Reborn under the White Mountain

Chapter 12 Making Sauce
Early the next morning, Dalang and Tong Yunsong went to the field to collect corn roots. When the fields were harvested in autumn, the corn stalks were cut down and taken back. The shaved corn roots are piled together and burned with fire.Xiao Si Xiao Wu and Yu Xian helped Fang make the sauce at home. Fang scooped out about [-] catties of soybeans and dusted them with a dustpan.Then ask Xiaosi Xiaowu and Yuxian to help pick out some bean stalks, bean pod skins and so on.There are many Tong family members, and there is not enough sauce to cook. People in the Northeast cannot live without miso.It took Yuxian three to choose for half an hour before finishing, and then Xiaosi helped to light the fire, and Fang wanted to fry soybeans.Some people do not stir-fry the soybeans when they make the sauce, but cook them directly. If the fried beans are cooked again, the color of the sauce will be better.Stir-fried soy beans need to be turned over a slow fire, or they will become mushy. Xiaosi watched the fire and kept the fire from getting too hot. Fang's stir-fried soybeans. "Xiao Wu, you and Yuxian are going to help your mother cut a schisandra vine. There is a schisandra vine behind our yard."

"Hey, mother, let's go now." Xiaowu and Yuxian took the sickle together, walked around the back of the house, found Schisandra vine and cut off a large section.

The beans had been fried until they slowly changed color. Fang felt that the color was good, so he took out the beans.Thirty catties of soybeans were to be fried in two pots. When the pot was finished, some others were poured into the pot until all the soybeans were fried. Then Fang went into the room and took the sauce primer from the shelf above the door.This sauce primer is fried with coarse cornmeal in February. The fried cornmeal is hot and water is added, and the liveness is moderately dry and wet, and then formed into balls with the size of two bowls.After the dumpling is cold, put it on a shelf covered with bean straw, and then spread thick bean straw on top of the dumpling.After the dumplings are fermented, red and green hairs will grow, and red hairs are the best.Fang took down the sauce primers, poured a basin of water, broke off the sauce primers one by one, and cleaned the hairs inside with a brush.This is a delicate job, if the brush is not clean, the resulting sauce will have a musty smell.

It was noon just after Jiang Yinzi finished brushing halfway.All the people who worked in the field came back. It was Mrs. Zhou who cooked the meal today, but she still didn't do it well.Mr. Tong is not happy: "Why is it this time, the meal is not ready yet, the work in the field is waiting, eat early and work early."

The old lady came out of the house, "Daughter-in-law, why is the meal not ready yet? Letting you make such a little sauce will delay lunch, what else can you do?" No matter who cooks the meal, it is a meal explain.

"Grandma, it's not my mother who cooks today. It's the third aunt's turn. Why are you talking about my mother?" Yuxian didn't care about that, and asked Old Madam Tong directly.

Qin was stunned, "It's not that your mother can't help with cooking? Your third aunt still has a baby, and Junqi has been feeling unwell for the past two days, so she can't let go. What am I talking to you little girl? , don’t hurry to help?”

"Mom, let's not go. You haven't been idle this morning. Even we are helping out? The third aunt looks after the children. What about sister Yuyan? Sister Yuyan is eight years old this year. My fifth brother can do it." Helping with the fire, how about her? Why doesn't she help with the cooking? Besides, Junqi is always in front of grandma, how can my third aunt look after the child?" Yuxian's small mouth is not forgiving, don't look at her small, Speak clearly.

"You're a dead girl, you can't stop talking, boss, daughter-in-law, you will teach such a daughter to talk back to the elders." The old lady let Yuxian take the blame, so she had to vent her anger on Fang.

"Mom, whoever should do the cooking has to do the cooking. In the past, when the children and their mothers took turns cooking, they didn't see anyone who would help them. So let's eat later, just to take a break. Dalang and the others are still young! I'm tired enough in the morning." Tong Yunsong couldn't see it, and helped his wife speak.

Mrs. Qin wanted to say something else, but the old man said: "What are you arguing about? Is there anything wrong with it? The third child hastened to see your wife, and the old family and the second child's family also extended a hand to do it quickly. Let's eat. I ate early in the morning, and I'm hungry now."

Fang got up and went into the house to help. After a while, the food was ready.Everyone sat down to eat, and Yuyan came out from the south room of the east wing. She was wearing a pink top, blue trousers, double buns on her hair, and two silk flowers.

"Feelings have combed their hair this morning." Yuxian said when she saw that she was in such a state, her voice was not loud, but everyone in the room could hear it.

"Girl Yan, I will help your mother in the future. Your mother will coax your younger brother. You are not too young, so don't keep fiddling with your head all day." When Qin Shi heard what Yuxian said, she turned her head and said a few words to Yuyan. .The whole family knows that Yuyan loves beauty the most. She combs her hair for several hours every day, and if she is not satisfied, she takes it apart and combs her hair again until she is satisfied. "There are so many people in the family, why do I have to help cook?" Yu Yan muttered dissatisfied.

"It's a rule set by grandma that each room takes turns to cook. Now my uncle has not married my aunt. When I have my aunt, I will have to work in four rooms in shifts. No one can change this. The third aunt is too busy. , you have to help. In the past, when my mother cooked, my brother also helped." Yuxian said while eating, "Don't think that it is like today. If you can't cook, you still need my mother to help. Today If grandpa hadn't said to grab the spring plowing, whoever is willing to move would go, and don't look for us." Want to take advantage and not work?no way!
"Can't you keep your mouth shut when eating? Why don't you eat quickly, you have to work after eating." Qin Shi gave Yuxian a glare.

After the family finished their meal, Fang continued to brush the sauce primer, and Yuxian dragged the fourth and fifth brothers to accompany them to dig for the mother-of-pearl.I saw a lot of Fritillaria in the forest yesterday, so I have to dig them out when I have time, and try selling them at a pharmacy when they are dry.

"Little sister, do you think this thing can really be sold for money?" Xiao Wu asked Yuxian while digging.

"Fifth brother, this should be sold, so let's dig out the white peas in the ground, don't want the leaves, go back and wash it and dry it in the sun. Let's go to the town to try it when brother is free someday." Yuxian followed Behind Xiaosi, Xiaosi digs out the mother-of-pearl, and she picks it up in a basket.The mother-of-pearl here is really big, and some of them are nearly an inch in diameter. Yuxian can't help but sigh that the original ecology that has not been developed is good. "Besides, this stuff is good for coughing and coughing. Didn't you still cough a few days ago? Let your mother stew some Fritillaria with rock sugar for you at night. Drink it a few times and you'll be fine."

The three hands were very nimble, and within an hour, they dug half of the basket. "Fourth brother and fifth brother, let's get these today, and pick a few handfuls of big leaf celery. It's not bad to boil it in water and eat it at night." Some dishes will be different when I go back. I'm doing business.

Xiao Si and Xiao Wu also understood that the three of them picked a few more bundles of celery and went home. When they got home, Fang had already brushed the sauce primer and put it aside.I was about to put the fried beans into the pot, because the beans were fried in the pot of Shangfang in the morning, and the beans could not be used in the pot of Shangfang.I still have to cook at night, and I have to burn too many kangs to get too hot, so the beans are in the pot in the west wing room where my uncle lives.

Fang poured all the beans into the pot, found some peas and put them in, and then put in the schisandra vines that Yuxian and the others cut in the morning, and another kind of grass, which was Artemisia catnip collected last year. It is Huoxiang.After boiling the pot, the scent of schisandra and cat's artemisia floated out.

"Mother, it smells so good." Yuxian sniffed, the natural fragrance smelled very good.

"Yeah, Schisandra is also called Shanhuajiao. Sometimes there is no seasoning in cooking, and it tastes good if you put it in. That's why mother's sauce is delicious. Your grandma and aunt only know it's delicious, but the sauce maker At that time, they never helped, so I don’t know what’s going on.” Fang said with a smile, “This was told to me by an old man in the village before my mother was married.” Fang told Xiaosihuo Don't be in a hurry, you have to simmer slowly on a low fire, so that the beans can eat all the flavor.

Yuxian sent the celery to the kitchen of the upper room. No matter who cooks, a variety of vegetables is also good, and this season is wild vegetables.Back in the West Wing, I washed the Fritillaria in the basket with water, and dumped them into a broken dustpan outside.I grabbed a handful and looked for Fang, "Mother, give me some rock sugar to stew some fritillary for the fourth brother, the fourth brother has a cough."

Fang went back to the house to get some rock sugar, and found a pot to stew the fritillary. "Yuxian, where did you get the mother-of-pearl?" Fang talked to her daughter while working.

"Mother, I dug it when I went to pick celery just now." Yuxian replied. "We dug a lot, and these fritillaria are quite big."

"We Yuxian actually know Fritillaria, how did you know it? How do you know it can cure cough?" Fang was a little curious.

"Mom, don't we have a medical book at home? It's on it, I can understand that book. If you don't know a word, ask brother." There is indeed a book of Tang Materia Medica at home. It was the bookshelf of my uncle when I went back to my mother's house last year The little uncle didn't know where the book came from, so he gave it to Yuxian after seeing that she liked it.

"Our Yuxian is really good. She can even understand medical books." Fang didn't doubt it too much. Yuxian was smart since she was a child. Teaching her to read is very simple, and she can memorize it a few times.Although several children failed to go to school, they all knew a lot of words. It was not surprising that Yuxian could understand medical books.

The mothers chatted, and the fritillaria was ready. Fang put rock sugar into the fritillary water, and gave it to Xiao Si to drink in the evening.After a while, the beans were almost ready, so I stopped the fire, opened the lid, and let the beans cool down slowly.Wait until tomorrow to push out the beans and soaked sauce primers with a grinder, then add salt, and the sauce will be ready.

It was getting late at this time, and all the people who had been working in the fields had returned.Mrs. Fang hurriedly fetched water for Master Tong Yunsong and asked them to wash it. The job of digging the roots of corn is the dirtiest.The masters washed their hands and faces, changed their clothes, and the food in the kitchen was ready.Dinner was corn porridge, corn pancakes, and nothing else, just a handful of newly sprouted shallots, a bowl of miso, and celery mixed with it.Blanch the celery with water and cut it, add some chopped green onion, and mix with some salt, it is also very delicious.

More than two quarters of an hour after eating, Yuxian stared at Xiao Si and drank the mother-of-pearl rock sugar water, and then everyone went to bed.

(End of this chapter)