roccoschili Chapter 138 Pueraria lobata powder
Chapter 138 Pueraria lobata powder
The next day, they continued yesterday's work and dug for three days in a row. The space was finally full. On the fourth day, the two planned to return home.
When we got home, the sun had already set.
Because he came back right after getting up, but Lu Chuan took the dogs hunting while walking home. So it was already late when he got home.
While Lu Chuan cleaned the house, Xu Han cooked with the fresh lotus roots she had just dug.
It has been such a long time since I ate lotus root! If it weren't for the inconvenience of cooking in the cave and the fear of attracting wild animals due to the strong smell, I would have cooked and eaten it long ago.
Scrape the lotus root skin, wash it with clean water, and start cooking.
Xu Han made a dish of stir-fried lotus root slices, which was crispy, sweet and delicious.
I also stewed beef bone soup with lotus root, and added steamed buns and pickles, and tonight's dinner was ready.
While eating stir-fried lotus roots, Lu Chuan said, "It's worth soaking in water for two days. Lotus roots are delicious. I'll make some lotus root powder from the space. The rest will be enough for a long time."
Xu Han also ate the lotus root with a smile on her face without saying a word. This time the space was full and there was no place to put them at home. It seemed that she would not be able to go into the mountains in the near future.
So Xu Han said, "Let's stay home tomorrow and deal with the kudzu root! The space is full, so we need to consume some first."
"Okay, we've already dug what we need to dig. If it's still not enough, we can wait until after the Chinese New Year to dig more. The weather is cold, so we'll stay at home and not go into the mountains recently."
"Well! Let's make kudzu root powder tomorrow!"
After the two of them had agreed, it was still early, so Xu Han boiled a pot of hot water and started scrubbing the Pueraria root in the bathroom.
I have already cleaned it roughly last time, and the mud is almost gone. This time, just scrub the gaps patiently.
While Xu Han was brushing the kudzu roots, Lu Chuan used a knife to cut the cleaned kudzu roots into small pieces, and then chopped the thick ones with a hatchet.
The space in the bathroom is not very big, and it seems a bit crowded for two people to process the Pueraria root in it, but it’s okay as long as there is not too much Pueraria root piled up in it.
After washing some, the two of them packed up and went to bed.
Have a good night’s sleep…
When he got up the next morning, after eating breakfast and feeding the livestock, Lu Chuan began to prepare to smash the kudzu root using a stone trough.
Because Pueraria root is very hard, just like a tree root, it is not realistic to cut it into small pieces and then grind it with a stone mill, so Lu Chuan took out a stone mortar.
The two of them studied it together again and modified it into a stone mortar that could be smashed by stepping on a lever with the foot. In fact, it was made using the principle of leverage.
There is no need to swing the stick with your arms. Just step on the other side, use the principle of leverage, add a stone hammer on the lever, adjust the distance and it will fall accurately into the mortar.
The two worked together for a whole morning to finally get this thing done. One person can do it and the other can explain it. Without either person, this thing cannot be made. Fortunately, the final result is satisfactory.
This stone mortar is very large. It was carved by Lu's father himself when he was still alive and has been placed outside the yard.
It would only be taken back when needed. Because it had not been used for a long time, it was very dirty, so Xu Han took it to the backyard to clean it before using it.
Xu Han cleaned the stone mortar. Lu Chuan had also finished making the things. He took out the kudzu root and tried it. It was not bad, but the kudzu root kept getting knocked out.
Then Lu Chuan made a cover with wooden boards and opened a big hole on it, which was two times larger than the stone hammer so that the stone hammer could just fall in.
After trying it again, it works fine, it doesn't move around anymore. But one needs to frequently turn over the kudzu roots inside, otherwise they will move to the top while being smashed.
Then Lu Chuan started to smash the Pueraria roots, and Xu Han continued to wash the Pueraria roots. After smashing them for an afternoon, they decisively removed the covers. It was too troublesome, so it was easier to just pick the Pueraria roots.
Xu Han used the method of making sweet potato flour to knead the smashed kudzu root into powder. After kneading it once, he put the remaining kudzu root into a stone mortar and pounded it to break it up a little to ensure that more kudzu root powder could be washed out.
What you have worked so hard to get cannot be wasted.
The water produced by washing kudzu root powder is brown, which is different from sweet potato powder.
After repeated rinsing, the kudzu root powder is clean. Put it in the kitchen to settle. It will freeze at night if the weather outside is too cold.
Light some charcoal in the kitchen to ensure that the temperature in the house will not be too low to freeze.
The preparation method of kudzu root powder is the same as that of sweet potato powder. The general method for all starches is the same.
In this way, the two of them washed the Pueraria roots after dinner in the evening and made Pueraria powder during the day. It took them several days to finish processing all the Pueraria roots.
Now there is a lot of space freed up in the house, and in the blink of an eye it is already December.
There is still a month left until the Chinese New Year, and the sweet potato vermicelli hasn’t been made yet!
Early this morning, the two of them started making sweet potato vermicelli.
Take out the tools prepared in advance, place everything in the yard, boil water in the big iron pot in the yard, then fill two large vats with water and place them next to the pot. When everything is ready, it's time to start.
Xu Han first filled a small ceramic jar with some boiling water, then poured in the starch water that had been stirred in advance and began to thicken the dish.
Starch water becomes very viscous instantly when poured into hot water. After stirring evenly, add dry starch into it and stir constantly. Add dry powder and stir at the same time. After stirring well, you can start to drain the powder.
I took out a new tool that I made last night. It was a ladle with many holes on the bottom, just like a colander, but the holes were much bigger than those of a colander.
Put the mixed powder into the colander and beat it repeatedly until fine vermicelli can be filtered out. Then point the colander at the large iron pot and start cooking the powder.
The water in the iron pot must be kept boiling at all times, otherwise the vermicelli will not be able to take shape.
The shaped vermicelli is scooped into a large water tank and starts to cool down. Then another water tank is used to continue cooling down the vermicelli. After the vermicelli becomes cool, it is placed on bamboo poles that have been set up in advance.
Cut off the particularly long ones and put them separately in a winnowing basket to dry, and separate the ones that are stuck together.
Lu Chuan is responsible for leaking fans, and Xu Han is responsible for cooling down fans.
This is indeed not a job that can be done by two people. There are too many processes. Xu Han and Lu Chuan were so busy that they were overwhelmed. They had no choice but to stop after missing some fans and continue after completing other processes.
They spent the whole day cooking vermicelli, and it was not until the evening that they finally finished cooking all the vermicelli they needed to eat.