Border Cook

Chapter 48 Can I Still Eat It?

Shen Yongan claimed that he was in his forties and believed that he had never been interested in food. No matter what kind of food he was faced with, all he wanted was to fill his stomach.

But at this time...

In fact, my main purpose was to understand clearly why two students with good conduct would fight over something like this, and it was not because of anything else.

Shen Yongan comforted himself in this way, and after making up his mind, he peeled off the rice dumpling leaves in no time.

This rice dumpling is made with candied dates, and its sweet scent instantly fills the air.

Shen Yongan put the rice dumpling into his mouth, and after a moment, he stood there in a daze.

He was a man of great learning and a vast library of books, but at this point, he didn't know what words to use to describe the taste of this rice dumpling.

All I know is that there is still a hint of glutinous rice aroma and candied dates sweetness lingering in my mouth, as well as the thought of "one more".

Uh……

Suddenly I wanted to ask Zhang Mingyi and Fan Pingyang where these rice dumplings came from.

But he couldn't ask, he absolutely couldn't ask.

But, will I still be able to eat this rice dumpling in the future?
When Shen Yongan came out from the gatehouse, he looked a little depressed.

"What's wrong with Master Shen?" Dai Changnian couldn't help but sigh when he saw Shen Yongan's look. "Master Shen must be worried about how to teach his students."

Dai Changnian is also a teacher in the county school. He is older than Shen Yongan. The two were fellow Jinshi in the same year and are now both in the county school, so they have a deep friendship.

Shen Yongan came back to his senses, his eyelids drooped a little to cover up the panic in his heart, and said, "Just now, two students were fighting over the rice dumplings, and I scolded them a few words..."

Fighting for rice dumplings?

Dai Changnian's face was even angrier than Shen Yongan's just now. "This is so unbecoming, he deserves to be punished! I always say that studying is very similar to the practice of monks. Although we cannot be as pure as monks and see through the affairs of the world, we should not be disturbed by many worldly things."

"Especially the desire for food, which is something that needs to be controlled. Diseases come from the mouth, and disasters come from the mouth. The desire for food is the most important thing, and we should not let ourselves be driven by it. For a zongzi..."

"How abominable! Not to mention that I don't know where Su Ri's books are, this person is also very useless. How can a zongzi be so delicious? Is it necessary to think about it like this?"

Shen Yongan, "..."

Why does it feel like I'm scolding him?

"Ahem!" Shen Yongan bowed, "I haven't reviewed the essays written by the students yesterday yet, so I'll take my leave now."

"Master Shen, take care." Dai Changnian watched Shen Yongan leave, stretched out his hand to twirl his beard, and nodded approvingly several times.

When it comes to devoting oneself to academic research and teaching students wholeheartedly, it has to be Master Shen. His diligence is truly admirable.

Moreover, Master Shen, like him, was most annoyed by students' behavior of losing track of reason because of their desire for food and drink. He was worthy of being the one who passed the imperial examination in the same year as him, and even more worthy of being the one who worked in the county school like him.

This is what a soulmate is.

When Dai Changnian thought of this, the smile on his face became even wider.
-
When Xia Mingyue got home with the document, Jiang Zhuguo and Lu were still busy.

The bamboos had been delivered by the young man and were piled in the yard.

Xia Mingyue examined it carefully and found that the bamboo was of good quality and had just been cut down, so it was very fresh and the size and thickness were just as she required.

"The person who sent the bamboo said that if you think the bamboo is useful and want to use it again, you can go to the street to find him. He has been selling rice dumpling leaves there recently."

Jiang Zhuguo relayed the young man's original words and asked in surprise, "What did Sister Xia buy these bamboos for?"

"Making rice dumplings." Xia Mingyue replied with a smile.

Make zongzi?
This time, not only Jiang Zhuguo, but even Mrs. Lu was stunned for a moment, "Make zongzi? Use this bamboo?" I have heard that some people use bamboo leaves to make zongzi in the past, but bamboo leaves are narrow and small, which makes it very difficult to wrap them, and they taste so-so, so no one made them anymore.

Now Xia Mingyue wants to use bamboo to make rice dumplings?

But how do you wrap rice dumplings with this bamboo?
Do we have to slice all the bamboo into strips, then weave them into the shape of a rice dumpling like a basket, and then put the glutinous rice in it?

Wouldn't this be too much trouble...

However, since Xia Mingyue wanted to use bamboo to wrap the rice dumplings, she probably had her own ideas and reasons. They didn't have to think too much about it and just did what she was told.

With this idea in mind, Jiang Zhuguo and Lu started to pick up the bamboos with Xia Mingyue.

The first step is to saw the bamboo along the nodes.

For this purpose, Lu specially borrowed a wood saw used by carpenters.

Bamboo is hollow and is much easier to saw than solid wood. The three people took turns doing this job, and it didn't take too much effort to saw all the bamboos into small pieces.

In theory, the sawed bamboo tubes can be cleaned directly.

However, in order to make it easier to demould the cooked rice dumplings without sticking, and to ensure that the bamboo tubes can be fully cleaned and reused later, Xia Mingyue split each small bamboo tube from the top, dividing the entire bamboo tube into two.

It takes a certain amount of skill to split a bamboo tube. The hatchet must be steady, accurate and ruthless, and it must hit exactly halfway.

This is much more troublesome and laborious than sawing bamboo tubes, and it is easy to split the bamboo tubes if you are not careful. Xia Mingyue and the other two broke several bamboo tubes in succession before they slowly mastered the technique and successfully split the remaining bamboo tubes.

Wash clean and steam to sterilize.

Soak glutinous rice and prepare the side dishes.

On the next morning, Xia Mingyue began to tie up the bamboo tubes with small cloth strips, poured the soaked glutinous rice, cut candied dates or crushed bean paste into the bamboo tubes, compacted them, and stuffed them with a wooden stopper to seal them.

Put it in the pot as you normally would when cooking rice dumplings and start steaming over high heat.

Soon, the aroma and steam floated out from the stove and penetrated into people's nostrils.

"The smell of the rice dumplings is a little different from yesterday." Zhao Dahu, who was burning the fire, sighed while sniffing.

"What's the difference?" Xia Mingyue, who was making pancakes on another stove, asked with a smile.

"I can't explain it, but it just feels different." Zhao Dahu grinned, "It seems to be more fragrant."

Xia Mingyue also sniffed twice.

Indeed, the fragrance is stronger than yesterday's rice dumplings.

Moreover, the fragrance of bamboo is longer-lasting than that of reed leaves, and has a unique sweet scent.

If the aroma is so pleasant, it is enough to prove that the taste of bamboo tube rice dumplings will be better than ordinary rice dumplings.

The taste of the bamboo tube rice dumplings after they were officially out of the pot also confirmed Xia Mingyue's initial guess.

The rice dumplings are still soft, glutinous and sweet. After absorbing the bamboo fragrance of the bamboo tube itself, the rice dumplings become more fragrant and add to the wonderful taste of the rice dumplings.

“It’s even more delicious than yesterday’s rice dumplings.”

"Yes, after eating it, it feels like your mouth is full of the fragrance of bamboo."

"This is exactly the same scent I smelled when I was running in the bamboo forest!"

　Thanks to Kusakabe Maru for the reward, thanks to book friends 160302042211870, Muxue Qiufeng, book friends 160607225447373, and Weisuan Hard Candy for the monthly tickets, and thank you for the support of the little cuties~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)