Although turmeric is a very important spice, Su Qingluan also understands that this is still very different from the curry she ate in her previous life.

In fact, although the so-called "curry" is a spice produced in India, it does not refer to a specific spice, but a mixture of various spices. The "spice paste" called "Masala" in Indian languages ​​is this kind of "spice paste".

Putting aside other things, Su Qingluan felt very sorry just because there was no chili.

However, as the saying goes, "there are always more solutions than problems." Su Qingluan looked at the twenty or thirty spices she had already bought and thought that there would always be a way to make substitutes - after all, there are actually various "improved curries" in modern times, such as cream curry, coffee curry, etc., all of which have been adjusted in taste.

So these days, when she wasn't going to Mu Xingzhi's house or visiting the Li family and running errands, Su Qingluan stayed in the kitchen tinkering with the seasonings: cumin, Evodia rutaecarpa, black pepper, white pepper... She kept adjusting the various proportions with turmeric and grinding them into fine powder to make the taste more delicate.

For a moment, Su Qingluan even felt like she was back to the beginning of making jam, adding spices to various jams for flavoring.

In her previous life, although Su Qingluan occasionally ate curry-flavored food, at that time she either bought ready-made food outside or bought beautifully packaged curry powder from the supermarket. Whether it was curry rice or curry hot pot, she could just put as much as she wanted to eat. She never had to make curry herself.

Without a specific ratio or a recipe other than turmeric, Su Qingluan could only try her luck. Fortunately, having spent so much time with these spices, Su Qingluan knew the flavor of each one perfectly well, and had a general understanding of the new aromas that could be created by mixing them.

Although she couldn't control all the ratios precisely, Su Qingluan could at least avoid situations where spices should never be mixed, as this would produce strange smells.

After a few days of hard work, Su Qingluan finally created a curry powder that wasn't too spicy but had a nice layered flavor. However, compared to the curry previously available on the market, Su Qingluan's curry didn't have that rich flavor after cooking, so she had to thicken it with starch.

In order to test everyone's acceptance of this somewhat pungent dark yellow seasoning, Su Qingluan did not initially plan to make the curry chicken rice and curry hot pot she had been craving, but instead planned to make a curry spicy tofu.

Su Qingluan planned to use tender tofu to make this dish - anyway, as long as there was no heavy snow blocking the door, the peddler selling tofu, bean sprouts, soy milk... and all kinds of soy products would go out.

What's more, unlike frozen tofu, which becomes loose and porous after being frozen and is more conducive to absorbing the taste of soup, the tender tofu before freezing has a smooth and tender taste, very similar to the taste of steamed egg custard, but does not absorb too much taste, which gives the originally spicy seasoning room to buffer.

Moreover, after Su Qingluan secretly observed her younger brother and sister, who were both "spicy food lovers", she found that perhaps it was because the body needed more calories in winter, and the spicy taste could stimulate the appetite while also making the whole body warm. Therefore, even the youngest Su Xueyan had a slightly higher tolerance for spicy seasonings than in summer.

The most obvious manifestation is that in the past, if this little girl ate anything spicy, she would spit it out or even shed tears. But since the beginning of winter, she would even take the initiative to eat spicy dishes, such as the vegetables stuffed in the fish belly.

In Su Xueyan's words, eating such dishes can make her "warmer."

But a good dish is still a dish. The little girl's level of eating spicy food is probably like this: carefully picking up a bean sprout, carefully picking off all the spices on it, trying to eat the bean sprout, and then quickly taking a big mouthful of white rice.

There are courageous ones who try, but not many.

However, in order to make it easier for her younger brother and sister to accept, Su Qingluan added "sweet milk tofu" that she had bought in the town before. It tasted a bit like cheese. It was said to be the food of the nomadic people in the north. Because of its sweet taste and milky flavor, it was very popular with girls.

This milk tofu wasn't as hard as the ones Su Qingluan had eaten in her previous life. It was softer in texture. It was also obviously made with a lot of sugar. Su Qingluan took a bite and found it so sweet that it was almost cloying. Eating it simply as a dessert was like killing her taste buds.

However, if used as a seasoning, it can reduce and neutralize the spicy taste while also blending in a light milky flavor. It can even improve the problem of Su Qingluan's previous curry powder being too bland and not rich enough, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

This made Su Qingluan give up her original plan of giving this "sweet milk tofu" to her younger brothers and sisters as a snack.

Curry spicy tofu is not difficult to make, you just need to prevent the bottom of the pot from sticking. The rest of the method is very similar to Mapo Tofu, and it is even simpler than Mapo Tofu - because there is no need to stir-fry the spicy seasoning.

However, the curry paste still needs to be stir-fried.

Originally, Su Qingluan planned to cut the soft tofu into thumb-sized pieces to make it more flavorful. However, considering that her younger siblings would need a "buffer zone" to avoid the spiciness, she changed her mind and cut the tofu into dice-sized pieces. Although this method didn't make the dish as flavorful as she had originally intended, at least she could break up the large pieces, which was a remedy.

Carefully place the cut tofu cubes in a colander, put the whole thing into the pot, add water until the tofu cubes on the colander are completely covered, and Su Qingluan begins to wait for the water to boil.

In addition to removing the unpleasant bean smell from the surface of the tofu, blanching it in this way will also make the tofu firmer in texture when heated, making it less likely to fall apart during the cooking process.

While tofu cubes were being blanched over there, Su Qingluan was not idle either - the other dishes had already been served, and only two stoves were burning.

Su Qingluan first added the base oil, and then added curry powder and milk tofu at the same time - of course, Su Qingluan had experimented with this ratio many times, so it would not be too sweet, nor would the spicy taste of the curry be too pungent.

After adding the base oil and curry powder, you must constantly swirl the back of a large spoon around the curry powder and paneer. The base oil prevents the curry powder from sticking to the pan and allows it to spread more freely. The paneer also begins to melt after being fully heated.

When the white milk tofu is completely melted in the dark yellow curry sauce, the overall color of the curry becomes slightly lighter than the initial dark yellow, and it exudes a faint sweet milky aroma.

Su Qingluan knew that the heat was almost right, so she took out the blanched tofu cubes along with the strainer and put them directly into the curry sauce.