Chapter 37 Braised Pig Trotters: My First Time Making a Big Pot of Rice!

"Miss Lin, why are you closing up shop so early today?" After escorting his goods back home, Wu, the head镖师 (bodyguard/escort), was thinking about that braised pork offal. He rushed all the way and managed to get back to Qingquan Town half a day earlier than usual. Before Lin Yao closed up shop, he bought two bowls of braised pork offal noodles and a large bowl of braised pork.

While quickly tidying up the table, Lin Yao replied, "Yes, I need to go home early today to prepare the ingredients. Master Xu from Qinhu Martial Arts has ordered food from us."

Upon hearing this, Wu, the镖头 (bodyguard/escort), immediately became interested. "Could it be that the 'Tiger-Catching Martial Arts Team' is going to participate in the arena competition in the prefectural city?" Wu had just returned from the prefectural city and had heard about the arena competition a few days ago while in Jianglin City. At the time, he regretted that he had come at the wrong time; if he had gone to escort goods a few days later, he could have stayed in Jianglin to watch the arena competition before returning.

Lin Yao wasn't surprised that Wu, the head镖师 (bodyguard/escort), knew; those who escort goods were always well-informed. "Indeed, is Wu, the head镖师, also going to watch the competition?"

Wu, the head镖师 (bodyguard/escort), shook his head and said with a hint of regret, "It's hard to say. There are many things to do at the镖局 (bodyguard/escort agency). It also depends on whether there are any goods going to the prefectural city in those few days."

"I see, making money is the most important thing. I should go to the prefectural city to sell a few of my newly invented dishes the other day!" Lin Yao's mind was racing with ideas, and all sorts of snacks were popping into her head. She was thinking about which ones were easy to make and profitable.

Wu, the镖头 (bodyguard), nodded in agreement: "Who can argue with that?"

~

The Lin family.

When Lin Yao and her two companions returned home, Lin Cheng and Aunt Li had already returned from the dock, and even Liu Dazhuang hadn't gone out to work that day. The group quickly unloaded the things from the donkey cart. Today, they not only had to prepare food for tomorrow's Tiger-Catching Martial Arts Tournament, but more importantly, they needed to start preparing the ingredients for the fried skewers.

That's right, Lin Yao has decided to sell fried skewers in the capital!

The day Xu Zhiheng came to see her, Lin Yao had already set her sights on something. In ancient times, there were no cell phones, and large events like this would inevitably attract huge crowds. How could she easily let go of such a lucrative opportunity? She could make a fortune on the day of the arena competition. These past few days, she had been pondering which street food was both profitable and quick to prepare. After much thought, fried skewers seemed to be the most cost-effective. Vegetables were plentiful in the village, and as for meat, Lin Yao chose pork belly and ribs; after all, no one could resist the temptation of fragrant pork belly and crispy ribs.

The fried skewers are skewered with bamboo sticks, so customers can grab them and go after frying, making them perfect for competitions like this. However, the number of skewers needed is enormous. These past few days, Lin Yao has had Liu Dazhuang pause making crystal powder and focus on preparing the bamboo skewers. Liu Dazhuang has been doing these kinds of jobs since he was a child, whittling bamboo and making traps—whittling bamboo skewers is as easy as eating a meal for him. In just two days, he made a whole basket of bamboo skewers, at least six hundred.

Looking at the cabbages, chives, small mushrooms①, and eggplants piled up in the yard, Lin Yao began assigning tasks: Liu Xu and Lin Cheng were to wash the vegetables, Li Shi and Liang Shi were to chop them, and Liu Dazhuang was to wash and chop the meat. Many ingredients were still unavailable in this era, so to enrich the variety of vegetarian dishes, Lin Yao decided to make her own bean curd sheets.

Lin Song stared intently from the side. As soon as Lin Yao finished speaking, he jumped in front of her, "Second Sister, what about me? What is Song'er going to do?"

Lin Yao pondered for a moment and found him a task to pass the time, "Song'er, go and add soybeans to the millstone, keep an eye on Little Gray while it grinds the soybeans, and don't let it slack off!"

"Okay! I'll keep a close eye on it!" The little guy felt like he was a helper in the family after receiving the order, and he happily went to watch the donkey pull the millstone.

Lin Yao led Wang Xiaoyu into the kitchen. They needed to prepare the ingredients for tomorrow morning and the seasonings for the fried skewers. The first thing to do was to make braised pig's trotters. Pig's trotters need to be stewed until they are soft, tender, and flavorful to taste good, but that would take a lot of time. Tomorrow morning would be rushed, and there definitely wouldn't be enough time to make them fresh.

Today we need to process eleven pig trotters. Originally, Lin Yao only bought ten pig trotters, but thinking that everyone would be busy early the next morning and would only be able to look at them without being able to eat them for most of the day, which would be too much of a hardship, she paid for another one herself today so that everyone could have a good meal after the work was finished.

Lin Yao first demonstrated for Wang Xiaoyu. She placed the pig's trotters on the cutting board, picked up a cleaver, and deftly chopped the trotters into several small pieces along the joints. Wang Xiaoyu followed suit, chopping pig's trotters as well. In no time, the two of them had chopped up a large bowlful.

Lin Yao placed the chopped pig's trotters into a large basin filled with water. Soon, blood seeped out, turning the water red. Lin Yao began changing the water, explaining as she did so, "Soaking the pig's trotters is to draw out the blood; otherwise, they'll have a fishy smell when stewed."

About fifteen minutes later, Lin Yao changed the water again; this time, the water was much lighter in color. She took the pig's trotters out and drained them. Then, she filled a pot with water, added a few sections of scallion, a few slices of ginger, and some wine, and added some firewood to the stove. After the water boiled over a high flame, Lin Yao poured a bowl of pig's trotters into it. A lot of white foam rose to the surface of the boiling pot. Lin Yao picked up a spatula and skillfully skimmed off the foam. "Blanching further removes the fishy smell. This foam is not only the source of the fishy smell but also affects the appearance, so it has to be skimmed off."

Lin Yao took the blanched pig's trotters out and set them aside. She scrubbed the iron pot clean and ladled out a full bowl of lard, about the size of a regular eating bowl. Wang Xiaoyu stared in disbelief; such a large bowl of oil could last their family a month. Lin Yao used more lard than usual this time, explaining, "From now on, you don't need to use so much oil for this dish. The martial arts group is going to fight tomorrow, so we need to make sure they have enough oil."

Lin Yao heated the lard in the wok until it just started to smoke, then grabbed a handful of rock sugar and added it in. The rock sugar melted quickly in the oil, turning into an enticing caramel color, and a sweet aroma wafted through the air. Lin Yao quickly poured in the pig's trotters, stirring constantly to coat each piece evenly with the caramel color. At this point, the pig's trotters looked incredibly appealing and smelled delicious.

Next, Lin Yao added star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, Sichuan peppercorns, and dogwood to the pot. Since she didn't have light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, or oyster sauce, she could only add more salt. Lin Yao stirred vigorously to even out the flavors. Finally, she covered the pot and simmered it over low heat. "Braised pork trotters need to simmer long enough to become tender and flavorful. I'll leave it simmering here tonight, and it'll be ready by tomorrow morning."

Lin Song peeked out from behind the kitchen door frame and shouted to Lin Yao, "Second Sister! Little Gray's done pooping!"

Lin Yao was a little helpless for a moment. She reached out and pinched Lin Song's increasingly rosy cheeks, correcting him, "From now on, you should say 'Little Grey has finished grinding grain.'"

Lin Song scratched his head, thinking that was exactly what he meant, but he would listen to whatever his second sister said. "Oh!"

The courtyard was filled with the fresh aroma of vegetables and beans. Lin Yao saw a large basin of soy milk under the stone mill, frothy with white foam. However, this was not the soy milk she expected. It was just soybeans ground into a liquid, still mixed with bean pulp. It needed to be filtered and boiled before it could be drunk. The next step, filtering, was a challenge. The quantity made this time was too large; filtering by hand alone would be exhausting.

Lin Yao decided to make a filter bag. She took out a large piece of clean white gauze from the house and found two bamboo sticks. She crossed the bamboo sticks, secured them at the intersection with a long rope, and tied a thick rope to the intersection as well. She would use this rope to hang the filter bag later. Next, Lin Yao tied the four corners of the white gauze to the four sides of the bamboo sticks. In this way, a simple filter bag was made. Lin Yao fixed the filter bag to the crooked jujube tree in the yard and tried adding some soy milk to it. The soy milk slowly seeped out through the gaps in the filter bag, making a soft dripping sound.

Wang Xiaoyu watched in amazement. She had thought that filtering such a large basin of soy milk would keep her busy until late at night, but she never expected that her master would make such a useful tool in just a few tries. Her admiration for Lin Yao grew even stronger.

Lin Yao handed the water ladle to Wang Xiaoyu and instructed, "Xiaoyu, you filter this soy milk here. Keep an eye on the ropes that are securing it. If they are, ask Brother Dazhuang and the others to help you secure them."

Lin Yao had been pondering what to do with the leftover soy milk after making the bean curd sheets—whether to sell it directly as a beverage or to make it into tofu pudding. After much deliberation, she finally decided to sell it directly as a beverage. The reason was simple: it was an hour's journey from the town to the prefectural city, along muddy roads. By the time she arrived in the prefectural city, the tofu pudding would likely have crumbled into soy pulp, greatly diminishing its taste and appearance.

While waiting for the soy milk to be filtered, Lin Yao prepared to make five-spice powder. Fried skewers need seasoning to be flavorful, but seasonings were scarce in this era. There was no chili pepper or cumin, so she had to make her own five-spice powder. Of course, the more important reason was that she was short of money. If she had transmigrated into the body of royalty, she might have sent people to the Western Ocean to find all kinds of spices.

Lin Yao took out a coarse cloth bag from her basket, which contained spices she had carefully selected from several medical clinics over the past few days, including star anise, cloves, Sichuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds. This bag cost her one tael of silver. Fortunately, she had scraped a lot of cinnamon bark on the mountain beforehand, otherwise she would probably have spent several hundred more coins.

She first placed the star anise and cinnamon on the cutting board. Lin Yao picked up a small knife and began by finely chopping the cinnamon. The cinnamon was hard, and each chop required considerable effort. Next came the star anise, which she cut into small pieces for easier grinding later. Lin Yao first poured the star anise into a mortar and pestle and pounded it. As she continued pounding, the spices gradually crumbled, and the aroma became increasingly intense. Once the star anise was ground into a fine powder, Lin Yao poured it out and placed it in a dry bowl. She did the same with the next four spices. After working for most of the hour, Lin Yao finally ground all the spices into a fine powder.

Lin Yao mixed star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, fennel seeds, and cloves in a ratio of 10:10:5:5:2. She then picked up the pestle again and repeatedly pounded the spices together. The spices in the mortar blended together, and a unique aroma of numbing and fragrant notes filled the air. Lin Yao picked up some powder with her fingers and sniffed it. The aroma was even more fragrant than modern five-spice powder, perhaps because the spices used in ancient times were naturally superior in quality.

After making the five-spice powder, Lin Yao wrapped up the remaining spices and put them in the cupboard. She put the five-spice powder into a clay pot that she had bought in advance and placed it next to the cutting board.

-----------------------

Author's note: Writing is hard work, please add this to your favorites!

① Small fire mushrooms are enoki mushrooms.

② Clove is a type of clove.

③Fennel is a type of fennel.

④ Quoted from Baidu