Chapter 128 Making Coconut Oil and Desiccated Coconut
Xiaotuanzi said weakly: "But I haven't gotten through it yet. What if I can't get through it... Grandma still has to go to sea."
"If you can't survive it, just play it." Mrs. Shu smiled softly, "As for catching the sea, it doesn't matter whether I go or not. There are so many people in our family, and I am not the only one missing."
Yan Yan was deeply moved that her grandmother believed in her so much. She threw herself into the old lady's arms like a little chicken and coquettishly said, "Grandma, you are so kind. Yan Yan loves you the most."
"You are the only one who can coax people with your little mouth." Mrs. Shu kissed her cheek, turned to look at the coconut mountain in the corner, and asked: "These coconuts have to be chopped open, right?"
Yan Yan said: "Let's try cutting a few first."
Mrs. Shu nodded and squatted in front of the coconut mountain with a kitchen knife. She first made a few cuts in the coconut skin with the blade of the knife, and then tore it off with her hands. The thick outer skin was peeled off.
Yan Yan raised her hand and gestured towards the middle of the coconut, "Just cut it open from here."
"You don't want the coconut water in it?" Mrs. Shu asked.
"Old coconut water doesn't taste good, so I don't want it anymore."
After saying this, the old lady slashed with her knife, neatly cutting the coconut into two halves.
Yan Yan pointed to the thick, snow-white coconut meat inside and said, "As long as this meat is meat, the skin must be peeled off."
Mrs. Shu picked up half a coconut, looked around, and knocked on the hard gray shell. She couldn't find a place to start, "How do you take out the meat?"
Yanyan was dumbfounded. There seemed to be no knife for taking out coconut meat at home, nor a knife specifically for scraping coconut shreds. What should I do?
Mrs. Shu knew the reason as soon as she saw her expression. She smashed the half coconut with the backhand of her knife, then picked up the pieces and peeled out the coconut flesh.
The next few were still the same. Although it was a bit laborious, I finally got a small pot of white and clean coconut meat.
Yan Yan continued to direct: "Then you need to mash the coconut meat and grind it into juice, filter it through gauze, put the filtered juice into a pot and simmer it slowly over low heat to get the coconut oil."
This thing is not worth grinding. Mrs. Shu directly cut the coconut meat into small pieces with a kitchen knife, threw it into a small stone mortar for pounding garlic, and slowly mashed it. Finally, she grinded the coconut meat powder into a slurry with a small stone grinder.
After all the operations, Mrs. Shu's waist almost broke. "This thing is too tiring. I'll call your uncle next time. Grandma can't do it anyway."
Yan Yan diligently helped her beat her waist and squeeze her shoulders, and all kinds of rainbow farts kept coming out, which made the old lady feel embarrassed to complain, so she completed the next steps in one go.
Put the filtered coconut milk into the pot and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly with a spoon.
As time goes by, the coconut milk becomes thicker and thicker, and the color gradually changes from white to yellow. At this time, a transparent liquid, which is coconut oil, appears in the pot.
When the meat residue turns golden brown, the liquid in the pot can be poured out and filtered. The five coconuts finally boiled out a small bowl of coconut oil.
"Is this the coconut oil you are talking about?" Mrs. Shu leaned over to the bowl and smelled it, "Well, it is indeed very fragrant, and it also smells like coconut."
Yan Yan squeezed over with a pair of chopsticks, "Grandma, dip some for me to see if it tastes good."
"You want to taste the oil too?" Mrs. Shu had no choice but to dip the tip of her chopsticks into some coconut oil and put it to her mouth, "Try it."
Yan Yan stuck out her tongue and licked it. It was fragrant in the mouth, with a hint of sweetness in the mellow aroma, and the aftertaste was a faint coconut fragrance.
"It smells so good! Grandma, we made it!"
The little dumpling smashed his mouth and clapped his fat paws excitedly.
Seeing how excited she was, Mrs. Shu also dipped her chopsticks into it and tasted it. It tasted very fragrant, with a strong coconut flavor, which was different from lard or rapeseed oil.
The old lady put down her chopsticks and asked doubtfully: "Can this oil be used directly for cooking? Will the fried vegetables have a strange smell?"
"It can be fried, but it will taste better when used in desserts."
When it came to desserts, Yan Yan thought of another good thing. She ran outside the kitchen and found the residue left when filtering the coconut milk. "Grandma, put this in a pot and stir-fry it over low heat. The resulting thing is called coconut milk."
, you can make cookies!"
"Okay, take it back and let grandma make it together. After you finish it, you can teach grandma how to make those sweet cookies." Mrs. Shu added another handful of firewood to the stove.
After a stick of incense, a small pot of grated coconut came out of the pot.
Looking at the coconut milk as white as snow, Xiaoduanzi was greedy again. He hugged Mrs. Shu's arm and whispered softly: "Grandma, let's make a coconut cake and eat it!"
"Do it! You move your mouth and I'll do it." Mrs. Shu agreed readily.
The preparation of coconut cake is very simple. Add glutinous rice flour, grated coconut, sugar and a few drops of coconut oil to make a dough. Then shape it into small dough and press it into a cake shape. Fry in the pan until both sides are golden and it is ready to serve.
There were many people at home, so Mrs. Shu reluctantly scooped up a large pot of glutinous rice flour and poured all the coconut paste she made today into it.
Old man Shu and others, who had just reconciled and had gone out to catch the sea, came back.
With a fish basket hanging around his neck, Shu Mingliang took steps like he didn't recognize his relatives, and proudly showed off to the little ones: "Do you know what I caught today? Dang dang... look at how big these shrimps are!"
"Big, so big!" Yan Yan replied loudly, and quickly ran over to watch. The big fish basket was filled with a basket full of white shrimps. Each one was thick and fat, and was longer than her hand.
In addition to shrimps, Sun and Yang raked up half a bag of clams and picked up a basket of conches and scallops.
Old man Shu and a few Ming caught another basket of big crabs.
Although today's harvest is not as much as yesterday, it is still very impressive compared with the harvest of people in the same village.
After counting the loot, Shu Mingzhi asked the question that everyone was most concerned about: "What are you going to eat for lunch today?"
Old man Shu continued: "After getting so many good things, I must eat something good..."
Halfway through his words, he suddenly remembered what his granddaughter told him last night, and the old man immediately made a U-turn, "I've had dinner in the morning, and I'm not very hungry now. Just eat some steamed buns and drink a bowl of hot water."
The whole family ignored him and looked at Xiaotuanzi in unison, "Yanyan, tell me what we're going to eat for lunch."
Xiaotuanzi scratched the soft flesh on his cheeks and said slowly: "Grandma is making coconut cakes. Why don't you cook some porridge?"
Old Man Shu: My granddaughter really felt sorry for him and was touched.
His touch came a bit early. After Xiaotuanzi finished the previous sentence, he added: "There happen to be crabs, shrimps, and clams, so why don't we make seafood porridge."
Old Man Shu: "..."
Humph, Bai was moved.
Perhaps his resentful expression was too conspicuous, so Xiaotuanzi ran to him to comfort him: "Grandpa, don't be sad. I will ask grandma to cook you a bowl of egg soup. It will be delicious as well."
Old Man Shu held back his infinite sadness and said: "It's okay. I drink hot water the same way. In fact, eating too much meat is not good. It's easy to gain weight. Being fat doesn't look good..."
The old man muttered to himself as he quietly walked out of the courtyard.
Alas, he might as well keep out of sight.
The family has suffered so much and finally managed to eat something good. How can he stop him from doing so?