When I left this morning, I told Grandma Liu that I wouldn't be coming back, and asked her to bring the child over the next day so the child could pack their own things.
So when Grandma Liu and the children arrived, Pei Yuezhi and Liu Yuanyuan had already tidied up the house.
"Thank you for your hard work, Mom. This house is really nice, but you and Aunt Liu must have gone through so much trouble moving all these things," Fan Chao said with a touch of sympathy.
Fan Mu rushed over and hugged Pei Yuezhi: "Mu'er can actually live in the city now, Mother, you've worked so hard."
Before Li Nian'an could say anything, Liu Yuanyuan pulled her over and started massaging her shoulders.
Pei Yuezhi first pulled Li Nian'an away, ignoring Liu Yuanyuan's complaints, and went to introduce them to the rooms.
When Fan Mu saw that he had a single room next to his mother's, he was overjoyed and hugged Pei Yuezhi and kissed her several times.
"Oh right, Mom! I brought Benben along too!" Fan Mu said, running to the basket on the side and taking out the puppy.
This puppy has only been here a few days, but it's growing quite fast. As soon as it came out, it happily ran around everywhere, and it didn't make a fuss when it wasn't let out.
The children were tidying up the room, Pei Yuezhi was decorating the courtyard, figuring out where to put the table and where to build an oven. Liu Yuanyuan had somehow acquired a bunch of flower seeds and was currently planting them.
The store is opening the day after tomorrow, so these next few days I'll be tidying up the place and making the shop even better.
Everyone in the family was busy. Since Grandma Liu had nowhere to stay and the preparations for the past two days weren't too busy, Pei Yuezhi advised her not to bother coming over yet.
Since Pei Yuezhi didn't plan to sell breakfast, she had more time to prepare lunch, so she only washed the vegetables and meat and didn't make any other preparations. She would do the rest tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the first day of business, and most of the customers coming will be regulars. Pei Yuezhi plans to give away some opening gifts.
I made tea eggs the night before, since it was the first day.
Pei Yuezhi prepared enough ingredients to make about 70 or 80 boxed lunches, or at most 90 tea eggs, that should be enough.
I happened to find eggs at the special offer store, three for one coin. I spent thirty coins, but it wasn't a big deal. It was a way of giving back to loyal customers.
Making tea eggs is very simple: wash all the eggs, then crush a few star anise and set them aside.
The traditional way to make tea eggs involves caramelizing sugar. You take a handful of rock sugar, add some water, and you'll have a caramel color. Then you pour in boiling water, add star anise and eggs, cover, and simmer for ten minutes.
"Yuanyuan, come and crack the eggs!" Cracking these ninety eggs by myself is too tiring, so I called Liu Yuanyuan to help!
"They're here! They're here!"
Tap the eggs in a circular motion to create cracks on the surface, then put them back in the pot, add black tea leaves and salt, and simmer over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes.
Then pour it into a basin and soak it overnight.
The next morning, I was hoping to get up a little later, but I was also excited and nervous, and everyone got up very early.
I decided not to sleep and just make some breakfast.
On the first day of business, I ate my fill and went to work full of energy!
We need to make boxed lunches for lunch. Four dishes are indeed a bit few, but if we make too many kinds, I'm worried we won't be able to sell them all, and it's also a lot of work.
Order two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, and charge five coins for the meat dishes, three coins for the vegetable dishes, and two coins for the rice.
Today I'll make braised pork and stewed chicken with potatoes. For vegetarian dishes, I'll make stir-fried cabbage with vinegar and braised tofu with scallions.
I prepared about fifty servings of each dish. I needed about ten pounds of braised pork, five chickens, and some potatoes. That should be enough.
The restaurant's kitchen has three pots: two for stewing and one for stir-frying.
At this moment, Granny Liu arrived. Seeing that Pei Yuezhi was already cleaning up the vegetables, she rolled up her sleeves and came over to help.
First, prepare all the vegetables. Singe the skin of the pork belly with fire, then soak it in warm water for a while, scrape it clean, and blanch it.
Then cut it into evenly sized pieces, slightly larger than Dongpo pork, two pieces per serving.
Chop the chicken into pieces and blanch it in boiling water.
Seeing that it was almost time, Liu Yuanyuan came over to check the fire, and Pei Yuezhi started stewing the dishes.
"Auntie, please go back to the house and steam the rice first. There aren't enough pots in the kitchen. I stewed a dish and then stir-fried another dish, and then I ran out of pots. I've already soaked the rice, so you can just steam it when you get back."
First, fry the pork belly to render the fat, but don't fry it in an empty pan; it's best to add some oil, otherwise it will easily become tough.
Once the surface turns golden brown, you can take it out of the water; frying it for too long will make it tough.
In a separate pot, add rock sugar and a little water to caramelize it until it turns a deep reddish-brown color. Then add the pork belly.
"Where's the pork belly? Hurry up and cook it!"
"Afraid of popping."
Pei Yuezhi turned around and saw Liu Yuanyuan holding a basin next to her, looking like she wanted to pour it out but didn't dare.
Amused, he took the bowl, poured the contents into the pot, and stir-fried it over low heat. Then he added scallions, ginger, star anise, bay leaves, dried chili peppers, and cinnamon. After stir-frying until fragrant, he added high-proof liquor.
Then add light soy sauce and fermented bean curd juice, a little salt, and more water, and simmer for more than an hour.
Next, stew the chicken. The chicken has already been blanched. Add some oil to the pot and stir-fry it with peppercorns, scallions, ginger, star anise, bay leaves, and dried chili peppers. Stir-fry until fragrant and cook out the moisture from the chicken.
Add some light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, a little sugar to enhance the flavor, and appropriate amounts of salt and chicken bouillon.
Cover and simmer for twenty minutes.
"Yuanyuan, I'm so nervous. It's the first day of business, and I'm worried that no one will come," Pei Yuezhi said to Liu Yuanyuan as she sat down to rest.
Liu Yuanyuan patted her shoulder reassuringly: "It's okay, you cook so well, you have a customer base, don't worry."
“Okay, then I’m not worried, but don’t let your hands shake, and don’t be nervous.” Pei Yuezhi held Liu Yuanyuan’s nervous hand.
The meat is almost done stewing, so we can start stir-frying the vegetables.
First, make the stir-fried cabbage with vinegar. Separate the cabbage stalks from the leaves. The leaves can be torn into pieces, while the cabbage stalks are sliced diagonally into large pieces. Larger cut surfaces allow the cabbage to absorb the flavors more easily.
The leaves and stems are kept separate because they are not stir-fried together.
This dish requires a sauce made with sugar, vinegar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken bouillon, cornstarch, and water.
Heat oil in a pan, add scallions, ginger, garlic, and dried chili peppers, and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the cabbage stalks and stir-fry over high heat, adding salt halfway through to help the cabbage release water quickly. Once the edges are slightly browned, add the cabbage leaves.
Keep the heat high and continue stir-frying until the edges of the vegetables are browned. Then, Pei Yuezhi pours the sauce into the pan, stir-fries it quickly and evenly, and prepares to serve.
"It smells so good, Yueyue! I don't usually like cabbage, but stir-fried cabbage with vinegar is really delicious!"
Just as the food was taken out of the pot, Liu Yuanyuan took a bite with her chopsticks.
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