Chapter 63 Wrapping Zongzi.
After waking up from her afternoon nap, Gu Qingqiu got up and went to the bathroom. She grabbed a washcloth, wet it, wrung it out, and wiped her face and neck with it. The cool, refreshing feeling instantly made her feel much more awake.
She poured herself a glass of water and sat down on the sofa in the living room on the second floor to drink it. It took her a whole glass of water to slightly relieve the dryness caused by her afternoon nap in the air-conditioned room.
Gu Qingqiu picked up her phone and checked her WeChat Moments. She gave a like to some friends who posted travel photos, just to prove she was still alive, as a funny saying goes online.
After thinking for a moment, she opened Xiaohongshu and went into the message bar. Sure enough, there was a red dot notification on the right side of the chat box with the film and television company.
Gu Qingqiu clicked in and took a look.
[TV series "Ten-Year Promise" (Official): Okay, thank you very much for sharing. We will contact Jiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine to try to obtain authorization. If all goes well, we will contact you again. (bowing in greeting)]
She read and replied to the message.
[Gu's Private Kitchen: Okay, no rush.]
Gu Qingqiu didn't look at any other messages. After exiting Xiaohongshu, she turned off her phone screen, grabbed a broom, and cleaned the two rooms, kitchen, living room, and even the balcony on the second floor.
After sweeping the floor, she sat down to rest for a while. Seeing that it was 3:30, she decided to go downstairs to the kitchen to start preparing the dishes for the evening.
Within a week, the film and television company acted swiftly, first informing the production team that they had reached a cooperation agreement with Jiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which authorized the production team to use the dish "Milk Chicken Strips," requiring only that the source be credited.
Then, he sincerely expressed his desire to collaborate with Gu's Private Kitchen to obtain the licensing rights for the milk chicken strip tutorial vlog.
This time, Gu Qingqiu readily added the contact information provided by the other party. After communicating some details, she confirmed that the production team only wanted to use the cooking steps of milk chicken strips and the layout of the cutting board and stove in the vlog. If necessary, she might need to provide online guidance to the actors to increase the professionalism of their cooking actions. Of course, this would incur an additional guidance fee.
The other party offered a vlog signing fee of 50,000 yuan, which is almost a third of the restaurant's monthly operating profit. Since there is no need for her to contribute anything else at the moment, Gu Qingqiu naturally did not mind having too much money and agreed to the signing.
The film and television company was clearly prepared, as they immediately sent over the contract and some mailing details after she replied with her consent.
Gu Qingqiu replied with "OK", first sending the contract to a lawyer classmate for her help to review it. After confirming that there were no problems, she printed out two copies using the printer at home and signed her name where required.
She placed the order that same day and mailed two copies of the contract to the film and television company. After they signed the contract, they would send her a copy for her records.
The lawyer classmate was her high school classmate. Gu Qingqiu and she used to get along quite well when they were in high school, but they went to different universities after the college entrance examination and lost touch. In recent years, they could only maintain a superficial friendship by exchanging likes.
Gu Qingqiu had contacted her in advance to let her know and asked her to help review the contract. The other party was very enthusiastic and said it was no trouble at all, and that she could just send her the contract if needed.
The two of them ended up chatting about this, sharing their current situations. Gu Qingqiu admired her for being so young and already having successfully won some representative cases and made a name for herself at a well-known law firm. The other woman was surprised that she had started her own restaurant and admired her for being able to run the restaurant business so well.
Lan Jingcheng also sent a voice message at the time. Her voice was more capable and efficient than it had been in high school. She said with admiration, "Really, the catering industry is actually quite difficult these days. I just searched and found out that you can run your own restaurant so well, have so much popularity online, and even attract film and television companies to want to buy the rights to your recipe tutorial vlog. That's really impressive! You're really amazing!"
“Ever since high school, I’ve felt that although you seem quiet and easygoing and don’t have any sharp edges, you are very determined and will definitely accomplish whatever you set your mind to.”
After listening, Gu Qingqiu recalled her long-ago high school memories. Indeed, Lan Jingcheng was a bright, generous, and very active student back then. Lan Jingcheng had put it more tactfully, but in reality, she was the kind of inconspicuous passerby in a campus novel, someone who would only appear in the total number of students in the class.
She used a quote she had seen on Weibo a few days ago to describe herself.
Gu Qingqiu thought of Lan Jingcheng's words praising her. Admittedly, there was a bit of politeness in them, but she really did want to get into Jiang University. So she studied hard and improved her grades from barely passing the entrance exam in her first year of high school to ranking in the top 20 of her grade in the college entrance exam, and successfully entered Jiang University.
I majored in Chinese literature in college, but one day I suddenly became interested in the editing industry. So I first interned at a newspaper, and after graduation I went to work for a long-established publishing house in Jiang City.
Furthermore, when Gu Qingqiu transmigrated to the cultivation world, in order to pass the outer disciple test of the sect, she cultivated with even more intensity and diligence than when she was preparing for the college entrance examination.
Later, limited by the very slow progress of her five spiritual roots cultivation, she was only sad for a short while before actively looking for a new path. After deciding that she wanted to become a spiritual chef, she worked hard to develop in this direction. She also desperately recalled the time she spent with her parents and dug out the cooking skills and details that she had learned from them but had not paid attention to at the time, trying her best to make a living in the restaurant.
Thinking of this, Gu Qingqiu couldn't help but smile. Back then, in the cultivation world, if you weren't hardworking and determined, you really would die.
I'm happier now than I am.
She admired herself for it.
Gu Qingqiu and Lan Jingcheng chatted for a while, and finally ended the conversation by saying that the other party had a client who was coming to handle a case and needed to be entertained.
This time, after asking her to help review the contract and signing and mailing out two copies, Gu Qingqiu told Lan Jingcheng that the matter was now complete. He also invited her to dinner sometime or to come to Gu's Private Kitchen to try the dishes.
Lan Jingcheng was probably busy, as she didn't reply until that evening with a voice message: "Okay, okay, I'll contact you when I'm off work and come over to your restaurant to try the meat dishes. I've been drooling over the pictures I saw online; they must be delicious!"
Gu Qingqiu replied with a voice message: "Okay, let me know when you have time. You're welcome to come anytime. I hope our meat and vegetables won't disappoint you!"
Over the next few days, the restaurant operated normally, and business remained stable and good as always.
With the Dragon Boat Festival approaching, Gu Qingqiu wanted to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) and also take advantage of the holiday to hold some store promotions.
She had flipped through the calendar earlier and remembered that the Dragon Boat Festival was on a Sunday. Since last year, the Dragon Boat Festival has been a one-day statutory holiday, usually combined with the weekend for a three-day mini-holiday.
This year, the Dragon Boat Festival falls on a Sunday, so the three-day holiday runs from Saturday to the following Monday, which is essentially a make-up holiday on Monday.
After confirming the holiday schedule again, Gu Qingqiu wrote a copy of the event plan and posted it on Xiaohongshu and Weibo.
[Gu's Private Kitchen: During the Dragon Boat Festival, you are the most important! On June 16th, every customer dining in will receive a complimentary handmade salted egg yolk and pork rice dumpling (100 rice dumplings for lunch and 100 rice dumplings for dinner, which should be enough, but please note that it's first-come, first-served).]
Also, to allow time for making zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), we'll be temporarily closed tomorrow evening (June 15th). We'll be working hard to prepare zongzi and delicious meat dishes, and look forward to everyone coming to taste them (sparkling eyes) (please be gentle)
Gu Qingqiu posted the message around 8 PM, a time when most people are active online. After posting on Xiaohongshu, she also posted on Weibo. Thinking that netizens would probably not get many comments by now, she simply put down her phone and went to take a shower.
After washing up, she lay comfortably on the bed, picked up her phone, opened Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), and clicked on her latest post, which already had over a hundred comments.
[NFC or NPC: What! Free zongzi for Dragon Boat Festival?! I'll definitely have to go to Gu's Private Kitchen for a meal!]
[Independence is great: One second—Yay, free zongzi for Dragon Boat Festival! The next second—Crying—One more night of not being able to eat Gu's Private Kitchen!]
[Spinning, jumping, and circling: Wow! There are zongzi to eat! And they're my favorite salted egg yolk and pork zongzi! I'll definitely take my parents there to eat on Dragon Boat Festival!]
[Start your health regimen today: What?! Free zongzi for Dragon Boat Festival! 100 zongzi each for lunch and dinner?! I bet that's not enough, I'll have to get to the restaurant early for dinner!]
[Flying Fish Fried Tofu: Oh no, I'm already looking forward to the Dragon Boat Festival! I absolutely adore salted egg yolk and pork rice dumplings, and I feel like Gu's Private Kitchen's version would taste even better!]
[Pingfan: Not enough, not enough, really not enough. One hundred salted egg yolk and pork rice dumplings each for lunch and dinner]
[...]
The response was quite good. Gu Qingqiu smiled after reading it, which also motivated her to make zongzi.
She actually wanted to eat zongzi herself. Vacuum-packed zongzi sold online are available year-round, but truly fresh, handmade zongzi are mostly only available around the Dragon Boat Festival.
In terms of taste, the salted egg yolk and meat dumplings sold online are all mass-produced by machines. The glutinous rice doesn't taste very fragrant, and either the lean meat is a large piece that is completely dry or the fatty meat is a large piece that is too greasy. The salted egg yolk is also hard.
The handmade zongzi sold around the Dragon Boat Festival taste slightly better, at least the meat inside is a good mix of lean and fatty, and the salted egg yolks are slightly oily. Of course, they are also relatively more expensive.
Gu Qingqiu's favorite food is the zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) that she makes herself.
Every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, her parents would make special zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) for their own consumption. She and her parents both loved salted egg yolk and pork zongzi; the salted egg yolk was oily, and the pork was a mix of lean and fatty pork belly that would ooze oil.
My mother would also wrap some of her favorite fillings inside the zongzi. Mung beans were a standard ingredient, along with diced shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts, dried scallops, and so on.
Homemade zongzi taste incredibly delicious. They're made to your own preferences, with rich ingredients, great flavor, and are healthy and hygienic.
Just recalling the taste made Gu Qingqiu's mouth water.
In the years immediately following her parents' passing, even eating zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) during the Dragon Boat Festival was filled with happy memories of the three of them. Now that the two people who made and tasted the zongzi are gone, she has lost the desire to eat them.
Let alone making them by hand, I've never even bought any when I saw them at the market.
Until she transmigrated to the world of cultivation, she found herself in a bizarre and fantastical place where the food, drink, housing, and cultural understanding were completely different from the modern world. For example, eating eight-treasure porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, eating mooncakes on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, and eating zongzi on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month... These cultural customs became proof of Gu Qingqiu's past life in the modern world.
Of course, in previous years she was diligently cultivating and preparing for the outer sect test and didn't think about these things, nor did she have the spirit stones and resources to find these ingredients.
Once she had established herself in the restaurant and become a somewhat respected chef, Gu Qingqiu had the time and ability to have people search for these or similar ingredients in an attempt to replicate Laba porridge, mooncakes, and zongzi.
The ingredients for making mooncakes are relatively hard to find, but the ingredients for making Laba porridge and zongzi are easier to gather.
After research and combining it with the cooking techniques of the Spirit Chef, Gu Qingqiu was able to enjoy Laba porridge and zongzi with a modern twist. These two dishes were quite popular among the cultivators after they were introduced to the restaurant.
Now back in modern times, Gu Qingqiu has been able to accept the fact that her parents have been gone for a long time, and she is also in the mood to make zongzi herself.
This culinary activity, filled with memories of the three of them, should not be forgotten. The anticipation for food and the satisfaction and enjoyment of her current life that arose when she wrapped and ate zongzi is the best way to honor her parents.
Moreover, she also wanted to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) to give back to the customers who have always supported her restaurant.
Gu Qingqiu quit Xiaohongshu and opened Weibo instead.
The data for the newly posted Weibo posts is also good, with high numbers of likes and reposts, the former being slightly higher than the latter by about one-third, and the comments are also enthusiastic feedback from netizens.
The comments section was similar to those on Xiaohongshu. Some were happy to get to eat zongzi for free during the Dragon Boat Festival, while others lamented that they finally had a holiday to go to Gu's Private Kitchen for a big meal, only to find that the restaurant was closed for the evening. There were also strong complaints that 100 salted egg yolk and pork zongzi for lunch and dinner were not enough, and that more should be prepared otherwise everyone would be fighting over them...
Gu Qingqiu chuckled and shook her head after reading it, feeling quite pleased with herself.
She was also considering the suggestions from netizens. Based on the usual customer flow, one hundred zongzi each for lunch and dinner should have been enough.
However, given the three-day holiday and the fact that customers can get free zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) when dining in during the Dragon Boat Festival, the number of customers may be higher than usual.
In that case, I'll prepare 150 zongzi for lunch and 150 for dinner. Anyway, zongzi can be kept in the refrigerator for quite a while, and I can keep any leftovers to eat slowly.
On Saturday morning, when Gu Qingqiu called to order pork, she also asked for an extra 35 jin of pork belly, preferably the kind with 30% fat and 70% lean.
When I went to buy groceries, several stalls in the market were temporarily selling bamboo leaves for making zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), both dried and fresh.
Gu Qingqiu chose the stall with the best quality bamboo leaves in the entire market, went over and bought enough fresh bamboo leaves to wrap 350 zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), and then went to another stall to buy 360 salted duck eggs.
Actually, this stall also sells ready-made salted egg yolks, which look quite nice, round and plump.
However, Gu Qingqiu felt it was better to buy salted duck eggs and open the yolks herself. After all, it seemed that buying salted duck eggs was more suitable, both in terms of the techniques for choosing salted duck eggs and the yolks, and in terms of the amount of black mist on the surface of the salted duck eggs compared to ready-made salted egg yolks.
She bought so much at once that even the stock she had prepared couldn't meet the demand, making the owner of the salted egg yolk shop question his life choices.
The stall owner asked in confusion, "Young lady, are you buying so many salted duck eggs to make zongzi? To be honest, it's best to buy only what you need, as they won't stay fresh for long."
Gu Qingqiu smiled and thanked her for her kindness, saying, "Yes, we run a restaurant and we were thinking of making zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival, so we prepared a lot."
"So you run a restaurant, no wonder," the stall owner nodded and smiled. A wild smile spread across her face; such a big sale would buy up all the salted duck eggs she had prepared for the Dragon Boat Festival.
However, the stall owner explained, "Girl, I have about 280 salted duck eggs left here, and all the ones displayed behind are too, including the ones currently on display. Since there are so many, if your restaurant is nearby, I can deliver them to you with a cart. But these 80 salted duck eggs are left. Would you like to buy them from another stall, or should I arrange for someone to deliver them to you later?"
Gu Qingqiu nodded: "Sure, my restaurant is on Suli Street. I'll trouble you to have someone else deliver some more goods, so that we can have 360 delivered together."
After she finished speaking, she added, "However, the quality has to be like this batch, and the time can't be too late, I have to wrap zongzi this afternoon."
The stall owner was delighted and promised, "Okay, I promise I'll deliver it to your restaurant before 10 o'clock."
"Okay, thank you, boss." Gu Qingqiu agreed, gave the restaurant's detailed address and left her phone number, and paid half the price as a deposit, with the rest to be paid upon delivery.
She went to the grocery store and bought a lot of shiitake mushrooms and mung beans. For glutinous rice, she chose the kind suitable for making zongzi and ordered 70 jin (35 kg). If she couldn't finish them all, she could save them to make other dishes.
The grocery store owner was overjoyed to see so many purchases at once. Normally, given the weight and the short distance, they would have to deliver to his door, but he even gave him a discount.
Gu Qingqiu also left her address and asked the restaurant owner to deliver the food to the restaurant around 9:30. She would go and buy the ingredients she needed for the lunch break herself.
Back at the restaurant, she was busier than usual.
After preparing the ingredients for the soup and putting them into the pot to cook, Gu Qingqiu temporarily postponed the preparation of the ingredients for lunch and started processing the 35 catties of pork belly that she had specially ordered for making zongzi.
The meat that Boss Zhu delivers is always top-quality, with plenty of fat. This pork belly, for example, has three distinct layers of fat and lean meat, making it particularly beautiful.
Gu Qingqiu removed the skin from the pork belly pieces and cut them into even pieces suitable for wrapping in zongzi.
After cutting all the pork belly into pieces, it was divided into several large bowls. Then, salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and other seasonings were added, along with sugar, scallions, ginger and dried Sichuan peppercorns. The mixture was then stirred by hand to ensure that each piece of pork belly was coated with enough seasoning.
Cover these large basins with plastic wrap and temporarily place them aside in the kitchen to marinate.
Fresh bamboo leaves can be processed quickly, so Gu Qingqiu wasn't in a hurry to process them and instead started preparing ingredients for the lunch break.
During that time, she went out to sign for ingredients several times. There was chicken delivered by Boss Chen, glutinous rice and mung beans delivered by the grocery store owner, and a few boxes of salted duck eggs delivered by the stall owner a little later.
The stall owner was honest and let me check on the spot for any broken salted duck eggs. If there were any, the cost would be deducted based on the quantity.
Just then, Sister Zhou arrived at the shop and was sweeping the floor in the main area. Gu Qingqiu asked her to help check the condition of the salted duck eggs, and she and the stall owner checked them together.
Each salted duck egg was well-protected and undamaged. Gu Qingqiu paid for it with satisfaction, and the stall owner breathed a sigh of relief, thanked her, and left happily.
Sister Zhou asked, "Boss, shall we move these salted duck eggs into the kitchen for now?"
The boss had mentioned earlier that the restaurant was going to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) for a Dragon Boat Festival event. The restaurant would be closed in the afternoon, so he asked her and Sister Tang to make zongzi there. The two of them readily agreed.
She hadn't expected such a large-scale operation. Just now, she saw so much marinated pork belly in the kitchen and so many bags of glutinous rice on the ground, and so many salted duck eggs in front of her. How many zongzi would they have to make?
Gu Qingqiu nodded: "Okay, let's move it into the kitchen first."
She and Sister Zhou took turns carrying boxes of salted duck eggs into the kitchen. Luckily, the kitchen was big enough to have a special food storage area where they could temporarily store them. The menu for lunch was also a bit simple.
Gu Qingqiu soaked the mung beans first before continuing to prepare the lunch dishes, and also cooked some of the meat dishes that take longer to prepare in advance.
Although the working hours during the lunch break are from 12:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon, Sister Tang usually comes to the store a little earlier to help out.
In her words, there wasn't much dishwashing work at the restaurant, and eating took up a lot of time, so she felt uneasy if she didn't come early to do some work.
Sister Tang also told Gu Qingqiu and Sister Zhou to treat her like a brick, to be moved wherever needed, as she could do any kind of work.
Today, Gu Qingqiu arranged for her to help process the fresh bamboo leaves.
After buying these fresh bamboo leaves, you need to first use a small brush to clean each leaf thoroughly, then use scissors to cut off both ends. Next, boil water in a pot, put the bamboo leaves in, add salt, and boil them to clean them. The bamboo leaves must be cooled and drained before use, so they must be washed in advance.
In addition, three bundles of iris grass should be rinsed and boiled in the same water used to boil the bamboo leaves. This will make them more resilient and less likely to break when used to tie the bamboo leaves later.
After listening to the boss's instructions, Sister Tang readily nodded in agreement. She had made zongzi at home before and knew the steps. She then took two large bags of zongzi leaves to the sink and used a small brush to scrub both sides of the leaves under the running water.
Before lunch, Gu Qingqiu took out several large basins, poured in glutinous rice, and then soaked it in water.
The glutinous rice for making zongzi needs to be soaked for two or three hours. Soaking it now will make it just the right time when I wake up from my afternoon nap.
After the meal, Sister Zhou went to the dining area to continue serving customers. It was almost closing time, and she mainly stood at the cashier to help customers settle their bills.
Sister Tang then collected the bowls, chopsticks, and plates that the three people had used in the kitchen and put them in the sink to soak, and folded up the small table.
There were also quite a few bowls, chopsticks and plates piled up in the sink area, which had been collected from outside the dining area earlier.
After putting on gloves, she began washing the dishes. Her hands moved swiftly and smoothly, the loofah spinning rapidly in the bowls, and one bowl after another was covered in dish soap bubbles before being placed aside.
Gu Qingqiu then moved the salted duck eggs over and placed them on the cutting board. After rummaging through the kitchen cabinet, she found a slotted spoon with a relatively large gap.
She first placed a deep plate at the bottom of the sink, then hung a strainer high up in the sink. After thinking for a moment, she put a few plates aside for later use, and then began to process the salted duck eggs.
Gu Qingqiu picked up a salted duck egg with one hand and tapped it gently; the shell cracked open.
She gently pried the salted duck egg in half with both hands, and the shell split in two. The bright orange yolk, along with the pale yellow, translucent egg white, slid out. Because she had held the egg low, she wasn't worried about the yolk falling onto the strainer and breaking.
A round, orange-red salted egg yolk, still somewhat translucent, lands steadily on the strainer. The egg white drips down the strainer's gaps into the plate at the bottom of the sink. The strainer continues to drip egg white, though the amount is gradually decreasing.
Seeing that the yolk was intact and cracked, and confirming that the height was suitable, Gu Qingqiu cracked the salted duck egg even faster.
Every two or three movements, a salted egg yolk would land steadily on the strainer and come into contact with the other salted egg yolks, while the egg white would slide smoothly into the deep dish at the bottom.
After processing about fifteen salted egg yolks, the funnel was filled with them, and the deep dish at the bottom was almost full of egg whites.
Gu Qingqiu then stopped, picked up the strainer and shook it slightly to let more egg white that couldn't flow out due to the crowding drip down, and then took out the deep plate full of egg white that was at the bottom and put it aside.
Use a strainer to rinse the salted egg yolks directly under running water to remove any remaining egg white. After rinsing several times, drain the water slightly and gently pour the salted egg yolks into a clean plate and set them aside.
She took a clean, sterilized deep plate and placed it at the bottom of the sink, then hung the strainer back above the sink and began a new round of cracking salted duck eggs to extract the yolks.
This job looks simple, but it involves a lot of work. There are a total of 360 salted duck eggs. Gu Qingqiu finished the job before Sister Zhou finished mopping the floor and cleaning the dining area. She barely managed to finish the job along with Sister Tang who was washing dishes.
She couldn't help but let out a soft sigh of relief: "Finally, it's done."
"Making such a large number of zongzi requires a lot of preparation work, the boss must have worked very hard," said Sister Zhou.
She had just finished working at the main shop and came in thinking of helping the boss, but the boss said there was no need to hurry up and finish.
Sister Tang laughed and said, "Wrapping zongzi is actually easier when you're actually wrapping it; it's the preparation of the ingredients and the cooking that's more tiring."
"Yes, thankfully you two will help this afternoon. We should be at the shop around 3:30, and then we should be able to start wrapping zongzi. Let's finish early and get some rest," Gu Qingqiu said with a smile.
Sister Zhou and Sister Tang smiled and agreed. After finishing their business, they said goodbye and left together to go home.
Gu Qingqiu also went upstairs, turned on the air conditioner, changed into her pajamas, set an alarm, and fell asleep as soon as she lay down. She was so tired that she had no mind to look at her phone.
Around 2:30, she woke up, changed her clothes, and poured herself a glass of water. Without lingering, she grabbed her phone and went downstairs to the kitchen.
The glutinous rice had been soaking for over two hours, and the water in the basins had turned a muddy beige color. Gu Qingqiu reached in and scooped out some glutinous rice, which she easily crushed with her fingers.
The glutinous rice was now soaked. Gu Qingqiu took out a strainer to block the mouth of the basin and poured out the water used to soak the glutinous rice from the side of the vegetable washing basin.
She poured several basins of glutinous rice water, and with the help of a strainer, very few grains of glutinous rice fell out. She let the basins drain as much water as possible without spilling any glutinous rice.
Gu Qingqiu checked several basins of marinated pork belly, and judging from their condition and aroma, they were almost ready for marinating.
She first carried the several bowls of meat to the large table in the main hall, where they would wrap zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) later. The space was spacious and everyone could move around comfortably.
She then brought out several plates of salted egg yolks, along with cooled and drained fresh bamboo leaves and boiled reeds.
Back in the kitchen, she again used a strainer to block the rim of the bowls and poured out the drained water, trying to reduce the moisture content of the glutinous rice.
After finishing, Gu Qingqiu started to season the glutinous rice, adding salt, light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce according to the proportions, mainly to add some saltiness to the glutinous rice, but not too much.
After adding all the necessary seasonings, she poured in the soaked mung beans and, wearing gloves, started mixing the glutinous rice with her hands.
As she moved her hands up and down, the seasonings in the bowl spread and seeped down, quickly turning much of the glutinous rice a dark brown color. The mung beans also mixed with the glutinous rice during the mixing process.
Gu Qingqiu kept stirring the glutinous rice until almost every grain was stained a dark brown color and the mung beans on the surface were relatively evenly distributed before moving on to the next bowl.
After she finished, she took the glutinous rice out as well, and it took three large dining tables to set it all up.
She also put some thought into the arrangement, slightly rearranging the table so that each table had all the ingredients for making zongzi, making it more convenient for her, Sister Tang, and Sister Zhou to each make zongzi at a separate table later.
Gu Qingqiu wasn't in a hurry to start. She sat down and rested for a while. The air conditioning in the dining area was stronger than in the kitchen, and she felt cool all over after sitting for a short time.
Sister Tang and Sister Zhou arrived earlier than agreed, and seeing that the owner had already brought out all the ingredients, they couldn't help but regret not coming earlier.
Gu Qingqiu smiled and said, "It's nothing. I was just thinking that the glutinous rice still needed seasoning, so I came down to get busy first. I brought these out while I was at it. It's more convenient for us to work here in the main hall. Go wash your hands and come over to get ready to start."
Sister Tang and Sister Zhou smiled and agreed. They went to the restroom to wash their hands and put on aprons to avoid getting their clothes dirty. They also wore chef's hats to avoid their hair getting in the way.
Although Gu Qingqiu has been the only one cooking in the kitchen since the restaurant reopened, she has a few aprons and chef's hats left over from when her parents ran the restaurant. She has washed them and is ready to use them.
Gu Qingqiu was very satisfied with this, and nodded with a smile, saying, "Alright, let's start wrapping the zongzi."
Sister Tang and Sister Zhou both know how to wrap zongzi, but there are many ways to wrap zongzi. For zongzi that don't need to be differentiated by flavor, it's better to use the same method. So they stood aside and watched the boss wrap zongzi.
Gu Qingqiu learned how to wrap zongzi from her parents, and she will demonstrate it to Sister Tang and Sister Zhou.
She first took two bamboo leaves, smooth side up, tip to tip, and then overlapped the bamboo leaf in her left hand onto the bamboo leaf in her right hand. She then folded the leaves in half from the middle with both hands at the same time, leaving a vertical edge of about 2cm.
Holding the funnel shape firmly with her left hand, Gu Qingqiu took the spoon from the glutinous rice bowl and scooped two full spoonfuls of glutinous rice into the funnel, pressing it flat. Then, she used chopsticks to pick up a thick piece of pork belly with alternating layers of fat and lean meat and stacked it on top of the bottom of the glutinous rice. Next, she placed a salted egg yolk horizontally outwards, and then covered it with three more spoonfuls of glutinous rice to completely cover the pork belly and salted egg yolk.
She used a spoon to flatten and compact the glutinous rice on the surface, then continued to hold the rice dumpling tightly with her left hand, while pushing the remaining bamboo leaves upwards with her right hand. She folded the excess bamboo leaves on both sides down along the edges of the rice dumpling to ensure that the filling was wrapped.
If you see wrinkles in the bamboo leaves, smooth them out a bit. Then, pinch the main vein of the bamboo leaf with your fingers and fold it downwards, pressing it down with your left hand fingers.
Gu Qingqiu took a piece of reed in her right hand, left about 3cm of rope, pressed down the rope on the rice dumpling with her left hand, and pulled the rope with her right hand to wrap around the rice dumpling and then around it again. Each time, she wrapped it around the rope below, tying the rice dumpling in circles all the way to the other end.
Once she reached the bottom of the rice dumpling, she deftly twisted the remaining rope in her hand, along with the rope that had been pressed down at the bottom, several times, and then threaded the thicker end of the rope into the groove.
A beautiful four-cornered rice dumpling is now wrapped.
Sister Zhou and Sister Tang watched without blinking the entire time. Because they already had a foundation in making zongzi, it was easy for them to learn this new method.
And to be honest, once you understand the basics, the techniques for wrapping zongzi are actually quite similar.
Sister Tang smiled and said, "I used to wrap triangular zongzi. These four-cornered zongzi don't seem too difficult to wrap. I'll wrap one later, and you can help me take a look. If there's anything wrong, just tell me."
Sister Zhou also said, "I think I've learned it. Boss, please check if I wrapped it correctly later."
They all noted down the ingredients and steps: wrap a piece of pork belly and a salted duck egg in each zongzi; when tying the zongzi, wrap the iris grass five times; and when twisting the rope, twist the rope along with the 3cm of rope left at the bottom.
"Okay, then each of you wrap one and show me," Gu Qingqiu said with a smile. She was quite satisfied with the rice dumplings she had just wrapped; they were neat and beautiful, and she hadn't embarrassed herself in front of her employees.
Sister Tang and Sister Zhou sat at two other tables and started wrapping zongzi. Their techniques and postures showed that they knew how to wrap zongzi. If you just remembered the boss's wrapping techniques, you could easily get started.
Gu Qingqiu stood to the side watching, nodding in satisfaction from time to time.
After the two of them finished wrapping a four-cornered rice dumpling, they said, "Sister Zhou and Sister Tang, you wrapped them very well. You remembered all the techniques after watching it only once. You are really amazing."
Sister Zhou looked at the rice dumplings she had wrapped with satisfaction and smiled when she heard this, saying, "When I was wrapping them, I was just mentally counting to five times, because I was afraid that if I wrapped them too many times, the number of wraps wouldn't look good. Now that you say so, I have more confidence."
Sister Tang breathed a sigh of relief before saying, "Yes, after hearing what you said, boss, I dared to start making handbags."
Gu Qingqiu smiled upon hearing this: "No need to be so nervous. Just remember the general technique; it doesn't have to be exactly the same. Okay, let's begin."
"good."
The three of them sat down at separate tables and started wrapping zongzi (sticky rice dumplings). They took two bamboo leaves, smooth sides up, tip to tip, and then folded them together in half from the center, creating a funnel shape...
There was also an empty bowl on each table, and the wrapped zongzi were placed in it.
As time went by, Gu Qingqiu and Sister Zhou and Sister Tang became more and more skilled at wrapping zongzi. Their fingers flew across the bamboo leaves as if they were consciously cooperating, making them particularly smooth and even. More and more zongzi were placed in the basin.
Of course, the time spent wrapping zongzi wasn't boring either; everyone chatted, and the topics were very casual, with people talking about whatever came to mind.
First, let's talk about the restaurant. Most of the feedback came from customers who had dined there, and Sister Zhou even imitated their tone and expressions perfectly.
Gu Qingqiu and Sister Tang listened with smiles on their faces; these were undoubtedly words that made them happy.
Then Sister Zhou talked about some fun times she had with Fangfang, and Sister Tang talked about the local customs and traditions of her hometown, and which family's wife was the most gossipy, spending all her time chatting with people at the newly built cultural and sports activity center...
Most of the time, Sister Zhou and Sister Tang were talking, while Gu Qingqiu was listening. Occasionally, she would say a few words if she heard something funny or curious.
After the large bowls of zongzi on the three dining tables were full, Gu Qingqiu said, "I'll take these zongzi to cook first. Cooking zongzi will take a while, and we can free up these bowls to continue cooking the wrapped zongzi."
Sister Zhou placed the newly wrapped zongzi on a large basin and, after listening to the boss's words, said, "I'll go cook them."
Sister Tang also said, "Boss, I can cook too."
They all thought the boss was skilled at wrapping zongzi, and the four-cornered zongzi he made were especially beautiful.
Gu Qingqiu shook her head and said, "No need, I'll go cook the zongzi. You two are good at wrapping zongzi, so you can stay here and wrap more."
Seeing the boss say that, Sister Zhou and Sister Tang smiled and agreed. They helped the boss carry the large basin of zongzi into the kitchen and then came out to the dining area to continue wrapping zongzi.
Gu Qingqiu was in the kitchen, so she took out the three large iron pots that she had briefly used before when making braised meat and then put away.
Previously, after use, the items were washed, disinfected, and stored away. Now, all of them are placed on a dedicated stove, filled with water to nine-tenths full, and boiled to disinfect.
Instead of taking the time to go out and make more zongzi, she checked the three basins full of zongzi.
It was quite obvious that the bowl of rice dumplings she wrapped contained less black mist than the bowls wrapped by Sister Zhou and Sister Tang. Of course, the latter also contained much less black mist compared to the rice dumplings sold in the market.
This is related to the fact that she deliberately chose to buy ingredients that contained relatively little black mist.
During this period, Gu Qingqiu gained a deeper understanding of her ability to remove impurities from ingredients during food preparation and cooking. For example, the process of wrapping zongzi just now could also remove some of the black fuzz from the ingredients. The few remaining impurities would probably have to be removed when cooking them.
This is also why she insisted on coming to the kitchen to be in charge of cooking zongzi. The zongzi wrapped by Sister Zhou and Sister Tang must taste good, but they can't compare to the zongzi she wrapped herself, which had more ingredients and impurities removed. She could only put effort into the final step of cooking the zongzi.
After boiling the water in the three pots one after another and draining the water out of the pots using a special drainage method, Gu Qingqiu then put the zongzi into the large pot.
The pot was filled with three basins of rice dumplings, about one and a half times. Then, water was added to cover the rice dumplings and then to a depth of two finger joints above them. A heat-resistant basin filled with water was placed on top of the rice dumplings to prevent them from floating during cooking. Finally, the pot was covered and the two pots were turned on high heat to start cooking.
During this process, she silently used the special skills of a spiritual chef to try her best to remove the remaining black mist from the rice dumplings while cooking them.
To cook zongzi, first boil them over high heat for half an hour, then simmer over low heat for about two hours. After turning off the heat, it's best to let them sit for another half hour to allow them to fully absorb the water and aroma. During this time, you should also open the pot occasionally to turn the zongzi over to prevent them from sticking to the bottom.
Gu Qingqiu set an alarm on her phone and returned to the shop to continue wrapping zongzi.
While she was busy cooking zongzi in the kitchen, Sister Zhou and Sister Tang worked quickly and each wrapped more than half a basin of zongzi.
After wrapping three more basins of zongzi, Gu Qingqiu carried them inside, opened another large pot lid, put in as many zongzi as possible, leaving enough space to put in a basin of water, and started cooking another pot of zongzi, just like before.
The other two pots have been turned down to a simmer, and the faint fragrance of bamboo leaves can be smelled in the air.
Gu Qingqiu set another alarm on her phone to remind herself to adjust the heat or flip the rice dumplings later. The alarm was labeled "Pot No. 1 and No. 2" and "Pot No. 3" to avoid getting them mixed up.
The three of them worked until 7:30 p.m., and all the ingredients were wrapped up. They used up all the fresh bamboo leaves, with only a few meters of reed grass left. The big project of wrapping zongzi was now successfully completed.
In the kitchen, three large pots were simmering zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) at full capacity, while several basins next to them contained zongzi cooked in the previous batch by the three large pots.
Gu Qingqiu pulled over the basins and tilted them slightly, then used her hands to protect the rice dumplings from slipping, pouring away the water that had dripped from them.
Since the rice dumplings have been sitting for a while, they are no longer too hot to handle, making it more convenient than using a strainer to protect them.
The water that was poured out was yellowish with oily specks. During the cooking process of the zongzi, the fragrance of the bamboo leaves, the rice milk of the glutinous rice, and the fat of the pork belly were all incorporated into the water. This makes the zongzi fragrant but not greasy.
When Gu Qingqiu took the zongzi out of the three large pots one after another, she noticed that whether it was the zongzi she made herself or the ones made by Sister Zhou and Sister Tang, all the black mist had been removed after the cooking process, and tiny specks of spiritual energy had been condensed.
She took out three plates, placed two zongzi on each plate, and set them with three pairs of chopsticks. She then brought them out to the dining area, saying, "Eat first, try the taste of our zongzi."
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