Chapter 323 Rushing into the stone and making rice cakes
When they were about to go back, Chen Ze and Ding Yi came up with the idea of Zhang An’s new tofu and mutton.
They focused on the mutton when it was slaughtered just now.
And this tofu, when we ate just now, the fried tofu with green onions was absolutely amazing, I definitely can’t let it go.
Of course, they left the two deer hind legs confiscated by Mr. Huang to Zhang An’s family.
"Then I'll find something to cut off for you."
Even if Zhang An had arrived early, they would definitely experience something like this when they came over.
Because these two bandits have become accustomed to raiding their homes.
So when Zhang An soaked the beans, he soaked a few more beans and slaughtered two of the sheep.
As long as these two people come over, they will definitely be successful.
The two people who got the things happily drove on the road.
It gets dark relatively early now, and they have to rush back, so they don’t stay for dinner.
The remaining two days of the old year passed by in a blink of an eye, and it was the twenty-ninth day of the new year.
As in previous years, the sky is still gloomy.
Anyway, Zhang An has not seen the sun rise during the Chinese New Year for many years.
A few days ago, the sun was out for two days, but today it has returned to its original state.
Today is different from the past. Wang Fang did not make breakfast.
I got up, packed up the stove and the stove, and started to put on the big steamer to steam the glutinous rice.
Then I cut some tofu, minced meat and chives, because I would fry the stuffing to wrap the rice cakes later.
There are two kinds of fillings, one is salty, which is what Wang Fang is preparing now.
The other one is sweet, with a sugar filling made of brown sugar and basil, which is the seeds of perilla.
After Zhang An got up, he casually moved around in the yard and played two sets of punches.
Then together with Zhang Jianguo, we took the big stone bucket used for making rice cakes at home to the yard to clean it.
Even though this thing is less than one meter in length, width and height, it is extremely heavy, weighing several hundred kilograms.
Usually one person can’t lift it at all and has to push it around.
Even though Zhang An was so strong, it still felt a little laborious to lift it up.
Although after using it last year, Wang Fang carefully cleaned it and put it away.
But after leaving it for a year, there was still a lot of dust inside.
Clear water would most likely not wash it clean, so Wang Fang poured a large basin of boiling water into it and soaked it first.
In addition to the stone buckets, there are also two dada sticks that need to be soaked together and cleaned later.
People in the mountains call rice cakes "Baba", and making rice cakes is called "Chongbaba".
So the two big sticks used to make dada are naturally called dada sticks.
There are several kinds of dada sticks even in the village.
Most Han villagers use a wooden stick as thick as a forearm.
The end of the hand is nailed to a wooden tip that is out of reach to generate strength.
When you want to make rice cakes, just hold the pestle into the stone pestle.
Other ethnic minorities are different. They use half-sized trees to cut down directly.
Then make it into a right-angled shape. When making rice cakes, just carry it and dig into the stone. Don't be too aggressive.
"Xiao An is cleaning the stone pestle nest. Let's take some of our daddy's stuff from your house to wash it down."
While Zhang An was cleaning the stone pestle, many neighbors nearby came to wash it. Come and say hello.
As he spoke, he followed Zhang An to pick up the daddy stick next to him and wash it.
"Just carry it here. You go back and do your work quickly, and I will wash it myself."
There are many people making rice cakes at Zhang An's house this year, including Zhang An's two uncles. , and then next to Li Hongbin’s house.
Then there are some families who are relatively close and don’t have stone buckets at home.
Generally, if there is no stone pei at home, they will bring steamed glutinous rice here. They just borrow the stone pei and make it at home.
There are also a few cases where there are no young people at home, only the elderly at home.
The kind of young people who ask neighbors to help do it, after all, it is impossible to let the old man and the old lady who are in their 60s and 70s do it themselves.
Not to mention that it doesn’t sound good if it’s spread out, even people with a slightly normal relationship can’t stand it.
Who doesn’t have an old man in his family? Who doesn’t have an old man in his family?
"Zhang An, you can't wash the bamboo bed well. I want to steam the glutinous rice."
When Li Hongbin was about to steam the glutinous rice, he came over to see if Zhang An's stone pei had been washed.
“It takes a long time to wash the steamer. My house is almost steamed, and you old god hasn’t even used the steamer yet.”
“Why don’t you panic? Do it slowly. Anyway, now It’s still early.”
The old fairy went home unhurriedly and poured the glutinous rice into the steamer to steam.
When he came back, he found that Zhang An’s glutinous rice had been steamed.
At this moment, Zhang An had already taken out the steamer and poured it into the stone bucket.
"Uncle, let me come. You old people can rest, and Zhang An and I can make rice cakes together."
I saw Zhang Jianguo picking up a rice cake stick and wanting to make rice cakes with Zhang An.
Li Hongbin took off his coat and walked over and said, taking the papa stick from Zhang Jianguo's hand.
"Okay, then let you young people come. If you can't rush, then we will come."
Zhang Jianguo was not polite and said that it was time for them to take a rest after being angry for decades.
Then Zhang An and Li Hongbin rushed into the stone with their sticks. You went up and I went down, you rose and I fell, you came and I went.
Always use the thickest end of the wooden stick to grind the glutinous rice in the stone.
The whole process is not completed until the grains of glutinous rice in the stone are mashed and glued together.
In the middle of the process, you have to lift up the semi-finished product inside, turn it over and continue washing.
This activity can be said to require strength and endurance.
If the glutinous rice is soaked well, it may be ready in more than ten minutes.
But if the glutinous rice is not good, or the soaking time is not long enough, it will be different.
Even if this kind of glutinous rice is steamed, it is very difficult to prepare and takes a lot of time. People who prepare rice cakes will suffer.
In the past, Li Hongbin’s family always brought his two elders to the town to celebrate the New Year, and there was no custom of making rice cakes at home.
This year, as the family settled down in Changqing, they naturally began to pick up these customs.
Looking at his biological father and godfather, the two adults were beating them back and forth among the rocks with two big sticks.
Little Li Yao was a little confused and asked curiously, tilting his head.
"Dad, what are you doing? Why are you and your godfather fighting?"
He thought Zhang An and Li Hongbin were fighting, because when they were children fighting, I just like to take things.
"We are playing with daddy, not fighting. You lean over and stand still, don't be here, you will be hit later."
Looking at his son who has come over, Li Hongbin As he spoke, he pushed him away.
There is a blind spot behind him, and he cannot see the child standing behind him.
You may accidentally bump the pestle when you lift it later, which will hurt. "Oh, then why do you want to hit daddy? Isn't it disobedient?"
There are hundreds of thousands of whys in my little head.
"The daddy is the daddy you eat. Why are you asking so many questions? Just go and play."
Li Hongbin was already very tired, and there were beads of sweat on his face.
Li Yao even came over to ask questions, but he was coaxed away without politeness.
Making rice cakes is a laborious job, even if the farmers come, it is not easy.
Especially for someone like Li Hongbin, who hasn’t done any hard work for a long time and doesn’t have much physical endurance.
The scene of the two fathers being kind and filial made everyone around them laugh.
"Okay Hongbin, I'll rush in for a while while you rest."
Seeing Li Hongbin who was sweating profusely, Zhang Jianguo came over to take a breather.
If he had to keep pushing to the end, he probably wouldn’t be able to do anything today.
"This job is really tiring. I haven't done it for many years and I can't get any further."
Li Hongbin did not persist because it was too tiring.
"I said it's time for you to exercise. You look like this. No wonder you get scolded by me, Sister Lan, every day."
Looking at the panting Li Hongbin, Zhang An looked like he was doing nothing. They were just like people, but they were still talking and playing around.
"You can pull me down. I really think everyone is like an animal like you."
Li Hongbin ignored this.
"I'm telling you the truth, if you don't pay attention, you will regret it in a few years."
"The body is just like a machine. It will wear out if you don't use it for a long time." It’s rusty. If it rusts for a long time, it will break down.”
Exercise this thing cannot be too excessive, but it cannot be lacking, as long as the activity of the body is maintained.
"Okay, I've already flushed. Bring the dustpan over."
After ten minutes of brewing, the glutinous rice was beaten into rice cakes.
Wang Fang heard Zhang Jianguo's voice and came out of the house with a dustpan to pick up the rice cakes.
A layer of flour is sprinkled on the dustpan. This is to prevent the rice cake from sticking to the dustpan, making it impossible to remove it and making it difficult to clean.
Bringing it to the main room, Wang Fang first took a few bowls and twisted a few bowls out.
According to the rules, you must first worship the Bodhisattva of Heaven and Earth and your ancestors.
Only after they have eaten, their family members can take action.
After the offering was finished, Wang Fang began to wrap the pies, and then greeted everyone in the yard to eat rice cakes.
This is the reason why we don’t make breakfast in the morning, because after making rice cakes, we have to eat rice cakes.
And after eating this rice cake, I stopped cooking at noon and started preparing for the New Year’s Eve dinner.
Although it is the New Year’s Eve dinner, everyone will eat it very early. Usually after three or four o’clock, some people will start to have the New Year’s Eve dinner.
Although Wang Fang warmly invited everyone to eat rice cakes, most people politely declined or just ate some.
Because the people in the yard will be making rice cakes at home later.
"Xiao An, if your family has finished washing, help me to wash the steamer."
After Zhang An's family finished cooking, Grandma Li's family at the entrance of the village came over with a steamer. .
There are only two elderly people and three grandsons at home, while their son and daughter-in-law are all working outside.
So when making rice cakes, they have to steam them early, when there are many people, so that they can ask for help.
Otherwise, it would be inconvenient for everyone to get ready later and go back home to get busy with things, so it would be inconvenient to invite people over.
It’s not that it’s hard to invite people, and people who are invited will not fail to come, but it’s just not a good idea to let people put down their busy work.
"Grandma Li, hurry up and bring it over. I'll wash this bucket."
After saying that, Zhang An came out with a bucket of water and washed the rice cakes that had just been washed. Usui washed up.
After you have just washed a pot of rice cakes, there will be a lot of glutinous rice cake left on the inner wall of the stone pot.
If you don’t clean it, the effect of the glutinous rice coming out of the next steamer will be compromised, and it will also be laborious to wash.
But there is no need to wash it too clean. Just scrub it with clean water to remove the remaining stickiness.
After a while, Grandma Li came over carrying a steamer of steaming glutinous rice.
“Oh, Grandma Li’s family is going to do so much this year.”
This steamer is not small, it can hold more than ten or twenty kilograms of glutinous rice at least.
If it weren’t for the big stone in Zhang An’s house, I wouldn’t be able to finish the game in one go and score twice.
“Anzi, Grandma Li’s family needs twenty kilograms of glutinous rice every year, and it hasn’t changed for so many years.”
“Haha, there are many people in our family who like to eat it, so we might as well just Just make more and put it away, it will be convenient when you are busy.”
Grandma Li doesn’t think it’s a big deal. In the past, the thinking of her generation was that whoever made more rice cakes during the New Year was a good family.
Because at that time, when there was not enough food to eat, everyone ate corn rice mixed with rice, and some families could only eat corn rice.
So at that time, it was really a big deal if any family could make twenty kilograms of glutinous rice rice cakes. After all, not many families had enough food to spare.
"Uncle Li, please don't do anything. Let us young people practice, and we can't let you older generations go to the battlefield."
Seeing Uncle Li pick up Dad, Dad, wanted to rush with him, so Zhang An said something.
Uncle Li is relatively old, almost seventy. It is impossible for Zhang An to watch him do it.
The young man next to him, without being shouted at, took the initiative to take the daddy stick from the old man's hand, and started to confront Zhang An.
The more glutinous rice you make, the longer it will take. Although Zhang An doesn’t feel tired yet.
But there have been two people on the opposite side, and all of them are very tired.
If it were a little less, about ten kilograms, they could still insist on finishing it.
But these twenty kilograms of glutinous rice and stone buckets are almost full, and I can’t even see the end of it.
So when everyone feels tired, they take the initiative to call for substitutions.
No one will laugh, because it is indeed too much, and most people really can’t finish it.
Of course, except for Zhang An, this person is only sweating a little bit now.
After rinsing for more than half an hour, with constant substitutions, I finally finished rinsing Grandma Li’s sticky rice retort.
At this point, Zhang An stopped working and ignored the families behind him, including the families of Zhang An's two uncles.
"Mom, help me catch two chickens and ducks. I will take them to the city in a while."
Zhu Yuliang's family asked for one rooster, hen and duck, and then I also asked for a few fish.
Zhang An ate a few pieces of rice cake to fill his stomach, then chopped some vegetables, and the tea that Lao Zhu was thinking about.
"Where are Anzi going?"
"Grandma Li, go to the city to pick up my parents and they are coming to celebrate the New Year together. I want to give something to a friend on the way."
Grandma Li nodded. She knew that Zhang An was talking about the father-in-law and mother-in-law in the city.
After getting ready to work together, Zhang An drove out in his car.
There are a lot more vehicles traveling along the way, and you don’t usually see such traffic at all.
It is probably because of the Chinese New Year, so many people have to rush back to their hometowns today to celebrate the New Year.
(End of this chapter)