Chapter 50: Candied Haws and Yam and Pheasant Soup
When Sang Yu came back with the chicken blood, she saw everyone staring at her.
She touched her face in confusion and asked, "Did chicken blood splash on my face?" Otherwise, why were they all looking at her?
"No, no." Sang Yongjing stuttered. He looked at the bowl in Sang Yu's hand and asked curiously, "Why do you want to collect pheasant blood?"
"Let's cook the chicken blood later." Sang Yu said as a matter of course. In the past, she might have thought it was too troublesome to keep the chicken blood, but now it's difficult to even have meat, so how could she miss it?
"Is this edible?"
Sang Yongjing was not the only one who had this doubt, the other four people also had this question in their minds.
They had never eaten things like chicken blood and pig blood before. In the eyes of the upper class, these things were like offal, just dirty things that only the untouchables ate.
“Of course you can eat it, and it’s delicious.”
Sang Yu looked at them with some pity. If they had never even tasted chicken blood, they probably had never tasted chicken intestines, chicken gizzards, etc. How much delicious food would be missing out on in their life?
While asking Xie Qiujin to light the fire and boil water, she asked, "How do we eat the pheasant? Braise it or make soup?"
She personally recommends cooking it into soup. This pheasant isn't brightly colored, it's a hen. In autumn, a pot of rich, hearty old hen soup is very nourishing.
The others looked at each other, and finally looked at Sang Yu: "You decide."
They only know how to eat, so naturally it should be the cook who decides how to cook it.
Sang Yu didn't bother to be polite with them and directly assigned tasks. It didn't make sense to let the cook work alone while others waited for food.
The yams dug up two days ago came in handy. One person peeled the yams, one boiled water, and one melted the sugar to make candied haws for Sang Xinghao. She hadn't forgotten this yet.
She sat on the side and was in charge of overall planning, occasionally instructing Sang Xingjia to add water and sugar and pay attention to the heat to avoid burning the food.
Making candied haws is neither difficult nor easy, but it's also a bit difficult. The main difficulty lies in the step of boiling the sugar.
Whether the fire is too high or too low, or whether there is too much sugar or too little sugar, the sugar shell of the candied haws will not be as crispy or even become sticky.
Generally, candied haws are made with granulated sugar, but now due to limited conditions, they have to make do with homemade sugar.
Sang Xingjia carefully turned the small jar in his hand, fearing that the sugar in the jar would be burnt if he was distracted.
Gradually, the sugar liquid in the jar turned reddish-brown, bubbling, and it felt like strings when stirred with chopsticks.
Seeing this, Sang Yu nodded with satisfaction: "It's almost done, you can put the golden berries in and coat them with sugar. Remember to go slowly and coat them with sugar thinly and evenly."
Holding a few chopsticks strung with golden cherry fruits in his hand, Sang Xinghao, who was waiting eagerly, immediately handed them to Sang Xingjia obediently.
He carefully took a bunch and tilted the candy cane on the ground.
The skewered golden berries are gently rotated against the foam rising from the boiled hot sugar, and then immediately put into the cold water that has been prepared.
The outermost layer of sugar liquid solidifies instantly, and a simple version of candied haws is completed.
Normally, the candied haws coated with sugar liquid should be placed on a greased plate or board and wait for the sugar liquid to solidify, but they had no idea where to get the oil or the plate, so they had to resort to some tricks.
Sang Xinghao didn't think that he had missed a step at all. He looked at the candied haws with shining eyes, and there were only two words in his eyes: I want to eat it.
Sang Xingjia handed it to him directly: "Eat it, be careful not to burn yourself." It was a good opportunity for him to see how he had cooked it.
Sang Xinghao took the candied haws and stuffed it into his mouth, biting off the golden cherry on the top.
“Crack—”
With a crisp sound, the brittle sugar shell on the surface of the golden cherry was bitten through by him.
The first thing you taste on your tongue is the sweetness of the sugar shell, and then you can taste the flavor of the golden cherry as you chew it.
The sweetness of the fruit and the sweetness of the sugar are superimposed on each other, but it does not make people feel greasy, but instead has a gradual sense of layering.
Sang Xinghao was so happy while eating. His sister hadn't lied to him. This was much more delicious than candied haws.
Without even asking, just by looking at the expression on his face, Sang Xingjia guessed that he must have succeeded. He immediately continued to coat the sugar while the sugar in the jar was still bubbling.
He strung about ten strings of golden cherry candied haws. After coating them all with sugar, there was still a lot of unused syrup left in the jar. He felt a little sad when he saw it.
Sang Yu reached out and took a few skewers, patted his shoulder and comforted him, "You can use them when you cook later, try them first."
Soon everyone was eating a string of candied haws with relish. Sang Yu also ate a string. It tasted good, but the pure sweetness made it easy to get sick of it after a few pieces. It was not as sweet and sour as the hawthorns, which was more appetizing.
After the water boiled, she poured the boiling water all over the pheasant and began to pluck its feathers.
She tossed the rest of the feathers aside, leaving behind the longest few tail feathers. These were only slightly longer than the other feathers, and she planned to use them to make a shuttlecock for Sang Xinghao.
After sharpening the blade of the stone knife on another stone several times to make it sharper, Sang Yu finally cut open the pheasant's belly.
She took out all the internal organs, leaving behind the liver, heart, gizzards and intestines, and threw the rest aside.
After dealing with all these, it was already completely dark.
Sang Yu suddenly hesitated. It would take at least two hours to stew a pot of old hen soup. If he stewed it now, when would he be able to eat it? Should he wait until tomorrow?
When she expressed her concerns, the others shook their heads. Sang Yongjing said bluntly, "It's okay. We're not hungry yet. We can wait."
The smooth, plump chicken is right in front of me. Waiting for an hour is nothing. If I don’t drink a bowl of chicken soup tonight, I guess no one will be able to sleep.
Since they are unwilling to wait until tomorrow, what else can Sang Yu say? Just do it.
It's a whole chicken, but Sang Yu didn't chop it, mainly because he didn't have the tools to do so. It would be the same if he just tore it apart and ate it after it was cooked.
Add enough water to cover the chicken in the pot, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over medium-low heat.
As the cooking time gets longer, the aroma of the chicken soup becomes stronger, and Sang Yu can hear the sound of swallowing saliva from time to time.
Sang Xinghao even felt that the candied haws in his hand no longer had any fragrance, and after a while he would ask, "Sister, can I eat it now?"
Sang Yu: ...Didn’t everyone just say they weren’t hungry?
She wanted to eat it too, but the chicken soup had to be cooked slowly, so she could only wait.
After waiting for a long time, they unknowingly passed their usual bedtime. Everyone was yawning, and the oldest, Mrs. Shi, even dozed off.
Suddenly, there was a sound of ceramic lid being lifted, and everyone instantly became alert, their eyes fixed on the pot on the fire. Is it ready to eat?
Sang Yu opened the lid of the pot, poured the chopped yam into it, and then closed the lid again.
...It turns out that it is not edible yet.
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