When Su Qingluan was soaking the yam in water, the stove had already been lit over there.
Because the vegetables to be cooked today are very bland, Su Qingluan plans to blanch them all - after all, if they are stir-fried, not only will more oil be used, but more seasoning will also be needed. By then, the whole family will definitely be coughing by tonight.
So Su Qingluan decided to boil a pot of hot water and blanch all the vegetables. Since the water was boiling down there anyway, she might as well put a steamer on top and put the yam, which had been broken into small pieces, into the steamer.
By the time the water below was almost boiling, the yam above was almost done. Su Qingluan used chopsticks to test the yam's softness and hardness - well, the chopsticks could easily cut through the yam, and the cross-section had a delicate, soft, and sandy texture.
Su Qingluan nodded: The yam is cooked enough.
In order to prevent the yam from having a half-cooked hard core inside, Su Qingluan covered the steamer and steamed the yam for about a cup of tea before taking the steamer off the pot.
The water below has also boiled. Su Qingluan plans to blanch all the dishes, so all the dishes need to be blanched.
She added a little salt and soybean oil, which gave the blanched vegetables a more vibrant green. To make the bland greens look a bit more appetizing, Su Qingluan also soaked a few wolfberries and sprinkled them on top of the lush greens.
The main skill of making raw pork porridge is still in the cooking, but the production technology itself does not require too high. While Su Qingluan was cooking the raw pork porridge on the stove over there, she was preparing the jam here.
The original jam was a deep orange-red with a brownish hue, and was quite rich. However, if eaten directly, it tasted rather sour and astringent, and not very palatable – not to mention, the two little ones would probably get their teeth soured.
So Su Qingluan planned to improve the fruit jam in front of her from both the visual and taste aspects.
If Su Qingluan wanted to add a crystal-clear visual experience and a sweet taste, the first thing she thought of was honey.
However, the ambient temperature outside is very low now, and the honey nowadays is pure natural honey, very rich, and does not contain various strange additives. Therefore, the honey at this time is often like lard, and is in a white solid state.
Although you can dilute the honey, the taste will become thin.
Su Qingluan thought about it and took out her iron frying pan.
The frying pan is concave in the middle and slightly raised around the edges. Although the capacity is not large, it can still gather a small amount of liquid in the center.
Su Qingluan added some water to the center so that the edge of the water almost reached two-thirds of the entire bottom of the pot, and then added some white sugar and let it melt in the water.
Fearing that localized heat would cause the water to evaporate too quickly, Su Qingluan adjusted the heat to the lowest setting possible without burning out the syrup. To prevent the syrup from turning caramel-colored due to overcooking, she constantly stirred it back and forth in the frying pan with a long-handled spatula.
Slowly, the bubbling sugar water gradually transformed into dense, hard-to-break bubbles, which tended to become denser and denser. Su Qingluan dipped the spatula in the sugar water and lifted it up. The sugar water dripped into the pot drop by drop, but compared to ordinary clear water, it could be pulled out into long, crystal-clear threads.
Su Qingluan knew that the syrup was almost done.
Although the syrup still looks very thin now, as the temperature drops, it will become thicker and its fluidity will decrease. Su Qingluan is not worried.
As for honey, since many of the nutrients in it are biologically active, even when brewing honey, you cannot use boiling water that is too hot. Instead, use warm boiled water or simply water at room temperature.
However, when Su Qingluan broke the honey into a brown semi-solid fluid and added the cooled syrup into it, the mixture of honey and syrup had turned golden yellow, and because of the addition of syrup, it appeared more crystal clear.
Su Qingluan then mixed the original reddish-brown jam with the syrup thoroughly.
Because the syrup is golden in color, after being fully mixed with the originally brown-red jam, the originally overly thick and strong color of the jam is diluted, becoming a beautiful and light bright orange.
Moreover, because the successfully brewed syrup makes the whole jam appear more crystal clear, the finished product of the jam looks very cute, just like some kind of glass crystal.
Su Qingluan tasted the jam that was fully mixed with syrup and honey: Well, it has changed from the initial sour and astringent taste to a moderate sweet and sour taste, which feels very appetizing.
Su Qingluan thought about it, then turned around and took a piece of oil paper used to wrap food. Su Qingluan barely used this oil paper as the cellophane used in modern piping bags. Although it was not as convenient as cellophane, under the current conditions, there was no way to ask for more.
The yams had been set aside to cool down to room temperature. To prevent the yams from losing moisture and deteriorating in taste if cooked too early, Su Qingluan placed the steamed yams in a small bowl and then placed a larger one upside down in the bowl to prevent excessive moisture loss.
The yam here can be done quickly except for the final presentation, and the green leafy vegetables over there only need to be stir-fried at the end after blanching. It just takes a little time to cook the porridge, otherwise it will become a clear soup with distinct grains.
What Su Qingluan wanted was the kind of sticky and soft rice porridge that would hang on the meat as if it were covered with a layer of white patina, so she needed to simmer it over low heat.
The other stove would be used to stir-fry leafy greens, so it couldn't be turned off for a while. Su Qingluan thought about using this time to make more syrup so that she wouldn't have to make it on the spot when she wanted to use it, which was a bit time-consuming.
However, Su Qingluan took into account that there were no preservatives in this era, so this syrup could not be kept for too long. Even though the temperature outside was very low, it could only be kept for ten days or half a month at most.
After calculating the time and total amount of syrup that might be needed during this period, Su Qingluan began to boil the syrup in the frying pan, while the base of the raw pork porridge was stewing on the stove over there.
During this period, Liu Yunniang and her neighbor Sun Guixiang came to visit Su Qingluan. However, Su Qingluan was so frightened by this experience of exchanging illnesses that she dared not let anyone into the house. Especially since Sun Guixiang was only a month or two away from giving birth, Su Qingluan was terrified even to see her appear at the door of the Su family.
We must not let the pregnant woman get sick - this was the only thing in Su Qingluan's mind when she persuaded Sun Guixiang to go back.
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