Chapter 121 The Repeater Cooks Together
While the little ones were lining up under the coffee table to wipe their hands and feet, Ning Jia had already come out of the kitchen with Dong Kui, Guo Guo, and Xing Xing.
Ning Jia took a large roll of cling film, tore off a large piece, and quickly covered the entire coffee table with a thick layer of cling film.
Then she brought out a large basin, then a large bowl, then another large bowl, and another large bowl...
The little children stared in disbelief at the bowls arranged in a circle, at the finely chopped ingredients inside, and hesitantly asked:
"Can't these be eaten directly?"
Dongkui quickly waved her hand, "These are all raw; eating them directly will give you diarrhea."
As he spoke, he subconsciously rubbed his forearm, still feeling a lingering fear.
Oh, my tree god, making this meal today was such a struggle!
First, you need to wash all the ingredients. Second, you need to chop all the ingredients into small pieces. Finally, you need to combine these ingredients according to a certain rule, put them in a large bowl, add the seasonings, and then stir and stir and stir...
After finally mixing the filling, I thought I could just pour it into the pot, but Ning Jia said, "It's still early. There's still a crucial step before it can be cooked."
Guoguo and Xingxing, who were helping in the kitchen for the first time, were so frightened that they almost fainted on the spot...
"Xingxing, cooking is so tiring..."
Guoguo stretched out her aching little hands and feet, lying on a piece of cabbage root, her little face filled with despair.
Xingxing leaned against the edge of the bowl, clutching a small piece of tissue to wipe the sweat from her face, looking utterly listless.
But instead of complaining, she blinked her big eyes, looked at Dongkui and Ningjia who were still busy, and whispered:
"Being able to cook is really amazing..."
Ning Jia took a moment to glance over, quickly sliced two bananas and handed them over to give the two little ones some energy.
She cut another piece of banana for Dongkui, and then said while eating the rest of the banana:
"Cooking is really tiring, you guys did a great job today."
Ning Jia would never allow such a young child to do heavy work.
In fact, she had already taken care of most of the work, only asking the two little ones to help wash and chop some vegetables, but even so, the children were exhausted.
When Ning Jia advised them to go back and rest, Guo Guo and Xing Xing were clearly unhappy.
Guoguo: "I think I still have energy!"
Xingxing: "I, I want to keep cooking too."
Ning Jia laughed, "In that case, you can continue to help, but remember to rest when you get tired."
"Um!"
Thinking about how much work she was doing today, Ning Jia's eyes darted around, and she suddenly said:
"Although cooking is tiring, it would be much easier if everyone did it together."
“So,” she said with a big smile, “let’s cook together today.”
...
Dongkui snapped out of her daze and looked at the large dough ball, various fillings, and the tribespeople waiting with curiosity to start cooking on the coffee table. She was also very curious about how to cook next.
"In our world of giants, there's a saying: 'Dumplings for welcoming guests, noodles for farewells.' It means that noodles are eaten when saying goodbye to relatives and friends, while dumplings are eaten to celebrate their return..."
As Ning Jia spoke, she glanced at Bai Su.
"To welcome Bai Su home, I'm going to keep my promise and make a delicious noodle dish this noon, and of course, nothing is more suitable than dumplings."
Dumplings? Wow, what kind of new food is this that I've never tried before?!
The little ones immediately started excitedly discussing among themselves. Bai Su also looked at Ning Jia with some surprise, not expecting her to still remember this matter.
Bai Zhi and Yun Zhu were relatively calm. They roughly knew what kind of food this "dumpling" was, but because someone's cooking skills were limited, they had never eaten it in real life. Therefore, they all showed excited expressions at this moment.
However, Bai Zhi recalled the videos she had seen online before and asked in confusion:
"Those dumplings are huge! Each one is about the size of our pillow, and some are even bigger than a person. How are we going to cook them?"
Yunzhu also said, "Yes, it's very troublesome to make dumplings. You have to knead the dough, prepare the filling, and wrap the filling in dumpling wrappers."
After hearing the information provided by Bai Zhi and the others, the others became even more curious.
Ning Jia showed no sign of embarrassment. Looking at the group of adults and children gathered around, she suddenly said:
"Now that everyone is here, let's divide into groups."
The little creatures looked at each other, and at Ning Jia's suggestion, they divided themselves into different groups according to their strength.
The first group is called the "skin-making group," which is responsible for making dumpling wrappers.
Ning Jia placed the silicone mat for kneading dough on the far right of the coffee table, then had all the members of the dough-rolling team stand in a neat row closest to the silicone mat before distributing the tools.
As Ning Jia distributed the tiny wooden sticks, cut to the length of half a pen refill, to the little people, she silently thanked someone in her heart—
The Quartz Carpenter is currently "wandering" alone in the woods.
To give Shi Ying practice, I had him saw all those chopsticks into small pieces of wood. He hesitated for a moment, saying it was too wasteful.
Ning Jia told him that these small wooden sticks would be used to make delicious food in the future.
Upon hearing this, Shi Ying immediately began sawing chopsticks for several days, but after waiting for many days, he never saw Ning Jia use those chopsticks to make any delicious food, and he always thought it was just a well-intentioned lie...
He Meng had watched the entire process of how Shi Ying sawed all those chopsticks into shorter pieces, and now, touching the small wooden stick in her hand, she felt a pang of regret.
It's a pity that Quartz isn't here, so we won't be able to eat dumplings today.
"Ningjia, Ningjia, what exactly is this for?"
Xuecao, bored, held up the small stick and played with it, then couldn't help but ask.
Ning Jia smiled and said, "Don't worry, everyone will follow my instructions later."
After she finished speaking, she asked the second group of little figures, the members of the "filling group," to stand one by one in the corresponding positions behind the dough-rolling group.
After the last "reinforcement team" took their positions, Ning Jia checked the distance between them and reminded them:
"Don't stand too close together. Leave a space about the size of a pear in front of each person."
"Okay, I got it!"
The three rows of little figures immediately sprang to life, each craning its little head to look left and right, and only stopped after leaving enough space between them.
While they were adjusting the row spacing, Ning Jia had already placed a large induction cooker on the other side of the coffee table, and brought out a soup pot and a large bowl filled with water.
Dongkui and her two little helpers, Guoguo and Xingxing, were standing by the soup pot, each holding a large ladle, with several large wooden blocks next to them for tiptoeing.
Ning Jia pointed to the large plate next to the induction cooker and whispered a few words of advice to Dong Kui and the other two. Their eyes lit up, and they all nodded:
"Don't worry, I guarantee there won't be any problems!"
...
After setting up the entire production line, Ning Jia sat down on the sofa again and kneaded the huge dough, which was taller than a dwarf, with both hands, turning it into a long, thin strip.
With a gentle cut of her knife, she divided the long strip of dough into small pieces, flattened them with her hands, and distributed them to the dough-rolling team.
Soon, the little dough-rolling team got to work, using their tiny hands to grasp the small rolling pins made of chopsticks, and following Ning Jia's demonstration, they somewhat clumsily rolled the dough into round wrappers.
"Try to roll it out so that it's thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges, so it's easier to wrap."
Once the little people had finally rolled out the first batch of dumpling wrappers, Ning Jia glanced at them and then had them pass the wrappers to the little people behind them.
The little people in the dumpling wrapper group carefully held up dumpling wrappers that were many times larger than their own faces and placed them in front of the filling group.
The filling team consisted entirely of skillful little hands, and they were all ready long ago.
As soon as the dumpling wrappers arrived, everyone took out their small spoons, scooped up a small ball of filling from the small dish next to them, and placed it in the center of the flat dumpling wrapper.
The fillings were all different: some were filled with chives and eggs, some with chives and pork, some with pork and corn, some with three kinds of seafood, and some with beef and cabbage. The children chose the ones they liked best.
Even though Ning Jia said that once all the dumplings were put into the pot, it would be impossible to tell what kind of filling they were, everyone still insisted on making their favorite flavors first.
Regardless of whether we can actually eat it, let's wrap it first.
The children kept scooping with small spoons until the filling was formed into a large ball. Then they put down their spoons and, imitating Ning Jia's movements, began to wrap dumplings.
Ning Jia deliberately broke down the act of wrapping the filling into many slow-motion steps:
"First, pinch the dumpling wrapper together from the middle."
The little ones nodded, and like folding clothes, they picked up the bottom of the dumpling wrapper, gently folded it over, and then pinched the overlapping part firmly with their two little hands.
"Next is pleating..."
This step is really hard to describe, so Ning Jia slowed down her movements every time she made a pleat. By the time all the dumplings in her hands were wrapped, the little ones had also learned how to do it.
"That's great!"
Ning Jia looked at the well-formed dumplings and immediately gave everyone a thumbs up.
She still remembers the first time she learned to make dumplings, all of them were crooked and weird shapes. Later, she practiced with the chef at the restaurant many times, almost swelling her hands, before she finally made neat and beautiful dumplings.
Ning Fang felt sorry for him when she saw this, and said that if he couldn't learn it, then so be it.
But Ning Jia refused, because she had set a small goal for herself: to be able to watch the Spring Festival Gala and make dumplings with Ning Fang at home on New Year's Eve.
That Spring Festival, Ning Jia actually achieved this small goal. Ning Fang didn't say it, but she was actually overjoyed and took a lot of photos with her camera.
If this were today, I'd probably post at least two nine-grid photos on my WeChat Moments.
...
After Ning Jia finished praising them, the little ones looked at the dumplings they had wrapped, which looked like little pillows, and grinned happily, feeling an overwhelming sense of accomplishment!
Once the dumplings reached the "reinforcement team," they were carefully pinched together by the little people, and then the work was completed and placed on the large plate at the back.
Ning Jia glanced at the boiling soup pot and reminded him:
"Winter Okra, you can start cooking dumplings now, but be careful not to burn yourself."
"Okay."
Dongkui stood tall beside the soup pot, holding a large ladle. Guoguo and Xingxing took turns putting dumplings into the ladle, and then dipped the ladle into the pot to let the dumplings fall gently into the boiling water so that the hot water wouldn't splash.
He repeated this process more than ten times, and finally put all the dozen or so dumplings he had made in the first batch (including a few that Ning Jia quickly made in her spare time) into the pot.
The dumpling-making workers on the assembly line stared wide-eyed at this scene, then returned to their posts to continue the next round.
After Dongkui and the other two used large ladles to add water to the dumpling pot twice, the plate was filled with the cooked raw dumplings.
Ning Jia came over, glanced at the pot, and immediately announced, "It should be almost cooked."
Before she could finish saying "It's ready to eat," the other little people all swallowed hard.
After everyone finished their work while suppressing their cravings, they immediately gathered around the soup pot.
Seeing the Canglan clan chief standing at the very front of the crowd, Ning Jia couldn't help but chuckle and quickly said:
"Don't stand too close, there's steam around the pot, be careful not to get burned."
The clever little one had already gone to get a small plate. Seeing that Dongkui had turned off the induction cooker and was scooping dumplings from the pot with a big spoon, she immediately stretched out her small plate longingly.
"Don't rush, everyone will get a share."
Guoguo and Xingxing had also brought over other small plates. Seeing everyone's drooling expressions as they looked at the dumpling pot, I felt incredibly proud.
After the little ones received their freshly cooked dumplings in pairs according to their age, Ning Jia cleaned up the dumpling-making workshop, and the large coffee table was transformed into the little ones' dining room.
"Don't eat too fast, be careful not to burn yourself."
Ning Jia gestured for Dong Kui and the other two to eat dumplings as well. Then she took a large bowl, poured some dumpling soup into it, carried the soup pot and induction cooker back to the kitchen, and then chuckled as she took out an electric griddle.
After eating boiled dumplings, try pan-fried dumplings. Two ways to enjoy dumplings in one meal, isn't that wonderful?
...
"Oh my god, this is so delicious!" "I've never eaten anything so good!" "Dumplings, dumplings, so delicious!" "I wish I could eat dumplings every day!"
On the coffee table, the little ones were already captivated by the unique flavor of the dumplings, and their praises were endless.
Because the fillings for dumplings are varied, people cleverly cut them into small portions like cakes and shared them with each other.
When Ning Jia brought over the glistening, oily fried dumplings, the children's praises quickly filled the living room again:
"Oh my god, this is so delicious!" "I've never eaten anything so good!" "Dumplings, dumplings, so delicious!" "I wish I could eat dumplings every day!"
Ning Jia's inner monologue:
Are these all little repeaters?
The praise for the dumplings was almost exactly the same; it was just a repetition of what was said earlier...
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