Defeat natural disasters with farming

Before dinner at night, Mrs. Ye specially mixed a large bowl of flour. There is no such thing as yeast powder nowadays. Flour fermentation is usually placed in a warm place for natural fermentation. The pasta produced in this way will inevitably have a sour taste , the taste was not very good.

So the Ye family chose another fermentation method, which is to pour an appropriate amount of wine and sugar into the flour.

Today's grain wine contains an appropriate amount of yeast, which can be used to replace yeast powder to a certain extent, and sugar is also a seasoning that can speed up fermentation, and the taste of steamed buns with sugar will be softer and sweeter.

Under Mrs. Ye's stirring, the mixture of flour and wine gradually condenses into flocs. When the flocs in the basin turn into batter, they can be covered with a cloth and placed in the yard.

When Mrs. Ye brought the pot in the next morning, the batter in the pot had completely formed a honeycomb shape.

This situation proves that the batter has been fermented, and new flour can be poured into it for a new round of stirring. With the action of Mrs. Ye, the yellowish wheat flour in the white is sprinkled on the batter, and the sparse batter is again Coagulate into flocs.

The next step is to knead the dough. Granny Ye spreads a thin layer of flour on the chopping board, then pours the flour in the basin onto it. After continuous stretching, the dough gradually becomes smooth and fluffy.

Putting the smooth dough into the pot, she stretched out her hands and pulled the wet cloth over to cover it again, this is to keep the humidity of the dough, and then took the pot and placed it in the middle of the kang, and waited for about a quarter of an hour for the dough in the pot to dry up. It can be proofed successfully. The sign of success is that the dough has doubled in size, and many honeycomb holes will appear on the surface.

Auntie Ye and the others can roll up their sleeves and come forward to help knead the dough. They all put a layer of lard on their hands, which can prevent the dough from sticking to their hands.

They rolled the dough into long strips, cut them into equal-sized small doses with a knife, and then rolled them into similar small balls, each as big as the palm of your hand.

Mother Ye said while kneading: "Our rule here is to steam the steamed buns on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. After a while, you have to put a little red dot on the steamed buns with madder water."

This is explaining to Chu Xufeng.

Madder is a common grass whose juice can be used for dyeing when it is crushed and filtered.

Ye Yu also held a piece of dough in her hand, which Ye's mother picked out for him to play with when she saw him curious just now, but he didn't play with it, he just imitated his mother's way to round the dough, and then patted the smooth side chopping board.

When all the dough was made into steamed buns, Mother Ye took madder juice and dotted it on the steamed buns with her hands. After the red dots were painted, the steamed buns looked quite cute.

The raw steamed buns neatly arranged on the curtain are as big as the palm of an adult, with a slightly rounded top and a smooth bottom.

The pot on the stove had already boiled water, and Mrs. Ye put the steamer on the pot at this time, and then spread a layer of cloth moistened with water on the steamer, and put the steamed buns in one by one. If you don't do this, when the steamed buns are cooked, they will stick to the steaming tray, and if you try to take them off, the steamed buns will stick to the steaming tray.

The steamed buns in this way are soft and sweet, and you can smell the strong aroma of wheat as soon as you break them open. When you eat them, they still have a slight sweetness of white sugar.

Along with the rising smoke from the chimney, the snow fell outside the window more and more, and a layer of knee-high snow fell on the ground.

So the men in the family took snow shoveling tools to the yard to shovel snow, even Jia Yi was no exception. They had to shovel a path from the main room to the gate, and by the way, smashed the snow off the eaves, The long hanging ice skates were broken off.

Father Ye sighed comfortably when he entered the room. He rubbed his hands and said, "It's getting colder and colder today. I don't know when the snow will stop."

After all, it will be the first day of the Lunar New Year in two days, and then they will have to go out to see their relatives. If it snows heavily, the road will be difficult.

Mother Ye poured a cup of jujube and ginger tea and handed it to Father Ye, "Don't worry, in my opinion, it won't snow for a few days."

The red dates and ginger tea, which has a sweet and spicy taste of ginger, warms up the body instantly. The red dates were bought by Father Ye and the others at the market. They were cut into thin slices and boiled with shredded ginger until the surface of the water turned red. When it's time to drink, it can be poured into the teapot and poured as you drink.

After one of them poured a cup of jujube and ginger tea, the teapot bottomed out, and Mother Ye hurriedly boiled another pot after seeing it.

The rest of the people gathered in the main room, chatting and drinking tea.

At this time, Mrs. Ye came out after steaming the steamed buns, and said to Chu Xufeng worriedly: "Looking at the weather, you may not be able to go home in time for the New Year."

Today is the New Year's Eve, and we will have a New Year's Eve dinner in the evening, and it will be the first day of the New Year after turning over the night.

Holding a large black porcelain tea bowl, Chu Xufeng said with some apology after hearing Mrs. Ye's words: "My father knows that I can't go back. He doesn't care about it. He just troubled you after all. It's obviously a family reunion. There are more days than our master and servant."

When he came out of Zheng's house, he had already sent a letter to his father by flying pigeons, and he wrote down the cause and effect.

"What's the matter, the more people there are, the more lively it is, and you can watch the New Year's Eve together at night." After hearing what he said, Mrs. Ye relieved her worries and said happily: "Let you two taste our handicrafts tonight." .”

After a few gossips, the Ye family began to get busy. They only ate steamed buns at noon and filled their stomachs with pickles, and left most of them for the New Year's Eve dinner at night.

The men of the Ye family took their children out to post Spring Festival couplets. There was only one pair of Spring Festival couplets, which were specially written by Ye Tongsheng. The font was round and harmonious, which was very suitable for the Spring Festival. This couplet should be pasted at the gate.

In addition, a blessing character is pasted on the door of each house.

Father Ye and Ye Yu are in charge of the "reverse blessing" on the door of their third room, and the homophonic blessing has arrived.

"Is this correct?"

Father Ye stepped on the stool and asked.

Ye Yu specially ran a little farther to look, and saw that the "Dao Fu" was placed upright, so he nodded, "It's upright."

After hearing Ye Yu's words, Father Ye concentrated on pasting the word "Fu" on the wall with paste.

With the concerted efforts of the father and son, the two rooms were quickly pasted with the word "Fu".

At this time, Old Man Ye and Ye Hai had finished pasting the Spring Festival couplets on the gate.

Before Ye Yu left, she ran over to take a look at the Spring Festival couplets.

"Ping An Ruyi is good for a thousand days, everyone is happy and everything is going well. Hengbiao: Everything is going well."

It's a good meaning.

On the other side, Mrs. Ye brought the daughters-in-law into the kitchen to cook.

The pork tenderloin and pork belly that I stockpiled earlier happened to be made into pot-packed pork and sauerkraut pork vermicelli. These are two big dishes.

Just after posting the Spring Festival couplets, Old Man Ye and his three sons took out a chicken and duck from the shed, cut off their heads and shaved their feathers, sliced ​​open their abdomen with a knife, and took out all kinds of internal organs. These internal organs can be put together Add chili for frying, the taste is very good.

The remaining chicken is cut into small pieces and stewed with various sun-dried miscellaneous mushrooms, which can be made into a pot of delicious chicken stewed mushrooms.

Duck and potatoes are stewed together in an iron pot, and a few slices of stick noodle cakes are pasted on the side.

The only vegan dish is stir-fried with black fungus, cabbage, shiitake mushrooms and old tofu. The vegetable oil is used, and only a little salt and vinegar are added. The cabbage is just picked from the yard. The tofu is lightly fried, and the surface is slightly burnt, but the inside is very refreshing.

As for the staple food, steamed buns and stick noodles are steamed in the morning.

There was not enough room for so many dishes on one kang table, so Mrs. Ye brought another kang table specially, and the two tables could barely be placed together.

It was only at this time that the Zhengzheng was declared, and it would be four o'clock in the afternoon in modern time, but the sky had already darkened, and the swirling snowflakes fell on the doors and windows, making almost inaudible crashing sounds.

There was an oil lamp in the middle of the table, and the soybean-sized light reflected the faces of the Ye family sitting around the table.

Ye Yu took a deep breath, and the smells of all kinds of food entered his nostrils, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty.

At this time, Old Man Ye stretched out his chopsticks to pick up a piece of Guobao meat and put it into the bowl, and then said: "Hurry up and move your chopsticks, the food will not taste good when it's cold."

As soon as he finished speaking, shadowless chopsticks on the table began to reach into all kinds of meat dishes, and after a while, there were many more meat dishes in Yehe's bowl.

While eating, he still did not forget to greet the guests: "You two eat too, the dishes made by my grandma are delicious, try it quickly."

Hearing this, Ye Yu looked sideways at Chu Xufeng who was sitting on his right, and said, "Don't be polite, just learn from my second brother, and you can cook whatever you want."

After he finished speaking, he picked up a chopstick of stewed chicken with mushrooms and put it in his mouth. The firm chicken was thoroughly stewed, and it was extremely tasty. As soon as he bit it, delicious juice burst out, mixed with the taste of mushrooms. It's addictive.

Chu Xufeng was not too polite, he preferred the lighter pork and sauerkraut stewed vermicelli, especially the vermicelli inside, which tasted particularly strong.

Jia didn't say much, but it could be seen that he was extremely satisfied with the meal from the way he kept picking up the food.

The pot-packed meat is sweet and sour, the stewed in an iron pot is salty and delicious, and the spicy fried chicken and duck are spicy and appetizing. These dishes are extremely delicious.

But for Ye Yu to choose the favorite one from these dishes, it has to be stir-fried vegetable dishes. If you eat too many meat dishes with heavy oil and salt, and then eat light vegetarian dishes, you will instantly feel that your life has been sublimated.

The Ye family did not have the rule of not talking when eating or sleeping, so the New Year's Eve dinner was very lively, and the whole family chatted among themselves.

When the atmosphere was at its most lively, Mrs. Ye took out a jug from the kitchen. This was the wine they bought at the market a few days ago, and it was heated on the stove before eating.

Boss Ye took over the jug and poured a cup into the tea bowls of his father and two brothers, the slightly yellowish liquid was shaking in the black porcelain bowls.

He thought for a while and poured Ye Hai another cup.

"After the new year, you will not be young. You can have a drink with dad tonight."

When Father Ye put the wine bowl in front of him, Ye Yu leaned over curiously to have a look. The bowl of wine was slightly yellowed in the ceramic bowl, and it was still steaming. If you smell it carefully, you can faintly smell the rice and wine .

Father Ye smiled and patted his head, dipped some wine in the bowl with the tip of his chopsticks and put it in front of Ye Yu.

"Do you want to try it, baby?"

Ye Yu was indeed curious about the taste of wine in this era, so he licked it cautiously, but just as the tip of Father Ye's chopsticks touched his tongue, he trembled, the taste was indeed a bit strange.

Rice wine has a very low alcohol concentration and is fermented with various grains, so when you taste it carefully, you can feel the five flavors of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and astringent in your mouth. Generally speaking, it is not good to say, but Ye Yu is not used to it of.

Seeing this scene, Mother Ye quickly patted Father Ye's arm, and complained: "Brother Bao is only so old now, so you let him drink."

After finishing speaking, he picked up another chopsticks pot of meat and put it in Ye Yu's bowl, "Eat something quickly and press down."

Ye Yu stuck out her tongue, chewed a mouthful of pot-packed meat to swallow the taste of the wine.

On the other side, Ye He, taking advantage of his father's inattention, sneaked up to the wine glass and took a big sip. Unexpectedly, he choked and coughed for a long time before stopping.

Auntie Ye simply didn't know what to say, she poured a cup of tea angrily and sent it over, and said bitterly, "Why are you so curious every day, do you also want to taste dog shit?"

As soon as the words fell, Xiaomi, who was eating steamed buns in fresh soup with relish, and added cooked chicken and duck bits and eggs, looked up at Sister Ye blankly.

Aunt Ye met those innocent dog eyes: ...

"Okay, you're not as good as Xiaomi."

I ate this meal for an entire hour, and by the end of the meal it was cold, and I went to the stove to reheat it several times.

Before the end of the New Year's Eve dinner, Mrs. Ye served another plate of steamed grass carp, which was made by Mrs. Ye.

The method is very simple, just use a knife to scrape off the fish scales, stuff the onion, ginger and garlic into the hollowed out fish belly, then marinate the whole fish with cooking wine, after about a quarter of an hour, it can be steamed in the pot, and the steamed grass carp is poured Serve with the sauce, just enough to be drizzled with a spoonful of hot oil when serving.

Hearing the sound of "呲啦", the hot oil fully stimulated the aroma of the steamed grass carp, and even Ye Yu, who was already full, began to move when he smelled the smell.

This fish cannot be eaten up, and it needs to leave a head or a tail, which means more than every year.

There are many Ye family members, and the grass carp is not too big, so each person can eat enough with only one chopstick.

After eating, the table had to be cleared, and someone had to do the washing and cleaning. Except for a few children, all the adults started to move.

Father Ye drank two bowls of wine, but still blushed and breathless, he picked up Ye Yu and put him on the kang, "Play with your brothers and sisters for a while."

Immediately afterwards, he went to the kitchen with the dishes to be washed.

Before washing the dishes, we had to get water. Father Ye lifted the curtain covering the water tank in the yard. At this time, a thin layer of ice had formed on the water surface, and he had to break the ice to get water.

Then he boiled the water and poured it into a basin, took out the plant ash under the stove and applied it on the bowls and chopsticks, because the plant ash has a strong oil absorption and decontamination effect, and the dried loofah pulp is enough to remove the oil stains.

But at this moment in the main room, Ye Yu was sitting on the kang with his head propped up, and he couldn't help but look at Ye He.

Ye Hai drank a bowl of wine, it's normal to be a little drunk, but Ye He only took a sip, his cheeks flushed, his eyes glowed, and he took Jia Yi's hand and began to yell one master at a time.

Jia Yi wanted to withdraw his hand but didn't.

With a smile on his lips, Chu Xufeng joked: "It seems that you are going to have a little apprentice."

Ye He was obviously more excited when he heard this. He half-kneeled on the kang, clasped his fists in both hands, and said, "Master, please be respected by the apprentice."

At this time, Ye Yu hurriedly supported him, which was a bit like being kidnapped by morality, but it shouldn't be.

"Brother, you are drunk, hurry up and drink a bowl of tea."

After speaking, he stuffed the teacup into Ye He's hand.

Ye He seemed to be really drunk, he took the teacup without taking a sip, just holding the teacup against the wall and fell asleep.

There is no requirement for their family to stay up all night for keeping up. The children can stay up for as long as they can. If they can’t bear it, they can go back to sleep.

Ye Yu pulled a jacket over and put it on him.

Seeing Ye Yu's movements, Chu Xufeng softened his expression, "Let Jia Yi teach Brother He these few days, just call him master."

What Jia Yi taught can save Ye He from many detours.

Ye Yu nodded, "That's good."

A master is not easy to recognize, a master is also a master, a teacher is a father, as the saying goes, "a teacher for one day, a father for life".

At least one has to pay homage to the parents of heaven and earth to recognize the master. When the master is old, the apprentice even has to provide for the master until the end of his life, which is equivalent to a son-in-law.

They chatted for a while, and Ye Yu couldn't help covering his mouth and yawning. The colder the weather, the easier it is for him to get sleepy, especially in such a dim environment.

He poured a cup of jujube and ginger tea to warm his hands, blinked, and then wiped away the remaining tears with his hands.

Just at this time, the housework was almost done, and the adults opened the curtain and walked in one after another.

Old man Ye and Mrs. Ye saw that the children were drowsy, so they sat on the kang and said, "The children are exhausted, and our old bones can't stand it anymore, so let's pay New Year's greetings now." .”

The two of them waved at the children, "Come and get the New Year's money."

As soon as these words came out, everyone cheered, especially Ye Jing and Xinghua, who even jumped up happily.

Immediately afterwards, they gave New Year greetings to the elders in order of age, and Ye Yu was naturally at the bottom.

When it was his turn, he stepped forward and knelt down, and said earnestly: "I wish all the elders a smooth year and good luck in everything."

I hope the whole family is safe and sound next year!

Mrs. Ye stretched out her hand to stroke Ye Yu's hand twice, and said with a smile, "Good boy!"

Then the old couple took out a red paper bag from their pockets, "Good boy, let's buy candy."

There are several copper coins wrapped in the paper bag, which is heavy in the hand.

There is a rule in the Ye family, only the old couple needs to give lucky money to the children, the other elders don't need it, just ask for a good luck.

Then Mrs. Ye waved at Chu Xufeng again, "Brother Xu, this is yours."

She put the red paper bag in Chu Xufeng's hand, "I hope you will be healthy and healthy in the new year."

Chu Xufeng was obviously stunned, and he didn't expect that he would still have his share of the New Year's money.

But he quickly came back to his senses, bowed his hands and saluted: "I wish you peace all year round and all the best!"

The New Year's Eve would be over here. If it was modern times, there might be fireworks and firecrackers to set off, but in this dynasty, nine o'clock in the evening can be called midnight, and their family has already fallen into a deep sleep at this time.