382 Making Popsicles
The bamboo tube was placed in a wicker basket, which was covered with a clean cloth. The bamboo tube was placed on top of the cloth, and on top of the cloth, there were many thin rods that had been washed.
Xue Yan squatted beside her, watching her without asking her what she was going to do.
Jiang Yue ignored him and tied the ten bamboo tubes together with hemp rope. She tied them tightly, with the bottom and openings aligned.
Seeing this, Xue Yan understood and helped her unravel the hemp rope. Then, he slowly tied the other ten bamboo tubes together.
Jiang Yue saw what he was doing out of the corner of her eye and glanced at him. Xue Yan was not as fast as Jiang Yue. After Jiang Yue had tied up three bundles, Xue Yan finished the first bundle.
There were only forty bamboo tubes, ten in a bundle, and a total of four bundles.
“Let’s make popsicles.” Jiang Yue stood up. “To make popsicles, you first need to pour the liquid into these bamboo tubes. Then, just like the water in the small basin, we put it in the big basin and freeze it.”
As she spoke, she walked towards the glutinous rice flour and white sugar that she had bought in town today.
On hot days, the white sugar in the town would melt in paper packages, so they didn’t dare to sell using paper as the package. Therefore, in summer, they sold sugar in glass jars.
She could just buy more if it was not enough. Sifu went to town every day.
As for the glutinous rice flour, they didn’t have to worry about whether it was hot or not. It was still in a cloth bag.
“Okay.” Xue Yan answered while taking the glutinous rice flour.
Jiang Yue took the jar of sugar.
She wasn’t in a hurry to go to the cooking shed. Instead, she just held the sugar jar and looked at him. “I plan to make a simple popsicle, which is a saltwater popsicle. Although it’s called a saltwater popsicle, it’s going to be sweet as well. Of course, I can’t add too much salt. It’ll be very cooling and would relieve the summer heat if done well. It also quenches thirst. We need to use only a little bit of glutinous rice powder, which can make the popsicle have a crisp texture and feel very soft and fine. This is very important. If you don’t add it, the popsicle will be frozen into chunky cubes and it will taste very bad.”
He looked back at her and said, “I see.”
“Then, we shouldn’t call it saltwater popsicles. We’ll just call it a popsicle. As long as my family doesn’t share how to make it, it’ll be difficult for anyone to make popsicles that are exactly the same as ours. In the future, even if others know that saltpeter can be used to make ice, we won’t have to be afraid.”
He still replied with the same two words.
“Then let’s go.” Jiang Yue turned around.
Xue Yan nodded and followed her out of the central room to the cooking shed. He knew that she wanted to go to the cooking shed to make the liquid for the popsicles.
Under the shed, Xue Yan put down the glutinous rice flour, then went to the stove and sat down. He was waiting for Jiang Yue’s order to start the fire.
Jiang Yue was silent for a moment when she saw how self-conscious he was. She then took a small stool and placed it beside the pot. Then, she stood on the stool, opened the lid of the pot, and put the things aside.
The small pot was clean and didn’t need her to wash it.
She scooped a large ladle of water and poured it into the small pot, then said, “Start the fire.”
Xue Yan took out a lighter, blew on it, and lit the firewood. Then, he looked at the pot and added more firewood to make sure the water boils.
His head was buried the whole time, so Jiang Yue couldn’t see the expression on his face.
It was not until the firewood was added and the fire in the stove was burning brightly that he sat up straight again, and she could see his face again.