Chapter 106 Crystal Tofu
When Qianhuan got home, Liu was cooking in the kitchen.
Qianhuan saw that Liu had already peeled out about ten pounds of Castanopsis nuts in the wooden barrel, so she squatted down and continued peeling.
By dinner time in the evening, the mother and daughter had peeled about 15 pounds of Castanopsis nuts together, and Qianhuan soaked all the Castanopsis nuts in clean water.
When the family was having dinner that night, Qianhuan said to Liu, "Mom, I will go to Carpenter Sun's house tomorrow to order a few more buckets and wooden basins. The kernels of the bitter chestnuts need to be soaked in clean water for at least two days. Tomorrow we need to soak the kernels in a new bucket."
"Qianhua, why do the nuts of bitter chestnuts have to be soaked in water for two days?"
"Because the bitter taste of the bitter chestnut kernels can be basically eliminated after being soaked in clean water, the water must be changed frequently during the soaking period. Only when the astringency of the bitter chestnut kernels is soaked away, the bitter chestnut tofu we make will not have a bitter taste."
"It turns out that the bitter taste can be removed by just soaking it. Unfortunately, the people in the village didn't know this before. Every year, a layer of bitter chestnuts fell on the mountain in our backyard, but no one picked them up. Every year, they rotted in the soil on the mountain."
"Dad, Mom, don't let other people in the village know that we use bitter chestnuts to make tofu, otherwise everyone will go to the mountains to pick bitter chestnuts to make tofu, and our family will not be able to earn money. I plan to name this tofu Crystal Tofu. If someone asks what ingredients this crystal tofu is made of, we will say that it is made of a rare wild fruit in the mountains. Do you remember it?"
"Well, we all remembered it and we will definitely not let anyone in the village know. Mom went to the mountain to pick the bitter chestnuts secretly. Besides, there are too many bitter chestnut trees on the mountain in our backyard, and there are no other edible mountain products. Basically, no villagers would go up this mountain."
"That's good. Let's go to the mountains tomorrow to pick nuts for the morning, and then shell the kernels at home in the afternoon. The day after tomorrow, we'll grind the kernels we soaked tonight and make tofu."
"it is good."
The next day, Qianhuan went to Carpenter Sun's house and ordered five buckets and five large wooden basins. Qianhuan also asked Carpenter Sun to equip these buckets and basins with wooden lids.
Carpenter Sun happened to have two ready-made buckets at home, so Qianhuan took one home first. Carpenter Sun said he would deliver the other buckets and basins to her home the next day.
After finishing the work, Qianhuan went up the mountain with Liu. As usual, Qianhuan proposed to pick bitter chestnuts separately from Liu. In fact, Qianhuan was thinking that she had to perform at Xunfang Pavilion for two days this month, so she found a flat place and choreographed a dance. After practicing several times, she started picking bitter chestnuts.
In the afternoon, the two of them peeled the nuts at home. The next morning, Qianhuan and Liu got up early and prepared to go to the mill in the town to grind the chestnuts.
"Mom, there are only 15 kilograms of bitter chestnut kernels in total. Let's not push the cart to the town today. We can just use two wooden barrels to separate the kernels and each of us can carry a wooden barrel to the town."
"Okay, let's take it over then."
Because there were no electric grinders in ancient times, they could only use traditional stone mills to grind the bitter chestnut kernels. The two waited in the mill for an hour and a half before all the bitter chestnuts were ground into pulp.
After returning home, Qianhua filtered the bitter chestnut juice with white cotton cloth to remove the residue. She packed up the filtered bitter chestnut residue and said to Liu: "Mother, I will keep this bitter chestnut residue. You can use it to make steamed buns tomorrow morning. We need to let the filtered bitter chestnut juice settle overnight, pour out the brown water on top, and then add clean water. This will also remove the remaining astringency. Tomorrow we will start to make crystal tofu."
"Okay, let's peel some more nuts today and save them for making crystal tofu next time."
Qianhuan thought that if the chestnuts were not shelled, they would easily get infested with worms, so she nodded and said, "Well, mother, let's shell all the chestnuts we picked up, otherwise they will all be wasted if they get infested with worms."
The mother and daughter worked for the entire afternoon, peeling the remaining bitter chestnuts at home and soaking them in water.
The next day, Carpenter Sun delivered the wooden barrels, wooden basins and matching wooden lids to Liang Laoer's home.
Qianhuan's family has two stoves, a small pot for cooking, and a large pot that she bought when she set up a stall to sell sugar-roasted chestnuts. Qianhuan said to Liu: "Mom, let's use this large pot to boil the bitter chestnut juice, so that we can boil more at a time."
"Okay, then mother will light the fire over here in the big pot."
Liu helped pour some of the slurry into the pot to boil. Qianhuan reminded her, "Mother, just use a low fire. The juice needs to be boiled slowly."
"Okay, mom got it." Liu helped to light the fire and learned at the same time.
Qianhuan kept stirring the tofu during the cooking process. Firstly, the bitter chestnut has a high starch content and if it is not stirred, it will easily sink to the bottom and form lumps, and it will not be possible to make tofu. Secondly, stirring can prevent it from burning.
When the pot began to boil and the bitter chestnut juice began to bubble, Qianhuan boiled it for another two or three minutes, then scooped up the paste from the pot and poured it into a clean large wooden basin.
She said to Liu: "Mother, as long as the paste is left for a few hours, it will slowly solidify and our crystal tofu will be ready. Let's put the remaining paste into the pot and boil it out."
"okay."
One pound of bitter chestnut kernels can produce five to six pounds of tofu. The mother and daughter boiled 15 pounds of bitter chestnut kernels in two batches, and in total they produced more than 80 pounds of tofu.
At noon, all the tofu was solidified. The fresh Castanopsis tofu was brown in appearance, soft, crystal clear, moist, smooth, and elastic, just like solidified fat!
Qianhuan used a knife to cut the tofu in the two wooden basins into small pieces, and then placed them in the wooden basins and continued to soak them in water. She also told Liu that the water for soaking bitter chestnut tofu should be changed every two or three days, and tofu rinsed in clean water would taste better.
At noon, after Liu cooked the rice and fried other dishes, Qianhuan was ready to show off her cooking skills and stir-fry crystal tofu.
She went to her backyard, picked some green garlic and coriander, washed them and set them aside, cut some chili peppers and ginger, peeled some garlic and crushed them as seasoning, then took half a pound of crystal tofu from the wooden basin and cut it into thin slices.
After heating the pan, pour in cooking oil, add ginger and garlic, stir-fry until fragrant, then pour in the Castanopsis tofu slices and stir-fry. Qianhuan doesn't dare to stir-fry too hard for fear of breaking the tofu.
After stir-frying for a while, she poured a little water into the pot, added a spoonful of salt, covered the pot and simmered for half an incense stick of time. After opening the lid, she sprinkled green garlic leaves and coriander, and then sprinkled chopped chili peppers. After stir-frying, she simmered for a while and then removed from the pot and served it on a plate.
After tasting the food, Liang Laoer and Liu praised it highly.
Liu said to her daughter, "Qianhuan, I was a little skeptical at first, fearing that I couldn't make tofu with these bitter chestnuts! I didn't expect you to actually make it successfully. Moreover, bitter chestnuts, which are so astringent at first, are made into tofu and then stir-fried. Not only is it not bitter at all, but it also has a light and unique fragrance, which is especially delicious with rice. No matter what you do in the future, I will never distrust you again."
Liang Lao Er also said: "Chunxiang, from now on, no matter what our daughter wants to do, we just need to support her. Our daughter is becoming more and more capable and can be the master of the family."
"Yes, her father, I know."
Qianhuan was very happy to see that her parents were becoming more and more convinced of her. She would be freer to do whatever she wanted in the future.
After dinner, Qianhuan filled a bucket with about ten pounds of crystal tofu, covered it with a wooden lid, and went to the county town on a ox cart.
She first went to Zuixianju to look for Young Master Chu. When Shopkeeper Zhou saw that the visitor was Young Master Liang, whom he had not seen for many days, he immediately greeted him with enthusiasm, "Young Master Liang, long time no see. How come you are willing to come to our Zuixianju today?"
"Manager Zhou, I'm here to look for your young master. I wonder if he's in the restaurant today?"
"Our young master's cousin came to visit the Chu Mansion. The young master has been accompanying his cousin these days. I wonder what Mr. Liang wants to see our young master?"
"It's like this. I've made a new kind of crystal tofu, and it's delicious when stir-fried. I want to discuss cooperation with Mr. Chu. Since he's not here, I won't bother you today." Qianhuan said as she prepared to leave.