Reborn in 1977

The days passed by, and the atmosphere of the approaching New Year in the village grew thicker.

Even families like those of Captain Yang and Huang Laowu, whose new houses were not yet built, were busy preparing for the New Year.

In these times, there were no New Year goods to buy on the streets, at most, the supply and marketing cooperative's store would have a special supply of peanuts, melon seeds, and candies. Those with jobs would receive some New Year welfare from their work units. Those without jobs didn't need to worry either, as the street committee would increase the quota on each household's non-staple food ration book.

It was said that in some cities, each household only got half a jin of peanuts and half a jin of melon seeds?

How could that possibly be enough to eat?!

Well, it was also possible that there were only so many rations available during times of material scarcity.

Anyway, this year, the standard for the South Lake Commune was based on the number of people, with each adult receiving 1 jin of peanuts, half a jin of melon seeds, and half a jin of candies. In addition, the amount of oil was also increased... otherwise, there wouldn't be enough to deep-fry New Year goods, and people would really run to the streets, jumping and shouting to curse, which was commonly known as 'cursing the streets'.

Lujiawan, or rather, the production brigade, also had New Year goods distribution quotas, with the specific amounts, as well as cloth coupons and industrial coupons, determined by the amount of grain handed over and sold.

More grain given meant a larger quota, and less grain given meant a smaller quota.

Fortunately, this year, all the production teams in the South Lake Commune had a bumper harvest, especially Lujiawan. As a pilot production team for hybrid rice, Lujiawan had planted hybrid rice on 10% of its paddy fields, and the combined yield of the two seasons was almost 15% higher than other production teams.

Therefore, this year, the commune gave out even more various coupons and New Year goods quotas.

However, apart from buying new cloth to make new clothes and collecting industrial coupons to buy industrial products, the New Year goods that the members of Lujiawan bought the most were only a little melon seeds and candies, and they rarely even bought peanuts.

Because they could grow their own!

In the vegetable garden behind the house, simply opening up a small plot of land to grow peanuts would be enough to eat for half a year.

Moreover, New Year goods weren't just melon seeds and peanuts; there were also more homemade foods.

Slaughtering New Year pigs, curing bacon, making tofu, steaming glutinous rice, making糍粑 (sticky rice cakes),糊豆皮 (paste bean curd sheets), boiling sugar, cutting sesame candy... except for the tofu shop in the 10th team where you could buy tofu and sugar syrup, everything else had to be made by yourself.

Some families even solved the problems of boiling sugar syrup and making tofu themselves... in the past, it was to save money, because making it yourself cost less, but this year, it was to enjoy the process and habit of making New Year goods themselves.

Without homemade New Year goods, it felt like something was missing, and it didn't taste as good.

At the entrance of the new house, a stone mill with a diameter of one foot was placed on the threshing floor. Gouzi and Qiuqiu were harnessed with ropes tied to the wooden lever of the stone mill, trotting around in circles, while Duoduo squatted beside, ready to take over at any time.

A large stone mill was added to the panda garden, and Gungun excitedly pushed the wooden lever around in circles, occasionally letting out an "Aowu" sound.

Old Master Chen lay on the recliner, occasionally scooping a spoonful of softened soybeans and pouring them into the small stone mill hole, instructing Qiuqiu, "Run slower, keep a steady pace. If you go fast and slow all the time, you won't be able to grind good soy milk."

He also shouted at the top of his lungs, "Gungun, don't yell randomly, be careful your saliva splashes into the rice soy milk. You eat all the bean curd sheets for me."

Gungun was so frightened that he didn't dare to make a sound, only focusing on working hard.

Chen Fan "hmph"ed, "You're not convinced? You eat so much of my bamboo all year round, and you dare to have emotions when I ask you to do some work?"

Gungun glanced at him resentfully. Where did I?

Not far away, the little mare was stomping on the wooden lever with her hooves, the lever head being a vertical piece of wood that fell into the stone mortar, smashing a pile of glutinous rice into a ball.

Yang Ju held a wooden pot spatula, occasionally scooping up the glutinous rice ball, looking at the little mare stepping on the wooden lever with a curious expression.

So you can make 糍粑 (sticky rice cakes) like this?

It's a pity that my family doesn't have a horse, otherwise I could try it too.

Well, I can try letting Dahuang pull the mill later?

Inside the kitchen, the girls were also busy.

Two large pots, one for deep-frying and one for steaming.

Huang Li and Liu Dan cooperated with each other, busy deep-frying sweet potato slices, lotus root夹 (sandwiches), spring rolls, vegetable balls, flour meat balls... After deep-frying a large pile of New Year goods, they put a bamboo sieve of small fish fry coated in flour into the hot oil.

Frying fish was generally done last, because the oil that had been used to fry fish had a fishy smell and was no longer good for other things.

After the fish was fried, Huang Ying carried back the rice soy milk that Gungun had ground.

This was the raw material for making bean curd sheets, using glutinous rice and soybeans, mixed in a certain proportion and ground into a slurry. After the large pot was cleaned up, the fire was lit again. Liu Dan scooped up a ladle of slurry and poured it down the edge of the pot, while passing on her experience to Huang Li,

"This kind of bean curd sheet is a common snack eaten in the area from Wuhan to Jingzhou in Hubei, and it is also a must-have for the New Year there. Teacher Chen likes to eat it, so I made it. There are two key points to making it: one is the recipe, and the other is the heat. I also tried more than a dozen pots before I succeeded."

Huang Li widened her eyes, "What about the failed ones?"

A hint of horror flashed in Liu Dan's eyes, "We ate them all."

Although there were many of them, a bucket of bean curd sheets was not easy to finish. And they didn't dare to give away the ones that weren't made well, so they ate them fresh and dried for more than a month, and they were indeed a little tired of it.

She evenly sprinkled a ladle of slurry into the pot, without missing a single gap. When the slurry was baked, she quickly flipped it over with a spatula and hand. After a moment, she shoveled it up and threw it aside, and a bean curd sheet was formed.

Liu Dan explained at the same time, "This kind of fresh one can be directly stir-fried and eaten, with腊肉 (cured meat) and garlic sprouts, it's especially fragrant. You can also stack them up later and cut them into shreds, and they can be stored for a long time after drying. When you want to eat them, you can either directly cook them in soup, or after cooking them soft like noodles, you can also soak them in cold water first, and after soaking them soft, drain the water and then stir-fry them."

Huang Li listened carefully, without blinking her eyes.

Although she hadn't been here for long, she had already learned a lot from Teacher Chen. Just like the bean curd sheets in front of her, if she could get a letter of introduction from the production team, she could go to the street to rent a stall or a storefront and open a business.

This was a skill that could make a living!

But she wouldn't do that. Whether it was her elder sister or her parents, they had repeatedly told her to calm down, learn well and work hard here with Teacher Chen, and try to learn more things. As long as she could learn three points of Teacher Chen's skills, she would have a good future and wouldn't have to worry about anything in this life.

Why did she want to learn to cook? It was because she had gone hungry when she was a child. At that time, she often heard the adults say that cooks would not go hungry in famine years. In order not to go hungry forever in the future, when she was sent by her third uncle to learn her craft, she was determined to learn cooking, so that she would never go hungry again.

When she heard Liu Dan say that she was tired of eating bean curd sheets, she was actually quite envious. Would she have the opportunity to eat so much in the future?

Over here, they were making bean curd sheets, and over there, the steamer was already steaming. Huang Ying and Liu Lu quickly moved the trays of steamers to the table. The steamers were filled with round bowls, all of which were steamed dishes prepared for the New Year.

Liu Lu took a pearl meatball with chopsticks, took a careful bite, and her eyes turned red instantly.

Huang Li, who was in charge of seasoning, immediately looked at her with hopeful eyes, "How is it?"

She had prepared all these steamed dishes herself, so of course she was very much looking forward to it.

Liu Lu's small mouth wriggled a few times, and after a few seconds, she breathed out repeatedly, "So hot."

The most frightening thing was the sudden silence.

Two seconds later, the kitchen burst into laughter.

With great difficulty, Liu Lu swallowed the meat in her mouth, her eyes shining as she nodded vigorously, "Mmm, delicious."

Huang Li immediately breathed a sigh of relief, grinning, "It's Teacher Chen's recipe, I was just afraid I'd mess it up."

Huang Ying also tasted one, then picked up half and held it to her sister's mouth, "Try it yourself."

Huang Li carefully felt the temperature with her lips before opening her mouth to eat it. After chewing a few times, the smile on her face grew even brighter. "Teacher Chen's recipe is amazing!"

She configured it completely according to the process and materials Chen Fan had explained, even the heat was clearly explained, so the deliciousness was not her own credit, but Teacher Chen's skill.

However, she wasn't discouraged. Teacher Chen was amazing anyway. She was learning skills from him, so as long as she could learn the skills, why think so much about unnecessary things?

Huang Ying took two more bowls, put a few meatballs in each bowl, and carried them out with chopsticks, "Teacher Chen, freshly steamed dish, please try it."

Chen Fan sat up, took the bowl of food, and pointed to the large enamel bucket next to him, "The soy milk is ready, take it in to make tofu."

Huang Ying grinned and chuckled, giving a thumbs up to the two dogs with their tongues out, "Duo Duo and Qiu Qiu are great!"

The dogs looked at the bowl in her hand, if we are so great, give us something to eat!

Unfortunately, Huang Ying turned around and went into the house with the bowl.

The two dogs were full of resentment, missing Sister Lili!

Inside the living room, Yang Mei was concentrating on grinding medicine. Although she didn't understand why she had to grind medicine to learn how to brew wine, she did it because Teacher Chen told her to.

Huang Ying brought the bowl to her, "Xiao Mei, eat some meatballs, they're freshly cooked."

Yang Mei raised her head and smiled, "Thank you, Sister Ying, put it aside for now, I'll eat it after I finish grinding this."

Huang Ying didn't say much, put the bowl on the low cabinet by the window, pulled a stool and sat next to her, and said, "Before, your sister and I also ground medicine. Teacher Chen said that whether it's cooking or brewing wine, you must carefully understand the characteristics of the ingredients and medicinal materials, especially when preparing medicinal wine, you must also understand the changes in the medicinal properties, so that you can brew the best wine according to the situation."

Chen Fan sat at the door eating meatballs, and couldn't help but twitch his mouth when he heard the conversation inside.

You really believe the words I use to fool you into working?

Of course, the reasoning is also correct, but whether it's cooking or brewing wine, you have to reach his current level to need to deeply understand the ingredients and medicinal materials, and the purpose is to innovate and go further.

They are barely getting started, just the LV1 apprentice level. Just diligently study and practice step by step, and they are still far away from these things.

Well, of course it's not a lie. It's better to be prepared. Learning master-level skills in advance during the apprenticeship stage is also for their own good!

After working for most of the day, all the New Year's goods were finally prepared, except for the tofu, which still had to wait.

The little mare looked at the empty stone mortar, her two front legs were a little trembling, but she walked excitedly to the stable in the back. Oh my, this job is quite interesting, but it's more tiring than running long distances, I'll never do it again.

She chewed the glutinous rice balls fed by Yang Ju, looking at the little foal who was also eating glutinous rice cakes and had grown very tall with tenderness in her eyes, thinking, unless I get to eat this again!

The two dogs finally got to eat the meatballs, and then quickly crawled into their kennel behind the house and lay down comfortably. They had too much running today, and they decided not to leave the kennel until dawn tomorrow.

The kestrel perched on the top of the bare branch, secretly rejoicing that it didn't have to work.

The myna had been lying in its nest, afraid of being caught to do forced labor, until it saw the girls busy cleaning up, then it flew out with a whoosh, "Hard work, hard work."

In the stable behind, the two sheep bleated, eager to go out and frolic.

And two pigs...

"Kill them!"

Chen Fan bit his dry tobacco pipe, took two puffs, his eyes a little dazed, trying hard to recall the past, and confirmed that he had no friendship with the two castrated pigs, then said again, "Later, see which family in the team will hand in the task pig, and pull one over, well, pull the smaller one.

Kill the bigger one, and see if Master Zhu is available. If he's not, I'll do it myself."

He still had the task of ordering a pig on his back, so he might as well hand it in earlier.

Huang Ying looked at him with surprise, "You can also kill pigs?"

Chen Fan curled his lips, "Killing pigs is nothing. As a good cook, you must not only know every piece of meat on the pig, but also be able to kill pigs and slaughter sheep. A cook who can't kill pigs is not a good cook."

Suppressing a smile, these days there are indeed many places, especially in rural areas, that require cooks to be able to kill pigs.

Because sometimes when holding village banquets, or when there are large-scale events, there is no time or no one to hire a pig killer, so the cook needs to go into battle himself.

It's not required that the skill of skinning and dividing meat is very high, but it is absolutely necessary to be able to do a "one-knife soul entrance".

As long as the pig is dead, the rest is easy to say. It's just a matter of seeing "whether my knife is sharp", just swing the knife and chop.

Nothing worth mentioning.

Huang Li was stunned. If she was learning to cook, did she also have to know how to kill pigs?

Huang Ying was also so shocked that she couldn't close her mouth, thinking whether her sister had chosen the wrong cooking skill?

Looking over, she? A thin little girl less than 1.6 meters tall, killing pigs?

At this time, Liu Dan gave them a critical blow, nodding repeatedly and saying, "Mmm, my uncle (Liu Jujiang) has killed pigs, but he doesn't divide the meat as well as Master Zhu, but he definitely has to know how to kill."

Looking at Huang Li's tangled expression, Chen Fan twitched his mouth slightly, trying hard to suppress it from turning upwards, and then deliberately didn't explain, just waved his hand and said, "Okay, the work is done, I can't eat so much, each of you take some back and let your family taste your skills."

Several girls quickly shook their heads and waved their hands, Huang Ying rushed ahead and said, "No need, no need, we all have it at home, and we made it too."

Before the others could speak, Chen Fan glanced at them, "Can it be as delicious as my recipe?"

Everyone was silent. After two seconds, everyone looked at each other and decisively went into the kitchen to pick out dishes.

Of course, they didn't pick too much, each holding a big bowl and waving goodbye to Chen Fan, reluctantly leaving.

After their footsteps faded away, Chen Fan looked at the clean threshing floor and the panda garden that had been restored to its original state, raised his hands and stretched, "Hmm... ah, so tired, but finally all the New Year's goods are ready, tomorrow we can celebrate the New Year!"

Then he walked into the kitchen, and after a while he carried out a basket, which contained several large bowls, covered with a blue cloth, and muttered in his heart, "Fourth Grandpa must have only prepared two pieces of tofu again, this old man, he's getting lazy now, he must be waiting for me to send New Year's goods over, speaking of which, it's New Year again, won't Grandpa not give me a New Year's greeting gift?"