Although Su Qingluan didn't feel much when she was cutting vegetables today, when all the ingredients were prepared, she didn't expect there were so many kinds of -
Lamb, rabbit meat, radish, mushrooms...all together there are more than ten kinds of dishes.
There were seven people eating hot pot together today. The Su family specially moved out the largest copper pot and placed it on the temporary stove in the yard.
Su Qingluan poured the already boiled snow-white mutton bone broth into the copper pot, and added a handful of wolfberries and dates as garnish and seasoning. The two men, Su Guangfu and Li San, squatted beside the vent of the stove and blew the fire in the stove a little bit more vigorously.
Su Guangfu also built a platform around the adobe stove to place the various plates for the dishes. However, this created a problem: the copper pot for the hot pot was already large, and with the addition of the dishes, the area occupied was even larger.
In this way, not to mention the two children Su Xuanhe and Su Xueyan, even the half-grown child Su Qingluan and the remaining four adults could only get two or three dishes in front of them.
Su Qingluan thought about it and suggested, "Why don't we remove all the stools? If we want to eat something, we can just go there and pick it up and eat it. That way, we can reach every dish!"
Sun Guixiang nodded when she heard this: "That's a good idea, big girl! This copper pot is so big. If you want to blanch some vegetables, it will be gone in a blink of an eye if you don't grab some! It's better to just eat what you want!"
Others wanted more, but Su Xueyan stood on tiptoe to try, then looked up in embarrassment: "But I can't reach the soup base!" She was only three years old and her height was really limited. Not to mention cooking the dishes herself, even whether she could reach the new earthen brick stove that Su Guangfu had built today was a problem!
Yang and Sun Guixiang smiled and said that they would sit next to the little girl, one on each side, and serve her more food.
Children eat little and get full after just a few bites, so it’s better to let her eat first and go play in the yard by herself.
Everyone prepared their own dipping sauces. Su Qingluan knew the taste of Su Xueyan, the little sister, so she prepared a bowl according to her preferences. She dipped a little with her chopsticks and asked her to taste it. When the little girl nodded, she handed the bowl of the prepared sauce to her.
"Hold it steady," Su Qingluan supported her sister's hand, "I'll give you more food later. Eat slowly, the hot pot is very hot."
She had just asked Yang, this was the little girl's first time eating hot pot, if she didn't give her a word or two of advice, she might suffer later.
Except for Su Xueyan, everyone else - even little Su Xuanhe - had extensive experience in hot pot, so they were very skillful in choosing the dipping sauce.
But when everyone picked up the mutton or radish slices, they still exclaimed in surprise.
"Mother! Mother!" Su Xuanhe held up a piece of mutton. "This piece of meat is transparent!"
On the other side, Sun Guixiang, who picked up a piece of radish, exclaimed, "Oh my! This is the first time I've seen radish slices as thin as paper!"
Su Qingluan explained with a smile, "If the food is overcooked, it will lose its taste and freshness. If it is cut too thick, the outside will be overcooked and the inside will still be raw. If it is cut thinner, it can be cooked through with just a few simple rinses, which can preserve the freshness of the ingredients."
Everyone picked up their favorite ingredients and started eating. Su Qingluan added the rabbit meat that she had been longing for for a long time.
Su Qingluan looked critically at the translucency of the rabbit meat against the light and nodded secretly with satisfaction: As the saying goes, "If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools." The knife that Grandpa Xu gave her was indeed quite good, and even her knife skills have returned to the level of her previous life.
After boiling the rabbit meat in mutton soup for two or three times, the rabbit meat will change color, curl up and gather together.
Su Qingluan put the rabbit meat wrapped in rich sauce into her mouth.
Originally, both mutton and rabbit meat have their own special fishy smell, but after being stimulated by the dipping sauce, they become uniquely delicious. In addition, the rabbit meat has only been lightly boiled three or two times, and although it is already cooked, it still maintains a fresh and tender taste, so the flavor is very good.
The deliciousness of the ingredients made Su Qingluan, who was obsessed with Sichuan and Chongqing hotpot, temporarily put aside her nostalgia for chili peppers and concentrate on enjoying the delicacy in front of her.
Li San'er made the dipping sauce from mutton bone broth. As he ate the mutton with big mouthfuls, he sighed incoherently, "Brother Su, just now your eldest daughter asked me for those mutton bones. I was wondering, although bones can be used to make soup, the meat has been removed so cleanly, how can there be any point in making soup? And now, wow! This soup is really delicious!"
Su Qingluan quickly shook her head: "Uncle Li, you're too kind."
"But, but!" Li San'er scooped up a spoonful of soup, blew on it, and drank it down. "Oh, it's been a long time since I had such delicious mutton soup! Girl, tell my wife the recipe for this soup so I can cook it myself!"
Su Qingluan immediately nodded in agreement: "Okay! Uncle Li, wait for me to finish my meal, and I will copy this recipe for Auntie later - it's actually very simple, it all depends on the freshness of Uncle Li's sheep bones!"
When Li San heard Su Qingluan's words, he quickly waved his hands and said, "Forget it! You're really flattering her by copying it for her! We can count the words we can read with our hands and feet! How can she understand it if you copy it for her? Ouch!"
Just as he was teasing his wife, Li San received a heavy slap on the back. Sun Guixiang angrily retorted, "Hey, have you become so capable? I can't even read a few words, but you think you're a scholar? Do you still want to eat?"
Li Saner quickly begged for mercy: "Hey, wife, please be gentle. Didn't I say 'the two of us'? We are the same. What goes in the casserole is what we like. No one dislikes anyone else. Look, there are several children here..."
Su Xueyan and Su Xuanhe were both amused and burst into laughter. Su Qingluan at least knew that it was impolite to laugh so loudly, so she tried her best to cover her mouth to prevent herself from laughing too much.
Just as Yang said at the beginning, Su Xueyan, as a child who was only three years old, had a pitifully small appetite compared to Su Xuanhe, who was growing taller, and Su Qingluan, who was already half an adult.
But after eating a few slices of meat and a few bites of vegetables, she was full. Su Qingluan was afraid that she would be hungry later, so she beat an egg for her to eat. After eating these, she went to play in the yard by herself.
At this time, Su Guangfu exclaimed: "This mutton is really fresh. I guess it was slaughtered right away?"
Li Saner nodded and said, "When we eat among our fellow villagers, we naturally have to kill the fish fresh. If you are satisfied, we can kill it next time!"
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