Food starts with Mapo Tofu

Chapter 782
Finally the woman paid the money and left.

And Chen Nian asked curiously: "Brother Genzhu, what is this flower bun?"

Gao Genzhu looked at the puzzled Chen Nian and thought for a while, then explained: "In our place, we have to make flower buns during festivals or weddings and funerals. Some people make them themselves, and some people make them Get people like us to do it.

Basically, the steamed buns and noodle restaurants in our area will accept such business.

But I don’t know how to make this thing. In short, when making steamed buns, make various shapes, or make a particularly large steamed bun, and then knead the dough into a flower shape and insert it on it.

Sometimes I also make some red dates and the like for decoration. Of course, we can only make this kind of simpler one here, and some dexterous people can pinch an old birthday star or more complicated shapes. "

Chen Nian thought about it, and Gao Genzhu didn't have any idea just based on Gao Genzhu's words.

Gao Genzhu also saw Chen Nian's thoughts: "You probably don't know this specifically, but you will know when you do it later."

The steamed buns requested by the other party would not be used until a few days later, so they were not in a hurry to make them. They waited until two days later, when the business was over at noon and the kitchen was tidied up. Take it out and wash it, and the cage cloth inside must also be washed clean.

After entering the north room, Chen Nian immediately saw the large steamers placed high above.

After cleaning them according to the requirements of the tall pillars, put them on the table in the yard for later use.

Then Gao Genzhu began to knead.

Add a lot of flour to the large plate, and put some yeast, and then stir them evenly, then cover it directly, and put it aside for later use.

Chen Nian noticed that the noodles Gao Genzhu used were the best white noodles at home, so he thought to himself why the charge was so high, ten steamed buns cost one hundred Wen.

The noodles used are the best noodles, and such a steamed bun can make seven or eight steamed buns.

It's just that after reconciling the noodles, Gao Genzhu put the noodles aside and stayed awake.

Finally, he started to extract the juice from some vegetables at home.

Spinach is used for the green, purple potatoes are used for the purple, and pumpkin and cornmeal are used for the yellow.

Then the juices of different colors are extracted and fused with each other to create blue and red.

Then set those colors aside as well.

At this time, Gao Genzhu began to deal with the ball of dough again.

At this time, the noodles have been preliminarily fermented, and Gao Genzhu began to add some warm water to knead with his hands.

After kneading it back and forth for at least eight times, the dough is already quite chewy.

"To make Huamo, you have to knead it like this, and press it right. If it's hard, it's not empty and it's easy to crack, but if it's soft, it's easy to deform." Gao Genzhu explained to Chen Nian after kneading the noodles. .

Looking at the kneaded dough, Chen Nian felt that it was a bit like the birthday peaches he made before. When making birthday peaches, the dough should not be too soft or too hard, otherwise it would be easy to crack as Gao Genzhu said Or it is not well shaped and collapses.

After the dough was finished, Gao Genzhu called Zhang Chuanfang and Chen Nian to shape it.

The husband and wife have taken on many such jobs before, so they are very proficient in this job, but they have never done it in old age, and now they can only do some simple flower patterns.

"Chen Nian, you should make flowers with your sister-in-law first, because there will be more flowers to be inserted at that time. This is not difficult. Just follow what your sister-in-law does."

Chen Nian nodded, and then imitated Zhang Chuanfang's movements and began to pinch the flowers.

After the old age has pinched the petals in a good way, and then combined the petals, the original loose noodles will become the shape of a flower.

"It's okay, Chen Nian, you really haven't done this before?" Zhang Chuanfang couldn't help admiring the flowers that Chen Nian pinched out.

"No, we don't have such a custom over there." Chen Nian shook his head.

"Then you did pretty well. It's not easy to do this for the first time, but you have learned this, and I will teach you to do other things."

Speaking of which, Zhang Chuanfang began to pinch other patterns.

This time, it is necessary to knead the noodles into long strips, and then combine them together. Old age can tell that it is a chrysanthemum.

So it was quickly imitated.

But Chen Nian is pinching here, and he has to look at Gao Genzhu's side from time to time. Compared with himself, Gao Genzhu's tricks are much more complicated.

First pull out many long strips or round dough, and then assemble these parts after finishing.

Not long after aging, I saw the prototype of a little lion.

After Gao Genzhu made the prototype, he used scissors to cut out the lion's hair, hands and feet.

"This is definitely a folk artist!" Chen Nian felt amazing.

"Brother Genzhu, I remember you just said that you are not the best craftsmen?"

"That's right." Gao Genzhu nodded, "We can only make some simple flowers and animals, and at most we can make dragons and phoenixes, which is the most complicated.

But some powerful people can pinch out the gods such as the old birthday star, Guan Gong, the God of Wealth, or the Jade Emperor, and the Queen Mother. "

"It's amazing, I want to see and see." Chen Nian couldn't help saying.

"Hahaha, there are plenty of opportunities. You will see them when the Chinese New Year comes. Don't you have a good relationship with Mr. Liu's family? When the time comes, you go to his house to see it, and that will be truly amazing!"

"Then I definitely have to open my eyes when the time comes." Chen Nian said immediately.

After being so busy all afternoon, they also made the flower buns that the other party wanted.

There are four flower-shaped buns in total, two little lions and a dragon and a phoenix.

"Should we steam it directly in the basket or..." Chen Nian asked again.

"It can't be steamed yet, so I have to put it away again." Gao Genzhu greeted Chen Nian to take the finished steamed buns back into the house and put them directly on the kang, and then took out a few wooden shelves from the north room, Cover these flower buns inside, and finally put the quilt directly on these shelves.

"Leaving it like this will make the face look weaker, and it will be soft when it is steamed, but it is a bit soft when it is steamed, and it will start to harden after a day or two. If you don't cover it like this, put it It is also easy to crack for a few days.

After all, this is a major event in the family, and if it breaks open, it would be unlucky. "

Chen Nian nodded, he didn't expect Gao Genzhu, an honest man, to be so dexterous.

"Brother Genzhu, I didn't expect that there are so many specialties in making flower buns."

"That must be paid attention to. People's life is not just these few important things, not only white and red things, but also different birthday banquets and festivals.

Although you can see that the flower buns that are made out of white things are also colorful, but if they do this on other people's red things, it is estimated that people will be beaten to death.

Peonies are mostly used for red affairs, but more chrysanthemums are used for white affairs, and the color and color combination are also different. When we are married, we use bright red and green, and there may be some dark green or green below. The crimson is on the top, and some brighter yellow and red can also be used as embellishments. The main highlight is auspicious and rich, and the dragon and phoenix bring good luck.

But in terms of funerals, it is more used for sacrifices, so the colors should not be so bright. Even if there are red, green, yellow and blue, they still need to be more plain.

Especially when making it, it is necessary to adjust the color well, otherwise the color of the steamed bun will become darker. "

Chen Nian nodded, keeping all these in his heart.

It was left like this until midnight before they started to get up and prepare to steam the steamed buns, after all, they had to use them the next day.

It is also the most suitable time to do it at night.

And Chen Nian also got up listening to the movement outside, ready to watch the final steps.

"One thing to pay attention to when steaming steamed buns is that you can't put the steamed buns in directly, you have to boil the water first and then put the steamer on.
The gas can only be raised layer by layer, and the big and small ones are steamed separately. Generally, we steam the big ones first, and then the small ones, mainly because the big ones are more laborious.

After steaming, seal the cage tightly, so as not to let the air escape from the middle, and then you can wait. "

"How long will it take? Brother Genzhu"

"I told you how long to steam. You don't need to remember this. Didn't there be air coming out of the top during steaming? When the steam starts to come out from the bottom, it means that the steamed bun is ready."

During this time, Chen Nian has been guarding here, even if Gao Genzhu asked him to go back to rest, Chen Nian just shook his head, because he wanted to see what the steps in the middle were like.

He can remember it after seeing it once.

It would be too bad if I missed something while I was resting, after all, I don't know how long I will have to wait for someone to come over to make a custom-made flower bun next time.

But Chen Nian is young and can endure it, while Gao Genzhu and Zhang Caifang can't bear it.

The two of them chose to stand by each other for a while.

Gao Genzhu kept watch in the first half of the night, and Zhang Chuanfang stayed in the second half of the night.

And Chen Nian sat on the pony, first chatting with Gao Genzhu, listening to Gao Genzhu talk about how other people's buns are like, and talk about their wedding and funeral customs.

For example, when a girl gets married at a girl's house, the man needs to send a piece of meat to the woman's house. This is called Li Niang meat, which means that the daughter is the meat that fell from the mother, and now she takes a piece of meat back.

Of course, this is just a formality. Afterwards, this piece of meat should be eaten or eaten.

For example, on the wedding day, you have to go around the outside of the village when you go, and take the normal road when you go back, separated by two, which is called not going back.

Also, when the man's family goes to the woman's house to get married, the woman's family must prepare a pair of red chopsticks and a pair of red bowls in advance, and then the man's family who goes to marry will "steal" them back.

Chen Nian listened with gusto.

But after hearing Gao Genzhu start talking about teasing the bride and groom, he couldn't help making a bitter face, because he thought that he might have to do the same when he got married.

Chen Nian doesn't mind, everyone will be lively and lively, for example, classmates and friends at the woman's house will come up with some questions, let yourself do it or make some small games for everyone to play.

But Chen Nian has seen a lot of vulgar joys on the Internet. He was happily married, but in the end he was messed up and embarrassed.

"Our family members here are all teachers, so we probably wouldn't do this, but Hongdou's family are also intellectuals, so we wouldn't do that."

At this moment, Gao Genzhu poked Chen Nian's arm: "What are you thinking about? What about that girl from your hometown?"

"Well, I was thinking that it would be very lively when we got married."

"That's for sure! If there is no excitement on the day of marriage, when do you expect it to be lively? After marriage, if the family is so lively every day, something will happen!"

"Let me tell you, this marriage is a lively day, and the days after that are ordinary, and then the baby is born..."

Gao Genzhu wanted to continue talking, but at this moment he saw that the steamer suddenly started to lose steam, and he didn't care about chatting, so he quickly stood up and asked Chen Nian to step on the stool together, and began to take down the upper basket.

"Be careful, put on your gloves. The air inside is hotter than boiling water. If you're not careful, you can burn a slice," Gao Genzhu reminded, while handing the gloves to Chen Nian.

In the end, the two of them took out the steamed buns one by one and placed them on the table that had already been covered with white paper.

Then Gao Genzhu continued to add water to the pot, then put the one hundred normal-sized steamed buns into the drawer, waited for the fire to boil and continued to steam in the pot.

"Brother Genzhu, are you sleepy?"

"It's okay. I was already sleepy at this time, but the more I talked with you, the more I became more energetic. I won't call your sister-in-law and let her sleep for a while. The two of us will continue talking. Let me tell you, this It's different after having a baby..."

In this way, Gao Genzhu told Chen Nian the various customs here all night, and some gossip and trivia from various families were also mixed in during the night.

After the daughter-in-law of this family got married, the conflict between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law became more and more intense, and finally became irresistible.

And the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law of that family get along well, and the two families are like a family.

There is also a family where the mother-in-law bullied her daughter-in-law when she was young, but the man didn't care, but when the mother-in-law got old and couldn't move in bed, the daughter-in-law started to make decisions, pinching a bruise on the mother-in-law's arm today, and giving it to her with a needle tomorrow The mother-in-law stabbed twice.

There are good ones and there are bad ones.

Chen Nian sounded very sad.

The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law has come to this point. Although both parties are responsible, men cannot escape the relationship either.

Now that he is married, the man should take on the responsibility of reconciliation, and if it is not possible, he should move out.

This kind of thing always needs to be resolved. Looking at this person who has done nothing or is only biased towards one side, Chen Nian is somewhat contemptuous.

Of course, except for that kind of particularly bad person.

Zhang Chuanfang didn't wake up until the dark sky gradually began to clear up, and hurried outside.

"You two just stayed here all night?"

"Why don't you call me? Didn't sleep all night, can you feel better the next day?"

"Oh, really."

Seeing his daughter-in-law complaining, Gao Genzhu smiled happily: "Look, I think my daughter-in-law is the best in the world. If I can marry her, I will be satisfied for the rest of my life."

As a result, when Zhang Chuanfang heard this, a blush appeared on his face, which was a little yellow from the wind and sun.

"What are you talking about? You are not ashamed to say this in front of Chen Nian!"

(End of this chapter)