There are quite a lot of different kinds of meat, especially freshwater fish and shrimp, which are more troublesome to handle.
Su Qingluan had taught Yang how to slice sashimi before, and the black fish she bought today had been processed by the vendor, so it had fewer bones and was already completely cool, so there was no need to worry about it suddenly standing up and hitting people, so slicing the fish was much easier for Yang than usual.
Even so, when she had finished processing most of the ingredients, she felt sore in her back and waist, and she couldn't help but stand up to stretch her sore waist, shoulders and neck.
At this time, Su Qingluan had turned all the rice noodles into rice paste, and added a lot of water to dilute it into "rice noodle soup".
Yang asked, "Do you want to get the hot pot?"
Su Qingluan shook her head: "I'm going to use our clay pot to cook porridge and boil the rice paste into a thick consistency."
Yang had made rice porridge and flour porridge before, and knew that this was a laborious task that required patience. So, she looked at the stove, which had already been raised, and reduced the flame to the lowest setting. She then turned to look at Su Qingluan, who was placing a clay pot on the stove. "Daya, if you think the fire is too big later, just pull out one or two of the thickest firewood. If the fire is too small at the beginning, I'm afraid it won't start."
Su Qingluan looked down at the flames in the furnace. After dealing with the simple stoves of this era for a while, Su Qingluan was able to figure out the corresponding temperature by roughly understanding the fire.
So she estimated it and nodded: "This is just right now." Just as Yang said, although the fire cannot be too strong when making rice soup, it cannot be completely turned off either.
When making the soup base for rice soup hotpot, you need to constantly stir the rice paste inside the container, otherwise the bottom will become sticky if you are not careful.
Moreover, this stirring requires skill. It is not a horizontal stirring like ordinary stirring of a mixture. Instead, a long-handled wooden spoon is put into the bottom of the container to stir the rice paste from the bottom up, and the situation at the bottom of the pot is checked at any time until the rice paste is fully cooked and boils. Only then can this situation be alleviated.
However, Su Qingluan prepared a large rice soup hotpot for five people, and in order to prevent everyone from running out of soup base halfway through the meal, Su Qingluan specially added some more rice noodles and water.
In other words, compared to the ordinary rice soup hot pot base, this pot is almost three times the size - both in terms of volume and weight!
"Hey, aren't I just asking for trouble?" Su Qingluan stared at the big pot of rice soup in front of her with a wry smile. The level of the rice soup was very calm, without even a tiny bubble, and it seemed that it would never boil.
Touching her stomach which felt a little shriveled, Su Qingluan stirred the rice soup desperately as if to vent her anger - come on, let's hurt each other!
Mi Tang: ...This woman is so scary!
Perhaps sensing Su Qingluan's boundless resentment stemming from hunger and fatigue, Su Qingluan switched to a frenzy mode and stirred the rice soup frantically. Within just a few breaths, small bubbles slowly emerged from the rice soup one after another.
Then, the individual bubbles became denser and denser, slowly connecting into a string of small white pearls, and then gathering into a small piece of milky white foam.
Su Qingluan knew it was almost time, so she added the shredded ginger, pepper and a little sesame oil that had been prepared aside and continued stirring.
After the soup has been boiling for a while, the spicy flavors of the added shredded ginger and pepper have been completely integrated into the rice paste, and the added sesame oil has also been perfectly integrated into the rice soup. The initial rich reddish-brown color is no longer visible, and only the rich aroma of sesame wafts out from the rice soup.
"Mother, I'm back—wow, what smells so good?!" Su Xuanhe's voice rang out from outside, accompanied by a slightly hoarse voice belonging to an older man. "Hey, my dear wife of the Su family, what kind of delicacies are you cooking at home? They smell so good!"
Then Yang's voice was heard: "Uncle, our family is about to have dinner. My eldest daughter prepared the food. Would you like to come in and have some with us?"
The elder man smiled and said, "I'll just send your Erzhuang back. My wife has cooked some food for me when I get back, so I won't stay to eat!" As he spoke, the voice gradually faded away.
It turned out that since Su Xuanhe resumed going to school, Su Qingluan asked Yang to make winter clothes, and Su Guangfu was busy repairing the house and mending the walls all day long. The three people who could pick up and drop off Su Xuanhe were busy like spinning tops every day, and picking up and dropping off Su Xuanhe naturally became a problem.
Although Su Qingluan was also going the same way, the most important thing was that she could not guarantee that she would pick up Su Xuanhe on time every day.
Fortunately, there were many villagers from Huaxi Village who would go to the town to do small business every day, so the Su family asked an uncle from the same village for help. It happened that the uncle sold some vegetables grown by himself, and occasionally a few pots of flowers, and he happened to be near Master Zhou's school.
The Su family initially wanted to pay, but the other party was too straightforward and unwilling to pay. In the words of the uncle, "It's just a side job, why would I need to pay for it?" The Su family had no choice but to give up for the time being.
Seeing that the rice soup base was ready, Su Qingluan asked everyone to light the fire and set up the pot outside. She then extinguished the fire in the stove below and prepared to transfer the soup base to the hot pot outside.
This pot of soup base was really too heavy, and just in case, she brought out the largest clay pot in the house.
Unexpectedly, when she added water little by little, she didn't realize how heavy the whole jar was! With her skinny body, she couldn't even lift it!
Su Qingluan tried twice and did not make a third futile effort - she was still young and there was no need for her to be so hard on her waist that she would suffer from a herniated disc.
Although the technique of "bone setting" existed in this era and was said to be very advanced, it was also said to be very painful - Su Qingluan didn't want to suffer any more.
Su Qingluan decided to give the glorious and great task of moving the pot to her biological father.
In reality, the strength of an adult male—especially one whose physical functions were well-developed after years of labor—was far greater than that of a 13 or 14-year-old girl. Su Guangfu lifted the earthenware jar, which seemed as heavy as a rock to Su Qingluan, with seemingly no effort.
Su Qingluan followed Su Guangfu out happily and was delighted when she saw it: she finally understood why Yang was not afraid of eating hot pot in the yard in such a cold weather.
In the middle of the yard where the stove was set up, there was a huge screen standing there, which was about two meters high.
This screen is quite old and the patterns on it have faded quite badly. Only a crane soaring into the sky can be vaguely seen.
But this is not the point. The point is that this screen has seven folds and can be bent back and forth at any angle, so Yang bent this screen into a semi-enclosed structure, almost blocking the stove in the middle.
Although the wind is strong today, its direction is relatively fixed, it is always northwest wind, so as long as you find the right angle, the cold wind will not blow in.
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