Chapter 42 I used to run a breakfast shop
It was a new day again. At five o'clock in the morning, Zhao Xiaojing arrived at the kitchen on time.
In order to get up early, she went to bed early yesterday, but as expected, she couldn't sleep until midnight.
She was so used to her body's broken rhythms that she simply ignored them. As soon as the alarm went off, she got up and washed up with dark circles under her eyes.
"Xiao Zhao, didn't you sleep well? Look at your dark eye sockets." Geng Mingyan saw her as soon as she entered the room.
"Oh, why are you so dark? Why don't you go to my dormitory and sleep for a while?" Hou Guihua turned her head and saw Zhao Xiaojing with a tired face.
"No, no, Sister Hou, I'm fine. I have to take a nap at noon anyway. I just need to adjust my schedule. Let's start cooking."
Zhao Xiaojing was quite touched. At least she could meet this group of warm colleagues. Going to work was a good thing.
"Okay, then you want to watch me fry two steamed buns first and then watch me make osmanthus steamed buns?" Geng Mingyan asked.
"Let's learn how to make fried dough balls today." Zhao Xiaojing said casually.
"Today? You mean you'll come tomorrow?" Hou Guihua looked at Zhao Xiaojing in disbelief with her eyes wide open.
"Come on, I'll help Sister Hou and Sister Geng. Do you think I can do it?"
"Okay! Why not?" Hou Guihua reacted and laughed. Young people like to try new things, so just do it if you want.
The three of them put on their white coats and got busy.
"The rice and soybeans are soaked overnight. I use early-grain rice, but some people also use aged rice. Rice is also fine. Mix the rice and soybeans in a ratio of about 3:1, then blend them in a blender. When adding water to the blender, make sure the rice is covered by a fingernail, then blend twice to form a fine rice paste."
Geng Mingyan brought out a large basin of soaked soybeans and rice, washed them twice, poured them into a large blender and began to blend them, while teaching Zhao Xiaojing in detail.
"You need to add chopped green onions and ginger to the rice milk. If you want it to have a strong green onion aroma, add more green onions and chop them finely. Not many people like to eat ginger, so I always add a little ginger, just enough to give it a flavor."
Geng Mingyan took a handful of green onions and some ginger. Seeing this, Zhao Xiaojing hurriedly took them and started cutting them according to Geng Mingyan's requirements.
After cutting, pour the chopped green onion and ginger into the rice paste, add a little salt and pepper and mix well.
Then put it in a container and let it rest for 30 minutes.
While waiting for the dough to rise, Geng Guihua took out the dough that had risen and started making fried dough sticks.
First roll it out, then cut it, then use chopsticks to make horizontal strips, and after that you can fry it in a pan.
After all the fried dough sticks are rolled into horizontal strips, the dough balls are also ready to rise.
"If you want to prevent the fried dough ball spoon from sticking to the rice paste, you have to lubricate it with oil in advance. If you don't, a spoonful of rice paste will stick to it once it's dipped into the oil, and it's difficult to clean."
Geng Mingyan poured the oil and put the head of the noodle spoon into the cold oil, then turned on the fire to heat the oil and the spoon together.
"Sister Geng, your spoon is really special. Is it custom-made?" Zhao Xiaojing looked at the dough ball spoon used by Geng Mingyan with curiosity. There were seven spoon heads under the handle, and she could fry seven dough balls at a time.
"This? I bought this specifically. Otherwise, with so many people on the construction site, how could we blow it up?"
Put the spoon head into the pan with cold oil and heat it together with the oil. When the oil is about 60% to 70% hot, take it out and pour cold oil on it again. This way it will definitely not stick!
"Oh... this is actually the same principle as Master Sun who heats the pan first and cools the oil down when cooking." Zhao Xiaojing seemed to be thinking about something.
"Haha, I don't understand. Anyway, I always wet the spoon this way. If you cook at home and don't want to waste so much oil, you can just pour oil on the spoon and fry an egg. It's the same."
Zhao Xiaojing nodded and took note of it.
"After the oil is hot, use chopsticks to pick up a small amount of rice paste and put it in to test. If it floats up immediately, the oil temperature is right."
As Geng Mingyan spoke, she moved, and the rice berries that were put into the oil pan quickly floated up.
Geng Mingyan picked up the dough spoon on one side, scooped the rice paste into it with the other spoon, and scraped the bulge in the middle of the spoon.
"Scrape it once and it's hollow in the middle, and the edges are thin and crispy."
Geng Mingyan filled all seven spoon heads of the dough spoon with water and then dipped it into the oil.
The dough balls were quickly fried until they turned slightly yellow. Geng Mingyan shook the handle of the spoon again, and the seven formed dough balls immediately broke away from the spoon head and floated on the oil.
Geng Mingyan flipped it over again and fried it until both sides were golden brown.
"That's it. Easy, right?"
"It looks simple, but you can see that it takes a lot of practice to do it well." The simpler it is, the stronger the control over all aspects is required. Zhao Xiaojing, who has made fried skewers, understands this only too well.
Geng Mingyan listened with joy.
After frying the dough nests, fried dough sticks are fried next. The oil temperature required for fried dough sticks is slightly higher than that for dough nests. Geng Mingyan arranged the order very reasonably.
"Sister Geng, your cooking skills are good enough to open a breakfast shop. You cook quickly and well, so business will definitely be good."
I only had steamed dough sticks for breakfast yesterday, but today, looking at the fluffy and crispy fried dough sticks was a pleasure to watch, Zhao Xiaojing couldn't help but admire it.
"Well, I used to run a breakfast shop, and the business was okay, so-so."
"Then why isn't it open?"
"My husband is on the construction site. A few years ago, I opened a breakfast shop in my hometown, and he worked on the construction site. We hadn't seen each other for a long time, and it wasn't right for us to be separated all the time, so he found me a job on their construction site, and I closed the shop and came here." Geng Mingyan said with a smile.
"So that's how it is. Sister Geng and her brother-in-law have a really good relationship."
"What's good or bad? It's just like that when we live our lives." Geng Mingyan answered nonchalantly.
Hou Guihua, who was steaming buns, heard Geng Mingyan's words and shook her head with regret.
Zhao Xiaojing glanced at Hou Guihua and felt strange.
"What's wrong, Sister Hou? It's so heavy?"
"Oh, I feel sorry for you, Sister Geng." Hou Guihua sighed and covered the steamer heavily.
"It doesn't matter whether it's worth it or not. Good or bad, it's all the same! We are older, and we don't have to work hard on the construction site, so we don't have to worry too much. There's nothing wrong with it." Geng Mingyan turned around and comforted Hou Guihua.
"Sister Geng and Sister Hou, you knew each other before?" Zhao Xiaojing saw that the atmosphere between them was serious and changed the subject.
"We are from the same place. I have known her for a long time and often went to her house for breakfast. She didn't know me at that time. Later, I came to work at the construction site, and after a while she also came. We got to know each other, and it has been seven or eight years now." Hou Guihua and Zhao Xiaojing explained.
"It's just that your sister Hou is too lazy to open a bun shop. In our small town, if she had opened one, my breakfast shop would have been out of business long ago!" Geng Mingyan joked, her work never stopping. After frying the last few fried dough sticks, she fished out the tea eggs that had been soaked in the broth last night.
"Don't listen to her nonsense! My cooking skills are only good enough for me to work in the canteen. I can't even make the folds of the buns properly. It's just that the workers like to eat them and don't mind that they are ugly." Hou Guihua laughed as she spoke.
"Who says it has to be ugly? I just like the ugly buns you make! Xiao Zhao, you can try them later. Your sister Hou's buns are ugly, but they are really delicious!" Geng Guihua strongly recommended it, and Zhao Xiaojing also became curious.
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