Four Foods in the Mountains

There is fermented malt at home, which was originally intended to be used to make buckwheat wotou, but now it happens to be picked to make malt candy.

Cen Ning washed the glutinous rice, steamed it in a pot, and picked the fermented malt.

The malt has grown well and grows densely in the wooden basin. Cen Ning chopped up a basin of malt, poked the steamed glutinous rice with chopsticks, and spread it on a dustpan to cool.

It cools down quickly in winter. After drying the glutinous rice, pour it into a jar and mix it with the broken malt. After pouring a ladle of warm water, cover it and let it stand.

This is all labor-intensive work, and Cen Ning's whole body is hot in the winter from busy work in the kitchen.

The jar had to be put on for a while, Cen Ning looked outside the house, it was getting late after all the work, Cen Ning scooped up the rice noodles and came out to cook.

After steaming steamed buns with dough, cooking porridge with miscellaneous grains, Cen Ning went to the vegetable field to pull radishes and cabbage.The cabbage is used to stir-fry bacon, and it is fried with lard until it becomes oily. Then it is stewed with sauce and stewed with radish. The white radish is delicious and soft.

The steamed buns were still steaming, and Cen Ning put the fried vegetables in the pot to warm them up, then lifted the lid of the altar to see the malt.

The malt and glutinous rice have already released moisture. Cen Ning scooped the gourd ladle into the washed gauze, tied the opening tightly and began to press the wort. The malt dregs can be fed to the chickens, and the pressed wort is poured into the pot and boiled out. The syrup is maltose.

The maltose is boiled when it can hang on the ladle, but at this time the sugar is still thin and lumpy, so put it in the jar and let it cool overnight.

After moving the sugar to the corner of the kitchen, and cleaning the pot and ladle for making maltose, there was a sound outside the courtyard door, and Cen Ning threw away the rag to go outside to look.

Lu Yunchuan came back with the cart, which was still full of things in the morning, but now it was empty.

"All sold out?" Cen Ning opened his eyes wide.

Lu Yunchuan smiled and said: "Yes, this year's winter fair is extremely lively. The radishes and cabbages were sold out in the morning. My eldest brother and I waited until the firewood was sold before returning. I will bring more vegetables tomorrow."

Cen Ning happily helped Lu Yunchuan unload the hemp rope that was pulling the cart on his body: "I was worried that I couldn't sell them all, and the vegetables were wasted in the rotten field. Wash your hands and eat."

When the food was served on the table, Cen Ning bit his chopsticks and watched Lu Yunchuan chewing on the steamed buns, but he didn't say that he wanted to set up a stall with him.

In the evening, after washing, the two of them entered the back room. The two of them sat cross-legged on the kang, and Cen Ning rubbed Lu Yunchuan's shoulders.

Lu Yunchuan took out a cloth bag from his arms and handed it to Cen Ning: "This is the money I earned today."

Every family grows radishes and cabbage, and there are many people selling them at the winter market, so the price is cheap.

But Lu Yunchuan cut a lot and made a lot of money.

Cen Ning opened the cloth bag and counted it, and said, "If we continue to sell it like this, we will have enough money to buy meat during the New Year's Eve."

Lu Yunchuan nodded: "I'll go back to the village and find someone to order the meat. I'll buy half a pig and share it with my eldest brother."

Cen Ning carefully collected the money, closed the money box and began to make the bed.

The kang was warm, and it was not cold at all when lying on the bedding, and when the oil lamp was turned off, Cen Ning lay in Lu Yunchuan's arms and said, "I have to get up early tomorrow."

Lu Yunchuan asked: "Is there any work to do at home? Just do it for you before I leave. You can lie down for a while."

Cen Ning shook his head in Lu Yunchuan's arms: "You can't do it, I have to get up and make candy."

"Make candy?"

Cen Ning touched Lu Yunchuan's hand under the quilt, and said simply: "I'll get up tomorrow morning to make candy, and I want to go to the town with you to set up a stall."

Lu Yunchuan finally came to his senses: "You want to sell sugar in the town?"

Cen Ning nodded, and talked about picking oranges on the back mountain with Brother Zhu in the afternoon.

"How much can I sell for? I've never sold my own food before. I want to try." He pulled Lu Yunchuan's hand in a soft voice, "You take me with you tomorrow morning, okay? "

"The food you cook is naturally good, but...it's too cold today." Lu Yunchuan said.

Cen Ning curled his lips: "I knew you were going to say that. Could it be that I'm still as old as Brother Zhi and can't be blown by the wind?"

Lu Yunchuan was afraid that he would get angry, so he put his arms around him and coaxed him: "I didn't mean that, we walked in the morning and returned at night, and stood guard in front of the stall all day, there was no place to rest, I don't want you to be so tired."

"But I don't want to be alone at home all the time."

Lu Yunchuan was stunned for a moment, and Cen Ning whispered: "I want to set up a stall, and I don't want to be alone all the time. I can't work with you on weekdays, but now I can follow you and sell food to earn money, isn't it good? "

After a long while of silence in the room, Lu Yunchuan hugged Cen Ning even tighter, and said in a low voice, "Okay, you should dress warmer tomorrow, and we will go together."

"real?!"

"Well, what are you going to do to sell sugar? I'll get up tomorrow morning and help you."

Cen Ning was happy, raised the corners of his mouth and said, "Have you ever eaten bean curd candy? Maltose is wrapped with soybean powder. This was my favorite food when I was young. My father and brother..."

Fu Lang whispered obediently and non-stop in his ear, with a smile in his tone, Lu Yunchuan stroked Cen Ning's black hair, thinking that Cen Ning just said that he didn't want to be at home all the time.

He has no time to work every day, and he never thought about whether Cen Ning would be bored at home alone. Thinking of his sister-in-law's family having brother Zhi, Lu Yunchuan secretly thought in his heart, if he and Cen Ning could have a child, The house should be more lively.

But he also knew that his brother was not easy to conceive, so he never mentioned the matter of the child in front of Cen Ning, for fear that Cen Ning would be overwhelmed.

Compared with the child, he still wants Fu Lang to live comfortably.

And after having a child, she can't go out to work by herself and let Cen Ning take care of the child at home alone, that would be too tiring.

It's better to wait until the family life gets better in two years and he will no longer be in a hurry to find a job. If he can have a child by then, he will be able to take good care of both Cen Ning and the child.

He and Cen Ning's children must not suffer as much as he did when he was a child.

The two of them lay down for three hours, and got up again enduring the sleepiness.

Cen Ning lay on Lu Yunchuan's back and yawned a little. Lu Yunchuan asked softly, "Why don't we go tomorrow? Go to bed early tonight and wake up tomorrow."

Cen Ning was stunned and quickly got up: "I'm not sleepy, it's just today."

The oil lamp was lit in the kitchen, and while making sugar, Cen Ning asked Lu Yunchuan to light a fire, made the dough, beat two eggs, and pasted a few egg pancakes for breakfast.

After eating pancakes, Lu Yunchuan brought in the small stone mill from the yard to grind soybeans.

Cen Ning opened the jar to look at the syrup. The maltose syrup that had been left overnight turned into sticky maltose. Cen Ning picked it up in lumps with chopsticks. The maltose was crystal clear without any impurities.

Lu Yunchuan ground the soybean flour and poured it into a sieve cage to sieve, so that the soybean flour sifted once more tastes more delicate and melts in the mouth.

The taste of the crispy bean candy is just like the layer of soybean flour on the outside. When Cen Ning ate the crispy bean candy when he was a child, he was always sad that there was too little soybean flour wrapped in the candy. Now he makes it himself, giving him plenty of soybean flour.

Put the maltose into the soybean powder, rub your hands, and rub the soybean powder into the sugar, so that it will not stick to your teeth, and it is convenient for the elderly and children to eat.

After kneading until it was not sticky to the hands, Cen Ning kneaded the sugar dumplings into long strips, cut them into small sugar cubes with a knife, and then coated the sugar cubes with a layer of soybean flour, and the bean crisp candy was ready.

Cen Ning took a piece and fed it to Lu Yunchuan: "Taste it, is it good?"

The bean curd candy tastes sweet but not greasy, with a tough texture and a strong aroma of soybean flour. Even if Lu Yunchuan doesn't like sweets, he thinks the taste is sweet: "It's delicious, and children will definitely like it."

A jar of maltose was only used for half a jar. It was the first time Cen Ning sold food, and he was afraid that the business would not be good, so he didn't dare to make more.

After all, bean crisp candy was a popular food when he was a child, and now all the dolls in the town love to eat candied haws

Too much bean curd candy can be eaten at home and wasted, but the leftover maltose can be saved and used to drink with radish slices in water, which is the best for cough and sore throat.

When the two got married, there was still some red oiled paper bought to cut Double Happiness at home. Cen Ning cut the oiled paper into squares, and wrapped the bean crisp candies into small red paper bags with hemp rope, which was convenient for sale and festive to look at.

After making the sugar, Cen Ning put the paper bag into a bamboo basket and put it on the cart. Lu Yunchuan also bundled the firewood, radish and cabbage onto the cart.

After blowing on the oil lamp in the kitchen, Lu Yunchuan went into the back room and came out with a cloth towel.

"What is this for?" As soon as Cen Ning asked, Lu Yunchuan raised his hand and wrapped the cloth scarf around his head.

"The mountain road is very windy, and it hurts my head. It's more comfortable to wrap it in a cloth towel." Afraid that Cen Ning would find it unsightly, Lu Yunchuan said again, "You can take it off when you get to town."

The cloth scarf wrapped his head and ears, which really blocked a lot of wind. Cen Ning stood obediently, let Lu Yunchuan tie a knot under his chin, and smiled at Lu Yunchuan with his lips pursed.

The two locked the courtyard and went out to look for Lu Yunlang. Cen Ning had never left the house at this point before. I don't know. It was the time when the wind was the strongest, and it blew on his body like a knife. Two steps away.

Lu Yunchuan walked in front of Cen Ning, turning his body sideways to block most of the wind for Cen Ning. The two walked to the front room, and Lu Yunlang was pulling the cart out.

He saw Cen Ning stunned for a moment, then frowned and looked at Lu Yunchuan disapprovingly: "It's such a cold day, why did you ask Brother Ning to come out with you?"

Cen Ning responded with a smile: "Brother, I'm going with Chuanzi, I want to sell food in the town."

"Sell food?"

"Yeah! Selling bean crisp candy, I'll bring it to you to try when I get to the town."

As Cen Ning said, he trotted into the yard and put a cloth bag in his hand on the stone table in the yard. The lights in the back room were not lit, and Yao Chunling was still asleep with Brother Zhi. When Brother Zhi woke up, it was He left it for Brother Zhi to eat.

The three of them braved the wind and walked towards the town. Cen Ning couldn't hold back Lu Yunchuan in the middle, and sat on the cart for a while. When the three of them were almost frozen, they finally arrived at the market.

Cen Ning kept his hands warm in his arms. Seeing that Lu Yunchuan's hands were turning purple from the cold, he quickly covered them with his own, stomped his feet and said, "Are you here yet?"

"Yes." Lu Yunchuan's voice trembled from the cold, "Just turn a corner."