Chapter 154 The braised duck smells so good, it makes me so hungry!
Cut all the peeled taro stems into sections and sprinkle with salt.
When Lin Shu reached out to grab it, He Guixiang quickly stopped her and took the job from her. "Mom, come here. Your skin is too delicate. I'm afraid it won't work. This thing will itch if you touch it."
Lin Shu's hands were already itchy as she was peeling the skin. But she figured it wouldn't hurt to itch a little more since it was already itchy.
Actually, it would be best to wear gloves, but unfortunately I don’t have the conditions to do so.
"Mother is the best. Thank you for your hard work." Lin Shu said without insisting.
"It's not that hard." He Guixiang smiled.
A large basin was filled with taro stems cut into small pieces. After Lin Shu sprinkled salt on them, He Guixiang reached in with both hands, grabbed the taro stems and rubbed them back and forth to squeeze out the moisture.
"Sister, why do we need to add salt and rub it?" Lin Xiaopu asked curiously.
Lin Shu explained, "Adding salt can help to extract the juice inside. If this step is omitted, the taro stems will irritate your throat."
Lin Xiaopu suddenly realized that cooking was a profound art. Missing any step, or not controlling the heat correctly, could make a world of difference in the taste of the dish. That's why cooking is so complicated. She still enjoyed eating more than cooking. However, she had no problem helping her sister and mother with the cooking.
Marinate and rub the taro stems for a quarter of an hour, rub out all the water in the taro stems and pour it out, then wash them with clean water, drain the water and set aside.
The duck needs to be braised for at least half an hour so that the duck meat will be soft and delicious. Since the iron pot cannot be occupied all the time, Lin Shu plans to use a ceramic pot to braise the duck.
It’s better to fry the duck in an iron pan first and then stew it.
Lin Zhaodi was preparing the dishes when Lin Shu said, "Aunt Lin, I'll use the iron pan first. After I fry the duck, I'll move it to the clay pot to stew it. You can continue cooking."
"Hey! Please feel free to use it. It's still early here. I'll cook the dishes when the duck meat is almost stewed." Usually, after getting up early, she would do all the chores first and then make breakfast. Today, she came very early because she wanted to stew the duck and Ah Shu's family had to go to the market.
When she left last night, she specifically informed Mrs. He that the dry rice should be steamed in advance this morning. So when Ah Shu was processing the wild taro stalks just now, the dry rice had already been steamed, and the iron pot was empty at this time.
Lin Shu then said to He Guixiang, "Mother, please help me boil half a pot of hot water on the stove. I'll need hot water to stew the duck later. If you add cold water, the meat will become tough."
He Guixiang responded, and quickly lit a fire on the small stove and started boiling water on the ceramic pot rack.
The three wild ducks were cut into pieces in advance, and the ducks were marinated together with the taro stems.
Because wild ducks have a slightly stronger fishy smell than domestic ducks, they should be blanched first. Place the duck meat in cold water and add a handful of duck feet mugwort to remove the fishy smell. Bring to a boil over high heat, skim off the foam in the pot with a spatula, remove the duck meat, rinse it, and drain it in a colander.
The next step is to stir-fry the duck. You can either stir-fry the sugar color to make a braised duck, or just stir-fry it and then braise it. Because sugar is expensive, Lin Shu is reluctant to waste it, so she just stir-fries it briefly.
Heat the pan with cold oil, pour in the duck meat, and stir-fry until the skin is slightly browned. Then add peppercorns, cornus officinalis, perilla leaves and other spices to stir-fry until fragrant. Pick out the cornus officinalis when it has a slightly spicy taste after stir-frying. Do not stew it with the duck meat, otherwise the bitterness in the cornus officinalis will also be stewed out.
After adding soy sauce and stir-frying evenly, transfer all the duck meat from the pot to the earthenware pot. Pour the hot water you just boiled into it. If you're stewing duck normally, you only need to add enough water to cover the duck meat. But since you'll be adding taro stems later, you'll need to add more water. With more than half the pot of duck meat in, the earthenware pot is almost full.
After the water boils, turn the stove from high heat to low heat and continue to simmer slowly over low heat.
Lin Xiaopu sniffed hard, "Sister, it smells so good. When will it be ready?"
Lin Shu smiled at her, "It smells good already? The aroma of the duck meat hasn't come out yet. Wait a bit, you'll have to wait if you want it to be tender. The longer you stew the duck, the better it tastes."
Taking advantage of this break, Lin Shu carefully put the chicken mushroom sauce that she had cooked in the morning into a bamboo jar.
She got up early today because she had to make another pot of chicken mushroom sauce. However, no matter how early she got up, she couldn't catch up with Ah Ye. By the time she got up, Ah Ye had already processed all the chicken mushrooms and had also gone to the mountains to cut a bundle of fresh bamboo. Thirty or forty bamboo jars of the same size were already prepared and placed on the table. The chicken mushroom sauce could be poured into the bamboo jars once it was cooked.
Adding what I cooked last night and this morning, there was still some chicken mushroom sauce left after filling thirty bamboo jars. I kept the rest for myself.
There was also a large bunch of wild flowers picked by Aye on the table. Perhaps he had some experience in picking wild flowers after a few times, so he chose those with pleasant fragrance. The color combination of the flowers in the bouquet became more and more beautiful.
"Ashu!" The dull man who was busy in the yard suddenly shouted at her.
Lin Shu looked towards the man and was about to ask what was going on when she saw that the bamboo rocking chair next to him, which he had been tinkering with in his spare time for who knows how long, was actually finished!
Zhou Ye stepped on the front of the bamboo rocking chair's base, and the chair immediately began to rock back and forth.
Lin Shu ran towards him happily, "Aye, is the bamboo rocking chair ready?"
A smile appeared in Zhou Ye's eyes, "Try sitting on it."
Lin Shu hurriedly sat down. Just as she was settled, Zhou Ye stepped on the curved end of the chair base before she could move. Lin Shu was rocked slightly by the bamboo rocking chair and laughed happily, "Wow! That's great! Ah Ye, you're amazing too. You made such a difficult bamboo rocking chair for me!"
Lin Xiaopu couldn't help herself and ran over. At other times, she would have been very tactful and never disturbed the two of them when they were alone together, but she was jealous and wanted to sit in the bamboo rocking chair that her sister had been talking about for a long time.
Lin Shu kicked her toes back and forth a few times, swinging the bamboo rocking chair under her, and raised her eyebrows happily, "Want to sit down? Go inside and write down all the words I taught you. If you get them all right, I'll let you sit down."
Lin Xiaopu: ...
"Sister, don't do this! Didn't we agree to take a few days off?"
Lin Shu said confidently, "I, the teacher, am on vacation, and you, the student, still have to review your lessons. Otherwise, why don't you go to Third Aunt's house and see your cousin Yushu and see what he's doing?"
Lin Xiaopu: Yes, I know without looking at her that my cousin must be reviewing his homework.
"Hmph, I'll write it. I'll be done in a moment! Wait for me, Sis!"
Lin Zhaodi, who was busy working with He Guixiang, heard the sisters laughing and joking and couldn't help but sigh, "Ashu and Xiaopu have such a good relationship. I've seen other sisters of similar ages quarrel frequently, and those with a bigger age gap often find the older one unwilling to play with the younger one. But these two seem to grow closer the more they argue. They have a wonderful relationship."
He Guixiang curled her lips, "Ashu has a childish nature. She often takes Xiaopu with her to pick wild vegetables, catch snails and loaches, and Xiaopu loves to stick to her."
She had never seen any grown-up girl who liked to play with the little kids at home, but Ah Shu was different. She liked to play with Xiao Pu. These water guns and slingshots were all made by Ah Shu and A Ye. They looked like toys that children loved.
Oh yes, there is also A-ye. If it weren’t for A-shu, she wouldn’t have known that A-ye had such a skill. In addition to being very strong, he could actually do bamboo work, and the bamboo chairs he made were not much worse than those made by the old masters!
On the other side, Lin Xiaopu really finished writing the big characters and asked Lin Shu to check them. She was not discouraged even though she made a few mistakes in the middle. She patiently rewrote them. Only after she got them all correct did Lin Shu give her the bamboo rocking chair to sit on. She was so happy that she giggled non-stop.
Lin Zhaodi listened to the sisters' laughter and chatter in the courtyard, a hint of envy welling up in her eyes. What a lively scene!
After a while, Lin Zhaodi suddenly raised her voice and asked, "Ah Shu, is the duck meat almost done?"
The aroma of duck meat has filled the entire yard, it smells so good!
Lin Shu quickly replied, "We'll have to wait about another quarter of an hour, but Aunt Lin can start cooking now."
After curiously touching several bamboo rocking chairs, Lin Shu secretly cast a glance at Zhou Ye. That glance was very different from the usual ones, and Zhou Ye felt a surge of warmth in his heart.
It’s just a bamboo rocking chair, why is Ah Shu so happy?
"Aye, why don't you sit down and rest for a while? Stop working so hard."
Zhou Ye said, "Last time I asked Grandpa Gao how to make a bamboo mat. This time I specially cut some extra bamboo. Ah Shu, I'll make you a bamboo mat."
Lin Shu felt a little sweet inside, but she said, "A cool mat is something that requires careful and meticulous work. It would take eight or nine days to make. How can you find the time?"
"If you squeeze in, you'll always find some."
"Then by the time you're done, the hottest days will be over."
Zhou Ye thought about it and changed his words, "I'll save money to buy it for you."
Lin Shu glanced at him tenderly and said, "You should save money to marry a wife first."
Zhou Ye was slightly startled and asked in a low voice: "Ashu, how much do I need to save to marry you?"
"Well, for a girl as beautiful as me, the betrothal gift should be at least one hundred taels of silver."
Seeing Zhou Ye startled and then thinking seriously, Lin Shu couldn't help laughing and poked him in the chest with her fingertips, "Idiot, I'm just teasing you."
Lin Xiaopu covered his mouth and laughed secretly.
Sister loves to tease people, especially Brother Aye. But Brother Aye is really funny when he's teasing, and he even takes Sister's jokes seriously. If he really has to wait until he saves up so much money before getting married, how long will it take for Brother Aye to marry Sister?
After teasing Zhou Ye, Lin Shu went to the kitchen to get chopsticks and poked the duck meat in the pot with them. The chopsticks easily pierced the duck meat, indicating that the duck meat was stewed and it was time to add the side dishes.
The soup in the pot had already been concentrated by half, but when half a basin of taro stems were poured into it, the clay pot suddenly became full again, and even two taro stems fell out.
Lin Shu carefully stirred it evenly with a spatula and pressed the protruding taro stems into the soup.
Continue to simmer for another quarter of an hour, add salt to taste, and cook over high heat until the soup thickens.
Sprinkle a handful of wild onion slices before serving to enhance the flavor and color.
It’s done, take it out of the pot!
"Sister, it smells so good. I'm so hungry!" Lin Xiaopu drooled several times when he smelled the duck meat.
Seeing her useless look, Lin Shu picked up a small piece of duck leg meat with chopsticks and gave it to her.
Lin Xiaopu immediately took it with a grin and finished it in just a few bites. "Mmmmm, delicious! It's worthy of being the wild duck made by my sister, and it's worthy of being the wild duck I hunted!"
The duck was so delicious that she couldn't even spit out the bones and kept chewing them several times.
Lin Shu filled a small bowl for Lin Xiaopu, which contained about eight or nine pieces of duck meat. "Here, take it and keep it. You can share it with your younger brothers later." She remembered that Xiaopu said he would treat those little kids to duck meat.
"Sister actually helped me remember it. I almost forgot it myself." Lin Xiaopu put it away happily, but hummed, "Such delicious duck meat is really a bargain for Wang Yingen and his group of boys."
After thinking about it, Lin Shu then filled another small bowl.
This bowl is saved for Old Man Liao, so he can heat up the duck meat for dinner.
Then, two more large plates were served. These two plates were for Aunt Lin, and she filled them very full, more than enough for a duck.
Because a lot of taro stems were added, after serving two bowls and two plates, there was still half a pot of duck meat left.
"Ashu, do you need help?" Zhou Ye was not busy at all. He smelled the aroma of the braised duck and his stomach was growling with greed.
Lin Shu smiled at him and said, "Look, there's still half a pot of braised duck left. You don't need to serve it. Just bring the whole pot in front of you. These are all yours. I want you to eat as much as you want. In the future, if there is anything delicious, I will leave the most for you. Aye, I am so good to you, aren't you very happy?" When she asked this, the corners of her mouth curled up, and there seemed to be evil in her eyes.
Zhou Ye looked at her, pursed his lips, and finally couldn't help but lift the corners of his mouth slowly, smiling and saying: "Well, happy, very happy."
Lin Shu was stunned by his smile, and then muttered, "What a silly smile."
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