10 Braised skewers (one)
◎You are not a fool, you are a very good person◎
In her previous life, Jiang Qinglan's grandmother lived in Chengdu. During her childhood, her mother would always take her to her grandmother's house for ten days or half a month during the winter and summer holidays.
At that time, she discovered that there were a lot of skewers in Chengdu.
What is a chuanchuan? It is like a candied haws, where food is strung on a bamboo stick and eaten as you go.
Chengdu's skewers have many varieties if you break them down into smaller categories.
The most common one is hot pot skewers, with a pot on the table, either red soup or a shuangyang pot.
The skewered tripe, chicken wings, beef, sausage, lotus root slices, kelp, etc. are placed in another place.
Diners take their own iron plates, pick up the dishes they want to eat, and cook them in the pot on their table.
When cooking, the ingredients are in the pot, but the long bamboo skewers are sticking out. It looks messy and quite lively.
There is another type, called cold pot skewers. As the name suggests, the pot is cold but the dishes are hot. There is no fire on the customer's table. The restaurant cooks the dishes in the house and serves them directly to the diners.
There is also a type of Bobo Chicken, which is an even colder cold pot skewer.
The cooked skewers are dipped in a large celadon bowl filled with secret sauce.
Because the bowl is too big, the skewers will slide down when put in, so merchants often put a plastic bottle filled with ice in the bowl.
In this way, the skewers have something to hold onto and won't slide down, and the ice cubes will also cool the food, making it more refreshing to eat in the summer.
The above three types, whether cooked with fire or not, have one thing in common, that is, the skewers are all immersed in oily sauce.
In recent years, a new type of oil-braised skewers has appeared at subway entrances of all sizes in Chengdu. They are dry and customers can eat them while walking on the street without the juice spilling, making it more convenient.
Jiang Qinglan analyzed her current situation:
Zhongwa has a wide range of products, and if it wants to attract people's attention, it must create some novel things.
Of course, they also had to make rock sugar fruit skewers, but these were snacks that children preferred, and the market was limited in purchasing power. Furthermore, since they were staying at Qinglian Temple, they were not allowed to eat meat.
After much thought, the most novel, cheap and convenient vegetarian dish is braised skewers.
Oil-braised dishes, as the name suggests, are braised in oil. It sounds difficult to make, but it is actually very simple.
People who cook often know that in Chinese cuisine, anything that involves stir-frying is the most troublesome, while steaming, boiling, and braising are relatively simple.
The most important part of braising is the base. Pour rapeseed oil into a pot and fry green onions, star anise, osmanthus leaves, fennel and other spices until fragrant.
In this era, there were abundant spices, but the spicy flavor was provided by dogwood and Sichuan pepper, which was not as strong as the modern chili pepper and Sichuan pepper.
But at this time, people's taste is relatively light, and the spiciness of dogwood is enough.
All the Sichuan peppercorns and dogwood in the winnowing basket are poured into the oil pan. The pan is full of red and the spicy aroma is also stimulated.
The person next to him sneezed because of the fumes, rubbed his nose, and frowned: "Sister, it's so choking, what are you doing?"
The father of the original body and Tuantuan was a fifth-rank official. Although he was not considered a high-ranking official in Lin'an, where powerful people were everywhere, he was also a noble person.
Therefore, the Jiang family advocates light tastes, and Tuantuan cannot stand such a pungent smell.
Jiang Qinglan said, "Of course, it's for the hot pot base. This stuff takes a long time to cook, so I'm going to make it all at once this time. From now on, whether it's braised skewers or hot pot, I'll make..."
She glanced around and saw that the nuns and masters were busy with their own things. She whispered, "They are very useful for making braised pig's trotters or something like that."
When Tuantuan heard about braised pork trotters, his eyes lit up and he visibly swallowed his saliva.
Jiang Qinglan smiled and said, "Don't worry, we can rent a house and eat meat every day."
While he was talking, his hands were constantly stirring the base ingredients in the pot with a spatula.
Simmer over low heat, the longer it is, the more fragrant it tastes. Tuantuan said it was choking at first, but now thinking about the pig's trotters and smelling the aroma, his mouth is watering.
There were also some little nuns who stretched their necks to look over here.
Business is all about publicity, the more people the better.
Jiang Qinglan, unfazed by the onlookers, deftly scooped out some of the base and set it aside to cool. He then added water to the remaining base and a large braising bag containing a mixture of more than a dozen spices, including tsaoko, fennel, and cinnamon.
After boiling for a certain period of time, add the bean curd skin, tofu, fungus, lotus root slices, radish, etc. that have been skewered with bamboo sticks in advance. It won’t take long before the vegetarian skewers are ready.
Tuan Tuan was of course the first customer to eat. He picked up a string of steaming hot bean curd and stuffed it into his mouth.
The aroma hits you before you even take a bite—a rich, rich aroma blended from a dozen different marinade ingredients. Then you're hot, spicy, numbing, and hot all at once, the spiciness and numbing exacerbating the heat.
Tuan Tuan ate happily at first, then his face suddenly turned red, and he stomped around the kitchen, hissing and inhaling: "Ahhh, so spicy! So spicy!"
Jiang Qinglan quickly handed her a skewer of candied plums. The little girl chewed it in a few bites. The sour juice overflowed and the sweet sugar coating was chewed into pieces, and the spiciness finally stopped.
It was really strange. Tuantuan's face was still red, but his tongue didn't hurt as much anymore, and his hand reached out to the vegetarian skewers again.
Jiang Qinglan laughed at her: "Are you not afraid of spicy food now?"
This time, Tuan Tuan touched a bunch of lotus root slices and said, "I'm scared, but I also want to eat it. Sister, what on earth did you put in it?"
There's really nothing special about it, it's just spicy. Spiciness is a painful sensation, but it's addictive.
Nowadays, officials and nobles like to eat light and sweet food, but her stall is located in Zhongwa, where there are more ordinary people and they need the stimulation of spicy food.
Moreover, she sells sweet fruit skewers and spicy vegetable skewers together, alternating between sweet and spicy, making them endlessly delicious.
It was almost dusk, and Jiang Qinglan quickly cleaned up the kitchen. He put the spicy and sweet skewers to be sold tonight into a food box, and together with Tuantuan, they carried them to Zhongwa.
Fortunately, she now lives in Qinglian Temple, which is close to home. Otherwise, with her delicate body, she would be exhausted after carrying something for a while.
When we arrived at Zhongwa, we found the location according to the number on the tooth label.
Tuan Tuan stared with round eyes and asked, "Sister, is this stall compact?"
Jiang Qinglan was also stunned.
A row of red lanterns hung on the high eaves of the stall, and a wide wooden board extended in front of the stall, which was wiped clean.
Inside the stall, there were stoves, steamers, pots and pans, and even a back room with a bamboo lounge chair, presumably for the vendor to take a nap.
In comparison, the stall not far away is much more "compact".
There is a wooden roof and a wooden board underneath, and the stall can barely accommodate two people.
In addition, their stall is well located, opposite the Zhongwa puppet show and acrobatics stage.
It was still early and not many people were around, but one could imagine how busy this place would be at night when there were crowds of tourists across the street.
After such a comparison, Jiang Qinglan figured out the key.
She recalled the day she went to the Lin'an Prefecture Office and the handsome man who insisted on getting her a dental certificate. She suppressed her smile and said to herself:
Sorry, you are not a fool. Not only are you handsome, you are also a very good person!
As the saying goes: “If you don’t take what heaven gives you, you will suffer the consequences; if you don’t act when the time comes, you will suffer the consequences.”[1] If you don’t take advantage of an opportunity, you will lose it!
Jiang Qinglan immediately took out the candied fruit skewers and the braised skewers, and displayed them in a dazzling array.
——
In the Prince of Dongping's mansion, Xie Linchuan had no idea that someone was thanking him. With a cold face, he walked around in the garden with Princess Baoqing, feeling bored.
Just now, he was about to go to the Cuju field after finishing his shift when Pinglin from the palace came on horseback to report that the princess wanted him to return to the palace for important matters.
When I returned home, I found out that Princess Baoqing had gone out of the palace to burn incense at the temple, and passed by Prince Dongping's mansion and came in to stay for a while.
For her, Princess Dongping called Xie Linchuan back.
Everyone in the city knew what Princess Baoqing was thinking.
A few years ago, Xie Linchuan won the Cuju tournament in the palace. Princess Baoqing and Princess Fu'an got into a fight over who should present flowers. Princess Fu'an ripped out a large portion of Princess Baoqing's hair.
The matter was brought to the attention of the Emperor, who scolded both of them. However, considering their injuries, he sided more with Princess Baoqing.
Princess Fu'an complained: "My legs are all bruised now. She pinched me."
The emperor attached great importance to gifts and glared at her on the spot: "How dare you, a girl, say such things in public?!" He lost his patience with Princess Fu'an.
Later, Princess Fu'an was too old to wait for Mr. Xie and married him, so she went to live with the Li family in Suzhou. Princess Baoqing was young and not in a hurry, so she just waited.
Today, clusters of peonies in the Dongping Palace garden are vibrant pink, stained by the golden afterglow, appearing even more vibrant and lovely.
Princess Baoqing Zhao Yunhui picked a peony flower and played with it in her hand, saying to Xie Linchuan:
"Thank you, Prince. All the other gentlemen in Lin'an wear flowers in their hair, why don't you?"
Xie Linchuan's mind was already far away, and he said casually:
"I'm dark-skinned, and the flowers in my hair don't look good on me." He thought for a moment, then asked, "After your third brother established his mansion, did he still often go to the palace?"
Princess Baoqing and the third prince, Zhao Kan, were both born to Concubine Chen, and both were greatly favored by Emperor Chengping. Recently, the third prince had reached old age and had moved out of the palace.
Princess Baoqing glanced at his face furtively, her heart pounding. She could not think of anything else and said with a blushing face:
"My third brother often goes to visit mother, and father praises him for his filial piety." Turning around and pretending to pick another flower, he thought: How is it dark? It's just that it's not as white as those young men who put on powder.
Light makeup was the fashion these days; even men had to wear rouge and powder, and wear flowers and jade ornaments in their hair to be considered elegant and refined. But when Princess Baoqing saw Xie Linchuan's dashing and heroic figure on the Cuju field, she lost sight of anyone else.
"Thank you, Prince. Just try..."
Princess Baoqing wanted to give the flower in her hand to Xie Linchuan and let him try it on his hairpin, but when she turned around, she saw that he was no longer there. He had already walked to the other side of the pond.
Princess Baoqing was a little unhappy because her love was misplaced. But when she came to Xie Linchuan and saw his handsome appearance, she smiled again.
"Wandering around is boring, why don't you teach me how to play Cuju?"
"Cuju?"
Xie Linchuan was a little stunned when he heard Emperor Chengping praising the Third Prince. But when he heard the word Cuju, his eyes lit up - when it came to this, he became interested and quickly asked someone to bring the ball.
Without waiting for Princess Baoqing to speak, he lifted the front of his hoop and tucked it into his belt, juggling the ball, pretending to dribble past opponents, and even taking advantage of a small hole in a distant peony bush to score several goals.
He did not forget to teach the princess how to play football, and occasionally said a few words, but it would be better if he did not say anything.
"Stand further away. Don't blame me if the dust from the cuju ball blinds you!"
"Ouch, your arch is weak. Go back and practice kicking trees!"
"Lift your legs higher!"
He even took a branch and whipped Princess Baoqing's calves several times.
In the end, he seemed to have given up and completely ignored her, running farther and farther away with the ball.
In fact, Cuju was very popular in this dynasty, and court ladies often played together.
Princess Baoqing could kick a few times, and although she wasn't the best among women, she wasn't bad either. But when it came to Xie Linchuan, he was like a piece of rotten wood that could not be carved.
Seeing Xie Linchuan having fun playing alone in the distance, Princess Baoqing was very angry. Her face was red, and her round almond-shaped eyes were full of water. She couldn't tell whether it was more anger or shame.
Princess Liang of Dongping knew that her youngest son could not coax the princess, and she had been observing her expression from behind. Seeing this, she quickly stepped forward and comforted her softly:
"Your Highness, don't be angry. Linchuan is a blockhead."
Although Princess Baoqing was of noble status, she always put herself in a low position when it came to matters with Xie Linchuan. Now that the princess came to comfort her in person, she found a way out for herself:
"Yes, it was I who proposed Cuju."
Liang continued to show goodwill:
"The night market gets lively at night. After dinner, let Linchuan take you to Zhongwa. The puppet show there is really interesting."
Princess Baoqing nodded with tears in her eyes.
【Author’s words】
[1] Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of the Marquis of Huaiyin.
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