Volume 1 Chapter 0032: New Year's flavor, grinding tofu
"Dad, I'm hungry."
"There are some snacks on the table. Eat some first. The Kitchen God is eating. Don't disturb him. He will give us food after he finishes eating."
"Um, Dad, do you want a snack?"
"Please get me some glutinous rice sticks and a bag of sesame candy."
The little girl ran to the table, climbed onto the stool, picked up the kettle, poured two cups of tea, opened the wrapping paper of the cakes one by one, grabbed a little from each and stuffed it into her pocket, then wrapped the cakes again.
He put the two cups of tea on another stool first, then jumped down from the stool and walked back to Nan Yi holding the two cups of tea, "Dad, this is for you."
"Yeah, good boy."
Nan Yi took the teacup and placed it on a low stool beside him. He fished out two pieces of dried bamboo shoots from the bucket beside him and sandwiched them between a bamboo that was more than one meter long and about forty centimeters long and split in half.
Only a centimeter of the bamboo shoots are exposed outside the bamboo, and then the two halves are tied together with a rope. One end of the bamboo shoot is poked into the ground, and the other end is pressed against the chest. A small plane is held in the hand, and the bamboo shoots are scraped one by one.
The dried bamboo shoots were shaved into slices similar to those of shabu-shabu mutton and fell from the bamboo, right into a wooden basin below.
After all the bamboo shoots exposed have been peeled, untie the rope on the bamboo, push the bamboo shoots outwards a little, tie them up tightly, and continue peeling.
The thin slices shaved are called bamboo shoots. They taste very good after being fried. The taste is completely different from the bamboo shoots slices cut with a kitchen knife.
People who eat it for the first time will only think that it tastes good and will never associate it with the fact that bamboo shoots are actually made of bamboo shoots.
Peeling bamboo shoots is a laborious process that requires certain skills, otherwise the bamboo shoots will be of varying thicknesses and will not taste very good.
The little girl took a few bites of glutinous rice noodles and a piece of lotus cake, picked up the teacup and took a sip, smacked her lips, and then went on to eat other snacks.
The little eyes followed the plane in Nan Yi's hand, as if full of interest.
"Dad, are you tired? Can I try?"
"No, it's good to be brave enough to try, but you have to do it within your ability. Planing bamboo shoots looks simple, but it actually requires skills. You are still too young to show your abilities."
"Oh, is that so?"
"That's it. Eat less snacks. They're all sweet and can cause tooth decay."
"But I'm not full yet."
"Then go get some fried rice."
"Dad, fried rice doesn't taste good without sugar."
"You're so clever, you're still picky about food. Never mind, it's a festival now, so I'll show mercy and let you continue to eat snacks."
"Hehehe, Dad, you are so nice."
The little girl giggled and continued eating her snack.
After the bamboo shoots were peeled, Nan Yi thought it was about time for the Kitchen God to enjoy his offering.
He packed up his things, walked to the stove, picked up a bowl of wine and poured it on the ground, bowed to the Kitchen God again, then poured the remaining two cups of wine back into the wine pot, put the other offerings into the food box, and left only two bowls of glutinous rice balls.
"There are twelve dumplings in total, six sweet and six salty. How many sweet and how many salty do you want?"
"Two sweet ones and one salty one." Nan Ruoyin said after thinking for a while.
"Take it."
Nan Yi poured out the two bowls of glutinous rice balls and handed the smaller bowl to Nan Ruoyin.
Gulp, gulp, the two of them ate the dumplings, and Nan Yi's stomach was about 70% full. Later, he would take down the old statue of the Kitchen God, and put a new one in the shrine on New Year's Eve.
The 24th is the day to sweep the house.
Two people, one big and one small, cleaned the entire house and washed everything that needed to be taken apart and washed.
Twenty-five, grinding tofu.
Today is the day when the Jade Emperor comes to the human world in disguise after listening to the report from the Kitchen God.
In order to help the Kitchen God hide the truth, every household would eat tofu dregs to show their thriftiness.
Before dawn, Nan Yi woke Nan Ruoyin up.
The beans that were soaked yesterday have swelled and have enough moisture to be ground.
Carrying the beans to the brigade's mill, Nan Yi pushed the mill himself while Nan Ruoyin was responsible for adding beans. In just an hour or so, the beans were ground into a white paste.
Carry the bucket home and filter the white paste with a gauze bag first. What remains in the gauze bag is tofu dregs, and what flows out is tofu water.
Put 80% of water in a large iron pot on the stove, boil it, and pour the filtered water into the pot.
Stir slowly to allow it to heat evenly.
As time passed, the water in the pot turned milky white. When the water in the pot began to boil again, Nan Yi took out a bowl, put some soy sauce and chopped green onions in the bowl, and scooped out soy milk from the pot.
"Take this and drink it."
Nan Ruoyin, who was sitting there making a fire, took the bowl, blew on it and took a sip , "It's so delicious, Dad. It's better than the soy milk in Beijing."
"Of course. The ones sold outside are diluted with water. How can they be as delicate as the ones my dad makes?"
As he spoke, Nan Yi opened another jar and poured some of the slightly turbid juice from the jar into a bowl. When it was almost enough, he stopped.
Grab the bowl and pour the juice into the pot little by little, stirring as you pour.
As the juice is poured into the pot, the soy milk begins to solidify and turns into lumps of tofu pudding, also known as bean curd.
At this time, Nan Yi scooped himself a bowl of tofu pudding and drank it directly without adding anything.
"Yeah, that's the taste!" Nan Yi exclaimed comfortably.
"Dad, it tastes good?"
The little girl has finished her soy milk and is now thinking about tofu pudding.
"It's definitely not tasty for you. It tastes a bit like soy milk."
The tofu pudding that has been seasoned with salt tastes a bit pungent and sour, not as pure as soy milk.
If the tofu pudding sold outside is made with brine, since it is not used to make the final tofu, the brine will be very little and it will not taste sour.
Sour taste is actually an illusion. To be more precise, it should be bitter taste.
"Oh, what a pity! It's such a good pot of soy milk."
"You are a little smart kid. Take out a few pieces of wood so the fire can be a little smaller."
"oh."
As the heat decreases, the fat and protein in the pot begin to rise and then slowly solidify.
The condensed substance is rotten skin.
Nan Yi took out a piece of straw that had been cleaned in advance and passed it under the rotten clothes. Holding the two ends of the straw, he lifted a piece of rotten clothes out of the pot and hung it on a rope that had been prepared in advance.
I kept picking more than a dozen pieces until the rotten skin stopped condensing in the pot. It was time to remove the fish from the pot, otherwise it would be overcooked.
A simple rack was built with a few stools, and Nan Ruoyin was asked to hold up a large bag made of gauze with her hands. Nan Yi used a ladle to scoop the tofu pudding into the gauze bag one spoonful at a time.
The tofu pudding will remain in the gauze bag, and the water will be drained out and drip into the large basin under the rack; when the water in the pot is scooped clean, Nan Yi will pinch the mouth of the gauze bag tightly and press it up and down with the wooden lid to squeeze out more water.
When most of the water has been squeezed out, tie the bag tightly, put a chopping board under the pocket, put a wooden pot lid on the pocket, and put two small bluestone slabs on the pot lid to increase the squeezing force.
Press it for a while and wait for it to cool down, and the tofu will be formed.
The water that has just been drained will condense into loose tofu dregs again; thanks to the residual heat, the pot is already emitting a fragrant aroma, and there is a large tofu crust inside.
Use a spatula to scrape it off, then add some chili and garlic and stir-fry it. It will become a spicy fried tofu rice crust with unique flavor, which is a great dish to go with wine.
Add some egg white to the tofu dregs and stir-fry with chili peppers and garlic leaves. The taste is quite good. This dish can also be served in some restaurants in later generations.
The restaurant also gives this dish a humorous name - A Woman at Forty.
Women in their forties are like tofu dregs!
