30 Salted Edamame (1)
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Although the weather is hot nowadays and people have poor appetite, eating also has many benefits.
For example, in midsummer, there is an abundance of produce, and fruits, vegetables, beans, and eggplant stems all take advantage of the heat to grow vigorously.
In the morning, the old man selling lotus flowers carried two baskets on a pole.
One contained emerald green lotus leaves, pink lotus flowers, and huge lotus pods, while the other contained edamame.
Jiang Qinglan bought a bunch of lotus flowers and a few fresh lotus pods - the lotus pods at this time are most sweet and delicious when eaten raw, and they also have the effect of clearing away heat and reducing internal heat.
These lotus pods will be left for Tuantuan as snacks.
As for edamame, whenever Jiang Qinglan saw it, he would think of his childhood when he lived in the countryside with his grandmother.
In front of my house stretched endless paddy fields. Toads hid among the green seedlings, their croaking echoed with the chirping of cicadas in the locust tree.
Adhering to the principle of making the best use of everything, short edamame seedlings with thorns all over them are planted on both sides of the ridges.
Children wearing shorts and short skirts running wildly across the ridges of the fields might get their tender legs stung redly.
However, the cute little tubes of edamame grow on these short plants. Pick them off, boil them in salt water, and you have a summer evening snack.
On a moonlit night, grandma, holding a palm-leaf fan, sat on a bamboo chair, eating edamame and telling stories to her little daughter...
Childhood is forever engraved in people’s memories. No matter how time passes or how far the distance is, this feeling will never change.
Now that Jiang Qinglan has come here, he also wants to cook some salted edamame and share it with Tuantuan, Wang Huiniang, Hu Zi and others, to recreate the warm scene of having his family around him.
Cut off both ends of the edamame so that they can absorb the flavor. Put them into a pot of boiling water with peppercorns and salt, and add a small spoonful of marinade.
The key to keeping edamame green is to not cover the pot while cooking.
Watching the finger-length, furry little creatures bobbing in the pot, Jiang Qinglan thought of peanuts again. Peanuts are often compared to edamame in salted water, coinciding with the saying "peanuts and edamame are one."
However, she has never seen peanuts in this era until now.
I never made those Sichuan dishes that used peanuts heavily—Kung Pao Chicken, Crispy Peanuts, and Mouth-Watering Chicken. Wine-fermented glutinous rice balls and fruit jelly lacked the crispy aroma of peanuts, and lost their flavor.
Now, since there are no peanuts, I’ll eat edamame first to soothe my homesickness.
She had just put the edamame into a bamboo dustpan to drain the water when she saw a plump ball running in from the outer hall.
Tuantuan, still holding a half-broken lotus pod in his hand, panted and said, "Sister, that very handsome brother is here."
Who is it, so early? Jiang Qinglan tilted his head to look at the sky, muttering to himself.
At this time, the sun is still high in the west, the government offices are still busy, and the people in the market are busy working. Usually, it is not until dark that the night markets and restaurants will become lively.
Out of curiosity, Jiang Qinglan and Tuantuan went to the main hall.
The man, dressed in a frosty white round-necked robe, holding a scroll in his hand, was standing before the lotus bushes in front of the counter. His frosty white suit perfectly complemented the pink flowers and green leaves.
Jiang Qinglan suddenly thought of a sentence: "Emerging from the mud without being stained, washing in the clear water without being evil." [1]
She admired it for a moment, then smiled and walked forward, politely asking, "Mr. Yan, it's so early today. What would you like to eat?"
Xie Linchuan also smiled and explained his purpose: "No hurry, I just came here to escape the summer heat and get some peace and quiet."
His eyes wandered, and he noticed the lotus pod in Tuantuan's hand was fresh and cute, so he said, "Little sister, how about letting me eat your lotus pod?"
When Tuantuan heard this, he immediately put the half lotus pod in his hand behind his back and said with a pout:
"Brother, there's only half a lotus pod left. Tuantuan's mouth, teeth, tongue, and stomach are all hungry for it, so I can't give it to you."
She raised her right hand again and showed him her five fat fingers:
"This lotus pod is not easy to peel. Look, my fingernails are all black from peeling. You are so clean and handsome, you certainly don't want to have black fingers."
Xie Linchuan smiled brightly.
This girl, if you don’t want to give it, then don’t give it. She actually said it so interestingly.
He glanced at Jiang Qinglan again and thought to himself: She is so smart, like sister, like sister.
Jiang Qinglan came up and smiled apologetically, "Mr. Yan, although we don't have lotus pods anymore, we do have edamame. Boiled in light salt water, they're fresh and delicious."
Now that she was closer and could see the book in his hand clearly, she smiled and said:
"In the Book of Songs, Xiaoya, there is a poem called 'Gathering Beans', which describes the grand occasion of the Zhou emperor receiving the princes."
"Young Master, holding the Taibai Yinjing, is to stop war with force. The world is at peace, and the princes are paying homage to the emperor. Isn't this just like picking beans?"
Although Xie Linchuan was not proficient in poetry and literature, he still knew the "Book of Songs".
Hearing this, he was stunned at first, then he raised the book in his hand and laughed: "So, I have to eat it?"
Jiang Qinglan just smiled without saying anything, and went into the house to get some salted edamame and put it on the ash wood table.
Xie Linchuan looked up:
On the white porcelain plate, a small mountain of green bean tubes piled up, each one with its head and tail chopped off, covered in a furry coat, about the length of a little finger.
Some of them have three beans, some have two, all of them are plump and full of grains.
In this sea of green, there are also some red dogwood barks and brown osmanthus leaves, which are due to the addition of marinade during cooking.
A little bit of color in the green makes the green even more fresh and elegant.
Even more beautiful, however, were the fingers holding the white porcelain dish, as green as scallions and white as jade. No matter how you looked at it, they didn't look like the hands of a merchant woman, often busy with household chores.
Suddenly, Xie Linchuan's stubborn heart sprouted a little spring. A slight itch rose from his chest and spread out like ripples.
Winter hail meeting the sun and dead trees coming back to life in spring were things that even he found quite strange.
He glanced at it and immediately looked away.
【Author’s words】
[1] Zhou Dunyi, On the Love of Lotus.
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