Chapter 15 Big Brother, why are you back again? I've come to cook for you...
Wen Xingrui is practically a little bull!
An Fusheng held him, but he struggled desperately to break free and crawled around.
An Fusheng was so tired of dragging him along that he called everyone over to hold hands and form a circle, trapping Wen Xingrui inside.
Wen Xingrui thought everyone was playing with him, so he climbed even more enthusiastically, but he could only climb within the circle.
"Doesn't he get tired?" An Fusheng asked.
“He’s usually kept in a cage, so he gets especially excited when he’s released,” Bai Miaomiao said.
"Why are you keeping him in a cage?" An Fusheng asked in surprise.
"Because no one has time to watch him, if we let him out, he will climb around and it will be very dangerous."
An Fusheng expressed his understanding.
"How many children do you have here now?" An Fusheng asked again.
Bai Miaomiao looked at An Fusheng with a puzzled expression. Her older brother didn't come back often when he was in school, but he was very familiar with them. Now, it's only been three months since he last came back, so why does he seem so unfamiliar with them?
Bai Miaomiao felt a little disappointed by An Fusheng's unfamiliarity, but she still introduced everyone to An Fusheng one by one, starting with herself: "Me, Mangmang, Xingmou, Xinglin, Shisi, Xingrui, and Xinghe. She is blind and afraid of falling, so she usually stays in her room and doesn't come out. So there are seven of us in the orphanage now."
After introducing them, Bai Miaomiao asked, "Big brother, why are you back again?"
Lou's mother clearly said that those who left the welfare home would never come back, and she had never seen anyone return.
An Fusheng coughed lightly and said, "I'll cook for you."
"Can you cook?" Bai Miaomiao asked. Before her older brother left the orphanage, he would only come back on weekends to help Aunt Lou with laundry, cleaning, and playing with them. She had never seen him cook.
An Fusheng said confidently, "Of course, it's almost noon, isn't it because no one is making lunch?"
"Mother Wen said that the people who come for the interviews will cook lunch for us. If they like it, they can stay; if they don't, they can get a different one," Bai Mangmang answered quickly.
"Big brother will make it for you."
"Yay!" Bai Mangmang asked happily, "Big brother, can you make wolf tooth potatoes?"
"Let's see if we have any ingredients."
"You can go buy it."
"I have no money..."
...
It was almost lunchtime, so An Fusheng told everyone to watch over Wen Xingrui while he went to the kitchen to cook.
I took a walk around the kitchen and found that there was still a lot of rice in the rice bucket, but not much food left in the refrigerator.
An Fusheng searched the refrigerator thoroughly and found seven eggs, three eggplants, and a small piece of pork. Fortunately, there was a vegetable garden behind the kitchen with some Shanghai bok choy growing sparsely. An Fusheng took the rice washing basket and picked a basketful.
That should be enough for a lunch.
An Fusheng is now very familiar with rice cookers. He no longer needs to measure the water by hand when washing rice and cooking rice; he can accurately judge how much water to add with just a glance.
After cooking the rice, An Fusheng began to think about the best way to combine the ingredients for today. Based on the child's dietary preferences, he decided that the eggs could be made into steamed eggs, the eggplant could be made into fried eggplant fritters, and as for that small piece of meat…
Pork foreleg meat, with a perfect balance of fat and lean, doesn't interfere with each other. If cooked alone, the fat will be too greasy and the lean meat too dry, which children definitely won't like.
An Fusheng simply broke it down, chopping most of it into minced meat to be used in eggplant fritters and steamed eggs later, and slicing the remaining half into meat slices to stir-fry with Shanghai bok choy.
Adults may find Shanghai bok choy fresh and crisp, but children's sense of taste is much more sensitive than adults'. Shanghai bok choy is actually a bit tough and bitter to them. However, if it is stir-fried with meat, the meat will absorb the bitterness from the bok choy, and the lard will soften the bok choy. At the same time, the meat absorbs the juice from the bok choy, which can reduce the greasiness and make it more suitable for children with a lighter palate.
After deciding what to do, An Fusheng began washing and preparing the vegetables.
An Fusheng was washing vegetables when Bai Miaomiao walked into the kitchen.
"Big brother, do you need my help? Although I can't cook, I can help you out."
An Fusheng continued washing the vegetables, then looked up and said, "No need, just wait to eat."
Bai Miaomiao suddenly felt a sour and swollen feeling in her heart. Ever since her parents passed away, everyone had told her that she was the older sister and should be sensible. After coming to the orphanage, she tried her best to help the mothers take care of her younger brothers and sisters. The mothers praised her for being sensible, but they never said that she didn't have to do anything.
Bai Miaomiao suppressed her inner turmoil and said, "Big brother, your cat..."
An Fusheng then noticed that Bai Miaomiao was still holding Afu in her hands. "This guy, he was taken out of the bag and Wen Xingrui grabbed him and then he hid. Why is he willing to come out now?"
Bai Miaomiao said somewhat embarrassedly, "I carried it out."
"Then play with it for a while. I have a brown paper bag in my blue bag with cat food in it. Get some for it."
"OK."
After washing the vegetables, An Fusheng first chopped the minced meat and sliced meat, and then began to cook the dish.
He planned to make steamed eggs first. He turned on the stove, put water in the pot and started boiling. Then he knocked six chickens into a bowl, added a little salt to the eggs as a base flavor, and then held the bowl steady with one hand while quickly stirring the egg mixture with chopsticks with the other.
About a minute later, An Fusheng used chopsticks to pick at the egg mixture, but it was completely impossible to pick it up anymore; the egg mixture was now stirred.
To make steamed eggs tender, the ratio of egg to water is very important. According to data, the ratio of egg to water is about 1:1.5. However, An Fusheng no longer needs to use data to measure his cooking; his eyes are the most accurate measuring instrument.
An Fusheng scooped an appropriate amount of warm water from the pot and added it to the beaten egg mixture, then used chopsticks to stir the egg mixture and warm water evenly.
The bowl used for mixing the eggs was a bit thick, so An Fusheng found a thinner, shallower bowl and a fine-mesh strainer. He placed the strainer over the rim of the bowl, filtering the egg mixture as it was poured into the bowl. This prevented the egg mixture from developing a honeycomb texture during steaming.
After straining the egg mixture, the water in the pot was just boiling.
Place a steaming rack in the pot, carefully place the bowl of egg mixture on the rack, cover the bowl with a plate to prevent water vapor from dripping into the steamed egg, cover the pot with the lid, and turn on high heat.
Soon, steam began to condense on the transparent glass lid. An Fusheng watched as the entire lid was covered in steam, then turned down the heat and continued steaming.
It would probably need to steam for another seven or eight minutes, so An Fusheng quickly used another stove to stir-fry the minced meat.
When frying minced meat, you need to start with cold oil in the pan so that it doesn't clump together. So An Fusheng first turned on low heat and skillfully used the spatula to stir-fry the minced meat in the pan until it was separated. Then he turned up the heat and stir-fried it, adding minced garlic, light soy sauce, and a small amount of dark soy sauce during the stir-frying process.
Once the aroma was fully released at high temperature, An Fusheng quickly thickened a sauce with cornstarch and water, then poured it into the minced meat. The minced meat fully absorbed the sauce, becoming fragrant and tender.
After the minced meat was stir-fried and the eggs were almost steamed, An Fusheng turned the heat of the steamer to the lowest setting and let the eggs steam for a while longer.
Three minutes later, the eggs were done steaming. An Fusheng turned off both heat sources, opened the lid of the steamer and the plate covering the bowl, and a large bowl of tender yellow steamed eggs slowly appeared in the steam.
An spreads the minced meat evenly on the surface of the steamed egg, sprinkles it with chopped green onions, and the minced meat is now steamed.
"Big brother, I smell something delicious!" Bai Mangmang sniffed and ran into the kitchen.
Seeing An Fusheng place a large bowl of steamed eggs covered with minced meat on the table next to him with a rag under his hand, Bai Mangmang exclaimed in surprise: "So much meat sauce, it smells so good!"
An Fusheng laughed and said, "The bottom layer is steamed egg, and only the top layer is minced meat."
"It looks so delicious!" Bai Mangmang stretched her neck, slurping up the aroma of the minced meat, and couldn't help but jump up and down on the spot.
The other children, drawn by the aroma, ran into the kitchen one by one, including Wen Xingrui, who was hunched over on the floor.
Fearing the child would get burned, An Fusheng quickly chased them all out and ordered them to keep an eye on Wen Xingrui, especially to prevent him from climbing into the kitchen.
Next, we'll make eggplant fritters.
The minced meat has been chopped. An Fusheng adds ginger, garlic, salt, chicken essence, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and an egg white to the minced meat, stirs it in one direction with chopsticks until it becomes sticky, and sets it aside.
Eggplant oxidizes easily if cut too early, so I didn't cut it earlier. Now, An Fusheng quickly cut the eggplant into 1-centimeter-thick slices. After cutting, he put the slices in a bowl, added starch and mixed them evenly until all the eggplant slices were coated with a thin layer of starch.
Stuff each eggplant slice with minced meat, then gently press it down to evenly distribute the meat filling inside.
Next, An Fusheng needed to make a batter to coat the outside of the cut box. He found a small bowl, put two spoonfuls of flour, one spoonful of starch, and the leftover egg yolk in it, then added water and stirred until it could be pulled into threads when lifted with chopsticks. He then added a spoonful of cooking oil and stirred until well combined.
Once the preparations are complete, turn on the heat and put a sufficient amount of oil in the pan. When the oil is about 60% hot, dip the eggplant slices stuffed with meat into the batter and then fry them in the oil.
It takes about six to seven minutes to fry the eggplant slices. An Fusheng quickly puts in new eggplant slices while flipping the ones frying in the pan without delay. He can even take out the fried ones and arrange them neatly on a plate.
The hot oil fully releases the aroma of the food. At this moment, the aroma in the kitchen is like a fishing hook, luring the children involuntarily towards the kitchen. However, the children are obedient. Their older brother said they couldn't go in, so they won't. Instead, they press their little heads against the door, eagerly looking into the kitchen.
After making the eggplant fritters, An Fusheng poured out the excess oil and stored it, then used the oil in the pan to stir-fry the last dish.
He first stir-fried the fatty pork in the pan until the fat was rendered and the pork turned golden and crispy. Then he added the lean pork and used the rendered fat to bring out the aroma of the lean pork. He then added garlic and soy sauce and stir-fried it briefly. Finally, he added Shanghai bok choy and stir-fried it over high heat.
"Sizzle sizzle"
The greens in the pot responded enthusiastically with each stir.
The flavors of meat and vegetables collide and blend under high temperatures, ultimately creating a rich aroma that fills everyone's nostrils.
Wen Min was awakened from her sleep by a continuous stream of fragrance.
A note from the author:
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