Chapter 106 (Hot and Sour Potato Noodles...)
Maybe it was a tit-for-tat situation. Yan Qiushu teased Dongdong during the day, and Dongdong teased her the same way at night.
Wan'er was attracted by his startled words and nodded affirmatively: "Yes, it was made up by my uncle!"
It's probably a work with a very personal style.
But Yan Qiushu couldn't see these things clearly!
After the two children confirmed it, they seemed to understand something and looked at Yan Qiushu with a slightly strange smile. Dongdong was quite angry: "I asked him to bring me here before, but he refused, saying he didn't have time. In the end, he came here secretly!"
Wan'er seemed to have had the same experience and nodded angrily: "That's right! You lied, he'd been here a long time ago!"
Yan Qiushu: "..."
She blushed and quickly snatched the toys from the two children's hands, saying fiercely, "Don't talk about this. Go to bed quickly, or I won't make breakfast for you tomorrow morning!"
The two children: “…Oh.”
They looked at each other sadly, and found that the uncle's secret happiness had disappeared. One of them quickly lay down on the couch, and the other quickly lay down on the bed. They covered themselves with the quilt obediently, closed their eyes, and then deceived themselves with that childish voice: "I'm asleep!"
Yan Qiushu smiled helplessly, lifted the quilt for Dongdong, and went back to bed to lie down, but she still held the thing she had just snatched back tightly in her hand.
When did he write it?
Maybe he's just killing time out of boredom?
Otherwise, why didn't he tell her, but only discovered it when she went to clean it up? When he left, Xiao Huaiting had tidied up everything on the couch, tidy and neat, which led to Shui Yu not doing it herself when she came to tidy up the things.
Yan Qiushu thought so and took a look.
Afraid that the two children would be scared sleeping in an unfamiliar place, the candle was left on. The dim light allowed her to barely see what was in her palm: a few small toys woven from grass, two rabbits, and two butterflies. Except that the butterflies' wings were a little flattened, the rest of the things looked quite realistic.
She thought about it, put the four little things on top of her head, and then closed her eyes.
Playing with children requires a lot of energy, especially playing with children who practice martial arts. She was so tired that her limbs ached and she fell asleep easily.
The next day
When Yan Qiushu woke up, it was just dawn.
She went to bed early and fell asleep quickly, which caused her to wake up early as well. Just a moment after she woke up, her two children woke up one after another.
The three of them went to wash up together with sleepy eyes. Although she and the two children had been facing each other all day long in the Xiao Mansion, this was the first time they got up and washed up together.
Dongdong took the lead in brushing their teeth and deliberately splashed water on Yan Qiushu, causing Yan Qiushu to slap each of them on the buttocks three times.
Wan'er became obedient, and Dongdong also became obedient.
Yan Qiushu applied facial cream to the two children and pinched their delicate faces. She was extremely envious. Being young was good. Children's skin was so beautiful that even adults couldn't catch up with it even if they whipped them.
Wan'er covered her face and took a step back, saying warily, "Sister Shu! Stop pinching me, I've already applied some facial cream!"
Yan Qiushu withdrew her hand, coughed lightly, and said, "Okay, let's go eat."
"Okay!" When this was mentioned, the two children were no longer sleepy. They held her hands and skipped out.
When they arrived at the hall of the outer courtyard, Shen Pingyu and Xiao Pingsong were already eating inside. They had eaten a lot of potatoes yesterday, so they had a lighter breakfast today, which was white porridge with pickles or sugar, depending on their preferences.
Yan Qiushu likes to eat pickles. The pickles are made by the people in the farm. They are sour cowpeas, sour, tender and very crispy. After she took them, she added chili peppers and stir-fried them, which made them more spicy and more appetizing.
A bite of sour cowpea, a bite of soft, sweet white rice porridge, only the sweetness of the boiled rice porridge remains between the lips and teeth, it tastes great.
After eating, Yan Qiushu asked, "What are we doing today? Do you have any ideas?"
Shen Pingyu said guiltily: "Aunt Yan, I have to leave tomorrow, so I can't stay long today. I have to go home and pack my things at the latest in the afternoon."
Yan Qiushu was surprised: "Leaving so early?"
"Yeah." Shen Pingyu's face was serious: "Something happened in Kyoto and at home, I have to go back."
Dongdong and Wan'er were also a little surprised. They were young and didn't need to be exposed to this, but Xiao Pingsong knew it and nodded, indicating that it was like this.
Yan Qiushu sighed and said, "Well, in that case, you guys should have lunch before going back. I'll make potato flour for you with the leftover potatoes."
Although he was a little reluctant, Shen Ping had to eat his fill since it was a rare opportunity for him to come here. Otherwise, he would definitely not be here when the next potato harvest came. No one else had ever come into contact with potato flour, so it would be difficult to make it very delicious.
"Hmm?" Dongdong's eyes lit up: "How to make potato flour?!"
Yan Qiushu stood up and said, "Let's go. I'll take you to do it and you'll know."
It takes a long time to make potato flour, so I have to start early. Fortunately, I got up early today, otherwise Shen Pingyu might not be able to eat it again.
Potatoes need to be precipitated to make potato starch. Of course, the first step is to chop the potatoes into a paste. This step is a bit troublesome. Fortunately, there are many people, so each person is responsible for a little potato. They just chop it with a knife and pour the chopped raw potato paste into gauze.
This step is actually very boring in ancient times when there were no blenders.
After doing it for a while, Dongdong couldn't bear it anymore, but Chen Pingyu gave him a look and nailed him to the spot again. He held the knife and worked hard. Two maids stood behind Dongdong and Wan'er, fearing that they would hurt themselves.
In the end, neither child hurt themselves and the session ended successfully.
Yan Qiushu cooked all the potatoes, which weighed about five pounds, left over from yesterday. She put them in gauze and rubbed them continuously in water, just like washing gluten.
After scrubbing again and again, the remaining potato residue can be thrown away, and the turbid water needs to be left for two hours to settle.
Also, at 2:15 pm, the potato starch had settled, so I took it out and put it in the oven to bake for a while to drain the moisture as quickly as possible.
Finally, there are white lumps.
The children were stunned by these steps. It was so magical. The potatoes became like this after being processed for a while. The originally soft and hard paste-like thing turned into hard lumps after being put into the oven.
With a little pressure from the fingers, the lump turned into powder, similar to flour, but felt slippery.
"Potatoes are really amazing. They can be used to make so many delicious dishes!" Wan'er exclaimed.
Dongdong, Shen Pingyu and Xiao Pingsong nodded vigorously.
Zhao Shuhong, who was helping out on the side, was also extremely shocked.
When Potato came out, although she was shocked, she was far away and had only heard about it, but she didn't know much and it was very vague. Some said it was a sacred object, and some said it was a gift from heaven. It was too exaggerated and hard to believe.
But when she saw it with her own eyes, she felt she could understand it.
When a food is not only produced in large quantities but also has many ways of being cooked, it can be eaten in any way you like and tastes excellent. This is a great blessing for the common people of this era. No wonder the rumors are so exaggerated.
"Let me do it, let me do it." Zhao Shuhong was afraid that the potatoes would be wasted by the children, so she took over the task, put all the potato flour in a basin, and weighed it.
The powder yield is about 10%, which is similar to what Yan Qiushu remembered in her previous life. No, it should be better, because since she makes it by hand, there will be a certain loss rate.
Zhao Shuhong felt distressed watching this. Making powder is a delicate process, and so much wasted. It must be delicious.
Divide the potato flour into two piles. Add some warm water to the first pile and stir it into a paste. Then add boiling water and a spoonful of alkaline flour and continue stirring. When it becomes sticky, you can add the remaining flour.
The second batch contains more flour, which can be kneaded into dough after being added. The dough is snow-white and has nothing to do with the color of potatoes. It is hard to imagine that this is really extracted from potatoes.
This dough needs to be pressed out by a pasta press, which is a bit troublesome. Yan Qiushu can't do it, so she asked an experienced noodle presser from the neighboring village to do it. The snow-white potato flour leaked out of the pasta press and fell into the bucket underneath. The dough was pressed down in this way, and finally a pile of white and tender vermicelli was obtained.
This is potato flour!
Taking into account the differences in personal tastes, mainly the difference between those who eat spicy food and those who don't, Yan Qiushu plans to make two flavors, one with three fresh flavors and the other with hot and sour flavor.
The three fresh dishes are made with chicken broth, fresh shrimps, and mushrooms. The fresh shrimps are small shrimps from the neighboring farm. First, stir-fry the shrimps to produce shrimp oil, then add in fresh mushrooms and stir-fry, and finally add chicken broth, a little green vegetables, marinated tender lean meat slices, and potato flour and cook until done.
Hot and sour soups are even simpler. Since the advent of hot pot base, Yan Qiushu feels that the steps for making spicy soups have become much simpler. Just put a piece of hot pot base in it, add water and bring it to a boil, then you can add various ingredients and potato flour.
The previous steps were too troublesome, but the last step seemed particularly simple. Therefore, when noon arrived, everyone sat at the dining table and prepared to eat.
Two large pots of potato flour were placed in the middle of the table. The tender white potato flour was dyed into two colors, one was light brown and the other was reddish brown. It was topped with various ingredients, which made people's appetites increase just by looking at it.
Yan Qiushu asked, "What flavor do you want to eat?"
Dongdong was the first to raise his hand: "I want something spicy and sour!"
Wan'er was the second to raise her hand: "I want to eat the three fresh dishes!"
Yan Qiushu and Zhao Shuhong served them one by one. Shui Yu also had a portion, but with so many people around, she didn't sit at the table and went to the kitchen to eat.
She had just eaten spicy food yesterday and was worried that she would get acne, so she didn't eat spicy food. Instead, she had a three-fresh dish with chicken soup as the base, and fresh shrimp and fresh mushrooms. Yan Qiushu thought the soup alone was excellent.
She scooped a spoonful with a spoon, blew on it carefully at the lips, and then tested the temperature with her lips. After confirming that it was ok, she slurped it into her mouth.
The temperature of the soup is high, but just within the tolerable range. It is also this high temperature that makes it free of fishy smell. The light yet extremely delicious taste makes this potato noodle soup reach a peak.
She picked up another strand of vermicelli. The white, tender and soft vermicelli was slightly deflated by the chopsticks, but because of this, no matter how slippery it was, it could not roll off the chopsticks and could only resign itself to falling between her lips and teeth.
With a slight sip, the potato flour broke apart, and it was a bit chewy and soft, but not soft enough, which reminded Yan Qiushu of sweet potato flour.
It is softer than this, chewier than this, and more elastic than this. It's a pity that the sweet potato hasn't appeared yet.
She sighed, took another sip of the soup, and felt satisfied both physically and mentally. She suddenly thought, forget it, I will see sweet potatoes one day!
"Shaha…——"
There was a sound of someone inhaling but then interrupting it.
Yan Qiushu looked over and saw the young boy Chen Pingyu covering his mouth with a handkerchief with a red face. He glanced at the people around him a little embarrassedly, probably hoping that no one would notice his unseemly behavior.
Unfortunately, she happened to meet Yan Qiushu's gaze, and her little face turned red all the way to her ears.
But even so, Chen Pingyu still did not abandon the hot and sour potato noodles in front of him. Instead, he scooped up the soup with satisfaction, took a small sip, then carefully picked up a strand of vermicelli, caught it with a spoon, blew on it, and put it into his mouth.
The spicy and sour taste made him feel pain from the tip of his tongue, and his eyes were a little wet, as if he was crying because of the spiciness, but the love in his eyes made his eyes sparkle and look especially smart.
The peppers might be too spicy. The spiciness I had just developed during the Chinese New Year at the Xiao family has gone back to normal after living at the Shen family for more than half a year.
At this time, Shen Pingyu took a deep breath while eating the sour and spicy potato noodles. His forehead, nose tip, and even cheeks and neck were sweating from the spiciness, but he was still concentrating on eating.
The little bit of flesh that Yan Qiushu had lifted up had not disappeared after such a long time, making his every move seem less mature and more adorable.
"Is it delicious?" Yan Qiushu asked with a smile.
Shen Pingyu smiled at her, his lips still a little shiny, and a happy smile on his tender cheeks: "Mm! It's especially delicious!"
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