Chapter 37 Chapter 37 The Su family, at this time...

At the Su family's house, Mrs. Wu was sitting under the eaves helping Old Man Su pass things around. Not long after they finished their meal, they started busying themselves making the small tables and stools that Su Li had mentioned. At this point, the tables had already taken shape and only needed to be assembled according to the little granddaughter's instructions.

Cicadas chirped, but the weather didn't cool down. Mrs. Wu looked into the distance, but there was no sign of anyone. She asked anxiously, "Did something happen on the way? Why hasn't he returned yet?"

In the past, everyone would have arrived home by this time. But today, it was already past 3 p.m. and there was still no movement. If Mrs. Wu hadn't been unable to move much, she would have gone to the village entrance to wait.

Old man Su said as he assembled it,

"It should be soon. Didn't Qingshan's mother say that after selling the salt, she would go to the county to buy salt and other things?"

"Yeah, I forgot about that."

Only then did Mrs. Wu finally feel relieved and concentrate on helping with the work.

About half an hour later, the sound of wheels came from not far away. Mrs. Wu looked up and saw Chen and others returning in the mule cart.

She had difficulty walking, so she quickly asked Old Man Su to pick someone up.

"Grandpa, we are back." Su Tao changed her listless attitude on the mule cart just now, and jumped off the mule cart as lightly as a young swallow. She happily greeted the old man Su who came to help. Su Li also slowly got off the mule cart. She had never been carsick before, but for some reason, riding in a mule cart was so uncomfortable. She almost vomited because of the bumpy ride.

"Okay, okay, I'm glad you're back." Old man Su said as he went to take all the things from the mule cart. Zeng Laoer, who was driving the mule cart, came over to help.

"I'm sorry to bother your great-uncle again today." Old Man Su thanked the man in front of him.

Zeng Laoer lifted the cart and put it on the ground, clapping his hands. "Uncle Su, you're joking. It's not a big deal."

His tone was intimate, his attitude was kind, and his manners were attentive, as if the relationship between the two families had always been so close.

But it was not like this in the past. As a military household, the Su family was not easily offended by other people in the village, but they looked down on them in their hearts. On weekdays, the elders would tell the younger generations not to play with the children of the Su family.

So speaking of interactions, the Zeng family and the Su family actually had very little interactions in the past. It was only in recent days that the Su family came to him to use his car and started interacting.

However, it was during this period of interaction that Zeng Lao Er realized that the Su family was about to rise. He went back and discussed it with his wife, and they both felt that they should lend a hand whenever they could, as who knows, there might be a place for them to use others in the future.

"Come in and have a drink of water, Brother Zeng."

After moving all the things in, Chen called out to the man in the yard, and as she spoke, she went into the kitchen and poured a bowl of mung bean soup cooked by Su Li in the morning with cold water and handed it to the man.

Zeng Lao Er was about to refuse, but when he saw the bowl of mung bean soup that Chen handed him, which looked cold and thirst-quenching, he couldn't say the rejection that had just entered his mouth.

He took it sheepishly, "Thank you very much."

Zeng Laoer had been feeling thirsty for a long time after making two trips back and forth today without even having time to drink a sip of water. He now picked up the bowl of mung bean soup and started to drink it in big gulps.

Refreshing! It's icy and cool, with a hint of sweetness and the unique fragrance of mung beans. A bowl of this is so comfortable on a hot summer day.

After drinking the mung bean soup, Zeng Laoer ate the remaining mung beans. I don’t know how this mung bean soup was made, but every mung bean in it had bloomed and was so soft and rotten that it was sandy.

"Sister-in-law, this mung bean soup is really delicious." Zeng Laoer praised. For some reason, his wife's mung bean soup turned red, which not only did not look so good, but also tasted a little worse. Today's mung bean soup is just right, not too sweet and not too bland.

"It wasn't cooked by me, it was cooked by Wu Ya." Chen smiled and took the bowl back and explained.

Zeng Lao Er was surprised for a moment, but thought it was also taught by Chen. He praised it a few times, and his mind was mixed. He thought that the mung bean soup cooked by the Su family was so delicious, no wonder they could sell out all the food every day.

He saw it with his own eyes. The wooden barrel and the earthenware jar containing the food were spotless. For a moment, Zeng Laoer began to feel emotional again. After returning home, he and his wife started to chat with crickets again.

Here is the Su family,

Seeing that the people and the mule had gone far away, Chen took out the things she had bought in the county today. Pork cannot be kept in the summer, so it has to be taken out quickly and cooked later. Salt and sugar also need to be put into jars. The rest are the pine nut candy that Su Li insisted on buying, and the mung bean cakes bought for her parents-in-law.

"It seems like I bought a little too much." Chen said self-reproachfully while holding the meat. She didn't think much of it when she bought it, but she realized she bought so much after she got home. I guess her parents-in-law think she was wasting money, right?

"Just buy it, we have to eat it anyway." Mrs. Wu said. Although she felt that she bought too much when she saw these things at first, she looked carefully and realized which ones she shouldn't buy.

Although Mrs. Wu has always been stingy in managing the household, she is not someone who is unwilling to negotiate. Besides, this money was earned by her daughter-in-law and two granddaughters with hard work. What qualifications do she and her husband have to say anything?

What's more, the daughter-in-law also bought something for them. Mrs. Wu picked up the bag of mung bean cakes that Chen had just given her and asked, deliberately changing the subject.

"Is this mung bean cake from Wen Ji?"

"Yes, it's written by Wen Ji." Chen said.

Mrs. Wu stroked the oil paper with her fingers, a look of nostalgia in her eyes. "The mung bean cakes from his family are delicious."

As if she understood the confusion on Chen's face, Mrs. Wu explained,

"When your father and I first got married, I loved buying his cakes and pastries."

But later I don’t know when…

It was probably when they had one child after another but none of them survived, and all the family money was spent on the frail and sickly youngest son.

Chen really didn't know about this. She smiled and said,

"Then try it and see if it still tastes the same as before."

Mrs. Wu nodded, stood up to wash her hands, opened the oil-paper seal, pinched off a piece and took a bite, "Yes!"

A smile appeared on Mrs. Wu's face, and her face, which had been wrinkled for years, relaxed.

"Try it, old man."

"No, just give me a little bit. I can't eat that much."

Old Man Su was smiling in the sunshine, but Mrs. Wu didn't know why, she just felt as if she had returned to that gloomy evening of the past. At that time, she had just miscarried her third child and could not do heavy work. She was also sitting under this eaves peeling beans. Old Man Su went to the county and bought this mung bean cake. He secretly stuffed it into her mother-in-law's mouth when she was not paying attention. She opened it and asked him to eat it. He said he didn't like it and asked her to eat it. So she ate while crying, and finished the whole bag in one breath. It was so sweet that she didn't eat dinner. She was scolded by her mother-in-law again. But for some reason, she couldn't remember those scolding words, but she remembered this incident.

"It really hasn't changed. It's still just as sweet!" Old Man Su deliberately showed a look of disgust, trying to make Mrs. Wu laugh as usual, but Mrs. Wu couldn't laugh. She stood up suddenly and said, "Forget it if you don't want to eat it."

Then he turned and limped into the house.

"Hey, look at your mother." What made her angry again?

Seeing this, Chen and Su Li laughed secretly.

After a while, when the weather was not so hot, Su Li started to prepare dinner. Knowing that Su Li was going to make braised pork, Su Tao ran to feed the chickens early today. Even though Chen scolded her again, she pretended not to hear and sat diligently in the stuffy kitchen to help Su Li turn on the fire.

"Fourth sister, you don't need to light the fire today, why don't you go take a shower first?"

To make the braised pork delicious, frying the sugar color is the most important step, which requires very high heat control, especially since here, unlike modern times, where we use natural gas to adjust the heat at will, we cannot mess around with it.

Who knew that when these words came out, Su Tao misunderstood them, thinking that the other party was afraid that she would not take a shower, so she patted her chest and promised,

"Don't worry, Fifth Sister, I will definitely wash it today."

Su Li then remembered that she couldn't beat around the bush when talking to her fourth sister Su Tao, so she explained.

There are so many things to pay attention to? Su Tao was so scared that she quickly stood up and threw the wooden stick in her hand. Forget it, for the sake of delicious braised pork, she won’t cook it anymore.

There is no need to avoid it like a snake...

Su Li picked up the discarded wooden stick and put it into the stove, then began to fry the sugar color. The fire for frying the sugar color should not be too big, just a little bit will do. Wait until the white sugar slowly melts into the lard used to fry the pork belly and turns to a reddish-brown color. It is ready when it looks shiny. Frying sugar color can be divided into frying in water and frying in oil. Frying in water is more suitable for novices and is not easy to stick to the pan. Frying in oil is more challenging.

At the moment when the sugar color is fried, add the browned pork belly that has just been fried and stir-fry until it is colored. There are many tutorials online that ask you to blanch the meat first, but in fact, very fresh pork does not need to be blanched. Just cut it into pieces and fry out the fat. This is the most fragrant way.

After coating the pork belly with sugar color, start stir-frying star anise, bay leaves, cinnamon, ginger and onion together. After stir-frying, add rice wine to remove the fishy smell and enhance the flavor. There is no light soy sauce or dark soy sauce here, only soy sauce, which is fermented from soybeans and wheat. I heard that some spices and seasonings are added to it. The color looks more like dark soy sauce, and the taste is saltier.

Su Li has been using it to cook these days, and the taste is pretty good. According to her mother Chen, this soy sauce shop is a time-honored brand that has been around since Chen was born. Almost everyone in her family goes to this shop when they need soy sauce.

After stir-frying the soy sauce evenly, the most important thing is to pour in an appropriate amount of boiling hot water, never cold water, then cover the lid and bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat for at least 40 minutes.

The braised pork at that time was soft and tasty, and melted in the mouth.

Su Li felt a little hungry just thinking about the taste.

At this time, outside, Su Tao was almost crying with greed at the smell of meat. She was seen in the corner of the yard, feeding the rabbit with grass while sniffing, and she couldn't wait to eat it.

It smells so good...

Not only her, but also the three people who worked there, Mrs. Wu, Old Man Su, and Mrs. Chen, said, "The meat cooked by Fifth Girl is really delicious..."

"Yes, it is indeed delicious." Maybe it was because she hadn't eaten meat for too long, but Chen actually felt that the meat cooked by her youngest daughter today was particularly delicious.

"I wonder when Qingshan and the others will arrive. Are you talking about today?" Mrs. Wu was worried about her son and grandson. Although her son sent someone to tell her two days ago that he would be returning home today, it was almost evening and the sun was about to set, but there was no sign of them.

"My son said today is definitely today, so don't worry about this or that."

"If you're not worried, what are you looking at?" The eldest brother said to the second brother, don't think she didn't see it, he was the one who looked the most just now.

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The author has something to say: Sorry, my dears, I was going to post this last night, but I fell asleep. I made some changes this morning, and there will be another update later this afternoon (I will write more today!!!) [kiss][kiss][kiss][kiss][kiss][sprinkle flowers][sprinkle flowers][sprinkle flowers] (Escape! Run away…

Ps: All the recipes in the book come from the Internet and my own cooking habits at home.