Return to the small mountain village in 1986

Chapter 138 Rice Crackers Also Called Qingming Fruits

Many beauty picked honeysuckle and tea in the mountains for two days, and on the third day, the honeysuckle and tea on the surrounding hills were almost picked by the villagers.

At this time, there is only one day before Qingming.

After eating porridge in the morning, Duomei walked to the edge of the reservoir with a bamboo basket on her shoulders. She planned to pick some sage weeds back today.

When they make rice crackers during the Qingming Festival, they always add sage grass. Rice crackers are also called Qingming fruit. In some places, sage grass is not used, but mugwort leaves. is green.

Sagegrass grows on the field ridges by the reservoir, and also in the mountains, but the ones near the water are more tender.Picking sage grass must be tender, otherwise there will be obvious fibers, the kind that can't be chewed, so it can't be eaten.

Many Mei found a piece of luxuriant sagebrush, so she knelt 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 Manymei was busy picking sagebrush, Gao Mingcheng was not idle either. He carried half a bucket of rice soaked overnight and walked towards Grandma Xi's house.

He hasn't bought a stone mill yet, so to grind rice into rice milk, he has to borrow the stone mill from Grandma Xi's house.

When Gao Mingcheng passed by, Gao Zhuang was cleaning the stone mill.

Because the stone mill is not used every day, it is inevitable that there will be dust falling, so before each use, it must be washed with clean water, and then swept away with a special small broom.

"Brother Mingcheng, you should grind first!" Gao Zhuang said, giving up the space.

Grandma Xi also soaked the rice, and planned to make the rice crackers today, so that they could be taken directly to the grave to offer sacrifices to the grave when it was clear tomorrow.

"Okay!" Gao Mingcheng replied, he put down the soaked rice in his hand, looked around, took an empty bucket from Grandma Xiao's house, went to the old well and brought back a bucket of water for later use.

When grinding rice pulp, it is necessary to add water.

Gao Zhuang came over with a rice spoon and said, "I'll add rice for you."

So Gao Zhuang was responsible for scooping up the soaked rice and part of the water with a rice spoon and adding them to the hole of the stone mill, while Gao Mingcheng was responsible for driving the stone mill, using the friction of the stone mill to turn the rice into rice milk, rice milk It flows out from the edge of the stone mill, is collected, and flows towards a low slope.

And under that, there is a clean bucket to catch all the rice milk.

Gao Mingcheng has great strength, pushing the stone mill is as effortless as playing.

As for things like stone mills, if you have little strength, the more you push, the harder it will be. But if you have great strength, once you push it and push it smoothly, it will generate an inertia, so that you will not be so tired when you push it. .

Gao Mingcheng is like a perpetual motion machine, it does not stop at all, but he is tired and tall and strong, and he keeps adding rice. This rice is added carefully, not too much at once. If there is too much, the grinding will be uneven and the It can't be too little, too little will waste the effort of grinding.

As if being urged by someone, Gao Zhuang kept adding rice, and then suddenly found that the rice had bottomed out!

So he scooped up a little water and poured it into the hole, letting the remaining rice milk flow out together.

"Okay! Brother Mingcheng, you are so strong!" Gao Zhuang looked at Gao Mingcheng enviously.

He has followed Gao Mingcheng since he was a child, so he naturally knows that Gao Mingcheng is strong, but now he feels that Gao Mingcheng is even stronger!
Gao Mingcheng smiled triumphantly, winked at Gao Zhuang, and said mysteriously: "I taught you to do push-ups, do you keep doing them every day?"

Gao Zhuang nodded obediently, and he would basically do what Gao Mingcheng asked him to do, unless it was really impossible.

A few days ago, Gao Mingcheng suddenly taught him a set of movements, including sit-ups and rising sun jumps, but he focused on push-ups, and said that after practicing the push-ups, he will keep him happy for the rest of his life!
It's just that Gao Zhuang always felt that Gao Mingcheng's tone and expression were a bit strange when it came to the second half of his life, which was happy and happy.

Later, when he was doing push-ups, he couldn't figure it out. How could he be able to keep him happy for the rest of his life just by doing push-ups well?

Gao Mingcheng looked at him with childish eyes, and asked caringly, "How many can you do?"

Gao Zhuang said honestly: "In the beginning, I could only make a dozen or so, but now it's better, and I can make more than twenty."

The average adult can do more than [-], and the tall and strong can do more than [-], which is not bad.

Gao Mingcheng patted Gao Zhuang on the shoulder and said, "Keep working hard!"

He glanced at the rice milk that had been ground, and said to Gao Zhuang, "Bring your rice too, and I'll grind it for you together."

Before Gao Zhuang could speak, Grandma Xi, who was busy in the kitchen, had already said, "No need, we only soaked two catties of rice, it will be a while, you go back first!"

In this case, Gao Mingcheng didn't force it, and returned to his home with a big bucket full of rice milk.

When he came back, many beauty had also picked the sagebrush.

The picked sage weed needs to be cleaned, then scalded with boiling water, rolled into a ball with hands to dry out the water, and then chopped with a knife, the more chopped the better, and then mixed with rice milk.

After being mixed with sage grass, the original white rice milk becomes white-green.

This sage grass is a wild vegetable, and it is also a blind medicine. It has the functions of antitussive, expectorant, and asthma, and if it is taken internally, it also has the effect of lowering blood pressure.

It is probably because of this reason that when making rice crackers in the village, some sage grass is added to it, which is good for the body, and the color of the rice crackers will also be more beautiful.

"Mingcheng, you come to light the fire." Duomei called out, then picked up a big bucket full of rice milk, and poured it into the big iron pot that had been cleaned long ago.

She soaked five catties of rice, and there was quite a lot of ground rice milk, which filled a large pot.

However, there is still a lot of water in these. After heating and stirring, the water will decrease, and there will not be so much.

Gao Mingcheng sat on the side of the stove and was responsible for adding firewood to the fire, while Duomei was in charge of the spoon. After the rice milk was poured into the iron pot, it had to be stirred slowly with a spatula, because if it was not stirred, the pot would stick and burn. If the situation arises, the rice crackers produced in this way will not taste good.

As time goes by, the water in the rice milk in the big iron pot is evaporated little by little, and it is replaced by a sticky rice ball. At this time, it has to be stirred constantly, and the stirring needs to be mastered. Good strength, otherwise it will not form at all.

Although Manymei is young, she is strong and experienced. Under her stirring, the rice balls turned into a big ball, rolling in the pot without sticking to the pot at all.

The rice crackers made in this way are good rice crackers!

Gao Mingcheng looked at the rice balls in the big iron pot with anticipation in his eyes. By this time, there was not much need to add firewood, so Gao Mingcheng brought a pot that had been prepared in advance.

"It's almost there? I'll get it out!" Gao Mingcheng said. He stepped forward, but Duomei took a step back and gave Gao Mingcheng the spatula.

Gao Mingcheng scooped up the rice balls all at once. The small spatula picked up the big rice balls, so he had to quickly put them into the basin.

That basin was already the biggest in their house, and it turned out that it was just big enough to hold the rice ball.

Duomei poured a ladle of water into the pot, and immediately after the hot bottom of the pot collided with the cold well water, there was a screeching sound.

"You need to knead it when you put it on the table." Duomei said as she came to the table.

The table in their home is newly made and painted with tung oil, so the surface is very smooth.

Many beautiful bowls pour a little tea oil, which will be used later, because the rice balls are a bit sticky, so you need to put a little oil on your hands.

Duomei washed her hands again, and then she was ready to knead the rice balls while they were hot, and squeeze out the dough.

The rice balls just out of the pot are soft. Once they are cold, they will harden, which makes it difficult to make rice crackers, so they have to be hot. Gao Mingcheng saw that many beautiful hands were burned red, and immediately said: "Leave it alone, I'll knead it!"

After speaking, he hurried to wash his hands and took over the task of kneading rice balls.

First pick out a small ball from the rice ball, then knead it like this, and slowly knead it into a long strip. When the kneading is almost done, use your hands to pick out the right size of the dough.

In fact, making rice crackers is somewhat similar to making dumplings, but it is much more troublesome than making dumplings!
Duomei took the medicine that Gao Mingcheng picked out, kneaded it a little bit, and then flattened it with the palm of her hand. Try to flatten it and make it bigger, but it should not be too thin, otherwise it will not work.

After flattening, Duomei brought two bowls of pre-fried fillings. Most of them used radish and taro as fillings.

The stuffing doesn't have to be fully cooked, it just needs to be slightly fried to adjust the flavor.

It is even better if there is meat and it is fried with the meat.

Gao Mingcheng didn't go hunting in the deep mountains on purpose recently, so he bought two catties of pork belly at the old market in Junling.

Duomei used chopsticks to pick up some fillings and put them on the rice skin, and then squeezed the edges tightly just like making dumplings, without leaving any gaps.

Put the wrapped rice crackers on the table for the time being, and put them into the steamer together if you wait too long. At the bottom of the steamer, spread palm leaves. You can spread gauze if you have gauze, but if you use palm leaves, It will have a scent of zong leaves.

In this way, one person kneads rice balls and the other makes rice crackers, which is very harmonious.

After the rice balls are kneaded, Gao Mingcheng also joins in making rice crackers.

"This stuffing is not enough, let's make the rest into round rice crackers." Gao Mingcheng said, and began to divide the large dose into several small ones, and then knead them into a small ball.

This kind of round rice cracker can be eaten as it is, or it can be boiled in porridge, or fried with oil and salt.

It can be said that there are various ways to eat.

When the rice crackers are ready, put the steamer into the big iron pot. Some hot water was boiled in the big iron pot before. hours or so.

Look, it's more complicated than making dumplings!

But the people here like it, so every Qingming Festival, every household will make rice crackers, and rice crackers are also a kind of sacrifice that must be brought to the ancestors' graves.

Probably, I also want my ancestors to taste the deliciousness of this rice cracker.

　I admit, I am hungry for writing.

　　How many book friends have eaten this Qingming fruit?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)