In the kitchen, Liu Hongmei threw a handful of dried chili peppers into the pot. The aroma produced by the collision of cooking oil and chili peppers under high temperature was irresistible.
After the clams have been purged of sand, quickly stir-fry them in a wok, adding seasonings in sequence, and you'll have a delicious and flavorful stir-fried clam dish.
Although the osmanthus flowers haven't bloomed much yet, with only a few buds remaining, the river crabs are incredibly plump.
Clean the crabs thoroughly, remove the stomachs and gills, and cut them in half with a knife. Sauté ginger slices in a pot until fragrant, then add the seasonings and stir-fry until the crab shells turn an appealing red. The spicy crab is now ready.
In the courtyard, dense pumpkin vines twine around the trellis, their varying shades of green blocking out the last vestiges of afternoon heat. Inside and outside the trellis are two different worlds.
Xu Milu came out carrying a large basin of skewered meat. When she saw the two little ones squatting by the fire, looking pitifully at the meat skewers in her hands, she almost burst out laughing.
The two men looked like some kind of large hunting dogs, tall with long legs and dirty grime on their faces.
"Wow, you haven't started baking yet? Bury the sweet potatoes first."
"It's buried, so we can't eat it right away."
Xu Minian took the large bowl of meat skewers and placed it on the square table under the shelf. He then took out the lamb skewers and put them on the fire to grill.
"Wow, I want to eat chicken cartilage skewers, grilled ones!"
Hao Chen gave Xu Minian orders without any hesitation. He and Xu Minian were only five years apart in age, and the two usually got along very well.
Xu Minian skillfully flipped the lamb skewers, watching them slowly turn from red to white, and the unique aroma of lamb immediately filled the air:
"Go away, go away, bake it yourself. Haven't you heard the saying 'No work, no food'? Make whatever you want to eat."
"This lamb looks very fresh, Mom, did you just buy it?"
Xu Milu sniffed, and seeing no muttony smell, nodded.
Delicious mutton doesn't necessarily mean it's without a gamey smell, but mutton without a gamey smell is definitely delicious—except for those who absolutely love that smell.
Their most famous local product is Tan sheep meat. The sheep are raised on the Gobi Desert and are not fed with feed. They grow fat and strong by eating grass and do not have any of the muttony smell that comes from being fed with feed.
"Where? You can't buy this meat at the supermarket. They say it's Tan sheep meat, but when I cook it, the smell is so strong that I can't eat for days."
Liu Hongjun brought out the stir-fried spicy crab and stir-fried clams. They had been purging mud for two days, and now they were stir-fried with a strong spiciness and no muddy taste at all.
Liu Hongmei quickly picked a few cucumbers and peppers from the field and casually made a cold dish:
"This is what your mom asked your uncle to buy in the countryside. He said it's not Tan sheep meat, but it's from a semi-penned sheep that eats corn stalks and grass, so of course it's delicious."
"They smell pretty good. You guys go eat, I'll grill them. The way you're grilling these skewers is a waste of the lamb."
Uncle Sun chased away the three troublemakers, took a chair, and took over the oven.
The three men exchanged a knowing smile, then chuckled and slipped away with the nearly cooked skewers of lamb.
"My sister has five skewers, and we each have three. It's a fair distribution, right?"
Xu Minian fawned over the lamb skewers in his hand. In the box that Xu Milu had brought back, there were also two small things hidden for the two of them—a pinch ball and a wooden top.
They are all little gadgets from the food world. The former will produce different shapes when you pinch it. Sometimes it is a few cute animals, sometimes it is a building with a unique style, and most of them are landscapes. Moreover, the patterns never repeat. At least Xu Milu has pinched dozens of times and has never seen a duplicate.
The wooden spinning top is similar to a fidget spinner, which can spin on your fingertip. As long as you don't stop it manually, it can spin for a long time. Anyway, Xu Milu didn't understand the principle behind either of these little gadgets, but she bought them because she saw that the kids in the food world were playing with them.
The lamb skewers are a perfect balance of lean and fat. When grilled over a fire, the high temperature renders out the fat. The fat shrinks as if it's been melted, while the lean meat is soaked in the fat, making them tender and juicy. Every chew fills your mouth with the aroma of lamb.
Xu Minian only sprinkled salt and chili powder on it, without adding any other seasonings. It wasn't too salty or spicy, but it brought out the tenderness of the mutton just right.
The meat skewers were still very hot, fresh off the fire, but the three of them ate them with gusto, gasping for breath, and refused to stop.
"You three gluttons, come and eat clams! Didn't you say you wanted to eat them a while ago?" Liu Hongmei said with a laugh when she saw the three of them still looking like they hadn't had enough after they finished eating.
"Yay!!!" The three cheered and climbed onto the table with their stools. Uncle Sun's skewers were ready and placed on a plate. Liu Hongmei called him over and told him to eat first and that she would grill more later.
A group of people gathered around the table and began to inhale rapidly.
Freshly grilled lamb skewers sprinkled with chili have no gamey smell whatsoever. The perfect balance of lean and fatty meat melts in your mouth, allowing you to enjoy the rich, savory flavor of lamb with every bite.
Stir-fried crab with plenty of seasoning can dispel the crab's inherent coldness. Pick up a piece of crab, put it firmly in your mouth, and the tender white crab meat with red sauce will slide smoothly down your throat.
Stir-fried clams open up completely, revealing plump and tender clams. Dipped in sauce, they're perfect for a bite-sized treat. The chewy and smooth clams are incredibly satisfying.
Sometimes when you get tired of meat, grilled chives and green beans brushed with Liu Hongmei's secret chili oil make a refreshing skewer dish that you can't stop eating, one after another.
Several people sat around the table, enjoying their meal with ravenous appetites. As dusk settled, warm yellow lights illuminated the courtyard. A gentle evening breeze blew in from afar, and while sipping cola and eating lamb skewers, it was pure bliss.
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