I've been transported to the orc continent.

Yue said, "Uncle Feng, we can't just eat your food for free. Xiao Hui and I will bring soybeans over tomorrow, otherwise we'll feel too embarrassed to come."

In the end, Bai Ling made the decision: "Yue, Xiao, you don't need to bring so many beans tomorrow. Just bring half a basket of beans. I'll roast them into soybean powder for you, and you can make your own snacks."

*

The next day, Bai Ling brought soybeans from home, and Xiao Heyue each carried half a basket of soybeans. Bai Ling led everyone to soak the soybeans, while the mung beans had already been soaked in water the night before.

The starch in the ceramic basin will all settle down. Pour out the water, leaving only the white starch at the bottom. Then, place the tapioca starch in a steamer to dry.

The weather is cold now, and starch is hard to dry, but Bai Ling isn't in a hurry. His wheat has just sprouted, and it will take several more days before he can make maltose. The tapioca starch just needs to be dried during these few days.

After preparing the tapioca starch and soaking the soybeans, Bai Ling led everyone to pick out the bad soybeans, then washed the soybeans clean and set them aside to dry.

Light a fire in the hearth, put the soaked mung beans in an earthenware pot, add water. If you're making mung bean paste, don't add too much water; just enough to cover your fingers by one finger joint.

The fire in the hearth should not be too big; it should be cooked slowly. Once the water in the earthenware pot boils, remove the lid and stir the mung beans in the pot continuously with a wooden spoon.

Father Feng was in charge of tending the fire, Father Cang was in charge of stirring the mung beans, and Bai Ling, along with Chen, Yue, and Xiao, started frying soybeans.

You can't use an earthenware pot to stir-fry soybeans; you have to use an iron pot. However, the heat on the bottom of the pot shouldn't be too high when stir-frying soybeans, otherwise the beans will easily burn.

Yue sat in front of the fire pit, tending the fire, while Bai Ling stood by the pot, stirring the beans back and forth with a wooden spatula. The fire at the bottom of the pot wasn't very big, but the beans still started making noises, crackling and popping incessantly.

When the soybean skin wrinkles, turns golden brown, and the aroma of roasted soybeans wafts out, it means the soybeans are ready.

Bai Ling quickly stirred the food a couple of times with a wooden spatula, then said to Yue, "Yue, it's ready."

Yue immediately stopped what she was doing and stood aside. Bai Ling, with her hands wrapped in animal hide, poured the fried soybeans into a clean basket.

Bai Ling went to check on her father a few more times. The mung beans had already blossomed, and there wasn't much water left in the earthenware pot.

"Father, the mung beans are cooked and can be served now."

Cang didn't say anything, but simply took the earthenware pot off the table and put it aside.

“Father, father, the fried soybeans are delicious, come and have a taste,” Chen waved to the two of them. He grabbed a handful of fried soybeans, tilted his head back, opened his mouth, and threw the fried soybeans into his mouth one by one, like throwing pebbles.

Yue and Xiao were also eating fried soybeans, but they ate them much more politely. They would pinch a few beans, throw them into their mouths, and chew them with their mouths closed.

However, judging from their expressions, they both really enjoyed eating fried beans.

Bai Ling ate a few fried beans and then put them down. They were too dry and a bit tough on his teeth, so he didn't really like them.

*

The roasted soybeans need to be ground, the finer the better. Yue and Chen took the initiative to push the millstone, while Father Feng and Cang were responsible for pouring the soybeans onto the millstone. Xiao sat in front of the stove to tend the fire, while Bai Ling was still the main force in roasting the soybeans.

After frying all the soybeans, Bai Ling went to fry mung bean paste.

To make mung bean paste, you first need to caramelize the sugar. Bai Ling took out half of the sugar at home, crushed it, added a little water and stirred it in a pot. After the caramelized sugar syrup cooled, she poured it into the cooked mung beans, stirred it a few times, and then she could make mung bean paste.

When stir-frying mung bean paste, the heat is crucial. It must be cooked over low heat, as high heat can easily make the mung bean paste bitter.

Xiao is still young and doesn't cook often at home. Bai Ling was worried that he wouldn't be able to control the heat properly, so she called her father over: "Father, come and help me light the fire, keep it low."

Feng heard this and came over, taking Xiao's place in front of the fire pit. Xiao wasn't idle either; it was lunchtime, so he went to the tribe to get lunch for a few people.

The wind slowly fueled the fire, and he would occasionally add a handful of leaves to the fire pit. After throwing the leaves into the fire pit, the wind would immediately use a stick to push the leaves apart, so that the flames would be evenly scattered around instead of clustered together.

Bai Ling held a wooden spatula in her hand, stirring the mung bean paste in the pot non-stop, and occasionally adding a little animal fat.

The key to making donkey rolls is that the mung bean paste should be a little moist, so it doesn't need to be stir-fried for too long; it's best when it's in a thick, sticky consistency.

The mung bean paste is ready, and Xiao Ye has brought back lunch.

Today's lunch was, as usual, cassava pancakes and bone broth. The bone broth had dried vegetables, pumpkin, and winter melon added, making it look like a thick bowl, but there wasn't much meat in it.

The bone broth was only salty and had no meaty flavor whatsoever. The bones used to make the broth had probably been used countless times and had long lost their bone aroma.

In the tribe, meat is eaten only once every few days, and even when meat is eaten, it is not eaten to one's heart's content, but rather each person is given a small portion of meat. The staple food is still cassava cakes.

There's nothing we can do about it. The tribe has a lot of people, and the orcs have huge appetites. If we let them eat to their hearts' content, the tribe's meat reserves simply won't be enough.

This is the food provided by the tribe. If people want to eat meat, they can bring out the meat they have stored. Bai Ling's family has a lot of meat, and they have a special meal every few days.

Just as everyone was about to eat, Bai Ling called out, "Wait a minute."

He scooped a spoonful of soybean flour with a clean wooden spoon and sprinkled it on the cassava cake: "Try it and see if it's good?"

Soybean flour has a unique aroma; sprinkling some on it when making desserts will enhance their flavor.

Bai Ling suddenly had a whimsical idea: to sprinkle some pastries on the cassava cakes. She wondered how it would taste.

It turned out to taste pretty good. The cassava cakes already had a slight aroma, and the addition of soybean flour made them even better.

Even Bai Ling ate an extra piece of cassava cake.

*

The main ingredients of donkey roll are glutinous rice flour, soybean flour and red bean paste. Bai Ling only had soybean flour, mung bean paste and uncooked tapioca flour on hand, so he planned to make a special donkey roll.

Simply put, it's a kind of orc-world version of donkey roll, made with soybean flour and tapioca flour for the skin and mung bean paste for the filling.

Soybean flour, tapioca flour, and a little animal fat are kneaded into a dough, which is then rolled into a round pancake.

This step was a bit difficult. Soybean flour and tapioca flour weren't elastic enough, so they were easy to break when rolling them out. Therefore, Bai Ling rolled them out very slowly and it took her a lot of effort to roll out the round cake.

Perhaps this shouldn't be called a round cake, but rather a strangely shaped cake.