Cleaning pig intestines is a technical job. In modern times when there is no shortage of food, people use flour or starch, vinegar and wine to clean pig intestines. But here, flour, vinegar and Huadiao wine are not cheap, and she is reluctant to use them to clean pig offal, so she uses wood ash. Wood ash itself is a traditional Chinese medicine, which has the effect of purifying and can remove odors, so she uses wood ash to clean the pig intestines.
She scrubbed the intestines repeatedly many times until they were clean and white. She cut off a small part of the fat inside the intestines and left most of the oil, so that the braised intestines would have more oil and taste better.
After dinner, Xu Qinyu began to braise the offal.
When she was cooking, other people could only help watch the stove and wash the pots and pans.
Wen was washing the wooden basin that her daughter-in-law had just used in the yard, while the two children and Pei Weixuan were squatting by the stove, warming themselves by the fire.
It's really cold.
Xu Qinyu began to fry sugar color. She melted lard in an iron pan and added old rock sugar, stirring slowly. After the sugar color was fried, she added spices in the right proportion, ginger slices, dogwood, and shallot segments and stir-fried them. After stir-frying, she added a large pot of water, and when the water boiled, she added soy sauce and salt. She cleaned the pig intestines and pig stomach, and then simmered them on low heat for three quarters of an hour before turning off the heat. The pig intestines braised in this way were just right, not too soft, chewy, fragrant but not greasy. She then added the large pieces of radish she had cut, covered the pot, and simmered the radish in the hot marinade.
This way, the radish will be cooked as soon as it is boiled tomorrow morning, and it will be especially tasty.
Just stir-fry the cabbage with some dogwood and vinegar tomorrow.
I'll make the fried eggs and pancakes tomorrow.
People here have breakfast around nine in the morning, so they don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to work.
In modern breakfast shops, customers have to eat breakfast around 5:30 or 6:00. The employees and owners of the breakfast shops usually get up at 3 or 4:00 and work hard, which is very hard.
The pot of pig intestines she braised filled the house with fragrance as soon as it was first braised.
After the stew was done, the aroma spread far away and could be smelled by the neighbors.
"Oh my, what does the next door do? I'm so greedy every day."
"It smells so good, it feels like I haven't eaten anything yet."
The neighbors were almost overwhelmed by the fragrance.
"Mom, mom, I want to eat, I want to eat." Some children couldn't help but make a noise when they smelled the fragrance.
"It smells so good, it must be the smell of braised meat. Even the meat in the braised meat shop doesn't smell this good. How can we afford braised meat at home? Son, stop making trouble."
"No, no, I just want to eat."
Many children in Guihua Lane cried when they smelled the fragrance, and went to adults to ask for food. Some of them were coaxed by adults with kind words, while some adults with quick tempers beat them up directly.
After Xu Qinyu finished all these, she boiled some hot water and the whole family washed up before going to bed.
…
As the morning light broke, Xu Qinyu woke up.
Among the Pei family, Xu Qinyu and Pei Weixuan usually get up earlier.
Pei Jianing couldn't sleep well at night, and Xu Qinyu could feel her sister-in-law tossing and turning even in her half-sleep, so she would let her sister-in-law sleep a little longer in the morning.
Every time she went to the kitchen, her cheap husband would almost follow her out.
Her cheap husband sat in front of the stove to help her watch the fire, while Xu Qinyu used a small stove to cook today's porridge. Because there was roujiamo today, the porridge was relatively light and just right to eat with it.
She kneaded the dough again, put it on the chopping board to let it rise for a quarter of an hour, poured all the braised vegetables in the pot into the large casserole prepared earlier, cleaned the pot, and then began to knead the dough and make pancakes.
Making pancakes is simple. Pinch the dough into the size of half a fist, press it into a pancake, and make it evenly thick and thin before making it.
The amount of braised pork intestines and tripe she prepared was probably enough for about fifty roujiamo (Chinese roujiamo), so she made fifty-five pancakes.
The iron pan is big enough for her to bake several pancakes at a time.
Once the pancakes are done, start frying the eggs.
A thin layer of lard and salt is brushed on the bottom of the pan, and the fried eggs are fragrant and round.
After frying the eggs, I stir-fried a pot of cabbage with vinegar.
She cut the whole cabbage into strips about two centimeters thick and fried them. They are quite thick and suitable for sandwiching in pancakes. They are also refreshing and appetizing when eaten alone.
The braised pork intestines on the big stove were boiling again, and the radish was naturally cooked as well.
After doing all this, the porridge was cooked. She quickly cut the pork intestines, pork tripe and radish and made eleven roujiamo.
There are six people in the Pei family and five in the Xia family, so the newly prepared food must naturally be given to everyone in the Xia family to taste.
When Zhuzi came to serve the food, he learned that he and his sister Xiaocui were also there today, and he thanked Xu Qinyu profusely.
There are five or six big pieces of pig intestines and a small piece of pig stomach in a roujiamo. There is no other way, there is only one pig stomach, so naturally a small piece of it is cut into pieces and put in each roujiamo.
Add chopped braised radish, a fried egg and a sour and spicy cabbage strip, and the roujiamo's belly is filled up by the filling. When you take a bite, the dough is crispy, the pork intestines are fragrant, and there is fat oozing out, but it is oily but not greasy. Combined with the crispy aroma of the fried egg, the soft radish, and the sour and spicy cabbage, it is so delicious that the Pei family members are stunned.
Wen was relieved. Roujiamo with this taste was not even available in the capital. No, even the imperial kitchen in the palace couldn't make it, let alone in such a remote place in the southwest. This business was indeed possible.
…
After breakfast, Xu Qinyu pushed the food stall to the pier to set up the stall.
Pei Weixuan helped to move the big stove under the cart, and then placed a pot of braised pork intestines on the stove. The fire in the stove had been removed, leaving only a tiny simmer to keep the casserole hot.
There was also a pot of pancakes, a pot of fried eggs and a pot of cabbage strips, all placed next to the big stove under the cart, covered with a mattress made of white gauze. The stove was emitting heat, so these things would not cool down even if they reached the dock.
Xu Qinyu originally planned to go by herself, but her fourth brother insisted on coming over to help her push the cart. She pushed it herself and found it was indeed a bit heavy.
After the two left, Wen cleaned the kitchen and the house thoroughly.
Xu Qinyu's braised pork intestines were so fragrant that even with the lid on the casserole, the aroma couldn't be concealed.
The sweet scent of osmanthus fills the air. Some families are sweeping the snow in the yard with their doors open, and children are playing in the snow in the alley.
Pei Weixuan was pushing the cart, the armrests of which were quite wide, and she also helped with some strength. The two of them and the cart were quite obvious. Some neighbors who were sweeping the snow saw the two of them and the steaming casserole on the strange cart, and immediately knew that the two of them must be the people who rented the Xia family's house. The fragrance that kept everyone awake last night was exactly the same as the one now, and it was also caused by them.
Some people couldn't help but come out and ask, "Young lady, what kind of food are you making? What are you planning to do?"
Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "Auntie, this is Roujiamo, I'm going to set up a stall at the dock."
The woman couldn't help but ask, "Roujiamo? Pork bun? How much is one?"
Xu Qinyu said, "Eight cents each."
The cost is too high. If it really costs five cents like pork buns, she will make no profit.
What's more, her roujiamo is much bigger than the pork bun, and is full of stuffing. The taste is incomparable. If she pushes it to East Street and West Street to sell, the starting price will be at least ten cents.
The neighbor aunt showed a surprised expression, "Eight cents each? That's too expensive. Forget it, I don't want it."
She immediately gave up the thought of buying one to try, mainly because the child at home was making a fuss yesterday. She thought that if it was a pork bun, which cost five cents each, she could grit her teeth and buy one for the child, but she really couldn't bear to spend eight cents.
The child of this aunt's family was only five or six years old. When he heard his grandmother say that she would not buy it, he immediately started crying and insisted on eating it.
The aunt was a little angry and pulled the child back to the yard, "How can we afford to eat this? If you cry again, I will beat you."
The child was still making a fuss. The aunt got a little angry and spanked the child twice, and the child cried even louder.
Xu Qinyu felt very uncomfortable watching this. The child was only five or six years old and looked very thin. The children playing in the alley were also very thin. In her era, children had no worries about food and drink. Except for some picky eaters who were a little thin, most of them were raised strong and healthy. Parents were afraid that their children would not eat well and wished that every meal would be full of fish and meat.
But these children probably only eat meat a few times a year. Even ordinary dishes are boiled in water without adding oil or salt, so naturally they don’t grow well.
Along the way to sell the sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance, many people asked about the price, and when they learned that it was only eight cents, no one was willing to buy it.
It's just a small pork bun, but it's three cents more expensive than the normal price. I don't think it's worth it. For eight cents, you can get more than two taels of meat to taste.
Fortunately, Xu Qinyu's target was not the neighbors in the alley, so she continued pushing the cart towards the dock.
But she didn't say much along the way.
Pei Weixuan turned his head slightly to look at her, his eyes were a little deep. She felt sad for those skinny children.
Fortunately, we arrived at the pier very quickly. Normally, there is a stall fee for setting up a stall at the pier, but now it is snowing, so there are not many people setting up stalls, and no one comes to collect the stall fee.
There were many places to set up a stall, and Xu Qinyu picked one at random. The aroma of her braised pork intestines was so tempting that two waiters on the boat who were originally heading towards the wonton stall couldn't help but come towards her.
"What are you selling, young lady? Why does it smell so good?"
Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "I sell roujiamo here, braised pork intestines, pork tripe, and radish, as well as stir-fried spicy cabbage with a fried egg. Each one costs eight cents."
"Fat intestines? Are you talking about pig offal?" The two showed disgusted expressions. "It's hard to hide the fishy smell even after cooking. It's disgusting. Who would want to eat it? Besides, other people's pork buns are only five cents. Your pork bun made with pig offal, even with a fried egg, is not worth eight cents. Young lady, this is not how you do business. You are really brave."
Xu Qinyu said nothing. She opened the lid of the casserole, took out a piece of pig intestines, cut them into two pieces half the length of a finger on the chopping board, and then pierced them with a wooden skewer and handed them to the two of them. "You will know how my braised pig intestines are after you try them."
The two men didn't want to taste it at first, but after the lid was opened, the aroma became stronger and drilled into their noses. Finally, the two men couldn't help it and didn't mind the dirt. They took the pig intestines on the skewer with their hands and stuffed them into their mouths. They thought it would have a fishy smell, but it sizzled with oil as soon as it entered their mouths. The pig intestines were chewy and the more they chewed, the more fragrant they became. They were more fragrant than meat and had no fishy smell at all.
The two of them widened their eyes and asked in disbelief, "Young lady, you, you are really dirty? How come it tastes better than the meat we eat?"
They had never eaten such delicious offal.
Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "Would you two like to try some roujiamo? My roujiamo is bigger than the pork bun and has more fillings. One is worth two, and it's definitely delicious."
The pig intestines were so delicious that they couldn't help but say, "Give us one each."
Xu Qinyu skillfully cut the pork intestines, pork tripe and radish and made two roujiamo.
When the two of them looked, they saw that the roujiamo was bulging and the vegetables inside had overflowed. Finally, the young lady poured a small spoonful of soup into the roujiamo, wrapped it in oil paper, and handed the roujiamo to them.
The two of them couldn't wait to open their mouths and take a bite. They took one bite of the pancake and the vegetables inside. It was greasy and fragrant, satisfying and satisfying.
It was so delicious that it made both of their scalps tingle.
This was the most delicious thing they had eaten in more than ten years, even better than the dishes their boss had treated them to at the restaurant in Beijing.
The two of them didn't even have time to talk, and finished a whole roujiamo in a few big mouthfuls. They were both strong laborers and in the period of growth, so naturally they had big appetites. One roujiamo was not enough to fill them up, and two would probably be a stretch. Moreover, the roujiamo was so delicious that they wanted to eat their fill first.
"Give me two more, little lady!"
"I want one too, little lady."
"Here, young lady, here are twenty-four coins. Keep them."
The two men took out their purses, counted out twenty-four copper coins and handed them to the handsome man next to the young lady.
Pei Weixuan took the money silently.
Xu Qinyu quickly prepared four roujiamo and handed them to the two of them.
The two of them returned to the boat while eating.
Back on the boat, the aroma was so strong that the other boatmen who were about to get off the boat to eat couldn't help but ask, "Zhuangzi, Heiwa, what did you two eat that smells so good?"
"Roujiamo." The two men were chewing on Roujiamo, mumbling, "There's a new breakfast stall downstairs. It's run by a young lady. You can see it when you get down. The Roujiamo is generously portioned and the taste is absolutely amazing. I've never had anything so delicious before, and it's so juicy. It's not pork belly, it's pig intestines that the young lady braised in it. It's so greasy, and the more you chew, the more delicious it becomes."
This is a merchant ship, not the two official ships carrying coal and iron ore.
When the others heard this, they laughed and said, "Have you two never eaten good food before? You can even eat something like offal and call it delicious."
Zhuanzi and Heiwa snorted, "If you have the guts, don't go to the young lady to buy breakfast later."
They were only seventeen or eighteen years old. If their families were not extremely poor, they would not be allowed to join the merchant ship.
In recent years, the bandit problem on the canal has been very serious. The imperial court has cracked down on the bandits countless times, but has been unable to catch them. Therefore, merchant ships would hire a lot of thugs to follow the ships for fear of encountering pirates.
Zhuanzi and Heiwa are from the same village and happen to have some martial arts skills. They joined the merchant ship because they saw that their families were really struggling to make ends meet. They were frugal on weekdays and they really enjoyed the delicious roujiamo.
The others were still laughing at them, "Don't worry, we definitely won't eat this stuff."
As they were talking, they had already gotten off the boat together.
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