Chapter 15
Lu Shiyu opened the lid of the pot. The dough had expanded to a size that was almost reaching the lid. Lu Shiyu pulled the dough apart, revealing the beautifully fermented holes inside.
Knead the fermented dough until there are no air holes, then roll it into long strips and divide it into small pieces. Because Lu Shiyu didn't bring a rolling pin, he just flattened the dough first, then pressed the edges of the dough with the base of his hand and the side of his palm, turning it while pressing to form an irregular circle with a thick middle and thin edges. The dough for making dumplings was then ready.
After simply teaching the others how to make bun skins with just their hands, Lu Shiyu went to prepare the fillings. Lu Shiyu picked up two birds to process their feathers and internal organs. After a simple process, a bare bird was cleaned. Since it was to be made into bun fillings, all the bones had to be removed, and finally only pieces of meat of different sizes were left.
The fruits that Chen Yunliang brought back were cut into small pieces after the stems and seeds were removed, and then mixed with meat to make fillings.
When it was Shaoxing Yang's turn to bring back the dumplings, Lu Shiyu was in a dilemma. If he put these berries into the buns, the taste would definitely be taken away by the sweet and sour fruits. Lu Shiyu tasted one and finally gave up the idea of putting all the berries into the buns.
But since it was picked, Lu Shiyu still found a way to deal with it.
Mash the berries and boil them in a pot, add appropriate amount of sugar, then add vinegar according to taste, stir fry continuously, and cook until thick and then bottle.
"What is this?" Tang Zeyu asked while rubbing the bun skin in his hands.
"Jam. I feel that kind of berries are not suitable for wrapping in buns, so I use them to make jam." Lu Shiyu scraped off a little jam left on the pot with a spoon and handed it to Tang Zeyu: "Try it and see how it tastes."
"It's sour and a little sweet. Why does it taste a bit like vinegar?"
"Uh, that must be your illusion. How can there be vinegar in jam?"
Lu Shiyu retorted guiltily, but in fact, it was because there was no lemon, so he had to make do with vinegar. He didn't expect that it could be tasted. It was a bad decision.
The chopped meat and fruit were poured into a bowl and mixed with salt, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Lu Shiyu, searching in his bag, stumbled upon a cockatiel egg he'd left out earlier and simply added it to the filling. Due to limited resources, the filling couldn't be as delicate as it was at the base, so both the meat and vegetables were chunky.
Everyone sat together and watched Lu Shiyu demonstrate how to make dumplings.
The bun skin in her hands seemed to be obedient as if it were cast by magic. She took a spoonful of filling and placed it in the center of the bun skin. She held the bun from below with the palm of one hand, and with the index finger and thumb of the other hand, she pinched folds along the edge of the bun skin like pinching flower petals. She turned the bun while pinching the folds. Finally, the beginning and end of the folds were connected, and they were closed with a pinch of her fingers. A bun with folds like a blooming flower was pinched, and the layers were stacked up into a circle. The size and spacing of the folds were almost the same. Her technique was so skillful that it gave them the illusion that making buns was a very easy task.
Not easy at all!
The four of them shouted in their hearts, and the buns in their hands became more and more abstract.
Tang Zeyu's buns can barely be seen as buns, Yan Hong's buns don't wrap the stuffing at all, and the stuffing will "show". Shaoxing Yangbao has gone beyond the category of buns and has been wrapped like a dumpling.
Tang Zeyu looked at the buns in his hand and then at other people's buns, and felt a little comforted. Fortunately, his buns were not the ugliest. The real ugly ones belonged to other people.
Shaoxing Yang's fingers seemed to be fighting and he couldn't make the bun no matter what. Seeing that others had finished their first bun one after another, he couldn't help getting anxious. Suddenly, an idea came to him and his hands moved quickly.
After Lu Shiyu made a few buns as a demonstration, he began to check the learning results of several people. He gave a high evaluation of Tang Zeyu's buns.
“It’s pretty good that I can wrap it like this for the first time.”
It’s a bit ugly, but buns are for eating, not for looking at.
Next came Yanhong’s buns. Half of the bun skin was pinched into a ball with great difficulty, while the other half was not pinched at all, with half of the filling exposed.
"It's okay, you can still eat it after steaming it."
Next was Chen Yunliang's turn. He pushed his glasses and talked nonsense seriously while holding a dumpling-shaped bun.
"Actually, I made steamed dumplings, a relative of baozi. If there were only baozi in the pot, it would definitely be lonely, so I made a companion for it."
"...Just believe it yourself."
Finally, it was Shaoxing Yang's turn to make steamed buns. Lu Shiyu pointed at the dough in front of him and asked, "What is this?"
"Steamed buns," Shaoxing Yang introduced with great pride, "Isn't making steamed buns just about putting bread inside the bun? Why bother with so much trouble? Just wrap it like I did, it's much easier."
Lu Shiyu looked at the round balls of Shaoxing Yangbao and pointed at one of them and said, "It's too thin here. It will definitely break when the time comes."
"Is this true?" Shao Xingyang said casually, "I don't believe it. This is good."
Tang Zeyu also came over to take a look. Shaoxing Yang's buns were thick in some places and thin in others. It looked fine now, but it would be hard to tell after they were steamed.
The buns have been wrapped, but a bigger problem has also arisen.
Lu Shiyu looked at the iron pot filled with water and squatted beside it in silence. Tang Zeyu thought something had happened. Lu Shiyu shook his head and said lightly: "I forgot I didn't bring the steamer."
"No steamer? What about the buns?" Shaoxing Yang asked.
"Maybe we have to try a different method," Lu Shiyu stood up suddenly, his tone full of determination and resoluteness, and said, "Then let's make fried buns!"
Yan Hong: "What is she burning?"
Chen Yunliang: "I don't know."
Pour out the water in the pot and wipe it clean, then replace it with a flat-bottomed pot, pour oil on the bottom of the pot, turn the iron pot around to allow the oil to evenly adhere to the surface of the pot, place the iron pot on the fire to heat it, and put the wrapped buns into the pot one by one and arrange them neatly to avoid sticking.
Add starch water, the water level should be about one-third of the height of the buns, cover the lid and wait, pour a circle of oil around the buns before the water is almost fried dry, then cover the lid and simmer for a while until the starch water is almost evaporated and a complete burnt layer is formed on the bottom of the buns.
Lu Shiyu used a spatula to scoop up the buns from the edge and turned them over, revealing the golden and crispy bottom.
Mixed-ingredient pan-fried dumplings, done!
"You can eat now."
Lu Shiyu used a spatula to separate the pan-fried dumplings in the pot and scooped them onto a plate one by one. Then he put another batch of dumplings into the pot. Because there were too many dumplings, they could not fit in one pot, so he had to do it in two batches.
As soon as the pan-fried dumplings were served, everyone started looking for their own dumplings.
First of all, the most beautiful and stylish ones are definitely those made by Lu Shiyu. Those that look crooked are made by Tang Zeyu. The buns made by Yan Hongbao were not wrapped tightly, so the oil inside leaked out. Chen Yunliang's buns look no different from fried dumplings.
Finally, there is the weirdest-looking Shaoxing Yang “round ball” fried bun.
"Because the buns were so big, I fried them on both sides to prevent the middle from being undercooked."
Therefore, Shaoxing Yang is the only one who makes buns with crispy layers on both sides.
Tang Zeyu picked up a bun made by Lu Shiyu. As soon as he put it in his mouth, he could smell the rich aroma of oil. The dough on the upper part was soft and fluffy, and the leavened dough was even chewy. The golden crispy shell at the bottom was as thin as a cicada's wing, and it was so crispy that it fell apart when he bit it.
As soon as you bite into the bun, the boiling hot gravy comes with the fragrance of vegetables and fruits. The fat of the bird meat is boiled out and turned into soup, and the unknown fruit just neutralizes the greasiness of the broth. The egg liquid that Lu Shiyu added at the end just softens the taste of the fried bun, and the mixed flavors dance on the tip of the tongue.
As soon as Chen Yunliang took a bite of the bun, the gravy flowed onto his wrist, forcing him to eat with his head and hands stretched out.
Yan Hong’s buns with exposed stuffing were not so oily because the gravy had drained away, so she enjoyed every bite.
Shaoxing Yang looked at the round fried bun in the bowl, which was as big as half a fist. Because it had been fried on both sides, it was not so round anymore and looked more like a pancake. However, Shaoxing Yang still found it difficult to eat. Seeing that others had already started eating happily, Shaoxing Yang felt a little anxious. It was difficult for chopsticks to pick up such a big bun, so Shaoxing Yang simply started eating.
As a result, the thin part of the meat was broken as soon as he touched it, and all the boiling hot meat juice flowed onto his hands.
"Hot, hot, hot."
Shaoxing Yang hurriedly used his mouth to catch the soup, but ended up getting his face and hands covered in oil. Since everything was already dirty, he simply gave up and started eating without any image.
"Your eating manners are so ugly." Yan Hong complained.
Before Shaoxing Yang could take a few more bites, his face turned red instantly.
"It's so spicy! Water!"
"Spicy?" Lu Shiyu was puzzled: "But I didn't put any chili in it."
"It must be because of this," Tang Zeyu said, his face also flushed from the spiciness, picking up a piece of yellow stuff in his hand: "This is it, it's very spicy."
"Hey? Didn't I pick this?" Chen Yunliang looked at it and said, "The yellow fruits are spicy, and the red ones are not, but I only tasted the red ones at the time."
Shaoxing Yang was so thirsty that he went to find water, but the kettle was already empty. Lu Shiyu was planning to give him his own water when he saw Shaoxing Yang release a stream of water out of thin air.
"Huh?" Lu Shi was confused for a moment, then realized that this was probably Shao Xingyang's special ability.
Shaoxing Yang drank several big gulps of water before he recovered, and his upper body clothes were wet.
"I just realized that your special ability is water." Lu Shiyu said.
"What else?" Shao Xingyang said incoherently, sticking out his tongue, which was swollen from the spiciness. "Where do you think the water you use comes from?"
Lu Shiyu recalled that they did not seem to find any water source along the way, but the water seemed to be endless. Every time she finished drinking the water, Tang Zeyu would go back to get her a pot of water. She thought that Tang Zeyu and his team brought enough water with them.
But when I think about it carefully, I know that it is completely impossible. Carrying so much water on the road will definitely be a huge burden, but I took it for granted that it would be like that.
"What is this?" Lu Shiyu was eating when he suddenly found a coin. "Where did this coin come from?"
"Ah, that was what I put in there. I didn't expect you to eat it." Shaoxing Yanggang was kicked by Yan Hong and Tang Zeyu after he said that.
"You're making dumplings for Chinese New Year, and you're putting coins in it."
Shao Xingyang pretended to be sad and rushed towards Chen Yunliang: "Wow, wow, wow, they don't understand my painstaking efforts. I just saw people making dumplings and couldn't help but want to put a coin in to ask for good luck. What's wrong with me?"
Chen Yunliang dodged and said, "Don't touch me with your greasy hands."
"Bing, you're so cold, am I not your dear teammate?"
Chen Yunliang said with a creepy smile: "If you dare to dirty my clothes, they will be gone immediately."
Lu Shiyu ate a bun with a coin in one hand, wondering when Shaoxing Yang had put it in when she wasn't paying attention.
Good luck?
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