Chapter 68 Beef Hot Pot: Eating Meat, Hot Pot, and an Unexpected Accident
After shopping, Lai and Lamb drove home.
It snowed lightly yesterday, but a thin layer of snow accumulated on the roads. The snow has been compacted by people walking on it and oxcarts.
This is where the disadvantages of iron-clad wheels become apparent. Although iron-clad wheels last longer and require less effort on the road due to lower friction, they suffer in winter.
The road was too slippery, and the mule cart was unstable; it was easy to overturn if it was carrying heavy loads.
As soon as they set off, Lai noticed the problem and went back to the house to find some rags. He then wrapped the wheels with the rag strips, and the mule cart finally moved steadily.
It was freezing cold, so Ray and Lamb took turns driving the train.
The weather was fine, but it was dry and cold; you could see white smoke coming from your breath. The two of them were so cold they didn't want to talk. They only warmed up after unloading the truck bed at Lai's house and going inside.
Ray relit the fireplace and boiled water.
Have you eaten breakfast?
Ray asked Lamb.
"No."
Since he left early in the morning, Lai guessed that Lamb hadn't eaten anything either.
"Okay, then let's have hot pot for lunch later."
"Hot pot? Great, great!"
Lamb said he would accept anyone who came.
I just bought some beef. It's just Lai and Lamb at noon, so having hot pot in the middle of winter is perfect.
"Brother, bean sprouts are selling so well, why don't you make more?"
"We don't know the situation yet since it's the first day of sales. As you can see, these bean sprouts spoil as soon as they freeze. They don't keep well outside in winter; we have to cover them with animal hides. If we make any more, we won't be able to keep up with the demand."
There's one more thing Lai didn't mention: they don't have enough containers at home to make that many mung bean sprouts. He also doesn't want to spend every day with bean sprouts.
After boiling the water, Lai poured it into the teapot and made two cups of hot water for himself and Lamb.
"Drink the water when it's cold."
"Why."
It's best to process the beef you buy beforehand, otherwise it will be very troublesome to cut once it's frozen solid.
Lai first cut the beef in half. One half was wrapped in parchment paper and frozen outside later; the other half was cut into four large plates of sliced meat. One plate was left for Neil, and the other three plates were to be cooked in hot pot for lunch today.
After cutting the meat from these four plates, there was still a lot left. Lai either cut it into chunks or slices. After cutting, he wrapped it in parchment paper and set it aside to thaw and eat directly in a few days.
After processing the beef, I put it all outside and picked up some sliced lamb that I had cut last time. The meat I was going to use for hot pot at noon was almost ready.
Lai went to the storage room and took out two lotus leaf powders and some vermicelli, and also grabbed two handfuls of wood ear fungus, soaking them in hot water in a basin.
"Brother, is there anything I can do to help?"
Lamb watched as Ray kept busy and felt a little restless. Ray thought for a moment, then put three large potatoes and a rather thick sweet potato in a bowl for him.
"It's peeled and washed."
"Okay!"
After finishing with Lamb, Ray started preparing the vegetables.
The bok choy and lettuce grown indoors grow quite fast, but I estimate that after only a couple of meals, the large green leaves will be gone. That's when wood-based magic comes in very handy.
With one of Lai's skills, a small patch of leafy greens and a small amount of cilantro sprouted.
With his current level of magic, sending Ray to fight would be like feeding the enemy, but using magic to grow crops or accelerate growth would be second nature to him.
After the spell was finished, he picked the large leaves and gathered a large bowlful, enough for two people to eat.
After washing the vegetables, Lai cut two potatoes and sweet potatoes into thick slices, and the remaining two potatoes into thin slices. She washed them and placed them on a plate. She then cut the lotus leaf noodles and vermicelli into appropriate sizes and took them out.
After preparing all the ingredients, I took out the pot that had been sitting there for a long time.
Lamb looked at the pot on the table with great curiosity, examining it from all angles.
"Brother, what is this? Where did you get it? How do you use it?"
Lamb asked three questions in a row, his face full of doubt.
"The hot pot is made by Temuqi. Don't worry, you'll know how to use it in a moment."
After washing the pot, Lai took a few pieces of glowing charcoal from the fireplace and placed them in the central chimney, then added hot water to the pot around the edges.
The pot conducts heat very quickly, and the already hot water soon boiled. Lai added some of the reserved hot pot broth into it.
Can you eat spicy food?
"Yes, I love spicy food!"
Lamb eagerly expressed his love for chili peppers, but after thinking about it, Ray decided not to add too many.
He hadn't tried this broth before, so he wasn't sure how spicy it was.
The base ingredients melted quickly after being added to the pot. A rich aroma of the base ingredients wafted out, smelling wonderful.
Lai used serving chopsticks to first put in the beef and thick potato slices, and then started preparing the dipping sauce.
Sesame paste, oyster sauce, fermented bean curd, chive blossom sauce, and other common hot pot dipping sauces are nowhere to be found. Dry dipping sauce is barely enough to make up a few small condiments, so I'll have to eat with dry dipping sauce for now.
This was quite unusual for Lai, who was used to sesame sauce. Lamb, on the other hand, adapted well to the food, as it was his first time eating something so interesting.
Lai picked up a piece of vegetables and wood ear mushrooms with his chopsticks.
The temperature was high enough that the vegetables were cooked in no time. Lamb sat properly at the table and only started eating when Lai said it was time to eat.
Fresh beef slices don't need to be cooked for too long. Just blanch them in the broth until they curl up and change color, and they're ready to eat. Even with the best knife skills, Lai can't achieve the same thinness as a machine-cut slice; he can only slice them as thinly as possible, and if necessary, cook them a little longer.
Once the beef changed color and was cooked, Ray told Lamb to eat it first, otherwise it would become tough and hard to chew.
Fresh beef, paired with a dry dipping sauce made to your liking, is both spicy and fragrant.
"Brother, your broth is absolutely amazing!"
Lamb ate heartily, showing off his food, and didn't forget to shower Lei with compliments.
"Alright, alright, hurry up and eat. The vegetables will get overcooked and we'll have to cook the next batch later."
"Okay."
After eating just one batch of food, sweat began to bead on their foreheads. They took off their thick jackets and continued to add meat and vegetables to the hot pot.
This is the perfect time for a refreshing drink. There was no plum juice or milk tea left, so Lai remembered some fruit wine left over from the last barbecue. He put down his chopsticks and dug it out.
"Brother, what is this?"
"wine."
"Hey! Bro, can you pour me a drink too?"
Lamb downed the water in his glass in one gulp and handed it to Ray with a grin.
"Brother, please!"
This liquor has a low alcohol content, tastes quite good, and only has a slight aftereffect.
Linda and the others drank it last time and seemed to enjoy it.
Besides, Lamb isn't young anymore; in modern times, he would be a person with full criminal responsibility, so drinking some fruit wine wouldn't be a problem at all.
Ray poured Lamb half a glass of fruit wine.
"This is all you can drink."
"Okay, okay, it's better than nothing."
Lamb was very content.
After pouring the wine, Lai added a few strands of lotus leaf powder to the pot. This powder cooks slowly, so it's best to add it first. However, it needs to be stirred frequently, otherwise it will easily stick to the pot.
There was a whole pot of green vegetables, more than four plates of meat, and some potatoes, noodles, and wood ear mushrooms. The two of them ate for almost two hours, adding charcoal to the fire several times, and finished it all.
It was a rare treat for them to have hot pot, and Lai and Lamb were very satisfied with their meal.
"Brother, if you took this out to sell, it would definitely be a huge hit!"
Opening a hot pot restaurant or anything like that was something Lai hadn't even considered. The farmland at home was enough for him to manage for quite some time now.
Besides, rent in town isn't cheap. Renovating, buying all sorts of things, making the base, preparing ingredients, hiring people—all of that costs money. And there's also the risk of failure.
The few gold coins he had couldn't withstand such mishaps. If things went wrong, the two brothers would be left starving.
His family still has some land, so they shouldn't starve. For now, it's safest to just farm honestly and occasionally go to town to sell things to earn some money.
Ray smiled without saying anything, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Lamb, being perceptive, didn't bring it up again.
After eating and drinking their fill and resting briefly, the two began to clean up the pots and pans.
Lamb waited until the sweat cooled down, then put on a thick coat and went home for a nap.
Lai was home alone and couldn't sleep, so he started soaking mung beans.
Because he wasn't sure if he could sell so many mung bean sprouts or if there was a market for them, Lai only sent out that one batch of mung bean sprouts to prevent them from going to waste if they couldn't be sold.
Fortunately, this time setting up a stall brought Lai a satisfactory result.
A couple of hours later, Neil came home from school. Lei cooked a pot of beef and vegetable broth separately for Neil, using hot pot base.
Although there weren't many people around the hot pot to enjoy the meal, Neil still had a great time.
"Brother, did you buy beef?"
"Yeah, I went early today and caught the beef before it was all sold out. I also brought the mung bean sprouts I had grown to the market, and they were all sold out in no time."
Lai placed a heavy bag of coins on the table, preparing to count the money and keep accounts.
"Brother, did you sell this many today?"
"There aren't that many; they're all just copper coins."
Lai poured out the coins, and sure enough, the copper coins piled up into a small mountain.
The sound of copper coins clinking together made people feel much better.
"Brother, can you take me with you next time? I want to sell bean sprouts with you!"
"Let's eat first, then we'll talk."
"oh."
Neil dipped his food in the dry dipping sauce and began to eat with gusto.
Ray eventually brought Neil along, but only when Neil was resting.
After setting up his stall twice more over a few days, everyone knew that Lai's stall sold cheap vegetables. Some people even started camping out at the market, waiting for Lai to come so they could buy several large bags of bean sprouts to take home.
Sprouting mung beans only requires beans and water, making it very inexpensive. After deducting the cost of buying mung beans and packaging paper, I actually earned a considerable amount of silver coins from these three stall trips.
Given the current situation, one basket of bean sprouts is indeed not enough to sell. Since we can't set up a stall every day, it's time to consider making more.
That afternoon, Neil came home from school, and Lai cooked beef and radish soup for him. Having not seen Old Gugge out for his walk for several days, Lai was worried something might have happened to him, so after dinner, he took the beef soup and went to Old Gugge's house.
Before even entering the door, Ray heard Jenny's anxious barking, and he knew immediately that something bad had happened.
Jenny had always preferred to stay quietly by Gug's side. Lai had visited Gug's house many times; Jenny only barked a few times the first time she went, but after they became familiar with each other, she rarely barked at him anymore.
The screams are so loud, something must have happened.
Lai hurriedly entered Gugge's house, shook the door, and found that it was locked from the inside.
"Jenny, sweetie, stop barking. I'll try to get in and see what happened."
Hearing a familiar voice and smelling a familiar scent, Jenny suddenly stopped barking and began whimpering around the door from inside.
Lai put down the basket in his hand and went around to the back door, only to find it locked. He had no choice but to peer through the windows from various angles, but he could only vaguely make out a figure lying at the bottom of the stairs.
"Guge! Guge!"
Lai called out several times but couldn't hear Old Gug.
He was being too hasty. Jenny had been calling Gug for so long and he hadn't woken up, how could he possibly wake up after a few calls? Lai realized what was going on and started thinking about how to get into the house; if all else failed, he'd have to break a window.
Ray shook the door again, trying to find a way in, but found nothing. He decisively abandoned that approach, found a thick enough log, and prepared to smash the window.
He had just lifted the log, ready to exert force, when the door clicked open.
It turned out that Jenny had been frantically scratching at the door, accidentally opening the latch.
Lai hurriedly went inside to check on Old Gugge's condition.
-----------------------
Author's note: Why don't you come chat with me in the comments section? (Sneaking a glance)
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2023-08-23 23:58:02 and 2023-08-26 23:57:46!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: 58165567 (10 bottles); Aisi (6 bottles); whitesakura (5 bottles); and Yunduanzhishangshihaiyang (1 bottle).
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com