Chapter 38 Chapter 38 Laba and Dancing the Kitchen God Porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month...
On the first day of the lunar month, beggars would form a team of three or five and dress up carefully as the Kitchen God and his wife. Holding bamboo woven items in their hands, they danced the Kitchen God dance happily in the bustling market town and near the gates of ordinary shops, while begging for money and things from people.
There were also beggars dressed up as gods, ghosts, judges and Zhong Kui's little sister, beating gongs and drums along the wide streets, the sound was deafening, and it was very lively.
Pu Tao was a little afraid of beggars with paint on their faces, especially those dressed as female ghosts, running around and jumping. You might be eating rice cakes on the street when the female ghost suddenly jumps in front of you and begs for coins, scaring you so much that the rice cake gets choked in your throat.
Perhaps because she was worried about all kinds of monster incidents recently, Aunt Duan was quite generous today. She held a big purse and stood on the roadside giving out money everywhere. Especially when she saw Zhong Kui with huge eyes and a long beard, she put her hands together and bowed to him several times.
Duan Zhiwei leaned against the door of the restaurant, cracked some melon seeds, looked at the excitement, and then turned around and went into the restaurant.
Laba Festival is approaching, and it is time to cook Laba porridge. The prices of dried fruit shops in Chang'an seem to have skyrocketed as if they had agreed on it. Walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmons, and chestnuts have all increased in price, especially red beans. Due to the custom of "using red beans to fight ghosts", the price of red beans has increased by more than ten copper coins.
Duan Zhiwei had no interest in Laba. Firstly, no matter how cooked the Laba porridge is, it still has the same ingredients and tastes the same. All the restaurants in Chang'an are cooking Laba porridge, so Duan's restaurant has no competitiveness. Secondly, all the major Buddhist temples will open their doors early in the morning on Laba Festival to give out porridge, and the pilgrims waiting in line can go around the gate twice. Why don't they drink it for free instead of coming to your restaurant to spend money to drink it?
But having said that, in order to be responsible for the reputation of the restaurant, Duan Zhiwei still honestly and seriously started to prepare the Laba porridge.
Dried fruits such as red beans, mung beans, lilies, and lotus seeds are soaked in a water tank. Rice, glutinous rice, red dates, walnuts, etc. are washed two or three times to ensure that there is no sand or stones, and then put into a casserole to boil.
This clay pot was also specially ordered by Duan Zhiwei. For some reason, the porridge cooked in the clay pot is more fragrant than that cooked in an iron pot. Although he said that he could not make much money from cooking Laba porridge, Duan Zhiwei put a lot of thought into it.
First of all, the lotus seed sprouts and red date pits are removed in advance. This way, you don’t have to worry about eating the bitter sprouts in the sweet porridge, nor do you have to spit out the pits after eating the red dates. The ladies of Chang'an must like this very much.
After all, spitting out the seeds in public is not very elegant.
During the cooking process, Duan Zhiwei did not put sugar in the porridge, but added a few tablespoons of homemade osmanthus honey, which made the taste sweeter and had a faint osmanthus fragrance lingering around the nose.
However, in order to prevent the porridge from burning, someone needs to stir it constantly during the cooking process, so several people in the restaurant can only take turns to do it.
After handing the ladle to A Pan, Duan Zhiwei shook his sore arms and began to think about other dishes for Laba Festival.
Two days ago, she saw freshly dug winter bamboo shoots in a fruit store. She was so happy that she didn't know what to do. She immediately bought a large basket and asked the waiter to deliver it to her. Then she decided to eat the winter bamboo shoots stewed with ham.
Peel the bamboo shoots quickly and cut them with a rolling knife. Winter bamboo shoots are different from spring bamboo shoots. There is no need to blanch them. Just cut off the old roots. Stir-fry the ham slices and pig's trotters with lard and brown sugar, put them on the fire in a clay pot, throw in a few pieces of brown sugar, ginger slices and green onion knots, and fill it with water.
The earthenware jar was smoked black and shiny by the flames, and the meat and bamboo shoots inside were randomly overlapped. The ham was rosy in color and had clear textures, while the winter bamboo shoots were as white as jade and had plump meat, which looked very appetizing.
After boiling over high heat, simmer slowly over low heat. The fat from the meat gradually seeps out, and the rich and mellow meat aroma gradually fills the restaurant.
It was just past noon and there were no customers in the restaurant yet. Pu Tao was running outside with his friends to watch the Kitchen God dance. He came back starving. As soon as he stepped into the restaurant, he smelled the rich aroma of meat and his stomach started to growl.
Duan Zhiwei poked the fire and heard her movements. He couldn't help laughing and said, "In that case, come and have lunch."
Pu Tao hurriedly served a bowl of rice to each person and mixed it with a spoonful of soup. The ham was firm and absorbed the soup. Although the winter bamboo shoots were not as fresh and sweet as the spring bamboo shoots, they were thick and crispy. After absorbing the aroma of the meat, the taste was richer.
No one spoke in the entire restaurant, everyone just ate in silence. After filling their stomachs, Rambutan lay down on the sheepskin mattress, exclaiming that this was a paradise on earth.
Duan Zhiwei looked at her silently for a while and felt that the girl had become fatter from summer to winter. In the autumn, she could not beat the young man in the meat shop, but now she could pin him down and beat him. Her maroon winter clothes were tightly tied to her body.
The Spring Festival is coming soon, it’s time to sew new clothes, she thought.
Because they were confident about the stewed bamboo shoots with ham, Duan Zhiwei and A Pan were busy washing the bamboo shoots by the well after noon and scraping off the blackened skin on the ham to prepare for dinner.
Pu Tao suddenly ran in and said, "Captain Yuan is here."
"If he's coming, then he'll come. There's always a day when he won't come." Duan Zhiwei was busy processing the ham without even raising his head.
"He brought a big piece of strange meat," said Pu Tao.
This was quite new, as only diners were bringing food in from the restaurant. It was the first time he saw someone bringing food in. So Duan Zhiwei simply washed his hands with well water, wiped them casually on his knees, and went out to greet him.
Yuan Shenji came in carrying a large piece of meat. He was tall and strong, and he looked a little scary from a distance. Pu Tao followed Duan Zhiwei closely, only daring to stick out his head to look at him.
Fortunately, he only looks scary, but he is very polite to others: "Thank you, Madam Duan, for sending me the milk tea. I am very happy. In addition, I helped the Jinwu Guards catch the monster after the winter solstice. The day before yesterday, I hunted a deer on Mount Zhongnan. There are only a few housekeepers and servants in the mansion, so we can't eat it all, so I'll send this deer to Madam Duan."
Speaking of the Snow Girl last time, I don't know if she was enlightened by Duan Zhiwei, but she stopped looking for a lover and actually went to the Qujiang River. The Snow Girl was beautiful, and she really found some handsome men to drink and have fun with her. Not to mention committing suicide, she was simply enjoying herself and didn't want to leave.
The process of how this monster was discovered by the Jinwu Guards was extremely bizarre. It was said that there was a man who was not very pretty, but seeing her beauty, he shamelessly invited her to go boating on the Qujiang River. The embarrassed Snow Girl froze her legs so much that she is said to be still lying in the clinic.
This anecdote soon became popular in Chang'an, especially when Yuan Shenji led a group of people to the bank of Qujiang River, and the Snow Girl invited him to drink with her with a sweet smile. According to Su Juan, an eyewitness at the scene, Captain Yuan's face was darker than the bottom of the iron pot in the restaurant. After the incident, she specially found Su Juan who was writing the file and told him not to include this part in the file.
Moreover, after Yuan Shenji coughed lightly, he hinted that he should not talk about this matter in other people's places, especially in the Duan family restaurant.
Although Su Qi had drunk a few glasses of Green Ant wine and two skewers of lamb, he couldn't help but tell Duan Zhiwei everything, causing everyone in the restaurant to hold back their laughter when they saw Yuan Shenji during that period.
Duan Zhiwei could also understand that it was not an honorable thing for a fourth-rank captain to be seduced by a seductive woman. Although it proved that Yuan Shenji's appearance was indeed good, with a first-class handsome appearance certified by the face-obsessed Snow Girl.
Thinking of this, Duan Zhiwei couldn't help wanting to laugh, so she lowered her head and swallowed her smile to return the greeting to Yuan Shenji: "In that case, thank you very much, Captain. When the venison is ready, I will give you some."
Her face was flushed from holding it in, and she was fair-skinned, which gave her a hint of peach blossoms. Yuan Shenji's eyes swept across her pink cheeks and white forehead, and then slowly moved away.
Duan Zhiwei saw him looking away and thought he was hungry, so he hurriedly ushered him to a food table and said, "Today we have ham stewed with winter bamboo shoots. The bamboo shoots are freshly dug by the fruit shop. They are delicious. Would you like to have some, Captain?"
Yuan Shenji nodded and sighed after Duan Zhiwei turned around.
The restaurant business is also very good today, mainly because the rich aroma of stewed ham and winter bamboo shoots has drifted outside the restaurant. After Duan Zhiwei taught A Pan how to stew, he went to the fire room to think about how to deal with the venison.
She had never eaten venison.
I have read about it in "Dream of the Red Chamber" that Jia Baoyu and Shi Xiangyun got a piece of wild venison, and the old women brought an iron stove, iron fork, and iron wire. A group of people roasted the venison and drank wine in the Grand View Garden, and they also admired the snow and wrote poems. It was very elegant.
But Cao Gong did not specify whether pepper, cumin and chili powder were added to the roasted venison in the Jia family?
Finally, Duan Zhiwei decided to buy some hickory wood to smoke the venison. Smoking can not only cover up the original mutton smell of the venison, but also can be stored for a long time.
To Duan Zhiwei's surprise, Laba porridge was also selling very well. Many old customers came to order a portion because of the good reputation of Duan's restaurant. There were also diners who came to drink and eat, and because today was Laba, they just ordered a portion just to satisfy the crowd.
In addition, Duan Zhiwei's porridge was indeed very good. The lotus seeds were soft and glutinous, the red beans were dense and sandy, and the mung beans were refreshing. Various colors were intertwined, and the taste was soft, glutinous and sweet. So around curfew, only two or three servings of the large pot of Laba porridge were left.
It was estimated that these two or three portions could not be sold, so Duan Zhiwei had to save them and prepare to eat them for himself in the next day or two. Yuan Shenji came to pay for the ham and bamboo shoots, but was flatly rejected by Duan Zhiwei: "The captain sent such an expensive venison, how can I charge you for the meal?"
She looked down at the Laba porridge that had been put into the food box and said, "Today is Laba Festival. Commander, please bring another portion of Laba porridge back to the mansion. This porridge is soft and sticky, and not much sugar is added. I know that Commander doesn't like sweets, so just take it as a present."
Then he said a little embarrassedly: "But the Buddhist temple must have sent Laba porridge to Yuan's house today."
The Buddhist temples in Chang'an are full of smart people. The noble families and dignitaries must have sent gifts, and the ingredients they use must be better than those in the Duan family restaurant. However, before she finished speaking, Yuan Shenji still reached out to take the food box and said, "How can the food made by Madam Duan be bad? Thank you in advance."
He rode his horse back to the mansion. The Yuan Mansion was always deserted. The only two old servants followed the principle of "not showing up unless necessary" and were rarely seen on weekdays.
Yuan Shenji returned to his room, and the old housekeeper came in and asked, "Captain, can you have dinner?"
After receiving a positive answer, the old housekeeper said, "Taolin Temple sent a bowl of Laba porridge. Would you like some, Captain?"
Yuan Shenji waved his hand, turned around, picked up the food box from Duan's restaurant, and asked the old housekeeper to heat it up.
Although the housekeeper was old, he worked efficiently and soon a pot of reheated Laba porridge was brought over.
Yuan Shenji was about to pick up the spoon when he saw the old butler standing aside, hesitating to speak. He frowned and asked, "Is there anything else?"
The butler hesitated for a moment and took out a letter: "This is a letter from Runan County."
His face suddenly turned gloomy.
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