. And this is also the biggest feature of Huangba - the true color and taste.

The yellow cake in front of me is yellow and crystal clear. After more than 20 hours of steaming, the original white rice balls have been fused into an oil-yellow body, but the original traces of each grain of rice can still be seen.

Li Junge took a bite, and the glutinous, sweet, and bamboo aromas were fused together, and it entered the mouth and nose and entered the heart.

"The delicacy that took three whole days to make is really not in vain!" Li Junge closed his eyes and said shaking his head.

There is also a little story about the origin of Huangba that is difficult to verify.

The time can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period, when Guizhou was also called Yelang.

It is said that the famous Zhuge Liang was leading his troops to pacify Menghuo at that time, and was fighting against the Cave Master of Guizhou in Yelang Kingdom.

One day, while the Shu army was burying pots to make food, spies suddenly came to report that there were barbarian troops coming to battle.

As soon as Zhuge Liang heard this, he ordered to fight, and within a few strokes, he repelled the troops of the Cave Master of Qianguo.

I don't know what the Zhuge military master's intentions are, if you say you win, you will win, but he didn't care about the taboo of the poor and the soldiers, and he didn't care that the soldiers hadn't eaten yet, and ordered the army to take advantage of the momentum to chase the barbarian army for more than a hundred miles. .

This pursuit is nothing, but the fire-headed army in the army is in a hurry, waiting for the troops to return for a long time, but the boiled soybean milk and rice can't be wasted. I didn't bring much food and grass, what should I do?
Seeing this situation, Huotoujun had no choice but to mix the unused bean juice and rice together, put it in a big wooden steamer and cook it over high heat to keep it from going rancid.

When the soldiers returning from the great victory returned to the camp, the rice mixed with bean juice had been steamed for nearly two days, and the tired and hungry soldiers hurriedly shared the food. Huang Run, and the taste is sweet and soft, and it tastes more delicious.

The soldiers thought it was a delicacy that the military division used to reward them, and after three or two strokes, the several pots of delicacies were drained.

It happened that the local people in Laojun saw it and were amazed at how delicious it was, so they made it according to the same method.After more than 1000 years of continuation from generation to generation, Shunan has added such a delicacy-huangba.

Before Li Junge could taste it carefully, his mother slapped him when he came over: "It's time to eat! Take out all the yellow cake!"

The yellow cake will harden after being cooled, and the secondary processing can be steamed or fried. It is delicious, and the storage time can be as long as more than a month.

Li Junge quickly took out all the yellow cakes from the steamer, untied them and let them dry on the big dustpan.

(End of this chapter)