Chapter 38: Juicy Small Conch

The two sisters stayed up all night talking to each other in private, and woke up late the next day. Fortunately, the low tide was delayed, so they could catch up with the sea after breakfast.

Jiang Wan did not go this time. She stayed at home with her uncle to deal with the pile of spicy snails they had prepared before.

It was good luck that the pile of snails was brought into Yin Ning's room, so the collapse of the wall next door had no effect on them. It didn't matter that the water in the basin was not changed, because when I went to see them, they were all still very fresh. After soaking for two days and spitting out the sand for two days, they were already very clean and ready to be put into the pot.

Jiang Wan poured them all out and cleaned them again. After washing off the mucus and mud on them, she put them into a large iron pot and boiled them.

Add some ginger slices and some wine, and start cooking over high heat.

Yin Huaishan couldn't move his legs, so he could only sit on a chair and do his work. After the conches in the pot were cooked and soaked in cold water, he was responsible for picking out the conch meat one by one with a bamboo stick and pinching off the liver that could easily cause physical discomfort.

This job is easy, but it's troublesome.

I finally picked out half a pot and the second pot was cooked.

"Wanwan, you're not going to take these conch meats directly to the city to sell them, are you?"

Yin Huaishan was very nervous while picking the meat.

He admitted that his niece was a good cook, but these conches were just cooked with some ginger slices and wine, so they just lacked the fishy smell. It would probably be difficult for people to be willing to pay for them.

"Of course not, I still need to make the sauce."

Jiang Wan had made sufficient preparations, and had bought a lot of seasonings and spices. Of course, the preparations were not as complete as those in modern times, but the combination of the flavors would definitely surprise the people here.

The third pot of conch was still cooking, so she first cleaned out the side dishes she was going to use.

Garlic, cilantro, carrots and a bunch of limes.

In modern times, coriander and lime should be the most expensive, but here lime is the cheapest.

Lizhou Island is never cold all year round, with abundant rainfall and sunshine, and all kinds of fruits and vegetables grow very well. Some can even mature several times a year.

Just like seafood, no matter how sweet and fragrant fruits are, most of them cannot be preserved, so only people on the island eat them, and most of them are very cheap. Lime is even cheaper, because it is too sour and most people can't eat it.

The bag of limes that her mother brought back cost her only four cents for a few dozen of them. Vegetables were a little more expensive, at six cents for five carrots.

Originally, the dish she was going to make didn't need carrots, but there were no hot peppers, no red or green peppers, and the juice would only have green without red, which would feel a bit weird. So she decided to add carrots.

Anyway, carrots are very nutritious, so adding them to your diet will only bring benefits.

Jiang Wan squatted by the bucket and quickly washed everything that needed to be washed and cut them for later use.

At this time, my uncle was still picking the conch meat seriously. It was really a waste of his talents to hold the bamboo sticks in his literary hands, but there was nothing he could do at the moment.

The dish she was going to make was called Small Seafood in Sauce. It was made by boiling the conches and then soaking them in the prepared sauce until they were well-flavored.

It is a very suitable cold dish for summer, delicious and appetizing.

Usually, the conch is cooked and soaked directly, and when eating, you pick it slowly with a toothpick. But she wanted to sell it. Nowadays, people don't want to eat conch, let alone let them pick it slowly with a bamboo stick. Is it still possible to sell it?

So it is a bit troublesome to pick out the meat and soak it yourself. When the customers have tasted it, you can skip this step and let the customers buy it and pick it themselves when there are more customers.

A quarter of an hour later, all the conches were cooked and were now soaking in cool water, waiting to be picked for meat.

Jiang Wan cleaned the pot and started to boil water, then took out two large jars that she had just bought and washed them carefully. These were the jars for soaking conch meat, and they would need to be washed in boiling water before use.

After the containers were prepared, she began to prepare the juice.

I poured a pound of soy sauce and only a little vinegar to enhance the flavor, after all, limes are quite sour. I scooped a spoonful of sugar and two spoonfuls of sesame oil...

It lacks oyster sauce, which is a pity.

Oyster sauce, um, Jiang Wan was just about to think of something when she suddenly heard her uncle calling her. She was distracted and forgot about it. When she returned to the kitchen, she saw the remaining ingredients and continued to cook.

Add minced garlic, shredded carrots, coriander, and lime, and then add the boiled water you usually drink.

The two large jars of jus are almost ready. Take a scoop to taste, and add some salt if it's not salty enough. The soul of these two jars of jus is actually the lime. The heavy juice is neutralized by the fragrant fruit juice, and it tastes very refreshing with a little saltiness in the sourness.

Although there is no chili pepper, the garlic snails are spicy in nature, so this flaw can be ignored.

After Jiang Wan was ready, she washed the small bowl of snail meat that her uncle had picked out and poured it into one of the jars to soak it first, and then followed her uncle to pick the snail meat with a bamboo stick.

When the tide started to rise and my aunt and the others returned, she and my uncle had already picked out half of the conches. The remaining few were picked out by the five people in the family in less than two quarters of an hour.

The two large jars were filled to the brim, and Jiang Wan simply scooped some out for his family to taste.

Yin Huaishan had already been greedy, so he just poked a piece of conch meat with a bamboo stick.

The finger-sized spicy snail meat is covered with juice. As soon as you put it in your mouth, you can taste the sourness with a fruity aroma, followed by the taste of other seasonings combined. The spicy taste is added when you chew it lightly, and the taste is simply amazing!

At this time, Lord Yin just wanted to compose a poem, but unfortunately no one came to support him, as the whole family was happily eating conch meat.