27. Stir-fried Pork with Gray Tofu
◎It seems like a competition between a man and a pig...◎
The ladies in the kitchen looked at each other, wondering why County Magistrate Ye had poured the cooked tofu into the stove ash. However, since it was she who suggested paying the cooks, no one dared to say anything.
Ye Yunzhao had not finished pouring the tofu cubes in yet. He pulled out a half-burned stick of firewood from the stove, bent down and scraped the stove ash onto the still clean tofu.
It was not until she stood up and saw the strange looks from the aunts that Ye Yunzhao smiled and explained:
"This is one way to prepare tofu, Aunt Xiangyun. Don't dig the tofu out of the stove ash tonight. I'll make a delicious meal for everyone tomorrow!"
Aunt Xiangyun couldn't hide the surprise on her face. Just use this?
But she wasn't stupid: "Okay! County Magistrate Ye, tomorrow it's up to you!"
Ye Yunzhao patted the stove ash on his hands and said, "I'll trouble you all today. Carpenter Sun has some matters to attend to..."
Before she could say anything, Aunt Xiangyun spoke quickly, "County Magistrate Ye, then don't stay here! Go check on Carpenter Sun and leave the kitchen chores to us. Don't worry!"
Sun Ning was a skilled carpenter, and County Magistrate Ye was a female official. They had one thing in common: they were both literate.
Aunt Xiangyun gave birth to a little daughter a few years ago. She loves her little daughter very much and naturally hopes that she can grow up to be someone like Ye Yunzhao. If not, she can grow up to be like Sun Ning.
But she herself could barely read, and although her husband was the village head, he had already taught her all the characters she could. Now, after hearing Ye Yunzhao mention Sun Ning, she suddenly remembered her husband's words a few days ago about them researching something new, and the thought of sending her little daughter to a private school to learn to read and write began to flutter again.
Aunt Xiangyun poked her head out from the kitchen and looked at Ye Yunzhao's departing back thoughtfully.
"What do you think happened to County Magistrate Ye? How could he throw the white tofu into the stove ashes?" an aunt asked while killing fish.
Aunt Xiangyun retorted hastily, "Don't talk nonsense! County Magistrate Ye is an educated court lady. She must have... must have seen this method in a book. Come on, kill the fish quickly. It's getting late."
The aunts stopped discussing the tofu in the stove ash and started talking about your mother-in-law's unreasonableness and her husband's inconsideration.
As for what was happening here and Aunt Xiangyun's little thoughts, Ye Yunzhao certainly didn't know. At the moment, she was thinking about the dragon bone waterwheel with great satisfaction.
Before Ye Yunzhao reached Sun Ning's house, he saw her by the Hongyu River. Three or four workers were processing wood by the river, while Sun Ning was hammering and banging there, as if she was assembling sawn wood blocks.
"Sun Ning, you started so soon?" Ye Yunzhao asked in surprise.
Sun Ning looked up at the sound and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "County Magistrate Ye, this morning you said we should make four pedals. I took a closer look and it's not that difficult. I could just make a wooden board at each of the two pedals and fit them in between. Then... I just started on my own initiative."
Sun Ning was a little nervous. When her father was still alive, he had dealt with ordinary officials. Most officials did not like the carpenter's suggestions, as if their talents would not be revealed if they were adopted.
As soon as Ye Yunzhao left this morning, she figured out the secret. When Sun Ning found the headman's house, she realized that they had already entered the mountains and would not be able to come back for a while.
Sun Ning knew how important this farm tool was to the wheat seedlings, so he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet and started early.
So she explained it clearly, fearing that Ye Yunzhao would misunderstand.
"That's not even remotely self-righteous. I trust you. Just focus on the production. I'll take care of any problems."
Ye Yunzhao had a smile on her face. Not only did she not mind, on the contrary, she encouraged Sun Ning's "self-willed" behavior.
"Are these people also laborers conscripted by the village head?" Ye Yunzhao asked curiously.
Sun Ning said: "No, these are the disciples I accepted last time."
Ye Yunzhao nodded in understanding. Carpentry work is different from ordinary work. Sun Ning has good skills, so he should have a few apprentices to help him.
Ye Yunzhao turned his head to see their skillful movements. They must have learned for quite some time. Among the four workers there was a little girl and three boys. The older one was actually the young man who was at Sun Ning's house that morning.
It turned out to be her little apprentice. Ye Yunzhao silently repented in his heart for his gossipy thoughts in the early morning. He still had the desire to form a couple in his previous life, and when he saw the right candidate, he wanted to act as a matchmaker.
Sin, sin...
After confirming that everything was going smoothly on Sun Ning's side, Ye Yunzhao circled the fields and headed towards Lu Dayuan. The wheat had already sprouted some small buds, and the ground was tinged with a faint green. Ye Yunzhao had no mood to admire them; she thought the germination rate was too low.
Is this how wheat is grown in this dynasty? Or was there something amiss during the previous sowing period?
Although the soil fertility in Xixiang is relatively low, it shouldn’t be like this... I have to find time to go to Dongxiang to take a look.
Ye Yunzhao walked with his head lowered, thinking. Lü Dayuan and his group were carrying two very thick tree trunks down the mountain. Seeing Ye Yunzhao, Lü Dayuan saw that she was carrying an empty bamboo basket. "Is County Magistrate Ye going into the mountains to pick fruit?"
Ye Yunzhao smiled and said, "I just came out of the mountains. I came to see how you are progressing."
"County Magistrate Ye, please take a look."
Ye Yunzhao looked in the direction of his finger. The wasteland that was half a person's height before has now been leveled out in patches. There is a larger open space with loess, and there are also many trees piled on the dirt road leading to the wasteland.
It seems that the progress is encouraging, and Ye Yunzhao is generous in praising:
"You're so efficient! Wait till noon, hurry up and go home to get your bowls and go to the village head's house to eat. There's meat for lunch today!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the people who were exhausted just now became excited and cheered, and Lu Dayuan was no exception.
Ever since he used the three-legged plow invented by Ye Yunzhao last time, he admired the woman in front of him from the bottom of his heart. The most important thing was that she was not like other officials - heartless.
Lu Dayuan shouted, "Everyone, go into the mountains again, and then go home to eat meat!"
"good!"
"become!"
Seeing that they were in high spirits, Ye Yunzhao raised her eyebrows, a comfortable smile appeared on her face, and her heart was filled with great satisfaction. Lingnan County was getting better and better under her leadership.
*
The next day, before dawn, Ye Yunzhao crawled out of bed, her eyes so dry she couldn't even open them. With her eyes closed, she crawled into the kitchen, picked up the small bamboo basket she had carried with her, and carried two empty wooden buckets on a shoulder pole, then left the county government office in a daze.
She headed east and found that there were not many residents in the area near the east city gate. County Magistrate Han said that it was because the owner of Ruyi Tower had a huge garden there, but they lived in Yuezhou City and seldom came back.
Perhaps for this reason, Aunt Hu bought a house nearby. The reason was simple: Aunt Hu raised pigs at home, and slaughtering pigs made quite a noise. If she lived in a place with many neighbors, it would inevitably disturb others.
Ye Yunzhao raised his hand and knocked on the gate of Aunt Hu's house, and it was Hu Er who opened the door.
Aunt Hu was squatting in the yard sharpening a knife. She turned her head and saw Ye Yunzhao. She smiled and said, "County Magistrate Ye, you came at the perfect time. We just want to kill a pig."
"I'm glad I'm not late. I was so sleepy this morning and was afraid I would be late." Ye Yunzhao rubbed his eyes. He had made an appointment with Aunt Hu yesterday to collect pig blood today.
Aunt Hu sharpened the knife twice more vigorously and nodded at Hu Er: "Catch the pig."
Catching pigs is not an easy task. The pigs have to be fat enough to be sold at a good price. Therefore, in this era when people were still starving to death, most of the pigs in Aunt Hu's family weighed more than 200 kilograms.
Fortunately, Hu Ersheng was tall and strong. He pulled out a large boar from the pigpen, and suddenly bursts of miserable howling sounded in the silent yard.
The boar pushed back desperately, and Hu Er pulled out with all his strength. The man and the pig seemed to be competing with each other, but Hu Er was better and the howling boar was pulled into the yard.
Aunt Hu rushed forward with a hemp rope in her hand. Before Ye Yunzhao could react, the boar's two front and two hind hooves were tied up.
Hu Er held down the boar that had fallen to the ground. Aunt Hu said to Ye Yunzhao, "County Magistrate Ye, come and collect the pig's blood."
Ye Yunzhao hurried forward and handed over the wooden bucket hanging on the shoulder pole. In a short while, two large buckets were filled with bright red pig blood.
Aunt Hu brought over her own wooden barrel and while collecting the pig's blood, she said to Ye Yunzhao, "County Magistrate Ye, please put the bamboo basket here. It will probably be daybreak by the time we finish slaughtering the pig. You go back first. When the butcher shop opens in the daytime, I'll have Hu Er bring the meat to you."
Aunt Hu's words touched Ye Yunzhao's heart. She was so sleepy that she couldn't open her eyes. She took out the copper coins she had prepared from her bosom and put them into the bamboo basket. She nodded quickly and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Brother Hu."
When Ye Yunzhao arrived home carrying two large buckets of pig's blood, it was already dawn. She immediately carried the buckets of pig's blood to the kitchen.
She washed the two wooden barrels she had received from Aunt Xiangyun yesterday and filled each with half a bucket of well water.
Ye Yunzhao held the salt shaker and poured a little bit of fine salt into it. She stirred it with a stick and scooped in pig blood. When the wooden barrel was almost full, Ye Yunzhao stood up and stirred it dozens of times faster.
The same procedure was followed, and half an hour later, the kitchen was filled with four large buckets of pig blood mixed with salt water.
Ye Yunzhao rubbed his sore shoulders, washed his hands carefully, tilted his head, and lay down on the bed.
When she woke up again, the four large buckets of pig blood in the kitchen had been taken away by Zhuang Xue and others. On the stove was the small bamboo basket she had carried in the morning. Ye Yunzhao leaned in to take a look and saw two large pieces of fat pork belly inside.
When Ye Yunzhao arrived at Aunt Xiangyun's house, several of them were processing ferns in the yard.
"Aunts, I'm late." Ye Yunzhao said as he took out the fat pork belly from the bamboo basket.
Aunt Xiangyun quickly took it and said with a smile, "It's not too late, County Magistrate Ye, the dough is ready."
Yesterday evening, Ye Yunzhao told them to go to the county government office to get pig blood today, and also told them to bring back a bag of mixed noodles from the county government office to make noodles today.
"Okay, I'm confident in leaving this matter to you." Ye Yunzhao smiled and expressed his affirmation.
They also laughed and started to deal with the two pieces of fat pork belly.
Ye Yunzhao dug out the tofu from the stove ash. The tofu that was white and tender yesterday had turned into gray cubes today.
She took two thin wooden sticks and picked up the gray tofu from the stove ashes and put it into a large wooden basin filled with water.
"Auntie, please wash these tofus clean and discard the stove ash outside." Ye Yunzhao handed the wooden basin to someone else and threw two thin wooden sticks into the stove.
Then he poured the pig's blood into another large wooden basin. At this time, it had solidified into bright red blood clots. Ye Yunzhao asked someone to cut the pig's blood into pieces with a bamboo knife.
Ye Yunzhao threw the chopped wild ginger and chili peppers into the big iron pot and stir-fried them for a few times. Aunt Xiangyun poured the chopped pork belly into the pot according to her request.
"County Magistrate Ye, do you think it's okay to wash like this?" The aunt carried the wooden basin and placed it on the stove.
The water in the wooden basin was so clear that you could see the bottom. Ye Yunzhao stir-fried the fatty pork belly in the pot with his right hand, and took out a piece of tofu from the water with his left hand.
The surface of the tofu block is slightly cracked and has a light stove gray color. A few tofu corners have golden hard shells, and you can only smell the faint bean fragrance when you get closer.
"Of course." Ye Yunzhao smiled, "Could you please cut these tofu blocks into slices?"
"Well, what's the trouble?"
The fatty pork belly in the pot gradually turned transparent, and the pot without a drop of soybean oil gradually became filled with lard with the aroma of meat.
After all the oil in the pork belly was fried out, Ye Yunzhao asked them to pour the cut tofu into the pot.
With a "sizzle", the kitchen was filled with the rich aroma of meat and the faint aroma of beans.
Several people looked at each other and raised their noses. Could it be that the tofu thrown into the stove ash was really edible?
Ye Yunzhao didn't give them too much time to be curious, and soon asked them to serve the fried pork with gray tofu.
However, in order to let them eat with peace of mind, Ye Yunzhao first picked up a piece of gray tofu, put it into his mouth, and said:
"Stove ash is actually very clean because it's heated up so high that there are no bugs. This is a method for pickling tofu that's recorded in books. You can try it first. Besides, this auntie washed it so cleanly."
The others were a little hesitant, but Zhuang Xue believed Ye Yunzhao's words without a doubt. She picked up a piece of gray tofu and put it in her mouth. It should be because of the fatty pork belly, the gray tofu felt oily at first, but after chewing it twice, it was different from the ordinary soft and tender tofu. It had a very tough texture and was very chewy, with a light smoky and spicy taste.
This was something Zhuang Xue had never eaten before. It was strange and unique, but she was sure: "It's delicious!"
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