That's what they say, but their daughter wanted to try something different without spending too much money. It just required buying more salt and putting in a little more effort. Aunt Wei loved her daughter, so how could she not grant her wish?
Anyway, the mushrooms we dried all summer were enough to eat, so Aunt Wei stopped going up the mountain. She went with Zhong Wanwan to harvest vegetables from the garden.
You don't need anything expensive to exchange for vegetables from your own plot of land; half a bar of soap is enough!
Even so, Aunt Wei still complained that she had given too much; a few boxes of matches would have been enough, why did she need such a big bar of soap!
To ensure that Zhong Wanwan wouldn't suffer any losses, Aunt Wei helped her find families with large households and large plots of land.
If you exchange two bars of soap, Zhong Wanwan won't be able to use the things she needs!
Aunt Wei's family is large, and her diligent eldest son had already cleared out and thrown everything out of their private plot of land early on.
So, the number of families they traded with was much higher than Zhong Wanwan's. Each family gave them two boxes of matches, and they also traded away two packs of matches.
These things should be stored in the cellar, or salted if necessary.
Because there was a lot of food to pickle, Sister-in-law Fengying and Sister-in-law Cuihong also helped wash the vegetables.
Sister-in-law Cuihong shared the fresh melon with the three of them:
"When I first arrived, the educated youth compound was bustling with activity! That educated youth named Bai knew how to pickle some spicy cabbage, and he said it was so delicious that he wouldn't trade it for meat!"
"That mysterious thing, I just peeked at it from the doorway a couple of times, and they quickly closed the door, afraid I'd steal it!"
Sister-in-law Fengying, filled with righteous indignation, said:
"What's so great about it? It's just pickled cabbage. No matter how delicious it is, who would trade it for meat? She's so happy!"
Sister-in-law Cuihong pouted and said:
"All they do all day is put on that show! I don't even want to watch it. Their educated youth compound is so filthy, I wouldn't even eat there!"
Spicy kimchi! Zhong Wanwan had a sudden thought; she really hadn't thought of pickling this.
While it might be an exaggeration to say I wouldn't trade it for meat, the kimchi really does taste pretty good.
Not only is the kimchi delicious, but the spicy radish chunks, spicy radish greens, spicy scallion leaves, and other spicy dishes are also very tasty.
She can pickle all of these. Not only can she pickle them, she also has a lot of fish sauce and shrimp paste in her space.
Adding it in will enhance the flavor, elevating the taste to another level! Zhong Wanwan smiled and said:
"Sister-in-law Cuihong, kimchi is really delicious! Let's pickle some kimchi later too. Besides kimchi, we can also pickle some spicy scallion leaves, that would be even tastier!"
Sister-in-law Cuihong exclaimed with delight:
"Master Zhong, you can pickle things too?"
Zhong Wanwan smiled shyly:
"Theoretically I know how, but practically speaking, forget it. Kimchi is much more complicated than pickling vegetables. My kimchi, cough cough, might not taste quite right!"
"But it's okay, Songbai can pickle things, and his pickled ones are especially delicious!"
Zhong Wanwan wanted to make spicy cabbage because her mother had taught her and Zhong Songbai how.
Before the Zhong family fell on hard times, they had Korean servants. Every winter, the Zhong family would pickle various Korean vegetables.
Mrs. Zhong is a virtuous wife and loving mother. Because Mr. Zhong likes this kind of food, she specially learned how to make the sauce from a Korean maid!
Later, when they could no longer employ servants, Zhong's mother and her two children made the pickled vegetables themselves.
Upon hearing that Zhong Songbai knew how to pickle, Sister Cuihong perked up and rushed off to prepare the ingredients Zhong Wanwan had mentioned.
I heard that small shrimp are better, so I specially asked Wei Youliang to go to the ditch and catch a lot of small river shrimp, cook them, mash them and put them in.
The pears in the sauce are from the Wei family; pear trees are grown in Aunt Wei's hometown village. They're not very big, but they have a strong pear flavor.
Everything else is common household items, so finding them is effortless.
Kimchi needs to be made by rinsing the cabbage to draw out the water, so it's not ready to eat right away.
However, there isn't much moisture in the scallion leaves, so they can be eaten after marinating them with the prepared seasoning for a while.
Zhong Songbai was already a skilled cook, and Zhong Wanwan secretly added fish sauce and shrimp paste to the ingredients.
The spicy scallion leaves tasted exceptionally good and received unanimous praise from the Wei family!
Aunt Wei joked that the pickled spicy scallion leaves were great in every way, except that they made you eat too much rice!
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