บท 11: Chapter 11: Jelly
The most abundant food at home right now was the sweet potato, and so breakfast was Xiaomi sweet potato porridge with wheat bran pancakes.
A lot of the black flour Qiao Changshun traded for in Aunt Guilan's home was wheat husk; she mixed in the sweet potato pulp filtered out the night before, and used oil to fry three pancakes.
Seeing her extravagance, Qiao Changshun couldn't help but interject, "They can be steamed as raw dough in the pot."
Frying with oil was a waste.
They had to pay taxes in a month's time, they had to save where they could.
Qiao Xiaomai suppressed her urge to roll her eyes. Qiao Changshun was especially capable of enduring hardship, but the money and food he saved, apart from barely keeping them, a family of four, from starving, were all given to the Sun family.
Zhuang Luhe had tolerated this for so many years before running away, truly reaching the limit of both benevolence and righteousness.
"Dad, things are not saved, they are earned. Let's eat at ease, we will have money soon." Qiao Xiaomai persuaded him patiently.
"Can that starch really make money?" Qiao Changshun was somewhat incredulous.
"Wait until you taste what I make tonight." Qiao Xiaomai said, pinching a pancake and handing it to Qiao Dami, "Eat up quickly, and then come with me to gather firewood."
Qiao Dami didn't think as much as Qiao Changshun, he happily accepted the pancake, thanked his sister, and started eating.
The wheat husk didn't have a good mouthfeel, it was irritating to the throat, and the sweet potato pulp was also somewhat throat-irritating, but food with this kind of texture was always staple food in the Qiao family, and Qiao Dami had long gotten used to it.
Now there was a bit of oil, fragrant, the taste was marvellous!
Seeing Qiao Dami eating so sweetly, Qiao Changshun's eyes got a little hot and he stopped talking.
Oh well, it was a rare splurge after all.
After eating an irritating breakfast, Qiao Xiaomai took a length of rope, carrying a basket and went with Qiao Dami to the mountain to gather firewood. When it was evening, she saw that the starch had dried, and started making bean jelly.
The dried starch were white and fine. The chunky starch was ground into powder, water was added and stirred into a paste.
Then, a certain amount of water was added to the pot. When the water boiled, the starch paste was slowly added to the pot, constantly stirring with chopsticks.
Once the water in the pot completely solidified, becoming the brown bean jelly, it could be taken out of the pot.
Qiao Changshun and Qiao Dami looked at this scene, the father and son were both a bit surprised, "Xiaomai, this starch is white, how come it turns this color once heated?"
"I don't know either. As long as it's not poisonous and can be eaten." Qiao Xiaomai's answer was simple and crude.
She scooped the bean jelly out of the pot, cut it into small pieces, then added oil, salt, and Cornelian sauce, and simply mixed it cold.
After getting it ready, she took a bite with her chopsticks. Natural and pollution-free. The taste was quite good, it's just that the flavor of the Cornelian wasn't as authentic as chili.
"Sis, is it tasty?" Qiao Dami watched her eagerly.
Qiao Xiaomai couldn't help but start laughing. She took out two pairs of chopsticks and gave them to Qiao Changshun and Qiao Dami to let the two of them try it out.
It was soft, springy, and completely free from the taste of sweet potato, but it tasted good. For the father and son of the Qiao family who were used to eating irritating food, this delicate bean jelly was as good as meat!
"Xiaomai, this tastes really good." Qiao Changshun praised.
"Tasty, tasty, tasty." Qiao Dami's little head was nodding like a chicken pecking at rice; his chopsticks were working non-stop, his cheeks were bulging out.
There was more to Qiao Xiaomai's soft and beautiful face's smile, "Dad, now do you believe that the bean jelly can make money?"
"It can sell, it can sell, Xiaomai is really clever and capable." Qiao Changshun praised. He said it and put down his chopsticks, "I will go grind some more sweet potatoes, to make more starch."
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