94
The spicy chicken feet, duck paws and rabbit heads made by Du Heng received unanimous praise from the demon cultivators in the village, except Jing Nan.
Jing Nan was furious: "They can all eat rabbit brains, but I can't? Du Heng, this is unfair. I don't like spicy food, why do you always make spicy food?"
Jing Nan complained: "And you, Feng Gui, you ate my share without even consulting me!"
Feng Gui drank tea without any burden: "Want some tea? You've been nagging for a long time."
Jing Nan exhaled and snatched Feng Gui's teacup: "Drink!" He drank all the tea in one breath and changed the subject: "What is Du Heng doing?"
Du Heng smiled and said, "I saw several big crabs. I want to try the crab roe soup dumplings."
Jing Nan came back to life immediately. He liked all the dumplings and wontons made by Du Heng. He immediately forgot about the unhappiness of Rabbit Brain and moved closer to Du Heng: "Crab roe soup dumplings? What is that? Is it spicy?"
Du Heng said: "Crab roe soup dumplings are a specialty of our hometown. We use fresh crab meat and crab roe in the cooking, add pork skin jelly and chicken soup and fresh meat, etc. The soup dumplings are made with paper-thin skin and delicious soup. If you want to eat spicy food, you can add chili oil. I don't like spicy food so I always eat it with vinegar."
Jing Nan was satisfied: "Okay, leave two crab roe soup dumplings for me, and leave Feng Gui's portion for me."
Feng Gui sighed: "Why are you so angry? I just ate your rabbit head, and you still keep complaining about it."
It would have been fine if he hadn't said anything. As soon as he said it, Jing Nan exploded again: "That's a blackmail! You didn't even discuss it with me. I can give it to you but you can't do it yourself."
Feng Gui had no choice but to use his trump card: "Then I'll give you Xiaoxiao's soup dumpling later."
Xiaoxiao:!!! He must have dug up his uncle’s ancestral grave in his previous life, and was punished to be his uncle’s nephew in this life.
Steam was coming out of the two pots on the stove, and the smell of steamed crabs wafted through the yard. The crabs were so big that Du Heng was wondering how long it would take to steam them until they were cooked. Normally, a crab would take about one incense stick of time to steam. A crab this big would take at least two incense sticks of time.
Crabs are not the best if they are steamed for a long time. If they are steamed for a long time, the meat will lose its freshness and sweetness. Du Heng was facing the stove to estimate the steaming time. Although he had never cooked crabs from the cultivation world, he had bought king crabs. The steaming time of king crabs was only 25 minutes.
Du Heng looked at the small hourglass next to the stove. It was time to open the pot!
Du Heng opened the lid of the pot, and a puff of white steam rose up, blinding Du Heng's eyes. When the steam dispersed, the pot was full of a crab with its belly facing up. Du Heng was a little nervous: "It should be cooked, right?"
Xiaoxiao squatted beside the stove and nodded affirmatively: "Chirp!"
Du Heng wrapped his hands with a rag, then lifted the crab by its claws and moved it to the wooden basin next to the stove. The basin was not even as big as the crab's shell, and the crab looked top-heavy when stuck in the basin.
Du Heng carried the wooden basin to the table. It was an arduous task. The heat from the crabs made the skin on his chest hurt through his clothes.
Feng Gui saw Du Heng put down the wooden basin and rubbed his chest. He put down the teacup and asked, "Where's Xuan Yu?"
Du Heng said: "Xuan Yu said he went to Nanshan to check out the traps, and he just set off with Lao Dao."
The weather is a bit gloomy today. Xuan Yu said it might snow today. He and Lao Dao are going to check the traps on the mountain and bring back any prey in time.
With Lao Dao around, Du Heng felt more at ease, and he also let Xiao Wonton go without worry. Xuan Yu said that Xiao Wonton had the bloodline of a hound, and he could learn more by following Da Huang more.
Xiaoxiao started to pull the crab's legs. Fenggui said disdainfully, "You've never eaten crabs? You're so impatient. Do you have any ambition at all?"
Du Heng quickly spoke up for Xiaoxiao: "Xiaoxiao is helping me to disassemble the crabs. Xuanyu just told me to let Xiaoxiao help disassemble the crabs."
Xiaoxiao pulled off a crab leg and threw it in front of Fenggui. He rolled his eyes, turned his butt towards Fenggui, and angrily began to pull off another leg. Du Heng smiled and touched Xiaoxiao's head. He said seriously: "Our Xiaoxiao is fine."
Xiaoxiao rubbed Du Heng's palm with narrowed eyes, which made Feng Gui jealous. But Feng Gui still said stubbornly: "Humph, you have a lot of potential."
Du Heng took out a small knife, pressed the crab legs with a rag in one hand, and cut a hole in the crab legs with the knife in the other hand. Later, when the crab legs cooled down, he could easily take out the crab meat.
Xiaoxiao's movements were not as complicated as Du Heng's. Although Xiaoxiao had no hands, he held the crab leg with one claw, and his mouth was like a small knife. When he raised his head, a deep cut would appear on the crab leg.
With Xiaoxiao's help, Du Heng quickly shook out all the crab meat from the eight legs. The crab meat from the eight legs filled up half of the wooden basin.
The crab body was very hot, Du Heng stretched out his hand to pry it open, but he pulled his hand back several times because of the heat. Looking at the crab body that was bigger than the basin, Du Heng sighed with a headache: "Why is it that Xuan Yu is not at home, and everything is not convenient?"
If Xuan Yu was at home, he would easily break open this kind of crab.
Du Heng was in a dilemma when he saw Feng Gui standing up. Feng Gui bent down and dragged the crab in front of him. His slender hands fell on the upper and lower sides of the crab's tail.
What a beautiful pair of hands, with long and slender fingers that look like jade carvings. Even though the position of the hands is a little strange, you can still tell that the owner is noble.
Feng Gui exerted force with both hands, and with a crackling sound, the crab's shell was peeled open, revealing the plump meat and orange-red yellow inside. Feng Gui pushed the crab back in front of Du Heng, clapped his hands, and continued to drink tea.
Du Heng: ...How could he forget that there are two big monsters here?
After removing the hot crab shell, the crab roe was about to overflow. Xiaoxiao stared at the crab roe and crab meat with her saliva hanging, her eyes sparkling.
Du Heng used chopsticks to pick up a large piece of meat and handed it to Xiaoxiao: "Eat it! The crab is very big, one can make a lot of crab soup dumplings, it's okay for you to eat some."
Xiaoxiao happily accepted the food from Du Heng. He smacked his lips and felt like the happiest kid.
Du Heng used a small spoon to scoop out the crab roe and crab meat from the crab. The roe and meat from one crab filled up half a basin!
Du Heng brought the warm crab roe and crab paste to the stove, and Xiaoxiao followed him. Du Heng waved his chopsticks at Xiaoxiao and said, "I'm going to fry the crab meat, you can't come up."
If Xiaoxiao continues to squat on the stove like this, sooner or later she will fall into the pot.
Xiaoxiao could only return to the table regretfully. Lonely Xiaoxiao grabbed the crab shell that Du Heng had removed the meat from and took a look at it. There was still meat stuck in some joints. Xiaoxiao bit the crab shell with a crunch, not wanting to miss any trace of crab meat inside.
Du Heng turned around and saw this scene. He thought for a moment and went to the refrigerator. This time he took out another big crab. Fortunately, the crab's claws were tied with a rope, otherwise Du Heng would not dare to put it outside the sink to wash it.
Jing Nan asked in confusion: "Hasn't the crab meat already been taken? Why are you steaming the crabs again?"
Du Heng held the crab with one hand and used the other hand to brush the dirt off the crab. He said, "Steam a crab for Xiaoxiao."
Seeing Xiaoxiao chewing on the crab shell, Du Heng suddenly felt very sorry for Xiaoxiao.
Hearing Du Heng say this, Feng Gui lowered his eyes and stared at Xiao Xiao for a while, then a smile appeared on his lips: "Promising..."
This time the steamed crab was treated much better than the previous one. Du Heng did not wash it so carefully before, nor did he cut bright yellow ginger slices and put them on the crab, nor did he pour white wine on the crab to remove the fishy smell.
Du Heng closed the pot and said to Xiaoxiao, "Just wait for two sticks of incense." Xiaoxiao nodded and said, "Chirp!"
Jing Nan saw Du Heng standing next to the stove, and he asked in confusion: "Why did you stop?"
Du Heng smiled and said, "Originally I wanted to use the pot for steaming crabs to fry the crab meat, but now I'll steam the crabs for Xiaoxiao first. I'll wait for a while."
Jing Nan asked, "What about the other pot? Is there anything cooking in it?"
Du Heng said, "I cooked some red beans and will make rice flour cakes later."
Rice flour sponge cake? What is this delicious?
Du Heng smiled and said, "It's a kind of pastry made by mixing two kinds of rice flour, steaming it, and then mixing it with red beans and sugar water. I think you will like it."
Jing Nan put his hands in his pockets and said, "There is nothing you make that we don't like. Is it sweet?"
Du Heng nodded: "Yes!"
Jing Nan smiled and said, "I noticed that you made a lot of sweets these days. Could it be that you like sweets?"
Du Heng said perfunctorily: "Isn't the New Year supposed to be sweet?" If he told Feng Gui and Jing Nan that he discovered Xuan Yu preferred sweets, the two of them would team up to laugh at Xuan Yu.
While waiting, Du Heng was not idle. He took out some mountain jelly meat.
Jing Nan saw Du Heng taking out the meat, and he asked curiously, "Didn't you say crab roe soup dumplings? There's meat in it?"
Du Heng chopped the minced meat slowly: "Yeah, put some meat in to make it more flavorful, not too much."
Du Heng's minced meat didn't seem to be fast, but after a while he had already got a small ball of pink minced meat. He put the minced meat in a wooden basin, and then slowly mixed the soaked ginger water into the minced meat.
He added water and stirred it at the same time. After a while, the minced meat became tender and did not look as solid as the previous filling.
By the time he stopped, the minced meat was already very chewy, and when he took out the chopsticks, he could see that there was still a lot of meat on it. At this time, the crabs were also steamed, and Du Heng put down his chopsticks and opened the lid of the pot: "Wow, it smells so good!"
With Feng Gui's help, the crabs were transferred from the pot to the table, and Xiao Xiao and her group lived a happy life of eating crabs and watching Du Heng cook. Since Du Heng came to the village, the demon cultivators liked to run to his kitchen whenever they had time, and they would be pleasantly surprised every time they saw Du Heng cooking something delicious.
Du Heng poured some meat oil into the pot. This was pork fat from mountain roe, which turned white as jade after cooling. The meat oil slowly became transparent when it came into contact with the hot pot, and then turned into the color of water. When the oil temperature was right, Du Heng poured the crab meat and crab paste from the basin into the pot and stir-fried it.
The large pieces of crab meat and crab paste were crushed into a golden crab paste. When the unique fresh aroma of seafood wafted through the yard, Du Heng poured the crab paste into a basin.
The filling of the crab roe soup dumplings is half done, now it’s time to add the most indispensable ingredient in the soup dumplings.
A bamboo basket was taken down from above the fumigation furnace outside Du Heng's yard, and a piece of gauze was covering the basket.
When he arrived home with the basket, Jing Nan and the others craned their necks and asked, "What's in it?"
Du Heng smiled and lifted the gauze, revealing the contents of the basket. It was a yellowish-white substance placed in a wooden basin, like solidified soup.
Du Heng smiled and said, "This is jelly."
95
The jelly is made by Du Heng from the skin of the mountain gypsum. It is very time-consuming to make. First, it must be blanched in water in a pot, and then the hair and excess oil on it must be removed. Then it is sliced, cleaned, and stewed in a pot. When stewing, Du Heng also adds chicken soup that has been skimmed of oil. After half an hour of boiling, a pot of pig skin soup is obtained.
However, to form the jelly, it needs to cool naturally. In order to speed up the cooling, Du Heng poured the broth outside the house after making it. The temperature outside was much lower than at home. At this time, the jelly in the basin had become a bowl-shaped jelly after being poured out.
Because chicken soup is added to the jelly, the color is slightly yellower than that of direct stewing, and it does not have the crystal clear feeling. It shakes when pressed, which has a very textured feel.
In fact, the crab skin can be eaten directly at this time. Cut it into small pieces and dip it in seasoning to make a good cold dish. Du Heng wanted to cut it for everyone to taste, but when he saw the table full of crab shells, he held back.
If you eat other things after eating crabs, you won’t be able to taste the freshness in your mouth.
Du Heng cut out half of the jelly and put the other half into a bowl and put it in the refrigerator.
The jelly on the chopping board is well solidified, and you can see the slightly curled pig skin strips inside. The jelly cooked in chicken soup has no peculiar smell, only the fresh aroma of meat.
Du Heng cut the jelly into small pieces and put them into a wooden basin containing crab paste and mountain meat.
At this point, the fillings were ready for final seasoning. Du Heng put a small amount of pepper, fine salt, and white wine into the pot. After mixing the fillings, Du Heng was afraid that he could not control the saltiness, so he rolled up a piece of filling, flattened it, and put it in the pot.
There was still some oil in the pan from frying crab roe, and while the pan was still warm, Du Heng quickly fried the stuffing. The only drawback was that the jelly skin was heated and the soup was fried out, so the stuffing could not overflow with juice like steamed stuffing.
Du Heng scooped up the stuffing with a spatula, and took a little with chopsticks to taste it. Hmm! Not bad, the right amount of saltiness and delicious taste.
Looking at the majority of stuffing left on the spatula, Du Heng picked it up and walked towards Xiaoxiao: "Xiaoxiao, open your mouth."
Xiaoxiao turned around and opened his mouth to Du Heng. Du Heng put the filling in his mouth: "How salty is it? Is it delicious?"
Xiaoxiao shook its wings and made a trembling sound. Du Heng smiled with satisfaction. It seemed that the taste should be right.
After the fillings were ready, Du Heng could start making crab buns. The dough had already been kneaded long before he prepared the fillings. The kneaded dough was smooth and white, nestling in the wooden basin like a huge steamed bun.
Feng Gui sighed, "Ever since Du Heng came to Xuan Yu's house, the most common things in Xuan Yu's house are pots, pans, and utensils." There are wooden basins everywhere. Xuan Yu now makes a dozen wooden basins at a time, and they can take up half of the yard when they are laid out in large and small sizes.
Du Heng smiled and said, "We have too many ingredients, so we need to prepare some to store them."
Raw ingredients were fine, they could just be piled up in the storage bag. But he couldn't be so casual with the prepared ingredients. If he wasn't careful, the flavor would get mixed.
Du Heng kneaded the dough into long strips, and then pinched them into small pieces. The dough for crab roe soup dumplings was much smaller than that for steamed buns. The dough for steamed buns was the size of a palm, while the dough for soup dumplings was only a small ball, about the same size as the chicken crisps.
Du Heng had to roll out such a small dough into a skin with a diameter of 15 inches, and make it thick in the middle and thin at the edges. Otherwise, the soup dumplings would leak.
Seeing Xiaoxiao's dough turned into a round dough that was bigger than a spring roll, Jingnan and the others didn't care about eating crabs anymore. They came to Du Heng and asked, "Wow, it's so thin?"
Du Heng smiled and said, "Yes, soup dumplings are different from ordinary dumplings. The skin of soup dumplings should be as thin as paper!"
A large amount of stuffing is put into the thin dough. Jing Nan estimated that one soup dumpling contains at least two taels of stuffing.
At this time, Du Heng no longer dared to hold the soup dumplings in his hands. He placed the dumplings on the chopping board, then carefully pinched the edges of the dough with both hands and pushed them towards the middle. Every time his fingers moved, a beautiful fold would appear.
Du Heng quickly wrapped a soup dumpling, which was flat and round, with a diameter of ten inches. It looked like a flower, with a pinched circle in the middle.
Jing Nan and the others gathered around the soup dumplings and exclaimed in amazement: "How amazing!" These are not just soup dumplings; it's no exaggeration to say they are works of art.
Du Heng smiled and took out a small steamer, which was only slightly larger than a soup dumpling, and placed thin straw-woven bamboo strips underneath. The bamboo strips had been steamed in advance and looked shiny.
Feng Gui took the small steamer and looked at it: "Well done."
Du Heng praised: "These are all made by Xuan Yu. Xuan Yu is really amazing. As soon as I told him, he made it for me."
Jing Nan and Feng Gui smiled at each other in a very obscene way. Looking at their smiles, you could tell that they were not thinking well.
Du Heng carefully moved the soup dumplings onto the small steamer. He was busy and had no time to care about these big monsters who had both free time and money.
Du Heng was wrapping and cooking at the same time, and soon the first basket of soup dumplings was already in the big steamer. There were ten small steamers in the big steamer, and they could be steamed as soon as the water in the pot boiled.
At this time, the area around the stove was already a bit crowded, so Du Heng had to move to another place. He said to Feng Gui, "Feng Gui, can you help clean up the table? I'm going to move to the table."
Feng Gui nodded implicitly, and clapped his hands: "Yun Zheng." Yun Zheng came in, and Du Heng didn't even see where this guy came from. He only saw Yun Zheng tidying up and then leaving the kitchen with a basket of crab shells.
Du Heng: ...He was wrong. He shouldn't have expected too much from Feng Gui. Feng Gui and Jing Nan are essentially the same kind of people. They are both incredibly lazy.
Thinking about it this way, Xuan Yu is the only firework of different colors in the village. No wonder Xiaoxiao is willing to rely on Xuan Yu.
After the table was cleaned, Du Heng moved over with his dough and stuffing. At this time, the big pot began to steam, and Du Heng put down the things in his hands and placed the steamer on the big pot.
He casually placed a small hourglass next to him, and when the hourglass was empty, the soup dumplings would be ready. The steaming time of the soup dumplings was short, just a little more than a cup of tea.
Du Heng said to Xiaoxiao, "Xiaoxiao, look at this hourglass. Can you remind me when it runs out?" Xiaoxiao immediately stared at the hourglass. He looked so cute that Du Heng wanted to pick him up and give him a good hug.
Du Heng was quick with his hands and feet, and by the time he had finished steaming the second basket of soup dumplings, the hourglass had run out.
As Xiaoxiao's excited chirping sounded, Du Heng's heart was also beating wildly - God bless, please don't open the lid and find that the soup in the steamer has leaked out! !
After the steam dissipated, Jing Nan and Feng Gui, who were watching, exclaimed: "Wow——"
There were plump soup dumplings in the small steamer, and the soup inside was about to overflow. As Du Heng moved the steamer, the golden soup under the thin and slightly transparent skin hit the skin, and it seemed that one could hear the sound of the soup shaking.
All the dumplings in the ten small steamers were intact. Du Heng wiped his sweat in relief and said, "Fortunately, fortunately, the skin is not broken!!"
Jing Nan had already reached out to grab the soup dumpling: "This dumpling doesn't seem to be very tasty."
When Jing Nan said delicious, he wasn't referring to the taste, but the way to eat it. The buns were full of juice, so wouldn't it spill everywhere when you took a bite?
Du Heng quickly stopped Jing Nan: "That's not the way to take it! You have to take the steamer away with it, and there are steps to eating the soup dumplings."
There were six people sitting at the dining table, each with a small steamer in front of them and a small bamboo straw in their hands.
Du Heng held a bamboo straw in his hand and introduced to everyone: "Don't be in a hurry to eat soup dumplings. You have to open the window first and then drink the soup."
As he spoke, he inserted the thin bamboo stick in his hand into the dough of the soup dumpling, puncturing the skin and letting the soup inside flow out. The golden soup accumulated on the skin in an oily puddle, smelling fresh and fragrant.
Du Heng smiled and said, "Gently poke a hole in the skin. This step is called opening the window. Then drink the soup inside. Be careful when drinking..."
Before Du Heng finished speaking, he heard a rustling sound. He looked up and saw that the demon cultivators were all puffing up their cheeks, and the obviously huge soup dumpling in front of them had deflated.
Du Heng: ...The demon cultivators are really not afraid of heat.
Du Heng carefully sucked a little of the soup. After passing through the bamboo sticks, the soup was no longer very hot. The temperature was just right when he took a sip. Du Heng only felt that he had sucked in a mouthful of deliciousness. All the pores on his body were ironed!
He doesn't use much jelly, the ratio of jelly to crab meat is about 2.5 parts jelly to 1 part crab meat. Many hotels use 4 parts jelly to 1 part crab meat, so that the cost is easier to control.
Du Heng felt that for him, real ingredients were the best. Although the ingredients he used were not important in the eyes of the cultivators in the cultivation world, each of them was very solid.
The combination of solid ingredients and exquisite craftsmanship produced a delicious taste. This delicious taste was so delicious that Du Heng continued to drink a mouthful of the soup.
When Du Heng finished reminiscing, he met the expectant eyes of the demon cultivators: "And then?"
Du Heng pointed to the balsamic vinegar in front of him, in which he put finely chopped ginger: "After drinking the soup, you can add a little ginger vinegar juice to it, which will help relieve the greasiness."
Chonghua took the small dish and poured it on the soup dumplings: "Like this?"
Du Heng, who was carefully pouring vinegar into the soup dumplings along the bamboo sticks:...Forget it, let these demon cultivators eat it however they want, he doesn't care.
Six of the dumplings were gone in a basket, and the remaining four dumplings attracted the demon cultivators' covetousness. Feng Gui and Jing Nan were quick to grab one each, but the remaining two dumplings were shared by Chonghua, Yunzheng, and Xiaoxiao, and it was a bit difficult to separate them.
As Du Heng drank the soup, an inappropriate idiom came to his mind: Two peaches kill three men.
With the help of two soup dumplings, he successfully provoked three demon cultivators to fight. Du Heng drank a mouthful of the soup happily, feeling that he had no sense of guilt.
96
Xiaoxiao's arms were not long enough... ah, no, he had no arms... so he failed to grab the soup dumplings. Even though Xiaoxiao looked at Yun Zheng and Chong Hua pitifully with his big, bright eyes, the two men still poked their faces with the bamboo sticks and drank the soup happily.
This angered Xiaoxiao, and he protested by chirping for a long time. From the series of rapid chirps, it could be heard that he was accusing Yunzheng and Chonghua of being unfair.
Feng Gui poured chili oil into the soup dumplings while slowly saying, "Are you dumbfounded? Chonghua Yunzheng did a good job, let's do it this way in the future. I can't give you preferential treatment just because you are my nephew, right? If you want to get what you want, you should show your strength."
Xiaoxiao's fur exploded again, and he looked like an angry bird.
Du Heng quickly reached out and touched the fluff on Xiaoxiao's head: "Don't worry, the second pot will be ready soon. If you can't wait, can we share it?"
Xiaoxiao turned her head and looked at Du Heng, tears in her eyes, and Du Heng's heart melted. He didn't care about hygiene at the moment, he took a pair of clean chopsticks and cut the soup dumpling in half.
The filling inside the soup dumpling was actually thin, and after drinking the soup, the filling scattered at the bottom. Du Heng carefully picked up the skin of the soup dumpling, put the filling inside, and then put it into Xiaoxiao's wide-open mouth.
Xiaoxiao fluttered her wings and hummed happily. Du Heng smiled and said, "Is it delicious? How about you eat the rest too?"
Xiaoxiao shook his head. He couldn't be so greedy. Du Heng patted Xiaoxiao's head and praised him: "Our Xiaoxiao is such a good boy."
Feng Gui: ...He is obviously his nephew, why does he feel that Xiaoxiao has become Du Heng’s son?
The second basket of soup dumplings was soon served on the table, and this time Xiaoxiao grabbed two small baskets of soup dumplings.
Du Heng smiled as he wrapped the remaining stuffing into soup dumplings. He didn’t plan to steam these dumplings, but put them in the refrigerator and take them out and steam them whenever he wanted to eat them.
At this time, a dog barked outside the yard. Du Heng wiped his hands and walked out of the yard and looked towards the direction of Nanshan. Xuan Yu and Lao Dao had already walked to the foot of the mountain, and two dogs were running in front of them. Du Heng saw that they seemed to be carrying something, but the distance was a bit far, so he couldn't see it clearly.
Soon Xuan Yu and his companions came to the gate of the courtyard. Du Heng saw clearly what the two were carrying. It was a three-foot-long mountain goat. Based on Du Heng's knowledge of mountain goats, this was a young mountain goat. The four hooves of this young mountain goat were tied up, and Lao Dao and his companions used a wooden stick to pass through its limbs and carried it down the mountain.
Du Heng said with a smile: "I'm back!"
Xuan Yu smiled and said, "We found a wounded mountain goby cub in the trap. Even if we let it go, it won't survive. I discussed it with Lao Dao and we plan to bring it back and slaughter it."
There were three deep scars on the waist of the mountain gourd cub, and the bone was visible. It was dying and it seemed that it would not survive.
Du Heng asked, "Why isn't it in the storage bag?" Xuan Yu said, "The storage bag is full."
Anyway, he and Lao Dao are very strong, and if it wasn't a bit embarrassing to carry the mountain paste, Xuan Yu would have been ready to carry it back directly.
Xuan Yu placed the mountain paste in the yard. He sniffed the smell in the yard and said, "It smells good."
Du Heng clapped his hands and said, "I'm back just in time. The crab roe soup dumplings are ready! Come in and eat them!"
Lao Dao said happily: "This life is so comfortable. There is food to eat when I come back." After Lao Dao walked into the kitchen, he made a surprised sound: "Hey? This bun is so special!"
Du Heng pushed Xuan Yu's back and walked towards the kitchen: "Hurry up, hurry up, if you go too late they will snatch it away again."
When Xuan Yu drank the first mouthful of the soup, even though he had no interest in seafood, he smiled and nodded: "It's delicious."
Du Heng smiled and said, "If you like it, I'll make some more and put them in the refrigerator. When you want to eat it, you can just take it out and steam it. You can also take some away when you leave."
Hearing Du Heng say this, Chonghua and the others laughed, "That's great."
After everyone finished eating the soup dumplings, Du Heng started to work again. He opened another pot, revealing half a pot of red beans. The red beans were several times larger than before cooking, and each one looked particularly round. Some of the red beans had their skins broken by the bean paste inside.
Du Heng scooped out some red bean soup and put it in a large bowl to cool, then he added some sugar to the pot. The red beans can now be used as fillings or eaten directly.
The fresh and fragrant taste of the crab roe buns was diluted by the sweet taste of red beans. Jing Nan sniffed: "Du Heng, are you going to make cakes? What is this called? Songhua cake?"
Du Heng smiled and said, "It's not Songhua cake, it's rice flour cake. A well-made rice flour cake looks like a plum blossom, which is both beautiful and delicious."
This is a traditional Jiangnan pastry, which Dad Du is best at making. Whenever he makes Mom angry, he makes it to appease her. Du Heng learned how to make this pastry by watching and hearing it.
Authentic rice flour sponge cakes require glutinous rice flour and ordinary rice to be ground into powder for cooking, with a ratio of about three parts glutinous rice flour to four parts rice flour, and then add candied red beans and white sugar. The finished product can be a single cake or made into the shape of a small flower, and it tastes soft, fragrant and sweet.
Du Heng had not thought of making this pastry, but when he was looking through the refrigerator in the morning, he found that he had bought some japonica rice from Zhou's shop. This kind of japonica rice is quite rare and is usually used to feed spirit beasts. Some spirit beasts like this kind of rice with little spiritual energy, and it helps digestion after eating it.
Du Heng was delighted when he found this bag of polished rice. The spiritual rice in the cultivation world tastes soft and delicious. After being ground into powder, it can be used as glutinous rice flour, while polished rice can be used as ordinary rice flour after being ground into powder.
Du Heng took eight bowls of polished rice flour and six bowls of glutinous rice flour. Since he had a stone mill in his yard, grinding flour was particularly easy for him. He mixed the two kinds of rice flour together and sifted them finely with a bamboo sieve.
The wooden basin was all white, Feng Gui muttered: "What's the difference? They all look white."
Du Heng said: "Of course there is a difference. You will know it after you eat it."
In fact, if you look closely, there is a difference between the two types of rice flour. The color of the japonica rice flour is a bit dark and gray, while the ling rice flour is snow-white. It's just that after mixing them together, they look the same color.
The rice flour after sifting was white and delicate, and it looked like snowflakes in the wooden basin. Du Heng poured half a bowl of sugar on it, and then poured the red bean water prepared earlier into the wooden basin.
The rice flour clumps together when it comes into contact with water. Du Heng pours the flour and rubs it carefully.
He didn't pour much red bean water, so the rice flour was easily broken up. By the time he poured all the red bean water into the basin, the rice flour in the basin had changed from snow-white to slightly pink.
The rice flour at this time cannot be used directly, it needs to be sieved finely.
The big monsters were stunned by the complicated process. In Jing Nan's words, he would not be happy if he were asked to do it.
The rice flour looked finer after sifting, so Du Heng separated one third of it. He took another wooden basin and poured the separated rice flour into it, then added the same volume of candied red beans. After stirring evenly, this basin of rice flour became red bean cake flour.
This is when his favorite steamer comes in. Du Heng took out a medium-sized steamer that could hold all the ingredients he had stirred.
He placed a bamboo mat at the bottom of the steamer. The mat had been cleaned and brushed with a layer of soybean oil.
Du Heng first spread a layer of pink rice flour in the steamer, flattened it with a small pusher made of bamboo sticks, and then evenly spread a layer of red bean cake flour on it. He spread it layer by layer, and finally spread rice flour on the top. In this way, the steamer was filled with slightly red rice flour.
Du Heng happily placed the steamer on the steamer: "It will only take three incense sticks to steam it!"
Jing Nan put his hands in his pockets and said, "Didn't you say it would be shaped like a plum blossom? How come it became just a pancake?"
Du Heng smiled and said, "You can use a plum blossom-shaped mold to press it after it's steamed, and it will come out in the shape of a plum blossom."
At this time, Shan Gao's screams were heard in the yard. Du Heng looked and saw Xuan Yu and Lao Dao slaughtering Shan Gao. Lao Dao held a sharp, narrow, and bright dagger and stabbed Shan Gao's throat.
The white knife went in and the red knife came out, and the blood of the mountain gourd gushed out and fell into the wooden basin that had been waiting for a long time. The wooden basin was already filled with clean water mixed with salt, and the bright red blood entered the basin and dyed the water in the basin red, a dazzling red.
Shan Gao died without much of a struggle. After waiting for the blood in its throat to stop spurting, Lao Dao stood in front of Shan Gao with his hands clasped together and muttered something. Then he neatly wiped the dagger clean and put it back into the scabbard.
As expected of an old knife, he was swift and efficient in bleeding, no wonder Xuan Yu said before that he was good at killing living creatures.
Xuan Yu stirred the blood in the basin with a clean bamboo stick. He stood in the courtyard and said to Du Heng, "The blood is ready. What are you going to do with it later?"
Seeing Du Heng in a daze, Xuan Yu said, "Didn't you say last time that it would be fine if there was fresh blood?"
Du Heng suddenly remembered that he had told Xuan Yu that blood curd was also delicious. He didn't expect Xuan Yu to remember it!
Du Heng was moved and said, "Put it there first. I will cook it when the blood solidifies!"
Suddenly, Du Heng felt a little cold on his face. He looked up and saw fine snowflakes falling from the sky. It started snowing! Snowy days are perfect for pig-killing dishes!
Du Heng's hometown is famous for its pig-killing dishes. When the season arrives, every household starts to slaughter the pig for the New Year. On the day of slaughtering the pig, neighbors will come to help. At noon, the skillful housewife will take the meat from the freshly slaughtered pig and make a lively pig-killing dish with ingredients such as pickled cabbage at home.
Du Heng had heard of the northern pig-killing dishes before, but he had never had the chance to try them. He couldn't make the northern pig-killing dishes, but his hometown also had pig-killing dishes. Although the taste was different from that in the north, the atmosphere of happy conversation among relatives and friends was similar.
The pig-killing dishes in Du Heng's family usually include stir-fried pork liver, stir-fried tender meat, stewed pig blood with tofu, etc. Each dish uses pork or parts of the pig. A large table is set up, and everyone eats with a mouthful of oil, and the guests and hosts are very happy.
Du Heng looked at the snowflakes in the sky, thought for a moment and said, "Let's make a pig-killing dish."
When he was a child, his family lived in the countryside and raised pigs. Later, they moved to the town and naturally had no conditions to raise pigs anymore. He hadn't tasted the pig-killing dishes in his memory for many years.
Now seeing the steaming pig that had just been slaughtered, Du Heng wanted to rediscover his childhood memories.
The author has something to say: I recently ate some delicious rice flour sponge cake, so I
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