Chapter 347 Snail Noodles

The largest field snails are nearly the size of two thumbs, and the smallest are also the size of a thumb. However, the largest of these wild stone snails is only the size of a thumb, and the average size is about the size of an index finger.

It doesn’t matter if it’s not big, it’s mainly used for making soup, not for eating the meat.

Mu Xi didn't find anything, so he walked over to Zhao Yeqing to see. When he got there, he saw her happily picking up the snails on the stone as if she had picked up money.

Walking over to join the battle, the two of them harvested a basket of snails in less than twenty minutes.

Zhao Yeqing also found a lot of wild vegetables nearby. Although there were animals active here, many of the newly grown branches and vines had been partially eaten, and even the lichens and mosses on the stones showed signs of being eaten.

But there is abundant water here and the vegetation is lush, so if you look carefully you should be able to find a lot of wild game.

But she really wanted to eat snail noodles today, and there was no ready-made rice noodles at home, so she had to go home quickly to make them. She would not look for wild vegetables today, and would find time to come back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

The most troublesome step in handling snails is probably cutting off the tail.

After returning home, soak the snails in water and add some oil to the basin. The snails soaked previously also need to be soaked again in new water.

By around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, you can take it out, brush it, and cut off the tail.

Snails live in water, and there will be some sticky, water-like substances on their shells, which need to be brushed clean with a hard-bristle brush.

Mu Xi took out a pair of pliers and cut off the tail of the cleaned snail.

While Mu Xi was processing the snails, Zhao Yeqing started making rice noodles in the kitchen.

The production process of rice noodles is more complicated than that of noodles. I don’t have a machine to press rice noodles at home. It’s not impossible to make one by hand using bamboo, but it’s a bit troublesome and I can’t make it in time today.

Zhao Yeqing plans to make sliced ​​noodles.

Chefen is somewhat similar to the rice noodles in Guangdong Province, both of which are in the shape of wide and flat strips.

She has eaten this kind of rice noodles in Hunan and Guangxi provinces. When she goes to local stores to eat rice noodles, the store owner always asks whether she wants round noodles or cut noodles. People in Guangxi sometimes use it to replace the rice noodles in snail noodles.

There is still a lot of glutinous rice flour left from last year. I took it out and mixed it into a paste. Then I spread it on the steamer and steamed it. It was like a thin pancake and was translucent after steaming.

After Zhao Yeqing's rice noodles were fried, Mu Xi also brought in the cleaned field snails and stone snails to prepare for frying.

The soup base of snail noodles is not only made of snails, but also beef bones, chicken bones and pork bones. It just so happened that I had all these bones for making soup at home, so I took a big pot, put all the bones in, added water and boiled it over high heat.

After blanching, skim off the foam and continue to simmer over high heat. Whether it is chicken soup or bone soup, as long as it is cooked over high heat for more than ten minutes, the soup will turn white.

After Mu Xi saw the soup turn white, he removed two pieces of firewood and let the soup continue to cook in the pot. Seeing that Zhao Yeqing had taken down the steamer, he put another pot on it and started to stir-fry the snails.

The soup base of snail noodles requires a lot of spices, but the spices at home are not enough, so you can only add what you have.

Add the stone snails, chili peppers and seasonings and stir-fry until the water evaporates, then add them to the soup and continue to simmer over high heat.

Zhao Yeqing's rice noodles are already out of the pot. The thin rice noodles are folded up one by one and cut into long strips about the width of the little finger and set aside for later use.

Take out two pieces of sour bamboo shoots from the jar, which are the soul of snail noodles, and pair them with a few sour beans that have been soaked until yellow. Cut them all into pieces and put them on the plate.

Mu Xi started frying snails on the small stove again. Both stoves were occupied but she still had to fry some peanuts.

He squatted beside the fire pit, took out a few red-hot charcoals from the fire pit and put them aside, took a smallest iron pot and placed it directly on the red-hot charcoal blocks, poured oil and slowly fried the peanuts.

After the peanuts are fried, the Muxi snails are also fried and finally the basil is added and the pot is covered. Remove the pot from the stove and continue to simmer for a while to let the aroma of the basil permeate the snails.

He took three eggs from the basket hanging on the wall, cracked them into a bowl and quickly beat them to make foam. When Zhao Yeqing saw him taking the eggs, he had already placed the oil pan on the stove.

How can you eat snail noodles without fried eggs?

The fully beaten egg liquid is suspended more than ten centimeters above the oil pan, and the egg liquid is slowly poured in. As soon as the yellow egg liquid enters the boiling oil pan, it immediately floats up and is fried into egg crisps.

A total of four fried eggs were made from the three eggs. The golden fried eggs were neatly placed on the plate. Mu Xi was about to scoop out the crumbs from the oil pan when Zhao Yeqing picked up two small pieces of crumbs with chopsticks, blew on them and put them into his mouth.

Seeing that she was about to eat, Mu Xi poured the crumbs into the plate, "Is that enough? If not, I'll fry two more."

Zhao Yeqing nodded: "That's enough, that's enough. I just love eating the leftover crumbs. They are so fragrant."

The fried eggs are ready, and all that’s left is to wait for the soup base in the pot.

Zhao Yeqing saw that the small stove was empty, and was afraid that there would not be enough rice noodles, so he mixed rice paste with glutinous rice flour and steamed a few baskets of rice noodles.

The ingredients are almost ready, except for the greens. There is no need to make new red oil, as it is always available at home. I ground the beans the day before yesterday, and the fried bean curd sheets are also freshly made.

Mu Xi walked into the vegetable garden, pulled in a small basket of lettuce leaves, washed them, boiled them in water and put them aside.

It’s a pity that there was no water spinach, otherwise putting water spinach in the snail noodles would be more authentic than putting lettuce.

Zhao Yeqing lifted the lid of the pot and saw that the soup in the pot had changed from white to a rich yellowish milky white, and a fresh fragrance rushed into his nose.

The rice noodles have been divided into two large bowls. Using a large soup spoon, each bowl is poured with the rich and fragrant soup. After a spoonful of chili oil, the prepared side dishes are neatly placed on top.

While Zhao Yeqing was preparing the noodles, Muxi scooped out a bowl of snails, picked out the snail meat and put it in the snail noodles.

Zhao Yeqing was drooling with greed.

Mix the ingredients and rice noodles together, pick up a piece of rice noodles with chopsticks and put it into your mouth.

The difference between cut vermicelli and round vermicelli is that cut vermicelli has many invisible tiny holes on its surface, which makes it absorb the soup particularly well in rich-flavored soup and become very tasty.

As Zhao Yeqing took the chewy and smooth rice noodles into her mouth, she felt a fresh aroma rushing to her head. The soup made from the wild snails in the mountain stream was sweeter and richer than the farmed snails outside. Just talking about the soup base alone, she had never tasted anything fresher than this.

Mu Xi's experience was more intuitive than hers. He took a sip of the soup right at the start. It was so delicious that he felt a little intoxicated. The sweetness that followed the delicious taste was incomparable to any sugar.

After eating half of the rice noodles, Zhao Yeqing dipped the golden and crispy fried eggs into the soup. The fried eggs tasted best when they were soaked in the soup.

The only sound in the kitchen at this moment was the sound of slurping noodles.