Chapter 27: Making Sea Urchin Sauce

In fact, Yinzhu really wanted to not live with her grandma, but so many people kept persuading her and spoke so seriously, as if the sky would fall apart without an adult at home.

If Jiang Wan hadn't come today, she might not have been able to hold back and agree. Now after listening to Jiang Wan's words, she felt recognized and immediately gained courage.

"Xiao Wan, thank you! I understand."

She had to take care of her younger brother by herself. Apart from the gifts given to grandma during the New Year, her second uncle should not even think about it. The house was left to her younger brother by her father. As long as she didn't agree, they had no way to deal with family matters. At most, her reputation would be a little bad, but that didn't matter.

After figuring it out, Yinzhu's expression was no longer so bitter. She put the tools that Jiang Wan returned in the corner and her eyes fell on the two sea urchins.

"Xiao Wan, what are you doing with this? It hurts a lot."

"Here, I'm giving you some food. Do you have a pair of scissors at home?"

Jiang Wan knew that the villagers didn't eat sea urchins, so she gave Yinzhu a brief explanation of how to eat sea urchins.

"My mother is a doctor. If this thing is poisonous, how could our family eat it? Sea urchin is not only non-toxic, but also very nutritious. You don't need to eat it raw. I will teach you how to make sea urchin steamed eggs. It is very nutritious."

Yinzhu was a little skeptical at first, until Jiang Wan dug out the sea urchin roe and gave her a bite, and she was immediately amazed.

Now she had nothing to say and carefully followed Jiang Wan to learn how to handle sea urchin.

"By the way, Yinzhu, do you know who in the village has vegetable seeds?"

"Yes, I have one at home."

Yinzhu went back to the house and got some leaves to wrap it up.

"These are all prepared by my mother. I remember there were cabbage, cucumber and bean seeds, but I don't remember the other two packets. Now my family's vegetable garden can't even eat them all, so I will have to plant less in the future. You can take these back."

Jiang Wan didn't hesitate and put the cabbage seeds into her pocket.

"By the way, I'll pick some garlic, green onions and ginger for you later. You can take them home and plant them directly in the fields. Then you can eat them in batches."

Eating them one after another reminded Jiang Wan of leeks. She wondered if leeks were grown in this fishing village. She had been craving the leek dumplings made by her mother for a long time, and it felt like she hadn't eaten them for many years.

After Jiang Wan finished teaching Yinzhu, she slurped her saliva and returned home with a basket of vegetables, following her mother.

"Wow! That's a lot of eggs!"

Fragrant and tender eggs!

Jiang Wan swallowed her saliva again in a cowardly manner. She had just eaten two big meat buns today, but now she was drooling at the sight of eggs.

"Look at how greedy you are. I'll make you some scrambled eggs tonight."

Of course I have to celebrate the money I made today.

Yin Huaixi lovingly carried the clay pot containing the eggs into the kitchen.

"Sister-in-law, we are still short of some bowls and jars. Is there anything else we need? Please help me think about it. I will buy it tomorrow if there is anything I need."

"That's enough. Now everyone in the family has a bowl, which is already very good."

Song Wenhui was really afraid that her sister-in-law would spend all the money in one go, so she caught her and scolded her for a long time. Yin Huaixi quickly used a big bun to cover her sister-in-law's mouth, and slipped away to discuss the stall with her daughter.

That’s right, after yesterday’s trial operation, they are planning to continue setting up stalls to sell mint water and sea urchin today.

This time even Song Wenhui went along.

As a result, I only sold two bowls of water to an old man from the neighboring village in the whole afternoon, and I didn't sell a single sea urchin.

Earning a penny...

Even though Jiang Wan had anticipated that the returns would be unsatisfactory, she was still hit hard. She didn't expect it to be so unsatisfactory.

For just one penny, I might as well go up the mountain with my mother to collect herbs.

"Cousin, we didn't sell any sea urchins today. What if these sea urchins die?"

Because sea urchins cost ten cents each, she and her mother went with her cousin to pick sea urchins in the morning. They picked up a whole basket and even filled up the water buckets at home.

Jiang Wan looked at the pile of sea urchins at home and thought for a while, if she couldn't sell them, her family wouldn't be able to eat them all. It would be a shame to give them away or let them rot.

Oh, and you can make them into sauce yourself!

Sea urchin yellow sauce is very fragrant, and it is convenient and delicious to mix with noodles and vegetables. And the method is super simple, except that one thing is missing.

She had to get the wine.

Jiang Wan mentioned this to A Niang in private. She and A Niang had their own little secret, and A Niang absolutely believed her.

So the next day Yin Huaixi asked Xiao Manniang to buy some wine and jars from the city.

Yin Huaishan was secretly happy when he saw the wine. In the past, his wife would not let him drink too much at home, but he didn't expect his sister to remember that he could drink and bought him some wine.

No, no, I have to talk to my little sister. Our family is very poor now, so it’s okay for him not to drink.

"Little sister..."

"What's wrong, brother?"

Yin Huaixi asked as she handed the wine to her daughter.

Yin Huaishan: “…”

"This wine?"

"I bought this wine to prepare sea urchin sauce."

Jiang Wan quickly turned her head away and held back her laughter, pretending not to notice her uncle's embarrassed face.

"Cousin, did you hear that?"

"What did you hear?"

Yin Ning looked confused.

"I heard the sound of a broken heart, haha~"

Jiang Wan felt sorry for her uncle for a second and decided to wait until the sea urchin sauce was ready and then ask her mother to buy a small bottle of wine for her uncle to comfort him.

The two sisters took the wine and went into the kitchen. The sea urchins they had picked up yesterday morning were no longer as lively as they used to be. Jiang Wan felt a little sorry for not being able to make any money, but if she waited another afternoon and couldn't sell them, they would all die, which would be a pity. She hardened her heart and picked up the scissors to start cleaning the sea urchins.

"Cousin, boil some water and roll those two jars around. Make sure they are dry without leaving a drop of water."

"Okay!"

Yin Ning was used to making fire by hand, and now she was very familiar with it. After she made the fire, she could come over and help Jiang Wan rinse the sea urchin.

The two sisters were busy and cleaned the jars by themselves without any help from adults. They also scooped out all the sea urchin roe and drained the water.

A large basket of fresh sea urchin roe has been scooped out and is now to be given a bath in wine. This will sterilize and preserve them, and will also double the aroma of the sea urchin roe during the fermentation process.

After the bath, the sea urchins were full of alcohol. Jiang Wan spread them on the palm leaves and found a cool place to let them dissipate the alcohol. After the water on their bodies dried up, they could start canning.

The method of making sea urchin sauce is really very simple. Just put the sea urchin roe into the jar, sprinkle a little salt after spreading a layer.

Jiang Wan put all the sea urchin roe into the jar, covered it with a lid and sealed the gaps with mud.

Because the fermentation environment cannot be too hot, she decided to move the jars to the small stone house. This way, the sea urchin sauce will be fermented in two or three months.

Jiang Wan felt quite accomplished looking at the jar. She hoped that this jar of sea urchin sauce would suit the taste of her uncle and his family.

Eh? Did my uncle come in just now?

Jiang Wan came to her senses and turned around, just in time to see her uncle secretly taking a sip of the sea urchin yellow bath water with a spoon.