Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 201 Wife’s Tofu

The soaked and swollen soybeans turned into a snow-white slurry under the action of the stone grinder and flowed out. With a slight hissing sound, a lot of white foam appeared, like white clouds.

"Dad, what is this?"

When Lin Heng and Xiulan weren't paying attention, Xiaoxia picked up a lot of white foam and played with it curiously.

"This is delicious. It will be ready for you in a moment." Lin Heng looked at her and replied, then carried her away.

In Lin Heng's arms, Xiaoxia playfully rubbed foam on his face. Lin Heng helplessly touched his little face and said, "Just stay here, there will be something delicious soon."

Xiaoxia was quite well-behaved and played with the foam on her hands without causing trouble. After a while, Lin Heng and Xiulan finished grinding the soybeans.

Fifty pounds of soybeans were ground into five buckets of coarse pulp. After rinsing all the residue on the stone grinder, Lin Heng looked at his mother and said with a smile, "How about it, Mom? It's much faster than grinding by yourself."

Mother Lin raised her chin and said, "The food ground by cows is not as delicious as the food ground by hand."

This made Lin Heng laugh: "Okay, next time you can grind it slowly by hand."

Her mother was simply an early Soul Eater.

After saying that, he picked up two buckets of ground coarse pulp and walked back. Xiulan took Xiaoxia back to boil water.

Next, you need to boil water, initially dilute and scald the thick slurry, and finally remove the scum and use a cloth bag to filter out the bean dregs. What is left is soy milk.

There are only two big pots in his house, and they definitely can't make fifty kilograms of tofu.

But Lin Heng already had a countermeasure. He directly took out a large wooden basin with a diameter of 2 meters and a height of 50 centimeters, poured water into it and heated it as fast as possible.

While the water was boiling, Xiulan prepared some tofu plaster and cut the mugwort into thin strips to make mugwort tofu.

Lin Heng took dried chili peppers and garlic and pounded them in a small stone mortar to make garlic chili, ready to be eaten later.

After finishing it, Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and asked, "Do you want to eat ordinary cabbage and tofu?"

Lin Heng looked at Qie's pot of mugwort seeds, smiled and shook his head: "No need, mugwort tofu is delicious, you can make some if you want."

Ordinary vegetable tofu is made from cabbage leaves and tastes pretty good.

"Then make some, the water hasn't boiled yet anyway." Xiulan thought for a while, picked some cabbage leaves and chopped them into pieces, preparing to make tofu for a while.

After waiting for more than half an hour, the water in the tub was finally so hot that it was almost scalding. Lin Heng and Xiulan immediately stood up and poured the ground coarse slurry in. After stirring evenly, it was time to filter.

Place the wooden rack on top of the pot, place a small square basket on top, and in the basket is a cloth bag.

Filtering tofu is a very labor-intensive job, so Lin Heng took the initiative to do it at home.

Xiulan rolled up Lin Heng's sleeves and said with a smile, "Take your time. If it's hot, ice it in the water."

"it is good."

Lin Heng nodded, opened the white cloth bag, and Xiulan scooped out the diluted pulp and poured it in.

The gap in the bag is very small and requires constant pressing to squeeze out the soy milk. The thick pulp is hot, so Lin Heng had to stop and touch the cold water after pressing it a few times.

It took the two of them twenty minutes to filter out a pot of soy milk. Lin Heng looked at the remaining coarse pulp in the barrel, which was a bit big, so it could at least filter three pots.

Both of his pots are large iron pots with a mouth diameter of one meter, but even with such a large pot, it would take four pots to finish filtering.

Xiulan looked at his red hands and suggested, "Why don't we rest and do it again?"

Lin Heng shook his head, pointed to another big pot and said, "You can't make this pot empty if you make another pot."

Moreover, the temperature of the coarse pulp has dropped a lot now, and Lin Heng's squeezed and filtered soy milk is no longer so hot.

It took another half an hour to filter out another pot of soy milk.

Xiulan wiped his sweat and said with a smile, "Just sit there and rest now. Leave the rest to me."

"Okay." Lin Heng sat aside with Xiaoxia.

Xiaoxia curiously asked what Lin Heng cooked. When she learned that it was sweet, her mouth opened and she swallowed.

……

"Dad, when can I drink?"

Every once in a while, Xiaoxia would always ask like this in a sweet voice.

"It's ready."

Lin Heng said with a smile.

The soy milk was already half-boiled, but Xiulan boiled it after adding fire.

"Here you go, let it dry for a while before drinking."

Xiulan served Lin Heng and Xiaoxia a bowl with a lot of sugar.

When it cooled down a bit, Xiaoxia couldn't wait to take a sip.

This was her first time to drink soy milk. The rich aroma and sweetness of the soy milk in one sip stunned her, and then she drank it in big gulps.

"Mom, more~"

She drank her small bowl in one go, then ran up to Xiulan with the bowl and begged for it with a sweet voice.

But Xiulan didn't give it to her, but said: "There will be something more delicious than this in a while."

Rejected by her mother, she turned to look at Lin Heng who had not yet finished drinking. She looked at him eagerly and whispered, "Dad, I still want to drink."

Lin Heng poured a little bit for her, and then drank the rest in front of her.

Xiaoxia seemed to know that she had no more, so she drank from the spoon one by one.

Xiulan lowered the heat and started ordering tofu.

This first pot does not make vegetable tofu, but all is made of tofu, ready to be used to make dried tofu or fermented bean curd.

They use gypsum here to order tofu, and they also use brine, but the tofu made with brine is too hard and not as soft as the tofu made with plaster.

As the gypsum water is added little by little, you can gradually see the tofu appear. Continue until the tofu is completely formed and the water turns clear yellow, which is considered complete.

This process is simple to say, but the amount of water in the gypsum is a test of people's experience. Too much of this stuff is bad for people, and it's unclear if it's too little.

However, Xiulan used to make and sell tofu, so ordering tofu is very familiar to her and she can hardly make mistakes.

After ordering, take out the tofu mold and shape the tofu. Lin Heng’s family uses a square mold made of wood, but it is also made of bamboo.

There are small drainage holes at the bottom and all sides of the mold. After spreading the tofu cloth in it, you can scoop out the tofu curd and pour it in. Two pots of tofu curd can just fill the tofu mold with a side of 40 centimeters.

Wrap the tofu in cloth, cover it with a cover and press it tightly with a fifty kilogram stone. Wait an hour or two for the tofu to take shape.

After finishing it, Xiulan took Lin Heng's hand and looked at the time. It was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

She looked up at Lin Heng and said, "Let's get started and try to finish it before dark."

"it is good."

Lin Heng naturally had no objection to this. He added a little hot water to the cold slurry in the wooden basin, stirred it evenly, and then boiled the water and filtered it.

Half an hour later, Lin Heng looked at the thick pulp left in the wooden basin and said, "This is more than we expected. It can't even be filled in two pots."

There is about half a pot of thick pulp left, which is more troublesome.

Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and said, "It's okay. I'll make these into bean curd skins later. Do you want to eat bean curd skins or oil skins?"

Tofu skin is made by dotting the soy milk with gypsum, placing it in a grinder, pouring it over a layer of gauze, and repeating this process. It is essentially a very thin tofu.

There is no need to point out the oil skin. Put the soy milk in a pot and heat it, and a thin layer of skin will naturally condense on the surface of the soy milk. Pick it out and let it cool to become the oil skin.

The oil skin is much thinner than the bean skin, and the texture of the two is also different.

Lin Heng said with a smile: "Can you have some, we will have hot pot in a few days?"

Xiulan blinked: "Of course, you just stay with me." "That's no problem."

Lin Heng assured, patting his chest.

Then the two started making tofu again. After boiling the soy milk, Xiulan put the chopped wormwood directly into the pot, stirred it evenly and started ordering the tofu.

As the bean curd condenses, mugwort becomes the backbone of each bean curd.

"I'm going out to call someone." Lin Heng said, and then went to call his parents, elder brother, and others.

Tofu is a very precious thing in rural areas of this era. It is usually only made during the Chinese New Year. At this time, the whole family will gather together to drink soy milk and eat tofu.

"My parents and eldest brother are all here to eat tofu nao." Lin Heng came over and said with a smile.

"I want to eat, I'll go first." Caiyun just came back. When he heard it was tofu nao, he was the first to run over.

"Okay, here you go!"

No one else declined. Everyone knew that there was no shortage of this thing now, and Lin Heng didn't like it when his own family members came and treated him politely. It was too boring.

On the way back, I called my sister-in-law and my three sons.

Lin Wei was doing his homework. When he heard about eating tofu, he got up and ran away with Lin Heng. He couldn't stop screaming.

After a while, a total of 11 people gathered in the main room of Lin Heng's house, and the laughter spread far away.

Lin Heng looked at everyone and asked with a smile: "Do you eat tofu with wormwood or without wormwood?"

"I want it with mugwort and spicy seeds." Father Lin said.

"I also want mugwort." Lin Yue said with a smile.

Almost all the adults choose Artemisia Seed and Tofu Pudding, and they want to eat the salty version with garlic and chili.

Lin Wei looked at Lin Heng and said loudly: "I want something sweet!"

Everyone looked at him, as if they were looking at someone else.

"What's wrong?" Lin Wei asked weakly.

"No, it's pretty good." Lin Heng smiled slightly, and went in to scoop out tofu buns with Xiulan for everyone.

Xiaoxia also got a bowl of sweet tofu and lay there eating it with Lin Wei and Lin Tao.

In Lin Heng's bowl was a bowl of mugwort and tofu. The mugwort and tofu were blended evenly, and the salty garlic chili was added to make him satisfied after one bite.

The tofu is soft and tender, full of bean flavor, and also has the taste and texture of mugwort, giving it a bit of chewiness while being soft.

Coupled with the rich aroma of chili pepper and garlic, this wonderful taste and aroma can make you cry, especially in this era of extreme scarcity of material resources.

Everyone ate without saying a word, with happy smiles on their faces. From time to time, someone would say something delicious, and then continue eating.

"It's so cool!"

After blowing it, Lin Heng said with emotion, although it was spicy, it tasted really good.

The garlic chili is a bit spicy, Xiulan is also sucking it, her cheeks are red.

"good to eat!"

Xiaoxia had already finished the food in the bowl, looked up at Lin Heng and Xiulan, and expressed that she wanted more.

Lin Heng thought for a moment and said, "Let's get her some more. It's still early to go to bed anyway."

"Okay." Xiulan nodded and went to scoop some more for Xiaoxia.

After scooping out Xiaoxia, Xiulan looked at her parents again: "Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister-in-law, would you like some more?"

Father Lin shook his head: "No, just eat a little and you still have to make tofu."

"Yes, this is enough." Lin Yue also said.

As they talked, they washed all the bowls, and Xiulan had no choice but to scoop some more for Lin Wei and other children, and the rest was made into tofu.

The box of tofu made before was done successfully. Xiulan took it out and placed it on the chopping board, then scooped the new tofu in.

The Haozi tofu is made from a tofu box brought from Lin’s father.

After doing this, it was already dark, and Father Lin and the others left one after another. Mother Lin heard that Lin Heng was going to feed the bean dregs to the forest musk deer and horses, so she took some back to make steamed buns for herself.

Lin Heng was helpless. His mother was too frugal, but this habit had been formed for forty years, and he couldn't change it. He could only take some okara back to her.

This habit can only be changed slowly in the years to come.

After they left, Xiulan started making bean curd skins. She first made thirty pieces of oil skins, and then counted the tofu and made a dozen pieces of tofu skins. Different from pressing tofu, the tofu skins had to be pressed very heavily. .

Lin Heng directly placed the wooden basin on top. It weighed more than two hundred kilograms when filled with water.

"It's finally done. I'm so tired."

Xiulan took a deep breath and looked at the three boxes of tofu, which together weighed more than 130 kilograms.

Generally speaking, one pound of soybeans can make two or three pounds of tofu, and if it contains fat tofu, it can make four or five pounds.

Tofu contains a lot of water, but this amount is not too much.

Lin Heng held his daughter in his arms and said with a smile: "Whatever you want to eat, I will cook it for you."

Xiulan shook her head: "I'll do it. You're pretty tired too. Let's take a rest after eating next noodles."

"That's okay." Lin Heng nodded.

It was already after nine o'clock after dinner, and it was almost ten o'clock when Lin Heng finished reading to Xiaoxia and telling stories.

After going to bed, he lay down peacefully and stared at the beating flames in the fireplace.

Xiulan hugged Lin Heng, and the two fell asleep in a daze.

Lin Heng had a nightmare at night. In the dream, he and his elder brother went hunting together. While walking in the mountains, suddenly dense venomous snakes appeared all around, and they couldn't kill them all.

Forget about the poisonous snakes, a giant snake appeared in the end and swallowed the two exhausted people directly into its belly.

Lin Heng was woken up in the middle of the night and took several deep breaths. When he felt Xiulan beside him, his heart gradually calmed down.

"How could I suddenly have such a dream in the middle of the night!"

Lin Heng didn't understand. He had never thought of anything like this.

Holding Xiulan tightly, this feeling gradually disappeared, but he could no longer sleep.

"What's wrong?"

Xiulan felt Lin Heng's movements and woke up in a daze.

"Nothing, I just had a nightmare. I'm going to add some firewood to the fireplace."

Lin Heng shook his head, got up and added some firewood to the fireplace, and then used the urinal to go to the toilet.

When he saw that the time was only four in the morning, Lin Heng took a breath and continued to rest.

"It's okay, I'm here." Xiulan hugged Lin Heng tightly, patted his back and said softly.

"Ok!"

Feeling the warm embrace of his wife, the thrill of dreaming just now gradually disappeared.

It was nice to have someone by his side. He couldn't help but think of how he felt when he woke up alone from a nightmare.

　Finally two hundred chapters.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)