Chapter 258 Cooking in the Alley
Zhuang Baoru was peeling broad beans when a young man came over quickly with a manuscript paper in his hand, calling out, "Teacher, can you help me check if my calculation is correct?"
Zhuang Baoru put down the broad beans and took the manuscript. Sister Shen looked at the young man. It was very hot today. Xiao Zou was wearing a white short-sleeved sweatshirt with several holes all over it.
Xiao Zou was bending over and pointing at the manuscript paper, explaining his calculation process to Zhuang Baoru. Sister Shen poked the hole on Xiao Zou's shoulder with the broad bean shell in her hand. Xiao Zou looked up at her and said, "Aunt Shen."
Sister Shen said, "Xiao Zou! Your teacher just told me that she would introduce you to a girl. Look at you, which girl would like you? You can't even wear complete clothes when you go out. This is really a sin!"
"Just peel the broad beans. Xiao Zou must have not slept well these days. He went to bed late and started thinking about the design as soon as he opened his eyes. He got up from the bed and came here." Sister Shen's lover, Professor Chen, came over with two bowls.
Zhuang Baoru looked up and said, "Weiwen, there are some tofu paste and fried dough sticks at home. Bring them to Xiao Zou. This kid must have skipped breakfast again."
Mo Weiwen put down the celery in his hand, went home to get an enamel cup and a fried dough stick wrapped in oil paper, and handed it to Xiao Zou: "Xiao Zou, you can't skip breakfast, or your stomach will be damaged."
"Thank you, Teacher Mo!" Xiao Zou took it.
The neighbor brought a square stool and placed it in front of Zhuang Baoru: "Teacher Zhuang."
"Thank you!" Zhuang Baoru put the manuscript paper on the square stool and discussed with Xiao Zou while writing.
There were few range hoods in public kitchens in this era, and the windows were always open unless it was windy or rainy. Yue Ning started to cook the soft-shelled turtle, and the aroma drifted out through the window.
"Teacher Mo, the dishes cooked by your goddaughter are so delicious."
"The little guy is a chef. His family has been chefs for three generations." Mo Weiwen looked at Yue Ning and thought of Yue Zhirong. He couldn't help feeling sad. If only Zhirong were still here.
"Ningning is the chef?" Sister Shen put down the broad beans, ran to the window, and said to Professor Chen who was cutting meat, "Old Chen! Let Ningning teach you how to make the braised eel meat today."
"People who only know how to eat have very high requirements." Professor Chen put the pork belly into the bowl and glanced at his lover with disdain.
Sister Shen shouted, "The last time you made it, it was so delicious that the kids couldn't finish it. I couldn't bear to throw it away, so I ate it for a week."
"Dried eel is salty, but this time I soaked it in water overnight. It's not salty anymore!"
Professor Chen said so, but in the kitchen, the smell of the candied soft-shelled turtle and the aroma of the several dishes already prepared on the table were so fragrant that it made people salivate.
Professor Chen walked over and said, "Little girl!"
"Hello, teacher." Yue Ning put down the spatula, "I heard you were going to make braised pork with dried eel, right?"
Yue Ning took the dried eel from his hand, touched the skin with his finger, tasted the saltiness, and said, "It's almost soaked. Let me teach you how to make it step by step! It's a very homely method."
Yue Ning didn't stop working and taught Teacher Chen how to make braised pork with dried eel. He said, "After the lard is fried, it can also be used for cooking. The dried eel needs to be fried until it is slightly browned to make it fragrant."
"Little girl, I'm tired of eating minced meat and tofu all the time. Is there any way to make it more delicious?" another teacher asked Yue Ning.
Yue Ning said: "Pot-fried tofu is not difficult, can I teach you?"
"Okay! Okay!"
Outside, Mo Weiwen carried over a folding round table, and the neighbors helped to open it.
Several neighbors brought stools from their homes, and Mo Weiwen brought bowls and chopsticks. He also held a lunch box in his hand: "Ningning, do you have any extra food? I'll pack some for Xiao Zou and let him take it home to eat."
"Uncle, please wait a moment. The bacon and vegetable rice will be ready soon." Yue Ning was frying vegetables in a wok. She took the aluminum pot and poured the rice with bacon cubes into the wok.
"Little girl, it turns out that bacon and vegetable rice shouldn't be cooked with vegetables! No wonder the vegetable leaves in the vegetable rice I made turned out to be very yellow."
Yue Ning added seasoning while frying: "The rice cooked this way has green vegetables and tastes delicious."
She took the lunch box, filled it halfway with rice and vegetables, picked up a chicken leg, poured some sauce on it, and also picked up a few pieces of sweet and sour pork ribs and some river shrimps. She filled the lunch box to the brim and handed it to Mo Weiwen: "Here."
Mo Weiwen closed the lid of the lunch box, walked out, and said to Xiao Zou, "Xiao Zou."
"Teacher Mo, teacher, I'll go back first. You guys get busy!" Xiao Zou quickly put away the manuscript paper.
Mo Weiwen stuffed the lunch box into his hands: "Take it, remember to eat on time no matter how busy you are."
"No, no." Xiao Zou shook his head.
"Take it, take it." Zhuang Baoru said to his students.
Zhuang Baoru sent Xiao Zou away and went into the kitchen to wash her hands. She saw Yue Ning busy with sweat on her forehead. She was busy with work even though her child was visiting her. She said, "Ningning, I'm sorry!"
"Grandma, what's there to be embarrassed about? You know! I like to cook." Yue Ning pointed to the aluminum pot on the table and said, "The vegetables and rice are in the aluminum pot."
Professor Chen opened the lid of the pot, and the aroma of dried eel and pork belly after being braised in brown sauce hit him. He said: "Ningning! With your skills, you can go to Jinhua Hotel to be a chef. You are amazing!"
Yue Ning smiled happily: "Thank you Teacher Chen for the compliment."
"Really, really. This is better than what you eat in the restaurant. I didn't know my cooking skills were so good."
"Teacher Zhu, if you want your teacher Xu to praise you, just say so." Sister Shen came in and saw that the braised eel with pork was ready. She picked up a piece of meat with chopsticks and put it into her mouth.
Sister Shen chewed the pork belly, and Teacher Chen looked at his wife and asked, "How is it?"
Sister Shen gave a thumbs up and said, "It's delicious. It's even better than the eel and braised pork at Zhengde Building. Nannan will definitely like it."
"Ningning! Thank you!"
"You're welcome."
"Little girl, can you show me how to fry this braised pork liver with soy sauce?" an uncle came over with a bowl and asked.
"This is a bit complicated and can't be explained clearly. How about I fry it for you?" Yue Ning asked.
"Okay!" The uncle gave her the liver.
Yue Ning first used soy sauce, onion, ginger, wine and starch to coat the liver. She added water to the pot: "If it were in a restaurant, we would fry the liver in a frying pan, but at home, who would be willing to use so much oil?"
"That's right! You definitely won't want to part with it." said the uncle.
Now Yue Ning taught everyone how to cook, and all the men in the kitchen gathered around.
While the water was boiling, Yue Ning went to prepare the sauce. Shanghai people like sweet food, so just add a little more sugar.
When Yue Ning saw the water was boiling, she put the garlic sprouts in and blanched them, then took them out. She then blanched the pork liver. She slid the liver in the water and said, "Take it out when it changes color."
"Which one tastes better, cooking it with oil or not?" a teacher asked.
"Then it must be more delicious with more oil."
Yue Ning said: "Using oil to smooth the taste is definitely better, but using water to smooth the taste is actually healthier. Eating too much oil is not good."
"I think more oil is better. When the oil is available, I will use two kilograms of oil when cooking."
Yue Ning cleaned the pot, heated it up, poured oil into the pot, sautéed scallions and ginger, and immediately poured in the pork liver and garlic sprouts that had been swimming in the water. He used a ladle to pour in the sauce, and the starch in the sauce quickly became viscous and tightly wrapped the pork liver. The flavor of the soy sauce and soybean paste became richer.
The braised pork liver had just come out of the pot, and there was still steam coming out of the edge of the porcelain plate. The uncle had already picked up a piece of pork liver and stuffed it into his mouth. His tongue was burned and he was breathing heavily: "Wow! It's more tender and fragrant than the braised pork liver I had at Zhengxing Restaurant."
The uncle called out, "Teacher Zhang, come and have a taste."
Teacher Zhang waved his hands quickly. No matter how delicious it was, he would not eat it. Nowadays, a family usually only has one meat dish for a meal. There are many people in the building. Here and there, what else can the family eat?
The uncle said to Yue Ning: "Thank you, little girl!"
"You're welcome."
Yue Ning poured the winter melon into the soup pot, poured a little oil into the pot to lubricate it, added onion and ginger, and put the fresh pork belly slices and bacon slices into the pot to stir-fry until the oil came out. She took out the meat slices first, fried an egg with the stir-fry oil, and after scooping it into large pieces, she picked up the kettle and poured in hot water.
"Little girl, how did you add boiling water?" asked Teacher Chen.
"Oh, Teacher Chen, you've been cooking for so many years and you don't know. The soup is white only when it is stewed with hot water!" Teacher Zhu said quickly.
"Yes!" Yue Ning brought the winter melon soup to the table, borrowed the neighbor's pot, beat eggs, and stewed the cauliflower and pond carp.
The carp from the cauliflower pond at this time of year are plump and tender, and are most delicious when used to stew eggs.
After the pond carp was stewed, she opened the lid of the pot where the eggs and bacon were cooked and poured in the black fungus and broad beans.
Zhuang Baoru and Mo Weiwen came in and brought all the dishes prepared by Yue Ning to the round table outside, placed the bowls and chopsticks on the table, and brought over a basket of soda.
Everything was ready, and Zhuang Baoru said, "Ningning, let's go to the entrance of the alley and wait for your grandma."
"good."
Yue Ning lifted the lid of the pot. Pink bacon, fresh meat, yellow eggs, emerald green broad beans and black fungus were bubbling in the milky white soup. She put the river shrimps that she had left over into the pot. When the edges of the shrimps turned orange-red, the broad bean and river shrimp dish, which is only available in the south of the Yangtze River during this season, was ready.
"It looks so bright that the eyebrows are about to fall off." Sister Shen said.
Uncle Mo had already bought a lot of broad beans, and she added a variety of side dishes to make a large dish. There was still some left, so Yue Ning poured it into a bowl and said, "There's a lot left, everyone try it. This dish is not difficult and is very fresh."
Now the neighbors were no longer polite and stretched out their chopsticks one by one.
"The sweetness of the river shrimp has seeped into the bean paste!" Sister Shen sucked on the shrimp head, not wanting to waste even the soup.
Professor Chen simply took a small spoon and put the soup, broad beans and a piece of meat into his mouth: "It is so delicious, nothing can be said about it."
"Girl, your cooking skills are good enough for you to go to a famous restaurant in Shanghai."
"It would certainly be OK to go to the Xijiao Yingbin Hotel where the leaders are received."
Well! They upgraded from Jinhua Hotel to Xijiao Yingbin Hotel.
The kitchen was bustling with activity, and people were walking in. Yue Ning heard Zhuang Baoru's voice: "You don't know, he bought a turtle this morning, but he didn't know how to kill it. He asked Ning Ning to kill it. How could he have the nerve to do that?"
"What's wrong? I can't do it and neither can you. I can only ask someone who can do it."
People were approaching, and Yue Ning waved to them.
Old Mrs. Ye had a head full of silver hair. She was wearing a dark green brocade cheongsam and a necklace of round South Sea pearls around her neck. She exuded a wealthy and noble air.
The old lady looked at Yue Ning and said with a smile: "We all know it. Let's have Ningyan at a different place today."
"Grandma, please stop talking nonsense." Yue Ning poked his head out of the kitchen window, "Every dish I made today is a Shanghainese dish."
Neighbors in the kitchen all vouched for her: "Authentic, absolutely authentic local cuisine."
Zhuang Baoru extended her hand to the old lady and said, "Mom, shall we eat first?"
Looking at a simple round table and stools that are similar in shape but different in size and color.
When Old Mrs. Ye was a child, her family was poor, and her parents sold her to a drama troupe to learn Cantonese opera. Later, she was favored by the young master of the Ye family and became his second concubine. After entering the Ye family, she ended her days of worrying about her belly.
Today, she has a son and a daughter. Her son is now the head of the Ye family, and her daughter married into the Qiao family and still runs the largest department store of the Ye family. She is now the old lady of the Ye family. However, she suffered in her early years. In Singapore, she often went to the streets to eat street stalls, and she didn't mean to dislike street stalls at all. But it was difficult for her to accept Baoru's life like this.
The old lady looked at Zhuang Baoru. Zhuang Baoru knew what the old lady was thinking. She said, "Our home is small, dark, and stuffy. It's bright and cool outside."
Yue Ning came out with broad beans and river shrimps: "Grandma, when we were in Yuecheng, didn't you go with me to eat snacks on the street? I've prepared everything, let's eat."
The couple asked everyone to sit down.
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