On the other hand, Lin Lan and the children were making ribs at home.
The children had never seen glutinous rice before, so they were curious about what it was.
They have never seen rice as their sights were only limited to millet. After all, rice was not grown in the local area and the concept of export and import was underdeveloped at this time. The rice would only ever be transported to large cities and even less to the County Town, let alone villages.
Lin Lan took out the glutinous rice and showed them the grains.
She told them about the origin of glutinous rice, as well as the different types of rice there was. Plus, she taught them about where rice was produced and how to eat them.
“Rice is about the same as millet. It can be eaten after threshing and you can steam or cook it. Also, it can also be grinded into strips to make rice noodles.”
Xiaowang couldn’t ask any questions. From what was glutinous rice to the origins and threshings, he blinked his eyes anxiously because he didn’t have the vocabulary to understand it.
Lin Lan patted his head, “You’re still young. You can read the books after you learn the basics. After all, the books will show you what you need to know.”
Xiaowang felt that his mother knew a lot and that his mother was very good, perhaps even better than the teacher.
Many of the local commune members have never set foot out of the County Town throughout their entire lives. To be fair, quite a number of them haven’t even left the commune before and some even remain confined inside their little village in their lifetimes.
Hence, many did not know a lot about the outside world.
If it wasn’t for Lin Lan’s meticulous care, Xiaowang would naturally turn out the same.
Now that he caught a glimpse of it, he was very curious.
With a few catties of glutinous rice, Lin Lan managed to give another vivid lesson to the children. The world was very big and full of surprises, so they would need to study hard if they wanted a chance to see it in the future.
Dawang helped chop the ribs into small pieces with a machete.
Erwang also brought out his own recipe book, which indeed included steamed pork ribs with glutinous rice , sweet and sour pork ribs and the like. In order to save money, there were no pictures in it.
Lin Lan had a limited section of materials to make the sauce. Some chilli bean sauce, a small spoonful of soy sauce, salt and a spoonful of oil were all added into a bowl and stirred together with the ribs. She also chopped some green onion and ginger into it, and picked a few pieces of dried purple perilla leaves inside.
The leaves were considered a local weed, but Lin Lan asked the children to pick them up and dry them under the sun. From there, she would add a bit of it every time she made dishes with meat or fish.
She had also soaked some mushrooms. After chopping them up, she lathered the mushroom strips on top of the ribs. With the added fragrance, the dish would taste even better.
Even though it was only 4 o’clock, the house was already dark. Lin Lan asked them to light the lamp to do their homework and read some books while she handled other things. It would not be too late to start cooking after she soaked the glutinous rice and marinated the pork ribs.