Shiyue was happy that her husband had returned, so she decided to change her lunch to dumplings the next day.
This group of people missed out on the dumplings during the Lunar New Year, and now she wants to make it up to them.
Shiyue wanted to make crab meat steamed dumplings.
The meals at the expert team's canteen usually change once a week.
On Monday morning, Shiyue and the others would take the week's menu to the senior experts. If there were no objections, they would follow the recipe.
Of course, this is not something that cannot be modified; it is normal to make temporary changes occasionally due to insufficient supply of dishes.
However, making dumplings is relatively rare, since it's quite troublesome.
Fortunately, Shiyue is making steamed dumplings with hot water dough today. These are easier to eat than boiled dumplings, and they won't stick together even if left out for a little longer.
Moreover, you can make them larger when wrapping them, and the process is similar to making steamed buns.
The island's residents don't have many opportunities to eat crabs; when they can eat them depends on fate.
It depends on when the patrol boat retrieves it.
But crabs are not good for long-term storage; once they die, their meat will quickly rot and become inedible.
So once they're caught, everyone on the island will eat them for a while, fearing they won't die as quickly as they've eaten.
As for crabs, the only cooking methods at the cafeteria are boiling and steaming; there are no other ways.
There's hardly any meat in this stuff, and you can eat for ages without getting any real meat in your mouth. After a while, people just stop liking it.
So much so that sometimes when the patrol boats catch crabs, no one is really interested.
We can't just watch the crabs die, can we?
But there's no refrigeration equipment available now, so there's no way to preserve them.
Shiyue couldn't bear to waste anything, so she once collected a batch of crabs that the cafeteria couldn't finish and put them in the group to sell.
It sold quite well.
But one major downside to doing business on the island is that everyone knows each other too well.
People who are together every day know what you do.
She needs a reason to bring the crabs back; she can't just let people find out that the crabs have disappeared without a trace, can she?
So Shiyue searched for a recipe for crab sauce in the system.
Then, whenever there are crabs, they collect the ones that everyone can't finish eating together.
We set aside some to sell, and then asked a few children to help us separate the crab roe and meat, put them in salt, and store them in bottles.
Shiyue would place some specially processed crab sauce, which contained a lot of salt, in a cool, shady place as a mere decoration, while storing the rest in her spatial storage.
Over time, not to mention outside, she now has dozens of bottles of crab meat stored in her space, enough to make a proper meal of crab meat dumplings for the entire expert team.
Knowing that Shiyue wanted to make steamed dumplings, Liang Yueming started kneading the dough without saying a word.
She knew she couldn't compare to Shiyue in either stir-frying or filling, so she never competed with her for the job.
Instead, he took the initiative to do the more tiring task of kneading dough.
To coordinate the entire expert group plus one's own family's approach would be a huge undertaking.
Liang Yueming mixed two large basins of dough and used almost half a bag of flour to make enough.
While Liang Yueming was kneading the dough, Shiyue went to the vegetable garden and picked a large basket of green vegetables.
Take out the dried scallops from the storage and soak them until they are rehydrated, and clean the green vegetables.
Then chop the soaked dried scallops into small pieces, add crab meat and crab roe, and also add finely chopped ginger.
Then add the chopped and squeezed-dry greens, along with various seasonings.
You can't use crab meat filling without adding oil.
If Shiyue were to follow her own ideas, she would actually prefer to buy a piece of fatty pork and mix it in with the filling, but doing so would be too easy for others to discover.
Left with no other choice, she scooped several spoonfuls of lard into the pot, poured in rapeseed oil from the supply, and added Sichuan peppercorns and star anise to simmer until fragrant.
Finally, pour the rendered oil into the filling.
With a sizzling sound, a strong aroma wafted out.
Liang Yueming, who was kneading dough in the open space outside because she was feeling hot, couldn't help but sniff the aroma.
Once you've prepared the dough and filling, you can start making dumplings.
Making dumplings was a piece of cake for the two sisters-in-law who were used to kitchen work.
In no time at all, a plate of round, plump steamed dumplings was ready.
Liang Yueming's steamed dumplings were an enlarged version of regular dumplings, while Shiyue's dumplings were shaped like wheat ears.
She wrapped them quickly and beautifully, and they looked especially pleasing to the eye when placed together.
Even Liang Yueming couldn't resist and followed her example to wrap a few more.
Perhaps the oil that had just been heated was too fragrant, because before the dumplings were even finished being wrapped, Xiao Fei led his group of child soldiers running in from outside.
Xiao Fei and Hu Zi were alright; they knew they weren't at home, but Jia Jia didn't have that awareness.
She ran and called out, "Mom, Mom, Auntie, Auntie, what delicious food have you made?"
Before the two sisters-in-law could even reply, the group of little ones swarmed over.
Shiyue smiled and said, "We're having steamed dumplings for lunch today. If you all behave well, you can all stay here for lunch."
Upon hearing her say that, the other little ones also became happy and nodded excitedly.
Even the youngest girl, Niu Niu, chimed in, "Aunt Shiyue, I'm obedient, I'm very good."
"If you're good, go out and play first, don't all stay here. I'll come back and steam some for you after I deliver lunch to the experts."
"Aunt Shiyue, let us go get you some water. You must have run out of water at home, right?" Xiaofei said.
He waved to his friends, and they all rushed into the kitchen.
"You don't need to call, your Uncle Lixuan already did it this morning. If you have nothing else to do, go wash your dirty hands and faces. Once you're clean, come with me to the experts' building to deliver the food." Shiyue quickly stopped them.
"Okay, go wash your hands!" Xiao Fei waved again.
A group of people followed him as he came and went in a whoosh.
Watching the group of children run off into the distance, Liang Yueming complained, "You're adding more food in there! How much food do you have to keep adding to this?"
Despite the good conditions on the island, each person's food supply is still rationed.
Liang Yueming always knew that his sister-in-law was generous and kind-hearted.
Sometimes they would secretly give the experts their own grain to supplement their food supplies.
However, she had stated early on that the supplements came from their own family's food supplies and did not involve the collective food supplies.
So much so that Liang Yueming, though wanting her to be more frugal, couldn't bring himself to say it.
But now, seeing that she not only has to subsidize the experts, but also these little ones, Liang Yueming feels both heartache and helplessness.
She simply didn't know how to describe Shiyue.
Even if they are young and have no burdens, they can't just live like this!
Does this mean they don't want to have children in the future?
If you give all your money to the government and don't save any for yourself, what will you do when you're short of money to raise your children in the future?
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