Although the Qiao family's house has been renovated, it is an old house after all. When there is no fire in the kitchen, the kang in the east room is cold. If the fire is always burning, it will be a bit hot.
The original body should be afraid of cold, so Miao Wan always feels cold hands and feet at night.
But pregnant women are prone to getting irritated. Geng was making breakfast outside, and the kang was too hot for her to lie down for long, so she got up after not sleeping for long.
After Geng finished making breakfast, Qiao Ruichen had not returned yet, so Miao Wan started to boil beet sugar, and Geng and Qiao Rui helped her.
"Sister-in-law, is this delicious? Is it delicious with milk cubes?" Qiao Rui watched her mother and sister-in-law cut the beets into pieces and put them into the pot with some curiosity.
Miao Wan thought about it and wondered which was better for a child, milk cubes or candy?
She patted Qiao Rui's temples and said with a smile, "I'm going to make candy today. Using this to make milk curds will make them even tastier than before!"
Both Geng and Qiao Rui were a little surprised, especially Geng. "Can this be made into sugar? Isn't sugar made from sugarcane?"
"The sugar yield of this is no less than that of sugarcane. Mom will know in a while." Miao Wan took out a rolling pin and said confidently.
But in fact, Miao Wan had never made candy before. She saw a host make it on a live streaming app, and the method was similar to making milk cubes.
Cut off the root part of the beet head, cut into slices or strips, put them in an iron pot, add water and boil, and mash the cooked beets.
Then use the gauze used for steaming buns to filter out the sugar water from the mashed residue, and boil the sugar water into a syrup that is almost as thick as milk curd.
The syrup is placed in the snow and frozen into sugar cubes. Just add a little hot water to melt it each time you use it.
You can also eat it directly. Beet sugar has a stronger caramel flavor than cane sugar and is more like brown sugar.
Miao Wan didn't throw away the beet leaves either. They were good stuff. They could not only clear away heat and fire, reduce fat and lower blood pressure, but also clear the liver and improve eyesight. They were one of the mainstays of fat-reducing meals in the northwest in later generations.
There is no need to lose fat in this era, but eating too much braised meat will cause gout, and eating too many spicy skewers will cause internal heat. You must prepare some heat-clearing and detoxifying foods or drinks to match.
Beet leaves taste a bit bitter when eaten alone, so you can add barley flour to make vegetable dumplings.
Qiao Ruichen came back when the sugar was half cooked. Hearing her mother-in-law's concern for her son, Miao Wan immediately put down the rolling pin she was using to pound the beets and went forward to care for her husband who came to the kitchen to put something away.
"You've worked hard, my husband. Are you cold? Come over here and warm yourself by the fire."
Qiao Ruichen was not used to Miao Wan's concern. He just shook his head gently, "It's okay, I'm not cold. I'll put everything in the cellar first."
"No, no, we can eat most of these today." Miao Wan quickly stopped him.
There are sixteen mouths to feed in the Zhang family and five in the Qiao family. It’s good enough that they don’t have to take anything out of the cellar.
Her fair and delicate face was full of earnestness. "Come over here and warm yourself up first, and filter out the vegetable residue from the iron pot."
Qiao Ruichen: "..." He was a little skeptical. Did his wife really care whether he was cold or not?
He didn't refuse to work because he had been practicing martial arts since he was a child. Going shopping was not tiring for him and it was much easier than being in the barracks.
Geng was happy to see her daughter-in-law and son getting close, so she didn't come over to take over Qiao Ruichen's work. She pulled Qiao Rui aside to wash and cut vegetables.
With Qiao Ruichen joining in, they worked much faster and the beet sugar was soon boiled.
About three pounds of beets can produce one pound of sugar. A total of sixty-three pounds of beets, after removing the leaves, can produce eighteen pounds of sugar.
That is one and a half dou, which can be sold for nine taels of silver. These beets only cost a total of one hundred and eighty wen, which is considered a huge profit.
But Miao Wan didn't plan to sell the candy directly. As she said before, selling candy was too high-profile now. She could make money by making it into snacks and selling them in Wa City.
People in ancient times went to bed early, so Miao Wan got up at 12:00 AM. There weren't many beets, so it only took an hour to boil the sugar.
Seeing that lunch was less than two hours away, Geng went to the main hall to check on her husband. Qiao Shengwen had been sleeping after taking the medicine and didn't need anyone to accompany him.
So everyone got busy under Miao Wan's command.
There are many Mongolian merchants and ethnic minorities in the northern part of Xining Town. Some of them do not eat pork, so there are also many people selling mutton, chicken and duck.
Qiao Ruichen went to Wa City and bought a lot of things - half a sheep, two chickens, a duck, and a rabbit.
It was snowing and the open-air stalls were not open, so he couldn't even buy radishes. He went to the spice shop and bought some dried black fungus and broad beans.
There are still five pounds of pork, several large bones and five pounds of braised goods at home that the Zhang family sent yesterday.
After instructing Qiao Ruichen to wash the iron cauldron, Miao Wan first boiled the large bones to remove the blood foam, then asked Qiao Ruichen to break the bones and put them into the pot to make pork bone soup.
Mutton and radish are made into radish and mutton meatballs. These two ingredients are something that her father-in-law can't eat because of the medicine he takes, so Miao Wan simply put them together. She heard that they can nourish the kidneys and boost yang.
Pork and cabbage are made into cabbage and pork meatballs. Miao Wan likes cabbage and pork dumplings the most. They are also delicious when made into meatballs alone and can also strengthen the stomach and relieve dryness.
Rabbit meat and winter squash are both ingredients that nourish the middle and replenish qi, so you can just wrap them together with the filling to make winter squash and rabbit meat dumplings, which saves you from making pasta.
Since the meat of chicken and duck is not that elastic, they are killed and bled first. Salt is added to the blood to make chicken blood and duck blood, which is then cooked in a clay pot.
As for the chicken and duck meat, cut them into pieces, marinate them with black bean sauce, and then put them in a flour and egg paste. After the pork bone soup is cooked, you can use it to fry the cutlets.
Considering that there were not enough vegetables, Miao Wan asked her mother-in-law to take out some eggplants and dried shepherd's purse to make vegetable steamed cakes.
In fact, the most delicious spicy skewers are beef offal skewers, such as beef throat and tripe. However, in ancient times, agriculture was emphasized, beef was hard to buy, and there were not enough vegetables. Miao Wan could only use limited ingredients to make it into a style that would not fall apart after being added to the soup.
Fortunately, there are chicken and duck offal, which are also very delicious.
When all the ingredients were prepared and it was almost noon, Miao Wan asked Qiao Ruichen to pour the pork bone soup into two empty earthenware jars.
There are not many clay pots at home, and all of them are used except for the one used for boiling medicine. There are not enough for making soap later.
Miao Wan couldn't help but assign another task to Qiao Ruichen. "Husband, when you go to the tile market tomorrow to buy some clay pots, can you please see if there are any? It would be best if you could buy a few large ones, and coarse porcelain basins would be nice too."
"Okay." Qiao Ruichen agreed without hesitation.
After going out today, the cellar was still empty. He had to fill it up before leaving.
Miao Wan was particularly satisfied with Qiao Ruichen's obedience to orders.
It was cold outside and the beet candy had started to harden. She fed the beet candy to her mother-in-law and Qiao Rui, and also stuffed a piece into Qiao Ruichen's hand - be good, follow Miao Shiren and you will have candy.
Qiao Ruichen was stunned for a moment, then raised his head with the candy in his mouth.
Miao Wan smiled sweetly, revealing two dimples, and there seemed to be stars twinkling in her curved almond-shaped eyes.
This was the first time that Qiao Ruichen noticed how beautiful his wife was, and his ears felt inexplicably hot.
Geng, who was standing by, noticed it and started to smile.
Originally, she was worried that Miao Wan and her son would not be as close as before, but now it seems that leaving the capital is a good thing.
The daughter-in-law is especially lovable after she lets go of her temper. The son is also good. Although he has lost a lot of weight, he is still a gentle and handsome man. The couple really couldn't be more perfect for each other.
Miao Wan didn't know that in her mother-in-law's mind, she hadn't given birth to a baby yet, but a series of babies were already in the making. She was just busy excitedly taking out the spices she had exchanged for essential oils to stir-fry the spicy ingredients.
There is a patient in the Qiao family and a child in the Zhang family, so we can't make spicy food all the time. There are no skewers today, so just treat it as malatang and oden.
The spices my mother-in-law bought included star anise, cinnamon, and bay leaves, and she also bought licorice and dried tangerine peel from the pharmacy. She bought cloves, fennel, cumin, and nutmeg, and added freshly made beet sugar, which was enough to make a rich spicy soup.
I don’t have any dogwood oil at home, but dogwood has a strong flavor to begin with, and stir-frying it with oil to create a spicy taste is enough for people who have never tried spicy skewers.
The most authentic spicy skewers are made with chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. Chili peppers are not available at the moment. Sichuan peppercorns grow in the south, while Sichuan peppercorns are more common in the north.
But both of them belong to the Zanthoxylum family, and the numbing flavor of the Zanthoxylum bungeanum can be boiled out using the same method as that of Cornus officinalis.
Sichuan peppercorns are not as spicy, but they are more fragrant than green peppercorns.
While dealing with these two things, Geng and Qiao Rui could no longer stay in the kitchen. They kept sneezing and ran out of the kitchen with tears in their eyes.
Even Qiao Ruichen couldn't stand the stimulation. Seeing that Miao Wan's eyes were also red, he quickly stood up and asked Geng to find a handkerchief for Miao Wan and open the kitchen door. Only then did she feel better.
Miao Wan didn't expect it to be so exciting. She had made spicy skewers many times and it was fine.
But the drooling couldn't stop her from experiencing such stimulation, and she didn't dare to close the kitchen door even with a cotton handkerchief on.
So all the Zhang family members came running over. The children couldn't stand the smell, but the adults stayed away, especially Mrs. Sun.
When all the spices were put in and fried, others were choked and couldn't enter the door. Only Sun's eyes lit up and she went into the kitchen to help Miao Wan with the work.
The group of people could only watch helplessly as the two pregnant women acted arrogantly in front of the stove.
After the spicy ingredients are fried, pour lard on them and simmer over high heat until a slight smoke appears on the surface. Miao Wan then pours the pork bone soup from the clay pot into the iron pot.
"Sizzle--" The soup and oil came into contact, making a fierce sound, and then the kitchen became quiet in an instant, but everyone's eyes widened.
The rough collision of the thick bone soup and the boiling spicy oil brings out all the fresh and fragrant flavors of this pot of soup.
The stimulating spicy and numb taste is gently covered by the bone soup, eliminating the pungent taste and leaving a long-lasting fragrance.
The two aromas mixed together, making the stomachs of those who were already hungry start to rumble.
"Mom, what were we worried about this morning?" Zhang Dazhuang subconsciously wiped the corner of his lips, but didn't feel any saliva. He still couldn't help swallowing a few times before asking in a daze.
With this, why worry about braised meat not selling well? Why do you have to be so hard on braised meat? Can't you learn from the bear?
This is even more tempting than the smell of braised meat!
Look at Ada, he has already strode into the kitchen with his head almost touching the stove.
Madam Zhang came to her senses and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Miao Wan and Sun putting various ingredients into the earthenware jar and iron pot respectively.
Ignoring her silly son, she smiled broadly at her eldest daughter-in-law and said, "I think we should get a bigger money box as soon as possible."
Yu nodded vigorously. Her mother-in-law was right. She also had this kind of woman's intuition.
The author has something to say:
Xiaomiao Dong: Definitely not a pushover, spicy skewers made with braised food are more delicious!
There is a reason why we don’t make spicy hot pot but skewers. I will tell you soon.
The methods for making beet sugar and spicy soup were found on Baidu.
Hey, please comment and give me some white liquid. Darlings, give me some motivation to save up some manuscripts and update more. QAQ
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