Chapter 161: Crayfish and Crispy Pork Belly Stew with Green Wheat Rice [Supplement]...

Feng Huijuan first went to the families in the village who grew most pumpkins. When she asked for pumpkin flowers instead of pumpkins, Granny Qi, who grew the most pumpkins in the village, was dumbfounded.

"I've never seen anything like this where you want the flowers but not the fruit. How are we supposed to eat this?"

As Feng Huijuan weighed the pumpkin blossoms in the small basket, she explained, "They said they're going to coat them in batter and fry them."

Grandma Qi, her bound feet propped up on her feet, looked on with suspicion: "What would it taste like if it were fried?"

Feng Huijuan thought for a moment: "I've never eaten it before, but it should look pretty. Wenji once asked my family for cucumber blossoms, saying they were fried, and I tried making them at home."

The taste was just so-so after it was made, but there was a little girl in the family, Lou Yue, who hated cucumbers, but when she saw the golden fried cucumber flowers, she mustered up her courage and took a bite. Later, she filled all of them up.

After hearing what Feng Huijuan said, and after everyone left, Granny Qi also shakily picked about ten pumpkin flowers.

Although she muttered that city people really knew how to do fancy things, she still started frying pumpkin blossoms in oil.

The fried pumpkin flower petals are tied up, green stems and yellow flowers, coated in batter, as if adding a warm yellow filter to the flowers. The flowers are crispy and golden, looking as fluffy as egg pancakes, while the green stems are pale. Eggs are added to the batter, and the aroma of fried batter lingers in the kitchen.

"...With so much oil, even frying shoe soles would taste good."

That's what she said, but Grandma Qi still carefully drained the oil from the fried flowers and carefully pricked up her ears.

Hearing the children chattering outside, the wrinkles on Grandma Qi's face, like the veins of a pumpkin flower, smoothed out amidst the sizzling sound of the oil pan.

"Sweetie, come here, Grandma made you something delicious!"

...

Feng Huijuan had no idea that with just a simple sentence, Aunt Qi would act so decisively. She also didn't know that these children, not content with just the pretty pumpkin blossoms, weren't satisfied with just eating them. For the next few months, the little rascals ran around everywhere, picking every flower they saw and taking them home for their families to fry and eat. This caused many villagers to complain that there were fewer flowers in the village this year…

Feng Huijuan went around collecting vegetables, but in the end, only two things were left: pigs. Feng Huijuan asked her husband, Lou Da, to go and talk to people. Since it wasn't a holiday, many families were unwilling to sell their pigs, so she had to say a few nice words.

Feng Huijuan herself went straight to the next village to ask about the crayfish there.

The two villages are adjacent, and the relatives are connected by many twists and turns. This family can be considered a cousin of Feng Huijuan's maternal family, and they are called Fourth Uncle.

When Feng Huijuan arrived at the place, she did not see her fourth uncle, but only his two sons.

Feng Huijuan said she wanted to buy crayfish, and the two of them went to catch them without saying a word.

After they were pulled out of the water, the youngest son covered the QR code on the table and grinned as he asked Feng Huijuan to scan it for him.

“My dad’s not here right now, it’s fine if you sweep it for me.”

Feng Huijuan chimed in with a laugh, "That won't do. If your dad comes back and sees the shrimp are missing, and you haven't received the money, he might beat you again, and I won't be able to explain myself."

After forcibly prying open her hand to scan the code, Feng Huijuan drove off with 200 jin of crayfish.

When she got home, Feng Huijuan found a towel to shake off the dust and complained to her husband, "My fourth uncle's two sons are really outrageous. My fourth uncle built that pond all by himself, and now that it's time to sell the shrimp, the two of them are rushing to collect the money."

Lou Da handed his wife a glass of water: "You didn't give it to them, did you?"

Feng Huijuan drank some water and said, "I'm not stupid."

Looking at the two hundred pounds of shrimp in the yard, Feng Huijuan took out a hose to rinse them, found a few containers to separate them, and then called Wen's mother to ask whether to deliver them tonight or tomorrow.

When Wen's mother told her daughter, Wen Fan said to come in the afternoon.

"Perfect, I'll make some and try it first."

Two hundred jin sounds like a lot, but when Wen Fan cooked it, he found it wasn't much at all.

What's rare is that this crayfish restaurant is quite clean, so Wen Fan immediately placed a long-term order.

"Mom and Dad, it's getting warmer anyway, how about we start having outdoor seating next week?"

With the arrival of summer heat, it's time to enjoy crayfish.

Wen Fan made crayfish in three flavors: garlic, spicy, and salted egg yolk, served with alkaline noodles, and sold by weight.

Seeing the green wheat and millstones next to him, Wen Fan had another idea.

The most basic method is to mill the wheat, steam it briefly, and then add a little soy sauce, sesame oil, and minced garlic. If you prefer a stronger flavor, you can add some sesame paste and chili oil. This method preserves the wheat's natural aroma to a great extent, resulting in a very pleasant taste.

Wen Fan left this recipe to Yao Qingqin. The shop had a ready-made steamer, a small bowl, and a choice of sauces, selling it for six yuan, just for the novelty and cleverness of the food.

As for the shop, Wen Fan asked Xiao Ge to learn how to stir-fry the wheat flour rolls properly. First, stir-fry the eggs, then stir-fry the vegetables, and finally add the wheat flour rolls. Stir-fry them briefly, add a spoonful of hot oil, and they're ready to serve. The aroma of oil and wheat might make young people hesitate and ask what it is, but older people would order several portions without hesitation.

"I haven't eaten this in so many years."

"It smells so good."

Not much of it is sold in the city. Fresh grain has an indescribable aroma, and most elderly people know that the wheat is almost ripe just by smelling it.

"Hey, I used to roast and eat this when I was a kid!"

Both the green and roasted wheat kernels were roasted, and after roasting, they had a smoky, smoky aroma of grain.

Besides the two mentioned above, Wen Fan also made fried wheat porridge.

Fresh green wheat kernels are used like rice grains, stir-fried with eggs, and within a few days someone posted it online, calling it a weight-loss meal.

[Xiao Qiao: What the heck? Green barley kernels can help with weight loss? Wen Ji has launched a weight loss meal plan?]

[Coconut Water: A Detailed Look at Weight Loss! Does it Really Work?]

[Coco: ...No, look, the blogger said they ate this for a week straight and lost two pounds! Oh my god!]

[Coconut water: Great, I'll go get some right away!]

[Not rolling: Hey, hey, hey, they said they're ordering one serving of green barley fried rice, and will eat half for lunch and half for dinner. Fun fact: even if you're trying to lose weight, eating a large portion won't help!]

[Xiao Deng: Exactly! Don't eat a ton of food and then say you didn't lose weight, then blame Wenji...]

Wen Fan was unaware that her homemade green barley fried rice had sparked a discussion about weight loss online; she was currently focused on researching new ways to cook it.

After two or three days of crayfish being served, surprisingly, business was not as good as expected.

Wen Fan thought about it carefully and figured out the flavor.

Firstly, it's still half a month before the crayfish season, and many people feel that the crayfish aren't big enough right now, so they don't come to eat them.

Secondly, there is...

Because of large-scale farming in neighboring provinces, crayfish prices are now much lower than locally grown crayfish. While Wenji uses locally grown crayfish, which guarantee freshness and cleanliness, the cost is still higher than other restaurants.

In addition, the three flavors offered by Wenji are not much different from those of other stores, so customers mostly order things like green wheat rolls that other stores don't have, while ignoring the crayfish.

After figuring it out, Wen Fan started modifying the dishes.

Peel the crayfish, leaving only the tail meat. Cut the pork belly into small pieces, with three parts fat and seven parts lean, and fry directly without oil. After continuous stir-frying, scoop out the rendered pork fat little by little with a jar. Drain the remaining pork pieces, then stir-fry them in a sauce made of sweet rice wine, soy sauce, Sichuan peppercorns, sugar, and white wine. Fry the pork pieces over low heat until they are reddish-brown, fragrant, and crispy. Wen Fan picked up a piece, tasted it, and then put away the fried crispy pork pieces with satisfaction.

Braised crayfish in tomato sauce, add a spoonful of crispy pork cracklings, and then top the cooked crayfish with green barley rice.

Wen Fan calls it crayfish crispy pork belly stewed with green wheat rice.

The tomato sauce is rich and tangy, the crayfish are springy and chewy, and the crispy pork cracklings are fragrant and crunchy. The original greasiness is neutralized by the tomato sauce, leaving only a crispy and fragrant texture that crumbles in your mouth. The freshness of the wheat, once poured over this rich and colorful stew, instantly transforms the bowl into a canvas. Green wheat kernels, red tomato sauce, reddish-brown crispy pork cracklings, and shrimp soaked in the stew...

On the day Wen Fan tasted the dishes, everyone in the restaurant ate until they were stuffed.

Xiao Ge silently added bowl after bowl, while Du Min pondered what was in the middle of the bowl as she ate. When Mi Xiaosheng ate his third bowl, he was still lamenting that all the crayfish he had eaten before had been a waste.

"This stewed wheat kernels is absolutely delicious!"

Even Wen's parents ate quite a bit.

Yao Qingqin had already ordered two portions for tomorrow night, so she could take them home for her parents to try.

"This must be pork cracklings, it smells delicious."

Wen Fan: "It's not pork cracklings."

The pork cracklings are leftover from rendering lard, and they're made from pork fat and pork back fat. The crispy pork cracklings also need seasoning, so they're made with pork belly.

Wen Fan said that in addition to making crisp whistles, he can also make soft whistles and fine whistles.

As the name suggests, soft pork rinds need to retain a certain amount of moisture and lard during preparation. This makes them more oily and chewy compared to crispy pork rinds. However, soft pork rinds are more often used to mix with rice noodles.

Fine-grained scallions are made by repeatedly stir-frying and removing the oil from crispy scallions, resulting in a harder and crispier texture.

Whether it's pork cracklings or crispy pork rinds, everyone in the shop unanimously praises their exceptional taste.

"Looks like the shop is going to be busy again."

With the spring steamed dish craze fading, the restaurant is still doing brisk business, but it hasn't been that time of year when it was hard to get a table.

Sure enough, on the third day after the new product was launched, the store was packed with customers.

The online response to the dish of crayfish and crispy pork belly stewed with green wheat rice is overwhelmingly positive.

[Meimei: How could anyone think of putting weight-loss barley and crispy pork rinds together! My reason and desire were fighting each other while I was eating it, sob sob...]

[Cilantro: Actually, it's not very tasty. Look at the crispy pork belly in here, it's all greasy and oily, the green wheat is all stalky and tough, and the crayfish is both sour and bitter... If I were to eat it, I could only manage three large bowls!]

[Bao Bao: Actually, I think you should start with a bite of shrimp, feel its springy texture in your mouth, and enjoy the deliciousness of shrimp in tomato sauce. Then, have a bite of crispy pork belly. The crispy and oily pork belly is a bit greasy after eating it, so you should scoop up a spoonful of green wheat rice, and make sure it's topped with shrimp. Even better is to order a serving of crayfish, especially the salted egg yolk crayfish. Peel the crayfish and place it on the green wheat, then swallow it in one bite. The green wheat is refreshing and not greasy, the salted egg yolk crayfish contributes a particularly rich salted egg yolk flavor, and the tomato sauce coats the green wheat, the sour taste perfectly offsetting the greasiness of the crispy pork belly...]

[Suzuki: ...Hey, what's your nationality? Is your purpose in coming to China to make me drool?]

[Butterfly Loves Flowers: I got out of bed and took a walk because I was hungry. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I took out the red dates from the Chinese medicine and ate them.]

[Lalala: I got out of bed because I was hungry, took a walk around, and had a French kiss with my roommate for a while.]

[Wait: ...I'm very hungry.]

[A potato: Waaaaah, I want to eat it so badly...]

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

Author's Note: I took some time off the day before yesterday to handle some business, and yesterday on my way back, I had a minor car accident. The unlucky author's foot was run over by a tricycle. I went to the hospital for a checkup, and thankfully, there was no fracture, but my foot is swollen. That wicked tricycle driver sped away after running me over (the wicked old lady even pulled up her clothes to cover her face!), and hasn't been found yet. The only good news is that I won't be able to leave the house for a while, officially starting my winter fattening up. I'll make up for the missed updates these past few days… Sorry everyone!