Defeat natural disasters with farming

Mid-Autumn Festival should eat sweet mooncakes. Ye Yu started making mooncakes with Mother Ye that morning. He planned to make three kinds of fillings, mooncakes with date paste, mooncakes with bean paste and salted egg yolk, and mooncakes with fresh meat.

The first is to soak the sun-dried dates harvested last year and then cut them to remove the pits. Put a small bowl of pitted dates on top of the rice when steaming the rice, and it will be steamed quickly. Then pour some white water into it and stir it with chopsticks. This is the rough version of jujube paste.

If you want a more delicate taste, you need to filter out the jujube skin with a filter. Ye Yu put the filtered jujube skin into the trough of chickens and ducks, and then opened the cabinet door fixed on the wall with your feet, and poured syrup, soybean oil and glutinous rice flour Take it out, Mother Ye took these three things, and put them together with the jujube paste in the pan and stir-fry until the jujube paste becomes thick.

Bean paste and salted egg yolk stuffing is also easy to make. There are a lot of salted duck eggs at home. Ye Yu washes her hands and sits on a stool, and separates the egg white and egg yolk of the salted duck egg into two bowls. Keep the egg white for porridge at night , The egg yolk is wrapped in the moon cake.

There is a simple oven in the kitchen. Ye Yu put the oiled salted egg yolks on top one by one, baked them for a while, and then put them aside for later use.

The last kind of fresh meat mooncake, Ye Yu, has never made it himself. He just often heard that mooncakes are sweet and salty, just like zongzi, so he wanted to try it out.

Fresh meat mooncakes are a kind of Soviet-style mooncakes, which require pork, lard, eggs, salt and other seasonings, as well as minced ginger and minced garlic.

Mother Ye refused to let Ye Yu use the knife, and chopped the pork by herself, mixed it with other seasonings, and kept stirring until the stuffing was dry, then the stuffing was ready.

Next, start kneading the dough to make the pie crust. The fermented dough is cut into small pieces on a chopping board sprinkled with flour, and rolled with a rolling pin into two types of thin dough, round and tongue-shaped.

The round ones are for jujube paste mooncakes and egg yolk mooncakes, while the beef tongue-shaped ones are for wrapping fresh meat mooncakes.

Seeing that Mother Ye was a bit slow in wrapping mooncakes, Ye Yu taught her, "First take a piece of bean paste and press it flat, then put in the salted egg yolk, and then push the dough up little by little until the bean paste and egg yolk are completely covered."

Mother Ye became proficient in wrapping two more mooncakes, and she was even faster than Ye Yu later on. She could also teach Ye Yu in turn, that it is easier to use the tiger's mouth than the thumb when pushing the dough.

The mooncake mold is long and can hold four mooncake embryos at a time. The pattern on the mold is drawn by Ye Yu himself. The four patterns are different, including goldfish, ingot, lotus flower and gourd.

Ye Yu sprinkled a layer of flour on the mold, then put the wrapped mooncake embryo in, pressed it on the chopping board, and when it came out again, there was a pattern on the front of the mooncake.

They each wrapped ten mooncakes with date paste and egg yolk, brushed them with a layer of oil and egg liquid, and put them in the oven to start baking.

Taking advantage of this time, Ye Yu began to wrap fresh meat mooncakes. He rolled up the beef tongue-shaped dough and flattened it. He wrapped the meat filling in and placed the wrapped mooncakes on the chopping board with the seams facing down.

He wasn't sure how the fresh meat mooncakes tasted, so he only packed five.

After the mooncakes were baked, Ye Yu was very thankful that he only made five fresh meat mooncakes, because he overturned his car, and the taste of these mooncakes was not very good, it was oily and greasy, even people who love meat could not eat it. go down.

Mother Ye also took a sip, shook her head and said: "It's really not very good, but it's okay, it should be very filling, and I'll let your father take it away later to fill my stomach."

Ye Yu smiled when he heard the words, "Okay."

Fortunately, the other two kinds of mooncakes did not turn over, and each was delicious.

Father Ye didn't come back to eat at noon, so the two of them ate mooncakes for lunch, two for each of them. After eating, they both agreed that the mooncakes with salted egg yolk were more delicious. The saltiness is neutralized, the sweetness and saltiness are appropriate, and the taste is not greasy at all, but very palatable.

Of course, the taste of jujube paste mooncakes is also good. Take a bite, and the delicate and smooth jujube paste will slide down your throat. Although it is a bit too sweet and greasy, as long as it is paired with a bowl of wild tea, the sweetness and greasyness can be diluted.

Mother Ye drank tea and said, "Since it's done successfully, I'll make more later and send it to your uncles who helped build the house."

Ye Yu nodded in response, and then asked her, "Would you like to give some to grandma first?"

Old man Ye and Mrs. Ye said a few days ago that the Mid-Autumn Festival would not be this year, and asked the three of them to eat at home by themselves. Today's world is really in no mood for festivals.

"There's no need for now, let's talk about it later in the evening. Otherwise, if I give it to your grandma, what will the others do? It's better to give it together at night." Ye Mu replied.

Ye Yu thought it was true.

In the afternoon, Mother Ye continued to make mooncakes, while Ye Yu washed her hands and stood by the table to make something novel.

He picked up an egg and knocked it against the edge of the porcelain bowl, separated the egg white and egg yolk into two bowls, then took a pair of chopsticks and quickly stirred the egg white in a clockwise direction, pouring in goat milk, syrup and oil from time to time, and so on. Three times, the mixture in the bowl starts to bubble, and gradually turns into a milky white fine foam, which will not fall when pulled up with chopsticks.

That's right, cream.

Ye Yu sighed and shook his sore arm vigorously. It was really painful to pass the cream by hand. Fortunately, it was successfully passed in the end, otherwise it would be really worth the candle.

The cake embryo Ye Yu makes is the simplest one, that is, add goat milk, honey and oil to the egg yolk, then sift in the flour, and after mixing well, Ye Yu pours it into the half-filled egg white cream basin.

The next step is to lighten the movement and start stirring, mixing well.

The baked cake embryo is burnt yellow, and you can smell a faint milk fragrance when you smell it closely.

Ye Yu took the cake embryo out of the basin, and then spread the remaining half of the cream foam on it. To be honest, it was a bit crude, but he could only make it like this for the time being, and at most he would decorate it with fruits.

He poked around and looked at the finished cake, then ran to the cellar and took out two jars of jam, one of light red raspberry and one of light pink peach.

He used two jars of jam to draw a pink bear on top of the cake.

Mother Ye watched him move while resting, "What is this?"

Ye Yu replied: "Cake, isn't it Brother Xu's birthday today? I just wanted to make something for him that I've never seen before."

He made another cake with the remaining materials according to the above steps, and then cut a piece and put it in Ye Mu's hand.

"Try it."

Mother Ye took the spoon and dug a piece of cake into her mouth. The soft and sweet taste made her eyes shine, "Delicious!"

Ye Yu also tasted a piece. In terms of taste and texture, it is definitely not as good as those modern cakes with various styles, but it is pretty good to be able to make it like this when raw materials are scarce.

He finished eating the whole cake with nostalgia, and then said to Mother Ye: "Mother, I'll invite Brother Xu to come over for dinner later."

Mother Ye nodded and replied, "Okay."

She thought for a while and said, "The mooncakes are ready too, wrap a packet in straw paper and let's send it out quickly."

As soon as she finished speaking, she put down the tea bowl, rummaged in the cabinet for a long time and found a stack of clean toilet paper, and filled each with two mooncakes, one each of date paste and egg yolk.

Ye Yu said: "Give half of the cake to grandma as well. The cake is soft and suitable for them to eat."

Hearing this, Mother Ye took out the food box from the cabinet, washed it with saponin powder, and put six mooncakes and two cakes in it.

She said, "There are also your uncle and second uncle's family."

Ye Yu suggested at this time: "Wrap the remaining two fresh meat mooncakes, I think the second brother will like it."

Mother Ye smiled, "Okay."

The couple went out with the moon cake bag and walked in two opposite directions.

Ye Yu bumped into Ye He at the gate of the old house, and Ye He happily asked him, "Brother Bao, what delicious food did you cook?"

"Moon cake." Ye Yu raised his hand and said, "Let's go in and talk about it."

Ye He took what was in Ye Yu's hand, and the two walked in while chatting.

Except for his grandparents, the other two families shared two packs of mooncakes, oh, and fresh meat mooncakes for Ye He.

Ye Yu said very clearly, "I think the taste of these fresh meat mooncakes is average, but I think you might like it."

Ye He didn't wait for anyone to come out, he untied the knot directly, took a piece of fresh meat mooncake and put it in his mouth, "It tastes pretty good, what's not so good about it."

"There are just two left, so I'll bring you both."

At this time, Mrs. Ye opened the curtain and came out. When she saw the moon cakes, she suddenly realized: "Look at my memory, so today is the Mid-Autumn Festival."

Ye Yu said: "There are two kinds of mooncakes filled, jujube paste and salted egg yolk, both are delicious."

Mrs. Ye originally wanted to keep Ye Yu at home to eat some fruit, but he raised the mooncake bag in his hand and said, "I have to send mooncakes to other families."

"Then take it and eat on the road." Mrs. Ye grabbed a handful of Xing'er and stuffed it into Ye Yu's pocket, "I'll ask Brother He to send the food box over later."

"It's okay, there's no rush, anyway, we don't need the food box for the time being." Ye Yu said.

He left the old house and walked for another half a quarter of an hour. When he reached the door of Chu Xufeng's house, he raised his hand and knocked on the door knocker.

It was Jia Yi who opened the door, and he welcomed Ye Yu in.

"Hey, you can share the mooncakes we made." Ye Yu handed them the mooncake package. It is impossible for one person to eat one, but it is enough for two people to share one.

Seeing Chu Xufeng coming out, he hurried over and said, "Come to my house for dinner tonight, I'll celebrate your birthday."

Chu Xufeng rubbed his face and replied, "Okay."

Before the two returned to Ye's house, Chu Xufeng went into the house and took a paper bag and handed it to Ye Yu.

Ye Yu asked suspiciously, "What is this?"

And Chu Xufeng replied concisely: "Pu'er."

Ye Yu was stunned when he heard the words. He said that he had never drank the so-called Pu'er that is more fragrant and more fragrant, but Chu Xufeng remembered it.

"Where did it come from?"

"The emperor gave it to my father, and I asked Jia Wu to bring it to Jingbian City." Chu Xufeng said, "After dinner, you can make a cup and try it."

The Ye family didn't cook any big dishes at night, they mainly ate moon cakes, and Ye Yu also made a pot of tea with the Pu'er tea sent by Chu Xufeng.

Father Ye took a sip of tea, savored it for a while and said, "Is this Pu'er cooked tea?"

Chu Xufeng nodded, "You are right."

Ye Yu asked him, "What's the difference between cooked Pu-erh tea and raw tea?"

"Cooked tea is artificially fermented during the production process, so it is smooth in the mouth, full of aging aroma, and has a sweet aftertaste; raw tea is naturally fermented, mainly based on the fragrance of the tea itself." Chu Xufeng patiently explained.

"So that's how it is." Ye Yu smacked his lips, and could vaguely taste the sweetness hidden behind the bitterness of the tea leaves.

After several people ate a round of moon cakes and drank a round of Pu'er tea, the moon in the sky finally revealed its full view, like a white jade plate.

Ye Yu brought out the cake when there was still moonlight in the sky, and there were three slender candles stuck on the cake.

He stared at Chu Xufeng with bright eyes, "Make a wish first, and then blow out the candle."

Chu Xufeng did as he said, closed his eyes and made a wish.

The flickering candlelight reflected on his face, Ye Yu watched his movements with his chin resting.

After the candle was blown out, Ye Yu didn't ask Chu Xufeng what wish he had made, but just handed him the knife and asked him to start dividing the cake.

The taste of the cake is actually a bit like a modern honey cake, and it tastes very soft.

"Happy birthday."