Chapter 82: Chapter 78: Pea Cake

After she finished cooking, Lin Lan called Little Douzi over to eat. The little guy ran to the clay stove in amazement, staring at the flames leaping from the fire chamber. “Mama, you’re amazing.”

Seeing the worshipful look in Little Douzi’s eyes, Lin Lan smiled smugly. “I’m your mama, of course I’m amazing!”

Little Douzi looked at her and nodded emphatically. “My mama is the most amazing!”

Lin Lan looked at her precious boy, whose eyes and heart were filled with nothing but her. It warmed her heart, and she scooped him up in a hug. “And my Little Douzi is the best, most well-behaved baby.”

Little Douzi happily hugged Lin Lan and planted two big kisses on her cheek. His eyes sparkling, he looked at her and giggled.

After the mother and son finished their meal, Lin Lan fed the pigs. Once Little Douzi had called the chickens back and fed them, she took the two little hens out from the basket on her back and put them in the coop.

Little Douzi saw the little chickens all huddled together and asked worriedly, “Mama, will they fight?”

Lin Lan glanced over and smiled. “No, they just met, so they don’t know each other yet.”

Little Douzi looked at the chickens in the coop. Still worried, he said, “I’ll stay here and watch them.”

“Okay, but don’t go near the latrine!”

“Okay!” Little Douzi agreed, squatting down in front of the coop. Dahuang lay down beside him.

The original flock already recognized their master, but the two new hens shrank into a corner of the coop, their small eyes watching the boy and dog warily.

Lin Lan closed the courtyard gate, went back to the kitchen, and saw that the clay stove was already half-dry from the heat.

She poured the rice water from an earthenware bowl into a clay pot and brought it to a boil. Holding the pot by its handle, she swirled the starchy water around to coat the inside. She then poured the water into a second pot and repeated the process before emptying them and rinsing them clean.

After washing the yellow gardenias, she put them in a clay pot, added water and white sugar, and placed it on the clay stove to simmer into a syrup.

Little Douzi came back to the kitchen with Dahuang. “Mama, they didn’t fight.”

Lin Lan nodded. “Do you want to wash your face, brush your teeth, and go to bed now?”

Little Douzi shook his head. “I’ll wait for you.”

“Mama still has to make the pea cakes. If you get sleepy, you can go to bed first.”

“Okay!” Little Douzi nodded.

After pouring some water for him to wash up, Lin Lan carried him to bed, helped him out of his clothes, tucked him under the covers, and gave him a kiss. “You go to sleep first, sweetheart. Mama will come as soon as the cakes are done.”

Little Douzi nodded. “Come soon, Mama.”

“Okay, Mama will go after you fall asleep.” Lin Lan sat on the bed beside him, patting him gently. Only after he had fallen asleep did she go back to the kitchen.

The yellow gardenia syrup in the clay pot was ready. Lin Lan scooped some plant ash to cover the charcoal fire. She brought the basin of peas to the stove and saw that they had finished soaking and expanded.

She scooped up a handful and rubbed them back and forth a few times, and the skins came right off.

Lin Lan skimmed the floating skins off the top and dumped them into the swill bucket. Then she poured the peas into a deep, round-mouthed basket, grabbed a flashlight, and carried it to the edge of the ditch.

The croaking of frogs echoed from the rice paddies, along with the DENG… DENG… DENG… call of a Dong Chicken.

Lin Lan paused. Listening to the sound, at once familiar and distant, a serene smile graced her lips.

Just then, Dahuang started barking behind her. WOOF WOOF. Lin Lan chided him, telling him to guard the courtyard gate.

Dahuang obediently went back and lay down at the gate, watching his master on the steps, his tail wagging back and forth on the ground.

Lin Lan walked down the stone steps and placed the basket in the water. She swished it around a few times, and the pea skins were carried away by the current.

She lifted the basket, shook it, and placed it back in the water, repeating until all the skins were washed away. Only then did she carry the peas home and close the courtyard gate.

Back home, she ladled two scoops of water from the vat to rinse the peas one last time before pouring them into a clay pot, adding more water, and setting them to cook.

You couldn’t use iron tools when making pea cakes; this ensured the cakes wouldn’t change color or taste.

While the water in the pot had yet to boil, she found the cheesecloth she had prepared and spread it over a sieve. She then tore an inch-wide strip of white cloth, tied it to a chopstick, dipped it in oil, and used it to grease the molds to prevent sticking.

The charcoal fire was fierce, and the peas in the pot soon came to a rolling boil.

Lin Lan stirred the peas with a spoon. After they had cooked on high heat for a while, a white foam floated to the surface. She skimmed it off and dumped it in the swill bucket. Then, using a pair of tongs, she removed some of the charcoal to reduce the flame for a slow simmer.

She let it cook for a while longer, adding the yellow gardenia syrup in batches. Once the peas were cooked down until they were soft, mealy, and thick, Lin Lan picked up a small amount with a chopstick to taste it. She savored the fragrance of the peas and the sweetness of the syrup.

’Maybe it’s because there’s no pollution here,’ Lin Lan thought. ’It tastes even better than it used to.’

Nodding in satisfaction, she used a rag to take the clay pot off the stove and poured the pea paste into the cheesecloth-lined sieve.

She lifted the cheesecloth, straining the puree into the molds. The straining process made the texture even finer.

Lin Lan used a wooden rice paddle to spread the puree evenly in the molds, pressing it down firmly. She covered it with the cheesecloth, then washed the pot, sieve, and cloth, dumping the dirty water into the swill bucket.

After pouring hot water to wash up, she closed the kitchen door, rubbing her aching wrists. She went back to her room, shut the door, and was asleep within seconds of her head hitting the pillow.

「The next day」

Lin Lan woke at the rooster’s second crow. First, she helped Little Douzi relieve himself. Then she washed her hands, poured soybeans into a pot, and placed large white beans in a steamer to cook.

She carried the fava beans to the stove and sat down to snip them all. By the time she finished, the large white beans and red bean paste in the steamer were cooked, and the loudspeaker outside began to blare.

Only then did Lin Lan lift the cheesecloth off the pea cakes. She saw that they had set into a pale yellow, fine-textured block.

She went to the woodshed, found a sliver of bamboo, measured it against the mold, scraped it smooth, and cut it to size.

She took the cloth-wrapped chopstick, dipped it in oil, and greased a dagger. Using the bamboo sliver as a guide for even spacing, she sliced the blocks into squares. From the two molds, she cut a total of one hundred and twenty pea cakes.

Lin Lan picked up a piece to taste. It melted in her mouth. The flavor was indeed more fragrant, sweet, and refreshingly cool than the ones she used to make.

She nodded in satisfaction. She took out a plate, placed twenty pieces in a large bowl, and put the rest in her carrying basket. Then she started making the kidney bean rolls.

By the time she finished frying the orchid beans and packing them into bags, the sky was already bright.

Lin Lan transferred the hot coals from the main stove to the smaller clay stove. She washed a few sweet potatoes, added half a bowl of rice, and began making sweet potato congee.

The red canola stalks in the vegetable patch were ready for harvest. Lin Lan took a basket and cut some. After trimming them, she washed them by the ditch, gave them a final rinse with well water back home, and set them aside.

She washed two eggs and put them in the pot of congee. Then, she took the basin of dirty clothes, scrubbed them clean on the washboard, put them back in the basin, and prepared to take them to the irrigation channel for a final rinse.

She went inside to check on Little Douzi. Seeing that he was sound asleep, she carried the basin to the channel.

When she arrived, she saw someone was already on the stone steps, washing clothes.

Li Guizhi turned her head, saw Lin Lan, and smiled. “Lin Lan, you’re up early too!”

Lin Lan laughed. “Not that early. You’ve already finished washing a quilt cover, and I’m just now getting here.”

Li Guizhi shifted her large wooden basin aside to make room. As she watched Lin Lan walk down with her own basin, she recalled something He Cuicui had said during a recent visit. He Cuicui had mentioned that one morning when she got up at the rooster’s crow to use the latrine, she saw the lights were already on at Lin Lan’s house and that she was already busy working.

He Cuicui had also expressed her admiration for Lin Lan, calling her a truly capable woman. She was amazed that a woman on her own had the guts to run a small business in the Eucalyptus Forest, and now she’d even gotten Yang Liying to start selling tofu there too.

In fact, Li Guizhi had known for a while that Lin Lan was selling things in the Eucalyptus Forest. She also knew that what she sold wasn’t cheap.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep