Chapter 226

Starting from the Little New Year, Ji Xingguo received more and more invitations to dinners and New Year's gifts. Every day, people invited him to dinner and delivered New Year's goods to his home.

Even the employees in the factory compound would bring Ji Xingguo some gifts around the end of the year.

This gift is different from usual; it comes purely from the Chinese people's love and celebration of the traditional Spring Festival.

A bag of peanut candy wrapped in fancy oil paper, or a jar of homemade glutinous rice ball filling, or two old hens brought back from the hometown, all became expressions of hospitality from the neighbors.

Ji Xingguo, throughout the year, would only accept a small amount of New Year's gifts from factory employees and subordinates during the Spring Festival.

Then, return the New Year's goods you bought yourself, and everyone is happy with the reciprocal gift-giving.

Luo Chunyan's family also sent New Year's gifts to Ji Wanmei and the others. Most of them were food that Luo Chunyan made herself, including glutinous rice balls sealed in a jar and a large piece of cured pork ribs.

Even if you don't know how to make these things, it still takes a lot of effort.

From the eve of the Lunar New Year, the courtyard and front door of Ji Wanmei's family have never been deserted.

The small storage room in the kitchen and the refrigerator are overflowing with New Year's goods.

Ji Wanmei said, "Dad, if we had known that everyone was giving cured meat and sausages as gifts this year, we wouldn't have made them ourselves. There are so many, when will we ever finish them?"

“The cured meat can be stored for a long time. When you start school, Dad will bring you some to eat at school,” Ji Xingguo said.

Ji Wanmei thought about how inconvenient it would be if she had to bring this big bag of cured meat and sausages when she left home early.

However, she then thought that Lei Tingjun and the others would be spending the New Year at the construction site, so they probably wouldn't be able to eat anything good for their New Year's Eve dinner.

If she found it troublesome to bring sausages to school, she would take them to Lei Tingjun's dormitory and give them to him as food, so that he could at least taste a bit of the real New Year's flavor.

On New Year's Eve, the streets and alleys of Pingquan County were decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, firecrackers were set off one after another, and people were laughing and chatting happily.

Families gather together for a joyous New Year's Eve dinner and display auspicious couplets.

Ji Wanmei also decided to show off her skills and help her father in the kitchen.

In Pingquan County, it is customary to include fish as a must-have dish at the New Year's Eve dinner.

Regardless of the method of preparation, there must be a fish dish, symbolizing abundance year after year.

Ji Wanmei went grocery shopping with her father early in the morning. When they passed by the seafood market, she bought a grass carp weighing more than two pounds. She planned to make a West Lake Vinegar Fish dish for her father to try.

Ji Xingguo really liked the black carp sour soup she made before, and later she learned to make braised pork with preserved mustard greens, and she was successful on the first try almost every time.

This shows that Ji Wanmei does have a certain talent for cooking.

However, Ji Wanmei's knife skills were not good. When she held the knife and pressed the fish onto the cutting board, her careful movements were so timid that Ji Xingguo couldn't bear to watch. He came over and said, "How do you want it cut? Dad will do it for you first."

Ji Wanmei gestured as she described, "If I want to make West Lake Vinegar Fish, I'll cut it into flower shapes."

Ji Xingguo took the knife and, with a few horizontal and vertical strokes, cleaned up a grass carp that had just been killed.

When preparing grass carp, first use a knife to cut the fish from the tail along the spine to the head, dividing the whole fish into two halves, one with bones and one without.

Next, make diagonal cuts on the half-fish with bones, and then cut the fish in half at the third cut. On the boneless half-fish, make a long cut along the inside where the fish meat is thicker, leaving a little space for the fish bones.

With this method, a pomfret is ready.

It will look beautiful after steaming, and it will have a nice shape for plating.

Ji Wanmei took the fish and went to the stove to busy herself.

Her father, Ji Xingguo, was steaming sweet pork belly at the other stove.

When relatives come to visit during the first month of the lunar calendar, sweet pork belly is an essential dish to serve guests.

Grind red bean paste into powder, then add brown sugar and white sugar and stir-fry until cooked. Cut off the pork belly and slice it into thick slices about the width of your index finger. Make a cut in the middle of each slice and put the red bean paste into the cut.

Finally, just like making braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens, invert the bowls of sweet and sour pork belly into earthenware bowls, put them in a steamer, and steam them over low heat for two hours.

The finished sweet red bean paste is sweet, smooth, and chewy. The rich and fatty pork, combined with the sweetness of the red bean paste, creates a delightful and surprising flavor on the tongue.

Ji Wanmei also likes to eat it, but she can't eat too much of it. She only eats one or two slices each time.

Eating too much will make you feel greasy.

Besides the knife skills, the most important aspect of West Lake Vinegar Fish is the preparation of the sauce.

Because the sauce has a sweet and sour flavor, and it's sour first and then sweet, the proportion of vinegar is higher than the proportion of sugar.

When preparing the sauce, Ji Wanmei tasted it little by little first.

After the fish is steamed, pour out the excess fish soup, then add sugar, soy sauce, and aged vinegar in that order and stir well. Thicken with cornstarch slurry, and then drizzle with a few drops of sesame oil to make the sauce.

The fish was steamed for just the right time. Wearing heat-resistant gloves, Ji Wanmei took the fish out of the pot and, while it was still steaming, poured the prepared sauce evenly over it.

Finally, sprinkle some chopped green onions on top, and it looks very appetizing.

"Dad, my fish is ready!" Ji Wanmei said with a smile.

Ji Wanmei was busy in the kitchen: "You take the dishes out first, tidy up the table, and I'll cook two more dishes and ladle out the yam and chicken soup from the stove. Then we can eat!"

Although it's just the father and daughter at home, Ji Xingguo prepares a very lavish New Year's Eve dinner every year.

After all the food was served, there were three sets of bowls and chopsticks on the table.

Ji Xingguo took off his apron, washed his hands, picked up the empty bowl, and put a little of each dish from the New Year's Eve dinner table into the bowl.

Then he took out incense and candles, took out the memorial tablet for Ji Wanmei's mother, placed it on the table, and lit three sticks of incense.

He placed the bowl and chopsticks filled with food in front of the incense and candles, and said, "Manjun, are you doing well over there? It's New Year again. My daughter and I are alone. We made a lot of delicious food this year. This West Lake Vinegar Fish was made by my daughter herself. Please eat more."

“My daughter is in college now. She’s grown up and matured. I don’t have to worry about her much anymore. You don’t need to worry over there either. My daughter and I are doing fine.”

While Ji Xingguo was speaking to his mother's memorial tablet, Ji Wanmei stood respectfully to his side.

She could sense that, despite all these years, her father's love for her mother had not changed at all.

My mother made the right choice back then.

Ji Wanmei also lit three incense sticks and kowtowed to her mother.

After doing all this, the father and daughter cleaned the table again, turned on the Spring Festival Gala on TV, and began to eat their New Year's Eve dinner.