Su Qingluan looked at her parents and said, "It's okay if they are a little smaller, it won't affect our eating." She didn't know whether to laugh or cry: although to a certain extent this was not wrong, it was not possible to make shrimp noodles with such small shrimps.
Because the original shrimp noodles mainly eat shrimp roe, shrimp brain and shrimp meat. However, these river shrimps are too small and there is almost no shrimp meat left after removing the shrimp shells, so they are not suitable for making shrimp noodles.
After Su Qingluan's explanation, both Yang and Su Guangfu showed disappointed expressions.
"Then... what should we do?" Yang looked at the basin of river shrimp with regret. "Your father caught some extra just in case there weren't enough."
Although Su Guangfu didn't say much, his downcast face and silent expression clearly did not show that he was happy.
Su Qingluan felt a little distressed by her father and mother's reaction, and couldn't help but comfort them: "Although we can't make shrimp noodles, there are other ways to make these river shrimp into different delicacies. We will definitely not waste them! Don't worry, father and mother!"
As she spoke, she pulled out a piece of malt sugar from her sleeve. Lately, her younger siblings have been throwing tantrums when drinking the medicine soup, so Su Qingluan always keeps a few pieces of malt sugar on her. She handed it to Su Guangfu, "Don't be angry, Dad. These shrimps are really lively and fresh. They will definitely taste good!"
Her act of coaxing the child made Yang, who was originally a little anxious and annoyed, laugh. She quickly pulled Su Guangfu's sleeve and said, "Old man, please don't keep throwing a tantrum. Look, Daya has even taken out the candy she used to coax children to coax you..."
Su Guangfu had never expected that he would be "coaxed" by his daughter. His dark face flushed red, but because of the skin color, it turned into a purple eggplant color. He said hesitantly: "I... I'm not, I'm not angry..."
Su Qingluan knew that her father was an honest man, and he would probably want to find a hole to crawl into if he was teased by his daughter.
But she was just angry that Su Guangfu insisted on going to the river to catch shrimps when the temperature was unstable and it was easier to catch a cold, and he was gone for more than two hours, four or five hours.
But later she learned that her father went there because he saw that she was really craving river shrimps, and she was no longer angry. She was only touched and a little worried.
However, seeing that her father was in good condition and Yang also said that he had been given some ginger soup, Su Qingluan could only put her mind at ease for the time being. She asked her parents to clean the shrimps and put them in another smaller basin. She would see how to cook these shrimps, which looked to weigh three or four pounds.
Before Su Qingluan returned, Yang had been busy in the kitchen for quite a while. She had already prepared pancakes and yam porridge for dinner, along with a large plate of stir-fried vegetables. She was left with only a large basin of lively river shrimp, and she didn't know what to do with them. It just so happened that she ran into Su Qingluan returning from outside.
The simplest one is naturally stir-fried river shrimp. Scallions are readily available at home. Just add a little bit of salt, the special spiciness of the shallots and the sweetness of the river shrimps themselves will make this dish very delicious.
However, Su Qingluan estimated that even if this dish was made, only about one pound of river shrimp would be used at most. After all, if her prediction was correct, only three people would eat this dish in the end - herself, Yang and Su Guangfu.
As for the other two little ones, it’s not that Su Qingluan didn’t have confidence that this dish could attract them. It’s just that for children, no matter how delicious the stir-fried river shrimps tasted, it would be a bit painful to eat.
The reason is simple: it's autumn now, and the river shrimp have already shed their shells, forming a harder layer of armor, unlike the soft-shell shrimp in spring. Therefore, the shrimp whiskers on the heads of stir-fried river shrimp are like fine needles to the tender lips and teeth of children, and they can easily pierce the inner wall of the mouth.
No matter how delicious the stir-fried river shrimps were, a child probably couldn't stand the pain of suffering just for a bite of food - after all, the Su family was no longer the kind of hungry family that had to eat even grass roots and tree bark.
However, she really missed the taste of stir-fried river shrimp, so she took a small portion of the shrimp and planned to stir-fry a dish.
As for the remaining shrimps, Su Qingluan thought about it and took out about 20% to 30% of them, intending to use them for other purposes later, and planned to make a meal for her younger brothers and sisters with the rest.
She took out the flour, went to the chicken coop at the back and took out three eggs. She put a large bowl of flour in the basin, beat in the three eggs and added some water. After a while, the flour became a sticky paste.
Su Qingluan also added salt, black pepper, Sichuan pepper powder, cumin powder and other spices ground into powder, but did not add too much - spices are originally used to remove fishy smell and increase freshness. If too much is added, it will cover up the original sweet taste of the river shrimp, which would be putting the cart before the horse.
After stirring the batter with seasonings evenly, Su Qingluan began to add small river shrimps in batches.
Although the river shrimps are lively and jumping around, the stickiness of the batter is too great for them, like a quagmire. As long as they are touched by the batter, the river shrimps will quickly calm down.
Su Qingluan let the mixture of river shrimp and batter sit for about a quarter of an hour, allowing the shrimp to fully absorb the flavor of the spices dispersed in the batter. At the same time, she took out her iron wok and placed it on the stove where she had just made the pancakes.
The original fire was turned down very low by Yang. Su Qingluan poured most of the soybean oil, which had been soaked in orange and lemon peels for a long time and had a light fruity aroma, into the pot. She opened the air vent of the furnace below a little wider and added another piece of firewood to make the fire burn more vigorously.
When the oil temperature rose to a certain level, Su Qingluan dipped a little batter and dropped it into the pan.
In an instant, fine bubbles began to churn around the batter, making a "hissing" sound. In just a breath, the batter expanded, floated on the surface of the oil pan, and slowly floated to the edge of the oil pan.
Su Qingluan knew the oil temperature was right when she saw this. So she began to slowly slide the batter-covered river shrimp into the wok. Once the shrimp balls had taken shape, she used the back of a strainer to slowly push them apart to prevent them from sticking.
The shrimp mixed into the batter weighs at least two pounds, and when combined with the batter, it's a considerable amount. Furthermore, the batter expands after frying, naturally increasing its volume considerably, so one pot is definitely not enough to fry all of it.
Su Qingluan didn't expect to finish frying all the shrimp cakes in one go. Moreover, she only controlled the oil temperature at a relatively low level for the first time, and the fried shrimp cakes were soft and tough in texture. The shrimp tentacles were still prickly, and she did not achieve the effect she was looking for.
So as long as the surface of the shrimp cakes turned slightly yellowish and were no longer loose, Su Qingluan would fish them out and put them into another large bowl.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
