Xu Qinyu plans to make fatty intestines stuffed with glutinous rice.
Fat intestines stuffed with glutinous rice are made by adding some side dishes to glutinous rice, seasoning it, stuffing it into cleaned fat intestines and cooking it. It is a bit like shaoyao, both are made of glutinous rice, but shaoyao is wrapped in dough, while the fat intestines used in fat intestines stuffed with glutinous rice taste more fragrant, sticky and delicious, fatty but not greasy.
So when she went back, Xu Qinyu bought some glutinous rice.
The price of glutinous rice is about the same as that of polished japonica rice, both at eleven cents per pound.
I also bought some pork belly and two pieces of offal, and a few pig's feet. I planned to eat the pig's feet with my family. The pig's feet stewed with soybeans are more nutritious. Now my family can eat some more nutritious food. I also bought some mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms are dried goods and not cheap, but they are affordable and much cheaper than spices.
Xu Qinyu also went to the iron shop to order a large iron pot and gave half of the deposit. After paying the remaining half of the money, she had basically spent all the money she earned in the past half month.
It must have cost a lot of investment in the early stage, or because ironware is too expensive, the big iron pot she ordered can stew more than ten fish at a time, and it can't fit on the stove in the kitchen, so she has to build another stove. There is a wooden shed next to the kitchen where firewood is stored. She plans to move the firewood to the other side and cover it with oilcloth, and then build a big stove under the wooden shed, which is specially used with this big iron pot. In the future, she can stew fish under the shed outside.
She told Pei Weixuan about her idea. Pei Weixuan nodded without expressing any further opinions. He just did whatever Yu Niang asked him to do.
Xu Qinyu felt that he was a bit dull, like a blockhead.
After returning home, I started to get busy.
Ning Jie'er is now also actively helping with the work and is now faster at catching fish.
When she was stewing fish, Pei Weixuan helped to wash the fat intestines. The fat intestines were cleaned with wood ash. The wood ash in her house was not enough, so she asked the neighbors for a lot. The excess was thrown away. The neighbors were naturally willing to help and gave the extra wood ash to her family.
Cleaning fat intestines is not a technical job. It can be easy if you are careful.
She planned to salt half of the washed pig intestines before going to bed and save the remaining half for tomorrow morning. Because the glutinous rice needs to be soaked for at least three to four hours to make the pig intestines, the mushrooms she bought were also soaked together.
When the fish was cooked, Wen came back and started to get busy. She took all the kitchen utensils to the well and cleaned them. She also swept away the fish scales and wood ash used to wash the fish and poured them out.
At about three quarters after 4 p.m., someone came and knocked on the door.
Pei Weixuan went to open the gate of the courtyard. It was the neighbors around. When Wen was selling fish yesterday, he told everyone that they could come to buy fish at 3:15 pm. From now on, he would sell fish at home, so everyone came by themselves when the time came.
When neighbors came to buy fish, they didn't go into the yard. They just stood at the gate and asked Pei Weixuan whether they wanted a big fish or a small fish.
Actually, Uncle He had even bigger fish, but Xu Qinyu always asked for fish weighing around two or three kilograms. So whenever Uncle He's son caught a bigger fish or a fish weighing less than one and a half kilograms, he would throw them back into the lake. Because few people would buy fish, and if they couldn't sell them after catching them, it would be difficult to deal with them if they died, so it was better to just throw them back into the lake.
Xu Qinyu also bought some fish balls.
Fish balls are simple to make and don’t require many other spices. Originally, pepper is needed, but pepper is many times more expensive than other spices and we definitely can’t afford it. So just add some star anise and Sichuan pepper powder. It’s chewy and delicious, and safer for children to eat than braised fish.
The remaining fish head can be used to stew tofu and sell together, which tastes good.
But we have to wait until the iron pot is ready.
Pei Weixuan took the copper plate and, without saying a word, took the casserole given by the neighbor and went into the kitchen to serve the fish.
Everyone thought that this young man was a bit boring. They also knew that Miss Xu was the daughter-in-law of this family and the young man's wife. They thought that although the young man was good-looking, he was too boring and not worthy of such a capable young lady. Miss Xu was such a great cook that she could earn money to support the whole family.
In the eyes of ordinary people, being capable is definitely more important than being good-looking.
Besides, Miss Xu is not ugly. She just had frostbite on her face before. In the past few days, the frostbite on her face has improved a lot, and her face has become whiter, which makes her quite pretty.
She will definitely look better once all the frostbite on her face is healed.
When the fish were almost sold out, Mrs. Luo, who had not been seen for several days, showed up again.
Seeing the Pei family's door open, she immediately flattered herself and wanted to go into the yard, but was stopped by two neighbors who had not yet left. "Hey, old lady Luo, what do you want to do? Miss Xu has already said that she will not sell fish to you. How can you be so shameless? What are you going to do in there?"
Old Lady Luo put on a sad expression, "I know I was wrong, so I came here to apologize to Miss Xu. Alas, I was the one who made a mistake that day, and I really know I was wrong. I was scolded by my son, the old man, so I came here to give the copper money to Miss Xu. Today, in addition to returning the money, I also plan to buy a fish from Miss Xu. Sisters-in-law, you can also supervise me. If I make a fuss about asking for the copper money back tomorrow, I will die a miserable death."
After she finished speaking, she opened her palm, which contained sixteen copper coins. Apart from the one she shamelessly asked for back from Miss Xu last time, the remaining eight were for buying fish today.
Seeing that Old Lady Luo looked sincere and had some copper money in her hand, the two women hesitated and believed her words.
Xu Qinyu had already heard what Mrs. Luo said in the kitchen, and came out with a kitchen knife in hand.
Mrs. Luo and the other two women were all shocked when they saw this.
Old Lady Luo immediately put on an apologetic smile and said, "Ms. Xu, it was my fault a few days ago. I will apologize to you and return the money. I hope you will not bear grudges and forgive me this time."
Xu Qinyu raised the kitchen knife in her hand and said coldly, "I won't sell you the fish. I made it very clear when I sold you the fish. If you think my cooking is not tasty and you return the money, I will never sell you the fish again. So you better leave. I won't take your copper coins, nor will I sell you the fish."
She didn't believe at all that Mrs. Luo would sincerely apologize.
Ever since that time when Mrs. Luo's daughter-in-law, Mrs. Lin, failed to buy any fish, when she ran into Mrs. Lin the next day, she saw that she had many new wounds on her face.
I ran into Lin twice more after that, and each time I could see new wounds on her face.
Every time Lin saw her, she lowered her head and walked away quickly.
How could a man who abused his daughter-in-law like this truly admit his mistakes? She came to admit her mistakes only to have bad intentions and to think of other ways to mess up her fish recipe.
The unpleasant fishy smell that came from the end of the alley last time was mixed with the scent of several spices that she had placed on the stove specifically for the old woman to see. This showed that Old Lady Luo had broken into her kitchen and stolen the recipe under the pretext of returning the fish money. How could such a bad person admit her mistake?
Mrs. Luo probably didn't expect Xu Qinyu to refuse so bluntly.
As the saying goes, don't hit someone who smiles at you.
Why did this young lady give her the cold face as soon as she came up?
She originally thought that after the past few days, Miss Xu should have calmed down, and if she went to apologize, maybe she could coax her into teaching her how to cook fish.
Secondly, she was really forced to apologize by her son and old man at home. Her son and old man could smell the various aromas of Guihua Lane all day long but could not taste them. They always scolded her and asked her to apologize to them quickly and buy fish.
Mrs. Luo immediately smiled and said, "Young lady, I sincerely apologize."
Xu Qinyu continued with a cold face, "No need, hurry up and leave."
"You little girl." Old Mrs. Luo couldn't hold back her anger. "I came here with good intentions to apologize to you, but you are so stubborn."
The two women nearby saw that Old Lady Luo was a little upset, then they came to their senses. They had also lived in Guihua Lane for more than ten years and knew this old lady too well to know how she was like. There was no way they could possibly apologize sincerely, so they immediately advised Old Lady Luo to stop making trouble.
Xu Qinyu also sold the remaining two fish to the customer who came to buy fish and closed the gate.
Old Mrs. Luo was so angry that she couldn't help herself and cursed Xu Qinyu at the gate of the courtyard with all kinds of ugly and dirty words.
The two women were a little angry, thinking that they had thought Mrs. Luo was apologizing sincerely, but it turned out that she was just fooling them.
How could Xu Qinyu be insulted and scolded by this old woman for no reason? She was about to open the door with a kitchen knife in hand and a cold face.
Pei Weixuan, who was standing nearby, had already opened the gate with a stern face. Seeing the old woman standing at the gate and pointing and cursing inside, he raised his foot and kicked Old Lady Luo in the heart, sending her flying backwards and landing on the snow. Old Lady Luo became dizzy and started to cry out in pain.
He reduced his strength and just kicked the person away, not taking her life.
Xu Qinyu also sneered, walked over with a kitchen knife in hand, half squatted down, and swung the kitchen knife towards Old Lady Luo's head.
Old Mrs. Luo was terrified. She could never have imagined that this delicate and weak young lady could be so crazy. She wanted to kill her just because she scolded her a few words.
Old Lady Luo felt the flash of a knife, and the cold breath of the blade brushed along her cheek, and she felt a sense of pain on her face.
She howled, covered her face and shouted: "My face, my face."
Xu Qinyu sneered, "Why are you yelling? I didn't hurt you. If you do it again, I'll shave your face."
Of course, she couldn't really break the law by shaving Old Lady Luo's face; she was just trying to scare her.
Mrs. Luo touched her face carefully and found no blood. She said angrily, "I'm going to report to the police!"
Xu Qinyu said, "You can go ahead. You are the one who caused the trouble first. You ate for free without paying. If you are not allowed to eat, you will make trouble and curse in front of the door. You will see how the county magistrate punishes you."
The neighbors nearby also said, "We can testify that it was you, an old woman, who started the trouble first."
According to the laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty, this kind of thing is indeed a civil dispute. Both parties will be punished, but the party that caused the trouble will be punished twice as much.
Old Mrs. Luo was naturally very clear about this. She could not stand twenty lashes of the cane. She covered her chest, got up and walked away in shame. She did not even dare to curse Xu Qinyu when she left.
The neighbors were also surprised. It turned out that the fierce ones were afraid of the violent ones, and the violent ones were afraid of the desperate ones. Miss Xu looked delicate and dainty, and she was not someone to be trifled with.
This couple is more brutal than each other. The handsome young man also knows how to protect Miss Xu, so he is worthy of her.
Xu Qinyu turned around holding the kitchen knife. Pei Jianing and Wen were standing at the gate of the courtyard, staring in amazement, their faces full of admiration. If the ladies from the noble families in the capital had a quarrel, they would just quarrel openly and exchange sarcastic words. They were not as straightforward as Yu Niang, who just rushed forward with a kitchen knife.