Niu male

After talking with Hou Jun, Luo Meng went to the county that afternoon and bought a carload of gluten-free flour, as well as a lot of sugar, a few fresh lemons, some soda ash and potash.

Making moon cakes requires invert syrup and sight water. These things are not easy to buy in their county towns. It’s better to buy the raw materials and make them yourself. Add sugar, water and lemon juice to make invert syrup. You can use soda ash for sight water It is not cumbersome to configure it with potash, and it is a piece of cake for Hou Jun.

In addition, there are several large pressure cookers, which are used to press beans. Add some water to the black beans and white kidney beans and cook them thoroughly in the pressure cooker. Take them out and wrap them in gauze, and put them in a large basin filled with water to wash them. It's all fine bean paste, and in the end there are only some bean curds left in the gauze.

The bean curds don't have to be wasted either. Luo Meng plans to grind them into powder and mix them with the leftover bean dregs from making tofu to make cakes. They will be used to feed cows and pigs in the future, which can save a lot of food.

Hou Jun also plans to make some corn-filled mooncakes. Corn is very sticky, so it can’t be made like bean paste. Cook it in a pressure cooker until the corn kernels are broken, and then squeeze them out one by one. It takes a lot of work to get the meat, and there are brothers and sisters in Niuwangzhuang. A group of people each hold a small pot, and after a while they are squeezed and poured together, and the number is quite considerable.

After these fillings are fried with various ingredients, they are kneaded into balls, divided one by one, wrapped with the pie crust made by Hou Jun, and then pressed on the mold, because the size of the mold is fixed, so How much filling and skin of a moon cake has to be weighed on a scale.

The pressed mooncakes can be baked in the oven. Adjust the heat and bake for a few minutes, then pull them out and brush with egg yolk one by one, bake for a few more minutes, then pull them out and brush with egg yolk. Finally, the baked mooncakes are rich in color. It makes people very appetizing.

After five o'clock in the afternoon, the smell of mooncakes wafted from Niuwang Village, and the yayas in the southeast and northwest ran to the yard with greed. Unfortunately, Luo Meng had made up his mind not to let them eat this this time, mooncakes. It's too sweet, it's better in the southeast and northwest, like Yaya's glass stomach, if you eat too much, it will definitely cause problems.

The first batch of mooncakes, apart from cutting up a dozen or so for the people in the yard to taste, the rest were put into a jar by Romon after they cooled down.

Three days later, at ten o'clock in the morning, Ma Congrong walked into the Jiwei Building wearing slippers, walked to the front desk and asked the cashier girl who was on the morning shift: "Where are the mooncakes?"

"Here it is, boss." The cashier girl hastily took out a white plastic bag from the cabinet, which contained only scattered three-month cakes.

"Only three?" Ma Congrong looked down at the bag, then looked up at the girl.

"Well, just three." The girl smiled like a flower.

"..." Ma Congrong curled his lips, and took out his mobile phone as if to call Romon.

"Well, Master Gao ate three of them just now." The girl said hastily.

"Didn't you eat?" The tall fat man wearing a tall chef's hat who was casually pretending to read the menu but pretended to be transparent spoke at this time.

"You are the principal offender, and I am the coercion." The cashier girl said flatteringly.

"Brother Gao, did I force you to eat with a knife?" Chef Gao grinned, but he wasn't angry at all. From the day Jiweilou opened, the entire kitchen was under his control. Moon cakes are not a big deal, so how can the girl who collects money be compared with him? It is understandable to push him to top the vat at this time. Chef Gao has a big heart and a fat body, and he is not as knowledgeable as a girl.

"Have you eaten this mooncake, what do you think?" Ma Congrong asked Master Gao.

"Try it first." Master Gao smiled.

Hearing what he said, Ma Congrong knew what he said. Master Gao can say that, either it is delicious or it is terrible. Considering the historical records of Niuwangzhuang, Ma Congrong thinks that this mooncake should be bad for no reason. That's right, especially now that Chen Fuhan's little apprentice Hou Jun is still nesting there.

Among Chen Fuhan's apprentices, although Hou Jun is not considered to be successful, it can even be said that he is not doing very well, but his food cooking skills are really good, he is very good at cooking dishes , can compete with Chen Fuhan.

"Why don't you cut it." Ma Congrong was holding a piece of mooncake and was about to bite, when the cashier girl said courteously.

"Yeah, isn't the knife we ​​used just now still here? Where did you hide it? Hurry up and take it out to help the boss cut the mooncakes." Chef Gao also echoed.

Ma Congrong had no objection, let them find a knife from nowhere, cut the mooncake into small pieces the size of half a mahjong tile, tsk, it's just three mooncakes, how can you eat it? So fine.

After the mooncakes were cut, Ma Congrong first took a piece of dark bean paste filling and chewed it in his mouth. The taste was really pure, full of fresh and strong bean flavor, sweet but not greasy, delicious!but……

"Isn't this red bean paste?"

"Black beans." Chef Gao looked at the mooncakes on the cashier counter, and waited for their boss to wave his hand and said, "You guys eat together too." It's a pity that their boss doesn't know whether it's real or fake. Just refuse to say this.

"Then this is the kidney bean." Ma Congrong took another piece of mooncake with off-white filling and chewed it in his mouth. It was also delicious. Then he took the last color, yellow one. I really can't figure out what the stuffing is.

"Hum! This corn one is the best!" This mooncake with yellow fillings, when you take a bite, you will be filled with the fragrance of corn and the original fragrance of grain. The taste is stickier than that of red bean paste. , Ma Congrong likes this the most.

"Then when will our store start selling it?" Chef Gao said, the whole kitchen is under his control, and there is still a chance to get a few mooncakes to eat or something.

"Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, I have to call to ask first, and then I will order the box and come back later. Then the boxed ones will be sold at the front desk." Seeing that the Mid-Autumn Festival is coming, this matter is left to the purchaser Fearing that the ministry might not be able to run well, Ma Congrong planned to make a phone call to the printing factory by himself later. For his sake, they had to help him catch up with work.

"Then do the employees in our store send out the Mid-Autumn Festival?" The cashier girl asked their boss expectantly.

"Fa, one box per person, two boxes for managers." Ma Congrong said.

"Great! Boss, how many are there in a box?" The cashier girl was overjoyed.

"About eight. If there are four, I will give you two boxes." After Ma Congrong finished speaking, he asked them, "How many did you two eat just now?"

"Three." Chef Gao said without thinking too much.

"That's all right, remember to return the mooncakes to me when the time comes." After Ma Congrong finished speaking, he picked up the unfinished mooncakes in front of the two people who were stunned, and left without taking half a piece. They stayed, it was in vain that these two people cut so carefully just now.

"Brother Gao!!!" The cashier girl looked at Chef Gao sadly.

"It's useless to call him father, it will be shared equally." Chef Gao is very hard-hearted.

"By the way, make me a pot of tea later." Ma Congrong was halfway up the stairs, and suddenly turned around and said something.

"I can't go away, boss, go clubbing by yourself." The cashier girl replied wearily.

"I'll go to the kitchen to look at the broth." Chef Gao said and walked away slowly.

"Tsk, just for a few mouthfuls of mooncakes, childish!" Ma Congrong criticized them, then threw a piece of mooncake into his mouth, and walked to his office humming.

Ma Congrong was sitting in the office eating mooncakes while calling the printing factory to order a batch of mooncake packaging boxes, while Luo Meng and Xiao Shulin were running all over the mountains over there.

Niuwangzhuang has made a lot of mooncakes in the past two days, including kidney bean paste, black bean paste and corn, and Luo Meng plans to add chestnut paste.But he didn't want to use his own chestnuts to make mooncakes. Their chestnuts are good, and they are said to be the best for cooking as snacks. It would be a bit overkill to process and make mooncakes, so he took Xiao Shulin into the mountains to collect them that day. chestnut.

Ma Congrong called when he was about to eat at noon.

"Have you received the mooncake?" Romon asked him.

"Eat it, it's not bad, how many flavors do you have here now?"

"It's three now, and I should be able to add chestnut jelly in two days. It's four. If you add salted egg yolk to each one, you can barely make up eight."

"Okay, I've ordered the packing box, and I can pack eight pieces in one box. You prepare two thousand sets for me first, and I will need it the day after tomorrow. Then, the day after tomorrow, you will send me some bulk goods first, and it will cost about a thousand pieces." , look at the hair."

"Eat and eat." As soon as Luo Meng finished talking on the phone, the fellow called him to go to the table for dinner.A square table was set up in the shade of the yard. On the table was a large bowl of fried rice noodles with wild mushrooms, and cowpea porridge served in a sea bowl.

The cowpea porridge was salty, fragrant and soft, and the fried rice noodles were fragrant and chewy. Together with the strong fragrance of mountain mushrooms, Luo Meng and Xiao Shulin ate a lot of this meal.

"Eat more, eat more, hey, young people have to be able to eat, and they can work if they can eat..." An old man next to him was sitting on a bench with a cane. A bowl of porridge. After eating, he sat next to him and talked to Romon and the others.

This old man is Wang Xiangyang's grandfather. This place is called Sandaowan, a ravine in the deep mountains and old forests. Because the stream in the mountain turns three bends here, this place is called this name.

In the past, Sandaowan was uninhabited, it was a wild mountain valley, and there were wild boars from time to time. Later, there was a famine outside. At that time, Wang Xiangyang’s grandfather was still a little bean, and he was led by his family to flee the famine all the way. buffalo town.

The mountains here are deep, there are trees and grass on the mountains, and there are all kinds of wild vegetables and wild fruits. It is really not easy to starve to death, so those people settled here.

But they are not as rich as Lin Bo's grandfather back then. These people are poor and empty-handed, and they don't even have a few good clothes. A thatched shed was opened again, and they lived in it.

The locals naturally reject such sloppy and gangster-like outsiders, fearing that they are desperadoes who will commit murder and arson in this place, spoiling girls and daughters-in-law, and stealing babies Grab money or something.

These outsiders are naturally not soft persimmons. Faced with the rejection of the locals, they are more fierce and ruthless than anyone else. If you provoke one of them, they will get you a group in a while. Everyone in Buffalo Town Said they dare to kill, but also afraid of them.

Decades have passed in a blink of an eye, and brick houses have been built in Sandaowan, and the house numbers have been hung up and wires have been connected. Yes, this village is like other villages, only the few ends during Chinese New Year are the busiest.

However, this village also has some differences from other villages. For example, the elderly in the village don’t like to go out and rarely go out. The last time I went to the street, I wanted to buy all the daily necessities for the whole year.They also do not welcome outsiders to enter the village, except for some acquainted shopkeepers and hawkers.Luo Meng and the others received such courtesy because Wang Xiangyang worked in Xiao Shulin's company.

"Master, these mushrooms are delicious. Do you have any more? I want to buy some." Seeing that Xiao Shulin enjoyed eating, Luo Meng planned to buy some wild mushrooms back home. Anyway, Xiao Shulin liked to eat, so he liked to buy them. Xiao Shulin shook his arms and ate bowl after bowl, and he felt happy in his heart.

"There are not many mushrooms at this time of year. The ones that were dried in the spring were taken away. They also went to the mountains a few times in the summer, but they didn't pick many. I'll ask you later." The old man muttered He said: "After a while there will be two rains, and there will be more mushrooms on the mountain."

"Then you ask Xiangyang to take it out for us. The price will definitely be higher than those peddlers." Luo Meng said this, because he was worried that if he didn't mention the money, if the old man thought they relied on Wang Xiangyang to work in Xiao Shulin Company , the meal is coming soon, then the misunderstanding will be big.

"Okay." The old man nodded, and said to Xiao Shulin, "Manager Xiao, is it okay for Xiangyang to work at your place?" In the eyes of the old man, Xiao Shulin is the serious leader.

"Very good. I work hard and get along well with my colleagues." Xiao Shulin said solemnly, just like a class teacher writing a comment on a report card—study hard and unite with classmates.

"Hey! Hey! That's good! That's good!" The old man was very happy to hear that, and his trembling hands trembled even more now.

"Old Chen and the others are back." At this time, the old lady who was chopping pig food in the backyard called out to the front.

"Oh, I'm back, let's go over and ask. This year, their chestnuts are the last to be harvested. I guess they haven't sold much at the moment." The old man responded, and was about to stand up with his cane.

"Sir, sit down, we can go there by ourselves." The old man was already old, and his legs and feet were not good. Luo Meng was really embarrassed to bother him.

"Let him go, people like to join in the fun when they are old." The old lady came out from the backyard as she said that, and stood up from the stool with her hand.

As soon as the old man stood firm, he chased her wife away: "I'll go by myself."

"Okay, you can go by yourself. You are still young. You just threw yourself into the ditch yesterday, and your pants are still hanging out..." the old lady went back to the backyard after muttering.

"Xiangyang, does he drive well?" The old man pretended not to hear his mother-in-law criticizing him, talking to Xiao Shulin while walking.

"It was driving very steadily." Xiao Shulin gave a serious look without saying much.

But this old man is just like this. In his opinion, a stable person like Xiao Shulin can study and be able to do great things. The young man with him is not good. He is too slippery. This kind of person can't have great prospects, just like those peddlers who go to the mountains to collect goods, they are just a small businessman at the top.