280 Green Rice Fruit (1)

Vegetarian dumplings on the first day of the Lunar New Year made everyone’s stomach growl.

On the first day of the new year, no one worked or did anything.

According to customs, they did not even wash their clothes or clean them. They would start working the next day.

“I soaked the rice last night. I’ll make some green rice fruits today!” Eldest Aunt smiled and said, “I won’t cook for lunch. If any of you want to eat, just say the word. I’ll steam some rice and make some dishes.”

“I’m eating the Green Rice Fruit!” The children raised their hands and said.

Grandma Gu asked Grandma Shi curiously, “Auntie, what’s a Green Rice Fruit?”

Grandma Shi said, “Green Rice Fruit is a type of food made from rice and vegetable juice. We call it Green Rice Fruit!”

Grandma Gu smiled and said, “This kind of thing, oh, I remember. When I came to Pingyang County in the past, I ate it. Yes, it’s not bad!”

After everyone finished eating the dumplings and rested for a while, Eldest Aunt and Second Aunt filtered out the rice that they had soaked last night with a dustpan.

Gu Qingming followed curiously at the side and looked at the rice. The color was different from the rice she usually ate.

“Why does this rice look a little black?” Gu Qingming asked curiously. “Also, how long will the rice take to soak?”

Eldest Aunt explained with a smile, “This rice is soaked in straw ashes, so the rice looks a little dark! Generally, rice is soaked for at least four hours.”

“Huh, straw ashes?” Gu Qingming asked. “Why straw ashes?”

“There’s alkali in straw ashes!” Eldest Aunt said. “When you make the green rice fruit, it will increase its stickiness. This way, the green rice fruit won’t crack. It’s tough and tastes better!”

“Could it be that the straw ashes and rice are soaked directly?” Gu Qingming asked curiously. “Otherwise, wouldn’t the rice be covered in dust?”

“No!” Eldest Aunt shook her head and said, “The straw ashes are soaked in water for half an hour before being filtered out. There’s no need for the actual ashes. The filtered water is straw gray water. Then, you use this straw gray water to soak with the rice.”

Gu Qingming looked at the two large vats of rice soaked in straw ashes and said, “It looks like a lot of rice. How many much rice is this?”

“Yes, it’s four buckets of rice!”

“Four buckets of rice?” Gu Qingming was a little puzzled.

“Yes, one liter of rice is one and a half catties, and ten liters of rice is one bucket,” Second Aunt explained. “We have a lot of people in our family. Since we also have to send some out, we made some more. With four buckets of rice, that’ll be 60 catties!”

Gu Qingming nodded.

60 catties didn’t seem like much, mainly because there were really a lot of people in the Shi family. The Shi family, Eldest Granduncle’s family, and Young Granduncle’s family added up to more than a hundred people.

Eldest Aunt and Second Aunt were scooping rice and filtering it. Third Aunt and a few sisters-in-law seemed to be making pickled vegetables, and washing radishes, eggplants, and other items.

“Third Aunt, are you still cooking for lunch today?” Gu Qingming asked in confusion. “Are we still having vegetarian for lunch?”

“Haha,” Third Aunt said with a smile, “These dishes are used to make fillings.”

“Ah, for the stuffing?” Gu Qingming asked in confusion, “Do we have to fill this Green Rice Fruit?”

Third Aunt said, “Yes, there are several ways to eat Green Rice Fruit. One way is not to stuff the filling, but to cook it and dip it in sauce. The other way is to stuff the filling. It’s like wrapping dumplings. They’re made bigger than dumplings and then steamed in a pot. The other way is to stuff the filling and fry it directly in the pot. However, we often eat it steamed. It’s delicious, and so is the fried one.”

Third Aunt glanced at the ingredients that everyone had prepared and continued, “There are pickled vegetables, dried radishes, water radishes, and eggplants. Mingming, do you have any fillings you want to eat?”

“Is there no chive filling?” Gu Qingming asked.

“Could it be that Mingming wants to eat chives?” Third Aunt said, “Then let’s prepare more chives!”

“The reason why this green rice fruit is green is that when grinding the rice paste, you add chives to grind it together,” Third Aunt said. “Because of the fragrance of chives, we rarely use chives in the fillings.”

“Ah, it got its green color from chives?” Gu Qingming answered her own question. “I always thought it was some chemical pigment.”

“It’s for our own family. Why would we put chemical pigments in it?” Third Aunt said in amusement. “When we cook in the countryside, we use natural pigments. We don’t especially buy chemical pigments. The countryside people are worried about those things.”

On the other side, Shi Hangyu and the others brought out the pulping machine.

Grandma Gu looked at the small machine and asked curiously, “What’s this?”

Shi Hangyu said, “Grandma, this is a pulping machine. We’ll get rice paste later.”

Grandma Gu smiled and said, “I thought you used grinding grout? So you used a machine. I’ve seen people use grinding rice grout before.”

Grandma said, “A few years ago, we did use stone milling to grind rice paste. In the past few years, our living standards have been getting better and better. It’s more convenient for everyone to buy a small machine!”

While they were chatting, Eldest Aunt and Second Aunt had already taken out the rice they had fished out. Then, they mixed some water, added oil and salt, cut the chives into pieces, and used a spoon to stir. They placed the rice and water into the machine.

As the machine roared, green rice pulp came out of the funnel. Two buckets of rice paste were then placed in a large iron pot.

Oil was poured into the iron pot beforehand, and then more than half of the pot was smeared with oil. This way, the rice paste would not touch the pot too much.

A fire had already been lit in the stove.

As soon as the rice paste was poured into the pot, it was stirred with a spatula. The stirring could not be stopped or the pot would burn.

It was a laborious job that had to be done by a man. Therefore, this job was done by Shi Yuxin who had great strength.

Gu Qingming watched from the side as the thick and sticky green rice paste in the pot became thicker and thicker. Then, it turned into balls, like dough!

Shi Yuxin pinched a small piece with her hand and put it in her mouth to taste it. She said, “Mom, it seems to be ready. Come and take a look!”

Second Aunt was stir-frying the fillings for the green rice fruits!

She put down the spatula and walked to the stove. She picked up a little with her chopsticks and tasted it. She said, “It’s not ready yet. It’s a little lacking in heat! Just stir it a little more! There’s no need for the fire!”

The little cousin who was in charge of the fire smiled and said, “Haha, you can rest now!”

A moment later, Shi Yuxin shoveled the green ball onto the table that had been prepared long ago. The table was also covered in oil, but it did not touch the table!

The half-finished Green Rice Fruit was ready!

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