Chapter 15, Inn No. 15: Rendering lard and making salt and pepper.
After Yunyin finished cooking and waited for Zhang Lin to eat, she washed the stone mill she had bought and set it aside to dry, planning to make salt and pepper after rendering the lard.
She looked at Zhang Lin, who was eating happily, and said, "You know how to weave bamboo, so you can weave a cage this afternoon and put it in the river. We'll eat shrimp tonight."
Zhang Lin nodded and said, "No problem, I'll do it in a bit."
Yunyin turned her head to continue processing the pork fat. She washed the fresh pork fat, cut it into small pieces, and set it aside. She then took one piece to season the newly bought iron pot.
After boiling and cleaning the iron pot, it's ready to use. She put the pork fat into the iron pot, added water to cover the pork fat, and boiled it over high heat until the water evaporated. Then she turned to low heat and simmered it slowly.
After rendering the lard, Yunyin asked Zhang Lin to watch the fire while she went to the mountains to pick some bamboo shoots and toon leaves. She had been saying she would make toon sauce but hadn't had time to do so. This time, she took advantage of the time to dry some bamboo shoots and toon leaves and make some toon sauce to keep on hand.
The mountains remained quiet, and even the sunlight could not break the tranquility. Only scattered rays of light fell on the trees, and the clouds drifted through the forest without feeling the sun's heat.
She picked a large basket of bamboo shoots, then picked some toon leaves from the newly grown toon tree, and carried the large basket back to the food stall.
Zhang Lin had finished eating and was helping to tend the fire when Yunyin tossed down a large basket of bamboo shoots, saying, "You don't need to keep an eye on it. I've set the fire very low; just glance at it occasionally. Come and peel the bamboo shoots together. Let's store up some dried bamboo shoots so we'll have vegetables to eat in the winter."
She had inquired and learned that there were few fresh vegetables here in winter; everyone ate dried vegetables and didn't have fresh vegetables until spring. This was unlike modern times, where fresh vegetables were always available. In winter, only noble families with hot springs could grow vegetables.
Forget about Yunyin; I'd better just stock up on more dried vegetables.
Yunyin took out her newly bought winnowing basket and a pair of scissors, made a cut on each bamboo shoot, and easily peeled off a whole bamboo shoot by curling the bamboo shoot skin with one finger.
The two of them worked quickly, and in less than half an hour, they had peeled a large basket of bamboo shoots. After washing them clean, she placed a large pot on another stove, put the bamboo shoots in cold water with salt, and boiled them for a while. Once cooked, she took them out and put them in cold water to cool them down, then put them in a winnowing basket and put them out in the sun to dry.
She cooked it in several pots, and then dried it in three large winnowing baskets. After that, she processed the toon leaves in the same way and dried them as well.
During this time, Yunyin would occasionally check the lard that was being rendered. When the cracklings turned golden, the lard was ready. After filtering, she would add some salt and seal it for preservation.
Yunyin smelled the fragrant fried pork cracklings and couldn't resist taking a bite.
She nodded repeatedly, it still tasted just like when she was a child. She sprinkled a little salt on the fried pork cracklings and called to Zhang Lin, "Come and have a taste."
Zhang Lin washed his hands, picked up one, and tasted it. His eyes widened. It was juicy and oily, but it wasn't greasy at all. He ate several in a row and couldn't stop. He quickly asked, "Miss Yun, why didn't I see the cracklings from your lard rendering last time?"
Yunyin picked up another piece of pork crackling and ate it. "Last time I didn't use lard to render it, so I used the meat to stir-fry vegetables. Didn't you say the stir-fried vegetables were delicious that time?"
Zhang Lin thought about it carefully and said, "I remember now, that's right. I ate a lot of vegetables that day. I even told you that if vegetables were all cooked like that, I could definitely eat two bowls of rice."
Yunyin packed up the fried pork cracklings, leaving a little for Zhang Lin, saying, "You can eat all of these. Use the rest to stir-fry vegetables later."
Zhang Lin took the fried pork cracklings and nodded repeatedly. Seeing that Yunyin had already gone to clean up the kitchen, he quickly finished his own cracklings and went to weave a bamboo cage. Hearing that Yunyin's wife meant they would have shrimp for dinner, and thinking of Yunyin's cooking skills, he wove the bamboo cage even faster.
Yunyin washed the iron pot and placed it on the stove. She then stir-fried the salt over low heat until it turned slightly yellow. After that, she removed it from the heat and continued to stir-fry it with the selected Sichuan peppercorns.
The Sichuan peppercorns being stir-fried released a strong aroma, and for a moment the entire area around the stove was enveloped in this domineering smell. Yunyin accidentally inhaled a mouthful and quickly stepped aside, sneezing several times.
She stirred the peppercorns with a spatula to prevent them from burning, and only when the peppercorns turned a darker color and became more fragrant did she scoop them out and set them aside to cool.
Next, the peppercorns were ground into powder using a stone mill. This step was very simple. When Zhang Lin returned with a few bamboo baskets, he said to Yun Yin, "Miss Yun, let me do this. You go and do other things."
Yunyin didn't need to do this step herself, so she handed over the task of grinding the powder to Zhang Lin and started preparing her outfit for tomorrow's trip.
"I'm going out tomorrow, so you can stay home and look after things. By the way, how's your land reclamation going?"
While packing her things, Yunyin made arrangements for tomorrow's work. Hearing the question, Zhang Lin quickly replied, "We've already cleared two acres of land, but we haven't piled the fertilizer yet. We plan to go to the mountains tomorrow to dig up some decaying leaves and bird droppings. However, I've already dug the compost pits, right on both sides of the cleared fields."
Yunyin nodded; she was quite reassured by his arrangements.
After replying, Zhang Lin pressed on, "Where are you going tomorrow, my lady?"
Yunyin: "I plan to go to the main road ahead tomorrow to check the situation. No one has come all day today, and there has been no news from the county town. I also want to see what has happened over there."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Lin stopped what he was doing and said, "Madam Yun, are you going to deal with the bandits? Why don't you take me with you? I can at least help you."
Yunyin glared at him and said, "Who said I was going to deal with bandits? I don't even know how many of them there are, or what their fighting strength is. Am I just going to run into them and die?"
"I just went over to check on things and see what had happened. It's a big deal; the county government couldn't possibly be indifferent. I was just going to take a look."
Zhang Lin turned back to continue grinding peppercorns, and said with an "Oh," "Alright, then Lady Yun, please be careful."
Yunyin nodded and said, "I know, are you done grinding the peppercorns?"
Zhang Lin said repeatedly, "Alright, alright, wife, please check how well it's ground."
Yunyin checked the peppercorns he had ground. He was very careful, grinding them multiple times until there were hardly any large particles. She nodded and said, "It's ready."
Yunyin sifted out the coarse particles with a sieve, and mixed the remaining powder with the previously fried salt in the right proportion. The salt and pepper she had been thinking about for a long time was finally finished.
There are so many dishes you can make with salt and pepper, like salt and pepper shrimp, salt and pepper chicken, and salt and pepper ribs. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water. Today, I'll have salt and pepper shrimp first, and then I'll make salt and pepper ribs.
Yunyin put away the large jar of salt and pepper, swallowed hard, and turned over the bamboo shoots and toon leaves that had been drying.
After finishing all this, Yunyin saw that it was still early, so she took out rice and a little glutinous rice, washed them clean, drained the water, and put them in a pot to stir-fry until the rice and glutinous rice turned golden brown. She turned off the heat, scooped out the rice, and said to Zhang Lin, "Grind this into powder as well."
Zhang Lin took it and asked, "What delicious food are you making, my wife?"
Yunyin smiled and said, "The mugwort should have sprouted by now, so we can make some steamed meat powder and steam it together with the mugwort."
Thinking of steamed pork with rice flour, she also wanted to eat steamed spare ribs with rice flour. She looked at the big bag of fried rice; if ground into powder, it would be enough to make a lot of steamed pork and spare ribs.
She said, "Let's take advantage of the less busy day to make the rice flour for the steamed pork. Once we reopen the shop in a few days, we'll be able to make this dish."
Zhang Lin agreed and tidied up the stone mill to continue grinding powder.
Yunyin cut up the pork she brought back, stir-fried it, and packed it away so that she could make mushroom sauce directly after bringing back the mushrooms the next day.
As the sun began to set, Zhang Lin packed the ground rice and said to Yunyin, "Wife, I'll go get the shrimp trap."
Yunyin waved him away, but a moment later he returned with several bamboo cages: "Wife, there are so many shrimp in there."
Yunyin looked down and saw that there were indeed many river shrimp inside. Although they were relatively small and not as big as the prawns she used to eat, they were still fine for making salt and pepper shrimp.
Moreover, the river shrimp tastes quite good, and stir-frying them with chives makes for a very appetizing dish. However, she doesn't have chives right now, but she can add them to the dish once she opens the restaurant. For today, she'll have salt and pepper shrimp.
Yunyin poured the shrimp into a basin, picked out the dead shrimp, cut off the shrimp whiskers and rostrum, rinsed them repeatedly with clean water, drained the water, and then marinated them in rice wine for a while.
After marinating, coat the shrimp with flour, put oil in a pan and fry the shrimp briefly, then repeat the frying process until the shrimp are golden brown and crispy.
Once all the shrimp are fried, pour out the oil, add minced garlic, chopped green onions, and salt and pepper, and stir-fry evenly. Each shrimp is coated with salt and pepper, green onions, and garlic. Yunyin picked up a shrimp with her chopsticks and tasted it. It was very crispy, and the salty and savory flavor of the salt and pepper blended with the fresh sweetness of the shrimp. With the addition of minced garlic and green onions, it was not only a great dish to eat with rice, but also an excellent dish to pair with wine.
Yunyin nodded as she ate, and seeing Zhang Lin drooling with envy, she handed him one as well, saying, "Try it first, and then I'll stir-fry some vegetables and make some soup before we eat."
She was quick; she stir-fried bok choy with freshly fried pork cracklings, then stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat, and finally made an egg drop soup with elm seeds. Today's four dishes and one soup were all ready.
As Yunyin ate the fragrant rice, she picked up a piece of salt and pepper shrimp and exclaimed, "I'm so happy! I want to earn more money and eat more delicious food in the future."
Hearing her words, Zhang Lin agreed, "Yes, I have never lived such a good life. It is all thanks to Lady Yun for taking me in that I can eat such delicious food."
After saying that, Zhang Lin continued to eat quickly. Such delicious food should be eaten in abundance; one cannot waste such a delicacy.
The two ate their meal and drank their soup as the sun set, and the day passed quietly like that.
The next day, before dawn, Yunyin got up, took the prepared machete, slung her basket over her shoulder, told Zhang Lin, and left the valley.
The official road was lined with forests and mountains on both sides. Yunyin walked for a long time without seeing a single village. It seemed that there was a gathering place for people nearby. After another hour, Yunyin finally saw smoke rising from chimneys.
It was already broad daylight. Although there were people in the village ahead, no one came out of the village.
Yunyin walked into the small village carrying a bamboo basket. The village looked much poorer than Linjiang Village. The houses were all low mud-brick houses, and there wasn't a single brick house.
Just as Yunyin was about to knock on the door to ask, a familiar figure walked out from another room.
The man looked at Yunyin in surprise and asked, "Miss Yun, what are you doing here?"
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