Chapter 106 (Spicy and Sour Potato Noodles...)

Maybe it was a case of tit for tat. Yan Qiushu teased Dongdong during the day and was teased by Dongdong in the evening.

Wan'er was attracted by his surprising words and nodded affirmatively: "Yes, it was written by my uncle!"

I think it is a work with a very personal style.

But Yan Qiushu didn't see these things clearly!

After the two children confirmed it, they seemed to understand something and looked at Yan Qiushu with a slightly weird smile. Dong Dong was quite angry: "I asked him to bring me here before, but he was unwilling to do so, saying that he didn't have time. In the end, he came here secretly!"

Wan'er seemed to have had the same experience and nodded angrily: "That's right! He lied, he had been here a long time ago!"

Yan Qiushu: “…”

She blushed, snatched the toys from the two children, and said fiercely: "Don't talk about this, go to bed quickly, or I won't make breakfast for you tomorrow morning!"

The two children: “…Oh.”

They looked at each other sadly, and found that the uncle's secret happiness had disappeared. One of them quickly lay down on the couch, and the other quickly lay down on the bed. They covered themselves with the quilt obediently, closed their eyes, and then deceived themselves with their childish voices: "I fell asleep!"

Yan Qiushu smiled helplessly, lifted the quilt for Dongdong, went back to bed and lay down, but she still held tightly in her hand the toy she had just snatched back.

When did he compile it?

It should be just to kill time when you are bored, right?

Otherwise, why didn't he tell her, but only found out when she went to clean up? When he left, Xiao Waiting had tidied up everything on the couch, leaving it tidy and neat, which was why Shui Yu didn't do anything herself when she came over to tidy up the things.

Yan Qiushu thought so and she still took a look.

Afraid that the two children would be scared sleeping in an unfamiliar place, the candles were not extinguished. The dim light allowed her to barely see what was in her palm: a few small toys woven from grass, two rabbits, and two butterflies. Except that the butterflies' wings were a little flattened, the rest of the things looked pretty realistic.

She thought about it, put the four small things on top of her head, and then closed her eyes.

Playing with children requires a lot of energy, especially playing with Xiwu's children. She was so tired that her limbs ached and she fell asleep easily.

Next day

When Yan Qiushu woke up, it was just dawn.

She went to bed early and fell asleep quickly, which caused her to wake up early as well. Just a moment after she woke up, the two children woke up one after another.

The three of them went to wash up together with sleepy eyes. Although she and the two children had been facing each other all day long at the Xiao Mansion, this was the first time they got up and washed up together.

Dongdong took the lead in brushing teeth and deliberately splashed water on Yan Qiushu, causing Yan Qiushu to slap each of them on the buttocks three times.

Wan'er became obedient, and Dongdong also became obedient.

Yan Qiushu applied face cream to the two children and pinched their delicate faces. She was extremely envious. Being young was a good thing. Children's skin was so delicate that even adults couldn't catch up with it even with a whip.

Wan'er covered her face and took a step back, saying vigilantly: "Sister Shu! Stop pinching me, I've already put on some face cream!"

Yan Qiushu withdrew her hand, coughed lightly, and said, "Okay, let's go eat."

"Okay!" After hearing this, the two children were no longer sleepy. They held her hands and skipped out.

When they arrived at the hall of the outer courtyard, Shen Pingyu and Xiao Pingsong were already eating inside. They had eaten a lot of potatoes yesterday, so they had a lighter breakfast today, which was white porridge with salted vegetables or sugar, depending on their preference.

Yan Qiushu likes to eat pickled vegetables, which are made by the people in the village. They are sour cowpeas, sour, tender and very crispy. After she took them, she added chili peppers and stir-fried them, which made them more spicy and tasted better with rice.

A bite of sour cowpea, a bite of soft, glutinous and sweet white rice porridge, only the sweetness of the rotten rice porridge remains between your lips and teeth, it tastes so good.

After eating, Yan Qiushu asked, "What are we doing today? Do you have any ideas?"

Shen Pingyu said guiltily, "Aunt Yan, I have to leave tomorrow, so I can't stay long today. I have to go home and pack my things by the afternoon at the latest."

Yan Qiushu was surprised: "You're leaving so early?"

"Yeah." Shen Pingyu's face was serious: "I have something to do in Kyoto and at home, so I have to go back."

Dongdong and Wan'er were also a little surprised. They were young and didn't need to be exposed to this, but Xiao Pingsong knew it and nodded to indicate that it was like this.

Yan Qiushu sighed and said, "Well, if that's the case, then you guys should have lunch before going back. I'll make some potato flour for you with the leftover potatoes."

Although it's a bit hard to do, Shen Ping has come here after his misfortune, so he has to eat enough. Otherwise, he will definitely not be here when the next potato harvest comes, and no one else has ever come into contact with potato flour, so it will be difficult to make it delicious.

"Hmm?" Dong Dong's eyes lit up: "How do you make potato flour?!"

Yan Qiushu stood up and said, "Let's go. I'll take you to do it and you'll know."

It takes a long time to make potato flour, so we have to start early. Fortunately, I got up early today, otherwise Shen Pingyu might not be able to eat it again.

Potatoes need to be precipitated to make potato starch. Of course, the first step is to chop the potatoes into puree. This step is a bit troublesome. Fortunately, there are many people, so each person is responsible for a little potato. They just chop it with a knife and pour the chopped raw potatoes into the gauze.

This step was actually very boring in ancient times when there were no blenders.

After a while, Dongdong couldn't bear it anymore, but Shen Pingyu gave him a look and he was nailed to the spot again. He held the knife and worked hard. Two maids stood behind Dongdong and Wan'er, afraid that they would hurt themselves.

In the end, both children did not hurt themselves and the incident was successfully concluded.

There were about five pounds of potatoes left over from yesterday, and Yan Qiushu cooked them all. She put them in gauze and kept rubbing them in water through the gauze, just like washing gluten.

After repeated scrubbing, the remaining potato residue can be thrown away, and the turbid water needs to be left for two hours to settle.

At 2:00 pm, the potato starch had already settled, so I took it out and put it in the oven for a while to drain the moisture as quickly as possible.

Finally, white lumps appear.

The children were stunned by these steps. It was so magical that the potatoes became like this after being processed for a while. The originally soft but hard mud-like thing turned into a hard lump after entering the oven.

With a little force from the fingers, the lump turned into powder, similar to flour, but smooth to the touch.

"Potatoes are really amazing. They can be used to make so many delicious dishes!" Wan'er exclaimed.

Dongdong, Shen Pingyu and Xiao Pingsong nodded vigorously.

Zhao Shuhong, who was helping out on the side, was also extremely shocked.

When Potato came out, although she was shocked, she was far away and only heard about it. She didn't know much and it was very vague. Some said it was a holy object, and some said it was a gift from heaven. It was too exaggerated and hard to believe.

But when she saw it with her own eyes, she found it understandable.

When a food has a large production volume and can be cooked in many ways, it can be eaten in many different ways and tastes delicious. This is a great blessing for ordinary people of that era. No wonder the rumors are so exaggerated.

"Let me do it, let me do it." Zhao Shuhong was afraid that the potatoes would be wasted by the children, so she took over the task, put all the potato flour in a bowl, and weighed it.

The powder yield is about 10%, which is about the same as Yan Qiushu remembered in her previous life. No, it should be better, because since she makes it by hand, there will be a certain loss rate.

Zhao Shuhong felt distressed seeing this, making powder is a delicate process, and so much is wasted, it must be delicious.

Divide the potato flour into two piles. Add some warm water to the first pile and stir it into a batter. Then add boiling water and a spoonful of alkaline flour and continue stirring. When it becomes a sticky state, you can add the remaining flour.

The second batch contains more flour, which can be kneaded into dough after being added. The dough is snow-white and has nothing in common with the color of potatoes. It is hard to imagine that this is really something extracted from potatoes.

This dough needs to be pressed out by a dough pressing machine. This step is a bit troublesome. Yan Qiushu can't do it, so she asks an experienced dough pressing expert from the neighboring village to do it. The snow-white potato flour leaks out of the dough pressing machine and falls into the bucket below. The dough balls are pressed down in this way, and finally a pile of white and tender vermicelli is obtained.

This is potato flour!

Taking into account the differences in personal tastes, mainly the difference between those who eat spicy food and those who don't, Yan Qiushu plans to make two flavors, one with three fresh flavors and the other with hot and sour flavor.

The three fresh ingredients are chicken soup, shrimps, and mushrooms. The shrimps are from the neighboring farm. First, stir-fry the shrimps to produce shrimp oil, then add in fresh mushrooms and finally add chicken soup, some vegetables, marinated tender lean meat slices, and potato flour and cook.

Hot and sour dishes are even simpler. Ever since the advent of hot pot base, Yan Qiushu feels that the steps for making spicy soups have become much simpler. Just put a piece of hot pot base in it, add water and boil it, then you can add various ingredients and potato flour.

The previous steps were so troublesome that the last step seemed particularly simple, so when noon arrived, everyone sat at the dining table and prepared to eat.

Two large pots of potato flour were placed in the middle of the table. The tender white potato flour was dyed into two colors, one was light brown and the other was reddish brown. It was topped with various ingredients, which made people's appetite increase just by looking at it.

Yan Qiushu asked: "What flavor do you want to eat?"

Dongdong was the first to raise his hand: "I want something hot and sour!"

Wan'er was the second to raise her hand: "I want to eat the three-fresh dish!"

Yan Qiushu and Zhao Shuhong served them food one by one. Shui Yan also had a portion, but since there were so many people present, she did not sit at the table and ate in the kitchen.

Having eaten something spicy yesterday, she was worried that she would get acne, so she didn’t eat spicy food. Instead, she had a dish with three fresh ingredients, a chicken soup base, and fresh shrimps and mushrooms. Yan Qiushu thought the soup alone was excellent.

She scooped a spoonful with a spoon, put it to her lips and blew it carefully, then tested the temperature with her lips. After confirming that it was ok, she slurped it into her mouth.

The temperature of the soup is high, but just within the tolerable range. It is also this high temperature that makes it lose its fishy smell. The light yet extremely delicious taste makes this potato flour soup reach its peak.

She picked up another piece of vermicelli. The white, tender, soft and fluffy vermicelli was slightly twisted by the chopsticks. However, because of this, no matter how slippery it was, it could not roll off the chopsticks and could only resign itself to falling between her lips and teeth.

With a slight sip, the potato flour broke apart, and it had a bit of toughness and was soft, but not soft enough, which reminded Yan Qiushu of sweet potato flour.

It’s softer than this one, more resilient than this one, and more chewy than this one. Unfortunately, the sweet potatoes haven’t appeared yet.

She sighed, then took another sip of the soup, feeling satisfied both physically and mentally. Suddenly, she thought, forget it, because one day she will see sweet potatoes!

"Shaha...——"

There was a sound of someone inhaling but then stopping.

Yan Qiushu looked over and saw the young boy Shen Pingyu with a red face covering his mouth with his hand. He glanced at the people around him somewhat embarrassedly, perhaps hoping that no one would notice his indecent behavior.

Unfortunately, she happened to meet Yan Qiushu's gaze, and her little face turned red all the way to her ears.

But even so, Shen Pingyu still did not give up the spicy and sour potato noodles in front of him. Instead, he scooped up the soup with satisfaction, took a small sip, then carefully picked up a piece of vermicelli, caught it with a spoon, blew on it, and put it into his mouth.

The spicy and sour taste made him feel pain from the tip of his tongue, and his eyes were a little wet, as if he was crying. But the love in his eyes made his eyes sparkle and look especially lively.

The peppers might be too spicy. The spiciness that I had just developed during the Chinese New Year at the Xiao family had already returned after living at the Shen family for more than half a year.

At this time, Shen Pingyu took a deep breath while eating the sour and spicy potato noodles. His forehead, nose tip, and even cheeks and neck were sweating from the spiciness, but he was still concentrating on eating.

The little bit of flesh that was lifted up by Yan Qiushu has not disappeared after such a long time, and his every move now seems less mature and more extremely adorable.

"Is it delicious?" Yan Qiushu asked with a smile.

Shen Pingyu smiled at her, his lips still a little shiny, and his tender face showed a happy smile: "Mm! It's especially delicious!"