35 Cold Rice with Plum and Ginger
◎Propose marriage◎
Jiang Qinglan and his group of four came back from West Lake. The adults were exhausted, but the two children were still excited.
Hu Zi taught Tuantuan to gently rub the big yellow dog's head with his fingers.
The big yellow dog was tied to a tree and had been idle all day. Now that someone was playing with it, it closed its eyes in comfort.
In the kitchen, Jiang Qinglan opened the food box and saw that there were some leftover braised pork elbows and braised kelp knots from the store.
Just put it on a plate and it becomes a dish.
Just now, I bought some locust leaf snacks on the road, and also caught a lot of shrimps, which are still alive and kicking.
How about making some cold noodles with fresh shrimp topping?
These days, she's been eating more braised meat and mixed vegetables than anything else. Wang Huiniang has always loved fresh fish, so cold shrimp is a surefire way to go.
She shouted out the window, "Huzi, tell your mother to stop cooking. Let's eat together in the yard."
“Okay—”
Seeing Hu Zi leave the dog behind and go to his yard hand in hand with Tuantuan happily to deliver the message, Jiang Qinglan started to prepare dinner.
Sophora japonica leaf cold noodles are green cold noodles made by mixing sophora japonica leaf juice with flour. It also has an elegant name: Jade Noodles.
This noodle dish originated in the Tang Dynasty. Du Fu's poem "Leng Tao Huai Ye" says: "Green locust leaves, picked and sent to the kitchen. New noodles arrive from the market, their juice and dregs mixed together."
The vendor just now was selling locust leaf cold noodles. They had both ready-made cooked food and raw food that you could take home and cook yourself.
Making noodles required rising, kneading, rolling, and cutting the dough, but Jiang Qinglan had never bothered to do it. Even the beef noodles he had treated Wang Huiniang and her son to last time were bought from outside.
But with something like this readily available, she wouldn't let it go.
The cold noodle vendors had relatively few toppings, with the basics of salt, sesame oil, vinegar, and a little shredded pork. Jiang Qinglan didn't like the toppings, so he simply bought some and cooked it himself.
In summer, noodles with sour and spicy taste are refreshing and can relieve greasiness, and are the best way to beat the heat in summer.
She fried the dogwood jam in rapeseed oil until fragrant, added vinegar, soy sauce, cooked sesame seeds, and squeezed some lemon juice to make a hot and sour sauce.
Hu Zi had just caught a basket of fresh shrimp, perfect for making plain shrimp. He simply blanched them in boiling water for a few seconds, preserving the freshness and sweetness of the live shrimp to the maximum extent possible.
Soon, four bowls of locust leaf cold noodles were served on the table.
The wide white porcelain bowl is filled with green noodles, each one finger wide, bringing a refreshing breath of spring.
Atop the noodles lay a few crystal-clear little ice balls, emitting a faint chill. The cold air stained the porcelain bowl, leaving a line of water droplets on the edge.
Beside each bowl of noodles were two small plates: one filled with a spicy and sour lemon sauce mixed with scallions, ginger, and garlic; the other piled with large, shelled and deveined shrimp, each one tender and white.
Hu Zi had always loved eating noodles. Seeing this, he poured the contents of the two small plates into the large bowl in front of him, picked up his chopsticks and stirred the noodles a few times, then immediately started slurping them.
The noodles are thick and wide, like knife-cut noodles, and very chewy. Because they are added with locust leaf juice, they have a slightly bitter taste.
But every noodle was coated in the spicy and sour sauce. Furthermore, the shrimp was incredibly sweet, masking any slight bitterness, leaving only a refreshing taste.
Tuantuan had a small mouth, but she wanted to eat noodles like Huzi. She stuffed her cheeks until they were puffy, like a steamed bun. Her little mouth was stained with greasy liquid.
Jiang Qinglan and Wang Huiniang watched, finding her amusing yet pitiful. They kept quiet, eating their noodles and chatting about trivial business matters.
It was still early, so they left the gate open, letting in more of the cool breeze from West Lake.
The four of them were all concerned about the meal when they heard a pretentious voice: "Madam Jiang, great joy!"
The four of them were startled and looked up: a fat woman in a dark red dress was standing at the gate of the courtyard with a flattering smile on her face and a frown on her brow.
This person was very familiar with others. He walked in with his waist twisted without being greeted.
She smiled so hard that wrinkles appeared on her face:
"Oh, I'm sorry I've come at such a bad time. I've delayed your dinner. My name is Zhou, and I'm a matchmaker in the government office. I'm here to congratulate Madam Jiang."
Her eyes moved back and forth between the four men, and a big red flower on her temples trembled as she spoke.
Finally, she fixed her gaze on Jiang Qinglan's face, and the big red flower stopped shaking.
Wang Huiniang reacted the fastest. She put down her chopsticks and laughed twice, "Great joy! Great joy! Sister Zhou, please sit over here!"
After saying that, she quickly put away the dishes and chopsticks, picked up Hu Zi and Tuan Tuan, and rushed out:
"You two mud monkeys, you've been playing in the mud by the West Lake and are all dirty. Come on, go change in my yard."
Hu Zi hadn't finished his braised pork elbow yet, but he stuffed the rest into his mouth, becoming a cowardly and greasy mouth.
Tuantuan was not greedy at all, but she refused to leave and stared at her sister blankly.
Wang Hui Niang did not hesitate. She grabbed Hu Zi's ear with one hand, held Tuan Tuan with the other, and walked out quickly.
The three of them disappeared, but Tuantuan's voice could still be heard from afar: "Auntie, there are no clothes of mine in your yard..."
Jiang Qinglan and Matchmaker Zhou were the only two people left in the yard.
After his initial surprise, Jiang Qinglan had calmed down. It was just a blind date. The victim wasn't even there, so what was there to be afraid of?
She remained calm and asked with a smile, "Who are you here for, ma'am?"
Matchmaker Zhou's face was as bright as a flower, and she thought to herself: This person has no shame at all, and is really capable. No wonder the young man likes her.
"It's Mr. Gao."
Hearing it was Gao An, Jiang Qinglan felt relieved. After all, it was that innocent young boy, not some messed-up person.
Wow, high school students are getting serious now.
The matchmaker didn't notice her expression change, and said carefully, "Let me see, Madam Jiang and Mr. Gao are a perfect match."
"Mr. Gao is from Luzhou. His family runs a dry goods business. They now have three shops."
"The Gao family is simple. Mr. Gao's father has passed away, his mother is in poor health, and he has an older sister who is already married. If Madam Jiang follows him, she will become the mistress of the family, which is an endless blessing."
"Another thing is that Mr. Gao's uncle is the manager of Lichun Garden. Madam Jiang, you know this."
"In the future, Mr. Gao plans to open his family's dry goods store in Lin'an. With his uncle's connections, wouldn't that mean a lot of money, straight into his pocket?"
Jiang Qinglan nodded after hearing this: "Mr. Gao's family is well-off and he is a kind person."
When Matchmaker Zhou heard this, she thought she had gotten the matchmaking fee and her tone became so high with joy: "Mrs. Jiang, have you agreed?"
Jiang Qinglan blinked and shook her head: "I'm afraid Master Gao doesn't know my background?"
Matchmaker Zhou was confused.
The person who asked her to propose marriage was a young man, and her face turned red with embarrassment before she even said a word.
He only said that Jiang's parents were both dead, and she lived with her younger sister, with a registered female household in the government office. He probably didn't know anything else.
Jiang Qinglan also said carefully:
"My father committed a crime and was sentenced to exile by the government. My parents are awaiting death. The reason I stayed in Lin'an with my sister and registered as a female household is because I divorced my husband's family and am now a widow."
The matchmaker's smile froze on her face.
Nowadays, although it is not difficult for a divorced woman to remarry, it still requires a good match between the two families. A widower marries a widow, and a man whose wife has died marries a second wife.
Mr. Gao is a single man with so much wealth, how could he marry a divorced woman?
In fact, when she entered the courtyard, she saw Jiang Qinglan's attire, which did not seem like that of an unmarried woman, and she was quite suspicious. But when she remembered that Mr. Gao had said that she was a woman, she felt relieved.
Those who set up a female household all dress very simply. Among them, there are both unmarried people and those who are remarried.
I never thought that Madam Jiang's background would be so bad...
Matchmaker Zhou stood up and said, "This...this...I'll go back and discuss this with Mr. Gao."
This time, her fat body bounced out and she ran faster than a rabbit.
…
After bidding farewell to Matchmaker Zhou, Jiang Qinglan went to the next yard to pick up Tuantuan.
Unexpectedly, the little guy had fallen asleep on his stomach, with sparkling drool flowing from the corners of his mouth onto the table.
Wang Huiniang laughed and said, "This girl, I've been worried since I brought you here, afraid that the matchmaker would abduct you away."
"I saw she didn't eat much, so I took out the porridge I made yesterday and added a plate of plums and ginger. That's when the little one stopped pouting. She felt sleepy after eating and fell asleep right now."
"There's still plenty of rice and water. Would you like a bowl too?"
Jiang Qinglan looked up and saw that there was indeed a lot of rice in the small pot, and a plate of yellow-brown shredded plums and ginger.
The so-called water rice is quite similar to modern cold porridge.
First, boil the rice into porridge and let it cool. Then pour a little steamed hot rice into it, cover it with a lid, and let the hot and cold rice mix together and ferment.
If conditions permit, you can also add some candied fruit, icing sugar, etc. to increase the sweetness.
The next day, you can eat rice. After fermentation, it tastes a bit like a lighter version of fermented glutinous rice, sour and sweet with a hint of alcohol.
Rice porridge is refreshing and easy to prepare. During the scorching summer, people like Wang Huiniang who make a pot of rice porridge to eat as they go are common in Lin'an.
If there is rice, there must be dishes to go with it.
Nowadays, people eat rice porridge, usually with pickled vegetables, pickled cucumbers and other side dishes.
In the market, vendors carrying baskets of rice porridge sell it with roasted pork and dried meat. Perhaps because rice porridge is cheap and the profit is small, they have to sell some meat to increase their profits.
Wang Huiniang was creative and used plum ginger, which is a mixture of shredded ginger and candied plums.
The plums were originally plump, but because they were pickled for a long time, they became a little wrinkled and had an attractive deep red color.
The ginger was shredded very finely, a light amber color, and looked crisp. Both were immersed in a thick, translucent sugar sauce.
In terms of flavor, the plums are sour, sweet, soft, and full of fruity flavor, while the ginger is spicy and crispy. The combination of the two is appetizing, relieves greasiness, and goes well with rice.
In modern times, Japanese people like to eat pickled plums with rice and soak rice in plum tea, which is similar to the current practice of eating plum ginger with rice.
Jiang Qinglan's taste tends to be sour and spicy, and she was a little uncomfortable with this kind of sweet food. So she thanked Wang Huiniang for her kindness, leaned down, and wanted to hug Tuantuan.
"Hey—don't be so anxious—" Wang Hui Niang twisted her arm and said with a smile, "How about good things?"
Jiang Qinglan laughed and said, "She came here for Mr. Gao, but I scared her away."
Wang Huiniang knew about Mr. Gao and also knew Jiang Qinglan's personality, so she sighed, "I don't know what kind of man you're going to find in the future."
…
Jiang Qinglan carried Tuantuan back to the house. As soon as he put the fat butt on the bed, the little guy woke up.
"Sister!" Tuantuan's chubby little hands tightly grasped Jiang Qinglan's collar, as if she would run away if she let go. Her eyes were filled with worry.
Jiang Qinglan smiled and kissed her on the round cheek: "Don't worry, sister didn't agree."
Tuantuan was obviously relieved, and his eyes immediately lit up again.
Jiang Qinglan knew what she was thinking. He tucked her messy hair behind her ears and said calmly, "It has nothing to do with Lu Fei. It's just that he's not suitable."
Tuan Tuan said "Oh" and was very disappointed.
After a while, she opened her big eyes like black grapes again and asked nervously, "If you meet the right person in the future, will you marry me?"
This question really stumped Jiang Qinglan.
Suitable? What does suitable mean? If there is a suitable person, do you want to marry him/her?
She shook her head—she didn't know either.
After fetching some water and washing up, she blew out the oil lamp with a "puff", hugged her little sister, and pulled the sheet over their stomachs.
"Go to sleep."
A smaller lamp on the table was still burning silently.
——
At the end of the hour of Hai, Pinglin returned to Lingquanyuan feeling cold.
Xie Linchuan was holding a few feathered arrows, stroking the tips with his thumbs. A few feet away, in a narrow-mouthed vase, were also several arrows.
Pinglin was a little nervous: "The prince is playing pot tossing. The arrow is so sharp. If the prince gets angry and shoots him, he will be finished."
"I'm back." The voice was still calm.
Pinglin knelt down from a distance.
——In fact, I tried to stay as far away as possible to avoid being accidentally hurt later.
"Yes, I have found out everything that Master asked me to find out."
"Just tell me what's important!" With a whoosh, a feather arrow pierced into the plum vase.
Pinglin shrank his neck and said cautiously, "Madam Jiang's father was named Jiang Yuan. He was originally the Minister of Rites. A few months ago, Lord Jiang angered the emperor and was exiled. He died by hitting a pillar at home..."
"What did you say?"
Xie Linchuan's heart skipped a beat. Then, he rushed forward like a whirlwind, not even noticing the bloody cut on his palm caused by the feather arrow.
"I heard that Madam Jiang's father's name is..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Pinglin felt himself being pulled up by a huge force, his clothes being tugged tightly. The handsome face in front of him was full of disbelief, and in his dark eyes, there was an uncontrollable fire dancing.
"Jiang Yuan?!"
Pinglin raised his hand and pushed the sharp arrow in his hand away from his neck, then smiled awkwardly and said, "Yes, Jiang Yuan."
The name Jiang Yuan has been a household name for Xie Linchuan since he was thirteen years old.
Although he was a civil official, he always spoke up for the military and wrote a book called "On Armaments" in which he argued the pros and cons of the policy of emphasizing culture over military power.
Among them was the sentence: "Today, people select officials based on their literary talent, and this practice has continued for generations, eventually leading to the neglect of military preparations and the loss of power of border generals. Even if there are millions of soldiers, there are no generals who can be used; even if there are good generals, there are no soldiers who can be used." When Xie Linchuan read this, he agreed deeply and smashed the documents on the desk with one punch.
Now that Jiang Yuan is dead, although the government has strictly prohibited people from discussing it, military men and some scholars still have respect for him.
Xie Linchuan suddenly threw Pinglin aside, letting the arrows in his hand fall to the ground.
He burst into laughter, and all the gloom and entanglement of the past few days were swept away.
"She's Jiang Yuan's daughter?" He beamed and looked very proud. He was so excited that he was pacing around the room, muttering to himself, "Haha, no wonder she said she can't bend her back or kneel. Her father is such a stubborn person!"
"These days, I've been really trapped in my own trap and asking for trouble."
After turning around a few times, when his boiling heart had calmed down a little, he suddenly remembered something, and his dark eyes sparkled with brilliance: "Pinglin, prepare the horses, I want to go to the Princess Anguo's mansion!"
If it were in the past, even if it was useless, Pinglin would still nag a few words: It’s so late, go tomorrow, and so on.
But today, when he heard this, he ran faster than a rabbit, just looking forward to the bad news that would come later, which he delayed day by day.
But just as he reached the door, he heard another command, rushing over with a frosty aura: "Come back! What's her relationship with Lu Fei?!"
When Pinglin heard this, his heart sank.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
